iCloud, Mac OS X Lion and iOS 5 confirmed for WWDC

31.05.2011, 14:46

Apple has announced that it will be indeed be releasing iCloud at this year’s WWDC in June, although it looks like the launch of the iPhone 5 will be subject to delay.

In a rare email, which maps out what will be shown at WWDC, Apple explained:

“Apple CEO Steve Jobs and a team of Apple executives will kick off the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a keynote address on Monday, June 6 at 10:00am.

“At the keynote, Apple will unveil its next generation software – Lion, the eighth major release of Mac OS X; iOS 5, the next version of Apple’s advanced mobile operating system which powers the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch; and iCloud, Apple’s upcoming cloud services offering.”

No iPhone 5

There’s no word on the iPhone 5, so it seems that Apple is launching iOS 5 first and then focusing on the launch of the iPhone 5 at a later date.

The release continued: “WWDC will feature more than 100 technical sessions presented by Apple engineers. Mac developers will see and learn how to develop world-class Mac OS X Lion applications using its latest technologies and capabilities.

“Mobile developers will be able to explore the latest innovations and capabilities of iOS and learn how to greatly enhance the functionality, performance and design of their apps. All developers can bring their code to the labs and work with Apple engineers.”

So, the rumour and conjecture over Apple’s cloud plans is over – Apple iCloud UK release date is set for 6 June at the WWDC.

There’s been a lot of talk about Apple getting the majority of music labels to sign on to iCloud, a service which is set to take MobileMe and add music streaming and possibly movie streaming to the mix.

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UK government developing cyber weapons

31.05.2011, 14:04

The UK government is working on a ‘tool box’ of cyber weapons as well as boosting its online defences.

Understandably, the government won’t reveal what kind of online arsenal makes up the cyber armoury, which is being developed by the Cabinet Office and the Cyber Security Operations Centre, with input from the Ministry of Defence.

Speaking to the Guardian, the armed forces minister, Nick Harvey, said, “Action in cyberspace will form part of the future battlefield.”

Sounds like a bad ’90s movie

“Cyber is a new domain but the rules and norms, the logic and the standards that operate in any other domain … translate across into cyberspace,” he went on.

“I don’t think that the existence of a new domain will, in itself, make us any more offensive than we are in any other domain. The legal conventions within which we operate are quite mature and well established.”

With everything from transport to power to taxes to communications now taking place online, or at least digitally, the UK is more vulnerable to cyber attacks than ever before – where Die Hard 4.0 leads, life will inevitably follow.

“The consequences of a well planned, well executed attack against our digital infrastructure could be catastrophic … With nuclear or biological weapons, the technical threshold is high,” Harvey continued.

“With cyber the finger hovering over the button could be anyone from a state to a student.”

With the prospect of a cyber war becoming ever more likely, it makes sense for the UK to have some offensive strikes in the bag, as well as fending off external threats.

Now, where did we put those tin foil hats?

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ViewSonic officially unveils the ViewPad 7x

31.05.2011, 13:27

After leaking out earlier this month, the ViewSonic ViewPad 7x has got all official over at Computex, promising to be the world’s first 7-inch Honeycomb tablet.

So if you’ve been jonesin’ for that Honeycomb goodness on a smaller-than-10-inch screen, there’s no need to wait around for Acer to solve its Iconia Tab A100 problems or HTC to finally port the OS to the Flyer.

It’s not clear whether it will come with Android 3.0 or 3.1 yet, but the ViewPad 7x will be rocking a dual-core Nvidia processor, front- and rear-mounted cameras, capacitive LED touchscreen display and HDMI port.

Fingers and toes

The touchscreen has capacitiy for every single finger you’ve got, with 10-point multi-touch (although whether or not you could fit all your fingers on the 7-inch screen at the same time is another matter).

As well as the ViewPad 7x, ViewSonic is showing off the ViewPad 10Pro, a 10-inch tablet with Intel Oak Trail chipset that can dual-boot Windows 7 Professional and Android at Computex.

There’s also a 24-inch LED 3D monitor, known as the V3D245wm-LED, a WXGA pico projector, an ultra-slim digital picture frame and the ViewSonic HD camcorder series on show.

