Google strikes at Microsoft with Office 365 criticisms

On the day before Microsoft’s Office 365 launches, Google has taken steps to preemptively keep customers from choosing 365 over Google Apps. In a blog post, Google Apps Product Manager Shan Sinha listed four reason Office 365 was a weaker offering than Apps. Google’s reasons included a higher price and a product apparently not designed for teams.

Microsoft Office 365 is a cloud-based service that’s similar to Google Apps and Zoho, which gives users the … Continue Reading

Top Girl is top app in App Store

Let’s see… what shall Top Girl wear to announce her game has surpassed one million downloads after only 10 days in the App Store?

Perhaps a red-feathered boa, since three days after CrowdStar launched the game it passed Angry Birds, becoming the top-grossing game in the App Store. That’s quite an achievement, considering, as CrowdStar’s director of mobile Blair Hamilton points out, that “compared to other top-grossing games like Angry Birds, which targets all players, … Continue Reading

Solar installer Astrum Solar snags funding from Baltimore utility

Constellation Energy, a holding company for Baltimore Gas & Electric, said it’s investing an undisclosed sum in Astrum Solar, which will provide solar panels for around 1 million of the utility’s customers.

Astrum, one of the largest residential solar panel providers on the East Coast, will install systems on around 2,000 homes this year. The average price for a home solar system is around $30,000 for an array that generates 10 kilowatts of power, based … Continue Reading

Are mysterious MacBook Air shortages signaling a refresh?

It looks like it’s time for a new Macbook Air model.

Reports are trickling in that Best Buy and Amazon are suddenly scaling back their MacBook Air shipments. For those not adept at reading Apple’s tea leaves, this typically means a model refresh is on the way.

The big box retailer tipped its hand late Sunday when its web site changed the MacBook Air’s status to “Not Available for Shipping.“

Best Buy usually tries to … Continue Reading

Apple makes jailbreaking much harder with iOS 5

Apple has added extra security features in iOS 5 that will make it much harder for hackers to safely jailbreak their iPhones, according to the high-profile jailbreakers at Dev-Team Blog. Apple’s changes will make it harder to roll back to an older version of iOS if jailbreaking goes bad.

Apple has been attempting to stop jailbreakers from altering its iOS software for years, but the U.S. copyright office came down on the side of jailbreakers … Continue Reading

LivingSocial nabs the Middle Eastern market from Groupon

Daily deals site LivingSocial announced today the acquisition of pan-Arab deals site GoNabit for an undisclosed sum.

GoNabit, based in Dubai and operating in the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan, has an Arab-language interface that helps reach regional shoppers who have eluded LivingSocial rival Groupon. The relationship is symbiotic: While GoNabit helps LivingSocial tap the lucrative Middle Eastern market, LivingSocial will help GoNabit develop a more functional payment processing system.

Ranked number … Continue Reading

Capcom steps on classic gamers with Resident Evil: The Mercenaries save-game “feature”

“Note: Saved data on this software cannot be reset.”

It’s rather inconspicuous, in tiny print on the back of the game cartridge. But that tiny “feature” present in Capcom’s latest game — Nintendo 3DS title Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D — is a huge slap in the face to gamers that like hunting down old and classic games.

The game automatically saves game data after players beat Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D. That means any … Continue Reading

GSV’s small stake in Facebook leads to $70B valuation

GSV Capital Corp. has invested a stake in Facebook that values the social network at $70 billion, reports Reuters.

In an official statement Monday, Woodside, California-based GSV Capital said it purchased 225,000 shares in Facebook for a total of $6.6 million ($29.28 per share), according to the report.

Since GSV Capital is an investment fund for high-growth, venture capital-backed companies, it’s not shocking that it would put money down on Facebook. However, it does seem … Continue Reading

Anonymous plans to continue where LulzSec left off

Even though hacker group LulzSec supposedly disbanded on Saturday, its members may simply be joining the Anonymous hacking collective to give it more protection. According to tweets from Anonymous, LulzSec members haven’t gone on hiatus but did drop the LulzSec name.

“We like to clarify again: All LulzSec members are accounted for, nobody is hiding. Only a name was abandoned for the greater glory #AntiSec,” said @AnonymousIRC.

LulzSec has dominated the news for the past … Continue Reading

Reactions to the Supreme Court decision on video game violence

The video game industry is breathing a sigh of relief today with the Supreme Court’s ruling that struck down California’s law banning the sale of violent video games to minors.

Here are some reactions to the decision so far.

Mike Gallagher, president of the Entertainment Software Association, the game industry’s trade group, said in a conference call that it is a “very very historic day for the video game industry.” He said the decision benefits … Continue Reading

Has Apple dropped Samsung as its iPhone processor manufacturer?

Apple might have dropped Samsung, which developed the company’s current system-on-a-chip processor, as its chip manufacturer in favor of the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), according to a report by Ars Technica.

Samsung developed both of Apple’s recent system-on-a-chip processors, the A4 and the A5. The iPad 2 uses Apple’s A5 chip, a 1-gigahertz dual-core processor that is more powerful than the A4 chip featured in the iPhone 4. The A4 chip is a single-core … Continue Reading

New study shows cable set-top boxes are electricity vampires

Think you’re running an energy-efficient household? You better turn off that cable box. Digital video recording (DVR) set-top boxes burn through more electricity than an energy-efficient refrigerator, according to a new study by the National Resource Defense Council.

The DVR set-top boxes can consume as much as 446 kilowatt-hours a year. The boxes are typically running because they are recording television shows while the owner is away from their home. There is at least one … Continue Reading

The video game violence arguments that mattered to the Supreme Court

Here’s a breakdown of the arguments that mattered to the Supreme Court in its decision today to strike down California’s law banning the sale of violent video games to minors. The court voted 7-2 in favor of holding the law as unconstitutional on First Amendment grounds. It’s interesting to see how the court considered the evidence and decided.

The divided vote shows that this wasn’t an overwhelming victory for the video game industry and free … Continue Reading

Google’s first Android 4.0 phone may be Samsung’s Nexus Prime

Google may be sticking with Nexus S manufacturer Samsung for its first Android 4.0 phone, potentially called the Nexus Prime, according to the mobile site Boy Genius Report.

BGR has dug up new info saying that the Nexus Prime’s screen will be branded “Super AMOLED HD,” which sounds like a follow-up to Samsung’s current Super AMOLED screen technology. That leads BGR to believe Samsung will be building the phone.

As we previously reported, Google’s next … Continue Reading

Supreme Court strikes down video game violence law on free speech grounds

Arguing that video games qualify for First Amendment protection, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled today that California’s video game violence law is unconstitutional.

The state law restricted the sale or rental of violent video games to minors, but the court upheld a Ninth Circuit court of appeals ruling that said the act violated the First Amendment. For the first time, the highest court in the country will give games the same legal protection that books, … Continue Reading

Are we getting both an iPhone 5 and iPhone 4S this year?

Starting the week off with a juicy iPhone rumor, Apple could break with tradition and offer up both an iPhone 5 and a less expensive iPhone 4S later this year, according to Deutsche Bank’s Chris Whitmore.

In a note to clients this morning, Whitmore said the time is right for Apple to jump into the mid-range smartphone arena with a cheaper and potentially unlocked iPhone 4S. Past rumors pointed to the phone being an iPhone … Continue Reading