Amazon denies plans to offer free smartphone this year

　　Contradicting earlier reports, Amazon said Sunday it had no plans to give away its long-rumored smartphone for free.
　　Two days after former Wall Street Journal reporters Amir Efrati and Jessica E. Lessin reported that that Amazon was considering the giveaway strategy for "its long-planned smartphone," the company broke its silence with a statement dismissing the suggestion.
　　"We have no plans to offer a phone this year, and if we were to launch a phone in the future, it would not be free," the Internet retail giant said in a statement to AllThingsD's Ina Fried.
　　The company was still figuring out if the free model would work for its hardware partners, according to another unnamed source in the report. Friday's report also indicated that Amazon had approached wireless carriers about distributing its handset but that the Internet retailer would probably make its play for customers directly through its own Web site.
　　These are not the first rumblings we've heard of Amazon working on a smartphone of its own. Citigroup analysts suggested in 2011 that the Seattle-based e-commerce giant was working with Foxconn to develop a smartphone slated for release in the fourth quarter of 2012.
　　Although rumors that the company was working on a phone that would run a variant of theKindle Fire Android operating system have been circulating for some time now, the latest version is said to include 3D technology.

You'll be able to find copies of Windows 7

　　Now, that doesn't mean XP will all of a sudden cease functioning. You could maintain using it if you want, but I wouldn't suggest it.
　　Finish of life suggests Microsoft will not be releasing any much more safety updates to the typical user. Any safety flaws that hackers uncover will not be fixed. Your laptop are going to be a sitting duck, even with security computer software installed. Click here to see what no cost security software I propose.
　　I know many die-hard XP customers are cynical about this news. They consider Microsoft is attempting to force men and women obtain new computer systems. Microsoft is in company to create funds, so it does want men and women to upgrade. But in Microsoft's defense, this is not anything special for XP.
　　Microsoft has carried out the same with Windows 95, 98 and Me. Vista's finish of life is April 11, 2017 and Windows 7's is January 14, 2020. The truth is, Microsoft extended XP's end-of-life date many instances. XP ought to have been gone years ago.
　　Here's a exciting fact: XP very first appeared at the finish of 2001. As late as 2010, computers were still sold with XP installed. Windows Vista, which arrived six years following XP, only lasted until 2011.
　　In the event you consider it, XP will likely be practically 13 years old. Like a teenager, it is possessing trouble adjusting for the globe. In spite of a significant overhaul with Service Pack three, XP just wasn't constructed for the modern day digital age.
　　It really is missing important security options introduced in Windows Vista. It can not assistance the newest, safest and most Web-compatible versions of World wide web Explorer. It cannot take complete advantage from the newest hardware advances.
　　It really is becoming increasingly frustrating for prospects and third-party corporations. Numerous third-party providers would really like to stop supporting XP. It takes many time and money to produce confident applications and hardware perform on each and every version of Windows.
　　This even affects the online world. Internet developers are going to be overjoyed to view XP-only World-wide-web Explorer versions 6, 7 and 8 go away. These versions are so far behind other browsers, you virtually need to write yet another web site just for them.
　　It's going to become a critical modify for a lot of folks. In most cases it really is going to imply a new personal computer, upgraded application and possibly new accessories like printers and scanners.
　　Till final year, upgrading would not happen to be fairly so terrible. Windows 7 was nevertheless relatively close to Windows XP in look and how it worked. In fact, I expect Windows 7 to become the subsequent Windows version that people stick with for really a though.
　　Now, nevertheless, Windows eight would be the only operating system out there on new computer systems. Once you attempt it, you will discover that it really is radically different from prior Windows versions.
　　The interface was meant for touch-screen tablets and doesn't function that well with keyboard and mouse. Actually, even finding the Desktop is definitely an adventure in itself.
　　The Windows eight.1 update coming out next month purchase windows 7 professional will enable you to bring back a number of the old Windows. Microsoft will even include a tutorial on the best way to use Windows eight - ultimately. But it is still a steep mastering curve, especially coming from XP. Click right here to understand a lot more about making the most with the Windows eight.1 update.
　　You'll be able to find copies of Windows 7 for sale on line. You'll be able to set up it on your current computer system - assuming it is not too old. You could possibly also acquire a Windows eight personal computer and downgrade.
　　Just be conscious that you simply can not do an in-place upgrade from XP to 7. You will have to wipe your difficult drive and install Windows 7 from scratch. For those who get an upgrade version of Windows 7, you'll need Windows XP installation discs to prove that you simply are eligible. What ever you do, get started arranging now. April will be coming up quickly and also you don't want to be nonetheless making use of XP when it arrives.
　　Now, you might hear there's a slim chance Microsoft could continue releasing safety updates for XP. It really is below contract to some companies to supply them for the following handful of years. Nevertheless, that is a paid alternative and I would not hold your breath that Microsoft will make these updates public.

