Google Docs for Android has been updated and adds collaboration features so you can work real time on documents with other users. Also added are formatting and editing tools which seem to take it from being just about useable to being useful. I would rather use a version of Microsoft Office for Android but I am not holding my breath for that one

The app is free at the Android Marketplace

 

What’s New

Maybe a 5.3 inch phone is not big enough for you? How about an Android device built in to your glasses with a heads-up display? Well this is what Google could be developing. According to The New York Times Google are developing high-tech glasses that use locations servers, motion sensors and built in camera to display information about the environment as an augmented reality display complete with software like Google Latitude, Google Goggles and Google Maps.

The glasses could be on sale by the end of the year priced “around the price of the current smartphone”

The geek in me things its a great idea, a kind of Sci-fi future I imagined when I was a kid in reality you could look like an idiot but if the product does come out put my name down!

One Google employee said the glasses would tap into a number of Google software products that are currently available and in use today, but will display the information in an augmented reality view, rather than as a Web browser page like those that people see on smartphones.

The glasses will send data to the cloud and then use things like Google Latitude to share location, Google Goggles to search images and figure out what is being looked at, and Google Maps to show other things nearby, the Google employee said. “You will be able to check in to locations with your friends through the glasses,” they added.

Everyone I spoke with who was familiar with the project repeatedly said that Google was not thinking about potential business models with the new glasses. Instead, they said, Google sees the project as an experiment that anyone will be able to join. If consumers take to the glasses when they are released later this year, then Google will explore possible revenue streams.

For HTPC users the ability to have a library of movies on a PC is one of the best features especially with great apps like My Movies and Media Browser. I use DVDFab to archive my films but another popular app is SlySoft’s AnyDVD which has just been updated to version 7. One of the best new features is “Speedmenus” where you can skip to the content and not have to watch some of the rubbish they put in front of the movie.

AnyDVD History

7.0.0.0 2012 02 20
- New (Blu-ray): Added "Speedmenus"
- New (Blu-ray): Support for new BD+ protection
- New (Blu-ray): Support for new Java based protection
- New (Blu-ray): Updated decryption keys
- New (Blu-ray): Workaround for broken Lite-On (and OEMs, e.g. ASUS) firmware which
  caused creation of .iso images with incorrect size
- Fix (Blu-ray): Support for new Java based protection
- New (DVD): Support for new copy protections
- New (DVD): Workaround for incorrectly recorded AVCREC DVD discs
- New (DVD): Improved cutting of ending cells for movie only copies of some discs
- Fix (DVD): Possible crash in RCE removal
- Fix (DVD): Bug introduced in 6.9.0.0, corrupted file system with some discs
- Fix (DVD): "repair defective disc structure" stage in AnyDVD ripper could cause
  PS10 errors with some discs
- Some minor fixes and improvements
- Updated languages

via Missing Remote

I got an update for my Sony’s NVIDIA graphics driver this morning, the update is part of NVIDIA Verde Notebook Driver Program and is a reference driver for notebooks, rather than the OEM driver that ships with Notebooks. I find that NVIDA update their drivers more frequently than the OEMs do.

As part of the NVIDIA Verde Notebook Driver Program, this is a reference driver that can be installed on supported NVIDIA notebook GPUs. However, please note that your notebook original equipment manufacturer (OEM) provides certified drivers for your specific notebook on their website. NVIDIA recommends that you check with your notebook OEM about recommended software updates for your notebook. OEMs may not provide technical support for issues that arise from the use of this driver.

Before downloading this driver:

1. Please check to make sure that your notebook has a supported GPU (refer to the Products Supported tab below).
2. It is recommended that you backup your current system configuration. Click here for instructions.
3. If you own a Dell Inspiron 1420, Dell XPS M1330, Dell XPS M1530, or Dell Latitude D630/D630c it is highly recommended that you first install this Dell software update.

RELEASE HIGHLIGHTS :

This is the first WHQL-certified driver from the R295 family of drivers. It is the recommended upgrade for all NVIDIA notebook users, especially those playing the latest hot PC games like Battlefield 3, Diablo III, Mass Effect 3, or The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. These drivers come packed with GeForce-exclusive performance and quality enhancements and are now Microsoft WHQL-certified. Read the full GeForce 295.73 driver article on GeForce.com.

Product Support
This driver supports the following NVIDIA notebook GPUs (please refer to the Products Supported tab for exceptions):

• ION notebook GPUs.
• GeForce 8M, 9M, 100M, 200M, 300M, 400M, and 500M-series notebook GPUs.
• Quadro 5010M, 5000M, 4000M 3000M, 2000M and 1000M notebook GPUs.
• Quadro NVS-series notebook GPUs (only those that support DirectX 10 or higher).
• Quadro FX-series notebook GPUs (only those that support DirectX 10 or higher).
• NVS-series notebook GPUs (only those that support DirectX 10 or higher).

