Upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for $39.99

We set out to make it as easy as possible for everyone to upgrade to Windows 8. Starting at general availability, if your PC is running Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7 you will qualify to download an upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for just $39.99 in 131 markets. And if you want, you can add Windows Media Center for free through the “add features” option within Windows 8 Pro after your upgrade.

When you use Windows.com to purchase an upgrade to Windows 8 Pro, the Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant makes upgrading simple by walking you through the upgrade process step-by-step from purchase to download and then of course installation.

The Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant will check to make sure your PC is ready for Windows 8. It will provide a detailed compatibility report that lets you know of anything you may have to address before or after the upgrade and outlines actions to take.

It will also inform you of any application or device compatibility issues. It will ask you what you want to keep from your current Windows installation. You will be able to upgrade from any consumer edition of Windows 7 to Windows 8 Pro and bring everything along which includes your Windows settings, personal files, and apps. If you are upgrading from Windows Vista, you will be able to bring along your Windows settings and personal files, and if you are upgrading from Windows XP you will only be able to bring along your personal files. Of course, if you want to start fresh, you can choose to bring nothing along. Or if you prefer to format your hard drive as part of your upgrade experience, you can do so as long as you boot from media and then format your hard drive from within the setup experience for installing Windows 8, not prior to it.

Once you purchase your upgrade, the Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant kicks off your download. It has a built-in download manager that allows you to pause and continue your download at any time as well as a check to ensure your download completes successfully.

After your download finishes, you can choose to proceed with the upgrade (“Install now”) or install later either from your desktop or by creating your own media. If you choose to create your own media, you will be able to create your own bootable USB or .ISO file which can be burned onto a DVD for upgrade and backup purposes. If you prefer, you also have the option of purchasing a backup DVD for $15 plus shipping and handling.

We believe that your upgrade experience in Windows 8 will be a breeze by offering a faster experience, a single upgrade path, and compatibility from prior versions of Windows. We’ve continued to listen to our customers and have expanded the ability to download to over 100 countries and 37 languages. We have simplified the Windows upgrade experience with the Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant which supports you during your upgrade with everything from selecting your language to pausing your download to built-in compatibility checks - it’s seamless. And if you’re an enthusiast you will have the flexibility to download and control how you upgrade.

If you prefer to shop at a local store, a packaged DVD version of the upgrade to Windows 8 Pro will be available for $69.99 during this promotion.

This upgrade promotion for Windows 8 Pro both online and at retail runs through January 31^st, 2013.

We wanted to share information about this upgrade promotion with you as we continue to drive toward the RTM milestone for Windows 8. We will of course have more to say and more details to provide closer to general availability.

Oh, and by the way - if you’re not upgrading from a prior version of Windows and are building your own PC or installing Windows 8 in a virtual machine or a separate partition, you will be able to purchase and install the Windows 8 and Windows 8 Pro System Builder product.

LiveJournal Tags: Upgrade,Announcement,Windows Media Center,Windows 8,Windows 8 Pro,Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant,System Builder,Windows.com,Upgrade Assistant,Media Center

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Android Phones Take a Power Trip

You know the old techie joke, right? If you don’t like the Android phones on the market, just wait a minute.

 

 

Pogue's Posts

 

There are dozens of Android phones, and newer, better ones appear every few months. Google subscribes to the Microsoft Windows scheme: write the software, and let other companies build the phones.

The result is a lot of choice, but also a lot of fragmentation. There is no one Android phone. Some models can be updated to new Android software, some can’t. A certain app might or might not run on your particular version.

That master plan differs quite a bit from the iPhone’s.

Apple designs “the whole widget,” as Steve Jobs used to say: both the software and the phone. The result is clean, reliable and consistent — but you’re limited to the features Apple wants to give you. For example, if you want a 4G phone (one that runs on the new, very fast Internet networks in big cities), you’re out of luck.

And a new iPhone, accompanied by a major software release, comes out only once a year, or less often. In any case, there’s a lot of news in Androidland. The three biggest players are Samsung, Motorola and HTC, and all three are offering beautiful marquee Android phones. All three are Verizon 4G phones.

These phones are whopping big; that’s the trend these days. You can almost fit an entire iPhone in just the screen area of these Android monsters. Big is great for maps, movies, photos and Web sites — less so for holding up to your ear on a call.

