Google will disable iGoogle, Google Video and more

Now is the time for another round of service shutdowns just used Google as part of the company's effort to redirect the focus of their employees on what matters most. The Mountain View giant, which began in their general cleaning products for some time, today announced that among the services that are the future plans to disable iGoogle, Google Video and even a chat widget Google Talk.

IGoogle is dead
Who uses iGoogle has until November 1, 2013 to export your data and find a replacement for the service if you wish. Users of Google Video, in turn, will have until Aug. 20 to migrate their content to YouTube, download a copy to your computer or delete it. The content is not migrated or deleted will be automatically migrated to the YouTube videos as private, which should avoid personal clips that end up being seen by all.

Will also be discontinued called Google Mini, which is part of an offer to custom searches focused on companies, Google Talk chatback, widget allowing website owners talk to their visitors, and search application for the Symbian platform, which the company says it makes no sense to offer as the web version of the search is already good enough.

In protest  users  said they plan to send angry emails to the company.

Microsoft knew that Windows Phone 7 have short life

The Windows Phone was known to be a very fluid mobile system, with tight integration with social networks and also for rapid updates released by Microsoft and the manufacturers. Upgrading to Windows Phone 8, however, was still a mystery: no one knew if the current smartphones would receive the news. No one except Microsoft itself.

During the event for developers Windows Phone Summit, Microsoft finally revealed that the devices Windows Phone 7 not receive upgrade to Apollo because the new system resources were not exploited by current hardware. It would make sense to release a system with support for memory cards and dual-core processors are the smartphones sold today have only single-core processors and no internal storage expandability.

According to Greg Sullivan, senior product manager of Windows Phone, Microsoft knew from the beginning that devices with Windows Phone 7 would not receive major upgrade, but the company decided to leave this information secret and not told ahead of time users .

"For normal people, the idea of ​​recompiling a kernel does not seem a great way to spend an afternoon, but some of us are special. The idea is that the updates are very important only to a small group of passionate and influential users. The overwhelming majority of users of Android makes no updates - often because the manufacturers do not give that opportunity, and even when they are, users do not update, "he said.


Core shared between Windows and Windows Phone 8 8.
The development of the Apollo was done in parallel with the Mango and some features of the new system were ready even before the launch of the first Windows phone, so the short life of the system was already planned. Sullivan said that the unification of the core Windows Phone with Windows kernel has always been the company's plans. So why Microsoft decided to launch a new system with a lifetime so short? "For us it was important to establish a new approach to user experience and begin to create an ecosystem for developers," said the executive.

There are still doubts about the future of Windows Phone: So far, Microsoft has just announced that the new home screen will arrive via Windows Phone 7.8. We do not know if the technology Nokia maps, integrating with VoIP services or Internet Explorer 10 will be available to current users. In addition, you can not run applications in WP7 WP8, which can cause major frustrations. It is practically a new operating system.

Microsoft leaves the impression that the current Windows Phone users were just guinea pigs for an unfinished system. The technologies do not last forever and Windows Phone is still a great system, but knowing that all units will be stagnant in the current version 7.8 makes me very disappointed - and who spent all their savings in a Windows Phone 7.5 or stuck to a contract two years with U.S. carriers must be even more frustrated.

Microsoft Network discovers spam formed by infected Androids

The anti-spam engineer at Microsoft, Terry Zink, made ​​a disturbing discovery last Tuesday. Analyzing samples of spam, the officer noticed a large amount of junk mail coming from servers of Yahoo Mail. All e-mails have the signature "Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android," possibly indicating the presence of an international network of infected cell spamming on a large scale.

"All these messages are sent from Android devices. We've all heard the rumors, but this is the first time I saw it - a spammer who controls a botnet that lives in Android devices. These devices come in user account on Yahoo Mail and send spam, "said Zink.

We do not know exactly how these users are infected, but the engineer found common features in the header of the email: most of the junk comes from developing countries, including Chile, Indonesia, Lebanon, Oman, Philippines, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Ukraine and Venezuela.

The Microsoft employee finds it difficult for someone to be infected by just installing applications Play Store, but believes in the possibility of users have downloaded a malicious application in order to avoid paying a legalized version. "Either that or they installed some malicious application from Yahoo Mail," he said.

Galaxy Nexus will receive patch to avoid ban in the U.S

The recent ban on selling smartphone Galaxy Nexus in the United States was not frowned upon by Google, responsible for the design of the device, or by Samsung, which produces in China and possibly other locations. This week Google said the site All Things D will release a patch for the device that circumvents the patent problem.