R295 Highlight Summary
New features and performance since last WHQL-certified driver

• Game-changing performance boost of up to 45% in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, “the fastest selling title inSteam’s history”
• Up to 2x performance Mass Effect 3 with SLI technology.
• GeForce-exclusive quality enhancements with ambient occlusion support for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3,Diablo III, and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
• New 3D Vision and SLI profiles for over 50 titles.
• New PhysX software for the best experience in top PhysX titles like Alice: Madness Returns and Batman: Arkham City.

R295 Highlight Details

Performance

• Increases performance by up to 45% in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (measured with GeForce GTX 560 at 1080p Ultra settings in indoor scenes vs. 285.62).
• Updates the NVIDIA Control Panel ambient occlusion support for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim to a higher performance profile.
• Boosts Mass Effect 3 SLI performance to up to 2x.

Ambient Occlusion

• Adds ambient occlusion support for Diablo III. See the comparison screenshots on GeForce.com.
• Updates the ambient occlusion support for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim to a higher performance profile (also in 290 beta drivers). See the comparison screenshots on GeForce.com.
• Adds ambient occlusion support for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (also in 290 beta drivers). See thecomparison screenshots on GeForce.com.

NVIDIA SLI

• Adds or updates SLI profiles for:

• Mass Effect 3
• Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning
• The Darkness II
• F1 2011
• Oil Rush
• Red Faction: Armageddon
• 7554
• Trine 2
• WRC 2: FIA World Rally Championship 2011
• Afterfall: InSanity.
• ArcheAge
• Core Blaze

NVIDIA 3D Vision

• Adds support for 3D Vision windowed mode on DLP HDTVs and on Optimized for GeForce passive 3D monitors.
• Added new 3D Vision laser sight /crosshair options to better match Skyrim crosshairs.
• Adds or updates 3D Vision profiles for:
  • The Adventures of Tintin – rated Good
  • Afterfall: Insanity – rated Fair
  • ANNO 2070 – rated Not Recommended
  • Apache: Air Assault – rated Fair
  • Black Prophecy – rated Not Recommended
  • Chaos Online – rated Fair
  • Choplifter HD – rated Good
  • Cities XL 2012 – rated Good
  • Da Vinci Online – rated Fair
  • Dino D-Day – rated Good
  • DotA 2 – rating upgraded to Fair
  • Dungeon and Dragons: Daggerdale – rated Fair
  • Edge – rated Excellent
  • Ferrari Project – rated Not Recommended
  • The First Templar – rated Fair
  • Fractal – rated Excellent
  • FreeStyle 2 – rated Good
  • The Haunted Halls Reach – rated Excellent
  • Insane 2 – rated Excellent
  • King Arthur II – rated Not Recommended
  • Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning – rated Fair
  • Kong Fu Ying Xiong – rated Fair
  • Love Beat – rated Good
  • Marvel Super Hero Squad Online – rated Good
  • Microsoft Flight – rated Fair
  • Perpetuum – rated Fair
  • Post Apocalyptic Mayhem – rated Fair
  • Prototype 2 – rated Fair
  • Q.U.B.E. – rated Excellent
  • Quan Qiu Shi Ming – rated Excellent
  • Red Bull X-Fighters – rated Excellent
  • rFactor 2 (mod mode) – rated Good and updated convergence
  • Risen 2: Dark Waters – rated Fair
  • Saints Row: The Third – Rated Not Recommended
  • Shadow Company: Left for Dead – rated Not Recommended
  • Special Force – Rated Good
  • Tera – rated Good
  • Top Gun: Hard Lock – rated Not Recommended
  • Tropico 4 – rated Good
  • Worms Blast – rated Good
• If you are using 3D Vision with the 3D Vision USB emitter, please read this FAQ for more details on installation.

NVIDIA PhysX

• Updates PhysX System Software to 9.12.0209 for improved compatibility with Alice: Madness Returns andBatman: Arkham City.

HD Audio

• Updates HD Audio to version 1.3.12.0.

Battlefield 3

• Fixes instances of texture corruption/artifacts in Battlefield 3 when memory constrained (typically 1GB or less graphics cards running Ultra settings and high resolutions).

Other Details

• Supports multiple languages and APIs for GPU computing: CUDA C, CUDA C++, CUDA Fortran, OpenCL, DirectCompute, and Microsoft C++ AMP.
• Supports single GPU and NVIDIA SLI technology on DirectX 9, DirectX 10, DirectX 11, and OpenGL.