All three phones have front and back cameras, Wi-Fi, GPS and Bluetooth. Each can serve as a portable Wi-Fi hot spot for your laptop, for an added monthly fee. On the other hand, they come preinstalled with Verizon promotional apps that you can hide, but can’t remove.

The HTC Rezound ($200 with two-year contract) comes with a pair of Dr. Dre Beats in-ear headphones. Those, plus matching software, give music playback extra clarity and bass.

This thickish phone was the first in the United States with a true high-definition screen (1280 by 720 pixels, 4.3 inches) — sharper than even the iPhone’s Retina screen. Even the front-facing camera can film 720p high-def video, which is a rarity. The rest of the specs are the usual on high-end phones these days: 8-megapixel rear camera, 10 gigabytes of built-in storage for your apps and a memory-card slot if you need more room (a 16-gigabyte card comes with the phone).

Then there’s the expansive Motorola Droid Razr Maxx ($300), whose claim to fame is its beefy battery. This may be the first 4G phone that gets you through a full day, or even longer, on a single charge. Yet it’s still as thin as an iPhone. The non-Maxx Droid Razr is nearly identical — but it’s even thinner and its battery doesn’t last nearly as long. The screen isn’t hi-def (960 by 540 pixels), but the storage is ample: 11.5 gigabytes inside, plus a 16-gig memory card.

Motorola continues to think outside the hardware and software boxes: you can buy a 10- or 14-inch laptop to accompany this phone, which becomes the brain and the storage when you connect it. And the Smart Actions app is pure brilliance: it lets you set up battery-saving rules like “dim the screen when the battery gets low” or “turn off GPS if I forget to plug you in at nighttime.” You can also set up convenience rules like “set the ringer to vibrate after 10 p.m.,” or “display my kids’ photo as the wallpaper whenever I’m at home.” It’s pretty wonderful.

But the Samsung Galaxy Nexus ($300) might be the most interesting phone. Not because of the phone itself, although it’s fine: 32 gigabytes of storage (no card slot), fast processor, removable battery, 1280 x 720-pixel hi-def screen, so-so 5-megapixel camera.

(Confusion alert: Google sells a different phone also called the Nexus. Apparently, any phone can be called Nexus if it offers “the pure Google experience”— no tweaks or overlays like the ones that Motorola and HTC have put onto Android. How bizarre, then, that the Nexus doesn’t work with Google Wallet, Google’s own swipe-to-pay app.)

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Apple supplier Foxconn's website hacked

 

Apple's controversial Chinese supplier Foxconn was battling on Thursday to contain a security breach after hackers joined the mounting protest.

WASHINGTON: Apple's controversial Chinese supplier Foxconn was battling on Thursday to contain a security breach after hackers joined the mounting protest over iPhone factory conditions by leaking the login details of its entire staff.
A group calling itself Swagg Security taunted Terry Gou, the chief executive of Foxconn's parent company Hon Hai Industries, by posting his username and password along with a mass of other sensitive information on the PirateBay and Pastebin websites.
According to The Guardian, the hack, publicized in a series of Twitter alerts, came as campaigners delivered petitions demanding an ethically made iPhone 5 - the new model is expected later this year - at Apple stores in London, New York, San Francisco, Sydney and Bangalore.
The controversy could also marr the release of Apple's iPad 3, now expected in March.
More than 250,000 people have signed two petitions, organised by campaign platforms SumOfUs and Change.org.

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RIM: BlackBerry OS 10 to rival iOS, Android

 

RIm said, "The new operating system could be RIM's answer to other OS software like Windows Phone, Android, iOS and Samsung's Bada."

