Rumor: Specs for First Chrome OS Netbook, "Alex," Leaked

Whoops! Google has allegedly accidentally unleashed specifications for the first official Chrome OS netbook, dubbed the Samsung "Alex." We hope that's just an internal name for the likely 10-inch netbook that's expected to launch sometime this summer.

A Chrome bug report—still accessible—is the source of the internal name. As for the netbook's raw details, a series of Alex specifications popped up in a Google Document found within the company's code repository. The contents of the document haven't been confirmed, nor are they even accessible anymore.

However, if this mysterious source is to be believed, then here's the lineup for the Alex. Samsung's netbook is predicted to come with a 1200-by-800 pixel display that will likely feature a webcam built right above the screen.

The ten-inch netbook will run on a 1.5-GHz dual-core Intel Atom CPU, the N550, which comes as part of Intel's Pineview series of 45-nanometer processors. For the uninitiated, Pineview is both the codename and successor to Intel's first foray into low-power, mobile-themed processors, Diamondville. The former comes under the Pine Trail platform; the latter never really had a platform name, per se, unless you're counting "Atom" itself, which is really the overall brand name for Intel's low-power processor line.

Back to the Alex: The unknown source claims that the netbook will come equipped with two gigabytes of RAM and a Samsung SSD, but no capacity sizes for the drive were revealed in the allegedly leaked information. As far as connections go, the Alex is rumored to hold a 3G card, the Qualcomm Gobi 2000, for anywhere-you-go Internet access. Bluetooth and Wi-Fi–no connection type given–will also join the Alex.
What else? You'll find a card reader, some USB ports, and a VGA output. Again, there's not much detail to go on with those, including whether the USB ports themselves will sport the new USB 3.0 standard instead of its antiquated, slower cousin. And that's it.

There's chatter that the Google I/O event in San Francisco next month could shed a few more details on the existence—and real name—of the Alex Chrome OS netbook. After all, if this a product that's supposed to launch this summer, it's about time that some concrete details start coming out of the woodwork.

Source : http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2384712,00.asp

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Opinews, un nouveau site de visioconférence pour débattre de l'actualité

Opinews se veut être «le premier site internet permettant aux internautes de débattre en direct et en vidéo autour de sujets d'actualité».

Précisément, la plateforme souhaite permettre aux intéressés de créer un débat, une émission, un jeu questionnaire et de le lancer immédiatement ou de le programmer à une date ultérieure, puis d'y inviter la communauté à y participer.

Le nombre de participants est limité à 5, et la durée de chaque séance se limite à 2 heures.

Les débats doivent être reliés au sujet choisi. Les thèmes touchent à la politique, la société, le sport, la technologie, l'international et les vedettes. La catégorie « Café » est un lieu d'échange plus intime pour y discuter de tout et de rien.

Aucune installation logicielle n'est nécessaire pour y accéder.

L'objectif du site est d'optimiser l'instantanéité dans un débat, et de provoquer des expériences de partage uniques, comme offrir un témoignage de la situation de son pays avec le monde, avoir la possibilité de discuter avec ses idoles par l'entremise du web, de convaincre des électeurs en discutant des véritables enjeux, etc.
Ce type de plateforme basée sur l'utilisation d'une webcam est en pleine effervescence.

Rappelons que Pick or Skip, ce dérivé de l'ancêtre Chatroulette, permet de rencontrer par l'entremise d'un processus similaire des gens à l'international partageant des intérêts similaires aux vôtres.
Cette initiative, disponible quant à elle depuis le mois d'avril, souhaite contribuer par l'entremise de la technologie à favoriser les relations sociales, souvent perdues dans le monde virtuel des réseaux sociaux sans contact visuel.

Source : http://www.branchez-vous.com/techno/actualite/2011/04/opinews_pickorskip_videochat.html

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4 outils pour faciliter lecture et impression à partir du web

BRANCHEZ-VOUS.com vous offre une sélection pratique d'outils pour faciliter la lecture ou l'impression de contenu web, puisqu'il s'avère parfois impossible de lire en entier un texte trop long et à un moment précis, ou d'imprimer un texte sans devoir y consacrer une quantité d'encre déraisonnable.