  http://www.windows7retailpack.com/microsoft-office-2010-home-and-student-full-retail-pack-p-3603.html

China saw 1,327 cases of digital personal info trafficking

　　Chinese authorities have cracked a total of 1,327 cases of personal information trafficking which involved the use of Internet and other technologies..
　　The ministry of public security said in a statement on Sunday, it had broken up 468 gangs and arrested 1,213 people for suspected personal information trafficking, China Dailyreported. More than 700 million pieces of personal information were also seized by police from more than 20 public security organs, including the cities of Beijing, Hebei and Shanghai.
　　A large number of computers, hard disks, tracking and positioning devices had been used by the criminals to market personal information were also captured during the campaign, the ministry said.
　　In early April for example, the police in the cities of Beijing and Hebei found a gang marketed personal information on the Internet, with business spanning more than 20 provincial and city regions across the country, the statement noted.
　　The ministry said it will maintain strong crackdowns on such activities to ensure people's legal rights are well protected, and also asked the public to improve the awareness of self-protection by not disclosing personal information in their daily life.
　　Late last month, Shanghai's People Procuratorate also said the number of identity theft cases increased from one in the first half of last year, to thirty cases this year, with most suspects abusing their employee position to harvest data for criminal purposes.
　　China however, has stepped up measures to protect the online personal data of its citizens. The country's police force in June last year was pushing for more regulated and clearly defined parameters on crimes personal data theft, as the existing law makes it tough for law enforcers to convict criminals. The government also set out rules and guidelines which companies must observe when they process personal data in February this year.

NVidia and Intel, all of that is possible

　　It's no secret that Surface RT and Windows RT, along with Windows RT on other platforms, didn't do too as Microsoft hoped. The latest collateral harm in that failure was Nvidia's Tegra processors, which run in the Surface RT.
　　Surface/Windows RT had no shortage of skeptics even when it launched, but it is attainable things could alter more than time. I'm not saying that this *will* come about, but that there's a reasonable situation for it. Here's how it operates.

　　Very first, some Microsoft organization plan forensics: Microsoft wants developers to write apps for the new, Modern UI (a.k.a. Metro). Releasing Windows 8 only for Intel architecture, they have to have believed, would have made it as well simple for developers to bypass Metro because conventional Windows programs would currently run on it (and on Windows 7 as well as other versions). But if Surface RT had been a results, developers would would like to be on it, and would pick to create Metro apps so that you can be on each platforms.
　　Nicely, that didn't perform. In truth, colour me shocked in the degree of reticence of developers to create Metro apps, because the sheer number of users who can run them will undoubtedly be pretty big, even if it is little enough to become considered a failure for Microsoft. Try to remember, any other firm in the world would really like to have a disaster like Windows Vista, hundreds of millions of copies of which have been sold. Such is definitely the worst you can expect from Windows 8.
　　This holiday season you may anticipate to find out touch-enabled Windows systems heavily promoted and Microsoft will attempt other promotions to have persons buying apps in the shop. In reality, the failure to acquire developers writing apps for the shop will be the single biggest difficulty they have. With excellent apps users will undoubtedly come, and with users very good apps will come.
　　And in the event the apps do come, then the selection to purchase an RT device could grow to be much far more reasonable. There requirements to be a price advantage in comparison with x86 because the RT will nevertheless be significantly less capable, or it will have to demonstrate far far better battery life or anything to give men and women a explanation to get it, as opposed to an Intel-based method.
　　Depending on the efficiency and energy consumption with the most current chips from NVidia and Intel, all of that is possible. It's also attainable that Intel will narrow the price and performance consumption gaps, and RT will drop all its raison d'etre.
　　But if, come vacation time or later, the Windows app selection is respectable and RT systems are less highly-priced than Intel-based ones, it could possibly be perfectly affordable to get one. If they get low-cost sufficient, people might get casual about buying them.
　　My money's against it, however it could come about. There happen to be attempts in the past to put Windows on other architectures, but they have all failed because the Intel has normally enhanced their chip efficiency enough to make the price of incompatibility as well high relative towards the rewards.
　　You can make a case that Microsoft ought to have pursued it this approach to start with: x86 1st, other architectures after the app market was solidly established. It appears like that will be the Strategy B for Microsoft and NVidia, and probably it was built-in in the starting.

