Author: Dr. Bill

And, I still want one!

The Raspberry Pi: One year since launch, one million sold

“The folks who built the Raspberry Pi knew they had a great idea, but they probably didn’t anticipate just how successful it would be. The Raspberry Pi Foundation today is celebrating the computer’s first birthday, a million devices sold, and countless DIY and programming projects completed.

The credit card-sized, ARM-based computer was released on Feb. 29, 2012 and can be purchased for $25 or $35 depending on the model. In a blog post titled ‘Happy birthday to us!’ foundation community manager Liz Upton wrote that today is ‘as near as we can get [to the anniversary date]; we launched on a leap day last year. We’re going to have a really great party in 2016.’

‘We never thought we’d find ourselves in the position we’re in today, with a million Pis sold, a sprawling community, real evidence that kids are picking the Pi up and learning with it, and new friends from all over the world,’ she also wrote.

Numerous people involved in the Pi’s development shared their thoughts. Among them was Gordon Hollingworth, who left a job at Broadcom to become head of software at the Pi foundation. ‘I remember [Raspberry Pi creator] Eben [Upton] telling me about the Foundation’s plan to create the hardware based on BCM2835 (a chip I had a lot of involvement in creating), and him saying that he thought 10K was a good number to start with!’

The Raspberry Pi is so popular that supply was often unable to meet demand over its first year. If you’re looking to buy one, they can be found at Element14, RS, and Allied Electronics.

The Pi has been used as a tool to teach and learn programming, and users have produced all sorts of cool stuff, including arcade cabinets, robots, and wearable computers. If you want to see some of the best projects from the Pi’s first year, check out our feature ’10 Raspberry Pi creations that show how amazing the tiny PC can be.'”

Wrong! I do! In fact, I would pay pretty decent money for it! They are clueless!

Time Warner Cable says there’s no consumer demand for gigabit internet

“Speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference, Time Warner Cable’s Chief Financial Officer Irene Esteves seemed dismissive of the impact Google Fiber is having on consumers. ‘We’re in the business of delivering what consumers want, and to stay a little ahead of what we think they will want,’ she said when asked about the breakneck internet speeds delivered by Google’s young Kansas City network. ‘We just don’t see the need of delivering that to consumers.’ Esteves seems to think business customers are more likely to need that level of throughput, and notes that Time Warner Cable is already competitive . ‘We’re already delivering 1 gigabit, 10 gigabit-per-second to our business customers, so we certainly have the capability of doing it.’ The executive claims that residential customers have thus far shown little interest in TWC’s top internet tiers. ‘A very small fraction of our customer base’ ultimately choose those options, she said.

That’s not to say the cable operator is totally blind to Google Fiber’s potential. ‘If Google finds the magic pill and finds applications that require that and develops a need for it, well terrific’ she said. ‘We would build our product base in order to deliver that.’ But for now the company’s stance is clear: there’s not enough demand. Clearly the industry giant isn’t as optimistic as Google’s Eric Schmidt, who not long ago classified Fiber as ‘a real business’ rather than a mere experiment. Google Fiber could reinvent the way we use the internet, but until Time Warner Cable sees clear evidence of that happening, the provider is perfectly content with its current offerings.”

IE10 has been released. Here’s hoping in “sucks less” than earlier versions of Internet Explorer.

More info: I downloaded IE10 and installed it. Guess what? It would not play the HTML5/WebM video posted here on the Dr. Bill.TV site. It says, “Invalid source.” I assume that it is because my video files are on Cloud storage (Amazon AWS S3, specifically) rather than local. Guess what, Microsoft? We live in a Cloud Computing based world these says! So, bottom line, guess what? It still sucks. Use Google Chrome. I can watch Dr. Bill.TV video via HTML5/WebM all day with Google Chrome (or Firefox, or Opera.)

Microsoft delivers final version of IE 10 for Windows 7

“Microsoft released to the Web the final (non-test) build of Internet Explorer 10 for Windows 7 on February 26.

As of today, Microsoft is making the final bits available for download from its IE site in 95 languages.

Microsoft plans to begin auto-updating customers with Windows 7 Service Pack 1 and/or Windows Server 2008 R2 and higher with the IE10 ‘in the weeks ahead,’ officials said. This will start with those who are running the IE10 Release Preview. Admins who aren’t ready to have IE10 pushed to their users can block it temporarily with Microsoft’s blocking toolkit.

IE10 is the latest version of IE and the one that is bundled with Windows 8 and Windows RT. Like IE10 for Windows 8 and Windows RT, IE10 for Windows 7 is optimized for touch first. Unlike the Windows 8 and Windows RT versions, IE10 for Windows 7 places the URL bar at the top of the screen, not the bottom. (I’ve never quite understood the bottom of the page thinking with Windows 8/RT. It seems to me like one could still maximize available browsing space even if the URL bar was in the more familiar top-of-the-page position.) And as is true with the Windows 8/Windows RT version, IE10 for Windows 7 has the Do Not Track (DNT) signal turned on by default, preventing users from having their behavior automatically tracked online.