1) Notforest.com
Pour faciliter la lecture de textes longs, lourds et parsemés de graphiques, d'images ou de vidéos, l'outil vaut son pesant d'or. Une fois arrivé sur la page du site, le lien «Notforest» se doit simplement d'être glissé dans la barre d'outil du navigateur pour être activé à la demande. Le résultat: une page épurée, qui se lit et qui s'imprime en toute lisibilité. Un lien hypertexte permet de revenir facilement à la page d'origine.

2) Instapaper
L'application est devenue un outil indispensable pour tous ceux qui veulent remettre à plus tard la lecture d'une page web. Après le processus d'inscription gratuit sur le site, l'application permet de conserver et de classer facilement toute page sans multiplier inutilement le nombre de favoris. Pour procéder à l'ajout d'une page à la dite application, il ne suffit que de cliquer sur le bouton «Read Later» ajouté préalablement à la barre d'outils d'un navigateur. Le but ultime est de pouvoir assurer la consultation ultérieure de ces textes, puisque dès le téléchargement complété, les pages web en question peuvent être consultées hors ligne et sont également synchronisées et disponibles par l'entremise des applications gratuites pour iPhone, iPad et iPod Touch.

3) Readmelater.com
Un dérivé de Instapaper, qui fonctionne aussi sur le iPad et iPhone. L'avantage de ce type d'alternatives est de pouvoir lire les dits textes ultérieurement, sans connexion internet.

4) iReader Firefox Extension
Une fois l'outil installé, la lecture de longs textes est grandement facilitée. Durant l'installation, un petit icône (un R) s'ajoute dans la barre d'adresse. Au moment de lire le texte de votre choix, ce bouton peut être activé d'un seul clique. Le texte en question surgit dans une nouvelle fenêtre épurée, et ce, peu importe le nombre de pages du texte d'origine. Une seule nouvelle fenêtre pour la lecture peut être défilée de haut en bas comme un charme, dans un format de style écriture noire, fond blanc qui se veut idéale pour l'impression. Aussi disponible pour Google Chrome.

Comme autre alternative du genre, sachez que Readmeo.com fonctionne aussi adéquatement.

Source : http://www.branchez-vous.com/techno/actualite/2011/04/optimiser_impression_et_lecture.html

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The Complete Guide To Watching And Tracking The Royal Wedding Online

For any of you caught up in the frenzy over the royal wedding between England’s Prince William and Kate Middleton, we’ve collected a comprehensive list of where to watch the festivities online, where to find photos, dedicated mobile apps, Twitter accounts following the Royal Wedding and more.

As opposed to the wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, this Royal Wedding is particularly unique because of the web didn’t exist back then. And neither did social media. This will be one of the most publicized and watched weddings in history and the whole world is invited to view and comment both on TV and the web.

Where To Watch

YouTube’s Royal Channel: As we noted a few weeks ago,The YouTube account for the British Monarchy will be streaming the festivities live beginning at 5 AM ET on Friday.

NBC’s The Today Show will be streaming their coverage live on the show’s site. The Today Show’s Royal Wedding Blog Windsor Knot will be posting pictures and coverage.

FOX and ABC will both be streaming their coverage of the Royal Wedding on Hulu. ABC will also be syndicating its stream to Yahoo’s Royal Wedding portal. CBS will be streaming the wedding on Ustream. PBS, PopSugar, and ET will also be using Ustream as a platform for their live coverage.

CNN will be livestreaming the day’s events on CNN.com, including views from inside the Abbey as well as the parade, and via the CNN Apps for iPhone and iPod touch, iPad and Android tablet.

TV Replay will be pulling real-time clips of the ceremony, moments like first kiss etc, that will be live on AOL’s Royal Wedding portal. Splash Live will be streaming from Justin.TV.

How To Follow Using Social Media

The British Monarchy’s Facebook Page will be posting photos, news and more on the social network. And you can follow the Monarchy’s official Twitter account,@clarencehouse, which will be posting news from the event. While I’m sure there will be many hashtags on Twitter marking Tweets about the wedding, you can follow #rw2011 and #royalwedding.

In case you are worried about downtime, we hear that Twitter is preparing for the impending traffic that Tweets about the wedding could cause for the platform.

E! will be livestreaming their coverage of the wedding directly from Facebook.

