Former Microsoft exec to head HealthCare.gov effort

Kurt DelBene, the retired president of Microsoft's Office Division, will take over the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' insurance shopping site, HealthCare.gov. DelBene, who left Microsoft during a reorganization last July, will take over operation of the site from Jeffrey Zients, a former acting director at the White House Office of Management and Budget, who signed on as an adviser to the site after a disastrous launch Oct. 1. DelBene, as senior advisor to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, "has proven expertise in heading large, complex technology teams and in product development. He will be a tremendous asset in our work," Sebelius wrote in a blog post. DelBene will focus in providing management and operations expertise and on giving advice on marketing and communications, Sebelius said. President Obama and Sebelius "believe strongly in having one person, with strong experience and expertise in management and execution, who is thinking 24/7 about HealthCare.gov," she wrote. Sebelius also praised Zients for his work on the site, which launched with frequent page errors and slow page-load times. "Today, the site is night and day from what it was when it launched," she wrote. DelBene joined Microsoft in 1992 and served in several roles in the company's product development teams. He served as the general manager of Microsoft Outlook, and as group program manager for Microsoft Exchange, among other positions. DelBene is married to U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene, a Democrat from Washington state. download nimbuzz for java samsung download assassin's creed 1 pc utorrent download bat to exe converter download bradley hand itc font download acer aspire one bios mot de passe download 1040 qualified dividends worksheet download the last airbender 2010 dvdrip download roboform 7 4 1 download stainless steel medieval 2 download santa can you hear me song

Frustrated users complain about SkyDrive problems after Windows 8.1 update

As people have moved to Windows 8.1 in the past two months, the drumbeat of reports that the OS update has affected the SkyDrive cloud storage service has grown louder. Frustrated users have started more than 120 unique discussion threads on the SkyDrive section of Microsoft's Community site. There are other threads dealing with this topic in other sections of the site, and in third-party discussion forums. Most of the threads on the company's Community site are active, and few have received a satisfying answer from Microsoft forum moderators. The problems for the affected users began after installing Windows 8.1, the update to Windows 8 that started shipping in mid-October. The complaints include nagging and persistent error messages, slow performance, difficulty uploading files, lost and corrupted folders and documents, and sync troubles, including duplicate files and processes caught in a loop. Asked for comment, a Microsoft spokesman said via email that the company is "aware of a small number of people discussing these issues on forums" and that it tries to work with them individually, often by phone, to solve their issues. "Most people using Windows 8.1 and SkyDrive, however, are having a good experience," the spokesman wrote. The affected users don't share the same view. "SkyDrive in 8.1 is obviously a complete mess. I think most people are having issues with it in some way or another," wrote someone identified in the forums as Amrgardner. Although Microsoft states there isn't a generalized problem with SkyDrive in Windows 8.1, the number of discussion threads dealing with the issues and the number of people participating in them seems out of the norm for a problem that is uncommon. It's also rare for forum moderators to be stumped by most of the reports, which is leading some fed-up customers to give up on SkyDrive and move to competing cloud storage services. It's unfortunate for those users who have SkyDrive problems with Windows 8.1, since the two products were deeply integrated in this OS update. Microsoft did that so using SkyDrive would be easier and more convenient than it had been on Windows 8, the company said in a blog post on Oct. 15. However, most of the comments readers made to that post in the following weeks were negative. The volume of problem reports in the discussion forums may be due to an increase in SkyDrive use, now that the service is fused with Windows 8.1, according to IDC analyst Al Gillen. This increase in file replication activity could be shinning a brighter light on potential system weaknesses in SkyDrive. "If there are corruption and other file issues being experienced by users of SkyDrive, that would be a very critical issue to resolve, since failing to address such problems would quickly damage the credibility of SkyDrive," Gillen said via email. SkyDrive has become an extremely important product for Microsoft as the company tries to change itself from a provider of desktop applications into a provider of cloud-based software and services. SkyDrive acts as the underlying, common cloud storage service for Windows, Office and other major Microsoft consumer products. A workplace version called SkyDrive Pro is a key component of enterprise products such as the Office 365 cloud email and collaboration suite. Meanwhile, the expectations are high for Windows 8.1, which was designed to address major complaints that plagued Windows 8. However, Windows 8.1's rollout has been far from perfect, as the OS update was hit by a variety of serious and disruptive bugs in the days and weeks following its release, including computers that couldn't boot up, peripherals that malfunctioned, software that couldn't be run and OS installations that couldn't be completed. Juan Carlos Perez covers enterprise communication/collaboration suites, operating systems, browsers and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Juan on Twitter at @JuanCPerezIDG. download plants vs zombies descargar e instalar download adobe flash player kostenlos fur xp download samsung pc studio za android download cara smadav pro tanpa bayar download pacestar uml diagrammer with crack download flash player 10 activex plugin download data flow diagram software download jogos de plants vs zombies xbox 360 vs mode download usb disc security with key download avira antivirus with product key

