Hello everyone, last week we held back a little on the tech news and instead featured a roundup of the best gaming accessories and equipment in today’s market. This week, we’re bringing back the news and updates feature to this segment of our blog.

This week, we’ll be talking about Twitter’s changes to its API, a burglary that happened to one very influential man and the launch of a very much anticipated phablet in the US. So, enough with the introductions and let’s get the ball rolling shall we?

TWITTER’s NEW API

Social networking service Twitter has revised its rules for its API (Application Programming Interface). And for third party developers, this doesn’t really sound like a good news. For starters, the new version of the API has more strict rules for developers.

Major changes include the need for authentication and limit on the number of authentication requests. So this means that Twitter is seemingly pulling the plug on pure third-party apps like Twitterific and Tweetbot as the authentication limit will definitely make it hard for these apps to send in data into the network.

Although a lot of developers were already expecting this kind of move from Twitter, as the company has shown interest in cutting off external influences to its network when it disallowed Linkedin and Instagram access to its API a few months ago.

The question that now remains is, will developers still continue to patronize Twitter even though the new API has made it hard for them to freely access the network’s data? Only time will tell.

JOBS’s HOME BURGLARIZED

The home of the late Steve Jobs has been reported burglarized last July 17. According to reports, around $60,000 worth of computers and personal property were stolen from his Palo Alto, California Home.

Fortunately, someone has already been arrested for the crime. 35-year old Kariem McFarlin from Alameda, California has already been arrested and charged with burglary. McFarlin was caught when he tried to connect to the internet using the stolen devices. He is currently still being detained on a $500,000 bail and if proven guilty can face up to 8 years in jail.

GALAXY NOTE 10.1 IS NOW OFFICIAL

The successor to Samsung’s very popular phablet – the Galaxy Note has arrived. The Galaxy Note 10.1 was officially announced in a dedicated event in New York. Unlike its predecessor, the new Note sports a 10.1-inch display with a display resolution 1280x80. It will also feature an Exynos 4 Quad SoC processor clocked at 1.4Ghz.

It will also have 2GB of RAM, Wi-Fi and 3G connections, an internal storage space of up to 32GB, a microSD expansion slot, preloaded apps like Adobe Photoshop Touch, Adobe Ideas, S Memo and S Note which will take advantage of the S Pen.

The 16GB model is expected to cost around $499 while the 32GB is at around $549. Both models will run on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and will have the latest version of Samsung’s TouchWiz UI.

And there you have it, the latest and freshest news in the field of gadgets and technology. If you think we’ve missed anything important in this week’s edition of Tech Tuesdays, please let us know by leaving a comment below. You can also follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook for other great features about fashion, food, travel and everything that has to do with the Philippines.

Hello everyone, it’s time again for another episode of Tech Tuesdays on TFL. If you’ve been living under a rock, there are a few things that happened last week. For starters, the 2012 Olympics in London kicked off last week. But there were also some news makers from the tech industry last week.

So in this week’s edition, we’ll be talking about Apple’s new operating system, Google’s upcoming high speed internet network and Twitter’s decision to sever ties with another partner company.

TWITTER AND INSTRAGRAM

Social networking service Twitter has once again surprised everyone when they pulled their “Find Twitter Friends” off of Instagram last Thursday. Users began noticing a pop-up message saying that Twitter is no longer allows its users to access information in Instagram via the Twitter API.

This is the second time that the social network has decided to end a partnership with another company. It was late June of this year that Twitter stopped syncing updates to professional social network Linkedin.

According to company CEO Dick Costolo, Twitter’s decision to sever ties with Instagram and Linkedin was in line with the company’s goal of having companies to build into Twitter rather than building off of it. For now, it’s unclear whether the social network will continue to disconnect itself from other partners, but a lot of people are unsure if this is a smart move for the company.

GOOGLE FIBER GETS ANNOUNCED

Google is planning to expand its empire into the internet service provision industry. Last Thursday, the search behemoth announced its high-speed internet network that is to be called as Google Fiber. According to reports, the network is aiming to provide a connection speed of at least 1Gbps, which is 100 times faster than today’s average connection.

The service will be first made available to consumers from Kansas City into small communities called fiberhoods. In order for a fiberhood to get the service, a great majority of the residents in that community would have to pre-register. Only those fiberhoods with a high pre-registration rate will be the first to get the service.

Based on reports, the service will be available for about $70 a month or $120 for internet with TV. There will also be an initial $300 installation fee. Furthermore, it is reported that each subscription package will come with a Nexus 7 tablet that will act as a remote control.