Dell $24.4 Billion Buyout Plan Is a Nail-Biter as Vote Looms

　　When Michael Dell announced a plan in February to take Dell Inc. (DELL) private, today was supposed to be anticlimactic -- the day when shareholders would easily bless the buyout of the computer maker he founded 29 years ago.
　　Instead, the run-up to the vote on Dell’s $24.4 billion proposal has turned into a nail-biting game of chicken that has left Dell’s side racing to lobby shareholders who consider the bid too low. Rather than ending with a victory dance for Dell, today may yield a decision to postpone the vote deadline to give him and private-equity firm Silver Lake Management LLC more time to convince investors of the merits of the leveraged buyout -- or to simply increase the $13.65-per-share bid.
　　Boosting the offer to $14 a share might suffice, said Angelo Zino, an analyst at Standard & Poor’s Financial Services in New York.
　　“If you get the $14 offer from Michael Dell, it’s enough to quiet enough of the shareholders out there and it’s enough to get the deal done,” he said.
　　On the eve of the vote, Chief Executive Officer Dell and Silver Lake weren’t budging, considering $13.65 their best and final offer, according to people familiar with the duo.
　　That position leaves Dell’s shareholders in a quandary: If they reject the deal, the stock, now at $12.88, could drop on concerns about Dell’s weakness in personal computers and its inability to compete with bigger companies in the corporate technology market. In Germany today, Dell traded at the equivalent of $12.83 at 10:00 a.m. in Frankfurt.
　　‘Shares Tank’
　　“You would see the shares tank, post a turn-down of $13.65,” said Zino. Michael Dell predicts the stock will fall to about $7.90 a share, based on trailing earnings, if the LBO is voted down, according to a person with direct knowledge of his thinking.
　　A more likely scenario is that the special committee of Dell’s board that is considering the bid postpones the vote, possibly by adjourning the meeting right after it starts, a person with knowledge of the matter has said.
　　A delay would prolong Dell’s struggle for control against billionaire investor Carl Icahn, who has pushed for months for the founder to raise his bid and has offered his own proposal. Icahn’s rival offer of $14 would allow Dell shareholders to retain equity in a publicly traded portion of the company, plus a warrant that could be exchanged for additional stock should Dell climb higher than $20.
　　Open Letter
　　Icahn and Southeastern Asset Management Inc., which holds a 3.98 percent Dell stake, urged the board not to postpone the vote in an open letter to shareholders yesterday.
　　“If the special committee doesn’t like the $13.65 price, then as we see it, they should not have approved the Michael Dell/Silver Lake transaction in the first place,” they said in the letter.
　　Phone and Internet voting is scheduled to close a minute before midnight New York time, and live polling will close about 15 to 20 minutes after the meeting starts, said David Frink, a Dell spokesman.
　　For Michael Dell, a loss to Icahn would be particularly irksome, according to a person familiar with his thinking. He understood when he started working on the idea of taking Dell private that another, higher bidder could win out. That would have been an elegant way to exit the company that carries his name by creating value for all stakeholders, the person said.
　　The last thing Michael Dell expected, the person said, was the prospect of losing the company to Icahn, whom he considers a corporate raider.
　　Cash, Warrants
　　Icahn and Southeastern say their proposal values Dell at about $15.50 to $18 a share. The special committee of the board calculated that if Icahn’s proposal gets consummated, each shareholder would get $9.99 in cash and 0.18 warrants.
　　Michael Dell, meantime, says a plan like Icahn’s would add substantial debt, curb financial flexibility and “hurt the company’s ability to weather an economic or business downturn,” the CEO said in a June 21 regulatory filing.
　　Another person with direct knowledge of the situation said the special committee believes the buyout group has room to raise the offer, and hasn’t been formally told by the buyers that their bid is best and final. Adjourning the vote would give shareholders, who can recast their votes up until the last minute, more time to change their minds, according to the person.
　　“Instead of executing the vote and maybe not getting it passed, Dell may need to postpone the vote until they know it could get passed through,” said Jeff Fidacaro, an analyst at Monness Crespi Hardt & Co. in New York.
　　Under Pressure
　　The stock will probably remain under pressure until the final decision, while staff may be tempted to jump ship. The company announced the resignation of Kelly McGinnis, Dell’s global head of communications, in an internal memo earlier this week.