According to Ina Fried, a reporter for the site, the patch should be published as before for consumers who have a Galaxy Nexus. The device was brought to market at the end of last year and has updates straight from Google, since the Ice Cream Sandwich in this unit does not undergo changes carriers.

Apple asks U.S. court in the misuse of four patents in the Galaxy Nexus. However, the judge who ordered the temporary ban on the sale of the product was based on only one of these patents is about the "universal search". Google seems willing to support the Samsung in this endeavor since the current generation of Nexus was the first phone with Android 4.0.

Google shall use the U.S. patent office to review the granting of intellectual property creator of the iPhone and the iPad. You can be sure that the search will also bring to justice the concept of the "universal search" has existed since before the Apple patent request relating to its use.

While not obtain injunctive relief in favor of themselves, Google removed the Google Galaxy Nexus Store Play. You can no longer buy it in the U.S..

Several experts have said that the U.S. needs to reform the patent system and intellectual property (IP). It is the time in which these means were used to protect the innovation. Currently - my opinion - what else we have seen are patents for trivial and everyday resources that are far from what we might call "innovation". I remember seeing President Barack Obama speak negatively about the allocation of intellectual property.

iPad Mini coming soon, says Bloomberg

Very quiet at this time. Personally I do not believe much in the case of Apple releasing an iPad with smaller size. Still, given the news agency Bloomberg that the company led by Tim Cook has been preparing a tablet smaller than the iPhone third generation. "Apple plans to release a smaller and cheaper iPhone by the end of the year," says the agency.

Bloomberg found from two sources "with knowledge of these plans," without naming names, that the device would display with 7 or 8 inches. The product is not supposed to follow the concept of Retina Display (screen High pixel density) used in a new model of MacBook Pro and iPhone 3.

That's all the news site says about some specialized vehicles are called "iPad Mini." I wonder if Apple would sacrifice the user experience towards a smaller and cheaper product that is able to compete on equal terms with the Nexus 7, the tablet designed by Google and manufactured by Asus which was announced last week during the conference Google I / O. Of course Apple can embed a screen resolution of Cases, this supposed older iPad Mini, and thus ensure compatibility with all applications present in the App Store.

The Nexus 7 is $ 199 U.S. (plus local taxes). Price well below the iPad simpler, with 16 GB of storage and Wi-Fi: $ 499 (plus local taxes) in that country. The tablet Google, in terms of price, competes directly with the iPhone 4S, also from Apple, which costs the same value, but with two-year contract with any mobile operator.

First photo of the Firefox OS is published

Announced this week, the OS Firefox is Mozilla's bet in the world of mobile and was derived from Gecko to boot, the system completely done with web standards. Using only standard web, many people wonder what will be the interface and what features it should offer. Probably to appease those curious, an evangelist for the Mozilla released the first photo of the system running on a device.

The photo clearly shows a Samsung Galaxy S II with Rob Hawkes, Mozilla evangelist, which is guarantees to unlock screen Firefox OS. The image, published on Twitpic, shows that the system is slightly different from 2 Boot Gecko when he first appeared in the Mobile World Congress this year. She has also revealed that the system has the option to release or quick access to the camera - as long as the hardware of the phone has this option.

By the way, speaking of models that should run the system, it is unlikely that we will see a Galaxy S II with the addition of Firefox OS images to test Mozilla. The only manufacturers who support the project so far are Alcatel and ZTE and Mozilla has ensured that the focus will be even low-end smartphones.

But we can dream of a day that you can download and install the system in our Android devices currently.

Olympus shows MEG 4.0, It can rival the Glass Project

The manufacturer Olympus, who decided to return to the field of augmented reality glasses. The company, which unveiled a prototype of this type of glasses for the first time in mid-2005 announced today the call MEG4.0. From image released by the company, it seems to have an almost microscopic screen, guarantee, comes with a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels and battery that has autonomy to run for up to 8 hours.

According to the company in MEG4.0 "proprietary optical technologies" were included that cause it to view the environment maximized. Its screen has a flashing mode that can connect for 15 seconds every three minutes and that, according to the company, makes the battery has all this autonomy.

Olympus engineers, however, did point to include a camera in the glasses - but they remembered to put a Bluetooth chip to connect to smartphones and also an accelerometer, which should show items on the screen into position. The complete set weighs only 30 grams including battery and no date has to be made ​​available.