Someone made money off the Surface RT: Former Microsoft asset manager charged with insider trading

Two Seattle-area men, including a former senior manager in Microsoft's finance department, were charged Thursday with 35 criminal counts of illegal insider trading by U.S. prosecutors and face up to 20 years in prison. In a parallel lawsuit, Brian Jorgenson and Sean Stokke were accused of violating securities laws by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The pair made nearly $400,000 in profits in a series of stock trades between April 2012 and October 2013, the SEC and the U.S. Attorney for the Western Washington District alleged in court documents. The trades were made and profits realized based on insider tips that Jorgenson, at the time with Microsoft, provided Stokke. Jorgenson was fired by Microsoft when his part in the scheme came to light last month. Before that, however, he was a senior manager in the company's Treasury Group, where he was responsible for managing Microsoft's corporate cash and investments. The two were slated to appear in a Seattle federal court Thursday afternoon to face the criminal charges. Stokke, an active day trader, made the stock puts and calls from a pair of accounts during stretches that preceded Microsoft earnings reports in July and October 2013, and prior to the Redmond, Wash. company's announcement in May 2012 that it was investing $300 million in bookseller Barnes and Noble to partly finance a partnership focused on electronic books. In each case, Department of Justice (DOJ) and SEC investigators claimed, Jorgenson knew of the upcoming events and their likely financial impact on Microsoft and Barnes and Noble stock. He passed that information to Stokke via email, telephone calls and texts, the agencies said. The duo made their biggest killing on the market in five months ago, when they raked in over $195,000 after Microsoft surprised Wall Street with dismal earnings on July 18, largely because of a massive $900 million write-off to account for poor sales of the Surface RT, the tablet that launched in October 2012. Microsoft's stock dropped nearly 11% in trading after the earnings report was made public. Previously, Stokke had purchased a series of put options starting on July 12, and profited on Microsoft's sinking price. In April 2012, Stokke used Jorgenson's insider information to purchase call options on Barnes and Noble shares, which climbed 49% after the Microsoft investment was revealed the next month. From that tip, the two profited to the tune of nearly $185,000, said the DOJ and SEC. Jorgenson and Stokke knew each other from time spent working at Seattle asset company Parametric Portfolios. According to an affidavit filed by FBI Special Agent Kathleen Moran, Jorgenson and Stokke both admitted to illegal insider trading in interviews in early November. "Stokke explained that it was Jorgenson's idea to use Stokke's accounts to conduct these illegal trades and that the proceeds from the trades were to be split evenly between the two of them," said Moran. Stokke admitted that the profits were to be used to launch a biotech hedge fund the two wanted to operate. Stokke said he delivered $40,000 to $50,000 to Jorgenson in cash from the proceeds. "Abusing access to Microsoft's confidential information and generating unlawful trading profits is not a wise or legal business model for starting a hedge fund," said Daniel Hawke, chief of the SEC's Market Abuse Unit, in a statement. In its lawsuit, the SEC has demanded that the pair return their ill-gotten gains. For its part, federal criminal prosecutors said that the two face up to 20 years in prison and fines of up to $5 million. The criminal complaint against Jorgenson and Stokke can be found on the U.S. Attorney's website (download PDF), while the SEC's civil lawsuit is available from the agency's site (download PDF). download do photoscape 3.5 completo download game plants vs zombies day du download realtek ethernet driver windows 7 download delete internet manager registry key download 8 mile eminem lyrics download skype for symbian os download dymo labelwriter 400 turbo driver xp download uc browser for mobile 7 7 download text to voice generator download temple run 2 pc blogspot

