Last Week’s News - Week of Nov. 7 / 2010
Apple
- Itunes Ping has gained Twitter integration again with the 4.2 update. There is also the nice addition of AirPlay which brings the ability to stream video like AirTunes allowed one to stream audio. There is also a fix for the iPad wi-fi issues and the possibly a solution to the iPhone 3G slowdown that occurred when the older generation of phones was updated to iOS 4.
- Gorillaz new album was created entirely on the iPad
- Flash browser for the iPhone has a stellar weekend selling a ton of copies and showing the hunger for Flash to work on the iPhone.
- The latest Back to the Mac event showed that Apple is going to implement Apps for the Mac desktop. Engadget has a nice in-depth article.
- Google’s Chrome browser got the addition of instant previews that show you the sites you find in your search before you even click on the link. It’s actually a pretty handy tool, especially if you are looking for a site you are familiar with, but can’t recall the name of the site.
- Chrome, while probably the quickest browser already, will become even faster with the addition of background preloading.
- Whatever happened to the Facebook rival that Google was supposedly working on?
- Want your iPhone to look more “Android-like”?
E-Book readers
- Don’t wait for a colour e-ink book anytime soon. If you’re holding off on purchasing an e-book reader right now, don’t bother.
- Brand new Sony e-reader with cellular network support finally bringing it in line with what the Amazon Kindle has offered from the beginning.
Tablets
- RIMs Blackberry Playbook appears to be coming in at just under $500. When they say “under $500”, you know it’s going to be $499.
- The new 7” Samsung Galaxy tablet was just released and there’s already one horrific review of the device. Of course, that doesn’t appear to stop them from moving forward with the development of a 10” tablet.
Social
- FMail? Facebook appears to be making a new mail system hoping to keep people within their website for all forms of communication. It seems that Google and Facebook are going to start a new fight about who their users use for mail.
- New socially oriented browser coming out? Is this a worthy competitor Flock?
- It doesn’t appear that Facebook or Twitter are necessarily good for business. Of course, the headline doesn’t mention that it’s not necessarily bad for business with results of around 30% of traffic for businesses is driven by links from social sites.
Security
- Even if you are running a Free Wi-Fi spot, it’s probably a good idea to offer a freely obtainable password. It’s an amazingly simple encryption method that doesn’t impact your costumers and improves their online safety.
- It was only a matter of time before security software companies got upset that Microsoft was distributing free security software for OS. The security firms try to make this sound like it’s anti-competitive, but the main problem is that the software provided by Microsoft actually performs quite well.
Mobile
Lots and lots of Windows Phone 7 news as its launch continues.
- Early sales are slow, but they don’t mean much as we swing into the Christmas season. A lot of people held off waiting to see how the phones performed considering the radical departure of the operating system.
- You can still get Google search on your phone. Don’t be afraid of Bing though, it’s a competent search engine.
- HTC HD7 review…it’s definitely the largest, but it’s also a good phone.
- Plenty of apps to watch out for on the Windows Phone 7 marketplace.
Strangely enough, Microsoft also appears to be re-launching their failed phone from earlier this year
- With the Kin appearing to return to Verizon.
- Without the hefty data plan it originally launched with.
Of course, don’t forget about the Android phones
