Software

Apple unveils Retina-display MacBook, new maps, adds Facebook, improves Siri at WWDC

June 11, 2012 3:52 pm by Chris Nuttall

Apple has unveiled Facebook integration with its software as well as a new Maps app to replace Google’s service. Its annual Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco was also shown a new high-end MacBook Pro with a high-resolution Retina display.

The WWDC keynote, led by Tim Cook, chief executive, gave final details on Mountain Lion, the next version of its Mac operating system and unveiled iOS 6 – an update to the iPhone and iPad’s interface and apps. The improvements to software and hardware – the whole MacBook range was upgraded – will help Apple better compete with Android devices and Ultrabooks that will soon feature Windows 8. The news is detailed in our live blog of the event after the jump. Read more

Tags: apple
Posted in Consumer Electronics, Digital media, Internet, Mobile, Software | Permalink

Wintel launch updates for Computex

May 31, 2012 8:00 pm by Chris Nuttall

Just in time for the big computer show of the year – Computex in Taiwan next week – Microsoft is announcing a new version of Windows 8 and its longtime partner Intel has launched new versions of its latest Ivy Bridge-codenamed Core processors.

Both seem certain to be featured in new Ultrabooks later this year, although models unveiled at Computex will still feature Windows 7 and be Windows 8-ready, judging by briefings by PC manufacturers ahead of the show. Read more

Tags: intel, microsoft, Ultrabook, windows 8
Posted in Asia, Hardware, Personal technology, Software | Permalink

Dealership software motors onto market

May 25, 2012 7:01 am by Maija Palmer

After the excitement of Facebook’s $104bn IPO and the subsequent fall in its shares, something more modest is coming onto London’s alternative investment market.

Incadea, an Austrian company that provides software for BMW and other car dealerships, will raise around £17m on Friday, in a stock market float expected to value the company at £47m.

It’s a lot smaller than Facebook, but it is a rare technology listing in London, where the tech IPO market has been considered closed for a long time. Read more

Tags: AIM, car dealership, Facebook, Incadea, IPO, listing, London, Nasdaq
Posted in Europe, Software, Tech Finance | Permalink

From Analysis May 9, 2012

Technology: Mired in a legal morass

Judith Masthoff, a Dutch researcher in artificial intelligence, was a doctoral student in the mid-1990s when she came up with her first invention.

The outline of the idea – a way of “enabling a user to fetch a specific information item from a set of information items” – hardly hinted at the starring role her brainwave would play in the legal battles sweeping through the technology industry.

Posted in Digital media, Internet, Software | Permalink

Domain name applications hit by software glitch

April 12, 2012 7:03 pm by Maija Palmer

The deadline to apply for a new top level domain name has been extended by just over a week to Friday, April 20th after the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) was hit by software problems.

The deadline to apply for new, generic internet suffixes such as .london and .nyc was meant to close at midnight on Thursday, but California-based Icann said there had been technical issues with the software handling applications. Read more

Tags: .anything, domain names, Icann, software problems, technical glitch
Posted in Internet, Software, Tech | Permalink

Box OneCloud has silver lining for app developers

March 28, 2012 10:00 pm by Chris Nuttall

While cloud computing promises to simplify our lives by keeping our information in one readily accessible place online, it fails to deliver when clouds are scattered by users relying on too many different apps and services.

You may have photos spread across Picasa, Flickr, Eye-Fi and Facebook and documents held on different services as well. But Box has announced an enterprise-focused solution on Wednesday with its OneCloud, while Quickoffice is tackling the same problem from a different direction with Connect. Read more

Tags: box.net, quickoffice
Posted in Internet, Mobile, Software | Permalink

Drawn out takeover talks drag down Misys sales

March 19, 2012 1:09 pm by Mark Wembridge

Behind Monday’s headlines of Misys’s board accepting a £1.27bn cash bid from Vista Equity Partners, the perennial takeover target also updated the market on recent trading – and the figures were not exactly glowing.

Third-quarter revenues fell by 12 per cent year-on-year fall to £89m, which the London-based group attributed to customers procrastinating over software licence purchases. Read more

Tags: CVC, Misys, Takeover, Temenos, ValueAct
Posted in Europe, Software | Permalink

RIM: Down but not out?

February 22, 2012 2:07 am by Paul Taylor

It has taken Research in Motion 10 months to update the software running its PlayBook tablet and deliver features like native email that should have been there to start with.

Aside from email, RIM’s PlayBook 2.0 software, released as a free upgrade for users today, adds features including support for Android apps in a belated effort to address weaknesses that have attracted widespread criticism and rendered the PlayBook an afterthought in the fast growing PC tablet market. Read more

Posted in Software, Tech | Permalink