Microsoft ships IE11 preview for Windows 7

Microsoft today released a preview of Internet Explorer 11 (IE11) for Windows 7, making good on a June promise to add Windows' most popular edition to the browser's run list. Last month, Microsoft confirmed that it would create a Windows 7 version of IE11, but at the time declined to set a timetable. Today's release was labeled "Developer Preview" by Microsoft, implying that IE11 on Windows 7 is rougher around the edges than on Windows 8.1. A beta of IE11 was included in the latter's public preview that launched in late June. The appearance of the IE11 preview on Windows 7 beat the timing of IE10 on that OS by several months, hinting that Microsoft took to heart complaints by Windows 7 customers last year that they'd been neglected. Microsoft finally shipped IE10 for Windows 7 on Feb. 26, four months after that browser's debut on Windows 8. Today, Microsoft pledged that IE11 on Windows 7 would offer most of the functionality and features of the browser on Windows 8. "IE11 on Windows 7 offers the same improved performance, faster page load times [and] new standards support for next generation sites," said Sandeep Singhal and Rob Mauceri, a pair of group program managers for IE, in a blog post. Among IE11's enhancements and additions, Singhal and Mauceri trumpeted the browser's support for WebGL, the open-source 3-D and 2-D graphics acceleration standard. Getting behind WebGL in IE11 was a turn-about for Microsoft, which in 2011 scorned the standard as unsafe. "WebGL is now a vital component of the Web developers' toolkit, as real-world sites are now using WebGL to create interactive visualization experiences in shopping, real estate, and social networking," Singhal and Mauceri wrote today. The two claimed IE11 on Windows 7 is marginally faster than IE10 -- it scored 4% better on the JavaScript-only SunSpider benchmark -- and that it's at least 30% faster than rivals on Windows 7. IE11 on Windows 7, however, will not support SPDY, the Google-designed page load acceleration protocol. The developer preview of IE11 for Windows 7 can be downloaded from Microsoft's website in 13 languages, including Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese, Russian and Spanish. IE11 on Windows 7 is tagged 'Developer Preview' but it appears very stable. download complete quran with tafseer download yahoo messenger for android mobile phones download halo for google chrome download adobe flash player in blackberry download plants vs zombies completo gratis para windows 7 download password recovery for rar file download pdf to word converter full version with key download adobe latest version adobe flash player

