What is the most frustrating part of buying a new brand-name Windows PC? Is it starting it for the first time, expecting a super-quick machine, only to encounter and extremely slow bootup and sluggish performance due to pre-installed software? Or is it perhaps the fact that you might need to spend a couple of hours, if you’re computer savvy, to uninstall all the unnecessary programs that come pre-installed? Microsoft to the rescue! The Redmond giant now offers a $99 service at any of their 16 stores where you bring in your Windows 7 PC and they get rid of all the bloatware that OEMs preinstall, along with 90 days of phone support and access to the Answer Desk, Microsoft’s response to Apple’s Genius Bar.

Microsoft has been offering “Signature edition” computers for a while now, PCs without all the crap-ware, for a premium, but now they’ve expanded the “Signature” offering to any computer running Windows 7. So now consumers have the option of buying a low-end, crap-ware subsized computer, then spend an additional $99 to de-crapify it, or perhaps go with a premium brand, such as Alienware or Apple and pay a bit more upfront but they’ll be sure that they get the computer they paid for right out of the box.

Via [ZDNet]

Cross-posted from TechnologyTell

Check out this 18 year old natural beauty. She’s a regular school girl who works part time at a fish and chips restaurant and she has the distinct honor of winning Britain’s Most Natural Beauty. Large eyes, full lips, almost-perfect proportions and a very symmetrical face, amongst other “scientific” factors were the criteria for her title, chosen amongst 8,000 other hopefuls. Do you agree?

With the upcoming IPO, Facebook as been in the news more than usual lately. First, General Motors announced that they will be cutting $10 million off their $30 million Facebook ad budget, and now Greenlight, a digital marketing agency, has revealed their 2011-2012 Search & Social Survey, and these are some of the highlights:

• 44% of people surveyed will never click on ads (but 13% of those people don’t use Facebook)
• 10% said they click on those ads ofter.
• 3% of those surveys click on ads regularly
• 30% don’t trust Facebook’s handling of their personal data

These findings should be taken with a huge grain of salt; these stats aren’t from Facebook, but from a sample of 500 people, mainly in Europe. Another thing to consider is that you really can’t judge the effectiveness of an online ad by its click through rate. Facebook will allow anyone to display an (approved) ad and either pay per click (PPC) or per a thousand-units of impressions (CPM). Sometimes campaigns targeted for awareness and not necessarily for traffic via clicks. Take for example the ad below:

It was targeted to me, thanks for my (awesome) taste in music, but does it really matter click on it? It did catch my eye, and it did make me aware that the Dan Band will be performing soon. If I click on the ad, I will be taken to a site where I can buy the tickets, or I could simply buy them buy going to Ticketmaster directly, Stubhub or showing up at the venue’s box office and. Now lets analyze the following ad.

An ad to watch a TV concert. No direct buy involved, but the cleverness here is that the click will allow me to “like” the ad, spreading it for free amongst my friends. As technology evolves, so will the ways advertisers will find to get their message heard, and tracking the effectiveness of their ads will become even harder, unless they invent a device that measures intent, awareness and catchiness of a jingle.

Via [Greenlight]

Dish Network announced a new feature in their latest equipment that will automatically record every primetime show and keep it for up to a week. This seemed like a great idea for broadcast networks, since it allows people to watch shows they didn’t catch live or set to record on their DVRs , until they revealed Auto Hop, a feature that will automatically skip the all the commercials. The top executives at CBS, NBC and FOX spoke about this feature at last week’s upfronts presentation in New York.

“How does Charlie Ergen expect me to produce ‘CSI’ ” without commercials? asked Leslie Moonves, the chief executive of the CBS Corporation, in response to questions from reporters on Wednesday morning before his annual upfront presentation.

Ted Harbert, the chairman of NBC Broadcasting, struck a similar note at his network’s presentation on Monday, calling the Dish feature an insult to the television industry. “Just because technology gives you the ability to do something, does that mean you should? Not always,” he said.

Dish Network is moving forward by innovating and creating features that consumers want, even though they might anger the people who provide them with the content they try to sell. Is Dish in the right by providing useful features that people want? Will this feature reverse the cord-cutting trend? Only time will tell.

Via [New York Times]

Cross-posted from TechnologyTell

Rumors and speculation regarding the updates to Apple’s line of Macbook Pro laptops continue to builds up as the inevitable refresh of Apple Macbook line starts getting closer. Some believe that Apple will eliminate the 17 inch model from their line up. Others believe that Apple will consolidate their line entirely blurring the line between the Macbook Air line and the Pro line. A completely redesigned exterior, complete with eliminated ports and a much slimmer case is also making the rumor rounds. Here is a consolidated list of rumors:

1. Retina Display: ABC News is reporting that Apple will be doubling the resolution (quadrupling the pixels) on the displays, bringing them up to Retina Display standards, at about 220 ppi pixel density. OS X 10.8, Mountain Lion, already has support for higher resolution screens.

2. SSD drives: Rumor has it that Apple will use the small form factor SSD drives, like the ones currently used in Macbook Airs, standard in their Macbook Pros, bringing speed improvements to the entire line.

3. Elimination of optical drives: With the advent of the Mac App store and the decline of physical media, such as CDs and DVDs, Apple feels that removing the optical drive will allow for thinner and lighter machines.