MAC OS X MOUNTAIN LION

Apple releases the newest version of its operating system – Mac OS X dubbed as Mountain Lion. The new OS brings about more than 200 features to Mac users and fans. These features include improvements in accessibility, improvements in Facebook and Twitter integration and enhancements in the calendar, messages and safari app.

Mountain Lion also integrates Apple’s very own cloud service – iCloud. This enables the operating system to seamlessly share files and information to other devices such as iPads and iPhones, which in turn makes the OS easier to setup. Another feature that is improved in Mountain Lion is Airplay Mirroring, which allows users to share their screen to other devices with the same Airplay feature like an Apple TV.

The operating system is now available in Apple’s App store for under $20.

And that concludes this edition of Tech Tuesdays on TFL, your weekly roundup of news and updates from the tech world. And please, if you have the time, follow us on Twitter and be a fan on Facebook. Thanks and see you next week!

It’s Tuesday once again and it’s time for another weekly roundup of news about gadgets and technology. In this week’s edition of Tech Tuesdays, we’ll be talking about updates on two very influential social networking sites, alleged patent infringements from two popular brands and news about two smartphones.

If you’re ready, let’s begin.

Social Networks

Twitter’s fender bender a few weeks ago was the storm before the rainbow as the company announced a slew of improvements to its user interface. These new features include Smart search, related search and narrowed search.

Smart search acts very similar to Google’s instant search that autocompletes a query even before the user has finished typing. Related search on the other hand is also now available in the social network. According to company engineer Frost Li, people can now use search queries that match multiple terms and Twitter will provide relevant suggestions where the majority of those terms can be found in conversations happening on Twitter. Lastly, the site now also allows narrowing search results which will now be seen next to the regular search filter options.

On other social networking site news, Facebook has been reported to roll out a new mobile advertising strategy which makes use of a software that tracks the apps that are installed on consumer’s phones. According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Facebook engineers have created a software that can track apps that a user has downloaded. By using this information, the company seeks to improve its mobile revenue by serving consumers with targeted ads based on their app purchases and downloads.

However, unlike existing advertising strategies employed in the past by Facebook, users will receive ads regardless if they liked the brand or not. If Facebook is indeed developing this software, it can possibly  get the social networking giant in a very precarious position as the implications of the development of such an app-tracking software can be very controversial since it may put consumers at risk in terms of privacy and security.

Infringements

Apple has been waging a patent war against almost all the big brands in its sphere of operation. Just recently, Apple paid Shenzen Proview Technology, a Chinese company, $60 million for the name iPad. And if that’s not enough, another Chinese company is claiming that the Cupertino Company is infringing one of its trademarks and is asking Apple approximately $80,000 in damages.

Jiangsu Xuebao is a Chinese household chemicals manufacturer that holds a registered copyright for the Chinese translation of Snow Leopard which is also the name given to Mac OS X version 10.6. Aside from the financial compensation that the Chinese company may receive if they win the case, they are also asking for a formal apology from Apple. The Xuebao’s case against Apple will be heard today – July 10, 2012, in Shanghai.

Nokia on the other hand has accused ASUS of using one of its patents on the recently announced Google Nexus 7 tablet without a license. According to Nokia, ASUS used the patent for IEEE 802.11 Wi-Fi standard to include the said feature on the Nexus 7. The Finnish company also said that the licenses for the patents were given to around 40 mobile device manufacturers and Google or ASUS were not on the list.

However, unlike Apple, Nokia is not pushing any legal actions towards ASUS or Google. Instead, Nokia took the less expensive route and just offered the two companies to sign up for a license.

Smartphones

Android has once again proven itself as the top platform choice for manufacturers. The latest brand to jump into the bandwagon is Amazon. A report from Bloomberg talks about Amazon partnering with China-based factory Foxconn to build the new device.

Amazon has also been reported to have started acquiring patents related to wireless technology, possibly to protect itself from being legally attacked for copyright infringement. Furthermore, unconfirmed reports surfaced that the retail giant is developing its own mapping service with the acquisition of UpNext for an undisclosed amount.

The new device will be most beneficial to Amazon as this will strengthen the company’s Kindle line of 

products. The new phone will allow Amazon to reach more consumers for all their virtual goods and can even boost sales of Kindle Fire tablets and e-readers as users will then be able to seamlessly transfer content from phone to tablet and vice versa.

From good news to (sort of) bad news, Meego developers have left Nokia’s camp which is definitely not good for the only Meego device in Nokia’s arsenal – the N9. It is still unclear why the Meego team has left Nokia but the good news is that a startup company in the name of Jolla, will be taking over the Finnish company’s efforts in developing the platform.