NEW DELHI: Facing competition from smartphone-makers like Samsung and Nokia, BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion (RIM) has chalked out an aggressive plan for India where it will be increasing its footprint to 160 cities, besides launching new devices and the latest Operation System 10 soon.
The BlackBerry maker has a presence in 80 cities in the country now and is keen to tap the burgeoning demand for smartphones here. "In terms of expansion, we would like to strengthen our existing presence. As far as new cities are concerned we would like to double our presence this year and go to every city which has a demand for smartphones," RIM India Head Sunil Dutt said.
He, however, declined to comment on investment details. RIM started its operations in India in 2004 and has a presence in over 80 cities across more than 4,000 retail points of presence. It has three national distributors - Redington India, Brightpoint India and Ingram Inc.
Its portfolio in India includes the Curve, Bold and Torch series. The company also sells CDMA smartphones like BlackBerry Tour 9630, BlackBerry Curve 8530, BlackBerry Style 9670 and BlackBerry Curve 9350.
RIM shipped about 14.1 million BlackBerry smartphones and approximately 150,000 BlackBerry PlayBook tablets in Q3 FY12.
During the same period, its subscriber base grew to nearly 75 million, up 35% year-over-year. RIM does not provide country-specific details.
Talking about its latest operating system, Dutt said, "The OS 10 would be available from the second half of 2012." The new operating system could be RIM's answer to other OS software like Windows Phone, Android, iOS and Samsung's Bada.
Asked if the company would look at setting up a manufacturing base in India, he said the company is open to the idea but "it would depend on the demand".
The former Samsung India leader, who joined RIM from HP India, is also excited about the BlackBerry brand.
"BlackBerry devices continue to be popular, especially the BlackBerry Messenger service. We would continue to bring out newer devices. The broad areas of focus are innovation, building brand association, effective go-to market channels and customer satisfaction," Dutt said. He said the company is also upbeat on its applications store.

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Apple now worth more than Google, Microsoft combined

LONDON: Tech giant Apple's market capitalization is now bigger than the values of Google and Microsoft combined.
The iPhone maker's market cap is around 462 billion dollars as of mid-Friday.

Tech giant Apple's market capitalization is now bigger than the values of Google and Microsoft combined.

Microsoft's is about 257 billion dollars and Google's weighs in at about 197 billion dollars, The Washington Post reports.
According to the paper, tech bloggers have been coming up with all kinds of statistics to put Apple's market cap in context.
Fortune's Philip Elmer-Dewitt pointed out that Apple's now worth more than the gross domestic product of Sweden, which is 458 billion dollars.
According to earlier reports, Apple's revenue figures revealed that its iPhone business alone has become bigger than the whole of Microsoft.
The tech giant's popular smartphone division generated 24.4 billion dollars of revenue in the quarter up until December, whereas the whole of Microsoft generated 20.9 billion dollars in the same quarter.

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Microsoft's India store hacked, usernames & passwords stolen

NEW DELHI: Hackers, allegedly belonging to a Chinese group called Evil Shadow Team, struck at www.microsoftstore.co.in on Sunday night, stealing login ids and passwords of people who had used the website for shopping Microsoft products.
While it is troublesome that hackers were able to breach security at a website owned by one of the biggest IT companies in the world, it is more alarming that user details - login ids and passwords - were reportedly stored in plain text file, without any encryption.
Following the hack, the members of Evil Shadow Team, posted a message on the Microsoft website saying "unsafe system will be baptized". The story was first reported by www.wpsauce.com.

Later, the website seemed to have been taken offline by Microsoft. We advise the users at Microsoft India Store to change the password as soon the website comes online. Also, if they have used the same password or login id on any other web service, they should change it immediately.
Last year, hacker groups like Lulzsec had carried out several-profile high profile break-ins, putting focus on the security measures companies put in place. Sony allegedly suffered several security breaches and hackers stole user ids and passwords of customers from its network.
In a message posted on a website called Pastebin, Lulzsec claimed the group was bringing attention to the web security. "Do you think every hacker announces everything they've hacked? We certainly haven't, and we're damn sure others are playing the silent game. Do you feel safe with your Facebook accounts, your Google Mail accounts, your Skype accounts? What makes you think a hacker isn't silently sitting inside all of these right now," the group wrote.
But the incident at Microsoft Store on Sunday hints that lessons have not been learnt. Just like Sony, which later revealed that user ids and passwords were not encrypted at the time of security breach, Microsoft too seemed to have been casual about handling the user details by storing them in a plain text file.

Commenting on the security breach, a Microsoft spokesperson said, "Microsoft is investigating a limited compromise of the company's online store in India. The store customers have already been sent guidance on the issue and suggested immediate actions. We are diligently working to remedy the issue and keep our customers protected."

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1 of every 3 phones shipped worldwide now is a smartphone

 

Sales of computers and TVs may be hurting, but smartphones keep the tech economy chugging along: Worldwide, the smartphone market grew 54.7 percent year over year in the fourth quarter of 2011, and 1 out of every 3 mobile phones shipped worldwide was a smartphone, says IDC Research.

