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Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 9 RC

Posted by Harshad

Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 9 RC


Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 9 RC

Posted: 10 Feb 2011 07:36 PM PST

Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 9 RCMicrosoft has finally released their Internet Explorer 9 Release Candidate, meaning a final launch is coming in the near future.

The completely overhauled IE9 saw its first beta in September 2010, and includes a full revamp of the user interface, hardware acceleration, and updated compatibility for HTML5.

Microsoft's new RC is ready-to-ship code, and there are only a few bugs expected to be left.

From the betas, the RC offers improved JavaScript and includes all the 2,000 changes made since the first beta.

As of the RC, Microsoft claims their IE9 JavaScript engine is the fastest of all current browsers (based on SunSpider benchmarks).

Security is also a big factor in the browser, with an improved ActiveX filter and SmartScreen malware protection in the download manager.

RC for those interested: http://windows.microsoft.com/ie9

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Nokia close to deal for Windows Phone 7

Posted: 10 Feb 2011 06:50 PM PST

Nokia close to deal for Windows Phone 7According to multiple sources, Nokia is very close to announcing a partnership with Microsoft that will have Windows Phone 7 added to Nokia smartphones.

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop apparently had talks with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Google's former CEO Eric Schmidt but chose WP7 over Android.

Additionally, Nokia has already pulled funds and time from MeeGo (its Symbian successor), likely leaving it to Intel.

Elop, hired in September to turn the company around, will unveil the strategy tomorrow at an event in London.

Nokia has a tiny presence in the United States, and is quickly losing its lead in the smartphone market to Android and Apple.

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OnLive gets $40 Million investment from HTC

Posted: 10 Feb 2011 06:20 PM PST

OnLive gets $40 Million investment from HTCHTC has invested $40 million in cloud video gaming service OnLive, in an effort to strengthen gaming capabilities on smartphones (and likely tablets).

The Taiwanese company has quickly become a very profitable smartphone maker, bringing in $500 million profit for the last quarter, alone, on revenue of $3.6 billion.

HTC was the phone maker behind the first-ever Android device, the T-Mobile G1 and has increased its lineup significantly since.

CEO Peter Chou said earlier this year it wants to use its $2.5 billion it has in cash to boost "strategic investments" in digital content, and it appears, cloud-computing.

Earlier in the week, HTC invested in Saffron Digital, a mobile and Web-based media company.

More details of the OnLive investment are upcoming at the MWC next week.

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Blockbuster in talks to sell itself?

Posted: 10 Feb 2011 04:18 PM PST

Blockbuster in talks to sell itself?According to a new report, bankrupt movie rental company Blockbuster will put itself up for sale, following a disagreement with its creditors.

The report claims that a bidder would likely offer $300 million, as well as assuming all debt and leases.

Blockbuster went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year in an effort to restructure debt and give it a chance to reemerge later. By doing so, the company has kept 3300 stores open but has almost wiped out shareholders and junior bondholders. The company had $1 billion in debt when it filed for bankruptcy.

The leading contender to win Blockbuster in auction is investor Carl Icahn and a consortium led by Monarch Alternative Capital, a large hedge fund. The group and Icahn own about 80 percent of Blockbuster's senior notes and gave Blockbuster $125 million to help fuel the turnaround.

Apparently, the company had poor holiday sales and therefore expects it will need more money. The hedge fund is not willing to pay more than the $125 million invested.

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Say hello to the Facebook phones

Posted: 10 Feb 2011 03:29 PM PST

Say hello to the Facebook phonesThe oft-rumored Facebook phones are a reality, despite the social networking giant's repeated denials of their existence.

INQ Mobile has shown off two new phones that are "the result of close collaboration with Facebook."

The fist device, the Cloud Touch, will have a 3.5-inch touchscreen, run Android 2.2 Froyo, a 5MP camera and feature a weak 600MHz processor. Although it is hopefully a typo, the press release says the device will only have 4MB of memory.

Second is the Cloud Q, which has a 2.6-inch touchscreen, full QWERTY, and runs Android 2.2. There were no other specs listed.

INQ says each phone will have a dedicated Spotify button, which also doubles as the music player.

Both will only be available in the UK via The Carphone Warehouse and Best Buy.

Explains the press release:

Today, INQ Mobile delivered an all-new Facebook mobile experience with two new Android devices, the INQ Cloud Touch and INQ Cloud Q. Built for people worldwide who use Facebook as their primary means of communication, they deliver a fully live Facebook experience built around INQ's Visual Media Feed.

The result of close collaboration with Facebook, INQ Cloud Touch and INQ Cloud Q feature all new apps for Facebook on mobile. The new apps leave behind the mobile paradigm of text based status updates and deliver a rich media feed to the homescreen.

The homescreen is a visual Facebook feed for clicking through friends' updates, pictures, videos and web pages. There are one-touch links to Facebook Chat, Friends, Messages, Wall and Notifications. Facebook Single Sign On is activated across the phones and people can check in to their favorite shops, restaurants and clubs with Facebook Places, also active on the homescreen. Facebook Events fully integrates with the Google Calendar on both devices.

The phones are the first mobiles to use the Facebook social graph API, making it easy for people to follow updates from the friends they interact with most.

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Sony NGP to sell for $300?

Posted: 10 Feb 2011 01:54 PM PST

Sony NGP to sell for $300?Although Sony has not announced the price yet for their upcoming NGP handheld, a leak from GameStop seems to show the device coming in at $300.

Given the impressive specs of the console, the price doesnt seem too high, especially considering the failed PSPGo launched at $250.

At $300, the NGP will also only be $50 more than upcoming Nintendo 3DS, its direct rival.