　　Victory for Silver Lake and Dell would mean investors cash out while the company goes private and Michael Dell embarks on a turnaround of the business he founded in a university dormitory in 1984.
　　CEO Dell wants to take the company out of public hands to gain more freedom to transform the PC maker into a leaner, nimbler provider of data-center gear and corporate software.
　　A stream of disappointing earnings, dismal financial projections, endorsements from influential shareholder-advisory firms, and a steady campaign by Dell’s board has persuaded many investors that there are no other palatable options, said Sachin Shah, a merger-arbitrage strategist at Albert Fried & Co.
　　“You can’t say, ‘I’m not voting for the deal,’ and then see the stock decline,” said Shah, whose New York firm has clients who collectively own millions of Dell shares.
　　Dell’s Prospects
　　Icahn, meantime, is offering shareholders a chance to participate in the company’s recovery, asking them to forgo the buyout’s quick money and put their faith in Dell’s prospects -- even though that may mean tolerating the risk of a further decline in the shares.
　　To win the day, the buyout needs approval from a majority of holders, excluding Michael Dell, who owns a 15.6 percent stake. Yet investors that hold at least 20 percent of the stock have voiced opposition to the deal, saying it undervalues the company’s prospects, and some have thrown their weight behind Icahn’s plan. Shareholders who abstain will be counted as voting against the deal.
　　‘Attractive Gain’
　　Some investors have already resigned themselves to the offer that was initially outlined in February.
　　“We would like to see this go through in order to avoid the likely sudden drop in share price and realize an attractive gain,” Kyle Timmermann, a portfolio manager at Parkway Advisors LP in Abilene, Texas, said in an e-mail. Parkway, which owns almost 12,000 Dell shares and $600,000 of the company’s bonds, advises insurance companies on investments.
　　Other shareholders have remained steadfast in their view that Dell and Silver Lake undervalued the company. Case in point: Yacktman Asset Management Co., based in Austin, Texas. According to its latest filing, Yacktman owns 14.9 million Dell shares. While Yacktman would profit by taking the Dell-Silver Lake buyout, the firm is voting against the deal and supporting Icahn and Southeastern’s alternative proposal.
　　“It’s hard to find things to invest in, and we’d rather own this than cash,” said Stephen Yacktman, co-chief investment officer.
　　Buybacks, Acquisitions
　　Dell has destroyed value by buying back shares at too high a price and overpaying for acquisitions, including computer-services company Perot Systems Corp., data-storage company Compellent Technologies Inc. and software maker SecureWorks Inc., Yacktman said.
　　BlackRock Inc., which has a 4.4 percent stake in the third-largest PC maker, voted against the buyout, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
　　Once the world’s top PC maker, Dell has become a patchwork of desktops and laptops, tablets, enterprise software and data-center gear thanks to a slew of acquisitions since 2007. Sales (DELL) and profit are declining, and the company is projected to generate less net income this fiscal year -- $1.44 billion -- than it did in 1999 on a third of the sales.
　　Dell shares, once an engine of wealth creation for investors and trading higher than $25 before the 2008 financial crisis, were at less than $9 last November. PC shipments, which account for more than half of Dell’s sales, dropped 10.9 percent industrywide in the second quarter, their fifth straight period of decline, market researcher Gartner Inc. said last week. Many Dell investors want to take the sure money and avoid another swoon.
　　“Given the uncertain outlook, a buyout would be in the company’s best interest,” said Bill Kreher, an analyst at Edward Jones & Co. who has a hold rating on the shares.
　　Investor Meetings
　　The company’s committee has met with major shareholders to seek backing for the buyout, and Michael Dell has attended some meetings with key investors, said a person familiar with the matter. Dell’s proxy advisers have also been calling small investors through their brokers and at home to ensure a favorable turnout, another person said.
　　CEO Dell and Silver Lake’s bid picked up some momentum earlier this month when Institutional Shareholder Services Inc., an influential shareholder-advisory firm, recommended investors support the deal. Securing ISS’s endorsement was a key win for the buyout team. Glass Lewis & Co. also backed the bid. Retail shareholders tend to follow the recommendation of the board, which in this case supports the deal.
　　“From a public-company shareholder’s perspective, if your CEO is willing to buy your falling knife for the privilege of catching it, there is probably a price at which you should let him,” ISS said.

