T-Mobile unveils Cupcake update to G1 phone

T-Mobile has made available an update to its Android-based G1 phone, adding new features such as a touch-screen keyboard and the ability to film video and upload it straight to YouTube.

T-Mobile said that the so-called Cupcake update has now gone live, and that G1 owners will receive the code as an automatic download delivered to their phone sometime during May. The company announced at the same time that sales of the G1 handset are now approaching 100,000 units since it went on sale in November 2008.

The update to the G1's Android platform includes an on-screen touch keyboard, giving users a choice of input methods. The touch-screen keyboard might be used for short bursts of text such as Twitter updates, while the device's slide-out Qwerty keyboard is better for heavy duty use such as emails, the firm said.

Also included in the update is the ability to use the 3.2-megapixel camera to shoot video clips and upload them straight to YouTube. Photos can similarly be uploaded straight to a user's personal Picasa web album.

Other improvements include a speedier acquisition of GPS location with the phone, and user interface refinements to applications such as the email client, web browser, calendar and contacts. Users will also now be able to see the Google Talk status of their contacts in various messaging applications.

Windows 7 to get XP Mode for compatibility

Microsoft is planning a new virtualisation tool to provide better application compatibility for businesses migrating from Windows XP to the forthcoming Windows 7 operating system.

The feature will be called Windows XP Mode and will allow users to install and run applications in a Windows XP environment running under Windows Virtual PC.

It is specifically designed to help small businesses move to Windows 7, according to information recently posted to Microsoft's Windows blog.

In the blog entry, Microsoft said a beta of Windows XP Mode and Windows Virtual PC is coming in the near future, but will run only on Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Ultimate editions.

Microsoft had not responded to requests for further information at the time of writing, so it is not clear whether customers would require an additional licence to cover the XP environment or whether this would be included.learn more>>

Yahoo closing Geocities web hosting service

Yahoo will close Geocities, the free web hosting service it paid $4bn for 10 years ago.

“Sorry, new Geocities accounts are no longer available,” read a message on the homepage on Friday.

In 1999, when Yahoo purchased Geocities, it was the third most visited site on the web behind AOL and Yahoo, with 19 million unique visitors in December 1998, according to a Comscore Media Metrix report. Now Geocities is slightly outdated in the current Web 2.0 era, giving users no way to integrate their sites with third-party applications.

The closure is also evidence that the revenue model for hosting free web sites is difficult to sustain, especially in the current economic climate.

Yahoo has encouraged Geocities members to start upgrading to the company’s subscription-based Web Hosting service, although it assured them in a statement that they will still be able to access their sites and Geocities services until “later this year”.

Subscription to the Web Hosting service - which offers a personalised domain name, email, site building tools and premium customer support – costs around $114 (£78) a year for a 12-month contract.

The announcement follows a similar decision by Google to shut down Page Creator in June 2009 and migrate users to Google Sites.learn more>>

Apple tops one billion App Store sales

Apple's App Store has served its one billionth download, less than a year after it was formally launched.

The company said on Friday that it had reached the milestone when a 13-year old from Connecticut made a download.

The App Store was first developed to allow Apple to control the sale of third-party software for the iPhone and iPod touch, as well as give developers a single marketplace to distribute their software.

Apple said that the store is now available in 77 countries, and offers more than 35,000 applications. The store reached the download milestone much faster than the iTunes music store, which took nearly three years to serve up its billionth download.

"The revolutionary App Store has been a phenomenal hit with iPhone and iPod touch users around the world, and we'd like to thank our customers and developers for helping us achieve the astonishing milestone of one billion apps downloaded," said Phil Schiller, senior vice president of worldwide marketing at Apple, in a statement.

The user who downloaded the billionth piece of software, Connor Mulcahey, will be given a $10,000 gift card for the store along with a new MacBook Pro, a Time Capsule backup drive and an iPod touch.

EBay to spin off Skype next year

Auction site eBay has announced plans to spin off Skype, floating the VoIP service as a standalone business from early next year.

The announcement follows news that Skype founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, who sold the system to eBay for $2.6bn (£1.74bn) in 2005, are trying to raise capital to buy it back.

"Skype is a great standalone business with strong fundamentals and accelerating momentum," said John Donahoe, president and chief executive of eBay.

Donahoe added that Skype has very little in common with eBay's core businesses, and would be better off on its own two feet.

"This will give Skype the focus and resources to continue its growth and effectively compete in online voice and video communications," he said. "In addition, separating Skype will allow eBay to focus entirely on our two core growth engines - e-commerce and online payments - and deliver long-term value to our stockholders."

Specific timing of the initial public offering (IPO) will be based on market conditions, but the move could make it easier for Zennström and Friis to regain a controlling interest in the company or buy it out altogether.

When Donahoe took the top spot at eBay in April 2008 he outlined plans to spend a year evaluating Skype's suitability within the rest of the company's portfolio, at the same time appointing a new management team led by Josh Silverman.

Intel launches Nehalem Xeon processors

Intel has officially launched its first Nehalem-based Xeon chips for servers and workstations, bringing increased performance and greater power efficiency in the biggest overhaul of the Xeon platform for years.

The first wave of the new chips consists of the Xeon 5500 series for dual-socket systems, and the Xeon 3500 targeting single-socket systems, collectively known as Nehalem EP (Efficient Performance).

Nehalem processors for desktops were launched last year under the Core i7 brand, while the Nehalem EX for servers with four or more sockets is expected later this year.

Intel said that the increased performance of the new platform will enable firms to replace up to nine older servers with a single Nehalem-based system, making a strong case for purchasing new kit despite the current economic climate.

"We reckon customers can get a 9-to-1 consolidation ratio by replacing existing servers with Nehalem. There will be a capital expenditure hit to swallow, but after that there's a lot of justification for why customers should look at this now," said Intel's enterprise marketing manager Alan Priestley.

Touch-screens are not the future of computing, says HP

Despite the current emphasis on touch-screen functionality for everything from smartphones to table-top PCs, HP believes that touch computing will have only limited use for desktops and laptops.

Speaking at an HP workstations event this week in Los Angeles, Phil McKinney, chief technology officer of the Personal Systems Group at HP, said that touch is not the "magic answer to everything", and will not replace the keyboard and mouse.

"The fact I have to reach over to use the screen, you can do that for a certain amount of time but then you revert back to the mouse and keyboard," he said. "Touch as the only point [of contact] starts to have some challenges. Typing on glass is like banging your fingers on granite."

Regarding Microsoft's entry into the market with its Surface PC, McKinney was quick to point out that HP developed its own version of a table-top PC in 1999, although it was not until 2002 to 2004 that the firm went public with the details.

Misto featured a computer built into a coffee table or dining room table, but HP struggled to find much interest either in the commercial or consumer spaces. " You don't want a table that, three or four years away, the technology will be out of date and it's just a piece of glass," McKinney said.learn more>>