So long, thanks for all the yelling
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Lenovo beats HP to 'Chromebook-killer' title with £230 Windows 8.1 laptop
Lenovo's B50-30 is full-featured, entry-level machine
Three starts selling the Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini
And it's not much cheaper than its flagship big brother
Heartbleed to blame for plundering of 4.5 million CHSPSC hospital records
OpenSSL flaw likely lead to Community Health Systems Professional Services Corporation hack
Best smartphones 2014: Galaxy S5, Xperia Z2, Lumia 930, LG G3 and more
We rank the best handsets available today
Asus will be next to enter the Android Wear smartwatch arena
Firm to unveil debut wearable on 3 September
Samsung Galaxy Alpha price, release date and specs
Everything you need to know about Samsung's latest iPhone rival
iPhone 6 shows off its curves in clearest leak yet
Handsets fully-assembled chassis revealed in images for the first time
Apple shares hit triple digits ahead of iPhone 6, iWatch launch
And they are likely to keep increasing
UK police have been fired for social media misuse
Freedom of information request finds bad practices
HTC One M8 for Windows arrives with identical specs to its Android sibling
Windows Phone 8.1 handset will be a Verizon exclusive in the US
AMD teams with Toshiba's OCZ for Radeon R7 SSD line
Will be available in 120GB, 240GB and 480GB capacities
Microsoft will converge Windows versions into one OS
Everything from watches to servers under one code base
Dropbox for Business gets security boost as firm opens first UK office
Full text search and password protected files are among the additions
Internet Explorer vulnerabilities have doubled since 2013
Microsoft's web browser has required an 'historic' shedload of security patches
Microsoft Debuts Lumia 530, its Lowest Cost Windows Phone to Date
Microsoft
Microsoft on Wednesday debuted the Lumia 530, a new entry-level model that packs a 4-inch screen, Windows Phone 8.1 and a sticker price of under $115, without subsidies.
To hit that price, the phone lacks a front-facing camera and support for high-speed LTE phone networks.
The move comes a week after Microsoft announced plans to stop development of the Android-based Nokia X and other non-Windows devices.
“We are moving quickly to help more people experience the uncompromised Lumia technologies, third party apps, and Microsoft services that we deliver on our flagship products,” Microsoft devices unit VP Jo Harlow said in a statement. “Lumia 530 underscores our commitment to making affordable smartphones for everyone, and introducing more people to the best of Microsoft.”
The Lumia 530 is slated to hit the market next month, Microsoft said. Other features include a 1.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm processor, a 5MP rear camera and it will come in both single-SIM and dual-SIM models.
Mi 3 Product Page Rips Off Aperture Icon
Scroll down on the Mi 3 “features” page and you’ll see this image, named “detail-camera.jpg”. (Cached version, for when Mi pulls the original.) Take a good look at the camera in that image, then look at the app icon for the current version of Aperture. (Cached.) It’s a simple copy-paste-skew job of the lens, and not a very good one. Two panels down on the page, they use it again, horizontally flipped. (Shockingly, they cropped out the “Designed by Apple in California”.)
Now re-read this.
Can’t Manage A Standing Desk? Meet Cubii, The Sitting Exerciser
Sitting down — and the sedentary lifestyle it encourages — is killing you, slowly but surely. The problem is, standing desks aren’t for everyone. Making the switch is a big deal. I love mine but it took a week of pain and suffering to go from seat to feet, and it still feels pretty tough on calves and soles after a full day-long standing stretch. So here’s a third… Read More
POP Gets $700K To Make Prototyping Apps Easy, Releases Second Version
POP, an app that lets developers quickly turn paper sketches into prototypes for iOS or Android apps, has raised an angel round of $700,000 from ZPark, Golden Gate Ventures, 500 Startups (which POP participated in last year) , and other investors. POP, which launched for iPhone first, also released a new version that can be used to create apps for iPads, Android devices, and desktop as well. Read More 
Nokia Lumia 530 arrives with Windows Phone 8.1, sub-€100 price
Touted as the most affordable Windows Phone handset yet
UK government shuns Microsoft with adoption of the ODF standard
Maude says openness is for the people
Liberty and MPs launch high court DRIP challenge
Civil liberties group representing Tom Watson and David Davis
Can the Amazon Fire Phone Take on iPhone and Samsung?
Ever since Amazon.com got into the hardware business with the first Kindle monochrome e-reader in 2007, its devices have been seen mainly as a way for the giant e-tailer to effortlessly sell and deliver its digital content to customers. Even when it launched its series of Kindle Fire color tablets, that remained a fair assessment. These color slates did include a limited number of apps and games, plus a browser and messaging. But they still seemed designed primarily to buy and consume e-books, videos and music sold by Amazon.
