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- Kindle 3 is now Amazon's best-selling product ever
- IBM foresees 3D holographic mobile calls by 2015
- Latest humanoid robots learn to use objects as tools
- Toshiba outsources chip production to Samsung
- Toshiba outsources chip production to Samsung
- Samsung to launch 4-inch Galaxy Player at CES
- Sony set to double image sensor production
- Sony set to double image sensor production
- Skype rumoured to unveil iPhone video calls at CES
- Skype rumoured to unveil iPhone video calls at CES
- Rumour: rear-mounted speaker for iPad 2
- Review: WorkSmartLabs CardioTrainer
- In Depth: Linux in education: a genuine alternative
- Review: iA Writer
| Kindle 3 is now Amazon's best-selling product ever Posted: 27 Dec 2010 08:22 AM PST  The staggering Christmas sales of Amazon's third generation Kindle reader has propelled it to the company's best-selling product of all-time. The aggressively-priced Kindle 3, available for as low as £109 in the UK, overtook the Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows book as the online retailers top seller. Amazon reckons that the new low price has encouraged more buyers as customers don't have to choose between a Kindle and an LCD tablet like the Apple iPad. "We're seeing that many of the people who are buying Kindles also own an LCD tablet," says Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO. "Customers report using their LCD tablets for games, movies, and web browsing and their Kindles for reading sessions." Record breakers Amazon is also reporting that 158 items per second were ordered from Amazon.com on peak trading day in November and that The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was the most downloaded book on Christmas Day. On Boxing Day the company also revealed that the Kindle 3 was the best-selling product over the festive period, eclipsing the Toy Story 3 DVD, Call of Duty: Black Ops and Take That's latest Robbie Williams-infused album. So much for the iPad killing the Kindle.... 
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| IBM foresees 3D holographic mobile calls by 2015 Posted: 27 Dec 2010 04:39 AM PST The latest research from computing giant IBM claims that consumers should be able to buy mobile phones by 2015 that will project small 3D holographic images of the person they are calling.
The latest future forecasting comes straight out of International Business Machines' Almaden Research Center campus in the Santa Teresa Hills of San Jose, California. IBM also claims that, in addition to 3D holographic mobile calls, our mobile tablet PCs and laptops will be able to be powered by kinetic energy. Annual future-gazing list Every year the New York-based company asks its 3000 researchers to find five ideas which they think will become entrenched over the next five years. 3D holographic mobile conversations are at the top of the 2010 list of predictions from IBM. "These are all stretch goals, and that's good," Discern analyst Paul Saffo. "In an era when pessimism is the new black, a little dose of technological optimism is not a bad thing. "[IBM] has continued to do research when all the other grand research organizations are gone," added Saffo. IBM invested $5.8 billion in research and development last year. "All this demonstrates a real culture of innovation at IBM and willingness to devote itself to solving some of the world's biggest problems," said Josephine Cheng, a vice president at IBM's Almaden lab. 
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| Latest humanoid robots learn to use objects as tools Posted: 27 Dec 2010 04:05 AM PST  The latest humanoid robots being developed in Japan are learning to use obstacles in their way as tools to help them achieve specific tasks. In what may well be seen in the future as a major breakthrough for robotics AI, the humanoid robots are also learning to walk in a way that is very similar to an elderly person. HRP-2 is your friend The HRP-2 robot learns to use obstacles blocking its path to its advantage. The HRP-2 has been developed at Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Tsukuba. The new robot made its public debut at the rececnt Humanoids 2010 conference in Nashville, Tennessee. The new robotics paradigm The Institute's Sébastien Lengagne argues that: "Roboticists usually just see objects as obstacles to be avoided…But they can help us." "If I ask you to look below your desktop, you will put your hand on the desktop for support," he adds. "But most methods will try to get the robot to do the task without touching the desktop." It can perform basic tasks such as leaning on a table to balance itself while kicking a ball, as New Scientist reports. You can see a video of the HRP-2 in action over at New Scientist's website. 
