OpenSignal Finds T-Mobile LTE in 8 Cities

　　T-Mobile isn't saying where it's launching LTE, so it's a good thing we have OpenSignal to do our legwork for us. With its crowdsourced Android app, OS reports today that it has detected T-Mobile's new LTE network in eight cities: Denver, Las Vegas, Kansas City, New Orleans, New York, San Diego, San Jose, and Seattle.
　　"The fact that our app has detected a T-Mobile LTE network in these cities suggests that they will be included in the initial LTE rollout," OS spokesman Samuel Johnston said.
　　And while T-Mobile has only announced the BlackBerry Z10 and Samsung Galaxy Note II as LTE devices, OS says it's also seen T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S III and Galaxy S4 phones hitting the LTE network.
　　How fastis it? Johnston said OSM's tests saw 25Mbps downloads, 8Mbps uploads, and latency around 40ms. That's extremely fast for a 5x5 LTE network like T-Mobile is running.
　　"Obviously the network is under a very light load right now and these speeds will come down," Johnston said.
　　T-Mobile is the last national carrier to launch LTE. It has pledged to cover 100 million people with LTE by midyear. Earlier this week the company treated us to a test of how the network will function after the upcoming MetroPCS merger, when it can double its spectrum in many markets to 10x10.
　　The carrier is having a network-themed press event on Tuesday, March 26 where it's expected to announce a new range of service plans and more details about its LTE network.
　　Late last year, T-Mobile CEO John Legere said the company would be moving entirely to no-contract "value plans." Tmonews has details of those new service plans, adding that traditional subsidized contracts will still be available from third-party retailers.
　　The full OS report on T-Mobile LTE coverage is available at OpenSignal's website. We'll also be visiting all of the cities listed above in our Fastest Mobile Networks testing this May.
http://www.windowsanyway.com/microsoft-office-for-mac-home-and-business-2011-product-key-p-3551.html

The updates continue on as Windows Blue

　　An early create of Windows Blue, the following big update to Windows eight due out later this yr, has leaked on the internet with numerous variations and enhancements.
　　The develop that has leaked is from France within the variety of the 32-bit edition being a 2.63GB ISO. Reviews have famous it installs without any inconvenience on into a 32-bit equipment, providing a transparent indicator of what characteristics may well come to the Home windows system during the coming months.

　　Like Home windows Cellular phone eight, Windows Blue contains the ability to customize the scale of dwell tiles within the begin display. You can make tiles both scaled-down and bigger and may adjust colors and make other personalization alterations. Moreover, you could now swipe concerning the start Monitor and also the Applications screen, like is highlighted on Home windows Cell phone eight.
　　Microsoft has upgraded multi-tasking talents in Windows Blue. You'll be able to now run two applications side-by-side at different widths. This attribute for desktop windows was very first released in Home windows seven, and now it can be readily available for apps downloaded within the Home windows Retail outlet. It might also guidance a 3 or four app see too.
　　The updates continue on as Windows Blue brings variations to Charms. Users now have got a "play" choice beneath the Gadgets appeal and a screenshot option underneath the Share allure. And lastly, Windows Blue provides Web Explorer 11 on the system. No new options in the new browser have been found out as of but.
　　Stories have famous that Blue's intention will be to carry Windows Cellular phone eight and Windows 8 closer with each other, by like products and services from each individual system. A Blue update can be expected for Windows Cellular phone eight later this 12 months, with related refinements.
　　Blue is rumoured to come in a less costly selling price point than earlier Home windows versions, very similar to Apple did with Mountain Lion and Lion. It must mark the start of annually updates from Redmond.
　　Windows Blue is expected being produced later on this calendar year, by using a developer preview build launch from the coming months.

Could HTC Corporation Rescue Itself: Its February Sales Dropped 44% To $384 Million

HTC Corporation was set up in 1997. The company was initially making notebook computers, but quickly it switched to mobile handsets business. At the beginning, the Taiwanese company was admired for bringing some touch screen cell phones, which played crucial role in making it a true pioneer of Android. In 2010, HTC corporation launched EVO 4G, the first 4G smartphone available for purchase till date. In addition, in the U.S., the company succeeded to hold first position in terms of smartphone shipments in Q3 2011, holding a 24% of overall smartphone market share, followed by Samsung and Apple with 21% and 20% share.

