Wednesday 25 April 2012

BYD Shows off Remote-Controlled Car in Beijing

BYD Technologies is a Chinese company that makes automobiles. The company is on hand at the 2012 Beijing International Auto Show and has shown off a car called the F3 Plus that has a very interesting feature. The company claims it’s the first production automobile to have this feature.





The feature I’m talking about is dubbed Remote Driving Controller technology. What that means is the car is remote controlled like a toy. The vehicle has a special key controller that allows the driver to move the vehicle forwards/ backwards and left or right without being inside.
The car will only move at a limited speed in remote control mode. The company says that this mode is intended to allow people to do things like park the car in a spot that would be too small for them to open the doors and get out. The feature will be standard on the F3 Plus and pricing is unannounced on the car at this time.
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Facebook Windows Phone Update In The Works


It looks like Facebook for Windows Phone is about to get an update which will include a range of new features and enhancements, and the news was revealed on Facebook.
Some of the new features in Facebook 2.5 for Windows Phone will include threaded messaging, tagging, the ability to delete posts and comments, active links in posts and you will now also be able to like comments.
The team has been working hard over the past few weeks on building the next version of Facebook for Windows Phone, and as we’re getting close to release we thought now would be a good time to share with you some of the upcoming features you’ll be finding in v2.5
You can find out more information of what will be available in the new Facebook for Windows Phone when the update is released over at Facebook.
Source The Next Web


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Microsoft Sells 650 AOL Patents To Facebook For $550 Million

It has been revealed this week that Microsoft has sold a majority of its AOL patent porfolio to Facebook for $550 Million. The deal included 650 patents in total, but in its initial AOL Auction Microsoft secured around 925 U.S. patents and patent applications plus a license to AOL’s remaining patent portfolio.
The remaining patents in AOL’s portfolio, contains around 300 additional patents that were not for sale. As a result of today’s agreement, Facebook will obtain ownership of approximately 650 AOL patents and patent applications, plus a license to the AOL patents and applications that Microsoft will purchase and own. Brad Smith, executive vice president and general counsel, Microsoft explains:
“Today’s agreement with Facebook enables us to recoup over half of our costs while achieving our goals from the AOL auction,”-“As we said earlier this month, we had submitted the winning AOL bid in order to obtain a durable license to the full AOL portfolio and ownership of certain patents that complement our existing portfolio.”
Source: Microsoft


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Tuesday 24 April 2012

New Dropbox Links Feature Makes File Sharing Even Easier

Dropbox the online cloud backup and sharing service has unveiled a new feature of its service in the form of Links. Dropbox CEO Drew Houston and Product Manager Ivan Kirigin demonstrated the new Links feature to the TechCrunch team last week, and now the new Links feature can now be used by Dropbox users to share files in a snap. Either large videos or collections of smaller files.

To start using the new features simple login to dropbox.com, and just select “Get link” for a file or folder in your Dropbox.  On mobile, open the file and press the link icon in the bottom left corner. Dropbox explains:
“Now you can make links to files or folders in your Dropbox. Quickly share your photos, docs, and videos with friends and colleagues — even if they don’t have Dropbox!
When you create a link, your photos, videos, and even documents are displayed in a gorgeous full-browser view. Your friends and family can simply follow your links to view photos and instantly watch home videos online. Even your presentations look great without anyone having to download and open them separately.”
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Google Increases Google Docs Storage To 5GB Before Google Drive Launch

Google has increased to storage on their Google Docs to 5GB, the service previously offered 1GB of storage, and this is apparently been increased ahead of the launch of Google Drive.


There is even a rumor that Google may launch their Google Drive service some time today, and with more and more details on Google Drive being revealed over the last week we suspect we are pretty close to the launch.
As soon as we get some more details on when Google intends to launch their new cloud based Google Drive service we will let you guys know.
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Windows 8 Release Preview Arriving First Week Of June



Microsoft has announced today that you can expect a new version of its Windows 8 development to roll out in the first week of June. Microsoft announced the arrival of their new Windows 8 Release Preview, the next major preview of their new operating systems, via their Build Windows 8 Twitter account.


Windows 8 is expected to be officially launched in October, three years after the release of its predecessor, Windows 7. Microsoft has already revealed that there are three packages in the line-up, Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro and Windows RT, you can find out more information about the new packages here.
Windows 8 features the new Metro style interface and has been “reimagined from the chipset to the user experience” say Microsoft. You can view the current Windows 8 Consumer Preview over on the Microsoft website now.
“It’s Windows reimagined and reinvented from a solid core of Windows 7 speed and reliability. It’s an all-new touch interface. It’s a new Windows for new devices. And it’s your chance to be one of the first to try it out.”
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