6 Major Tech Innovations for 2012

These trends could make for huge opportunities--or huge disruptions to your business. Either way, they are ones to watch



We’re only a few months into 2012, but several technology innovations are starting to show promise. Whether these trends will force you to change how you do business, or present you with entirely new opportunities depends on how willing you are to be an early adopter and take risks. You'll have to find room in your IT budget for these things, too. Whatever you do, keep these innovations on your radar

High resolution displays

The Apple iPad 3 is the first sign that mobile devices are going ultra-high-res. The iPad 3 has a 2048 x 1536 screen that looks super-sharp for videos, e-books, and apps. But the iPad 3 is not the only device to offer much higher resolution. The Samsung Series 9desktop display uses 2560 x 1440 pixels for a screen that looks much more sharp than most monitors.

 Speech for business

One of the great features of Apple's Siri is its ability to understand context. You can add a reminder that tells your wife when you leave work. When you do, Siri sends the reminder based  on your location. Lately, speech tech has shown signs of improving even more. Natural language searches will become commonplace in a few years—you will be able to walk into a conference room and say “tell everyone the meeting is cancelled” and the speech system will know what you mean and send the message.

Business-ready storage

Cloud storage has changed how Big Business operates—in some cases, larger companies are ditching their data centers altogether. But small companies do not even have data centers. Some of the choices for storage are making a huge impact—Dropbox is more popular than ever. But a new service called Huddle provides better reporting, security, and team accounts that is a better choice for business.

HTML5

There has been buzz about HTML5 now for the past few years. The new version of HTML provides a richer framework for videos and interactive content. Steve Jobs claimed it was a better approach to dealing with this rich content than Adobe Flash. One sign that HTML5 may finally replace Flash comes from the automotive world. In the upcoming Cadillac XTS sedan, the dashboard interface uses HTML5 so developers can make new apps without being confined to a specific code base

Read More

Apple iPad 128GB

                     Apple iPad 128GB

It's still the fourth-generation device, but beefier. A cellular-enabled version of the higher-capacity iPad costs $929.

Apple today said it would begin offering its fourth-generation iPad with double the storage capacity.



The 128-gigabyte Wi-Fi-only iPad will cost $799, while a cellular version pushes close to four figures at $929. The new iPads will be available on Feb. 5.

Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel both confirmed they would carry the higher capacity iPad. AT&T wasn't immediately available for comment.

The updated iPad represents a minor update to a device that already got a slight overhaul late last year. Many expect Apple to unveil a new iPad with more significant changes in the coming months.

The 128GB iPad has all of the same features as before, including a 9.7-inch Retina Display, a FaceTime HD camera, and an A6X processor.

Apple is hoping the higher-capacity iPad will be better suited for the business world. Over the past few years, the company has made a concerted push to get into companies for professional use.

The press release pointed out the potential appeal of the higher storage volume to businesses that traffic in data-intensive materials such as 3D CAD files, X-rays, film edits, music tracks, and project blueprints.

While Apple's share in the tablet market remains dominant, the company is starting to see increasing competition from lower-priced devices such as Amazon's Kindle Fire HD and Google's Nexus 7 tablets. In response, the company late last year unveiled the iPad Mini.

Read More

HP Envy x2 Review

                               HP Envy x2 review:
The good hp : The HP Envy x2 has a clean, comfortable design and feels lightweight in tablet form. It has excellent battery life, and works just as well as a laptop as it does as a tablet.

The bad hp : The laptop mode is top-heavy, and the awkward tablet detachment mechanism isn’t perfect; it has limited ports; and a slower Atom processor means in performance it's far behind most ultra books  even though it’s priced like one.
,  The bottom line: The HP Envy x2’s capacity to be a full Windows 8 tablet or dock with a keyboard works as well as advertised, provided you’re willing to live with slower performance at a high price. You’re paying for style

Take a tablet; add a keyboard. Turn it into a laptop. Do it with full Windows 8. This is the dream of the HP Envy x2, and the dream, it seems, of Windows 8 in general. Break down the barrier between tablets and PCs. Create progressive computing. The future is now. Well, the future was also four months ago, when Hewlett-Packard first started showing off the Envy x2 in public.

Read More

Facebook's earnings: It's all about mobile

Facebook has gone from total loser to stock stud in three months. On Wednesday, the social network will need to show significant growth to its mobile ads business to keep investors interested.

But what now?
Facebook is entering Wednesday's earnings report in a position of the strength.