HTC Corporation In February 2013

Of course, HTC corporation had have nice Journey from 1997 to Q3 2011. But now the scenario has changed. Just two days before, the company reported that its sales in February 2013 fell nearly 44% to 11.37 billion Taiwan dollars, which is nearly equivalent to $384 million, down from NT$20.3 billion in the same month of the last year. However, the sales figure in the last month was somewhat higher than what the company reported (NT$11.12 billion in sales) back in January 2010.
In January this year, HTC Corporation reported its Q4 2012 earnings, revealing 44% Y/Y drop in revenue. In its monthly market updates for February this year, the company hasn’t mentioned anything about unit sales or net income. However, it saw a 91% drop in profit to $34 million in Q4 2012, which is lowest since 2004.  Last month, the company launched an Android-powered HTC One smartphone, which was expected to rescue the company from the recent misfortunes.
However, the latest Android-based HTC device has got some favorable reviews since its launch, including winning the best device award at Mobile World Congress event this year. But the question is: Is the device enough to save the company to claw back some of the market shares that it has lost to its rivals such as Samsung and Huawei on the Android platform? In addition, could the company clinch some market share of Apple in smartphone segment?

In Q4 2012, HTC Corporation failed to fix its position among the top-five best selling smartphone vendors across the world. Interestingly, three Chinese vendors–Huawei, ZTE and Lenovo– managed to enter in the list of top smartphone vendors. In terms of device selling, both HTC and Samsung have different approaches. Samsung is following the same strategy what previously adopted by Nokia. The south Korean company is selling both types of mobile handsets–low-priced features phones for price-conscious people and high-end mobile handsets for premium users. On the other side, HTC Corporation has been focusing only on high-end smartphones. Ironically, the high-end smartphones segment is currently pre-dominated by Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Ltd..

Challenges Are Still Ahead For HTC Corporation

With selling of Galaxy lineup and Google Nexus smartphones, Samsung has now become a very respectable competitor for HTC. In August 2010, HTC Corporation acquired majority (50.1%) of  shares of Beats Electronics in order to do innovation with mobile audio sound. The company’s involvement with Beats Audio has yielded very little results, as consumers are less willing to have premium sound in a mobile device what HTC hoped before the purchase of Beat Electronics in 2010.
Furthermore, HTC has simply failed in marketing. On the other side, its rival Samsung spent $11 billion last year on its marketing campaigns, which is equivalent to HTC’s revenue for the fiscal 2012. Indeed, consumers today want to see something fresh, not an update of proprietary skin. Besides, the sales of HTC One has been disappointing for the company, meaning users are likely to get their hand on Samsung Galaxy S4, Motorola X Phone or Apple’s upcoming iPhone.