Apple, Microsoft to leap on app auto-update bandwagon

By this fall, Apple and Microsoft will have followed in the footsteps of Google to automatically update apps on their mobile and desktop platforms, another step in the trend to take security out of users' hands. "This is one of the best things we've seen in security in the last decade," argued Andrew Storms, senior director of development and operations at San Francisco-based CloudPassage. "Historically, we've always relied on the end user to update, and praying that they do so. Auto-updating means that the moment [a new version] is released, the majority has the most secure code available installed." Google's Android and Chrome OS -- the latter based on the Chrome browser -- automatically update installed apps, silently and in the background, without bothering the user. Both Apple and Microsoft will mimic Google later this year, when the former ships OS X Mavericks for the Mac and iOS 7 for the iPhone and iPad. Microsoft, too, has committed to app auto-updates, a feature that will debut in Windows 8.1 this fall. On Windows and OS X, the new approach to app updating applies to just parts of their software ecosystems. Only Windows Store apps -- those the company calls "Modern" but which many still dub "Metro" -- will auto-update. Older, traditional Windows apps, those that run on the old-school desktop -- will not. OS X Mavericks is in the same boat: Only apps downloaded and installed through the Mac App Store will update hands-off. Software acquired through other channels -- downloads direct from the developer, for example -- will remain the user's responsibility. Although legacy applications on Windows and OS X are out of the auto-update loop for now, many applications offer their own auto-updates. And third-party patch managers for enterprises and consumers -- an example of the latter for Windows is Secunia's Personal Software Inspector (PSI) -- are available to fill the gaps. "The question becomes, how much more can be automated?" said Morten Stengaard, the CTO of Secunia. "Frankly, the more automation the better, because we cannot keep up with all the patches available." This fall's roll-out of app auto-updating on Windows, OS X and iOS 7 is only the latest in a continuum of similar moves over the years to remove the weak link -- the user -- from the equation, Storms noted. "What we're seeing is the operating system [makers] putting a stake in the ground, that moving forward, this is the best way to go," said Storms. Operating systems like Android, Chrome OS, iOS, OS X and Windows have long offered either partial (as in the case of iOS and OS X) or complete (Android, Chrome OS, Windows) auto-updates to provide patches; the Chrome and Firefox browsers have gone to fully-silent updates; Microsoft has enforced auto-upgrades to its Internet Explorer (IE) browser; and the most popular plug-ins and add-ons, such as Adobe's Flash and Oracle's Java, have shifted to a more hands-free model. download crack angry bird season 2 download avast pro antivirus 7.0.1456 license key download satzo password hacking software facebook download mbox 2 mini driver windows xp download motion to squash demurrer able form download adobe flash player for blackberry 8530 download aplikasi kamus inggris indonesia di hp download watch the uninvited online without ing download spiderman shattered dimensions pc game full version download hide my ip 5.2 full version

Microsoft embraces Surface RT price cut -- and $900M write-down -- by poking fun at Apple's iPad

The day after Microsoft took a $900 million charge against its Surface RT tablet -- sparking rumors that it would dump the poor-selling device -- the company unveiled a new ad that again took on Apple's iPad, this time by touting the Surface RT's lower price of $349. The 30-second ad relied on the same Siri-like narrator used in an earlier Windows 8-versus-iPad campaign, this time to contrast Microsoft's tablet against Apple's full-sized iPad. "Oh, no, here we go again," said the Siri mimic at the beginning of the ad. "Oh, snap. You have a real keyboard, too?" the iPad's virtual spokeswoman continued as the Surface RT's built-in kickstand and USB port were shown. The iPad lacks those features. "Less Talking. More Doing," the ad concluded. A week ago, Microsoft chopped the price of the 32GB Surface RT by $150, or 30%, to $349 -- the number the Redmond, Wash. "devices and services" firm used in the comparison with the 32GB iPad, which retails for $599. Microsoft also lowered the price of the 64GB Surface RT by $150, a 25% cut, and is now selling both models with the Touch Cover for $100 more. But the Surface RT discounts didn't come free. Yesterday, Microsoft wrote off $900 million from its earnings for the second calendar quarter to account for Surface RT "inventory adjustments." CFO Amy Hood later defined those adjustments as losses due to the discounts, and for an unspecified quantity of components -- likely parts purchased but not yet used to assemble more tablets -- and accessories. Some who commented on the YouTube version of the ad objected to the price comparison, arguing that the Surface RT's $349 was deceptive, at least during the portion where the Touch Cover was shown, as that was not included at the price. Fine print shown in the ad, however, acknowledged that the Touch Cover was sold separately. But it was the kicker at the end of the ad that garnered the most raves in comments. "Do you still think I'm pretty?" asked the iPad. A day after writing off $900 million in Surface RT assets, Microsoft takes on the iPad in a price-comparison advertisement. download speed test my website download cheats for plants vs zombies yeti download iphone 6 june release download yahoo messenger offline installer terbaru download testbase co uk 2 login asp download virtual dj home chip download explain 4th amendment 5th grade words download heroes of might and magic 3 patchvtrialdemo download readon tv movie radio player - software s and download adobe flash player 11 for samsung

