Friday, March 25, 2011
If you are a regular user of the Firefox browser then you are used to seeing the search box in the top right hand corner of the window. You are also used to the default search engine for that box being Google.
That default option didn’t just happen and Google pay to be the first choice. Google and Mozilla renegotiated to extend the relationship between the browser and the search engine until November 2011.
What this translates to is a lot of money for Mozilla to continue developing their many software projects, while Google retains the important default search option in the browser that is increasingly taking market share from Microsoft.
Even though they offer free software, you can see the potential for revenue through these partnerships. That revenue is also extremely important in allowing projects like Firefox and Thunderbird to get the support they need. I’m sure whatever the final direction the Thunderbird e-mail client takes there is going to be opportunities to generate new revenue as well; and Mozilla will certainly take them.
Mozilla, the organization behind the popular Firefox web browser, has extended its search deal with Google for another three years. In return for setting Google as the default search engine on Firefox, Google pays Mozilla a substantial sum – in 2006 the total amounted to around $57 million, or 85% of the company’s total revenue.
Mozilla uses the funds to pay staff, support its bandwidth and hardware infrastructure, and to distribute a number of grants. Because the search giant accounts for 85% of its revenues, Mozilla has become almost totally reliant on Google, something that has apparently concerned a number of members in the open source community. But Mozilla maintains that the two organizations operate independently.
The Mozilla Foundation is a non-profit organization that owns two taxable companies that earmark all profits for the Foundation’s open source projects. You can see the original announcement at Mozilla Chairperson Mitchell Baker’s blog.
It would be interestingly to see if Bing makes a dent into partnership and gain some market share.
Friday, March 25, 2011 1
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Well, as tech industry resignations go, this one's not exactly sensational, but Anand Chandrasekher's plan to leave Intel is no doubt a popular topic of conversation with chip makers this week. The chief of the company's Ultra Mobility Group (UMG) and the man behind Atom, apparently resigned "to pursue other interests." Intel Architecture Group's Mike Bell and Dave Whalen will co-manage UMG in Chandrasekher's stead -- and that's about it for sordid details. His resignation isn't apt to be marked by a Mark Hurd-style scandal, and we have a feeling this is a pretty straight forward changing of the guards, but, then again, we said the same thing when Dirk Meyer left AMD.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011 0
HTC has unexpectedly launched the Incredible S smartphone in India, a little over a month after its international debut at MWC 2011. Pricing the Android 2.2 Froyo-based smartphone at Rs. 28,990 (MOP), HTC has already promised a Gingerbread update for the phone soon, in the second quarter of 2011. We expect an Android 2.4 update to follow soon after, if the company sticks to its word.
The HTC Incredible S is the updated version of the company's popular Incredible model, and has a large 4-inch display, which has surprisingly remained a Super LCD screen on its journey to India, unlike the Desire HD and Desire Z. It is based on the Qualcomm MSM8255 chipset, featuring a 1GHz Scorpion processor, and the Adreno 205 GPU. It operates on 768MB of RAM, and 1.1GB of ROM. It has an 8MP autofocus camera onboard, equipped with dual-LED flash and image stabilization, which is also capable of recording 720p HD video at 30 frames per second. It also has a secondary front-facing 1.3MP camera for video calls.
A 3G-capable phone (HSDPA, 14.4 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps), the HTC Incredible S also supports Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n with DLNA, and Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP and EDR. Surprisingly, at its price, the phone comes without a document editor bundled onboard, though a document viewer is provided. It has a 1450 mAh Li-ion battery that is rated to deliver up to 370 hours of standby time (3G), and 9 hours 40 minutes of talk time (2G).
According to the press release, the Incredible S also features stereo surround sound, as well as dual microphones for active noise cancellation. HTC also proudly introduced the special UI auto-rotate feature of the Incredible S – its touch-sensitive controls for the default Android keys (home, menu, back and search) automatically rotate themselves based on the phone’s orientation.
EVO 3D for the first time, and what struck immediately is that it's not as beefy, bulky, or overwhelming as the 4.3-inch display or specs might have you believe -- if you're familiar with the EVO 4G, you'll feel right at home here (and you might even be pleasantly surprised). The screen's stereoscopic 3D effect is about as good as what we've seen on the Optimus 3D in the past -- very good head-on with decreasing effectiveness as you move your head to the side. The 2D / 3D switch along the side is for the camera, not the display; it seems that all management of the screen's capabilities is managed in software alone. Check out the shots in the gallery below; now if you'll excuse us, we're going to go play with this monster some more!
An Indian tech blogger named Shantanu Goel is currently working on a project to integrate the Microsoft Kinect device with a Sony PlayStation 3 console. He is using a completely unmodified PS3 unit, so while this is still a Kinect hack, it is apparently not a PS3 hack. He has met with some success already, and has uploaded a video showing some control over the native XMB interface, as well as the PS3 exclusive game – Killzone 3.
For those interested in learning just how Shantanu interfaced the Kinect for PS3, read more at his blog, or, if you are familiar with the emulation process, download the source code directly from here.
While the overall implementation is still not very usuable, work on the project is ongoing, and apart from better skeletal tracking, his 'to do' list includes creating complete menu and game profiles, enabling switching between the two, and more.
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