http://www.windowsanyway.com/windows-7-home-premium-product-key-p-3526.html

Quite a departure from the common desktop

　　Let us get started is together with the new Fashionable UI. There?ˉs undoubtedly this is most likely one of the boldest moves that Microsoft has manufactured with Windows, and each new Home windows system on sale proudly displays the colorful and dynamic style.
　　We are able to see why the start screen (proficiently a substitution for that old Begin Menu) is definitely an fascinating ecosystem. Significant packing containers sort a multi-coloured grid that sits on top of a customisable background. Many tiles are are living, this means that they update usually to reveal the most recent sports information, research tendencies on Bing, temperature inside your site, or news headlines, plus the desktop application tile displays the existing wallpaper that you simply use on the conventional Windows desktop.
　　The addition of pictures that accompany the consistently shifting news makes the complete Start off monitor knowledge seem to be alive and intriguing, even on the stage of it basically becoming distracting. Leaving this Start out display screen open even though examining via a doc on a 2nd display is usually a hazardous affair as your eye is invariably drawn into the flashing and flickering of transfer rumours or even the startling information that Dolphins are among the most searched-for conditions on the internet nowadays.
　　For your a lot more organised person, you can find the choice to group the icons alongside one another in columns by simply dragging them into a new grid after which using the pinch gesture (or mouse wheel) to zoom out, clicking on the column and afterwards naming it.
　　Picking considered one of stated icons also displays that Microsoft?ˉs designers have a sprint of aptitude. The tile animation expands, flipping about since it does so, ahead of launching the app. It?ˉs a little element but adds attraction.
　　This also introduces one of several other substantial modifications to your Windows practical experience, that on the full-screen app. When utilizing the traditional desktop, you've got the choice of resizing windows to suit your choice and monitor real-estate, but from the Contemporary UI full-screen applications are purchase in the working day.
　　The one concession is ??Snap?ˉ a function that enables you to definitely show an application on the majority of the display, with another squeezed into a quarter strip on possibly the remaining or correct. For Twitter feeds or other list-based applications this may function very very well, however, if you want to run anything a lot more sophisticated side-by-side then you?ˉll must make investments within a next monitor or establish a deep kinship while using the Windows Tab shortcut.
　　This is exactly where the tablet-like mother nature in the new style commences to rear its head, and should result in individuals who have developed up making use of Windows a little bit confusion. Lots of on the Fashionable UI applications even have simplified layouts both of those visually and functionally, but we?ˉll address that in additional depth under. Even the symbols for loading or processing are actually tweaked, with end users now looking at 5 little balls orbit all-around an invisible sunlight, or a colored line stretching across the very best of the screen right until the work is concluded.
　　All of this appears, as being the title aptly conveys, like a fashionable OS. The truth is any time you feel in the clean up lines and expanses of white vacant place normally observed about the screen, it appears oddly similar in tone to Google?ˉs newest edition of Android, blended along with the standard minimalism of Apple.

　　Quite a departure from the common desktop, which you'll nevertheless use a good deal to operate the apps you utilize just about every working day, such as Business office, Photoshop and your world-wide-web browser. That may be, not surprisingly, right up until Modern day UI versions show up which ideal the standard variations. Which is not likely to occur any time shortly, we would wager.
　　To the desktop it is possible to run your Windows 7/Vista/XP software and generally obtain your way around within a standard fashion, nevertheless it does require transforming several default application settings (which we will point out later on) to stop the typical condition in which you click on a little something inside the Desktop application, say an image file, only to seek out you transported back for the Modern day UI as the Images application launches. A number of people won't head this switching about, whilst some others will discover it grating.
　　These are definitely all set-and-forget fixes, but throughout the first several hours while in the Home windows eight ecosystem it may be simple to really feel a little bit misplaced, primarily if you?ˉre not assured in relation to participating in together with your settings.
　　Arguably essentially the most aggravating element is that Modern day UI apps don?ˉt have buttons to minimise or shut the window, rather they count with a less-than-obvious gesture where you drag your finger (or mouse cursor) down from the prime to exit, or swipe in within the remaining side to modify between apps.
　　For those who don?ˉt use a touchscreen then Window Tab will navigate involving open Fashionable UI apps, and Alt Tab will cycle by means of every little thing. People preferring to make use of their mouse for everything will discover the new 'hot' corners which display screen the listing of jogging applications (and charms bar) if you set your cursor within the left or right-hand corners respectively.

Swapping Windows 8 for Linux Mint, openSuSE and Fedora on my new netbook

　　I picked up a wonderful new sub-notebook over the weekend, but this one has some history behind it which is worth explaining first.
　　When I bought my Acer Aspire One 522 a little over a year ago (November 2011, see original blog post here) I came very close to returning it because the screen resolution was only 1024x600. But even in the first few hours of using it, and loading Linux on it, I was so impressed with it that I decided to keep it, and I've been pleased with it ever since.