Microsoft to patch zero-day IE bug now under attack

Microsoft today said it will ship eight security updates next week to patch critical vulnerabilities in Windows and Internet Explorer (IE), with the one aimed at IE plugging the hole attackers have been exploiting for months. "The Critical update for Internet Explorer will be a cumulative update which will address the publicly disclosed issue described in Security Advisory 2887505," confirmed Dustin Childs on the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) blog today. Security experts identified the IE update as the one to deploy first, citing the fact that one of the vulnerabilities has been used by cyber criminals in targeted attacks against users in Japan and Taiwan. "IE is always top of the list," said Andrew Storms, director of DevOps at cloud security vendor CloudPassage, in an interview today. On Sept. 17, Microsoft confirmed that hackers were exploiting a critical unpatched vulnerability in Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) and Internet Explorer 9 (IE9). The bug, however, existed in all versions of the browser, including the 12-year-old IE6 and the newest IE11. Over the next two weeks, security companies reported that attacks had been aimed at Japanese and Taiwanese organizations since July. And earlier this week, exploit code went public as a working module was added to the open-source Metasploit penetration framework. Researchers predicted that the Metasploit appearance would result in an increase in attacks as less-capable hackers copied the code and added it to their weaponized toolkits. "Once it went into Metasploit, I anticipated an early release of a patch by Microsoft," said Storms today. "Obviously the patch is done, but Microsoft's and its partners' telemetry must have shown that there were no reasons to go out-of-band." Historically, Microsoft has issued "out-of-band" updates -- those outside the normal monthly release schedule -- only when it believes large numbers of its customers are at risk. The company has never publicly disclosed how it decides when to ship an out-of-band security update. The early date of October's Patch Tuesday -- always the second Tuesday of the month -- may have played a part in Microsoft's decision to hold the update and not go out-of-band, Storms said. The IE update was just one of four rated "critical" by Microsoft. The remaining three critical updates were all aimed at Windows, including one that applied to the newest Windows 8, Windows RT, Windows 8.1 and Windows RT 8.1, according to Microsoft's advanced notification distributed today. Experts recommended that customers install the Windows updates as soon as possible after their release. "Bulletins 2 and 3 are through the stack and might end up rating more attention than the IE update," warned Storms. Microsoft said Bulletin 3 did not affect Windows 8.1 or Windows RT 8.1, but that Bulletin 2 did. The other four updates will patch vulnerabilities in Excel, other pieces of Office, the SharePoint collaboration server software and Silverlight, a media format Microsoft seems to have discarded or at least isn't interested in developing further. Because the Office-related vulnerabilities were ranked as "important" even though Microsoft said hackers could exploit them to plant malware on customers' PCs, Storms said it was probable that any attack code required considerable user interaction to work, such as downloading files, opening shared folders or clicking through multiple warnings. download cisco vpn client windows 8 regedit download project tv the walking dead download network controller for windows xp download x264 video codecs xp-win7.exe download pdf to word document converter download hate story trailer in mp4 download an occurrence at owl creek bridge download instant messenger for java mobile download linksys wireless-n home router wrt120n download baixaki br avast pro antivirus