The social network successfully mitigated sizable lock-up expirations in October, November, and December, which added 1.2 billion shares to the public pool. The company is also now in its seventh month of offering Sponsored Stories, or status updates from brands who pay to promote their stories in members' News Feed, which means it should be able to show dramatic revenue growth from the desktop- and mobile-friendly units. Facebook also pushed its Gifts products out to all U.S. members before the holiday, ramped up its efforts to allow developers to pitch people on their applications through mobile app install ads, and started charging to deliver messages to strangers.

Some of these products may each only contribute between $20 million to $100 million to Facebook's bottom line, Pachter said, but so long as Facebook shows that the percentage of advertising revenue derived is growing on mobile, investors will be pleased. Pachter predicts that Facebook will report 17 percent of advertising revenue from mobile products in the fourth quarter.

Read More

Office 2013 to debut tomorrow

         Office 2013 to debut tomorrow

Finally, an official confirmation. Microsoft is launching the new Office, aka Office 2013, on January 29

it's finally official. Microsoft is launching the new Office, a k a Office 2013, on January 29.

There have been lots of rumors that January 29 would be the day that the latest version of Office would be generally available via retail channels. But thanks to a tweet from the Office team, and a #Timeto365 campaign/hashtag -- which I saw via Winbeta.org -- we now know Microsoft is "launching" the new Office on Tuesday in Bryant Park, New York. (Thanks for the heads up, guys! Luckily, I live within walking distance.)

. released office 2013 to manufacturing on  october  2012 The company made, as well as volume-licensing customers, before the end of last year. Recently, Microsoft made  as part of its Home Use Program.

Microsoft officials have been saying for a couple of months that Redmond planned to make the final bits commercially available in the first calendar quarter of 2013. 

Microsoft already has taken the wraps off some of its Office 2013 SKUs. The company will be pushing a new, subscription-centric version of Office that it (confusingly) has named Office 365 Home Premium. I say confusingly because, unlike the other Office 365 SKUs, the Home Premium version isn't a Microsoft-hosted version of Office. Instead, it's downloadable, locally installable versions of the Office 2013 products for which . For that subscription fee, users will have the right to install Office 2013 and/or the Office for  2011 SKUs on up to five PCs and Macs in total. (There's still no new word on what's going on with the follow-on version of Office for Mac 2011.)

Microsoft officials also have said that the "real" Office 365 update should be available around the time of the client launch. Microsoft officials have been  for the past couple of weeks.

When I asked in December 2012 for the status of the rollout of the new Office, I was told a company spokesperson: "Any of the new Office 365 SKUs don't become available for purchase until first quarter of 2013. " That said, some as part of Microsoft's regular service updates, starting in October 2012 and continuing through general availability, the spokesperson added.

Read More

I Phone 5 Advantage & Disadvantage ...

I phone 5 good: The iPhone 5 adds everything we wanted in the iPhone 4S: 4G LTE, a longer, larger screen, free turn-by-turn navigation, and a faster A6 processor. Plus, its top-to-bottom redesign is sharp, slim, and feather-light.

I phone 5 bad: Apple Maps feels unfinished and buggy; Sprint and Verizon models can't use voice and data simultaneously. The smaller connector renders current accessories unusable without an adapter. There's no NFC, and the screen size pales in comparison to jumbo Android models.

Bottom line: The iPhone 5 completely rebuilds the iPhone on a framework of new features and design, addressing its major previous shortcomings. It's absolutely the best iPhone to date, and it easily secures its place in the top tier of the smartphone universe.

 that covers all bases, here it is. Just like the MacBook is to the world of laptops, the new iPhone is one of the top three, if not the best-designed, smartphone around. It's better in all the important ways.

Editors' note: We are continuing to update this review with additional observations and test results. Among the latest additions (October 4, 2012) are the inclusion of 4G LTE speed tests (see "4G LTE: Faster, at last" section); detailed comparisons to camera quality between the iPhone and rival smartphones (see "The camera" section); and detailed battery test results for both video playback and talk time (see "Battery" section).

What's different?Look at our review of last year's iPhone 4S, where we said, "Even without 4G and a giant screen, this phone's smart(ass) voice assistant, Siri, the benefits of iOS 5, and its spectacular camera make it a top choice for anyone ready to upgrade."  Like every year in the iPhone's life cycle, a handful of important new features take the spotlight. This time, 4G, screen size, and redesign step to the top.

You've gotten the full rundown already, most likely, on the various ins and outs of this phone, or if you haven't, I'll tell you about them below in greater detail. Here's what I noticed right away, and what made the biggest impression on me.

Read More