The "release date" in the leaked photo is likely wrong, as Sony has said it expects to launch before the holidays this year.

For controls, the handheld adds dual micro-analog sticks, giving gamers a feature they begged for on the original PSP.

The device has a massive 5-inch multi-touch OLED screen with 960×544 resolution, a multi-touch panel on the back and will run on a quad-core ARM cortex processor.

Sony has added tilt-sensitive SIXAXIS controls, standard and front-side cameras, GPS, an electric compass, Wi-Fi and 3G support, and access to Android gaming.

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Speak Swedish, Norwegian or Danish? AfterDawn/Tom's Hardware Nordic is hiring!

Posted: 10 Feb 2011 04:32 AM PST

Speak Swedish, Norwegian or Danish? AfterDawn/Tom's Hardware Nordic is hiring!AfterDawn is looking to expand it's services in the Nordic countries. We already have a strong presence in our home country, Finland, but we also have localized sites available in Swedish and Norwegian, with a Danish version under construction as well. AfterDawn.com launched Tom's Hardware Finland in August, 2010, and other Nordic countries will follow during the Spring 2011.

We are now looking for people interested in joining our team at AfterDawn.com, and working with translations and content for both AfterDawn and Tom's Hardware in Swedish, Danish and Norwegian.

Your work will include:
  • translating English content (in-depth technology articles that can be 5-40 pages long) to your own native language
  • writing news (i.e. not just translating from source material) in your native language on a regular / daily basis
  • communicating with other members of the staff for coordination (via email, instant messengers and IRC)

What we are looking for in you:
  • you're a native speaker of one of the languages mentioned (no, good Google Translation skills don't count :-)
  • a person with good English language skills (English is the communication language between different AfterDawn teams -- and your news sources, translation materials, etc will all be in English -- but you don't need to produce content in English)
  • a strong grasp on PC technology (and related terminology), including motherboards, graphics cards, CPUs and GPUs, mass storage etc.
  • ability to write fluently and grammatically correct in the target language
  • commitment to agreed deadlines, NDAs, content targets etc.
  • ability to work remotely, using ICQ and email as primary means for communicating with other members of the staff
  • basic HTML and image editing knowledge (nothing dramatic here, just the understanding of basic tags, image resizing, etc)
  • prior experience with content management systems is a bonus, but not required (we use a custom CMS anyway)

What will you get in return:
  • an opportunity to work with a launch of one of the leading technology sites in the world - in your native language
  • flexibility in arranging your working hours and holidays -- this is not a nine-to-five-job
  • .. and of course a salary based on your content output and an opportunity to a bonus, based on the performance of the site

That's it really. Questions? Contact us via our feedback form or comment on this article.

To apply, please visit:

http://www.afterdawn.com/general/apply_for_position.cfm

Deadline for applications is Sunday, February 23rd 2011 at 23:59 UTC.

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HP unveils Pre 3 and Veer with WebOS

Posted: 09 Feb 2011 11:59 PM PST

HP unveils Pre 3 and Veer with WebOSHP, along with the TouchPad tablet, also unveiled two new WebOS-based smartphones today, the Pre 3 and the Veer (which will replace the Pixi).

The small Veer will have a 2.6-inch touchscreen display with 320x400 resolution, and includes a full slide-out QWERTY. The smartphone will run on an 800MHz Snapdragon processor, include a 5MP camera, built-in Flash, GPS, HSPA+, 802.11b/g, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR and 8GB storage.

Jon Rubenstein, head of HP's mobility group, says the Veer is "something that is powerful yet elegantly small."

Up next was the successor to the popular Pre (Plus) line, the Pre 3, which has a 3.6-inch touchscreen with 480x800 resolution.

The smartphone will run on a very powerful 1.4GHz Snapdragon processor, have 512MB DRAM, dual cameras with LED flash, 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, an accelerometer, proximity, and light sensors, and a compass.

HP's Pre 3 will be available as an HSPA+ and EVDO Rev A world phone, and with 8GB or 16GB.

Each of the devices are Touchstone compatible for easy wireless charging.

No word on price or a set release date outside of "summer."

Veer:


Pre 3:

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'Guitar Hero' series bites the dust

Posted: 09 Feb 2011 11:20 PM PST

'Guitar Hero' series bites the dustActivision has announced this morning that the once popular 'Guitar Hero' franchise is finished, with the company "disbanding Activision Publishing's Guitar Hero business unit."

The developer has also stopped all development on the upcoming untitled 2011 Guitar Hero game.

Activision cited a continued decline in interest, across the board, for music genre games.

Although the franchise is now dead, the company did add that the brand would be "re-assessed" if need be, in the future, leaving the chance of a revival if demand returns.

Although unconfirmed, there is also a rumor that DJ Hero will be dropped by Activision, as well, likely after the release of DJ Hero 3D for the Nintendo 3DS.

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iPad 3 coming in the fall, says John Gruber

Posted: 09 Feb 2011 10:47 PM PST

iPad 3 coming in the fall, says John GruberJohn Gruber of Daring Fireball has subtly noted today that Apple may be moving to a 6-month release schedule for their popular iPad tablet.

In response to the unveiling of the HP TouchPad, Gruber says:

The software looks great, it really does, but:

Planned availability this summer.

Summer feels like a long time away. If my theory is right, they're not only going to be months behind the iPad 2, but if they slip until late summer, they might bump up against the release of the iPad 3. And not only did they announce this with a distant ship date, they did it with no word on pricing.


Gruber is known as one of the best-sourced Apple reporters on the planet, and had most of the specs of the iPhone 4 correct before it leaked.

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