"The launch of Apple's iPhone 4S played a key role in smartphone growth to capture pent-up demand, and smartphone launches from other vendors also provided a broad selection to meet varying preferences and budgets," said Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst with IDC's Mobile Phone Technology and Trends team, in a release.

While the iPhone 4S was certainly the leading smartphone in the U.S., it also helped spur sales worldwide, along with high-profile Android phones, including various iterations of Samsung's Galaxy phones.

Still, "a growing number of sub-$250 device offerings, based on the Android operating system, have allowed Google's hardware partners to grow smartphone volumes and expand the market concurrently," said Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst with IDC's Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker program.

Here's a snapshot of how each brand (aka "vendor") did in the fourth quarter of 2011:

• Apple "climbed back into the market leadership position with the launch of its iPhone 4S worldwide, and in the process it reached a new shipment volume record for itself and for the entire industry for a single quarter. Although the iPhone 4S disappointed some detractors by lacking 4G LTE connectivity or a different size screen, demand was high for the device. In addition, the combination of holiday seasonality, the delay in product launch from 3Q to 4Q, and the addition of multiple mobile operators helped drive volumes higher."
• Samsung hit some new milestones in the quarter, "breaking the 30 million units mark for the first time, posting the largest year-over-year increase among the top vendors, and finishing 2011 as the overall smartphone market leader." In addition to itse Galaxy line, IDC said, Samsung "updated its Omnia and Focus smartphones with Windows Phone Mango." (Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal.)
• Nokia had the "largest year-over-year decrease among the top vendors, but its smartphone strategy took another step forward with the release of its first Windows Phone smartphones, the Lumia 710 and the Lumia 800."
• Research In Motion "finished the quarter with a mixed bag of results." The company's phones with its new BlackBerry OS 7 on them "staved off a fourth consecutive quarter of sequential decline. Still, overshadowing these results was the global network outage in October, followed by announcements that its first BB 10-powered smartphones will not arrive to market until late 2012."
• HTC kept up a "strong pace of device releases during the quarter, with the launch of the Windows Phone-powered Titan and Radar models, the Beats-influenced Rezound, and the LTE-enabled Vivid in addition to multiple other Android-powered smartphones." Despite lots of "high-profile launches" in the fourth quarter, HTC "still shipped lower volumes compared to the previous quarter."

Overall, the worldwide smartphone market grew 54.7 percent year over year in the last quarter, IDC said. Vendors shipped 157.8 million smartphones, compared to 102 million in the last quarter of 2010. While that growth didn't match 2010's year-over-year spurt of 75.7 percent, IDC "still fully expects continued double-digit growth for the foreseeable future."

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Calibrate your computer's monitor for the best picture

How can you make sure you're getting the best picture on your computer monitor? There are a couple of ways you can go about this, depending on how serious you are about color calibration. If you're an average computer user and just want your colors to match up approximately, there's an easy way to go about this. If you do any photo or video editing, you may need to drop some cash into this process, but we'll get to that in a moment. Let's start with the basics.

 

Familiarize yourself with your display's controls
Before you begin, make sure your display has been on for at least a half-hour (so it's properly warmed up) and is set to its native screen resolution. Even if you use it at a different resolution (and we can't imagine why), set it back to its native resolution while you calibrate it. Then, make sure you know your way around the controls for your display. This shouldn't be difficult to do — just take a look at the front of the panel. You'll likely see buttons near the power button to do things like switch inputs and open and navigate the on-screen options menu. These menus vary across display manufacturers, so there's no one way to open these menus and navigate them, but you want to find your color, contrast and brightness controls. Once you find them, you're ready to get started.

 

The quick and dirty method: Use the built-in calibration tool
First, reset your display to its default values. Even if you're played with the on-screen controls in the past, you don't want any errors of the past to change how you use your monitor today. Use the on-screen menus to reset the display to the manufacturer's defaults. Then you can use your computer's built-in calibration tool to tweak the display to your liking.

Mac OS and Windows both have built-in display calibration utilities that walk you through a series of steps to build and save a calibration profile. In Windows, the display calibration tool is in the Display Control Panel, and in Mac OS, if you open the Display System Preferences and click the Color tab, you'll see the button to calibrate. The calibration tool will walk you through configuring your computer's contrast and brightness, color temperature, and gamma correction, and will adjust the image from your computer's graphics card on the fly as you make changes.

