Horizons
People vote during at a displaced polling center in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn, New York, on Nov. 6, 2012. (Reuters)
Where do I vote? A primer on finding your local polling place.
After a solid three years of punditry, prognostications, and all manner of political posturing, the 2012 election is finally here.
So you've decided to vote? Good. Now you just need to find the right polling station. (Well, before that, you need to be registered, although a handful of states, including Rhode Island, Minnesota, and Mississippi, allow election-day registration. Click here to find out if your state is on the list.)
You've got some options. First – and probably the fastest – is Google's elections page, where you can plug in your address and find a map to the nearest voting place. The bonus here is a ballot summary not only of the presidential choices, but also the local and national congressional races. You can also track past data, such as the Republican primaries, on a handy, color-coded chart.
Facebook, meanwhile, has set up a pretty decent election tool of its own. Same deal here: Facebook takes your address and finds you a polling station, although the social network lacks Google's deep-dive information on local candidates.
If you already sussed out the location of your polling place, but you're not sure what to bring in terms of identification – or even if you can legally vote – navigate over to canivote.org. There you can check registration info, click through lists of acceptable ID, and find contact info for local election officials.
Happy voting!
For more tech news, follow us on Twitter @venturenaut.
Microsoft corporate vice president Joe Belfiore speaks during the launch of Windows Phone 8 in San Francisco in late October. A Surface gaming tablet is reportedly on the way from Microsoft. (Reuters)
Is Microsoft building an Xbox Surface gaming tablet?
Microsoft is developing a gaming-specific, 7-inch tablet called the Xbox Surface.
That's the word today from the folks at The Verge, who report that the Xbox Surface will be equipped with "a custom ARM processor and high-bandwidth RAM designed specifically for gaming tasks."
According to The Verge, the device would not run a full Windows RT build, but a custom Windows "kernel" that also supports messaging and apps. Microsoft, unsurprisingly, has declined to comment.
Still, we buy it. The Microsoft Xbox 360 is one of the most popular gaming platforms in history – an astonishing 70 million units have been sold since the console debuted in 2005. Meanwhile, the Microsoft Surface tablet, which launched late last month, has received a warm critical reception (we'll have to wait on sales figures). It makes sense that Microsoft would want to join the two worlds and build a gaming tablet.
The Xbox Surface, argues Roger Cheng of CNET, "would also be consistent with Microsoft's transformation from a software company into one that juggles both hardware and software, as illustrated by the Surface."
Worth noting, of course, is the slow decline of the gaming-specific device. The Nintendo 3DS has sold pretty briskly – while the Sony Vita has performed downright sluggishly – but most analysts believe the real action is in downloadable content for smart phones and tablets. Casual games, in other words, that we don't need to buy a purpose-ready machine in order to play.
For more tech news, follow us on Twitter @venturenaut.
Customers line up for the opening of a new Apple store in Shenzhen, China, on Nov. 3. Apple's first store in South China opened on Saturday at the Holiday Plaza in the Nanshan district of Shenzhen. It is the seventh Apple store on the Chinese mainland, local media reported. (Reuters)
iPad Mini, new iPad set new sales record (sort of)
Apple sold 3 million iPads in the three days following the launch of the iPad Mini and the fourth-generation iPad, the Cupertino company said today. Apple did not further break down that figure, so it remains unclear precisely how many Minis were actually unloaded, but in a statement, Apple CEO Tim Cook said interest in the high-powered, pint-sized tablet remained robust.
"Customers around the world love the new iPad mini and fourth generation iPad," Mr. Cook said. "We set a new launch weekend record and practically sold out of iPad minis. We're working hard to build more quickly to meet the incredible demand."
About that "launch weekend record": Earlier this year, customers reportedly snapped up 1.5 million Wi-Fi-only third-generation iPads in the first weekend that device was available. Because the fourth-generation and iPad Mini are currently only available in Wi-Fi versions (4G units will become available in the next couple of weeks), Apple can kind of/sort of said it broke its own record with the newest tablets.
Of course, as Chloe Albanesius points out over at PC Mag, Apple actually sold a total of 3 million third-generation iPads between March 16 and 19. (Unsurprisingly, Apple's marketing chief, Philip Schiller, said at the time that the third-generation iPad was a "blockbuster with 3 million sold – the strongest iPad launch yet.") Still, "launch weekend record" has such a nice ring to it!
Analysts have predicted that the Mini, essentially a "tweener" device – midway between smartphone and tablet – will fall somewhat short of past Apple product launches. Which makes sense: If you already own a full-sized iPad (and plenty of you do) and an iPhone, you'll be hard-pressed to fork over the extra $329 for a third Apple handset.