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| Toshiba outsources chip production to Samsung Posted: 27 Dec 2010 03:27 AM PST  Toshiba is set to significantly restructure its silicon chip manufacturing operations in 2011, outsourcing some production to Samsung and selling a manufacturing plant to Sony. Toshiba Corp plans to reduces its non-memory chip exposure in an effort to claw back revenue, following an operating loss of $3.4 billion in its 2008 financial year, in the midst of the global financial crisis. System chip design Outsourcing to Samsung and others is part of the plan to cut capital investment outlays in the next financial year starting in April 2011. "Thanks to this tie-up Toshiba will gain a stronger position," said Yumi Nishimura, a senior market analyst at Daiwa Securities Capital Markets. "In a situation when bigger capacity is required, the burden of capital investment can be too big for one company, so the accord is a positive factor for Toshiba." Toshiba has also announced that it will sell its system chip production line in Nagasaki to Sony. That line produces chips for Sony PlayStation 3s – and is located in a factory already owned by Sony. 
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| Toshiba outsources chip production to Samsung Posted: 27 Dec 2010 03:27 AM PST Toshiba is set to significantly restructure its silicon chip manufacturing operations in 2011, outsourcing some production to Samsung and selling a manufacturing plant to Sony. Toshiba Corp plans to reduces its non-memory chip exposure in an effort to claw back revenue, following an operating loss of $3.4 billion in its 2008 financial year, in the midst of the global financial crisis. System chip design Outsourcing to Samsung and others is part of the plan to cut capital investment outlays in the next financial year starting in April 2011. "Thanks to this tie-up Toshiba will gain a stronger position," said Yumi Nishimura, a senior market analyst at Daiwa Securities Capital Markets. "In a situation when bigger capacity is required, the burden of capital investment can be too big for one company, so the accord is a positive factor for Toshiba." Toshiba has also announced that it will sell its system chip production line in Nagasaki to Sony. That line produces chips for Sony PlayStation 3s – and is located in a factory already owned by Sony. 
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| Samsung to launch 4-inch Galaxy Player at CES Posted: 27 Dec 2010 03:02 AM PST  Samsung is set to launch a new 4-inch screen Galaxy Player at CES 2011, according to latest reports. Samsung Hub claims that the new Galaxy Player will be unveiled in Las Vegas next week. Samsung's new Player at CES The Samsung fansite claims that the new Samsung Galaxy Player will feature a high res 4-inch LCD display with an 800 x 480 resolution. The Galaxy Player is said to be running Android 2.2, with Samsung's additional TouchWiz layer, if the screenshots shown on Samsung Hub are anything to go by. The new Galaxy Player will feature a 1GHz CPU, and feature a 3.2 megapixel camera on the back as well as a front-facing camera, all powered by a 1200mAh battery. Samsung is already said to be planning access to Android Market for the new mini Galaxy Player. Expect a lot more on Samsung's new Galaxy Player from CES 2011 in Las Vegas next week. 
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| Sony set to double image sensor production Posted: 27 Dec 2010 02:42 AM PST  Sony is set to double its output of image sensors in 2011, investing a cool $1.2 billion in a planned expansion next year. Sony clearly expects the demand for smartphone cameras and digital cameras and camcorders to continue to grow rapidly throughout 2011. Japanese government subsidies Sony Corp's internal investment of $1.2 billion in image sensors also includes a deal to buy back a semiconductor production line from Toshiba Corp, costing around $600 million. Sony will make use of part of the factory in Nagasaki, southern Japan, for the production of CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor) sensors and the development of new wafer processing equipment for CMOS image sensors. The consumer electronics giant will make use of Japanese government subsidies to assist environmentally friendly businesses. However, it is not yet clear exactly how much money Sony will receive from the Japanese government for its planned expansion. Sony clearly has ambitions to catch-up with and overtake digital camera market leader Canon, with the objective to quickly ramp up total production of image sensors, including CCD and CMOS sensors, to 50,000 units a month by March 2012. 