 

The pricier, more accurate method: Buy a calibration tool
Going by sight should be enough for people who just want to be able to watch a YouTube video or browse their photo library without everything looking weird, but professionals need a level of accuracy that by-sight calibration may not offer. If you do any kind of photo editing, video editing, or rely on the color accuracy of your displays for your work, you may want to take calibrating your monitors a step further and spend a few bucks on calibration software and a colorimeter. A colorimeter is a device that attaches to the front of your display and "sees" the color levels generated by your display and adjusts your OS to compensate. Some of them even support multiple displays, and can walk you through adjusting the settings for each display to get the best possible color values.

The Spyder4Pro from Datacolor will set you back about $170 retail, connects to your computer via USB, and mounts on the face of your monitor to automatically calibrate it for you. The Spyder4Pro is designed primarily for people who need to calibrate their display against color prints, so if you're more concerned with the way images look on-screen, you can get by with the Spyder4Express for $119 retail, which still offers instant and automatic calibration, even though it's missing a few features from the Pro model (most notably the ability to adapt to ambient light levels.)

You may also consider the SprectraCal CalPC, another tool specifically designed for computer displays, even though it's a bit pricier ($299 retail.) CalPC even has the ability to control your monitor's display settings directly, so you don't have to fiddle with the display's on-screen menu at all. Just adjust the settings in the app, and your display will adjust itself to match.

 

For multi-monitor setups: Test patterns on both displays
If you have more than one display connected to your computer, you'll need to use a combination of your OS's tools and the on-screen settings. Start by using your computer's calibration utility, the way we described above. When you've finished building a color profile, it's time to take the OS out of the equation and make adjustments using the panel's display settings.

1. First, you'll need some test patterns. You can find some great ones at the Lagom LCD monitor test pages, or you can walk through the steps at DisplayCalibration.com to get started.
2. Open the test patterns on both displays. Open two browser windows to the same patterns, or open two image viewers with the same pattens in both. Maximize them on both displays and take a look at the differences.
3. Make subtle changes on the second display to try and match the first. The steps you'll follow here are very similar to how you calibrate your HDTV. You'll need to adjust the contrast and brightness against black and white gradient patterns, and you'll need to adjust the color levels (red-green-blue) against some color test patterns. Since you calibrated your OS against the first display, that monitor should look the way you like. The goal now is to make the second one look just like the first one. You may need to make some subtle changes to the primary display, but don't go overboard — the first display is supposed to be your control, and if you adjust it too much you won't have a point of reference.
4. When you finish, bring up a photo on both displays. Make sure your test photo looks the same on both displays. If you can, set both displays to the same wallpaper and examine them that way. You're just using your eyes, but it's a good way to make sure that your colors and contrast look the same. If you see something off, open up the on-panel display controls and tweak them.

You can try to just set both displays to the same color settings and walk away, but even though color temperatures are supposed to be the same across all devices, manufacturing and design differences in different manufacturer's panels can mean that 6500k on a Sony display can look significantly different than 6500k on a Dell display. Using test patterns first, and then validating using images or photos that you'd actually spend time viewing is a much better option.

Whatever you do, do something
You don't need to spend a lot of money on color calibration for your LCD display unless you need color fidelity between printed materials and your image and video editing tools, or you're just a video and graphics fanatic and need to make sure that everything is just right. Like we mentioned, for most people, the on-board calibration tool or spending a little time with some test patterns will be enough to make sure your friends don't look like aliens when you open their Facebook photos.

Still, even if you haven't noticed any issues with your LCD display, it's worth calibrating it at least once. The process is especially useful if you have multiple displays that are different sizes or from different manufacturers, or if you're upgrading to a new one. The only thing you have to lose is a few minutes, and you'll get a much better picture from your monitors as a result. Good luck!

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First-time smartphone buyers choose Android over Apple

Apple surged past Samsung and LG to have the best-selling phone brand in the United States, capturing 43 percent of the smartphone market in the last quarter of 2011. But among first-time smartphone buyers, 57 percent purchased Android phones compared to 34 percent who bought iPhones.

The information comes from The NPD Group, which said that combined, Android-based phones and the iPhone "accounted for over 90 percent of smartphone sales" in the fourth quarter.

“Android has been criticized for offering a more complex user experience than its competitors, but the company’s wide carrier support and large app selection is appealing to new smartphone customers,” said Ross Rubin, executive director, Connected Intelligence for The NPD Group, in a press release.

