Lamber Tech

Firefox 4 Won’t Be Available to Mac Users

Mozilla’s Firefox web browser has long been a popular alternative for Windows based PC users who did not want to use Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, but Mac users were also fond of the browser. Unfortunately for those Mac users, it looks like the end of the road for those using Power PC Mac computers. According to recent word from the Director of Firefox, Mike Beltzner, the usage data for Power PC users, as well as troubles based on improvements to Firefox 4, may make it a very tough fit for Power PC users. Beltzner told this to his mailing list as the company continues to weigh the pros and cons of including these machines in its next incarnation of Firefox. There is a strong chance that now only machines running Intel for Mac will be able to use Firefox 4. Part of the issue has to do with the age of the Power PC tech and the fact that the rest of PCs today are now on to different tech. That means that the Power PC users may simply be left behind.

On the user side of things, those who continue using out dated software do face increased security risks which puts them in a bind over whether they should switch to different software or upgrade their hardware, both of which can be expensive questions. Mozilla does intend to maintain its support some older versions of Firefox for a while in order to keep them secure for those still using those the older software and hardware.

The Samsung ES25 Offers Great Value on a High Quality Digital Camera

When it comes to the market for cameras these days, nearly all photo fans are shying away from the old fashioned film camera and embracing digital cameras that they can take photos with quickly and easily – plus, they can upload them to their computer or have them printed out at most local drug stores and department stores. One of the best choices is a popular model by Samsung, the ES25, a digital camera from Very that offers a huge level of value for an incredibly low price. This model comes in 3 distinct color choices: purple, silver and black. Not only does it offer a low price and custom color choices, the fact that it takes photos in 12 mega pixel clarity is simply mind blowing at this price point. It displays the image of what one is aiming at right on the 2.5 inch LCD display so there is no question about what is being shot or waiting to see the finished picture before deciding if one had been aiming correctly. Speaking of camera handling, the Digital Image Stabilisation the ES25 has built in helps keep images very steady which avoids the common blurring issue that many photographers who are not pros often experience. This is further enhanced by face detection capabilities that make sure the camera’s lens knows what to focus on and ISO 1600 features that allow the ES25 to take great quality photos even in low light conditions that plague amateur photographers.

Despite all of these features, what may come as a shock to many people is that the camera not only takes still photos, it is part of the new generation of digital cameras that are able to shoot high definition or HD video. Since the video is shot at film industry standard 30 frames per second in 640 x 480 pixel clarity, it is definitely going to come out looking good. The camera comes with nearly 10 MB of memory, but this can be easily expanded with a SD or SDHC memory card – and these are extremely cheap today, a bargain for those who like to take a lot of digital photos or shoot quite a bit of HD video.

Apple Knew About iPhone 4 Antennae Issue

Cupertino, California based Apple, Inc. has found itself in hot water with fans and critics alike due to a recent revealing of the fact that the company’s latest incarnation of the iPhone smart phone line, the iPhone 4, has an issue where if the phone is gripped in a certain way the user’s hand covers the antennae built into the device and lowers the level of the signal. Now, the company’s President, Steve Jobs, has spoken out about the issue in a way that many critics has said seemed irritated. It appears that Jobs finds the whole ordeal a hassle and he says that company testing shows that, yes, the device will lose some of its signal upon the phone being gripped in the way described by fans, but that he did not believe it would be a ‘big problem’ since he claims that all smart phones have this issue. Smart phone experts have concurred that it is a common issue among devices, but that Apple customers have still complained in record numbers and are even returning their phones in order to get a full refund since they are upset over the quality of the device.

It seems that Consumer Reports, a leading magazine for the consumer interest sector, has gone so far as to refuse to recommend the device since sending and receiving calls was rated as ‘difficult’ by the magazine’s experts. Since the iPhone line counts for nearly 40% of Apple’s over all profits this is a big blow to the company and the glitch can be seen as a major quality control issue.

Interactive Whiteboard Maker Raises $660 Million in IPO

A company that has designed a new interactive white board, Smart Technologies Inc., is now going public after 2 decades of providing such devices for school classrooms. In what comes as an impressive feat to many analysts, the company has already managed to raise over half a billion dollars in its efforts to launch its IPO and that makes it the 2nd biggest initial public offering in the United States for the year 2010. The company, based in Canadian city of Calgary, has priced over 38 million Class A shares at an affordable cost of $17 each after offering a bit over 35 million at prices between $16 and $18 per share. From what the Securities and Exchange Commission filing said, along with a statement from Smart Technologies itself, 23 percent of the proceeds will go to the company. The rest of the proceeds will go to selling share holders such as Apax Partners and Intel Corp. who will be pulling in more than 6 times what they invested in profits – a smart move for both companies, according to financial experts who have analyzed the long term gains from the IPO.

This IPO is also the biggest sale that any tech company has seen in Canada for more than 10 years and is right in line with other Canadian firms looking to raise over $1 billion, all told, this week alone. In the United States, IPOs are also at a high, the highest since 2007’s final quarter. This is good news for the stock markets and the hi tech world both, signalling that things may be getting back on track for both parts of the market now.