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| Sony set to double image sensor production Posted: 27 Dec 2010 02:42 AM PST Sony is set to double its output of image sensors in 2011, investing a cool $1.2 billion in a planned expansion next year. Sony clearly expects the demand for smartphone cameras and digital cameras and camcorders to continue to grow rapidly throughout 2011. Japanese government subsidies Sony Corp's internal investment of $1.2 billion in image sensors also includes a deal to buy back a semiconductor production line from Toshiba Corp, costing around $600 million. Sony will make use of part of the factory in Nagasaki, southern Japan, for the production of CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor) sensors and the development of new wafer processing equipment for CMOS image sensors. The consumer electronics giant will make use of Japanese government subsidies to assist environmentally friendly businesses. However, it is not yet clear exactly how much money Sony will receive from the Japanese government for its planned expansion. Sony clearly has ambitions to catch-up with and overtake digital camera market leader Canon, with the objective to quickly ramp up total production of image sensors, including CCD and CMOS sensors, to 50,000 units a month by March 2012. 
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| Skype rumoured to unveil iPhone video calls at CES Posted: 27 Dec 2010 02:31 AM PST  Skype is expected to make an announcement about bringing its video-calling service to the iPhone at CES 2011 in Vegas next month. A keen-eyed Skype user spotted a mistakenly posted help document that revealed Skype will finally be bringing its video calling to the iPhone. Video calling goes primetime Engadget noted that Skype has been telling everyone that it'll be making a "series of video-related announcements" at CES next month. Skype reps are set to participate in a panel at CES entitled "Video Calling Gets Ready for Primetime." This in addition to the 'Skype on iPhone' help document that was posted early all points towards a major mobile VoIP announcement on the way in Vegas. No word on Skype's plans to launch its video-calling on other platforms such as Android or BlackBerry. However, we will be on the ground in Vegas next month to bring you the official word from Skype regarding the future of mobile video calling. 
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| Skype rumoured to unveil iPhone video calls at CES Posted: 27 Dec 2010 02:31 AM PST Skype is expected to make an announcement about bringing its video-calling service to the iPhone at CES 2011 in Vegas next month. A keen-eyed Skype user spotted a mistakenly posted help document that revealed Skype will finally be bringing its video calling to the iPhone. Video calling goes primetime Engadget noted that Skype has been telling everyone that it'll be making a "series of video-related announcements" at CES next month. Skype reps are set to participate in a panel at CES entitled "Video Calling Gets Ready for Primetime." This in addition to the 'Skype on iPhone' help document that was posted early all points towards a major mobile VoIP announcement on the way in Vegas. No word on Skype's plans to launch its video-calling on other platforms such as Android or BlackBerry. However, we will be on the ground in Vegas next month to bring you the official word from Skype regarding the future of mobile video calling. 
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| Rumour: rear-mounted speaker for iPad 2 Posted: 27 Dec 2010 02:20 AM PST  Leaked pictures of iPad 2 cases suggest that the forthcoming new tablet PC from Apple is set to feature both a camera a rear-mounted speaker. The latest case image was spotted on retails goods wholesaler Alibaba.com clearly showing a hole in the back of the case where a purported iPad 2 camera will sit. One year on Apple is expected to reveal more about the plans for the iPad 2 in January, a year on from the initial unveiling of the iPad by Steve Jobs. The pics of this latest iPad 2 case are from a company called C & T Industry based in Guangdong, China. In addition to the hole for a rear-facing camera at the top, the case also sports a speaker grille on the bottom rear side. Ideal for those that don't necessarily like using headphones with their iPads in the comfort of their own home, yet want a better sound reproduction from their tablet. Flat-backed design The iPad 2 is also rumoured to feature a completely flat back (in the tradition of the iPhone 4) unlike the iPad's slightly curved rear. The new iPad is also rumoured to be 0.12 inches thinner than its predecessor, feature a higher-resolution screen and be capable of FaceTime video chat. Additionally, some sources are suggesting the new iPad may have an SD card slot and a dual core processor. 