Android phones are made by a variety of manufacturers, including Samsung, LG, HTC and Motorola. Notably absent from the NPD Group's findings were Windows phones and those made by Research In Motion, once the smartphone leader. (Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBCUniversal.)

The added availability of the iPhone at Sprint last fall (the only major carrier to not have the phone now is T-Mobile), and the launch of the iPhone 4S in October helped catapult it to the top spot, said Rubin.

"Attracted by a faster processor, improved camera and the Siri speech-driven agent, most iPhone buyers paid a premium for the iPhone 4S, making it the top-selling handset in Q4," he said. He noted that the iPhone 4S "outsold the iPhone 4 by 75 percent, and outsold the iPhone 3GS, available for free on AT&T, five to one.”

Smartphones themselves continued to grab an increased share of the mobile market over less-complex feature phones. In the last quarter, smartphone sales represented 68 percent of the mobile phone market, up 18 percent from the last quarter of 2010, NPD Group said.

The "average selling price" for smartphones was $143 in the fourth quarter, $6 less than the average price of $149 in the last quarter of 2010.

And even though the new iPhone outsold its older siblings, all iPhone models led the top-selling handset list for the fourth quarter, with Samsung Galaxy models next in line:

1. Apple iPhone 4S
2. Apple iPhone 4
3. Apple iPhone 3GS
4. Samsung GALAXY S II
5. Samsung GALAXY S 4G

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Leaked: Nokia Lumia 910

Mobile giant Nokia seems all set to reaffirm its re-entry in the smartphone battle. The company which according to analysts estimates sold 1.3 million Lumina units to operators and retailers globally in 2011, recently unveiled Lumia 900 at Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas.
Close on the heels of Nokia 900 announcement, the internet media is abuzz with rumours that the Finnish cellphone maker is readying Lumia's fourth-generation called Lumia 910.

According to a Dutch online site Typhone.NL which published the details and later pulled it off, Nokia Lumia 910 is likely to sport a 12 megapixel camera, 1.4 GHz processor, 16GB of storage and HSDPA speed. The phone will reportedly feature a 4.3-inch AMOLED ClearBlack touchscreen display with 480x800 pixel resolution.
Though no news on its global launch is available, however, the phone is expected to hit European markets by mid-year.
Nokia last month announced Lumia 900 sporting a 4.3-inch AMOLED ClearBlack display with a resolution of 480 x 800. The phone packs 8 megapixel AF camera with Carl Zeiss optics, 720p video recording at 30fps and 1 megapixel front facing camera. Powered by 1.4 GHz Scorpion processor, the phone includes 16GB internal memory and 512MB RAM.

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Samsung Transparent Smart Window floats Twitter over your garden

Samsung had plenty of smart TVs that it hoped people would stare eagerly at last week at CES 2012, but it was a display you can gaze right through that was arguably the most exciting. Samsung’s Transparent Smart Window, the 22-inch LCD panel can not only show you everything your regular computer display does, but is also clear so that you can look through at what’s outside your home.

Samsung actually showed off the transparent display technology back in March 2011, suggesting at the time that it could be used for advertising. Unfortunately that application proved too mundane to catch the public’s attention in quite the way Samsung hoped for, hence the return of the tech last week and the far more exciting prospect of your double-glazing telling you your latest Tweets, Facebook friend requests and Google+ Hangouts.

As well as giving internet updates and letting you work on your latest report for work while simultaneously keeping an eye on the kids in the garden, the smart window can create its own virtual privacy shades. Although during the day, it’s ambient light that works as the backlight, two traditional edge-lighting sources are also fitted for nighttime use.

Tech-wise, the 22-inch panel runs at 1680 x 1050 resolution and has a 500:1 contrast ratio. Regular LCDs are only 5-percent transparent, whereas Samsung’s new panels increase that to 15-20-percent. Unfortunately there’s still no word on pricing or domestic availability.

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iPad 3 debut in March plus “strange” February event tip sources

Reports of an iPad 3 reveal this month may have been premature, sources now claim, with Apple tipped to unveil its third-gen tablet in March but squeeze in a “strange” event before then. Although a February press event is still apparently on the calendar, Macotakara now says, it won’t see the debut of the new iPad: instead, that will take place the following month, reducing the expected time between the big reveal and sales starting. The rumors leave the purpose of the February event unclear.

