Windows 7 SP1 now available
Microsoft has begun offering Windows 7 Service Pack 1 via Windows Update today, as promised earlier in the month.
The 32-bit version of SP1 is around 755MB and the 64-bit edition comes in at around 1GB.
Says Microsoft:
Starting today, Windows 7 Service Pack 1 will be available to everyone via the Microsoft Download Center and [will] start rolling out via Windows Update.
If you prefer to have a disc, you can get one sent to you for $6 from Microsoft, including shipping.
The public beta of the SP was released in July 2010, and Microsoft launched the release candidate in October. The SP1 brings no new features, but is instead a collection of security patches and nonsecurity fixes already available through Windows Update.
Zune HD hits Canada, lacks Marketplace
Microsoft has confirmed this weekend that the Zune HD is now available in Canada, years after its launch in the United States.
However, the Zune Music Marketplace is not available as a choice, yet, even though the video store is available.
It is unclear when the licensing issues will be corrected.
Available via Zune Originals, the 16GB model is $170 and the 32GB version is $200.
Canada is now the second country to get the Zune HD, as Microsoft has moved most of its development towards Windows Phone 7.
Hotfile begins suspending premium accounts
Hotfile has begun taking a harsh stance on copyright infringement, says TF, with the cyberlocker deleting premium accounts, along with all the files in them.
Furthermore, the company is not paying out money earned in the site’s rewards program.
The MPAA recently filed a lawsuit against Hotfile and its owner, claiming that “in less than two years, Hotfile has become one of the 100 most trafficked sites in the world. That is a direct result of the massive digital theft that Hotfile promotes.”
This week, hundreds of account holders are reporting that their paid-up premium accounts have been deleted, along with all their uploaded files. Many had been uploading movies and TV shows and were being paid weekly by the rewards program, using piracy as a means of income.
One account holder says he has not been paid on the $1000 Hotfile owes him for uploads.
Says Hotfile of the matter:
Recently, we have become concerned that despite these policies, some users persist in attempting to use Hotfile.com to share materials to which they do not have the necessary rights. Therefore, we have implemented a more aggressive policy of terminating the accounts of users who are the subject of repeated complaints of infringement.
Egyptian father names daughter ‘Facebook’
Gamal Ibrahim, an Egyptian citizen, has named his newborn daughter “Facebook,” following the social media’s part in bringing about the recent revolution.
Ibrahim says he gave his daughter the name “to express his joy at the achievements made by the January 25 youth.”
Many of the youths in the nation used Facebook, Twitter and other social media networks to organize the protests, which began on January 25th and eventually led to the end of President Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year reign.
“The girl’s family, friends and neighbors in the Ibrahimya region gathered around the new born to express their continuing support for the revolution that started on Facebook. ‘Facebook’ received many gifts from the youth who were overjoyed by her arrival and the new name,” adds the Egyptian paper who broke the story.
Despite exponential growth, Android Market revenue remains low
According to new data from research firm IHS, the Android Market saw revenue grow by 861.5 percent year-over-year (YoY) from 2009 to 2010, although the actual dollar figures are tiny compared to all the other major app stores.
Revenue grew from $11 million in 2009 to $102 million in 2010.
By comparison, the Apple App Store saw 131.9 percent growth YoY, jumping to $1.7 billion.
More surprisingly, the BlackBerry App World had revenue of $165 million, and the Nokia Ovi store saw revenue of $105 million, both larger than Android despite a much smaller selection of available apps.
Google says there are 300,000 Android phones activated daily.
Apple corners the touch panel market for 2011
Apple has allegedly cornered the glass capacitive touch panel market, prepaying for 60 percent of the world’s entire capacity in 2011.
The move will leave many other companies fighting for the remaining 40 percent, which is expected to cause component shortages throughout the year and delays.
Apple has reportedly prepaid suppliers Wintek and TPK $3.9 billion for long-term contracts, enough money to cover 136 million iPhone displays or 60 million iPad 2 displays.
Gigaom explains that Apple has done this before:
Prepaying for a bulk, long-term contract allows Apple to control pricing, causing scarcity in the market, which raises the prices of remaining component stock. Apple’s pre-bought parts then give it a price advantage when it comes to production costs, and one that could grow as the contract progresses. It’s something Apple’s been known to do in the past, specifically with NAND flash memory in 2005.
Apple can successfully make moves like this because their devices (as history shows) are almost guaranteed to sell, and sell well. iSuppli is expecting 44 million iPad/iPad 2 tablet sales in 2011, after the company sold 14.8 million in 2010. Even the most radical analyst expectations in 2010 had sales at 9 million.
iPhone 5 to have dual-core A5 processor, 4-inch screen?