The British Monarchy’s Flickr page will be updated with photos from the event, and you can access more information on the official site for the wedding. You can also access photos and news from AOL’s Royal Wedding portal and Yahoo’s Royal Wedding news site.

Photo sharing app Color and The Telegraph have joined forces to share real-time eye-witness photos of the royal wedding and the celebrations going on across the UK. A live stream of photos taken using Color in the UK can be accessed here.

Of course, we hear that Royal Wedding guests will be able to Tweet from inside the ceremony so if you follow one of the lucky guests (i.e. Victoria Beckham, and Elton John) you may be able to get an insider’s account of the wedding.

HuffPost Style will be featuring the fashions from the festivities, including the wedding gown, bridesmaid dresses and more. Just Spotted has Royal Wedding channel to keep track of celebs spotted at the wedding.

Mobile Apps

The official Westminster Abbey (where the marriage will take place) app allows you take a 3D tour of the royal church.

Dress The Royals allows you to dress the British Royal Family for the event.

You can also download People Magazine’s The Royals App, The Royal Wedding By Hello Magazine, BBC’s The Royal Wedding Insider, and NBC’s Royal Wedding App.

source : http://techcrunch.com/2011/04/28/the-ultimate-online-guide-to-watching-and-tracking-the-royal-wedding/

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When Will Microsoft’s Internet Bloodbath End?

“Online Services Division revenue grew 14% year-over-year primarily driven by increases in search revenue.”

That was Microsoft’s statement about the Online Services Division in their earnings releaseyesterday. Growth! Yippee! The strategy is working! Right?

Wrong.

What they don’t bother to mention in the release, but they can’t hide in the actual numbers, is just how bad the quarter actually was for the division. While revenue may have grown a bit year over year, income — as in the money you actually get to keep — was an entirely different story. It was a bloodbath, really. Yes, again.

Microsoft lost $726 million in the Online Services Division for the quarter. It was actually their worst quarter in two years in that regard. And it was their second worst ever, as Business Insider points out in their nifty chart perfect for showing such bloodbaths.

And despite the year over year revenue growth, the income was actually down year over year. As in, they managed to lose more money despite bringing in more. As in, the statement up top is total misdirection bullshit.

And how’s this for a kick in the pants: if Microsoft had just scrapped their Online Services Division for the quarter, they likely would have beaten Apple in terms of profits once again. Instead, they’re over $700 million behind — behind, mind you, for the first time in a couple decades.

Of course, Microsoft can’t afford to scrap the Online Services Division (well, figuratively afford it, at least). Like every technology company, they know this is the key to the future. And that’s precisely why they’re dumping so much money into it.

But it that strategy actually working? Revenue is growing, but losses are mounting. Microsoft is having to spend $2 to make $1 — actually a bit worse than that ratio!

Last October, I wrote that Microsoft was running basically the worst Internet startup ever. This pissed a lot of people off, who thought the comparison was unfair. After all, Microsoft can afford to burn the money.

That’s true, the quarter overall was fairly good for them (though the stock took a nosedive today because it wasn’t good enough). But if the two pillars of their business, Windows and Office, start to slip (as just about everyone believes they will sooner or later as we move into an increasingly mobile world of computing), these Online Services losses are going to become a big, big problem. Fast.

Maybe Microsoft can figure it out before that happens. But there’s just absolutely no data pointing in that direction right now. And there hasn’t been in the past six years. In fact, the numbers are actually getting worse!

After a nightmare Q3 and Q4 in 2010 (fiscal, not the actual calendar quarters) with Online Services loses right around $700 million, it looked like Microsoft may be turning things around with loses of “only” around $550 million in Q1 and Q2 of 2011. But if you look at the bigger picture, you’ll see that those Q1 and Q2 loses were actually worse year over year. If you simply extrapolated that out, you should have been able to predict this quarter’s bloodbath as well.

In the past year, Microsoft has now lost a staggering $2.5 billion in the Online Services Division. Think about that for a second. When I wrote the October post, the loss runrate was “only” $2 billion. The situation is getting worse.

And so I ask, how long can this bloodbath last? When will it end? Or maybe more to the point: will it end? All the data we have right now points to a pretty definitive “no”.

source : http://techcrunch.com/2011/04/29/microsoft-internet-bloodbath/ 

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