Windows tablets just isn’t very superior

　　Tablets based on Microsoft’s Windows eight and Windows RT operating systems have struggled to gain traction so far and Paul Thurrott of the Supersite for Windows says there’s an incredibly uncomplicated explanation for this: The initial generation of Windows tablets just isn’t very superior. To be clear, Thurrott says that there are numerous touch screen Windows 8 PCs and ultrabooks that happen to be really worthy of users’ time and that shouldn’t be overlooked. But in relation to pure tablets, he deems that every single one particular is “simply to flawed to recommend” to any person serious about obtaining one.

　　“Looking about my personal workplace, this can be what I see,” Thurrott explains. “A Surface RT which is attractive and light and gets good battery life but is worthless and frustrating in use due to its horrible functionality. A Surface Pro that may be thick and heavy and gets only four.five hours of battery life when offering the weird mixture of a small screen using a really high resolution. A Samsung ATIV Smart Pc 500T (Clover Trail based) that will be laughable from a efficiency perspective if it weren’t for that Surface RT. (Basically, it is still terrible.) That 700T that won’t charge any longer unless I plug the energy cord in to the tablet itself … which, wait for it, you cannot do when the keyboard is connected.”
　　Of course, the initial round of Android-based tablets were similarly lackluster when compared with Apple’s iPad, so it’s not as though Windows eight is doomed as a tablet operating program. It does recommend, however, that Microsoft and its OEM partners will need to put a lot of effort into adding superior performance and worth to their tablets, related windows 7 professional full retail to how Nokia has attempted to create Windows Phone eight seem a lot more cutting-edge together with the inclusion of its industry-best 41-megapixel smartphone camera within the Lumia 1020.
　　Thurrott is optimistic that the following generation of Windows tablets is going to be a significant improvement over the existing generation since improvements to each hardware and software will make the devices a lot more palatable for buyers.
　　“Things are going to have better,” he concludes. “Intel’s new generation Core processors, codenamed Haswell, seem to have solved the battery life issue. And Windows eight.1 appears to resolve many with the troubles customers have highlighted in Windows eight, such as desktop show scaling. Each of those improvements recommend to me that waiting is in order, as Haswell- and Windows eight.1-based tablets will be plentiful in just a number of months.”

Microsoft buries webTV as internet television struggles continue

　　Microsoft is burying webTV, the service which was equally notable for being an internet television pioneer and for being the first of two decades worth of subsequent failures at such an effort. WebTV was followed by products ranging from Apple TV to Google TV, none of which resonated with the mainstream either. Microsoft tried to keep webTV alive over the years, renaming it to MSN TV to no avail. And now it perishes at a time when few are aware it ever existed, and even fewer were aware that it was still around. Yet the future of internet television may still be around the corner.
　　Apple is preparing to build its Apple TV technology directly into televison sets in the hopes of putting it in the hands of more consumers. Samsung just acquired Boxee, yet another internet televison niche, in an effort to go head to head with Apple. And Google is far from done trying. But the jury is still out as to whether the mainstream public wants web surfing and television on the same device. Renting a digital movie on a TV set, or watching a TV episode in iTunes on a computer, is one thing. Marrying the two appliances entirely is another. Most of the public have shown they prefer to maintain separate devices with only casual crossover. But attitudes on the subject have shown they can evolve.
　　Around the time Microsoft was launching webTV, Steve Jobs correctly predicted it would fail, positing that people used their computer for when their brain was turned on and their televison when it was turned off. But by the end of his life, Jobs was claiming he’d figured out the ideal interface for marrying the two devices, which Apple still has yet to reveal. By shutting down webTV, Microsoft is either admitting that a market it helped pioneer was only ever a solution in search of a problem, or getting out just when the getting is about to get good.