Boston was the venue for Motorola’s reveal and it is timely since the Cable Show Industry Event is currently on-going. Once Motorola’s DreamGallery concept takes flight, it will be run by the company’s own cloud service, the Medios. It is designed to let user browse or view content from his/her TV wherein the internet is mimicked since bookmarks, recommendations and search tools can be utilized. It is also designed to be a cross-platform or one that works in a wide range of devices from TV, computer, tablet and smartphones. It basically puts into a single interface cable, internet TV and video on demand (VOD).

We do hope that Motorola’s concept pushes thru even though Google will be the future owner of the company if the buy becomes concrete. I guess some of you may hear of Google’s Android-based Google TV Platform right?

See this video:

If you’re one of those in dire need of a new computer yet holding out in hopes of timing your purchase with the release of Windows 8, then this good news is for you. Microsoft is offering potential customers of Windows 7 PCs a more budget-friendly way to upgrade. If you buy a Windows 7 PC starting next month, you can opt to shell out a few extra bucks to safeguard your new PC against the Metro revolution.

Yes, for about $15.00 your Windows 7 PC will be upgraded to Windows 8 Pro when the operating system becomes available in the market. And this is not limited to buyers of PCs with Windows 7 Home Premium, Business, or Ultimate editions installed but even those who will buy PCs running on Home Basic editions as well. This marketing strategy is hardly new to the company as it has been used time and again to stave of massive sales drop on an operating system at the end of its time.

The verdict is still out whether many will succumb to this tactic but some are of the opinion that this deal is a good one from the company. With the actual release date of the upcoming OS still unannounced, the uncertainty of how long the wait will be affects the number of potential buyers.

Microsoft has not, however, revealed the exact reason why the promotion offers to instantly upgrade to Windows 8 Pro instead of the most basic Windows 8 package like what they did when Windows 7 was about to be released.

Microsoft’s Windows 8 upgrade promo for Windows 7 PC buyers will cost just $14.99 and for those who can’t wait to get their hands on this sweet deal, the promo will start on June 2nd and is said to last until January of 2013.

Adobe Muse is a web design tool recently announced by the company that allows you to design websites without the need for HTML5 codes. The software works more like a layout program in terms of behavior as opposed to usual web publishing tools, making it easier for design-minded web creators who wish to forgo the usual, more technical task of creating codes and get on with the designing part.

With the Muse, you can “plan your site” quickly with a user-friendly sitemap, “design with freedom” by combining images, graphics, and typography with the use of Adobe tools for design, “add rich interactivity” with slide shows, lightboxes, and custom navigation tools, and preview and publish” your work by creating a trial site hosted by Adobe so you can test your site before publishing it online.

Adobe Muse has the following minimum system requirements for Windows and Mac:

Windows:

• Processor: Intel Pentium 4 2.33GHz, or AMD Athlon 64 28000+
• Operating System: Windows XP Home; Windows Server 2003 or 2008; Windows Vista Home Premium with SP 2; or Windows 7
• Memory: 1GB RAM
• Adobe AIR 3.1

Mac:

• Processor: Intel Core Duo
• Mac OS X 10.6
• 1GB RAM
• Adobe AIR 3.1

Adobe Muse is now available with the following subscription plans: one-year commitment for $14.99/month, month-to-month subscription for $24.99/month, or become an Adobe Creative Cloud member for a monthly fee of $49.99 to get access to Adobe Muse among other Adobe Creative Suite 6 software including Photoshop.

For those still using the beta version of Adobe Muse, the company announced that the public beta program will end on June 15, 2012 so if you wish to continue using the software, better get a paid subscription soon.

(source)

These Windows 8 tablets to come out will be utilizing Intel’s Clover Trail Atom chip. As a background, the Clover Trail is considered to be the first dual-core Atom chip developed from Intel’s very own 32-nanometer (refers to the distance between transistors on the chip) process technology. The Clover Trail will be present in of all Intel-based tablets for initial release. Intel shared that there are more than 20 Windows 8 tablets running on Clover Trail.

It is expected that most of these tablets (about 50 percent) that are to come out are hybrids or so-called convertibles. This means that it doubles as a laptop. Intel has even showed off one of these during the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and the device was called Nikiski. There are also reports saying that designs would be unconventional or will deviate from the norm.

Just recently, Intel made some news for its push in the smartphone market. This push can be connected to the Clover Trail’s single core version which is responsible for powering phones from Lava (an India-based company) and Lenovo. Actually, the Intel chip responsible for this is its Atom Chip codenamed Medfield. Word is that Intel’s Medfield will be involved in powering upcoming phones from companies such as Orange and Motorola.

One of the advantages seen in an Intel-based tablet is that it would run the standard version of Windows 8 and not Windows RT (alternate version for ARM-based devices). It is a known fact that most smartphones and tablets available today run on chips having the ARM architecture.

Release of the Windows 8 tablets is slated by November or during the fall. This is timely considering at this time; Windows will be officially releasing its new OS. The Clover Trail devices are said to complement other Windows 8 laptops which run on Intel’s new Ivy Bridge processors.

Although Apple released its iOS 5.1.1, jailbreak development teams have found a way of overcoming it and it is using tethered jailbreaking through RedSn0w. This can be done in the following steps: a) user downloads the latest version of the iPhone Development Team’s RedSn0w tool for the OS; b) do a content backup by using iTunes or iCloud; c) upgrade the device’s firmware to iOS 5.1.1; d) download the iOS 5.1 IPSW file which corresponds to the specific device being used; e) find the Redsnow download folder (from step a), unzip its contents and run the exec file to make Redsnow launch; f) Select Extras on Redsnow and choose Select IPSW option; g) select IPSW file (from step d) when prompted; h) select jailbreak on the Redsnow main home screen and user needs to be sure to select Install Cydia prior to going through; i) on screen prompts will walk through user to putting the device on DFU mode, just follow steps; and j) once in DFU mode, Redsnow will automatically automate the process.