Microsoft is touting IE10’s support for Web standards. Officials said IE10 on all platforms add support for more than 30 new Web standards beyond what IE9 supported, including support for new HTML5, CSS3, DOM, Web Performance, and Web Application specifications. Company officials also are saying IE10 on Windows 7 loads ‘real world’ sites 20 percent faster, based on tests in Microsoft’s labs. (I’ve never found IE to be noticeably fast in loading pages on my PCs/tablets, but your mileage may vary.)

Microsoft introduced its first test build of IE10 for Windows 7 in April 2011, the same time as it delivered its first test build of IE10 for Windows 8. The company went over a year between the time it delivered developer-focused IE10 for Windows 7 test builds and the updated public preview of the browser for Windows 7 in November 2012.

According to Net Market Share data, IE currently has about 55 percent of the desktop browser market share worldwide.

Today’s IE10 release does not work on either Windows Vista or Windows XP.”

MK802 IIIS Android 4.1 mini PC (with Bluetooth, 2 USB host ports) is a tiny, Android -based computer that plugs into your HDMI port on your HD TV. A computer for your living room! And, FYI, it is under $65.00 right now on Amazon. Just sayin’!

Rikomagic introduces MK802 IIIs, now with Bluetooth, more

“Rikomagic is giving the recently released MK802 III mini PC a slight spec bump. The new MK802 IIIs is still a tiny computer with a USB port on one end, an HDMI adapter on the other, and a Rockchip RK3066 dual core process in the middle.

But the new model adds two new features: Bluetooth support, an ESD circuit for better stability, and support for software apps that let you actually turn off the little computer without unplugging it.

Those might not sound like big changes… but while dozens of these Android mini PCs have come out of China in recent months, most have lacked an off switch. The only way to turn them off is typically to pull the plug when you’re done using them.

While the MK802 IIIs doesn’t have an off ‘switch’ per se, at least it will support software that lets you power down an Android computer.

The stick has a 1.6 GHz RK3066 ARM Cortex-A9 processor, quad-core graphics, 1GB of RAM, and 4GB to 8GB of storage and a microSD card slot. It supports 802.11b/g/n WiFi and runs Google Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

Independent developers have also been making progress porting Ubuntu Linux to run on devices with RK3066 chips. But unless you’re a developer, I’d only recommend picking up a product like this if you’re cool with Android, because it could be a while before we see a stable release of Ubuntu or other desktop Linux software.

We might only be a few days away from seeing the first working version of Ubuntu for the MK802 III, but I wouldn’t expect it to run as well as Android for a little while.

In other words, like most other ‘mini PCs’ we’ve seen recently, the MK802 IIIs is basically an inexpensive device designed to let you run Android apps on your TV using a USB or wireless mouse, keyboard, or remote control.”

The most secure browser ever is now even more secure! Now you have to approve any add-ins in Chrome. An extra step. And, a good thing!

Google fixes 22 flaws in Chrome, slams silent add-ons

“Computerworld – Google yesterday released Chrome 25, patching 22 vulnerabilities and debuting a new security feature that blocks silent installations of add-ons.

The latter is Chrome 25’s most noticeable change to users. It automatically disables third-party add-ons that are installed on the sly by other software. Add-ons — Google calls them ‘extensions’ — that were previously installed by third-party software will also be barred from running.

Users can approve a silent-installed extension by clicking a button in the dialog box that appears when Chrome blocks the add-on.

Google’s move follows a similar one made by Mozilla more than a year ago, when it, too, crippled silently-installed add-ons. In November 2011, Mozilla debuted Firefox 8, which automatically blocked browser add-ons installed by other software.

Although silent add-ons have historically been more of a problem for Firefox than for Chrome, Google has been limiting add-ons since July 2012, when Chrome 21 began blocking add-ons hosted on a third-party website. Since then, only add-ons obtained from the Chrome Web Store, Google’s official distribution mart, have been allowed.

Website designers can, however, trigger an add-on install from their URL using what Google dubbed ‘inline installation.’ The actual add-on, however, is still hosted on the Chrome Web Store.

Silent add-on installation has been possible only on Windows; OS X and Linux do not offer slippery websites a way to sneak an add-on into a browser.

The new version also adds the Web Speech API (application programming interface) that lets website and Web app developers add speech recognition features in their creations. Web Speech API is based on JavaScript, one of the Internet’s foundational scripting languages.

Google has created a dictation demonstration of the Web Speech API that users can try out with Chrome 25.

Chrome 25 also patched 22 vulnerabilities, two fewer than January’s Chrome 24. Google labeled nine of the flaws as ‘high,’ the company’s second-most-serious threat rating, eight as ‘medium,’ and five as ‘low.’

Five of the vulnerabilities were reported to Google by three outside researchers, who received $3,500 for their work. So far this year, Google has paid out $10,500 from its bug bounty program.”