46765659
submission
Barence writes
"Microsoft has launched a new advertising offensive against the iPad, suggesting Apple's tablet is good for little more than playing Chopsticks on a virtual piano. In an echo of Apple's "I'm a PC, I'm a Mac" campaign, the new Microsoft ad places an Asus Vivo Tab Smart tablet running Windows 8 alongside an iPad.
It proceeds to highlight the perceived advantages of the Windows 8 tablet over the iPad, including live tile updates, multitasking, and — somewhat cheekily given its entirely within Microsoft's gift — the Windows tablet's ability to run PowerPoint. The ad is voiced by an imitation of Apple's Siri, and concludes with the synthesised voice suggesting: "shall we just play Chopsticks?""Link to Original Source
45808199
submission
Barence writes
"Ubuntu has shelved the idea of moving to rolling releases, and will continue to release a new version every six months. Earlier this year, Ubuntu developers discussed the idea of moving to rolling releases, with new features added to the OS as and when they were ready. However, In an interview with PC Pro, Canonical CEO Jane Silber said the developers had taken a "cold, hard look at our long-standing practices" and decided to stay with twice-yearly releases. It has, however, cut support on non-LTS releases from 18 to nine months."Link to Original Source
45830173
submission
Barence writes
"A team of British programmers has released an electronica album designed to raise money for The National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park. The album, Music By Programmers, includes eight tracks written by a team of volunteer coders. "It's very much in the style of 'classic' electronica of the 1970s and early 1980s, which would have been created using famous synthesizers such as the Minimoog, Yamaha CS-80 and Oberheim SEM," said the album's creator, Jason Gorman.
The album — which will be downloadable from iTunes and Amazon — aims to raise £5,000 to create a programming club for young people."Link to Original Source
45334415
submission
Barence writes
"PC Pro has a first look at a new Raspberry Pi enclosure that revives memories of the 1980s micro computers. The Fuze enclosure is a chunky metal frame, with clackety, angled keyboard, in which sits a Raspberry Pi and a 640-connector solderless breadboard, "offering an easy way for beginners to play with switches, LEDs, potentiometers and so forth without having to worry about tripping over wires and dropping the whole thing on the floor."
Perhaps most interestingly, Binary Distribution also plans to offer a Maximite version of the Fuze, which boots directly into a BASIC environment, for an even more authentically 1980s experience."Link to Original Source
45024131
submission
Barence writes
"Is Ubuntu the world's most successful failure, asks PC Pro, in an in-depth analysis of the Linux distro's prospects on smartphones, tablets and televisions. Despite delivering the world's best-known Linux distro and arguably a better desktop OS than Windows 8, Ubuntu remains resolutely niche and is now under threat from the increasingly popular Linux Mint on the desktop. Meanwhile, its forays into televisions, smartphones and tablets have so far failed to ignite. More than a year after we first saw Ubuntu TV, it's yet to appear on a single television set.
So what does the future hold for Ubuntu? Is the poster child of Linux distros overstretching itself? Or is it primed to become the next Android, an open-source alternative to the closed worlds of Apple and Microsoft?"Link to Original Source
44932507
submission
Barence writes
"Major British retailers such as Argos and Tesco are mis-selling Windows RT devices as Windows 8 PCs, PC Pro has discovered. The confusion over Microsoft's ARM-based version of Windows could lead to consumers buying the wrong machines, and the wrong software to go with them. Argos, for example, recommends Norton Mobile Security as an add-on for its mis-labelled Windows 8 machine, despite that product only working on Android and iOS."Link to Original Source