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| Review: WorkSmartLabs CardioTrainer Posted: 27 Dec 2010 02:00 AM PST  Much as everyone agrees that the best camera is the one you have with you, the convenience of your mobile phone makes it a great boost to fitness. CardioTrainer isn't one app, but a whole suite – some parts free, some parts Pro – and varies in terms of usefulness. Still, it's a handy collection. The main app offers one-click tracking of your workouts, charting your position using GPS, and working out a rough estimate of calories burned based on your speed and stated activity. It offers voice notifications of milestones (literal or figurative), as well as music control and Facebook integration if you want to show off. By default, you access your archives with a code – no registration required – but you can tie your progress to a Google account for easier access. The Pro version is geared around telling you what to do rather than just tracking your action, with programs, difficulty levels and interval training. It's a $9.99 package. This part of the suite works well, but some of the others feel a little rough. These include Calorific, which tries to simplify the tedious job of counting calories, but often confuses with its explanations of what you should record ("Chocolate bars are small or medium, depending on the size of the bar. A small piece of candy is tiny."), while the weightloss planner ($2.99) only factors in one dedicated workout per day, and not, for instance, your walk into work. Still, they're optional, and fullyfunctional trials are available. If getting fit is what you crave, CardioTrainer works well. Related Links
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| In Depth: Linux in education: a genuine alternative Posted: 27 Dec 2010 02:00 AM PST  Using free software in education is not just about saving money. It's also about preserving choice, not locking a student's experience into a certain way of doing something. With Linux, there's no vendor lock-in. Free software is more likely to be open-standards compliant, and it's going to be more open to different languages, localities and curricula. It also removes what can sometimes be a barrier to learning; using the same software on your own machine at home. And because there's usually more than one piece of open source software for a job, free software makes it easier to broaden your experience and look at a variety of methods for completing that job. All of which is essential in a world where technology is turned on its head every five years and where training needs are so unpredictable. It's also never too early to start training in IT skills, and in the UK at least, computer training starts for many at primary school level. For some, this will be their first experience of a computer. It's also likely to be the first time they've had any kind of formal training on how to use one, and these first impressions are going to last. So there's a strong argument that teaching should be as unbiased as possible. Yet for a variety of reasons most schools favour Microsoft. There's nothing wrong with this, as experience with Microsoft's ubiquitous products is never going to be wasted, but as Linux users, we all know there might be a better option. Linux and open source offers a genuine alternative, with many advantages over proprietary training that aren't costrelated, although there's no reason why this can't be part of the overall solution. Early starter The best thing about Linux training in education is that there are already people doing it. There are establishments up and down the UK that have decided to include Linux on their syllabus and make a concerted effort to provide their students with the choice. So if you're a parent frustrated with the lack of options for your child, or you're maybe a student who wants to learn Linux skills from the outset, there are places to go and people to speak to. They may be able to help you make the difference. But even if you can't influence the training regime at your local establishment, Linux can still play a part. Unlike in schools, Linux and open source software isn't badly served by professional training. It's this kind of training that pits Linux against Microsoft's certification, and it's the kind that prepares IT people for the real tasks they face while dealing with Linux systems. The Linux Professional Institute, for example, has been dishing out qualifications for over 10 years, and its LPI certification levels have become something of a standard for Linux system administrators. LPIC-1, for instance, covers all the basics of running and maintaining a simple Linux system, from dealing with the command line and helping new users to installing, configuring and connecting a workstation to the network. But more importantly, you don't need any prior experience before starting on the course, and this has made it a great entry point for some of the more adventurous schools in the UK. Case study 1 Barnfield College in Luton, Bedfordshire, is an establishment that offers plenty of further education opportunities for students to take on to a university or workplace. The college has a well-established computing curriculum, including all the common Microsoft applications, web design and data management.
