Apple apologizes for Baby Shaker

Apple issued a statement Thursday apologizing for allowing the Baby Shaker application onto the App Store. Just hours before the App Store offers up its 1 billionth download, Apple was forced to acknowledge that perhaps the most notorious iPhone application ever constructed was "deeply offensive" and a "mistake."

Baby Shaker appeared on the App Store Monday, and was pulled Wednesday after a media frenzy grew following the discovery of the application by the founder of a shaken baby syndrome foundation.

Apple’s statement follows in its entirety:

"This application was deeply offensive and should not have been approved for distribution on the App Store. When we learned of this mistake, the app was removed immediately. We sincerely apologize for this mistake and thank our customers for bringing this to our attention."

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Next Version of Microsoft Office Coming in 2010

Microsoft Corp.’s next version of its Office desktop programs will reach consumers next year, though not likely in conjunction with the Windows 7 operating system.

Microsoft is set to announce Wednesday that Office 2010 will be finished and ready to send to manufacturers in the first half of next year.
From there, it can take six weeks to four months or more for the programs to reach PC users, said Chris Capossela, a senior vice president in the Microsoft group that makes Office. The timing will differ for big businesses and individual consumers, and for people who buy packaged software versus those who download it.
Some industry watchers had expected a new version of Office this year, but Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer extinguished that rumor at a meeting with analysts in February.
Capossela declined to be more specific about a launch date. Windows 7, the successor to Windows Vista, is scheduled to reach consumers by the end of January 2010.
Office 2010 – previously known by the code name "Office 14" – will include slimmed-down versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote that let people create and edit documents in a Web browser. Consumers will have access to a free, ad-supported version, and Capossela said the company is still hammering out what to charge businesses that want a version without ads.
Microsoft plans to let hundreds of thousands of people test a technical preview of the new Office portfolio starting in the third quarter of 2009, Capossela said. The company did not say whether average PC users will have a chance to test a more polished beta version.
Microsoft also said a new version of its Exchange e-mail server will be available for purchase in the second half of 2009. When paired with the next version of Microsoft’s Outlook e-mail program, Exchange 2010 aims to prevent e-mail faux pas and would warn people against trying to "reply all" to a huge distribution list. Microsoft said it can also be tweaked to stop people from sending e-mail outside the organization, helping businesses cut down on unnecessary e-mail and prevent leaks.
A beta version of Exchange 2010 was to be made available on Wednesday.

Samsung Syncmaster 2033SW LCD Monitor

We have reviewed quite a few Samsung TVs already this year, so I think it’s time we shift focus to the more personal, more engaging product segment which is PC monitors. Samsung has a respectable name here too, and today we have something they term as ‘hot’ on their website! The model is Samsung Syncmaster 2033SW and it’s a 21.5 inch LCD monitor…

Design
The unit has all the bearings of a typical Samsung design released in the past 3 years. The bezel is their regular high piano gloss finish, with a shiny surface going all the way down to the oval stand. The monitor is pretty light, weighing in at 4.45 kg. The back panel is fancier than the front. We have little flowers etched out, or rather magnified snowflake patterns all around. Why have they done this, I have no clue, as designs should be where the eye can see them, not at the back of a screen.
The bottom panel has the Samsung logo printed in the center, with a thick transparent hard plastic strip accenting on the bottom edge. This edge is curved too, and the center houses a thin blue LED strip that lights up when the power is on. All in all this section looks good, and reminds the user  of the older TV models. They have this same design.

The build quality is overall pretty sturdy, there are no loose corners or weak joints. There is one thing I want to make a complaint about: the stand, at least in our package, did not come attached, and this model has a weird ball and socket style joint between screen and stand. Once fixed it is sturdy, though fixing it can be a pain as it is not well illustrated in the manual, and it takes a bit of trial and error. Also, the joint allows the screen to rotate on one single vertical axis (up to down), and not left to right which can sometimes be required in LCD monitors. In the package we get a CD with essential stuff like a user manual and drivers, plus Samsung has thrown in a nice soft blue cloth to the clean the unit. Overall the monitor is quite no frills, and that is a good thing as USB ports, speakers etc. are not really what make a good monitor.

