Jobs at Apple: Master inventor, master marketer

Steve Jobs started Apple Computer with a high school friend in a Silicon Valley garage in 1976, was forced out a decade later, then returned to rescue the company. During his second stint, Apple grew into the most valuable technology company in the world.

Jobs invented and masterfully marketed ever-sleeker gadgets that transformed everyday technology, from the personal computer to the iPod and iPhone. Cultivating Apple's countercultural sensibility and a minimalist design ethic, he rolled out one sensational product after another, even in the face of the late-2000s recession and his own failing health.

Jobs helped change computers from a geeky hobbyist's obsession to a necessity of modern life at work and home, and in the process he upended not just personal technology but the cellphone and music industries.

Perhaps most influentially, he launched the iPod in 2001, which offered "1,000 songs in your pocket." Over the next 10 years, its white earphones and thumb-dial control seemed to become as ubiquitous as the wristwatch.

Why iPhone 5?

Apple recently announced iOS 5 which is packed with new cool features, including Android’s drop-down menu style notification. iOS 5 will be released in the autumn, more specifically in September. Furthermore, Apple brings new generation iPods and iPod Touches in September. However, according to CNET UK, iPods are not enough glamorous to bring iOS 5 into the world. iOS 5 and iPhone 5 both will be the perfect platforms for each other.

That is the reason why we are expecting to see iPhone 5 release with iOS 5, in the autumn. We already assumed that Apple doesn’t want to release iPhone 5 until iOS 5 is completely ready. Following are some great features that make huge crowd out there yelled to have iPhone 5:

iPhone 5 Features at a Glance:
Storage Capacity: Apple is offering 16 GB and 32GB iPhone since 2009, so apple is aware this it would be hard push iPhone 5 without having 64 GB of storage. iPhone 5’s lowest model will come with 32G of space and 64G of memory.

Signal Strength: Unlike iPhone 4, iPhone 5 is not having signal issue, as they are offering the strongest signal strength of any iPhone model ever even the best of any Smartphone to ever come to market.

Face Recognition: The new iPhone 5 will have Face Recognition for Security sake so that you don’t have to worry about other people stealing your phone and trying to use it.

Thickness: All three iPhone had thinner bodies than the previous model so the iPhone 5 can be the thinnest yet & much nicer overall body design of the phone.

Longer Battery Life: iPhone 5 will have Up to 14 Hours of Talk Time On The 3G and 7 Hours on the 4G.

Video Chat: Video Chat on a 4G network instead of a slow 3G one

A5 Dual core processor: For Outstanding Video Quality Apple May Introduce A5 Dual Core Process with iPhone 5

Screen: Shatter Resistant and Scratch Resistant Screen
Built In GPS: You’ll never get lost or have to download one of those stupid GPS apps.

iOS 5: It is much anticipated that Apple will introduce iPhone 5 with latest iOS 5.
Surprise: As the tradition of apple iPhone 5 will also unveil some surprise features.

Samsung introduced the Galaxy Tab 10.1

At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Tab 10.1, which has a 10.1-inch 1200 x 800 screen - up from 7-inch on the original Galaxy Tab - and runs the latest version of Android, Honeycomb, which was designed from the ground up for tablets.

The new tablet has a dual-core processor, dual surround-sound speakers and front- and rear-facing cameras. There will be 16GB and 32GB versions.

Samsung's new smartphone, the Galaxy S II, is the successor to the Galaxy S, one of the most popular high-end Android smartphones, which sold over 10 million units globally.

One of the most distinctive upgrades seen in the new Android 2.3 handset is the 4.27-inch 800 x 480 Super AMOLED Plus display, while there is also a 1GHz dual-core processor, front- and rear-facing cameras and free turn-by-turn navigation powered by Navigon. The device is just 8.5mm thin.

The user interface of both new devices will be broken into "hubs" - games, music, social hub and readers' hub.

Josh Delgado, director of mobile at Samsung Australia, said the Galaxy Tab 10.1 would be launched in Australia early in the second quarter of this year, while the Galaxy S II would be sold in May or June.

Smaller iPhone, Anyone?

The last rumors says that Apple is working on new versions of the iPhone that are aimed at slowing the advance of competing handsets based on Google's Android software, according to people who have been briefed on the plans.

