The Windows 8 pricing and package has been revealed. The source comes from Newegg and there are four packages listed for preorder: The Windows 8 Pro upgrade for $69, the Pro Pack which is just the product key card, Windows 8 OEM for $99 and the Windows 8 Professional for $139. So there is a little tid bit of information for all of you considering jumping into Windows 8.
Apple is holding an invitation only event on October 23rd and sources are stating that this event is to unveil the iPad mini. A smaller iPad that Apple has been working on ever since the success of the Kindle Fire. The interesting thing about this date is that it will be just three days before the new Surface tablets come out, so there is Apple trying to steal the thunder of the Microsoft tablet. There is yet to be a confirmation on where the event will even be held but it is no surprise. Apple has been known to be secretive about the places events are to be held especially when showing off brand new products.
Microsoft is making a big push for its Windows 8 operating system and look no further then it to be on the Windows mobile phones as well. The preordering of these devices will be on October 21st. The phones that are going to be preorder starting on October 21st are the Nokia Lumia 920 and the HTC 8X. The phones aren?t the only thing that you can preorder. Microsoft is also going to have the Samsung Ativ Smart PC and the Asus Vivo Tab RT available for preorder on the 21st as well. So when will we actually see these devices? Only time will tell, Microsoft has only said that the phone will be available later this year, well since the year only has a few months left in it, I would venture to say pretty soon.
Sprint is going to be the first carrier to offer its clients a StarStar Me vanity number. For just $3 a month a Sprint StarStar Me line can be yours. Just pick a combination of numbers to spell out just about anything with a five to ten number configuration. So if you have a friend with this new vanity line you just have to dial star star and the chosen vanity name and you can reach that person. With the star star numbers you can have it ring to your phone or via a mobile app that can send audio messages or send text linking to a social media or StarStar Me profile. This new innovative vanity phone number between the carrier and Zoove, which is a Palo Alto-based company that has a registry of millions of such numbers but has only been doing it for businesses and now have decided to go into the private sector. I think this will be a good move and many people will buy a vanity number.
Microsoft has been asking Google to censor about 5 million webpages over the last year due to allegedly linking to copyright infringing material and content. A lot of these request are often legit but there are things that do happen from time to time that are mistakes. The recent DMCA notice that Microsoft asked Google to censor were for sites such as BBC, HuffPo, CNN, Wikipedia and many more sites. This is a very big deal since most of these sites are very big companies that are not putting copyright infringing material on the site but was mistakenly placed. The DMCA takedown requests have been rising in the past few years which has really turned the internet into somewhat of a mess. For example Microsoft claimed 65 infringing web pages were distributing Windows 8 without their consent, but nearly half of them had nothing to do with Windows 8 at all. So one question has to be asked is this censorship going too far or do they need to make a better system. What are your thoughts?
Today is the one year anniversary of the death of the Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. So Apple has not only placed the letter that Tim Cook wrote on Steve Jobs but Apple has also posted a video in memory of Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs passed away at 56 years old and millions of people sent messages to Apple on this day last year expressing their condolences of his passing and no doubt those millions remember him on this day. Below is the letter sent out by Tim Cook
Team,
Steve’s passing one year ago today was a sad and difficult time for all of us. I hope that today everyone will reflect on his extraordinary life and the many ways he made the world a better place. As you and I know firsthand, one of the greatest gifts Steve gave to the world is Apple. No company has ever inspired such creativity or set such high standards for itself. Our values originated from Steve and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple. We share the great privilege and responsibility of carrying his legacy into the future. I’m incredibly proud of the work we are doing, delivering products that our customers love and dreaming up new ones that will delight them down the road. Thank you for dedicating your talents and so much of your lives to Apple. It’s a wonderful tribute to Steve’s memory and everything he stood for.
Tim
As always, Geek Choice is here to help with all of your Apple computer Problems
It is always fun when people find things that are strange and wrong with Apple products. Well I have found a funny article about Siri summarizing movies. From what the Verge has found she has some interesting things to say about some movies. From what they have found Siri seems to be more of a Sci-Fi buff and who could honestly blame her Sci-Fi is great. Some movies she talks about is the Wizard of Oz, as well as Pixar’s Toy Story, the Matrix and Blade Runner. Funny stuff.
Here are some of the funny things Siri has to movies.
So next time you want to have ?a laugh ask your favorite phone mate about a movie that you saw. You may not get the same synopsis that is in the New York Times.
Adobe has finally started to release details on the new Acrobat XI which will be their latest installment for creating, editing and viewing PDFs. They even spoke about a study done by the IDC which stated that companies spend an average of about 3.5 hours a week just compiling different file types to format into a single file type, another 3.7 hours gathering and consolidating the feedback and 3.4 hours consolidating data from forms. The study states this costs up to $15.9 million per year in annual productivity costs. With Adobe Acrobat XI, they try to address these inefficiencies. Probably the biggest tool in this version has to be the tool for editing texts and images. It will also add a drag and drop interface for merging files into a single PDF. They have also added intergration with EchoSign to make it easier to provide electronic signatures and now you can export your PDFs as PowerPoint presentations. Adobe Acrobat XI should be available in the coming month and has a list price of $299 and the Pro version for $449. No word yet on the major differences between the two.
Engadget has shown off the new HP ElitePad 900 and some of its accessories. This tablet is not due out until early 2013 but once I saw this video I felt it had some good information on a Windows 8 tablet that many people have been wondering about. Also this will be the first HP tablet to come out since the debacle of the last HP tablet that featured its own operating system that HP had a fire sale on weeks after releasing it. So please enjoy the video above and learn more about this nice new device coming in early 2013!
There have been rumors swirling that Amazon is getting ready to launch a mobile payment produch that could compete with Intuit Gopayment, Square and Paypal here. The speculation is that Amazon is going after a smaller chains of retailers for the product and could even be offering a lower credit card processing fee for merchants. The rumors state the processing could be as low as 1.9 percent and right now the current offerings around 2.7 percent. This really should come as no surprise as Amazon has tried to get its hands into many different outlets and they have been looking into making actual retail store fronts which the new mobile payment system would be great for their store fronts. Although these are just rumors and speculation and nothing has been confirmed from Amazon.