Facebook offers new way to sort friends, copy info

Facebook is trying to make it easier for people to share their updates selectively and draw distinctions between friends, family members and co-workers on the Web's biggest social hub.
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's founder and CEO, unveiled the latest changes Wednesday at a press conference that marked his first public appearance since last Friday's debut of "The Social Network," a movie tracing Facebook's origins and evolution.
The movie depicts Zuckerberg as a misanthropic genius who relied on a combination of talent and treachery to build Facebook into a cultural touchstone since he began working on it in a Harvard University dorm room more than six years ago.
Zuckerberg told reporters Wednesday he wouldn't discuss the critically acclaimed film, which has been a box-office hit so far. He has previously scoffed at the movie as a gross exaggeration and said he didn't intend to see it.
The 26-year-old billionaire was much more excited about Facebook's features, which he said Facebook's engineers had been working on during the past two months while in "lockdown" mode.
The project was aimed at making it easier to sort Facebook friendships into separate clusters, such as college chums, drinking buddies, co-workers, neighbors and family. That, in turn, is intended to make people more comfortable about posting observations and pictures for which they only want a limited audience.
Facebook already offers a way to do this through a "lists" feature. But only about 5 percent of Facebook's more than 500 million users take the time to use this tool to carve up their friendships.

Microsoft Confirms Oct. 11 Launch of Windows Phone 7

Microsoft will launch its latest mobile phone operating system, Windows Phone 7, in New York on October 11, according to a posting on its website.
The event invitation says the operating system will be unveiled next Monday at 3pm in the New York City Microsoft Technology Center.
Windows Phone 7 is an attempt by Microsoft to regain ground in the mobile phone sector. Apple's iPhone, Research In Motion's BlackBerry and Google's Android have all taken market share from Microsoft mobile OSs over the past few years.
Another looming event of interest is a press conference this Thursday evening, Oct. 7, in Taipei. Taiwanese smartphone developer HTC is hosting the event and has been quiet about its content. HTC has been a longtime Microsoft partner, working diligently on the Windows Mobile OS when other smartphone makers eschewed the software. HTC also launched the first-ever smartphone with Google's Android mobile OS on board a few years ago, the G1.
An HTC spokesperson declined to comment on the press event.

Following film and TV, music takes stab at 3-D

At the beginning of the re-emergence of 3-D, the focus was on film, with movies like "Avatar" paving the way for the technology to become an integral part of the cinema experience.
Soon TV followed, with sporting events like the World Cup featured in 3-D, and companies such as Sony and Samsung rolling out 3-D televisions.
Now, the music world is making sure it isn't left behind in the 3-D revolution. Justin Bieber and the Black Eyed Peas are planning to release 3-D movie-concerts, while the music video for Shakira's World Cup anthem, "Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)," had a version in 3-D. Even acts like Sia and the Broken Bells are producing 3-D clips.
"It's not the '80s 3-D, like, the way people think of 3-D. It changes the art form of storytelling. It's pretty amazing. It's a whole new freaking jump-off," said the Peas' leader will.i.am.
Oscar-winning director James Cameron, whose groundbreaking "Avatar" has become the top-grossing movie in history, says 3-D's spillover to music will find success.
"Music videos in 3-D, it's natural, that's great," he said.
Cameron's production company, Pace, will produce the Peas' upcoming project. Will.i.am says 3-D music content will alter the way we watch music videos and concerts - and record labels have taken note.
JeanBaptise Duprieu, senior director at Sony Music International, says the company will "produce a lot of 3-D content this year."
Duprieu says when he presented Shakira's "Waka Waka" video to Sony staffers, they felt a sense of closeness to the Latin sensation.
"The reaction was, 'Wow, we feel so much closer to the artist ... and really immersed (in) what's going on,'" Duprieu recalled. "So I think generally the impression is a better connection and a more sort of real vibrance going on."
The Peas performed a 3-D concert in New York's Times Square in March while rap-rock trio N.E.R.D did so last month. And other musicians like Miley Cyrus, the Jonas Brothers and Kenny Chesney have released 3-D concerts. International singers Kylie Minogue and Sia have also filmed some of their recent live shows in 3-D. Veteran rockers U2 did so in 2006 on their "Vertigo" tour.