One version would be cheaper and smaller than the most recent iPhone, said a person who has seen a prototype and asked not to be identified because the plans haven't been made public. Apple also is developing technology that makes it easier to use the iPhone on multiple wireless networks, two people said.

Chief executive officer Steve Jobs, who remains involved in strategic decisions while on medical leave, aims to narrow the price gap that has made phones running Android more popular than iPhones. Google's share of the global smartphone market more than tripled to 32.9 per cent in the fourth quarter, eclipsing Apple's 16 per cent, according to Canalys.

Apple has considered selling the new iPhone for about $US200 in the US, without obligating users to sign a two-year service contract, said the person who has seen it. Android phones sell for a range of prices at AT&T, Verizon Wireless and other US carriers, and typically come with agreements that include a fee for broken contracts. The iPhone 4, sold in the U.S. by AT&T and Verizon Wireless, costs $US200 to $US300 with a contract.

Natalie Kerris, a spokeswoman for Apple, declined to comment.

Windows 7 Ready to exceed Vista, XP Still the Most Popular

Performance of Microsoft Windows 7 operating system on the market so far kept rocketing. According to statistics news from Net Applications, Windows 7 now has scooped 10 per cent share of the operating system market.

The achievement was made more quickly than its predecessor, Windows Vista which took 16 months to do the same.

Overall, the Windows operating system in various versions are still very dominant, driven 91.6 percent market share.

As quoted from Afterdawn, Windows XP still remains the most popular Microsoft operating systems because it has a 64.5 percent market share, while Windows Vista portion is 16 percent.

Vista's performance continues to deteriorate. Vista's market share declined for 5 consecutive months and is predicted to only be have less than 10 percent by the end of this year 2010. Windows 7 is expected would win Vista market share at the end of next May.

First motherboard with USB-IF Certification

Being the first always feels good and this is what GIGABYTE feels these days as the manufacturer of motherboard Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3. This manufacturer is very proud as they are the first manufacturer that receive the first USB-IF certification of Motherboard USB 3.0 in the world.

GA-P55A-UD3 obtains certification after passing some strict product quality test done by the USB-IF (Universal Serial Bus-Implementers Forum). This motherboard also become the first motherboard in the world that shows SuperSpeed USB logo.

The presence of SuperSpeed USB logo provides assurance that the concerned products are compitible with existing USB 2.0 products and also provides increased speed and power efficiency offered by USB 3.0. By having this Logo, it is also giving assurance that the product is easy to use, just like the USB products.

Please visit the GIGABYTE website to see the full specifications of this motherboard and also to find another line of products that was in the certification stage.

Windows 7 in Europe will Shipped Without Internet Explorer

European buyers of Windows 7 will have to download and install a web browser for themselves.

Bowing to European competition rules, Microsoft Windows 7 will ship without Internet Explorer.

The company said it would make it easy for PC makers and users to get at and install the web browsing program.

In response the Europaan Commission expressed scepticism over the move and if it would allay accusations of Microsoft abusing its market position.

Abusive behaviour

"We're committed to making Windows 7 available in Europe at the same time that it launches in the rest of the world," Dave Heiner, Microsoft deputy general counsel, said in a statement, "but we also must comply with European competition law as we launch the product."

"We believe that this new approach, while not our first choice, is the best path forward given the ongoing legal case in Europe," he added.

In response the European Commission said "It would also have to consider whether this initial step of technical separation of IE from Windows could be negated by other actions by Microsoft."

In early 2008, Microsoft was fined 899m euros (£765m) by the European Commission for anti-competitive behaviour over bundling in the media player and browser into Windows.

In January 2009, Brussels reached a "preliminary view" that Microsoft was denting the chance for true competition by bundling its browser software in with its operating system.

Microsoft is due to defend itself against the charges in a hearing.

If Microsoft fails to convince the Commission that it is not harming competition could mean more fines and enforced changes to the way it does business.

"We're committed to launching Windows 7 on time in Europe, so we need to address the legal realities in Europe, including the risk of large fines," said Mr Heiner.

Windows 7 is due to be released worldwide on 22 October.