Details on the February press gathering are unknown, and only described as “strange”; however, it’s said to be a non-product related event. That could mean services, similar to the iBooks event earlier this month.

The new iPad, meanwhile, will be shown off in early March, supposedly, then released later in the month. It’s unclear whether the refreshed model will be the iPad 3, as suspected until now, or the iPad 2S, a bridging model that will introduce a faster, Apple A6 processor and “Retina Display” screen, but leave more fundamental changes until later in 2012 or even beyond.

Leaks earlier this week, reportedly from a user with early access to the iPad 3, suggest the tablet will come with a global 3G/4G option. Apple is apparently using a combination GSM/CDMA/LTE modem, that will allow the slate to run on HSPA+ networks as well as LTE ones, though specific carrier support is unknown at this stage.

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Online petition asks Apple for 'ethical' iPhone

An online petition asking Apple to "address dangerous conditions in factories" making the next iPhone has gotten 35,000 signatures in the first 24 hours of the effort.

“I use an iPhone myself. I love it, but I don’t love having to support sweatshops, and neither do millions of other Apple consumers,” said Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman, executive director of the group behind the petition, SumOfUs.

The working conditions at Apple factories in China were detailed in a recent New York Times article. In the article, a former Apple executive is quoted as saying, “We've known about labor abuses in some factories for four years, and they're still going on…Why? Because the system works for us.”

 

SumOfUs, which describes itself as a "movement of consumers, workers and shareholders speaking with one voice to counterbalance the growing power of large corporations," said it started the petition because the timing is right, with a new iPhone, called the iPhone 5 for now by many, in the works.

"Right now we have a huge opportunity as ethical consumers: The launch of the iPhone 5 later this year will be new Apple CEO Tim Cook’s first big product rollout, and he can’t afford for anything to go wrong — including negative publicity around how Apple’s suppliers treat their workers," the group says on its site.

"That’s why we’re launching a campaign this week to get Apple to overhaul the way its suppliers treat their workers in time for the launch of the iPhone 5."

Apple, contacted for comment by msnbc.com about the online campaign, has not yet responded; if the company does, the post will be updated.

Apple CEO Tim Cook did send an email to employees after the New York Times story was published, saying in part, "We care about every worker in our worldwide supply chain ... Any accident is deeply troubling, and any issue with working conditions is cause for concern. Any suggestion that we don’t care is patently false and offensive to us. As you know better than anyone, accusations like these are contrary to our values. It’s not who we are."

Said Stinebrickner-Kauffman: "Apple’s enforcement of razor-thin profit margins at suppliers invites — and may even force — them to slash workers’ rights. But Apple is going to have much bigger longer-term problems than paying a few extra dollars for its products if it loses its luster with ethical consumers.”

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Firefox 10 now available for download

Firefox 10, the latest version of Mozilla's popular Internet browser, is now available for download.

To download Firefox 10, you simply have to hit the update button on your browser or head to the Mozilla downloads page.

 

The latest version of the browser doesn't appear to be incredibly different from its predecessor — which was released a little bit over a month ago. Firefox 10 offers an automatically hidden "forward" button, better add-on management and compatibility, some stability fixes, and tweaks which will make life easier for developers.

If you're wondering why on earth there's a new version of Firefox available already, remember that Mozilla is working on a "rapid release process," as announced in July 2011. This means that you can look forward to updating your browser again in about six weeks.

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Android users most likely to use phones on toilet

The next time an Android user mocks your shiny new iPhone or BlackBerry, just smile, nod ... and avoid touching his phone. Because odds are quite high that the device has been used while its owner sat on the toilet at some point — and who knows if he even washed his hands.

According to a survey conducted by marketing agency 11mark, about three-fourths of Americans with mobile phones admit that they have occasionally used their devices in the bathroom.

74 percent of men and 76 percent of women reported that they took their mobile phones into the bathroom, so there wasn't a large gender gap. Instead it was their device types which divided the toilet texters (and talkers) from those who prefer to disconnect while in the lavatory.

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It seems that 87 percent of Android users admitted to using their mobile phones while on the throne. In comparison, 84 percent of BlackBerry users and only 77 percent of iPhone users took their phones into the little girls' and boys' rooms.

The BlackBerry users were the ones most likely to answer a call than the others though. According to the survey, "75 percent of BlackBerry users report they have done so, versus 67 percent of Droid and 60 percent of iPhone users."

I hope they at least hang up before flushing.

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