Perspective: iPad and the keyboard -- getting inside Apple's head

By arming a larger iPad with a 64-bit processor and a keyboard cover, Apple could crack the nascent 2-in-1 device market -- out-Surface Microsoft and its OEM partners as they push the concept of tablet-as-notebook, notebook-as-tablet -- if it decides the effort's worthwhile, a noted analyst said today. "Apple's not driven by what the competition does," said Tim Bajarin, founder of Creative Strategies and an industry analyst since 1981, or almost as long as Apple and Microsoft have been around. "But history says if Apple sees a segment of the market, and they believe they can improve on it, they consider it." Bajarin was reacting to speculation that started with several Wall Street analysts trying to make sense of Apple's move to the 64-bit A7 system-on-a-chip (SoC) in the iPhone 5S, its flagship smartphone. Like the industry analysts Computerworld spoke with a month ago about the A7 and its long-term implications for the Cupertino, Calif. company, financial experts theorized that Apple could use the more powerful ARM-based processor, more system memory -- which a 64-bit CPU can address -- a keyboard and perhaps even a larger screen to transform the current iPad into a convertible device. The resulting device could entertain like a tablet and produce like an ultra-light notebook, depending on the circumstances. More recently, other pundits -- mostly bloggers -- have picked up on the idea, adding fuel to the hypothetical fire. "We're not picking anything up from the [supply] channel" that Apple will actually make such a move in the short- or mid-term, Bajarin cautioned. "But they do look at markets if they see potential, look at the good and the bad about something that already exists, and if they can make it better, they do." Apple does have a market to examine in this case. Rival Microsoft has pinned high hopes on the tablet-notebook concept, betting that its Surface line will find hordes of customers eager for a single device to replace the two they own, even promoting the Surface Pro as a substitute for both an iPad and an Apple notebook. Microsoft's OEM (original equipment manufacturing) partners, like Lenovo and Dell, have also grabbed hold of the idea and released devices, called "convertibles," "hybrids" or "2-in-1s." Even though Microsoft hasn't convinced many that the concept is worthwhile -- in an eight-month span that ended June 30, the company recorded Surface revenue of just $853 million, or less than Apple's iPad generated in a typical two-week stretch during the second quarter -- the company will stick with it: The Redmond, Wash. firm launched its second-generation Surface devices today. The devices, which start at $449 for the Windows RT-powered Surface 2 and $899 for the Windows 8 Pro-equipped Surface Pro 2, come minus a keyboard cover, -- an odd omission considering the use model. The keyboards cost between $80 and $130, putting a 64GB Surface Pro with the Touch Cover at $1,029, or close to double the current ASP (average selling price) of a Windows 8 touchscreen notebook. download rate my professors top 300 download silverlight 4 for mac download angry birds for samsung galaxy i9003 download plants vs zombies ipod touch dd download xampp terbaru 64 bit download excel viewer for mac download tmz on tv cast download kamus bahasa jawa kromo inggil gratis download videora iphone converter windows download wifi hack tools 2012

Microsoft ships IE11 for Windows 7

Microsoft today released Internet Explorer 11 (IE11) for Windows 7, and announced it would soon start pushing it to customers as an automatic update. Three weeks ago, Microsoft signaled that the debut of the final of IE11 was imminent when it shipped a blocking toolkit for enterprise IT departments who wanted to ban the browser from their desktops. "We will begin automatically updating Windows 7 customers to IE11 in the weeks ahead, starting today with customers running the IE11 Developer and Release Previews," said Rob Mauceri and Sandeep Singhal, a pair of IE group program managers. Microsoft launched IE11 on Windows 8.1 on Oct. 17. The automatic upgrades on Windows 7 from IE10 -- which didn't reach the widely-used operating system until February -- will quickly drive up IE11's user share. From February through September, for instance, IE10's share of all copies of Internet Explorer soared from next to nothing to nearly 34% due to the forced upgrade from IE9, as well as some traction from Windows 8, before slipping for the first time last month as IE11 appeared in Windows 8.1. That automatic upgrade may be welcomed by consumers, but analysts see it as a significant pain point in the enterprise, where change is often met with skepticism, even hostility. "The faster pace is absolutely the biggest pain point," said Gartner analyst Michael Silver in an interview last month, talking about Microsoft's accelerated development and release tempo for Windows. "The problem with faster release cycles is that [enterprises] don't know if their apps will work with each new version. [And] IE is the biggest inhibitor to continuous upgrades" Today, Mauceri and Singhal touted IE11's better JavaScript benchmark scores, claiming it's 29% faster than the current Chrome 30, 32% faster than Firefox 25 and 26% faster than Opera Software's Opera 17, citing the SunSpider test suite. Ironically, Microsoft once dismissed JavaScript benchmark results as bogus. Three years ago, Dean Hachamovitch, the executive who still heads the IE team, said speed trials like SunSpider were "at best, not very useful, and at worst, misleading." Not surprisingly, as IE's scores have improved, Microsoft's tune on the topic has changed. IE11 for Windows 7 can be downloaded from Microsoft's website. The installer file is approximately 28MB in size. download 2 demo hot need pursuit speed download drs gangsta lean song download how do i add new brushes on gimp download tiki tane always on my mind download usb disk security son surum full indir download adobe flash player 12 cnet download quick memory editor chip online download easy tv mpeg b/g w/fm download how do i netflix on psp download patch angry birds space 1 2 0