Features and specs
This monitor is a 16:9 screen measuring 21.5 inches. The resolution is 1600:900, and the brightness is 300 cd/m2. Contrast is rated at 15,000:1 dynamic and 1000:1 native. Response time is at 5 ms (gray to gray). They have a name now for this feature, Samsung calls it Magicspeed. The features of the monitor are expectedly numerous, as is typical to the brand. There is proprietary stuff thrown in like Magicbright and Color effect, which actually is nothing but a set of presets, which we will go over in the performance section. Lastly the viewing angle is 170 degrees. Samsung has not mentioned it anywhere, but we are assuming that this monitor is a TN panel, as the viewing angles are not that hot when actually looked at from the side, and the cost is less. Samsung does state 16.7 million colors which would be 256x256x256 steps in the Red, green and blue parts of the pixel. 256 would then obviously mean 2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2 (8-bit). It is a fact that general TN panels are generally only true 6 bit, not 8 bit, meaning that the pixels cannot actually have 256 different levels of gray… but brands use something called frame rate control or FRC to dither their way into 8 bit color. Thus we are also assuming that the panel is an 8 bit one, albeit enhanced 8 bit. I wish Samsung and all brands provided this info directly to customer, so there are no assumptions to be made.

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Vista and Windows 7 more secure than Linux and Mac OS X

Operating system security is always a hotly contended subject, and last week Microsoft amped up the hype by claiming that Windows Vista and the soon-to-be-released 7 is the world’s most secure OS, beating both Linux and Mac OS X.

Here’s what Microsoft’s chief operating officer Kevin Turner had to say at the MidMarket CIO Summit last week:

Vista today, post-Service Pack 2, which is now in the marketplace, is the safest, most reliable OS we’ve ever built. It’s also the most secure OS on the planet, including Linux and open source and Apple Leopard. It’s the safest and most secure OS on the planet today. Everything that we’ve learned in Vista will be leveraged in Windows 7, but certainly when we broke a lot of the compatibility issues to lock down user account controls, to lock down the ability to manipulate states and all the things, that was a very painful process for us to grow through, but we had to do it. And the reason that Windows 7 will be successful is because of the pain we took on Vista. Because from a compatibility standpoint, if it works on Vista, it will work on Windows 7. If it doesn’t work on Vista, it won’t work on Windows 7.

Source: zdnet

Bluetooth Takes a Step in Speed With v3.0 Announced

From its annual All Hands Meeting in Tokyo this week, the Bluetooth SIG formally adopted Bluetooth Core Specification Version 3.0 High Speed (HS), or Bluetooth 3.0. This latest iteration of the popular short-range wireless technology fulfills the consumers’ need for speed while providing the same wireless Bluetooth experience – only faster. Manufacturers of consumer electronics and home entertainment devices can now build their products to send large amounts of video, music and photos between devices wirelessly at higher speeds.

Bluetooth 3.0 gets its speed from the 802.11 radio protocol. The inclusion of the 802.11 Protocol Adaptation Layer (PAL) provides increased throughput of data transfers at the approximate rate of 24 Mbps. In addition, mobile devices including Bluetooth 3.0 will realize increased power savings due to enhanced power control built in.
"Like Ricky Bobby in Talladega Nights, this latest version was ‘born to go fast,’ said Michael Foley, Ph.D., executive director of the Bluetooth SIG." Utilizing the 802.11 radio was a natural choice as it provides efficiencies for both our members and consumers – members get more function out of the two radios they are already including in devices, and consumers with Bluetooth v3.0 HS products will get faster exchange of information without changing how they connect. We are excited to expand the possibilities of the PAN.”

This newest version of Bluetooth technology builds on the inherent qualities of the current 2.1 EDR version, including Simple Secure Pairing and built-in, automatic security. And as with all versions of the Bluetooth specification, Bluetooth 3.0 HS provides developers, manufacturers and consumers with the benefit of backwards compatibility, enabling both the expansion and enhancement of this technology with every new specification release. Once products reach the market, the easiest way for consumers to learn which devices are compatible with other Bluetooth enabled devices is to visit the Bluetooth Gadget Guide.
Some applications consumers will experience include:

• Wirelessly bulk synchronize music libraries between PC and music player or phone
• Bulk download photos to a printer or PC
• end video files from camera or phone to computer or television

The Bluetooth SIG’s formal adoption of the specification is only the first step in the product lifecycle. News out today from wireless chip manufacturers and Bluetooth SIG member companies Atheros, Broadcom, CSR, and Marvell shows the second step – getting silicon solutions to device manufacturers – is already underway. End products for consumers are expected to be in the market in 9 to 12 months.
For more information click here.