Firecore have released Seas0nPass 0.8.2 today, the new version adds the ability to use previously saved firmware signatures meaning you can restore older firmware versions on the Apple TV in the future.

You can get the free download from Seas0nPass.com.

Today we are happy to release a new version of Seas0nPass that simplifies the installation of older firmware versions. This process called ‘stitching’ allows Seas0nPass to utilize previously saved firmware signatures to jailbreak and restore an AppleTV version that Apple may no longer be signing.

What are signatures? Why do I need them?

Firmware signatures are required to install a particular firmware version onto iOS devices like the AppleTV. When installing the latest version, these signatures will be created in real-time during the iTunes restore process.

However, from time to time some firmware versions will stop being ‘signed’ by Apple, which will prevent them from being installed. Backing up your firmware signatures allows you to retain the ability to install an older firmware version in the future, should the need ever arise.

Firmware signatures are unique to each AppleTV and firmware version.

How do I backup my firmware signatures?

Details on backing up firmware signatures using TinyUmbrella or aTV Flash (black) can be found here.

How do I get it?

As always, Seas0nPass is available as a free download from Seas0nPass.com.

Troubleshooting tips can be found here.

via Firecore’s blog

Microsoft have talked about the language improvements coming in Windows 8, in their own works they say they have “reimagined the display language experience” and how easy its going to be to select the language of choice. In the post they also talk about adding UK English to Windows, still not sure what that will actually mean for end users.

The main view of Language preferences shows you which languages are enabled on your system. You can see that on this system, English (United States) display language is installed and enabled. The keyboard layout is also US. Language preferences is the one place to go to add or change display languages, input language, and other functionality. We’ll be talking more about that in future blog posts.

To add another language to your Windows, simply click the “Add a language” link above the first tile to bring up this list.

Just got an update for the Sky+ app on my iPad, this update takes the app to version 3.4.2 and fixed a dispay issue with the programme ratings icons. I find I use the Sky+ app on my iPad or the Galaxy Note more than I use the Sky box EPG.

Download from the app store

What’s New in Version 3.4.2

A Bug fix release to resolve an issue with the displaying of programme rating icons

Having wifi all over your house is great but there are some devices that need a wired connection, you could use powerline networking like the set I reviewed recently or you could use a wireless bridge like new WES610N wireless bridge from Linksys. The device connects to wireless network and has 4 network ports for connecting devices.

The bridge is available on Amazon for £87.28, I am pretty sure its been available in the US for a while and according to their PR people its now available in UK.

Connect your wired entertainment devices!

Now it’s even easier for people to make more of their home entertainments devices thanks to Cisco.  With the new Linksys entertainment bridge users can connect wired gadgetry like internet enabled HD-tvs, Blu-ray players and games consoles to the Internet .

By plugging the devices into the bridge, that connects to the wireless network, all of the devices can communicate with each other seamlessly making it simple to stream video, or music and play games online through the game console and share any media stored on any of the devices. With the entertainment bridge consumers can unlock the full potential of their smart devices in the home – just by creating a reliable connection to the Internet.

The Linksys entertainment bridge supports wireless speeds up to 300Mbps, and is equipped with multiple antennas and four Ethernet ports to connect  devices to. It also is Dual-Band capable to avoid interference from competing networks and devices. In addition, the bridge is ideal for video streaming with Wifi Multimedia (WMM®) and Quality of Service (QoS) traffic prioritization built-in..

At CES RIM previewed BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 and today the update has started rolling out so finally you will be able to get your email on the device.

Details from the press release:

New OS delivers an enriched user experience for BlackBerry PlayBook tablet users

Waterloo, ON – Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) announced that the new BlackBerry® PlayBook™ OS 2.0 will be released for download today. BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 delivers an enhanced tablet experience and allows you to use the BlackBerry PlayBook in new ways throughout the day – at work and at play.
“Building on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet’s proven web browsing, multimedia and multitasking strengths, the new BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 introduces a range of new communications and productivity enhancements as well as expanded app and content support,” said David J. Smith, SVP Mobile Computing, Research In Motion.
New BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 features include:

• Integrated email client with a powerful unified inbox: With BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 you have the option to use a  unified inbox that consolidates all messages in one place, including messages from Facebook®, LinkedIn® and Twitter®, as well as personal and work email accounts.
• Social Integration with Calendar and Contacts apps: The built-in calendar harnesses information from social networks and makes it available where and when users need it.  Contact cards are also dynamically populated with updated information from Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to create a consolidated view of contacts.
• Updated BlackBerry Bridge app: BlackBerry® Bridge™ is a unique app that provides a Bluetooth® connection between your BlackBerry PlayBook and core apps on your BlackBerry® smartphone (including BBM™, Email, Contacts, Calendar and Browser) in order to let you view the content on the larger tablet display. With BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0, it’s easier and quicker than ever to take documents, web pages, emails and photos that appear on your BlackBerry smartphone and display them on your BlackBerry PlayBook for an optimized viewing and editing experience. The updated BlackBerry Bridge app also provides a new remote control feature that allows a BlackBerry smartphone to be used as a wireless keyboard and mouse for a BlackBerry PlayBook.
• Improved mobile productivity: Updated document editing functions, the new Print To Go app, and increased control and manageability of corporate data with BlackBerry® Balance ™ allow you to get more out of your BlackBerry PlayBook every day. Plus, an updated virtual keyboard with auto correction and predictive next word completion learns how you type to enable faster, more accurate typing.
• New apps and content: Thousands of new apps are being added to BlackBerry App World™ today (including a range of Android® apps that will run on the BlackBerry PlayBook). A new BlackBerry Video Store1 is launching today. Enhanced web browsing capabilities are also available with BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0.

In conjunction with the release of BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0, RIM is making available an initial release of BlackBerry® Mobile Fusion that will include support for managing BlackBerry PlayBook tablets and BlackBerry smartphones2 in an enterprise. The full release of BlackBerry Mobile Fusion (with mobile device management capabilities for iOS and Android devices) is planned for general availability in late March 2012. For more information about BlackBerry Mobile Fusion, please visit www.blackberry.com/mobilefusion.
Availability
The BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 software update is now available as a free download for all BlackBerry PlayBook tablets.

On the Building Windows 8 Blog the latest post is about SkyDrive and Windows 8. In a video on the post Microsoft explain how SkyDrive is integrated in to Windows 8. There is going to be a SkyDrive Metro app where you can browse your entire SkyDrive collection and save data back to SkyDrive with 3rd party apps being able to use SkyDrive file picker . There is going to a desktop connection via Explorer and a remote fetch option where you can browse your Windows 8 machines from Skydrive.com, so you could take a file from your Windows 8 desktop and copy it to Skydrive. The new app is going to be included in the Consumer Preview of Windows 8 due later this month.

It looks like SkyDrive is going to be a crucial part of Windows multi-device strategy.  Read the post for all the details:

This post will cover the ways that SkyDrive will evolve with Windows 8 from a website today into a truedevice cloud for Windows customers. We’ve organized the post around the three biggest things we’re doing:

• SkyDrive Metro style app on Windows 8
• SkyDrive files integrated into Windows Explorer on the desktop, and
• The ability to fetch remote files through SkyDrive.com

SkyDrive as a Metro style app for Windows 8

Inside Microsoft, we’ve all been using Windows 8 on multiple PCs for some time now.  We clean install Windows 8 on a new PC and sign in, and all of our settings, browser history, and customizations just show up. In addition, one of the most important steps we take to make a new PC “ours” is to copy over our personal files – like documents and photos. With Windows 8, we wanted to make sure that your files would be instantly available and up-to-date as you move between PCs – without configuring add-ons or using a USB drive.

One approach to building a modern device cloud is to build a set of proprietary apps that hide files from users. But because we are building a cloud that can store different types of data and lots of it, we decided to take a different approach. We designed a no-compromise cloud experience where enthusiasts will be able to control files the way they want, while others who are less familiar with the file system can still take advantage of the cloud simply by accessing SkyDrive through the apps they use every day.

Enter the new SkyDrive app. With the SkyDrive app, an early version of which will be available at Consumer Preview, we focused on two things: 1) designing a fast, fluid, touch-first version of SkyDrive that makes it quick, easy, and even fun to browse and access your files, and 2) making your SkyDrive available for use from any Metro style app via the file picker (open/save) and the new Share charm in Windows 8.

To build a SkyDrive experience on WinRT, we took an approach that we expect many web developers will choose to take on Windows 8. We built the entire app using modern web technologies like JavaScript, CSS, and HTML5, and because of our recent updates to SkyDrive.com, we were able to use the same JSON APIs and JavaScript object model that the website uses. The only difference on Windows 8 is that we bind the results to modern controls that were built for touch. This is part of the reason it’s so fast, and the touch behavior works so well (and works on Windows on ARM too). Over time, we fully expect the Metro style app and SkyDrive.com to “converge” on functionality so there won’t be a question of which experience someone should use. When using Windows 8, the SkyDrive Metro style app will be the best way to browse and manage your SkyDrive.