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Saturday, November 3, 2012

Grab The Latest Technology News Of Today

Staying in touch with all the latest technology news is crucial in the modern society we live in so knowing how you can get the latest stories could prove to be an excellent advantage for anybody. To be able to keep yourself up to date you must come across some reliable technology news sources that can give you timely information. Probably the most well-known news sources for technology news are TV shows, tech magazines and also the world wide web. From each of them it is possible to find out loads of new information and facts, however, many of those sources are much better than others and we'll explain you why, exactly.
You can very well have one or more subscriptions to a variety of relevant publications but the disadvantage is the fact that you only get updated once a month or if this is a weekly subscription once every week. Considering the fast way that modern technology is evolving nowadays, you may be missing out on plenty of action and you will get informed later than the majority of the people around you.
Another option you have is to inform yourself from various TV shows that feature the latest device and so on. This could well be done, but you will have to be in front of the television every time the show is on which means that you'll need to make your schedule around your favorite shows. An alternative is to record them when you don't have time when they're being broadcasted live and to watch all of them at a later time but at that time, you won't be watching the latest technology news at all, you would only be catching up!
The very best source of news however is definitely the internet where news are instantly available for everyone to read. The easiest method to plug yourself in in the juiciest technology news is to find a few blogs that you like and to subscribe to their RSS feed. In this manner, every time a new piece of news is being updated, you receive instant messages in your email inbox. These day there are a lot of blogs with the latest computer technology news which are updated everyday. Make sure you browse around the web to find a few sites you really enjoy reading.

Apple’s iBooks 2 App Struggles Out of the Gate

Early reports suggest that Apple’s iBooks 2 application has been struggling to fix some technical bugs, drawing widespread criticism from users and reviewers. On the company’s App Store website, over 100 reviews give the new application one star – the lowest possible rating – mainly due to a bug that causes the screen to go grey and the app to freeze. Users who have experienced the bug report that they attempted to read and textbook on the application and were quickly met with a grey screen. When they tried to interact with the textbook, they were unable to turn the page or close out of the chapter. When they reopened the app, they were unable to access other books and once again saw nothing but a grey screen. The application could only work again by re-downloading iBooks 2.
While the bug may certainly be a minor and correctable one, it nevertheless reflects an early stumble for Apple in an area where the company cannot afford to fall. The iBooks 2 – along with the iBookstore and iBooks Author – is part of Apple’s broad attempt to revolutionize the education industry. As it announced at a much-heralded event this week in New York, the company aspires to fully embrace digital textbooks by entering into publishing agreements, building publishing software, and providing cheap, virtual books that can be uploaded onto any iPad device. The iBooks 2 application is the interactive iPad program upon which digital textbooks can be read.
Apple’s plan has many strengths: there is a growing digital textbook market, competition in the educational tech world is limited, and the company has already contracted with the three publishing firms that together control most of the elementary market – McGraw-Hill, Pearson, and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Apple also, of course, possesses tremendous resources and a powerful brand name. Yet despite all these positive indicators, early reviews of the company’s objectives have been highly mixed.
Critics note that Apple can only successfully sell digital textbooks to elementary schools by convincing districts to buy hundreds of expensive iPads and then “renewing” the books every year – a proposition that all but the wealthiest schools are unlikely to consider. Furthermore, the company may have even more trouble entering the high school and college textbook markets, where competition is more fierce from both a publishing and a digital retailing perspective. Ultimately, Apple has tied its education success to that of its iPad device. It’s a risky play to make.
So it’s impossible to tell what will happen with Apple’s endeavors in the digital textbook world. All we know at this point is that the company got off on the wrong foot with its iBooks 2 app. But there’s a long road ahead

 Source : http://www.thetechupdate.com/

Microsoft Moves to Include Ghetto-Skipping GPS on Windows Phones

It’s remarkable to recall how utterly impressive consumer-based GPS technology was over a decade ago. Since then, we’ve evolved into a society where our global position can be checked by pulling a smartphone out of our pocket. Indeed, GPS is a standard feature on modern mobile phones. In order for competitors to keep their particular digital map services a step above the rest, they need to get a little creative.
Enter the most recent patent issued to Microsoft – a GPS service that helps people safely navigate around areas with high crime rates. It’s a wonder such a service hasn’t already appeared in the form of a downloadable app, yet even with such obvious markets as tourists, business travelers, and the good old fashioned paranoid public, the “Avoid Ghetto” GPS feature is far from immune from criticism and controversy.
At the forefront of issues taken with this technology is the matter of what crimes, and what amount of what crimes, make a particular area “unsafe.” Since not every crime happens in a bad part of town, and not every crime is one that threatens pedestrians and motorists, such particulars are important. Deeming a particular area “unsafe” for pedestrians and motorists is far from the realm of responsibility for a tech company such as Microsoft.
Critics are adamant that if such technology were to exist, the conclusions must be drawn from dedicated statistical analysis and sociological study. But as CNET points out, the real crime may ultimately be the ulterior motives lurking behind Microsoft’s push to provide the public with this technology. As it turns out, some fine print would seem to suggest that the service would lead people to walk by advertisements most likely to appeal to them based on search data.
Yet the real question is whether or not such an app will prove either to be a mere novelty, measurable benefit to the community, or a detriment to those trying to use it to lead safer lives. If the data and projections Microsoft uses to create the GPS service are outdated and/or unreflective of reality, then it won’t be worth much to people besides as a gag. If the data is sound, then such technology may very well assist people in safely navigating themselves around areas with high crime rates.
But if the technology is unable to match the wits of criminals, we may very well see such a service blow up in the faces of both the creators and the users; nothing would aid would-be muggers more than technology that helps them figure out the exact route pedestrians will take to avoid a specific neighborhood laden with crime.
Regardless, such useful technology is a little late into the game: the crime rate in the U.S. is the lowest it’s been in decades.

source : http://www.thetechupdate.com