　　Last week I saw an Aspire One 725 on sale here, for 399 CHF (about £280), and the specifications said that it had the new AMD C-70 CPU (my AO522 has a C-60), more memory and a larger disk. Now, there are some good reasons to get a new system!
　　I went to look at it, and found that one of the major electronic shops here also happens to be offering a discount on all Acer laptops, so I ended up buying one for about 325 francs (just under £230). That's a heck of a good deal for what has turned out to be a heck of a good sub-notebook. (Note to Swiss readers: the Acer discount is on offer until Sunday, 24 March) The specifications of the unit I bought are:
　　- AMD C-70 1GHz Dual core cpu
　　- 4GB DDR3 memory
　　- 500GB SATA disk
　　- Radeon HD 7290 graphic controller
　　- 11.6" 1366x768 display
　　- Realtek 10/100 wired network adapter
　　- Broadcom 4313 WiFi b/g/n adapter
　　- HDMI and VGA ports
　　- 1 x USB 3.0, 2 x USB 2.0 ports
　　- SD/MMC/xD/MemoryStick slot
　　Wow, that is very impressive, especially at that price! I can only see a few negatives:
　　- No Bluetooth (I can live without it)
　　- No gigabit wired network (only 10/100) (I seldom use wired anyway)
　　- Preloaded with Windows 8 (Sigh)
　　Be careful about these specifications, and the price: there is another model of the Aspire One 725 also on sale here, at a slightly lower price, with only 2GB of memory and a 320GB disk.
　　That might be sufficient for those who don't need quite so much memory and disk space, and with the 15 percent discount that model is going to be under 300 francs. The different models are probably identified by the alphabet soup that follows the 725 model number, but deciphering that is beyond me; check the specs on the box carefully to be sure which you are getting.
　　When I unpacked it, I was immediately struck by the size and weight (small and light). I consider this to be in the same category as the HP Pavilion dm1-4310 (see my blog post about that model), and the difference is clear:
　　Aspire One 725: 28.5 x 20.2 x 2.3cm, 1.2kg
　　HP dm1-4310: 29.2 x 21.5 x 3.2cm, 1.6kg
　　That's a big difference, and when you are holding them both in your hands you can really see it, and feel it. Don't get me wrong, I still like the HP dm1 a lot and it has a lot going for it. But if your criteria is size and weight, the AO725 is the clear winner. Oh, the AO725 also seems to run much cooler, and the cooling fan is on much less often than the HP dm1. Now obviously, the C70 cpu is much less powerful than the E2-1800, and thus produces less heat, so this isn't a surprise, but it is worth mentioning.
　　More pros and cons on the physical design and appearance: It is actually a bit nicer than the Aspire One 522, they have put a bit more effort into addings some shaping and curves around the edges, and around the keyboard. It has a real touchpad with real buttons, not the dreaded "ClickPad" (which would have ruled it out for me anyway). The keyboard is probably the only thing I would complain about, the keys are absolutely flat, and the feel is a bit mushy. The touchpad "buttons" are a single bar positioned on the front edge of the palm rest, which I don't much care for, but they seem to work reliably.
　　The variety of ports and interfaces on this unit is pretty impressive as well. First, it has an HDMI port, which I use when connecting to a television to show pictures, AND a VGA plug. It has one USB 3.0 port and two USB 2.0 ports, which is becoming more important as more 3.0 devices are becoming available. It has a memory card slot which will take not only SD/xD/MMC cards but also Memory Stick and Memory Stick Pro, that's a nice touch and still not all so common for notebooks in this class.
　　That's enough about the hardware, let's move on to the operating system. It came preloaded with Windows 8, which needed to be booted and configured - that took quite a long time slogging around, but eventually it finished.
　　Then I needed to make a rescue copy, because I am pretty likely to wipe Windows off this machine, either intentionally, accidentally or out of disgust...
　　The Acer Rescue Manager will make this backup to a USB stick, rather then DVD disks, which is nice. The sales clerk in the shop said that I needed at least a 16GB stick for this, and the Rescue Manager program said the same. Unfortunately that doesn't seem to be large enough, because when I tried it with a 16GB stick, it ran until the progress bar got a fraction from then end, and then just stopped. No message, no error, no crash, no stop, no nothing.
　　Then I tried with a 32GB stick, and that worked just fine. Sigh. Once Windows was loaded and configured I went in to the disk/partition management program and told it to shrink its partition as much as possible. That gave me back about 230GB of the disk, which is more than enough for the moment. The disk has a GPT partition table, so it is not necessary to fiddle with "Extended Partitions" and "Logical Paritions", and I didn't have to worry that Windows and Acer had already "used up" the only four available "Primary" partitions. Nice.
　　The Aspire One 725 has a UEFI BIOS, with Secure Boot enabled by default.There are a couple of Acer-specific things that are important to know here. First, the boot-select option is disabled by default, you have to to into the BIOS setup (press F2 during boot) and then change that to enabled before you can boot a Live USB stick.
　　Second, you can only disable Secure Boot if you have set a BIOS password. Yes, I really meant that - go back and read it again if you want, I'll wait. Grrr. Who does that make sense to? What is the logic there?
　　There is certainly nothing else in the BIOS, or the BIOS help screens, or the documentation that came with it which says that this is the case. I was only lucky enough to know it because someone mentioned it in the comments to one of my previous posts about UEFI booting. So, if you want to disable Secure Boot, you first have to define a BIOS password. Sigh.
　　Well, this might not be all that critical anyway because both openSuSE 12.3 and Fedora 18 have UEFI Secure Boot compatible Live images, so you can boot them without having to disable it.
　　That was what I did, booting and installing both of those, and it all worked without a hitch.
　　This was where things got really fun and interesting, both openSuSE and Fedora installed perfectdly, including setting up UEFI Secure Boot on the new installations, and they both recognized, configured and supported everything right out of the box.
　　Starting at the top, with CPU frequency stepping, shown to be working with the lscpu command. I am happy with the FOSS Radeon drivers, so I didn't bother trying to load the proprietary AMD (fglrx) drivers. The wired and wireless network adapters work just fine, and it connected to my home WiFi with no trouble. The Fn-keys for volume up/down/mute, brightness up/down/off, touchpad disable/enable and even Sleep/Resume all work! Oh, and speaking of the touchpad, two-finger scrolling works.
http://www.windowsanyway.com/