"In terms of potential remedies, if the Commission were to find that Microsoft had committed an abuse, the Commission has suggested that consumers should be offered a choice of browser not that Windows should be supplied without a browser at all," said the Commission in a statement responding to Microsoft's announcement.

It said Microsoft's approach of offering the program to computer manufacturers "may potentially be more positive" in terms of remedying its alleged abusive behaviour.

It added that if Microsoft were found to be abusing its position, the Commission would have to work out if the uncoupling of IE offset that behaviour.

Computer Can Now Predict Learning Patterns

Scientists from Penn State's College of Information Sciences and Technology managed to create the first computer model predictive of human action. The program, named Soar, was able to foretell accurately the times 10 students needed to complete basic trouble-shooting tasks, such as identifying misfit components inside a circuitry.

Naturally, after solving a few tests, the task became easier for humans, as they learned and evolved their abilities to identify and solve problems inside the circuits. The program also evolved and figured out that people would take less time to spot similar mistakes in similar circuits. Thus, Soar was able to predict the participants' times with a margin of 2 to 4 seconds.

In addition, in 8 out of 10 cases, it came extremely close to identifying the exact times the test subjects needed to complete the tasks. "The model does not merely accurately predict problem-solving time for the human participants; it also replicates the strategy that human participants use, and it learns at the same rate at which the participants learn,” explained IST and psychology associate professor, Frank Ritter.

Public Computer Safety Tips

With spying software, a criminal can grab your passwords and usernames. Ultimately, you could lose your money or have your identity stolen. That should tell you enough to be wary of public PC terminals.

Here are five things to consider when you sit down in front of a strange computer:

1.Check for spy programs.

Download X-Cleaner spyware remover from Xblock.com. Put it on a floppy disk. If the public computer you use has a floppy drive, insert the disk and run X-Cleaner from the floppy to check the hard drive. You do not have to install X-Cleaner.

2.Erase your tracks.

When you use an Internet browser, it keeps records of where you went. When you finish surfing with Microsoft Internet Explorer, click Tools > Internet Options. On the General tab, click Delete Files and Delete Cookies. Then click Clear History.

If you're using Netscape Navigator, it's a little more complicated. Follow these steps.

•Check the settings before going online. Click Edit and Preferences. Click the arrow next to Navigator and select History. On the right, find Browsing History. Change "Remember visited pages" to 0.

•Click on the arrow next to Privacy and Security. Select Disable Cookies and Disable Cookies in Mail and Newsgroups.

•When you finish surfing, click Edit and Preferences. Click the arrow next to Navigator. Click Clear History and Clear Location Bar. Go to Privacy and Security on the left side and click the arrow. Select Cookies. Click Manage Stored Cookies. On the Stored Cookies tab, click Remove All Cookies.

•Now go to Advanced, in the left-hand panel. Click the Arrow and click Cache. Click Clear Memory Cache and Clear Disk Cache.

3.Protect your passwords.

Browsers also track passwords. Before going on the Web, if you're using Internet Explorer, click Tools > Internet Options. On the Content tab, click AutoComplete. Uncheck the four boxes.

When you finish surfing, again click Tools > Internet Options. Go to the Content tab and click AutoComplete. Click Clear Forms and Clear Passwords.

If you're using Netscape, click Edit and Preferences. Click the arrow next to Privacy and Security. Click Passwords. Clear the box next to Remember Passwords. When you finish browsing, click Passwords again, under Privacy and Security. Click Manage Stored Passwords. Select the Passwords Saved tab and click Remove All.

Netscape has a feature similar to AutoComplete. It saves data entered into forms. To disable that, under Privacy and Security, click Forms. Uncheck "Save form data from Web pages when completing forms." When you finish browsing, return to the Forms page. Click Manage Stored Form Data. Click Remove All Saved Data.

Cleaning out the browser will ensure that no one can track your surfing or grab your passwords with saved data. But a keystroke-logging program will still catch your passwords.

Some — but not all — key-logging programs can be defeated if you copy and paste in the letters or numbers of your password. For instance, say the page you have open in the browser has lots of type on it. And say your password is jim (let's hope it's not that simple!). Find a "j," an "i" and an "m" on the page. Copy and paste them into the password box.

Probably the best password protection is a temporary password. Use it while you're on the road, then discard it.

4.Don't rely on encryption.