Twitter Glitch Causes Panic

Social media micro blogging service Twitter has recently experienced a panic among its users due to a bug that many were exploiting in an attempt to gain more followers to their Twitter accounts. During a brief period recently, all followers to certain Twitter accounts disappeared, but these were restored after engineers went after the bug with gusto and destroyed it. The bug required the engineers to reset the followers and following status of the users to 0 for each category in order to fix the service. After the fix, the company was able to roll back the data and have everything back to working order. An unfortunate side effect ended up being the fact that private updates were not made to all accounts of Twitter members. Certain users had been exploiting a loop that allowed them to type in the name of a Twitter member after inputting the word “accept” and then an @ symbol. This gave certain greed oriented members of the service an edge that allowed them to obtain massive numbers of followers which had not agreed to follow their Twitter accounts.

Since Twitter has long touted the importance of online ethics as a key part of its business model, it knew it needed to work fast to right the error, but has not released any concrete numbers of how many accounts were affected by the error. Members of the blogging community pointed out the issue and made it into what is called a trending topic on the site to gain the attention of Twitter engineers.

Analysts Warn Apple to Watch Out for Android

The Google Android phone has been experiencing incredible sales in the United States in the first quarter of 2010 and is expected to be giving Apple’s iPhone, the king of current smart phones, a real run for its money. Since iPhone is now limited by an exclusive deal to service provider AT&T, the saturation point may have been reached say many analysts across the tech sector. A retail research firm for the US market, NPD Group, has announced that it has seen Google’s Android operating system phones hit a full 28% of all sales in smart phones during 2010’s first three months and that if this continues, then it will also be on track to take aim at the company with the largest share of the market, Research in Motion (RIM). RIM’s popular Blackberry device now holds a full 36% of the market and iPhone has now sank to 21% of the market thanks to the Android rise in popularity. 

Ezra Gottheil, an expert analyst employed by the Technology Business Research firm, has stated that people are now beginning to see the value in a new phone system, but this is not a pure indication of those same customers switching over or Android dominating the whole market any time soon. Experts in the tech industry feel that the increased competition will be good for consumers looking to purchase a smart phone who have been waiting for a lower price point before opting into the market. If the trend continues, Blackberry may be the device that loses market share.

Small Businesses Succeeding with Software As Service

Many small business owners in the United States have begun to see that there are a lot more opportunities for them in terms of software as a service when it comes to saving both time and human work hours. By leveraging this, small firms are able to buy all sorts of software packages that reduce their costs of doing business by large percentages and therefore raise the productivity and their profits. As these business owners have come to grips with the advantages of employing strong software packages to improve their operations, software as a service has begun to emerge, providing jobs for a number of programmers who specialize in providing this type of software to the market. Since so many small business applications have been coming onto the market in recent years, the Internet cloud has become a very strong place for a huge number of freelance software companies that are setting up shop and offering amazingly powerful tools to assist in businesses that are not built on software or other tech products.

These freelance workers have been able to create very custom products for companies that need to be able to leverage the power and knowhow of the tech community, but also offer their products or services in other markets. Software as a service, also known as SaaS, has previously been quite popular with large companies and it is only in recent times that it has become something that smaller companies could afford. As more cutting edge tech workers have branched off into their own operations, SaaS has proved a lucrative market for the tech savvy.

Facebook Pilots New Payment System

One of the world’s largest social networking sites, Facebook, has recently decided to delve into a new way to get virtual money online. This virtual money, called Facebook Credits, has been widely used in games on the site such as Farmville and Mafia Wars. Players who want to buy additional items for their gaming experience have had the opportunity to sign up for various offers to get in-game cash, such as signing up for a Netflix trial or similar offers. 

Facebook has recently found themselves caught in the middle of a conflict between their user audience and app developers for virtual in-game cash offers coming across as scams. Instead of entirely banning virtual currency via cash or offers, they are now in the works of providing their own offers which have been sorted out and can be trusted to not take advantage of the great number of individuals who use Facebook for recreational activities. They have chosen to work with 2 companies by the names of Peanut Labs and TrialPay whom are known to be honest companies. 

Facebook credits can be found outside of just game applications and are available on the under the application tab which is located on the left hand side of the user’s interface and then once on the Application page at the top. A button which is clickable next to display shows the amount of credits a Facebook account has available. They appear to still be in the split testing face of their offer experiment, as only a handful of users have access to both paying cash or by signing up for various offers with all users having the ability to pay cash for them. Time will only tell how it will work out, but it so far appears to be a much better option for their audience to know they can trust offers coming directly from Facebook versus the makers of random applications.

New Verizon Service Creates More Interactive TV

With the new FiOS TV offered by Verizon cable, customers now have more options for how they experience their favorite programs. FiOS TV is a package that comes with a universal remote which allows a customer to interact between a split screen, one being the television program and the other being popular social networking sites, such as Twitter and Facebook. There is no keyboard for the FiOS TV service yet, however they offer pre-formatted responses to choose from to make the experience quicker. This service was shown in Massachusetts recently to  a group of reporters to display the capabilities that this service offers. 

How the world interacts with technology is being pushed in different directions now and this is a prime example of what lies ahead for social savvy entertainment. This service is only available in 16 states currently, however Verizon’s FiOS TV boasts a large three million customers who subscribe monthly to interact with friends to share comments on what they happen to be viewing at the time. This service is highly used when sporting events are being viewed and also during other large events such as The Grammy’s. This service makes a difference in the way cable subscribers are able to interact with others who have similar viewing interests and can be seen in the comments Facebook and Twitter users make. 

Verizon also has an app that is available to the Apple Iphone market for subscribers that wish to watch on the go. There will be more updates to this service in the near future and with the growth of social networking services like these are sure to grow as well.