On Friday, the company is taking another step into hardware with the Amazon Fire phone, and this time things are a bit different. The new phone again has features tightly tied into its online store. But it also includes an unusual new user interface and a premium price that signals that Amazon is serious about becoming a smartphone power, competing head-on with the two leaders in that market, Apple’s iPhone and Samsung’s Galaxy S series.
That new interface, called Dynamic Perspective, attempts to replace the familiar tap-and-swipe navigation with one-handed tilting gestures that expose menus, reveal added information, and scroll the screen.
So how does it stack up against its main premium competitors?
[Sorry. This video cannot be displayed in this feed. View your video here.]I’ve been testing the Amazon Fire phone since last week, mainly comparing it to the iPhone 5s, which I consider the best smartphone on the market.
I think Amazon deserves credit for creatively trying to change up the familiar tap-and-swipe user experience on phones based on both Apple’s iOS and those, like Samsung’s, that use Google’s Android platform. And the phone is a competent device, with a vivid, crisp display, a very good camera, and dual speakers.
But I consider the Amazon Fire phone no more than an interesting first step. In my tests, I found its big new features less useful than I expected, and sometimes outright frustrating. And, arriving seven years after the debut of the first modern smartphone, Amazon’s new entry lacks some key functions both Apple and Samsung include.
Just One Carrier
Perhaps the biggest problem for this new phone, out of the gate, is that it’s only available on a single carrier, AT&T, and I am led to believe that this exclusivity, while not unlimited, isn’t just a brief promotion. Currently, Amazon doesn’t even have a model that could work on Verizon. Of course, the iPhone famously was exclusive to AT&T for several years, but that was a long time ago, when the whole device category was new. Consumers who don’t like AT&T’s coverage or plans won’t want the Fire.
Premium Price
The Amazon Fire phone will cost $199 with a two-year contract, or $650 without a contract. Those are the same prices AT&T charges for the base iPhone 5s, but the Fire offers twice the storage capacity at those prices — 32 gigabytes versus the iPhone’s 16GB. A 64GB model will cost $100 more. And for an unspecified limited time, Fire buyers get a free one-year subscription to Amazon’s Prime program, which otherwise costs $99.
The Fire has a 4.7-inch screen, compared with four inches on the current iPhones (bigger screens are likely in new iPhones in the fall) and 5.1 inches for Samsung’s Galaxy S5. I found it generally comfortable in the hand.
Dynamic Perspective
The phone’s two big new features are Dynamic Perspective and Firefly. The first is powered by four special sensors, small cameras with infrared LEDs in each corner. These detect the presence and position of a user’s head in relation to the phone.
With 
It was cool to be able to look at things like clothing items on Amazon from all sides. And Dynamic Perspective is a plus when playing games designed to make use of it.
But the most frequent use of the feature is flicking the phone sharply to the left or right to expose information. The screen contents are actually on three panels, and the left and right panels only appear when you do this sharp tilting. They overlap the larger central panel.
Typically, the left panel contains menus, and the right panel has added information. For instance, in email, the left panel lists accounts and mailboxes, while the right panel collects all your attachments for handy use. On the home screen, the left panel lists categories like apps, music, and so forth; the right has the weather, calendar, and some notifications.
It’s a neat trick, but, in my tests, I found that I tired of it, partly because you have to flick the phone just right to make the panels appear, and then again to dismiss them. Call me impatient, but after too many frustrating flicks I resorted to swiping the side panels open and closed, even when I was using the phone one-handed, because I found it quicker and surer.
I was also disappointed with the auto-scrolling. It wasn’t that it didn’t work well — it did. But so far it only works in the Web browser and in lists of book, music and video titles. It doesn’t work, for instance, while reading a Kindle book, though Amazon plans a software update for that in a few months.
Firefly
The other big feature, Firefly, also disappointed. It uses the camera to identify products, books, songs, TV shows, movies, printed email addresses and more. And when it identifies something Amazon sells, it displays the link to let you buy it. Firefly is the shopping-cart feature of the Fire phone, and you launch it by long-pressing on the dedicated camera key on the side.
My problem with Firefly was its inconsistency. One morning, it correctly identified Quaker Oats, but not Cheerios. Dial liquid soap was seen as Dial soap bars. And it never could identify the Samsung Galaxy S5 box. It also got the email address wrong when scanning the business card of an Amazon executive.