"We continue to believe that while launch lines and initial weekend sales may not be as impressive as previous iPad launches, the iPad Mini will be a hit product for Apple and become a more significant part of the story over the next 2-3 quarters," Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray wrote in a note to clients obtained by MarketWatch.
For more tech news, follow us on Twitter @venturenaut.
A woman walks into an Acer store located in the Guanghua Market area in Taipei, Oct. 23, 2012. Acer exec Linxian Lang recently issued a warning of sorts to Microsoft. (Reuters)
Acer to Microsoft: Hardware is our game, stick to software
Acer, the Taiwan-based electronics manufacturer, has some strong words for Microsoft.
In an interview with Tencent Technology, Acer executive Lin Xianlang compared hardware manufacturing to "hard rice," and speculated that Microsoft might find it extremely hard to eat. (The full Tencent Technology article is here – we're relying on Google Translate for a rough rendering of the original text.) The hardware in question, of course, is the Microsoft Surface tablet, a rival to Acer-made Windows 8 tablets such as the Iconia.
Lin's message might be paraphrased as: You make the software, Microsoft, and we'll concentrate on the hardware.
But as Sharif Sakr of Engadget points out, "Microsoft's tablet has been boiled and salted just right, which might be the real reason Acer is so averse to it."
The Windows RT-powered Surface has in recent days received generally strong marks from critics. Reviews have highlighted the strong build quality and strong lines of the device, while questioning whether Microsoft has done enough to court app developers.
Even Oprah Winfrey has gotten into the game, adding the Surface to O Magazine's "Favorite Things of 2012" list (hat tip to PC Magazine). The tablet, Winfrey says, "feels like a Mercedes-Benz to me, people!"
Anyway, this probably won't be the last time a hardware maker gets a little snippy with Microsoft.
As we noted late last week, there is strong evidence to suggest that Microsoft will eventually manufacture its own smartphone. That would alienate smartphone makers such as Nokia, which has partnered with Microsoft to produce a line of Windows Phone devices, including the Lumia 920.
Late last month, Microsoft said it had sold 4 million Windows 8 upgrades shortly after launch, although it has not released sales figures since then.
For more tech news, follow us on Twitter @venturenaut.
Customers queue outside the Apple store in Covent Garden, London, to buy the new iPad Mini, which launched today. (Reuters)
iPad Mini launches to middling lines, muted expectations
Apple has an uncanny ability to whip up fandom. What other company can lure hundreds of people to a wait in line for a gadget launch – and have the press call that a weak showing?
Well, the iPad Mini arrives today. If anecdotal evidence is to be believed, the lines out there are relatively short, at least compared to the crowded and blockbuster launches of devices such as the iPhone 5.
In Hong Kong, according to CNN, there were only a few Apple fans hovering around the flagship store. Fifty people were queued up outside a story in Sydney, and 100 in Amsterdam, Seoul, and Tokyo, Reuters reports.
So yes, substantial interest, but from far from the typical all-consuming pandemonium.
Still, plenty of analysts remained optimistic about the Mini's chances.
"We continue to believe that while launch lines and initial weekend sales may not be as impressive as previous iPad launches, the iPad Mini will be a hit product for Apple and become a more significant part of the story over the next 2-3 quarters," Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray wrote in a note to clients obtained by MarketWatch.
Apple doesn't necessarily need the iPad Mini to be a grand slam. (It's a "tweener" device, after all, and plenty of folks who already have an iPhone and a full-sized iPad aren't going to fight to get their hands on a device that falls somewhere between those two in size and power.) What it needs is for sales to be slow and steady, thus strengthening Apple's steely grip on the tablet market and edging out competitors such as Amazon and Google – two companies that also make 7-inch tablets.
In (somewhat) related news, a few enterprising reviewers have decided to "drop-test" the Apple iPad Mini and the Google Nexus 7 – a drop-test, in this case, being the act of dashing an expensive piece of electronic hardware.
"Not surprisingly," notes Craig Lloyd of Slashgear, "both tablets ended up with cracked displays, but the Nexus 7 actually took more of a beating than the iPad mini. The rear casing eventually snapped off, and bits of plastic were broken off, as well as bits of glass from the display. The iPad mini’s display actually survived the first round, only receiving damage on the corner."
For more tech news, follow us on Twitter @venturenaut.