Remember that even though Google has developed a prototype of its first Project Glass, Apple was the company that managed to register a patent for something like this before. And although the patent cites the glasses from Apple would be used more fixed and less focused on mobility, I can see more potential for a lawsuit between the companies. And Olympus can end up in the middle.

In hands: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean

One of the biggest news from Google I / O is the new version of Android. This time, the name of the candy is "Jelly Bean", which some call jujube, others call it just fine and I call it bullet. The update was scheduled for Galaxy Nexus, Nexus S and Motorola Xoom for half the month of July, but the file has already been leaked. Jelly Bean I installed on my Galaxy Nexus and below you can see that the main news update brought to the phone.

If you have any feature that deserves to be highlighted in this update is Google Now. It is a virtual assistant as Siri iOS, but even more intelligent. Unlike previous versions, voice recognition now part of the unit itself, not depending on Google's servers to decode the voice and turn it into text. Thus, the process of use is much faster, especially when the phone is connected via 3G.

The wizard does not depend solely on actions voice. Since Google already has access to most of his life, the wizard takes the collected information to display relevant data to the user. Among them, weather forecast with greater accuracy (measured up to the neighborhood), tickets, locations near you, local traffic (including estimated time of arrival of the place where you are to your home), translations and scores of events sports.

All this information is stored in what Google calls "cards", and access is much simplified. The lock screen has been redesigned, and clicking on the bubble release, there are three options: camera, Google Now and unlock the phone. Moreover, by pressing and holding the "Home" button anywhere in the system comes a shortcut to open the wizard with ease.

In the voice features, many of the actions are similar to Siri, Apple. You can make appointments for any given time, activate the alarm, search for definitions and translations of words, get the weather forecast and points of interest nearby such as restaurants, gas stations and hotels, and quickly connect to any point of interest available Google Maps.

I found the wizard quite helpful, but I must point out that the voice commands do not work in Portuguese. I believe it should not take long for the action to be implemented, after all, the voice search works pretty well. Indeed, it is not possible to use voice commands to the language of the cell is other than English.

The Android notification system that was already good just got better. Jelly Bean in the notifications bar has been completely redesigned, most notably the information. They also become more interactive: when taking a screenshot, a notification appears with the image quite large in size and may even share it from there. When you receive an SMS, the message is displayed and from there you can reply with a link or return.

With notifications dynamic comes with a range of possible applications. Of course not give developers time to adapt to make the most of the system, but I see in the very near future apps that update themselves to take advantage of higher activity and further hold the user.

Moreover, the glorious central share Android has gained a small change. Now, the options are shown in icons, not lists, such as the Ice Cream Sandwich or earlier.

Not so perceptible changes
Although the design of the system does not differentiate much from the previous version, the Jelly Bean won numerous improvements under the hood. One is the incremental update of applications: the new version of the system is not necessary to download an entire application after your upgrade, but only what was changed. Thus, when one of your application is updated almost 500 MB, rest assured you will not need to download everything again. This is great for anyone who has data packets controlled or slow connection to the internet.

Contrary to what was announced, Chrome is not the default browser. The Ancient Mariner is still there, steady and strong, but does not bring all the benefits of Chrome, such as synchronization of tabs. For those who still wish to have Flash support, is a good thing. Who elects Chrome as the default does not have to work hard: just go in the application information and turn it off. Thus, there appear no check box to open a link in any application.

The keyboard has not changed much, but I must say that the self-correction is a little smarter. The language options gained support to the notorious Emojis, which were hitherto restricted to iOS. The support does not allow emojis include text boxes, only to see them (and in black and white).

The Jelly Bean got even more fluid than the Ice Cream Sandwich. In this new version, new effects when opening and closing applications bring a more natural feel when touching the phone. So far, I had no problem with regard to application compatibility.

Everything was much better and more beautiful. However, you still need to tap into a large wound of Android, which is the issue of updating. Adopting the Ice Cream Sandwich was very slow, but as a developer, I can say that the jump to the Gingerbread Ice Cream Sandwich was huge, and even to adapt all the adaptations that manufacturers cismam to keep the phones took (and takes) a lot . I believe that this should not repeat with the Jelly Bean: I consider the upgrade as something incremental, and not something totally new. Adapting from the Jelly Bean Ice Cream Sandwich will be much faster than in relation to Gingerbread.