Information Technology Leader » Software

Apple updates iBooks Author EULA to clarify restriction on format, not content

Michael Brown — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:35:00 +0000

Apple updated iBooks Author to version 1.0.1 on Friday afternoon, the only change being an update to the software's controversial end user license agreement. The updated EULA now specifically only applies distribution restrictions to the interactive .ibooks format files generated by the app. [......]

Internet Explorer Increases Market Share Lead Over Chrome, Firefox in January 2012

Paul Lilly — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 06:00:21 +0000

Google's Chrome browser failed to increase its market share last month for just the second time in two years, while Microsoft's Internet Explorer added more than a percentage point, according to data by NetMarketShare. That's not the start to 2012 Google was hoping for, though there are still reasons to be optimistic about Chrome's future. This is just one month, after all, and Chrome dropping from 19.11 percent in December 2011 to 18.94 percent in January 2012 is not cause for panic. [......]

Microsoft Guts Marketing Department in Massive Revamp

Paul Lilly — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 05:12:49 +0000

Microsoft has reportedly begun trimming (or slashing, depending on how you want to look at it) its workforce by letting go of a "small percentage" of employees who held marketing positions with the Redmond software giant as it looks to revamp and streamline its operations. The company didn't specific exactly how many employees were let go, though several reports have the number pegged at 200. [......]

In Depth: The 10 most hated programs of all time

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 01:50:00 +0000

10 worst programs of all time Programs can be our friends: they can help us express ourselves, can solve our problems and can do their very best to make our days happier. Sometimes, though, they do the Devil's work, making simple tasks so complex and frustrating that you'd happily make everybody involved face a firing squad[......]

Gary Marshall: Tablets are no longer just idiot toys

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 01:25:00 +0000

From time to time even jaded tech hacks get a "wow!" moment. [......]

AMD’s New Direction For 2012: Heterogenous Computing, Trinity, and Hondo

Gordon Man Ung — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 12:35:26 +0000

AMD emphasizes Trinity and introduces new “Hondo” ultra low power chip Despite major layoffs last year, AMD is stepping forward with an impressive portfolio of initiatives and products for the next few years. Perhaps the most exciting initiative is the company’s Heterogeneous System Architecture plan. For an in-depth look at AMD's new roadmap, see the gallery at the bottom of this page HSA will eventually erase the line between the CPU and GPU and remove such painful tasks for programmers as juggling data between the CPU and GPU. [......]

Back To Basics: Sony Appoints Kazuo Hirai, Ousts Stringer

Seamus Bellamy — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:57:19 +0000

If there’s been one complaint my contacts inside large CE companies have had, career-wise, it’s been the inability to rise far in the hierarchy. While there are clear exceptions to this rule, the complaint has always been that succeeding in Asian companies has been contingent on (literally) speaking the language and knowing the rules of the road, as it were, culturally. When Sir Howard Stringer took the reins at Sony, it looked like this tendency had been bucked[......]

Microsoft Updates Kinect Hardware For Official Windows Release

Ludwig — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 10:10:12 +0000

We’ve known for some time that Microsoft would be bringing official Kinect support to Windows this week, but one thing they kept quiet was the fact that they’d be debuting a new version of the hardware as well. It’s not tiny, as some hoped, or built into the bezel of a laptop, as we know it will be eventually , but it does improve on the original in a few ways[......]

Boxee Officially Kills Off Desktop Apps

Brad Chacos — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 07:02:51 +0000

Yesterday, Boxee made good on a promise it made the day after Christmas; it yanked all traces of the Boxee PC, Mac and Ubuntu clients from its website. Back then, the company announced it was abandoning the desktop in favor of the set top Boxee Box and mobile applications. Plenty of long-time PC users cried foul, but it did no good: Boxee for the desktop is officially gone. [......]

Zynga CEO Defends Copycat Game Strategy in Leaked Memo

Paul Lilly — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 06:22:31 +0000

The app developers behind the mobile iOS game Tiny Tower recently called out Zynga for blatantly ripping off their app to create Dream Heights, which is almost the exact same game with a different title. Copying another developer's game concepts and making them your own is by no means new to the industry or unique to Zynga, though in most cases the new product isn't a near clone of the original, as was the case with Dream Heights. Zynga CEO Mark Pincus isn't losing any sleep over it. [......]