Multiple reports today have posted different rumors about the upcoming iPhone 5, which still remains unconfirmed but is expected to launch during the summer, one year after the release of the iPhone 4.
Apple will move the iPhone to a 4-inch screen and use a dual-core A5 processor, likely running at 1.2GHz.
The reports come from Taiwanese component suppliers.
Samsung will provide brand new Super PLS (Plane-to-Line Switching) displays to Apple for the iPhone 5, with Apple having purchased a rumored whopping $7 billion worth of the component for the year.
As compared to the IPS displays seen in the iPad/iPhone 4, the Super PLS screens are brighter, have better viewing angles and are cheaper to produce.
Twitter denies Google, Facebook acquisition talks
Twitter CEO Dick Costolo has denied the hot rumor that Google and Facebook are looking to acquire the service for $10 billion.
Says Costolo (via ET):
People write that stuff all the time. I don’t know where these things come from, it’s just a rumor.
The CEO also added that the microblogging service now has 130 million tweets per day, 30 percent higher than December 2010.
Additionally, Costolo says Twitter is now in the black and the company will soon introduce a “new method of making money, to add to its existing roster of promoted tweets, accounts and trends.”
RIM announces LTE, HSPA+ PlayBook tablets
Research In Motion (RIM) has announced today that they will release LTE and HSPA+ models of the upcoming PlayBook tablet, joining the WiFi and WiMax 4G models that will go on sale in March.
Each of the models will have Bluetooth tethering, mobile hotspots and BlackBerry Bridge, says PCW, a piece of software that lets BlackBerry owners use BBM (Messenger) on the tablet.
It is unclear what carriers will support the tablet, but it’s speculated that it will be available through Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile.
Price has not been confirmed but has been “leaked” as $500 for a base model, in line with the first generation Apple iPad.
RIM’s PlayBook will have a 7-inch LCD screen with 1024×600 resolution, a dual-core 1GHz processor, a 5MP standard camera and a 3MP front-facing camera.
Finally, the company is expanding its BlackBerry World app store to Azerbaijan, Botswana Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, French Guyana, Greece, Guadeloupe, Hungary, Iceland, Kenya, La Réunion, Latvia, Macedonia, Malta, Martinique, Nigeria, Norway, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden and Tanzania.
Man versus machine ‘Jeopardy’ is highest-rated episode in years, Watson fumbles important question in day 2
Last night’s showing of “Jeopardy!,” which featured former champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter taking on IBM’s supercomputer Watson, was the highest rated episode of the show since 2007, drawing an 8.7 household rating.
The taping’s draw was 24 percent higher than the show’s 2010 average, and a similar (or higher) rating is expected for tonight’s continuation episode.
After the first day of the three-day event, Watson was tied with Rutter at $5000 each, with Jennings lagging behind at $2000. The winner will receive $1 million. Second place gets $300,000 and third gets $200,000. IBM will donate all their winnings to charity and Jennings and Rutter will donate half.
At the end of day 2 (which just aired) Watson had taken a commanding lead, with $35,734 to Rutter’s $10,400 and Jennings’ $4,800. However, the machine did make a huge blunder in the ‘Final Jeopardy’ question which was in the category “U.S. Cities.”
The clue was: “Its largest airport was named for a World War II hero; its second for a World War II battle.” Watson answered ‘Toronto’ while both human competitors answered correctly, with ‘Chicago.’
IBM made sure to post an explanation for the Toronto answer:
David Ferrucci, the manager of the Watson project at IBM Research, explained during a viewing of the show on Monday morning that several of things probably confused Watson. First, the category names on Jeopardy! are tricky. The answers often do not exactly fit the category. Watson, in his training phase, learned that categories only weakly suggest the kind of answer that is expected, and, therefore, the machine downgrades their significance. The way the language was parsed provided an advantage for the humans and a disadvantage for Watson, as well. “What US city” wasn’t in the question. If it had been, Watson would have given US cities much more weight as it searched for the answer. Adding to the confusion for Watson, there are cities named Toronto in the United States and the Toronto in Canada has an American League baseball team. It probably picked up those facts from the written material it has digested. Also, the machine didn’t find much evidence to connect either city’s airport to World War II. (Chicago was a very close second on Watson’s list of possible answers.) So this is just one of those situations that’s a snap for a reasonably knowledgeable human but a true brain teaser for the machine.