If the service pack installation is interrupted

　　Although SP1 was initially unveiled in 2011, it's to this point expected consumers to manually put in it by means of Home windows Update.
　　As of March 19, "the installation is going to be absolutely automatic without having person motion essential for people who by now have Computerized Update enabled," Microsoft said inside a site publish. "SP1 might be introduced step by step around the approaching months to all consumers around the RTM model of Windows seven."

　　Redmond said the shift "is section of our ongoing hard work to be sure continued assistance and improved protection updates for purchasers who definitely have not however put in SP1."
　　The SP1 update will choose more time than the usual standard update, Microsoft warned. Consumers must be certain they have ample out there storage
　　On their own PCs and that the machine is charged up or connected to power.
　　"If the service pack installation is interrupted, it is going to reattempt to install mechanically following the up coming restart," Microsoft stated.
　　these kinds of as Methods Middle Configuration Manager (SCCM) or WSUS Server won't be affected by this update. "SCCM and WSUS directors nonetheless have total control about the discharge of Support Pack 1. This remains unchanged," Redmond reported.
　　Assistance for that non-service pack edition of Windows seven RTM, however, will close on April nine.
　　In accordance to February stats from Web Apps about forty four.fifty five percent of PCs globally are running Windows seven, adopted by 38.ninety nine per cent on Windows XP. About two.67 p.c are on Windows 8.

Stinky Footboard gets your feet into the gaming action

Typically, when we’re talking about computer gamers, the gaming peripherals of choice are things like keyboards, mice, and game pads. The common link here is that all of these devices are controlled using hands. A company called Stinky Board is showing off its product in the works called the Stinky Footboard that get your feet into the gaming action.


The company says it has been developing the product for the last two years and it uses special technology for superfast and precise responses. The footboard has four programmable buttons, adjustable tension, and a “cross” shape that make it easy use and provide lots of capability. The controller can be used in any orientation and with one foot or two feet.

The Stinky Footboard has special return to neutral technology that allows the buttons to be activated easily and the board then snaps back into neutral position on its own. This allows you to activate a button quickly and have the board return to a neutral position according to the designer. The device is also designed to allow users to activate multiple buttons without having to lift the foot.

All the user needs to do is tilt the foot forward or backwards or roll it side to side the activate the customizable buttons. The controller also features user adjustable tension boxes allowing the user to adjust the responsiveness and stiffness of the footboard. The springs inside the footboard are also customizable and replaceable. The device ships with six pairs of springs including soft, medium, and hard versions allowing the user to customize the feel of the controller. At this point, you can’t actually buy the product, but it appears that the company plans to put it on Kickstarter when they are ready to raise money to bring the product to the real world. 

http://www.windowsanyway.com/windows-7-professional-product-key-p-3527.html