Yes, you read that correctly. An out of work electrical engineer with a background in computer science and a particular expertise in open source from Finland built a device which will send out Tweet every time the toilet is flushed. The first reaction to the Twitter feed at @iotoilets may be a chuckle. But the idea behind this and what it illustrates is serious. It tracks water usage, offers a warning about the future of privacy in the era of the Internet of Things, and just might say something about the modern job hunt. Ruecker built his device on a recent…
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It has been over five months since a plugin update broke the Gallery. During those past few months when I had some free time I would try to make the needed updates to restore the gallery to its full functionality. Unfortunately, I did not have much free time so little had been done. I had decided to set aside some time this weekend to update and repair (if needed) all the sites I maintain which included starting to work on fixing the gallery again. Saturday afternoon I logged into the gallery and noticed some plugins (including one of the two gallery…
Earlier this month I went through the process of installing theme and plugin updates for all the WordPress sites I host. I actively try to keep the sites updated as a I learned the hard way the damage and out-of-date plugin can cause. On the old gallery site I was using ZenPhoto which unlike WordPress, is not an easy application to install updates. So I had neglected to update the site for a while. One morning a couple years ago, I get online to find dozens of emails from my Firefox Blog followers (and a couple from my hosting company)…
Over the weekend Microsoft had posted to their Windows Phone YouTube channel a video entitled: A fly on the wall in Cupertino? The video was about the (colorful) upcoming iPhone 5C. Seems the video did not go over well with social media, so Microsoft yanked it of their YouTube channel, but not before someone else had a chance to mirror the video. Microsoft’s response to Cnet about the video “was intended to be a lighthearted poke at our friends from Cupertino. But it was off the mark, and we’ve decided to pull it down.” Not really sure what all the uproar is about. The…
In their first quarter (ending June 30th, 2013) Lenovo sold more tablets and smartphones then they have PCs. However, while revenue from PCs was surpassed by their mobile devices, Lenovo is now the largest PC maker with a 16.7% market share. Lenovo’s biggest source of revenue has been from China. While only 42% of Lenovo’s overall sales are to China, the booming Chinese smartphone market accounts for a staggering 98% of Lenovo’s smartphone sales. While on the subject of smartphones, Lenovo is the 4th largest maker of Smartphones (4.7% of market). Samsung is dominating 1st place with 31.7% of the market followed…
So it looks like Lenovo is taking matters into their own hands with Windows 8 and the lack of a Start Menu. Reports are they have signed a dealer with Pokki developer SweetLabs to preload a software suite which adds a Start Menu to some of their Windows 8 PCs. These include The IdeaPad and IdeaCenter models, and then the Think line of PCs. via Tom’s Hardware
However, it does not do what 99% of the Windows users would expect it to do. Sadly, all it will do is take you to the Start Screen. But wait, there are more exciting and great new ‘features’ coming with Windows 8.1: Turn your tablet or PC into a (pricey) digital picture frame with a slide show lock screen More colors, backgrounds and motion based wallpapers for the Start Screen View all your apps with one swipe and new apps will not be automatically added Change how your corners behave Internet Explorer 11 Global search powered by Bing Updated PC…
Finally some good news about Windows 8. Microsoft has confirmed that the upcoming Windows 8.1 aka Windows Blue which is due for release later this year will be available as a free update (via the Windows Store) to all existing Windows 8 users. This includes Windows 8 desktop/laptop users as well as users of devices running Windows 8 RT (tablets). More information about what is going to be included in this release/update is still forthcoming and a ‘consumer preview’ will be available during Microsoft’s BUILD 2013 conference in San Francisco on June 25th. So it sounds like Microsoft is going to treat Windows…
Richard Doherty, an analyst at tech research firm Envisioneering has compared Microsoft’s Windows 8 to Coca-Cola’s New Coke. For those who were not around in 1985 Coca-Cola launched a new sweeter formula called New Coke to match/compete with Pepsi . It didn’t go over so well with consumers and within 3-months Coca-Cola re-introduced the “old Coke” as Coca-Cola Classic. “This is like New Coke, going on for seven months – only Coke listened better,” he said. via Tom’s Hardware
Back in January Microsoft had announced they had Sold 60 Million Windows 8 Licenses. Again keep in mind that figure is licenses not actual physical copies of Windows 8. Four-months later Microsoft has bumped that number up to 100 Million. Microsoft’s CFO and Chief Marketing Office, Tami Reller: “We recently surpassed the 100 million licenses sold mark for Windows 8. This number includes Windows licenses that ship on a new tablet or PC, as well as upgrades to Windows 8,” Reller said. “This is up from the 60 million license number we provided in January. We’ve also seen the number…