And that’s all for this week’s episode of Tech Tuesdays on TFL. For comments and suggestions, the comment box below is always open for everyone’s voices. For more news and updates in the world of technology, tune in again next week! 

It’s Tuesday once again and it’s time for another episode of Tech Tuesdays on TFL. This week, we’ll be talking about the newest and possibly be the game changer in the tablet market, news about the release of the much awaited update to two very promising mobile operating systems and the technical problems that were recently encountered by a very popular social networking site.

So, let’s begin.

OUTAGE

Popular social media network Twitter suffered a major outage last week as the site intermittently went down for around three hours.  Rumours immediately spread the following day that the outage might have been caused by hacker attacks, but Twitter’s VP of engineering, Mazen Rawashdeh wrote in a blog post that the outage was not caused by hacker attacks but rather a “cascading” bug that affected the site’s system.

Apparently, the bug that caused the outage wasn’t confined to a particular software element in the site’s system but instead cascades itself into other elements of the site, thereby affecting users worldwide. Rawashdeh said that Twitter is already taking measures to fix all the problems that the bug has caused and that they are doing everything in their power to help prevent these things from happening in the future.

UPDATES

Two important news updates were revealed last week as Microsoft announced the upcoming release of Windows Phone 8 while leaked information of Google’s new Android version was seen on the company’s own Play Store.

Microsoft has already given some clues of the release of their brand new mobile operating system when they announced to the members of the media the release of Windows Phone 8 also known as “Apollo” around two weeks ago. There were also confirmations that the new breed of Windows Phone devices will be using Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 Plus processors.

Aside from the multi-core Snapdragon processors, other features of the new OS include: support for higher resolution screens, NFC (Near Field Communication) and an improved user interface, specifically the home screen. This was made possible because of Microsoft redesigning the platform from the ground up.

Unfortunately, this total makeover means that Windows Phone 8 will not be available to legacy devices which pretty much (urghh) means all the WP devices currently in the market. Instead, selected models will just be updated to Windows Phone 7.8, while the rest will just have to settle with Windows Phone 7.5.

Google on the other hand is posed to announce Android 4.1 AKA Jelly Bean when they let a bit of information slip a little via the Play Store. The info leak is seen when purchasing a Galaxy Nexus on the Play Store. Once the purchased Galaxy Nexus is checked out, a short descriptive snippet is displayed saying that the Galaxy Nexus HSPA+ will soon be the first phone with “Android 4.1 Jell…”

Magnifying the image in the checkout page will also reveal a new background and a new frosted search widget which are good indicators that the phone will indeed have the new OS. It also somehow confirms news about Google launching a Nexus Tablet at I/O with Jelly Bean, in contrast to their tradition of releasing a new phone for a new OS.

RELEASE

Microsoft has indeed been very busy these past few weeks. Not only did they announce the newest version of Windows Phone last week, but they also launched their newest tablet to compete with the iPad and other android tablets in the market.

The Microsoft Surface is the first of its kind, being a tablet and a full-fledged PC at the same time as it will be running Windows 8 operating system. There will be two variants of the tablet in terms of OS versions; one will be running Windows 8 RT while the other one will have the Windows 8 Pro version.

The tablet is around 9.3mm (RT Version) and 13.5mm (Pro version) thick and will sport a 10.6-inch screen protected by Corning’s Gorilla Glass. Both versions will also have two USB ports, a Micro SD port for the RT version and a Micro SDXC for the Pro version.

The Surface also has a kick built in kick stand at its back to help users in holding up the tablet especially when typing or viewing videos. A Touch cover can also be used with the tablet and protects the screen, much like Apple’s smart covers. However, the Surface’s touch covers also double as a fully functional keyboard with a built-in track pad. A stylus is also available for the Pro version and attaches to the side of the Surface for easy storage.

Memory-wise, the RT version will come in 32GB and 64GB variants while the Pro version will be available in 64GB and 128GB sizes. Both versions will have 2x2 MIMO antennae. A Micro HD Video port will be available for the RT version while a Mini Display Port Video will be available for the Pro version.

Prices have not been announced yet, but experts are thinking that the tablet may retail for about $599 or more once it becomes available to retailers.

And that’s just about it for this week’s episode of Tech Tuesdays. Tune in again next week, for the latest technology and gadgets news from around the globe. Again, if you have any comments, suggestions and reactions, please do leave them using the comment box below.

Till Next time!