But more interestingly for us, it also offers a comprehensive range of Linux courses, including an Introduction to the desktop, and uses Linux as the basis for some of its web development programmes. John O'Neill, deputy head of Computing and IT at Barnfield, told us a little about how Linux training became part of the prospectus, "Barnfield College has been offering Linux training courses since 2004. Back then it was an in house-devised course running Red Hat 5.2. Over time we have evolved our provision to include a range of distributions including Damn Small Linux, SLAX, Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora and OpenSUSE. "Barnfield College has always prided itself on offering courses at the forefront of technologies. In the early part of the decade the college was an established Novell house using Netware 5. Students were given the opportunity to build and manage Netware servers as part of their coursework. Novell's acquisition of OpenSUSE inspired the teaching staff to investigate this new contender to Network Operating Systems," he told us. When we asked him what the biggest challenge had been in supporting Linux alongside more mainstream operating systems, his answer was a logistical one, rather than a philosophical one: "The biggest problem to the teaching team has been the need for maintaining adequate Network Security on our corporate network, while gaining access to Linux repositories. This has been resolved by the introduction of a dedicated teaching LAN with its own access to the internet." The breadth of Linux training offered at Barnfield is also significant, covering both user and administrator roles. "Linux is integrated into the majority of our course provision and is used to teach students ranging from Level 2 user qualifications through to foundation degree and, of course, the vendor qualifications," O'Neill explained. "Interest in these courses remains high due to the tutor's passion and the ability for students to create their own distributions. The Barnix live CD being one such incarnation. This was developed by two of our 18-year-old BTEC National Diploma students back in 2004," he added proudly. The Barnix distribution can still be found on Distrowatch, and despite being around six years old, still looks in good shape for a distribution built around a technology that's no longer available, in an attempt to ape an operating system that's no longer supported. But it's the potential to access new technology without having to jump through software acquisition hoops that also makes Linux a good choice. As O'Neill put it: "Linux gives our students unparalleled access to technologies ranging from VoIP through to in-depth security testing along with traditional desktop usage." This is why the college has extended its Linux courses to integrate LPI-based certification alongside the CompTIA accreditation the college has offered for sometime, as O'Neill explained: "Following the inclusion of LPI with CompTIA, Linux+, which the college has traditionally delivered, now simplifies vendor certification for students, and not only meets the requirements of industry partners, but also gives a clear pathway to certification." Which leaves the most important question. If you want your child to study Linux at their local institution, how should parents and interested parties make it happen? "Colleges can use Linux across the range of their curriculum. It gives learners access to both GUI and command line interfaces, and even Microsoft is revisiting the command line with their Power Shell interface," he states. "Tutors need to be aware that Awarding Bodies will accept evidence obtained from many different operating systems as part of their coursework. Students and parents can be assured that skills learnt through the use of open source operating systems and applications only serve to better demonstrate the breadth of knowledge they have of cutting-edge technologies used in all business sectors." Case study 2 Another college that's taken Linux to its heart, and one that's making it a vital part of its curriculum, is Forth Valley College in Falkirk, Scotland. Like Barnfield, Forth Valley is another further education college that positions itself for school leavers, adult learning and employers, and offers a similar range of subjects to the Bedfordshire establishment.