Toshiba unveils glasses-free 3-D TV

Toshiba Corp. believes it has a solution for television viewers who like 3-D but hate the glasses.
The Tokyo-based company on Monday unveiled the world's first high definition liquid crystal display 3-D television that does not require special glasses — one of the biggest consumer complaints about the technology.
Toshiba describes the TVs as being for "personal use." Whether consumers embrace the new TVs remains to be seen. Many might be put off by the fact they'll have to be very close to the screen for the 3-D effect to really work not to mention the steep price tag.
Electronics and entertainment companies around the world are banking on 3-D to fuel a new boom in TV, movies and games. Most 3-D TVs on the market today rely on glasses to rapidly deliver separate images to each eye, which creates a sense of three-dimensional depth.
In its new TVs, Toshiba uses a "perpendicular lenticular sheet," which consists of an array of small lenses that directs light from the display to nine points in front of the TV. If a viewer is sitting within the optimal viewing zone, the brain integrates these points into a single 3-D image.
"The result is precise rendering of high quality 3-D images whatever the viewing angle within the viewing zone," Toshiba said in its release.
The system is similar to what's used in Nintendo's 3DS, the company's highly anticipated handheld device that features glasses-free 3-D gaming.
Toshiba will offer two sizes — 12 inches and 20 inches — designed for personal use. The technology isn't advanced enough yet to integrate into larger screens. Suggested viewing distance for the 20-inch model is 90 centimeters (35.4 inches) and 65 centimeters (25.6 inches) for the 12-inch size.
The TVs will go on sale in Japan in late December, Toshiba said. They smaller version will cost about 120,000 yen ($1,400), and the larger one will be double the price.
The company did not release details on overseas availability.

Jailbreak Could Boost Apple TV's Wow Factor

The Apple  Dev Team has proven that the Apple TV, just out of the starting gate, can indeed be jailbroken.

Generally, jailbreaking a device means developers can gain the necessary root access to develop their own apps or customizations. This particular jailbreak, via the SHAtter exploit that was first used on the iPod touch 4G, is not ready for prime time, according to the developers.
It will take more iterations and development work before consumers can being installing third-party apps on Apple TV, Rob Walch, host of Today in iPhone, told MacNewsWorld. "Right now, this is a story of 'dog catches car.' Now that he has it, what does he do next?"
That said, it is not surprising the jailbreak succeeded so quickly. The new Apple TV box runs a full version of iOS, noted Walch, which is vulnerable to the SHATtter exploit. The tool the Dev Team built for SHAtter -- Pwnage -- apparently can trick Apple TV into removing its firmware image and allowing a jailbroken image to be installed.

Jailbreakers Lead, Apple Follows

One way or another apps will be coming to Apple TV, Walch predicted. Either developers will learn how to install them via the jailbreak or Apple will allow consumers to use them on the device, or both.
It's noteworthy that iOS 4.0 contained many of the most-desirable features that users were able to add after jailbreaking 3.0, such as the customization of background images and themes, and the ability to share the iPhone screen with a Mac computer.
"I think Apple is going to allow people to run certain niche apps, like ABC or Hulu," Walch predicted.
One problem could be the interface -- Apple TV doesn't have a touchscreen, and a remote is not sufficient for what would be required. However Apple TV specs do include Bluetooth, Walch pointed out, which would support Apple's multitouch Magic Trackpad.

Google TV

Much of Apple's thinking will be influenced by what Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) does with Google TV, Walch suggested. "The hardware Apple has put in there will allow them to make a wide variety of responses to Google TV, depending on the features they release."
If competition really steps up -- either from ambitious third-party developers or Google TV -- Apple TV could become a very robust unit at only US$99, he said.
The best-case scenario -- from the perspective of the consumer, at least -- is bound to unfold, said Laura DiDio, principal of ITIC.
"Consumers are hungry for apps on a variety of Apple platforms," she told MacNewsWorld, and they don't want to wait for Apple to come through." 

Windows Live Essentials Jumps Out of the Beta Crib

Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) has taken Windows Live Essentials 2011 out of beta, and the online suite is now available for download.

The suite works only on Windows 7 and Vista; it is not available on Windows XP.
Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) will be the first global PC manufacturer to ship PCs with Windows Live Essentials 2011 and Windows 7 pre-installed, according to Chris Jones, vice president of Windows Live engineering.
Many other PC manufacturers are planning to make the suite available, Jones said.

