In the run-up to next week's official unveiling of Windows Phone "Mango," the forthcoming major upgrade to Microsoft's smartphone platform, more features have been disclosed by Microsoft, and even more have apparently been leaked.
Last summer, Google showcased the capabilities of HTML5 and the Chrome browser with an interactive short film "The Wilderness Downtown." Based on the Arcade Fire Song "We Used to Wait," the project was at once deeply nostalgic and technologically forward-looking. On stage at Google IO last week, the Creative Lab Team revealed their next music project, again directed by Chris Milk.
There will be a Windows Phone event in New York on 24 May, but up until that date it seems we are going to hear more and more leaks about what is coming with Windows Phone 7.5 (aka Mango) later this year. The latest info from the Windows Phone Dev Podcast shows Windows Live Messenger, Facebook Chat, and AOL IM coming to Messaging, Office 365 support, group messaging, artist on lock screen, WiFi hotspot support, visual voicemail, and more.
Read MoreA little less than two years ago Google set out to make computers much better. They’re now announcing the first Chromebooks from partners, Samsung and Acer. You’ll be reading your email in seconds. Thanks to automatic updates the software on your Chromebook will get faster over time. Your apps, games, photos, music, movies and documents will be accessible wherever you are and you won't need to worry about losing your computer or forgetting to back up files.
The first Android smartphone came in 2008. Then in 2010, the platform appeared on tablets. Now, Android wants to move into your home.At its I/O developer conference, Google showed a sneak preview of its Android@Home project, which will extend the Android platform into household objects.
At Google I/O in San Francisco, Google developers Amit Joshi and Alex Russell took the stage at a breakout session to announce an important milestone: a version of Chrome Frame that doesn’t require admin rights to install. It’s big news for millions of users stuck working at offices or schools with older machines where admins won’t allow them to upgrade to newer, modern browsers. Now there’s a way around that with the new dev build of Chrome Frame. You can install this within IE without needing admin access.
Read MoreGoogle launched Music Beta, a new service that lets you upload your personal music collection to the cloud for streaming to your computer and Android devices. With the new service, your music and playlists are automatically kept in sync, so if you create a new playlist on your phone, it’s instantly available on your computer or tablet.
Read MoreMicrosoft says Skype has more than 170 million connected users. According to a regulatory filing, Skype claims its users made 207 billion minutes of voice and video calls last year. Microsoft wants to capitalize on that loyalty, putting Skype technology into various products, hoping that it can spin Skype's users into other Microsoft products.
Read MoreGoogle touted Android's growth to 100 million smartphones and tablets, kicked off a rollout of Android 3.1 and gave developers a preview of the next major Android update called "Ice Cream Sandwich." The news came along with announcements of a beta online music service on Android and movie rentals on the Xoom tablet via the Android Market, with phones to follow soon.
Read MoreHoping to bring magazine-style layout tools to Web publishing, Adobe Systems released a prototype browser specifically designed to let Web developers test the company's proposed formatting technology. The technology, called CSS Regions, lets programmers easily create multi-column layouts, place text in various polygonal shapes, and flow around objects in the middle of text.
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