The ViewPad 7X is set to hit the shops in North America this summer, with a UK release date no doubt not far behind.

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iPhone 5 to come with 8MP camerea, no SIM

31.05.2011, 13:15

New sources have claimed that the iPhone 5 will launch at WWDC next week, complete with an 8MP camera, multiple internal antenna and, potentially, a Qualcomm chipset.

We’ve lost track of the number of rumours about the next generation of iPhone, with myriad analysts and anonymous sources suggesting that we wouldn’t see hide nor hair of it until September 2011.

But, with WWDC just a week away, the rumour mill has shifted back to anticipating that it will launch in June, as is usual for Apple’s iPhone refreshes.

It’s all getting a bit boring now

We’re not expecting big things from the iPhone 5 (or the iPhone 4S, its suggested moniker), with the design remaining largely the same as the iPhone 4, but incorporating a new processor, a better camera and three or four antennas to make it a ‘world phone’, as Verizon let slip last month ago.

The sources also say that the phone will be SIM-less, which goes against what France Telecom’s CEO told reporters last week about a “new standard of SIM card”.

Although supposedly set to be launched at WWDC next week, respected leak site Macotakara’s sources claim the iPhone 5 release date won’t be until the end of July or early August.

They also claim that a major refresh of the handset is slated for launch in early 2012; iPhone 6, anyone?

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Twitter to launch a Twitpic rival?

31.05.2011, 11:52

Twitter is looking to mosey in on Twitpic’s territory and launch its very own photo-sharing service.

Set to be announced by Twitter CEO Dick Costolo at the D9 conference in California this week, the launch of Twitter’s official picture-sharing service will certainly be a blow to photo hosts that have made a name for themselves on the microblog and a pretty packet in the process.

The warning signs were there for the likes of Twitpic (which is in the middle of its own photo identity crisis) and Yfrog: a year ago, Twitter stopped third party ad networks on its site with the announcement of Promoted Tweets.

It then warned any new applications using the site would not be able to mimic the use of Twitter – effectively killing off the chance for new apps to use the Twitter API.

And then this month, Twitter said it would be clamping down on third party apps that want to DM users.

Photo finish

It seems the only way to get on Twitter’s good side is to be bought by the company, as Tweetdeck was just last week.

Twitter has not yet confirmed that it is launching a photo-sharing app, but All Things Digital is reporting that it will be announced at D9 this week.

Considering All Things Digital are behind D9, it seems they may well have the inside skinny.

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Toshiba’s Qosmio X770 gaming laptop offers ‘mind-blowing’ 3D

31.05.2011, 11:28

Toshiba’s latest gaming laptop, the Qosmio X770, promises super-speedy response times, mega-powerful processing and 3D visuals that will blow your mind – at least that’s what Toshiba says.

With a 17.3-inch Full HD screen, the Toshiba Qosmio X770 rocks a quad-core Intel i7 processor alongside 8GB of memory and a 500GB hard drive.

The stereoscopic 3D graphics are powered by an Nvidia GeForce GTX 560M graphics card with 1.5GB of dedicated GDDR5 memory, which all sounds like a perfect 3D graphical storm.

Toshiba qosmio x770

You’ll need active shutter specs, though, which link up to an infrared emitter in the screen’s bezel.

Several-D

As well as 3D gaming, the laptop has a Blu-ray drive for 3D movie playback, can do 2- to 3D conversion and even has dual HD webcams so you can video chat in 3D, if that’s the sort of thing that floats your boat.

Music and movie playback should be pretty nice with integrated Harman Kardon speakers and subwoofer working alongside the Dolby Digital Advanced Audio.

As well as USB 3.0, Bluetooth 3.0 and Wi-Fi connectivity, the laptop comes in a serious, manly design with red highlights, speaker grilles and mesh-effect patterns galore.

There’s no word yet on the Qosmio X770 UK pricing, but the laptop is slated for a July 2011 release date, at which point we should find out how many notes it will set you back.

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Intel and Asus unveil ‘ultrabook’ laptop-tablet hybrid

31.05.2011, 10:04

Intel has revealed its latest laptop-based chip plans over at Computex, putting the emphasis on low-power and skinny looks in order to claw back some share from the tablet market.