Once complete, user needs to boot device in tethered boot mode on every restart. More details to see here. Good luck!

For those not in the know, FileVault is supposed to protect information stored in an encrypted user home directory which is contained in an encrypted file system located on top of a user’s home directory.

Users who were into FileVault prior to upgrading to Lion can find their passwords in a system-wide debug log file which is stored in plain text and can be found outside the encrypted area. With this lies the problem as cyber criminals may take advantage of these. In addition, administrators or those with root access can utilize the user’s credentials for an encrypted home directory tree. The files may also be accessed through connecting the drive via FireWire. If one does this, the prying user can access anything that’s supposed to be kept by the user name and password.

Currently, there hasn’t been an established way of eradicating such without the need to disabling FileVault itself. On the contrary, FileVault2 is not affected with the problem. Apple has been reached regarding the matter and no word was released yet by the company.

Thanks to the growing rate of downloadable content found in the internet, the two companies find it important to incorporate a quality sound technology to ensure maximum audio enjoyment especially for consumers who purchase and download media content recorded with Dolby Digital Plus. Whether it’s downloaded content or streamed media, as long as it was recorded with Dolby Digital Plus, consumers will be able to enjoy high quality audio on their Windows 8 devices.

Ramzi Haidamus, Executive Vice President of Dolby’s Sales and Marketing department, said in a statement that their goal is to “deliver the best possible entertainment experience, wherever content is delivered through broadcast, broadband, or wireless networks.” He also stated that all of the home videos recorded previously and even those to be made in the future that is recorded with Dolby Digital Plus audio will “work great on Windows 8 right out of the box.”

Dolby’s Surround Sound experience will be incorporated with Windows Media Center and not the Media Player. Windows Media Center will be an add-on for Windows 8, instead of being incorporated immediately into the OS like in Windows 7 Premium and Pro.

To get it, you’ll need to have Windows 8 installed in your PC, then go to Add Features to Windows 8 found in the Control Panel, then purchase the Windows 8 Pro Pack upgrade which includes the Media Center. For Windows 8 Pro users, follow the instructions above but instead of the Windows 8 Pro Pack, you’ll need to purchase the Windows 8 Media Center Pack upgrade.

While no official statement has been released by Microsoft regarding when Windows 8 will hit the market, many anticipate its release by the latter part of the year. This coincides with Dolby’s expectations that the OS will ship at the start of their 2013 fiscal year which is in October 2012.

(source)

January 31 was the last gasp, so to speak, of Firefox 3.6. That was the last time of those aforementioned updates and on April 24, the ageing browser officially hung its jersey and although some users will want to hang on to it, maybe because of sentimental reasons or hardware limitations, it will eventually go the way of the dodo; or in a more specific allegory, it will meet the same fate as that of Firefox 3.5.

Impending cause of death: automatic update to Firefox 12.

Well, as they say, everything is a cycle and in the wake of 3.6’s demise is the birth of yet another brother: the Firefox 13 although it is still in its beta version. Along with it are some new features like the Google’s SPDY protocol and a new homepage ( some new features will accompany it but are still unconfirmed as of press time).

For those who really want to cling to Firefox 3.6, there’s only one thing left to do: never access the internet again (which would be pretty paradoxical) or just turn-off auto update from the tools>option menu before that update comes which could be anytime now.

However, doing that will just be inviting disaster because it won’t be receiving the critical security updates anymore. It could be better to just accept the inevitable change. More details to see in the source link.

(source)

Billed as a business tablet, it can accept a digital pen or multi-touch input, an outdoor viewing feature, and can have an enterprise-level docking compatibility. An x86 device, the Slate 8 could be one of the first x86-based PCs released by HP as planned by company.

The Slate 8 will have the full-flat version of Windows 8, Microsoft’s next-generation OS. This feature separates it from other Windows 8 tablets which are rumored to use the Windows RT version built with ARM-based architecture. The HP Slate 8 will be fully equipped to run any kind of software much like its desktop machine counterpart. This means it will also include virtualization, domain connectivity, encryption, and PC management.

Having an Intel-based low-power Clover Trail Atom processor, the HP Slate 8 tablet is also bundled with a trusted platform module (TPM) and a support for Computrace service designed to prevent theft through a computer tracking system.

No luck yet on the details about the tablet’s release date and price. There is a speculation that the tablet will hit the market at least before the year ends right after Microsoft launches Windows 8 around October. Till then, let’s keep our fingers crossed that HP can bring us an enterprise-level tablet minus the business-level market price.

(source)

For one thing, its objective is noteworthy as it aims to tend to developers and users who want to be free from Apple’s restrictions in applications (apps). The Hackstore somewhat acts as Robin Hood as it gathers up legitimate and readily available apps that did not make it in Apple’s list. As mentioned earlier, Hackstore is like Cydia as it makes available apps and tweaks for the Mac OS which are not made available in the Mac App Store. The problem with Mac App Store is that it limits users in almost everything thereby not granting opportunity to expand the said limits. This limit is definitely not right as users are the ones responsible for deciding what apps they like and don’t like.

To cut it short, Hackstore allows users to be outside the boundaries or confines of the Mac App Store. At the moment, it is available for download at this link.