There are a number of encryption packages on the market. They can be used to encrypt e-mail. However, they encrypt the mail when the Send button is clicked. That's too late if a key-logging program is on the computer. It will make a record of the password and message as it is being written.

5.Use some common sense.

Public computers may be secure. But you really have no way of being sure. You can secure your home or business computer, but you can't be certain of what has been done with a public machine.

Approach these machines with care. Don't do any banking or stock trading on them if you can avoid it. Avoid credit-card transactions. Use a temporary password if you must check your e-mail. And ask your system administrator how to "expire page views."

If you're just surfing, that should not be a problem. But avoid sensitive business if you can. There might be a Juju Jiang watching.

Zune headed to Canadian stores in mid-June

[MSFT-Q] announced Tuesday its Zune digital music devices will finally go international when they arrive in Canadian stores June 13.

Microsoft disclosed plans to bring the Zune to Canada earlier this year at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, but the release date was unknown until now. Canada will become only the second country for the Zune, which launched in the United States in November, 2006.

Although sales of the Zune pale in comparison to those of Apple Inc.'s [AAPL-Q] ubiquitous iPod devices, the small digital devices are an important piece of Microsoft's expanding entertainment and devices division, which also oversees production of the company's Xbox 360 video game system.

Three different capacity Zune players will be available to Canadians -- four-, eight- and 80-gigabyte -- and will range in price from $140 to $250. The four- and eight-gigabyte models come in red, black and pink, while the 80-gigabyte version will be available in only black and red.
Read complete article here!

Value of life lock

Lifelock is one of the most popular and growing identity theft protection companies. This company unlike others protection companies, not only report and alert you, Lifelock actually locks down your credit information, this action is done by placing fraud alerts on your accounts. The effect caused by this fraud alerts system is that any financial institution intend to create new accounts under your name must contact you.

Other services offers by this identity theft protection company include remove junk mail and pre-approved credit card offer lists, these are only few value of life lock. From lifelock reviews you are going to find this company is not a credit monitoring company, Lifelock is a real identity protection company, they place locks to prevent thieves who are trying to access your personal information in the first place, so with Lifelock you are asked permission to let someone view your personal information whenever you or some other parties or criminals submit applications under your name, for credit cards, loan or others.

Lifelock cares your personal identity and they prove it by offering up to $1,000,000 guarantee. More according to Lifelock’s website, by enrolling to this company service, you are going to have Walletlock, this service is very useful when your wallet is stolen, Lifelock will assist you to contact all companies associated with your documents, including canceling affected accounts and helping you with the paperwork to replace everything. Visit lifelock website to learn more and when you ready to enroll, this company offers exclusive discount using lifelock promo codes RD32 with 30 days free. Trust your identity protection with the leader in identity theft protection business, start with Lifelock.

GPS Insight - the technical leader in the GPS tracking field!

Since decades, GPS vehicle tracking has become increasingly popular with all segments of society. With its many applications, from the trucking and transport industry, to private investigation and personal vehicles, GPS vehicle tracking increases productivity, safety and security. HVAC, roofing, plumbing, construction, sales forces, delivery vehicles, long haul trucking are just few of service providers benefits from the GPS vehicle tracking system, they use the GPS to increase business efficiency and productivity where the overall result has significantly boosted their business performance.

GPS Insight vehicle tracking system is one name highly recommended in the GPS vehicle tracking fields. GPS Insight provides high quality GPS tracking for monitoring your valuable assets such as your mobile resources. GPS Insight offers the most complete hardware and web software-based vehicle tracking product, they even claim to be the technical leader in the GPS tracking field. Other advantage by using this system is the low cost in exchange to the high quality services and reports delivered. This product, as explained by its site will only cost you $1.50-2 per day per vehicle, and the benefits you receive is far beyond, there will be no more labor paid when people aren't really working, fuel savings, routing efficiencies, and etc. These are only few reasons why this is absolutely necessary to use GPS Insight for your business.

