Tech wrap: Apple teases “Mountain Lion”
Apple released details on the successor to its “Lion” operating system for Mac computers, due out late this summer. OS X 10.8, dubbed “Mountain Lion,” will inherit features already running on iPhones and iPads such as iMessage, Notification Center and AirPlay mirroring, according to an Apple press release. Game Center will give Mac users the opportunity to square off against gamers on iOS devices as well as other Mac users. A new feature called “Gatekeeper” is meant to give OS X users more control over what apps can be downloaded onto their Macs, further distinguishing Apple-approved apps from third-party ones. The plan to introduce more iOS functions to Apple’s desktop and laptop OS comes as Microsoft prepares to make its desktop applications more mobile with a rumored fall release of Windows 8.
Four months after one of Japan’s biggest corporate scandals, police and prosecutors arrested seven men, including the former president of Olympus and ex-bankers, over their role in a $1.7 billion accounting fraud at the medical equipment and camera maker. Three former executives arrested, ex-President Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, former Executive Vice President Hisashi Mori and former auditor Hideo Yamada, had been identified by an investigative panel, commissioned by Olympus, as the main culprits in the fraud, seeking to delay the reckoning from risky investments made in the late-1980′s bubble economy.
Groupon CEO Andrew Mason said that the company’s location-based service Groupon NOW will likely not be a material contributor to results in the next one or two quarters. Mason said customers of the company’s daily deals are using Groupon NOW too. However, he stressed that the new service will likely take time to grow. Groupon NOW is a relatively new service that differs from Groupon’s main daily deal business. Groupon subscribers can check on nearby deals that are happening in the next one or two hours, based on their location.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood proposed voluntary steps for automakers that would establish new safety criteria for hands-free calling, navigation, and entertainment systems that have become common in new cars and trucks. The guidelines introduced recommend that automakers adopt technology to disable distracting electronic systems that are accessible to the driver — but not passengers — when a car is moving. The latest government figures show that roughly 10 percent of U.S. traffic deaths in 2010, or 3,092 people, were linked to distracted driving.
Windows L8?
Microsoft’s next operating system — provisionally known as Windows 8 — may not hit the shelves until early 2013, one respected company-watcher thinks, giving Apple, Google and Amazon more time to fine-tune their tablet offerings.
That’s later than most people expect for the new OS, which represents Microsoft’s first real foray into the touch-friendly, tablet-optimized world. The feeling is that Microsoft really needs to make its move before Apple’s iPad and tablets running Google’s Android march off with the whole market.
“I think it’s about a year away,” said Michael Cherry at independent research firm Directions on Microsoft, asked when Windows 8 code would be completed.
Then you have to factor in the delay between releasing the code to PC manufacturers to install on new machines — known as RTM — and general availability, said Cherry, a former Windows program manager.
“I believe there will be a RTM somewhere in the last quarter of 2012. Traditionally there’s been a 90-day gap between RTM and general availability,” he said. “To me, that means machine availability in 2013.”
In other words, don’t expect to get a Windows 8 tablet in your gift pile this Christmas or next.
Microsoft likes to keep a gap between releasing the code and allowing machines to go on sale as it gives all PC makers equal time to install the system and get machines on sale on the same day, for extra marketing buzz.
I stongly beleive in few things:
- First public beta will come in January 2012, probably during 2012 CES.
- Public beta means a that a feature set is closed. Work after that is a bugfixing and code optimisation
- RTM / OEM is end of August 2012
- Global availability is therefore October 2012
- First devices are on shelves / at provider in November 2012
So, I strongly beleive thatn Microsoft won’t miss a holiday season – it would represent a significant profit loss. Of course, Microsoft is always silent and very careful about release dates but look at the last 3 Windows versions – see a pattern? 
Aleks
Windows 8: Worth the wait, but is it too late?
The release of Windows 8 is now in the home stretch, and the vast majority of the world’s computers are about to begin getting the digital equivalent of a complete makeover.
The newest form of Windows — which, despite all the attention Apple gets, still operates more than 90 percent of computers — has a couple of things going for it. It supposedly will run anything that runs on Windows 7 so there won’t be that awful, elongated period when software is suddenly no longer compatible with your machine.
More importantly, Windows 8 borrows heavily from the relatively new user interface metaphors for tablets, which will make it much more palatable for tablet makers to offer Microsoft what could be a third strong contender (along with Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android) on this surging device vertical.
If there is a heaven, this version of Windows will no longer be what has been seen by many as cavalier attempts to force a bad variation of full-blown Windows on mobile devices, tablets and smartphones. Instead, Microsoft seems to be walking away from the Golden Goose that has been its OSstrategy. In a way, there is no clearer acknowledgement of the direction the computing world is going.
It’s sort of make or break for Microsoft in a long-term sense. The company that first touted the tablet as the wave of the 21st Century but couldn’t close the deal is now going all-in based on momentum which eluded them a few short years ago but was brilliantly exploited by Apple.
Microsoft is a sort of widows and orphans company in tech: They pay a dividend, take in lots of money from software sales, leases and support, and have an overwhelming lead in the installed base sweepstakes. But in the hearts and minds of the self-anointed technorati, Microsoft has not been synonymous with cool for a long time.
“We will only know when the PC era has ended in retrospect”
The future is either quantum computers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_co mputer) or DNA computers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_comput ing).
The present PC is the intermediate phase.
Tech wrap: Intel and Google launch Android partnership
Intel Corp and Google Inc launched a development partnership aimed at accelerating the chipmaker’s foray into smartphones. They will work together to optimize future versions of Google’s Android mobile software for Intel’s “Atom” processors, hoping to speed the development and time-to-market of future Intel-powered smartphones.
Microsoft Corp handed out sleek new tablet computers with a test version of Windows 8 at its annual developer conference, to spark excitement over its new operating system.
Cisco Systems Inc CEO John Chambers said he remained upbeat about technology spending by customers despite an uncertain economic outlook.
Dell Inc, the world’s second-largest computer maker, is cautiously optimistic that its strong performance in Europe and Asia will continue, but is concerned about U.S. government spending, an executive said.
The forecasts will be key for BlackBerry maker Research In Motion this quarter, as investors grope for hints that the company’s long downturn is coming to an end.
Nintendo’s attempt to rescue its failed 3DS handheld games gadget failed to dispel market gloom, triggering a 5 percent share slide and stoking deep worries for an iconic brand desperate to win back users.