We asked Tony Dyer, a lecturer at the college's Department of Applied Science and Computing, how Linux had made its way into the curriculum. "We have always had a version of Unix to allow students to enhance their skill set." he told us. "In the last 15 years we have used Linux, starting with Red Hat to SUSE to Ubuntu and Fedora. We continue to believe that our students benefit from being exposed to environments other than Microsoft, as the workplace tends to have a heterogeneous rather than a homogeneous setup. The opportunity to offer our students a vendor neutral, internationally recognised qualification on top of their HNC/HND and other vendor qualification was too good to ignore." Tony also believes that the current trend for cost-cutting could result in increased demand for Linux skills: "In the current climate of austerity, we also believe that Open Source in general could prove attractive to businesses, and we can contribute by having trained and certified people available to meet business needs and the requirements they have to retrain staff." Like Barnfield, Forth Valley has taken the decision to integrate the widely adopted LPI certification system into its training and qualification, and also cover a wide range of Linux skills and abilities. Dyer gave us an overview of what's on offer, "Within our existing full-time computing courses, we are covering a large percentage of the LPIC-1 syllabus. And for students who complete their year successfully, we offer the chance to do a one-week intensive add-on course to cover the additional material to meet LPIC-1 requirements. We also offer the option to take the exams at our on-site test centre. In addition, there is an ongoing project at the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) to map the LPIC-1 onto a Professional Development Award (PDA) that would be standalone and part of the HNC/HND framework. We are also currently running an 18-week evening programme to deliver the material for LPI-101 and LPI-102 exams that together gives the student LPIC-1 certification." Tony also had some strong ideas on whether there were any advantages that Linux might have over its competitors. "We don't feel that it's a contest between Linux and Microsoft or others," Dyer told us. "The broader and more detailed the knowledge and skills our students have, the better placed they are to gain a good job." It also appears that Linux training of the sort offered by Forth Valley will easily slot into existing established qualifications, such as an HND. This could be a definite advantage if your child is interested in pursuing a career in Linux, but can't find a course locally, or is worried that the eventual qualification might not be recognised by universities or employers.As Dyer told us: "The existing HNC/HND framework covers about 80 per cent of the content of LPIC-1. It is hoped in the emerging new framework that all of LPIC-1 will be covered and will have its own PDA." We then asked whether a student's Linux experience was more likely to be used for further study, or within the workplace. "Industry is using Linux extensively as a server platform, and Google and others are putting Linux into mobile devices and smartphones." he said. "This gives further opportunities for our students to access employment. Students can use their development skills to program Linuxbased devices and their administration skills to configure and run Linux servers." This means that Linux students are leaving college with a cutting-edge education that hasn't made any compromises. Or as Dyer puts it: "Our students will have more opportunities to gain meaningful employment through having a broader skill set and a more comprehensive understanding of computing. We are committed to enhancing all our students's employability." "So far, the students have been really enthusiastic and excited about what the training can offer them." If you can't find a college or school close to you that takes Linux seriously, it might be time to get in touch with the people who make the decisions. If other colleges are making a success of their Linux courses, and integrating them into wider IT qualifications, then there's no reason why the same can't be done elsewhere. You only have to prove there's enough demand, and without getting in touch and letting them know, many institutions won't be aware that there is. Get proactive Many of the colleges that we've spoken to are more than happy to help people who want the same level of coverage for their local college, and it's likely you'll find a great deal of support in local user groups and parent associations. Many schools, for example, are happy to use the experience and services of professional parents to help improve the provision of technology and training to pupils. And even if parents can't get directly involved with the education, there's still a great deal they can do to source, install and run PC hardware, and hopefully, Linux. 
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| Posted: 27 Dec 2010 01:30 AM PST  Black text on a white background. No fonts. No formatting. Writer is Notepad with a price tag, on one of the most expensive toys around, and it's as simple as apps get. At least, at first glance. The more time you spend with it, the more you appreciate just how well it does its job – stripping away the distractions of writing, and focusing on the important job of putting words onto electronic paper. There are other apps that offer the same thing, such as Elements, but none with Writer's thought and attention on hand to turn minimalism into a feature rather than an excuse. For starters, it's not simply black text, but a very readable font, beautifully spaced. As with all iPad apps, you'll ideally use a wireless keyboard to type with, but if you don't, the standard touchscreen keyboard has been given a facelift, with extra punctuation keys, and one-tap skips to the beginning and end of each word. Once you've used them, you'll long for them to be part of the standard iPad controls. We're not too keen on the option that greys out everything except the line you're working on in the name of helping you stay focused, but you can choose not to use it. Other features include word and character counts, as well as an estimate of how long your current document will take to read out. As a final touch, Writer connects to Dropbox to get your documents on and off the iPad for typesetting and printing. It seems limited and we didn't expect to like it, but we came to love Writer. Much like the iPad, it's proof that simplicity can be beautiful. Related Links
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