Visit www.gpsinsight.com and you will learn that GPS Insight vehicle tracking system is one of most sophisticated tracking systems available on the market today. GPS Insight uses satellites and AT&T/T-Mobile to serve you with highly accurate vehicle locations every 2 minutes throughout the US and Canada area. According to its official site, GPS Insight provides live demonstrations in your offices, at your location, or via WebEx presentations, here you can ensure whether this device is the correct tracking system for your business. GPS insight also offers a 30 day money back guarantee, and for qualified companies free trials and no long contract is required. GPS insight system with its do it yourself installation takes only minutes to install, same order delivery day services, and you are ready to track your fleet in days, not weeks or months.

With GPS Insight, all customers’ inputs and advices are seriously taking into consideration, they value your requests and consider them while enhancing and combining with the GPS most recent technology to deliver their high quality services, to make GPS Insight’s product stand out among the others. GPS insight also come with 24/7 support for their customer, or for most frequently asked questions just visit GPS Insight support wiki for customers. Under the “blog” section of this site, find out more about Blog for GPS vehicle tracking, this interesting section provides many valuable information and stories about the GPS vehicle tracking.

For customers in the surveillance industry, GPS Insight comes as one remarkable product that provides the highest level of confidentiality and discretion. Browse and learn GPS Insight website, find out why they claim to be the technical leader in the GPS tracking field and how you can benefit from their product.

Asus Eee PC 900 UMPC: launch dates and details

The original Asus Eee PC was a great little UMPC, however many of us knew that this was just a teaser until the launch of the Asus Eee PC 900. We thought that this slighter larger model would be a huge improvement on the previous model however, I was a little shocked to learn that they would still be using the 900MHz Celeron M processor.

Although Asus have tried to make up for this by giving us two different flash storage units, the first is 4GB of flash storage that is soldered on the motherboard while the other is the 8GB SSD which will be in the PCIe slot however, this is only on the XP version of the Ultra Mobile PC, and on the Linux version that will come with a 16GB SSD.

One thing that I do not understand, why would Asus give the more simpler Linux operating system more storage, very strange. The price for the Asus Eee PC 900 UMPC will be $500 - $650, the reason for this high price tag has something to do with the Windows license fee.

So now comes the all important launch dates of this Ultra Mobile PC, well both the UK and Honk Kong should see ship dates from today with France following tomorrow. Germany, Italy and Australia will have to wait until May. As yet there is no news as to when the Asus Eee PC 900 UMPC will be released in the U.S.

Source - Asus News

One Laptop Per Child

The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project is unique, as is its first product, the XO. Designed to bring educational computing to children in the developing world, the XO's bright green-accented casework, rabbit-ear Wi-Fi antennas and highly customised software are designed as much to differentiate it from more mainstream products as to provide focused functionality for its intended task.

Although OLPC operated a Give One Get One scheme for two weeks at the end of 2007, the XO is not currently available for the general public to buy.

At heart, the XO is conventional, almost staid. It's based on the AMD Geode LX700 processor, an embedded x86 device running at 433MHz, with 1GB of flash memory and 256MB of RAM. This supports a heavily customised version of Red Hat Fedora Core 6 Linux and a custom icon-based front end called Sugar, written in Python. A suite of educational applications including graphics, music making, word processing, simple programming concepts, chat and audio/video sharing is included; all of this is open source and defiantly kid-friendly. Although some of our more elderly members of staff were confused, young children found their way around with ease: for the more precocious, there's always the Bash shell.

The screen is the stand-out technology in the XO. An ingenious mix of reflective and transmissive LCD design, it is both high resolution and high density -- 1200 by 900 pixels at 200 dots per inch (dpi) in greyscale (reflective) mode, 800 by 600 pixels at 134dpi in colour (transmissive) mode. The latter activates when you turn the backlight on and mix primary colours behind the main LCD matrix.

This works very well: although the colours wash out easily in strong sunlight, the main image is viewable under all lighting conditions. It's a very flexible, very capable design and deserves to hit the mainstream. It's also a good match for the built-in camera, which although only VGA resolution produces still and moving images of above-average clarity. You can twist and fold back the screen into a tablet, or e-book, mode, but this isn't fully supported in the software -- there's no touch-screen hardware, for example; nor can you get at the stylus pads on either side of the touchpad in e-book mode.

Although it has no internal expansion options, the XO has an SD card slot, three USB connectors and standard microphone and headphone sockets. The spill-proof, child-finger-pitch keyboard is more than adequate for general use and shows a good deal of innovative