New iPhone 5C theory: Apple missed out on China's 'Golden Week' carrier subsidies

Apple mistimed the launch of the iPhone 5C and priced the smartphone too high, missing out on aggressive subsidies offered by Chinese mobile carriers during an important holiday, a research firm said today. On Friday, NPD DisplaySearch, a researcher that tracks display orders from smartphone, tablet and PC makers, became the latest to posit a poor reception for the iPhone 5C, the $549 smartphone Apple launched more than a month ago alongside the flagship iPhone 5S. "Our latest channel checks confirm that Apple indeed has cut back 5C production by 35% and increased 5S production by 75%," said Tina Teng and Shawn Lee, two senior analysts with DisplaySearch, in a post to their firm's blog. Earlier this week, media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal and the Reuters news service said Apple had cut orders for the iPhone 5C by between a fifth and a third, respectively. The production cuts, argued some on Wall Street, proved that Apple misjudged the appeal of the lower-priced iPhone 5C. Others, however, countered, saying it was historically a waste of time to judge sales or product acceptance from production numbers because there were too many unknowns. Teng and Lee of DisplaySearch pointed out that Chinese mobile carriers offered aggressive smartphone subsidies during "Golden Week," a multi-day national holiday that began Oct. 1, the anniversary of the 1949 founding of the Communist People's Republic of China. Carriers budget for Golden Week sales long in advance, said Teng in an interview today, and with the iPhone 5C's Sept. 10 debut and price disclosure, the Cupertino, Calif. missed the boat: Carriers had already made their decisions on how much to offer consumers in new phone subsidies for the various brands and models they wanted to promote. The actual timing was secondary, however, to Apple's insistence on pricing the iPhone 5C at a relatively high level. Before its launch, many analysts expected that Apple would offer the 5C at a dramatically cheaper price, perhaps as low as $350 unsubsidized. Instead, Apple substituted the iPhone 5C into the middle of its three-tier sales strategy for the superseded iPhone 5, selling the new plastic-covered phone for $549 sans subsidy. U.S. carriers that offered subsidies sold it for $99 with a two-year contract, half the price of the iPhone 5S. That price point wasn't what Chinese carriers had hoped for, Teng said. "The carriers were looking to get more subscribers through that whole week," said Teng of Golden Week. "But because Apple wanted to sell the iPhone 5C at the same profit margin and because the carriers didn't want all the eggs in the same basket, they weren't willing to give even more subsidies to Apple's devices." iPhone, iPad dwarf mobile rivals in small- and mid-sized firms iOS 7 now powers 3 out of 4 Apple devices China Mobile-Apple iPhone pact 'very big deal' Aggressive iPad discounts signal Apple's move for market share Why smartphone food photos look horrible Apple ditches discounts, goes with gift cards for Black Friday sale Apple's new iPad Mini: With a Retina Display, it's a Mini in name only Malware: War without end Second take: The iPad Air sets a new benchmark for performance and style Retina iPad Mini inventory tracker returns from dead Complete coverage: iPhone download easeus todo backup home 2.0.2 download kodak gallery software for ipad download video youtube lewat google chrome download manageengine firewall analyzer 7 download skype 5 5 chip online download joomla meta tag generator download password easy v3.3 software download adobe ovation full version download skype version 5 5 0 119 download uc browser 8 for htc