The term Intel has coined for this ‘new’ category is ‘Ultrabook’, which we’ve already reported to the hyperbole police and expect the chip maker to be hauled into the exaggeration station along with Steve ‘Magical’ Jobs and HTC any minute now.

Although no official Ultrabook products have been unveiled, Intel’s executive vice president, Sean Maloney, reckons they “will make up 40 per cent of the market by the end of 2012.”

A bridge too far

It’s all thanks to the 22nm Ivy Bridge chipset, which will be a diminuitive 0.8-inches thick and provide faster responses and ‘tablet-like features’.

If it wants to hit 40 per cent of the consumer market, Intel better keep the pricing of the Ivy Bridge chips manageable, pointing to a sub $1000 price point to be getting on with.

Intel has been getting all cosy with Asus to show off the first ultrabook, imaginatively dubbed the UX21 Asus Ultrabook, which runs the latest 2nd gen Intel Core processor aka Sandy Bridge, and looks a lot like a MacBook Air to us.

The first of these ultrabooks will ready and raring to go for the 2011 Christmas shopping season, while the Ivy Bridge chips should make their way to computers in the early part of 2012.

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Sony PSN to return in full by end of the week

31.05.2011, 9:29

Sony has announced that all PlayStation Network functionality, including access to the PlayStation Store, will be restored to the USA, UK and the rest of Europe by the end of this week.

However, the company has had to concede that some areas of Asia, including Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea, will still have some services missing – it’s not entirely clear what will and won’t be working in those territories, with Sony saying that “Details… will be announced as they become available.”

But here in the UK, we’ll once again have access to the entire network, including full functionality on the PlayStation Store and the ability to make in-game purchases.

Embarrassing

Sony was forced to take the whole PSN offline in late April after hackers made their way in to the supposedly secure network and got their mitts on users’ personal information and credit card details.

Sony says it has “implemented considerable security enhancements to the network infrastructure, as well as conducted testing of the payment process and commerce functions.”

You’d hope so, as the Sony has also had website hacks and embarrassing password-reset faux pas to contend with during the on-going saga and customer confidence must surely be at a low.

Perhaps with the PlayStation Store back online at the end of the week users will also finally get hold of their Welcome Back gift packages, which include two free games and free trials to other Sony services.

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32 amazingly creative job applications

31.05.2011, 9:12

Job applications become enjoyable when they are allowed to become as creative as the specimen in this collection. A T-shirt has been adorned with the applicant’s details, a periodic table shows the skills in detail, a flyer promotes a designer and a folded poster invites for a tour of discovery. There are many ways for creative designers to surprise the board and claim the position always dreamed of.

These amazing applications and resumés shall serve you as an extensive source of inspiration to find and realize your own idea. It’s easy to see that the styles represented here are as diverse as the skill sets of the designers who created them. We find that every single piece in this collection is absolutely worth a look.

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ARM hopes to ‘conquer the mobile PC market’

30.05.2011, 15:44

Mobile chip specialists ARM hope to make significant moves into the mobile PC market over the next five years, with the company’s president hoping for 50 per cent of the market by 2015.

Cambridge-based ARM is already rumoured to be looking to get its tech used in the next iteration of Apple’s MacBook Air. Something that we expect to hear more about later this summer, when Apple is anticipated to announce a new refresh of its ultra-slim laptop range.

ARM’s president, Tudor Brown, told a gathering of reporters and industry execs at Computex this week that he hopes ARM will soon conquer the mobile PC market, looking to grow what is currently around a 10 per cent share to 50 per cent by 2015, by getting its mobile chips in more and more netbooks and ultraportable PCs.

Takes Intel threat “very seriously”

While Intel looks to make its own moves into the mobile market, ARM has also declared that it will take any plans that Intel may announce to make chips for its customers “very seriously” according to one senior ARM exec.

“It’s important that Intel makes a change in their business model. Intel has never done this before, so we have to take it very seriously,” ARM’s marketing executive VP Ian Drew told Reuters this week.

ARM president Tudor Brown added: “Traditional PC chips only accounted for 6 percent of our whole PC chip shipments of 6 billion units last year.”

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