4. Ivy Bridge processors: The latest generation Intel processors are more power efficient and they run cooler, making them the perfect match for slimmed down Macbook Pros. The addition of USB 3.0 ports and the integrated NVIDIA GTX 650M GPU will be able to drive the Retina displays without hesitation.

5. No more ethernet or Firewire ports: Thunderbolt will be used primarily as a high-speed communication pipe, instead of relying on older-generation ports. Keep in mind that those looking for backwards compatibility with their existing gear and networking will be able to use USB or Thunderbolt to Ethernet adapters and Thunderbolt to Firewire adapters, currently available.

Via [Ars Technica]

Cross-posted from TechnologyTell.

Have you seen the latest T-Mobile-bashing-AT&T commercial, featuring the cute-turned-hot magenta-clad spokesmodel metaphorically comparing the speed of an iPhone 4S on AT&T’s “4G” network and a generic Android phone on T-Mobile’s 4g LTE spectrum while riding her faster motorcycle past a slower bike. For those of you living under a rock, or not in the USA where these ads run, the commercial is embedded below.

Now lets examine this piece of advertising more closely, and the claims being made. Yes, any 4G LTE phone on a 4G LTE network will be faster than an iPhone 4S, which is capable of pseudo 4G speeds, delivered by AT&T’s HSPA+ network.

Before going any further, lets clarify that at this point, in the US at least, there isn’t a clear distinction between 3G and 4G. 4G is just marketing speak for a bit faster 3G network. An upgraded 3G network, if you will. The real fourth-generation network (4G) is LTE, Long Term Evolution. A completely new wireless network, with real speed improvements. Verizon has the biggest LTE network. AT&T has the fastest.

So, back to the commercial. Is it really fair to compare the iPhone 4S, a “4G-not LTE capable” phone with any other LTE capable phone and network? Its just like comparing Apples and oranges. Pun intended.

What is T-Mobile’s objective here? If people want faster wireless speeds and their iPhone isn’t cutting it, won’t they just stay on AT&T and get any of the high-end LTE-capable Andriods or even a Nokia Lumia Windows phone? I think the real issue here is that the iPhone 4S, or really any iPhone, while works on T-Mobile’s network, doesn’t enjoy 3G speeds, just EDGE. And thats a bummer for T-Mobile, the only major mobile carrier in the US without the iPhone. But that might be changing soon.

Apple has just released their latest patch for OS X Lion which addresses several vulnerabilities which have been recently discovered, namely the FileVault password being kept in plain text issue. Additional issues fixed include and updated compatibility is UK keyboards, Samba printing queues, and RAW file compatibility updates. Check out the list below.

• Resolve an issue in which the “Reopen windows when logging back in” setting is always enabled.
• Improve compatibility with certain British third-party USB keyboards.
• Addresses permission issues that may be caused if you use the Get Info inspector function “Apply to enclosed items…” on your home directory.
• Improve Internet sharing of PPPoE connections.
• Improve using a proxy auto-configuration (PAC) file.
• Address an issue that may prevent files from being saved to an SMB server.
• Improve printing to an SMB print queue.
• Improve performance when connecting to a WebDAV server.
• Enable automatic login for NIS accounts.
• Include RAW image compatibility for additional digital cameras.
• Improve the reliability of binding and logging into Active Directory accounts.
• The OS X Lion v10.7.4 Update includes Safari 5.1.6, which contains stability improvements.

The update is available now for all OS X Lion users, just hit the “Software Update” option in the Apple pull-down menu. Get to it!

Via [Apple Support]

Cross-posted from TechnologyTell

Just when you thought that you needed the yet-to-be-released Samsung Galaxy S3 to enjoy Flipboard on your Android phone, a resourceful XDA forum member by the name of Valcho comes to the rescue. He extracted the apk from a demo S3 unit that was “just lying around” using AirDroid and has made it available to everyone. Just follow the link and point your phone’s browser to the .apk and install, or download and transfer the file via USB. Users are reporting that the app is working on a large variety of Android phones, so, what are you waiting for?

Via [XDA Developers]

Cross-posted from TechnologyTell

The number-three wireless carrier in the US, Sprint, just announced the Tri-Fi, a new wireless hotspot that will automatically connect to the fastest network available, either LTE, WiMAX or 3G. Sprint will be slowly rolling out their LTE network this summer, after deciding not to build out their WiMAX network, so you won’t be catching any Sprint-branded LTE airwaves for the time being. If you’d like a signal-agnostic wireless hotspot device, mark your calendars! This $99 device (with a 2 year commitment) will be available on May 18th, after a $50 mail-in rebate.

Via [Tecca]

Cross-posted from TechnologyTell

Once upon a time there was a giant search engine company that wanted to get into the mobile space and their prototype phone looked like a white Blackberry. What you see above are a result of court documents revealing the original Google phone, a portrait QWERTY mobile device and other important details, such as a partnership with T-Mobile. These documents came to light in the Sun vs Google case for the use of Java in Android. In these documents, you can see Google original plans for a phone, which did not include a touchscreen and relied exclusively on hardware-based buttons. This TI’s OMAP850 200 mhz based prototype device was to have 64 mb of RAM, a Mini-SD card slot, a 2-megapixel camera and QVGA display.

Via [The Verge]