MetroPCS TV debuts on Samsung Galaxy S Lightray 4G
The new Dyle Mobile TV service debuts on Samsung's 4G LTE Android smartphone.
/ Sarah Tew/CNET(CNET) Nobody looking at the long antenna sprouting from MetroPCS' new Samsung Galaxy S Lightray 4G would suggest that Samsung's bringing sexy back, but for TV lovers, the throwback has a purpose.
The prepaid carrier and Samsung teamed up to introduce the Dyle Mobile TV service, which delivers live, local broadcast TV over Metro's 4G LTE network. The service is free once you buy the phone.
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Microsoft to release four editions of Windows 8
Screenshot by Ed Rhee/CNET
Updated 1:43 p.m. ET
(CBS News) Microsoft confirmed its next operating system is officially called Windows 8 and will come in four editions.
Full coverage of Microsoft at Tech Talk
Windows 8 coming in October, according to report
Windows 8 first impressions
The four editions of Microsoft's new operating system are Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro, Windows 8 RT and Windows 8 Enterprise. In comparison, there are currently six editions of Windows 7: Home Premium, Enterprise, Ultimate, Professional, Starter, and Home Basic.
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Microsoft bringing Kinect to PCs
Microsoft
Kinect will come to Windows in the form of its own special hardware that is optimized for PCs, Kinect for Windows general manager Craig Eisler said in a blog post Tuesday. The software development kit will also get an upgrade, from a simple shortening of the USB cable to changing the depth of Kinect's camera.
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iPad 3 could make Apple top global PC vendor next year
Apple
(CBS) - Apple is slated to be the top global vendor of PCs in 2012, according to research firm Canalys.
Currently in the number two spot, Apple has seen its market share jump from 9 percent to 15 percent in the past year. Much of the growth can be attributed to the iPad, which Canalys classifies a personal computer.
Full coverage of Apple on Tech Talk
Continue »Threatened by iPad, PCs start to look like tablets
Dell Inspirion Duo
/ Dell.com(CBS/AP) - If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, computer makers are awfully flattered by tablet computers.
The success of products like the Apple iPad and tablets running the Android operating system is causing computer makers to take a new look at the way they are making their products.
Continue »Did Steve Jobs just kill the PC? (Spoiler alert: No)
Steve Jobs at Apple developer conference, June 6, 2011: The PC gets a "demotion."
/ Getty ImagesIt wasn't headline from Monday's Apple developer conference announcing the iCloud service and iOS 5. But Steve Jobs didn't hide where he thinks the future is heading.
"We are going to demote the PC to just be a device," he said, adding that Apple intends to move "the center of your digital life, into the cloud. Another Apple exec, Scott the senior vice president of iOS software, sounded the same message when noted later said that "we are living in a post PC world...Now, if you want to cut the cord, you can."
The sub-theme: we're heading toward a computing transition where the cloud becomes a digital hub and users can bypass personal computers in favor of mobile devices that don't depend upon the dated concept of file-storage.
CNET: First take: Mac OS Lion
CBS Moneywatch: Is Apple's iCloud pie in the sky?
BNET: How Apple's iCloud could change everything
ZDNet: Apple iOS 5 integrates Twitter, sports new notification menu
Video: Steve Jobs at the Apple developers conference
Apple: iCloud features
Full wrap up of CNET and ZDNet coverage
This isn't an entirely original idea. In the 1990s, industry types used to gather at tech conferences to talk over the then-nascent concept of a "thin client." That was an idea for a slimmed-down computer, where most of the work got offloaded to a server network. The concept originally got pushed by Oracle and Sun Microsystems, who sought to promote sales of their technologies at the expense of Bill Gates and Microsoft by offering an alternative to Windows.
A couple of decades later, Apple is offering an updated variation on that theme where the "cloud" turns into a virtual server for a myriad number of services that will "work seamlessly" with applications users run the device of their choosing. That's already happening and Jobs' demotion of the PC to the status of "a device" isn't really the radical concept it might have been had he made that statement ten - or even five - years ago. Even Microsoft is finally hip to the potential represented by cloud computing.
Perhaps the bigger challenge for our geek masters in Silicon Valley is to figure out a way to make the products they're shoving down our throats more secure. I'm overstating the case - slightly - but it seems that there's news of another security breach or big phishing scam every other day. That's not going to derail the transition Jobs is pushing. But if the security questions remain unresolved - and this isn't something Apple alone can fix - the future might take a bit longer to arrive.
Report:3D PCs Soon to Boom
First, there were 3D TVs. Next up: 3D PCs trickle out in 2010 and then ramp in 2011 and 2012, according to Jon Peddie Research.
In a report on the Stereo 3D PC market, Jon Peddie Research argues that 1 million 3D PCs will ship in 2010 and surge to 75 million units by 2014. Simply put, 3D will become a standard feature in your PC in four years.
And here's the hedge from Jon Peddie Research:
Although most PCs will be S3D capable due to the GPUs that are in them, not all PCs will be S3D PCs because they need a special monitor, glasses, and appropriate content.
PC makers will push 3D PCs because they will carry higher price points. According to Jon Peddie Research, PC gaming will drive demand. After gaming, Blu-ray movies, streaming TV, photo editing, home video, streaming video and professional graphics will drive 3D PC usage.
Read more of "3D PCs coming soon then a boom, says report" at ZDNet's Between the Lines.