But it correctly identified many other things, and did especially well on songs and popular TV shows.
Camera, Calls and Speakers
I found the camera to be very good, with accurate colors and good performance indoors and out. Voice-call clarity wasn’t the best I’ve ever experienced, but it was okay. The twin speakers, oddly, sounded a bit tinny to me and to another person I asked, when compared to the iPhone’s single speaker.
Voice Assistant
The voice assistant did a decent job of recognizing my requests, but it does far fewer things than Apple’s Siri. At launch, it can only make phone calls, send text messages (and have new messages read to you), send emails and search the Web. There’s also a dictation key on the keyboard.
Downsides
In my tests, AT&T’s data-network speeds on the Fire were a tad below Verizon’s on the iPhone. But the big surprise was the Fire’s Wi-Fi speed. When it was near a wireless router, it delivered the full 35 Mbps my service provides. But just a room away, the speed would drop drastically to about a tenth of that. The iPhone remained constant. Amazon says this may have to do with my particular router, and is studying the issue.
Then there is a whole list of features offered by Apple and Samsung that the Fire lacks. Among these are things like fingerprint readers, built-in health sensors, integrated video calling and more. The Fire’s built-in app for viewing Microsoft Office documents can’t edit those documents unless you buy a premium version of the app. And the phone doesn’t support Bluetooth Low Energy, though that’s coming via a software update.
Finally, there are only about 185,000 apps available for the Fire, less than 20 percent of what’s available for Apple and Android phones. Amazon has added a bunch of key apps, but some, like an official YouTube app, are still missing.
Bottom Line
The Amazon Fire phone is perfectly suited for people heavily invested in the company’s ecosystem, and who like to use their smartphones one-handed, as long as they like AT&T. But to top Apple and Samsung, Amazon needs to do better.
Broadcom Cuts 2,500 Jobs as It Winds Down Baseband Unit
Reuters / Pichi Chuang
Broadcom Corp said on Tuesday it is winding down its money-losing cellular baseband chip business and cutting one-fifth of its total workforce, instead of selling the unit.
Chief Executive Scott McGregor told analysts on a conference call that after Broadcom said in early June it would exit baseband and then tested the market for a possible sale, the company decided to shut the unit down.
“We made the decision to pursue a wind-down, which minimizes the ongoing losses from the business and enables us to focus on our core strengths that much more quickly,” McGregor said.
Broadcom said it has cut 250 sales and administrative jobs and expects to reduce worldwide headcount by an additional 2,250 employees. Those jobs are equivalent to about 20 percent of the 12,550 employees Broadcom cited in its 2013 annual report.
Earlier Tuesday, Broadcom reported stronger-than-expected adjusted second-quarter earnings and gave a third-quarter gross margin forecast that pushed the chipmaker’s stock higher.
Broadcom’s connectivity chips are used widely in smartphones, including Apple’s iPhones. But the company lost market share in baseband chips and made slow progress in leading-edge 4G technology, which is dominated by Qualcomm Inc.
The Irvine, Calif., company is the latest chip maker to abandon the baseband market. Texas Instruments cut 1,700 jobs in 2012 after failing to sell its mobile chip business.
Developing baseband technology to combine with its connectivity chips had been seen as Broadcom’s response to low-cost smartphone makers in China. Abandoning baseband will reduce Broadcom’s costs, but it may leave the chip maker at a competitive disadvantage.
Broadcom forecast an adjusted gross margin of 55 percent for the third quarter, higher than the 53 percent expected by Wall Street.
"This tells me that getting out of (baseband) was the right news," RBC analyst Doug Freedman said of Broadcom’s outlook.
Smartphone chip makers have been adjusting as industry growth shifts away from North America toward China and other developing countries, where consumers favor handsets selling for under $200 rather than such top-tier devices as the iPhone.
Broadcom reported second-quarter revenue of $2.04 billion, down 2.3 percent from the year-ago period. It said revenue in the third quarter would be between $2.10 billion and $2.25 billion. The midpoint of its forecast is $2.175 billion. Analysts on average had expected second-quarter revenue of $2.05 billion and third-quarter revenue of $2.19 billion, according to Thomson Reuters. In the second quarter, Broadcom lost $1 million, compared with a loss of $251 million, or 43 cents a share, last year. Non-GAAP earnings per share were 65 cents in the second quarter. Analysts on average expected 61 cents.
Broadcom’s stock rose 3.23 percent in extended trading after closing up 0.31 percent at $38.75 in regular Nasdaq trade.
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