Samsung takes baby steps in touting Tizen OS to developers

The open source Tizen mobile operating system is one of the most visible examples that Samsung isn't completely dependent on the Android mobile OS. At the Samsung Developer Conference here this week, Samsung held a single breakout session on developing apps using Tizen. The session was led by two engineers from Intel, which is working jointly with Samsung to create code to enable Tizen to run across multiple hardware platforms, including tablets, smartphones, cars and smart TVs. Most of Samsung's smartphones and tablets run Android or the company's own Bada OS. In fact, Samsung is by far the largest Android smartphone maker globally, as well as the largest maker of smartphones overall, according to IDC and others. The company makes Windows Phone smartphones as well, though a Windows Phone session wasn't among the 50 scheduled at the developer conference. Nearly all of the sessions focused on applications or services that work on Android. Tizen has a modern Internet interface for use on devices, supporting HTML 5 and other Web technologies, so developers can theoretically write applications once to work on many devices. A Samsung roadmap for Tizen rollouts hasn't been announced. At the Tizen session on Tuesday, two developers in the audience said they had different experiences with their early Tizen development efforts. Developers at MightyMeeting, a maker of business collaboration applications, have been using Tizen with promising results because of its use of HTML 5 across platforms, said Mighty Meeting CEO Dmitri Tcherevik. On the other hand, Shivakumar Mathapathi, chief operating officer at Dew Mobility, said his company tried the Tizen 2.1 Software Development Kit (SDK) with Windows 8.1 desktop and found it wasn't very stable. He didn't provide any details. Tcherevik said that Samsung's interest in Tizen demonstrates that it's "willing to try many different things" even as a large company. Some attendees at Samsung's first developer conference said they were glad to see Samsung show off its distinctive features with Android at an event other than the Google I/O conference. Here, Samsung could separate itself from other Android smartphone and tablet makers. A few analysts have said Samsung is going a step further in offering its own developer conference, using it as preludes into Tizen and its own Samsung app store. Further, those analysts say Samsung is clearly trying to show off its own brand of products and software and emphasize that it is not entirely dependent or aligned with Android and Google. In an interview, Curtis Sasaki, vice president of Samsung's Media Solution Center in the U.S., said that Samsung's separate app store, its developer efforts, its interest in Tizen and other moves are "not about forking Android or any of that stuff ... Android is big enough and continuing to grow. If we can continue to grow that ecosystem, then that's good for everybody." "Google is a great partner of ours. Our job as a platform provider is to really help developers take advantage of core applications," Sasaki added. Abe Elias, chief technical officer at Sencha, a Web application developer, praised Samsung for supporting Tizen and HTML 5. Sencha uses HTML 5 to provide cross-platform applications to many large companies. There are 2 million registered developers using Sencha's tools. "We're a huge fan of Tizen, and HTML is native in Tizen," Elias said in an interview. One reason application developers should support HTML 5 for making Web apps is to avoid the 30% fee charged by app stores to host a native app, he said. Elias agreed that Samsung isn't trying to fork Android, but noted that the company has been separating itself from Google with a number of forked apps that ride atop of Android. For example, Google uses the Chrome browser with Android, while Samsung's browser is simply called Internet. Also, while Google has Hangouts, Samsung has Chat-On. "Samsung's forking apps, not Android," he said. download quicktime player new version download plants vs zombie setup download software acer aspire 4920 download teamspeak for league of legends download millionaire city gioco per pc download real racing for ipad download utorrent for mac slow speed download parallels transporter agent 5 download vanguard 993cc v twin engine download plan for windows 7