The Lowdown

The Windows Live Essentials 2011 suite was designed from the ground up for Windows 7, Jones wrote on the Windows Team Blog. Users can pin their applications to the taskbar and use jump lists to get to common tasks quickly. The ribbon brings common tasks to the front, letting users filter photos, change their fonts or publish to their favorite services in a single click.
Applications provided in the suite include Windows Messenger, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Mail, Writer, Family Safety, Windows Live Mesh, Microsoft Outlook Hotmail Connector and Outlook Social Connector Provider for Messenger.
Microsoft updated Messenger, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Office Web Apps and Hotmail for the new suite.
Messenger incorporates feeds, photos and updates from social networking services. It also lets users chat face to face in high definition using a webcam; launch photo slide shows; and watch online videos. Further, it aggregates the latest updates from users' social services, among other things.
Windows Live Photo Gallery now lets users share photos on sites including Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and Microsoft's SkyDrive. It includes photo editing tools and lets users import photos and videos from their cameras or mobile phones.
Updates to Hotmail include integration with Facebook chat, an increase in email attachment size to 25 MB, and subfolders for better email management.
Windows Live Mesh was originally named "Windows Live Sync." It lets users access and synchronize documents, files and photos between PCs and between PCs and Macs. In addition to renaming the service, Microsoft has increased the amount of free cloud storage space offered with this feature from 2 GB to 5 GB. Live Mesh will sync hidden files as well as regular files, and it will list which files are missing from a synced folder.
"Live Mesh is one of Microsoft's strongest cloud offerings, and by itself, it's likely Microsoft's most valuable feature in this suite," Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group, remarked. "It's vastly better than what Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) or Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) currently offer."

More on Live Essentials 2011

Movie Maker lets users create movies using their photos and videos, adding special effects, transitions, sound and captions. Windows Live Mail lets users access email, calendars and contacts even when they're offline.
The Writer feature lets users publish their blog posts to various blog service providers, including Microsoft partner WordPress, Google's Blogger and LiveJournal. They can add photos, videos and Bing maps to their blog posts.
Microsoft rolled out the Windows Live Essentials 2011 beta on June 24.

Will Neglecting XP Users Hurt?

There's a huge installed base of Windows XP users both in the consumer and enterprise arenas, so isn't Microsoft shooting itself in the foot by ignoring them and focusing on Windows 7 and Vista?
"Given the growing popularity of Windows 7, we made the decision to invest our resources in building the latest version of Windows Live Essentials to enhance the Windows 7 experience," Dharmesh Mehta, director of product management for Windows Live, told TechNewsWorld.
"The newest generation of Windows Live Essentials includes innovative technology that builds on the latest operating systems, including HD video file formats, security and networking improvements and other capabilities that aren't supported on older operating systems," Mehta added.
Windows Live Essentials 2011 is free, and Microsoft does not have any plans to charge customers for these apps at this time, Mehta said.
"Windows XP is approaching its 10th year anniversary, and it's three versions of the operating system back," Enderle told TechNewsWorld. "Giving free stuff to people who aren't buying from you is not likely to be a good economic model. The goal here is to drive revenue, and supporting obsolete platforms just drives up cost," he added.
"Despite the business market's not upgrading to the next generation of Windows as quickly as Microsoft would like, consumer PCs start selling on Day One with the next-generation operating system," Jim McGregor, chief technology strategist at In-Stat, told TechNewsWorld. "I can understand Microsoft's putting the suite on Windows 7 and Vista."

Gunning for the Mobile World

Windows Live Essentials 2011 targets handsets and other mobile devices, In-Stat's McGregor said
"This is a rough attempt by Microsoft to try and create a similar experience on the PC to what you have on smartphones and, possibly, feature phones," In-Stat's McGregor said. "The PC doesn't have the experience that the mobile devices do."
However, Microsoft will need to do more if it is to succeed in this area.
"It's not going to happen any time soon unless Microsoft throws away its operating systems," McGregor explained. "Nobody gives a damn about the PC anymore because they can do stuff on their handset and do it a lot easier. We need to change the software model, the business model, and the interface model for the PC to bring it more in line with what we get from mobile devices." 

Google acquires mobile-typing company

Google has acquired a start-up called BlindType that aims to dramatically improve typing on Android and iOS mobile devices.
"We're excited to join Google, and look forward to the great opportunities for mobile innovation that lie ahead," BlindType announced on its blog Friday. The company hasn't released the software, though one review in July was favorable.
Mobile-device typing has changed significantly with the iPhone's functional touch-screen keyboard, Android's reasonably advanced word-prediction system, and Swype's technology for sliding fingers over letters. But as any touch typist or hunt-and-peck tapper knows, mobile typing is still often a frustrating, typo-prone experience.
BlindType believes it's got a better method for matching the letters people actually typed with the ones they meant to type. "BlindType is a revolutionary system that...allows for super sloppy typing largely without looking at the screen...[It] constantly adjusts to the user's 'perceived' keyboard and typing style."
The company's YouTube demos can be impressive, though unlike Android's predictive system, it appears BlindType can only match the word once it's fully typed--changing "vskjieyh" into "ballpark" and "vqsyrudik" into "beautiful," for example, but only after all the letters were typed.
According to BlindType's FAQ, the technology works with any language. The technology could make for a good combination with Google's extensive and international data for automatic spelling corrections culled from its search engine.