Battery Life Woes Holding Back RIM’s PlayBook Tablet? #playbook #rim

Thus far, Apple’s iPad has enjoyed a rather easy victory over the rest of the tablet market. And while upcoming Android tablets look promising, their ultimate impact remains to be seen with the most important factor being apps and integration — a key feature that Android is catching up on.

RIM’s PlayBook on the other hand appears to be having a few growing pains. The so called “Jesus Tablet” of RIM has been hyped up largely due to the new ONX operating system. But it is this same operating system that is causing the issue according to Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu. Because of the automotive/networking equipment core that QNX came from, it isn’t necessarily designed with battery life in mind. With that said, the PlayBook is reportedly averaging “a few hours” of battery life — a far cry from competing Android and iOS tablets.

For now, RIM hasn’t commented on the issue raised above and maintains the same May ’11 release schedule. We’ll report back with any updates as they become known.

4chan Down: DDoS #4chan

According to 4chan’s standalone status page, the site that claims fame to various internet crusades by way of the DDoS attack is itself the victim of such things this morning. A simple update on their status page reads:

Site is down due to DDoS. We now join the ranks of MasterCard, Visa, PayPal, e al.–an exclusive club!

At least they’re taking it in stride…

McAfee: “Android, Foursquare, iOS, and OS X Big Security Targets for 2011″. #mcafee

If you’ve made a new home with one of the popular services and products including but not limited to iOS devices, OS X-powered computers, and location-based services such as Foursquare, the world is going to end in 2011. McAfee (recently acquired by Intel) released a forecast today naming various popular services and products that while currently low on the threat list, will grow increasingly murky as 2011 trudges on. Of course, coming from an arguably struggling virus software developer, such news of “impending attack” on numerous exploding platforms isn’t exactly all that surprising. In fact, it’s almost a cheap attempt to drum up fear and publicity in hopes of wooing a few new customers.

At this point, it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out that when tech products and services become popular and therefore increase in user base and potential cash flow, so do attempts to crack/hack them.

Should you be careful with your shiny new iPad while you update Foursquare? Of course. But don’t resort to fear mongering and paranoia. Security will become a growing issue with popular consumer electronics and services, though nowhere as much as McAfee is hyping. Be at ease.

Future Android Music App Leaks! Brings Heavily Revamped UI. #android

The image before you is something that Android aficionados have been begging Google for over the last several months — an updated music app. Compared to iOS, webOS, and in some regards, even BlackBerry, Android’s music app is bare bones and an eye sore to boot. However, at the Google I/O 2010 press conference earlier this year, a heavily updated music app was shown off. The most obvious change was the UI. It was a lot cleaner and more modern. However, the real treat were numerous wireless capabilities, including the ability to purchase music on your desktop and then push it to your phone.

Thanks to one handy/lucky/clever XDA user, that very same updated music app can now be yours, although sadly without the handy wireless features. However, the heavily tweaked UI manages to make the jump as does a multitude of various bugs (beware). Besides the flashier graphics, a new menu button appears top right, perhaps signaling and end times for hardware buttons (at least the menu button at least). Furthermore, tapping the music app’s own icon top left takes you back to the main “home” of said app — A handy feature given the predictably deep nature music playlists can have.

Hop inside for a video showing it all off as well as the download link…

Russian Government Ordered to Adopt Free Software by 2015.

In this day and age, it isn’t just the individual pinching pennies everywhere they can. Governments are too. Here in the U.S., corporate downsizing, perk reductions, and staff shuffling are the new norm. But things are taking an ever more drastic turn (technologically speaking) in Russia.

A new government order (Google Translated) pushed forward by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin seeks to move all government owned computer hardware to free software (think open source) by 2015. To the general earthly human, the decree is hardly a big deal. To Microsoft and countless other for-profit software developers however, it’s a massive.

For Russia, it’s a big step towards reducing debt while also improving independence when it comes to technological goods. On the flip side, training end users (especially non-tech savy ones) may prove rather costly at first. Once non-techies get used to a certain UI and way of life, it’s hard to move them to greener pastures.

Nevertheless, it’s an interesting development. Thoughts?

[Update] Microsoft Killing the Home Premium Family Pack ? #microsoft

As multiple-PC households may know, keeping all of the software up to date across several machines can not only be time consuming, but costly as well. Being an operating system, Windows isn’t cheap in numbers. Though that isn’t quite the case with the Windows 7 Home Premium Family Pack. Consisting of 3 individual licenses, at ~$42 per license it’s far and wide the best deal. In comparison, a single upgrade license of the same version of Windows 7 costs $110 while a full retail copy is upwards of $177.

That’s why the new deadline appearing on Amazon’s Windows 7 Home Premium Family Pack page is slightly worrisome. Is this discounted package too successful? Netting three of them for $125 is border line theft.

I’ve sent an email over to Microsoft asking for some insight into the matter. Though I urge you not to wait around. You never know when you might need an extra Windows 7 license (or three).

Update

Just received word back from our press contact who confirmed that the Windows 7 Home Premium Family pack is indeed “while supplies last” meaning this deal is going the way of the dodo. Better stock up if you have a recurring need for Win7 licenses.

Safari on iOS Bested by Sleipnir? #ios #sleipnir

For all intents and purposes. Apple’s built-in Safari web browser in iOS gets the job done. And so far, it’s better than any of the third party browsers we’ve seen enter the market. But that could change with Sleipnir.

Developed by Fenrir-Inc (the same people behind the Windows version of the browser) Sleipnir shares the same Web-Kit code base as mobile Safari, the extra options added atop the browser not only bring added functionality, but fail to actual cause any slow downs — a chief concern amongst power users when features and flashy add-ons are tacked on top.

But is it really better?