Attendees are shown during the launch of Windows Phone 8 in San Francisco in October. (Reuters)
Will Microsoft build its own Windows phone?
Last year, Nokia and Microsoft entered into what seemed like a mutually beneficial partnership: Nokia would make the phones and Microsoft would make the software. The results, including a couple of Windows Phone 8 devices, have not broken any sales records, but they have received high marks from critics. Still, rumors continue to percolate that Microsoft will eventually decide to make both the hardware and the software for its smartphones.
And why not? It's done something similar in the past – the Xbox 360, anyone? – and it's doing something similar right now, with the Surface tablet, a device manufactured, powered by, and sold by Microsoft. The latest snippet of gossip comes from The Wall Street Journal, which reports that Microsoft is currently "working with component suppliers in Asia to test its own smartphone design." The "Apple model," the Journal calls it.
Is the report accurate? Well, Microsoft has remained pretty coy about the whole thing.
"We're quite happy this holiday [season] going to market hard with Nokia, Samsung, and HTC," Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer recently told the Journal, referring to three companies that builds Windows Phone 8 handsets. "Whether we had a plan to do something different or we didn't have a plan I wouldn't comment in any dimension."
We're going to go out on a limb here and suggest that if Microsoft did make its own line of smartphones, Nokia, Samsung, and HTC wouldn't be particularly happy. And so obviously Microsoft doesn't have much incentive to start talking about hardware opportunities.
But we believe it's likely that Microsoft is doing exactly what the Journal suggests – laying the groundwork for a phone of its own.
After all, a pure Microsoft phone would offer the company full control over every aspect of the device – probably an alluring possibility for the tech giant.
But over at the Register, Gavin Clarke sounds a note of caution.
"Such a move will come [as] huge loss to the company, because Microsoft will need to absorb the licensing it would have charged others," Clarke writes. "The Windows Phone unit is already one of Microsoft’s most anaemic business units. It is unlikely that Microsoft will able able to bag top spot or even second place [in the smartphone market], though it might have done if it had more partners. However, breaking out and making its own phone is almost certainly Microsoft’s best option for coming third."
For more tech news, follow us on Twitter @venturenaut.
The FTC announced Thursday that it had shut down five companies engaged in credit card robocalls, including "Rachael from Cardholder Services" scheme. Here, a woman checks her phone before going into the Times Square subway station in New York. (Carlo Allegri/Reuters)
FTC cuts off 'Rachel from Cardholder Services'
Maybe you've gotten this call before, or one like it: "Hi, this is Rachel from Cardholder Services ... contact us concerning your eligibility for lowering your interest rates."
The call, according to the Federal Trade Commission, is a scam. "Rachel" won't do anything but transfer you to a telemarketer who will promise to lower the interest on your credit card -- in exchange for an upfront-fee somewhere between several hundred dollars and $3,000.
The FTC is putting a dent in those automated call. The agency announced on Thursday that it has shut down five robocall companies that participated in the "Rachel" scheme. The companies had defrauded more than 30,000 customers for a haul of more than $30 million by promising nonexistent services, the FTC said at a Chicago press conference.
The five companies are all facing complaints in US District court, where they're accused of making deceptive sales claims and violating robocalling laws. (In some cases, robocalling is okay -- such as for political campaigns and charity drives -- but credit offers aren't allowed.) The law also prohibits telemarketers from charging people money up front in exchange for a promise to reduce debt.
"At the FTC, Rachel from Cardholder Services is public enemy number one,” said FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz in the FTC's press release.
The agency also noted that it's been getting more than 200,000 complaints each month about automated telemarketing calls, including those from "Rachel." Some telemarketers at the companies in question, it added, even promised consumers they could pay off their credit card balances two to three times faster by lowering their interest rates.
After collecting their fees, most companies don't do anything to actually lower consumers' interest rates. One of the only services actually rendered, the FTC said, is a three-way call between the telemarketer, the consumer, and the credit card company. The telemarketer requests for the credit card interest rate to be reduced -- "a request that consumers could make on their own and that invariably is denied," the agency noted.
This isn't the first time the FTC has moved to crack down on these kinds of schemes. It had filed 12 cases against robocall operators before Thursday, including groups running credit card scams. But there's more to be done, still: the five companies shut down today outsourced their calls to other companies that have the technology to make millions of robocalls a year. It'll be tough to shut down not only the telemarketers who tricked consumers, but the companies who are actually responsible for making the calls.
In the meantime, though, those who have been ripped off can breathe easier: the FTC has frozen the five companies' assets, and says defrauded consumers will get their money back.
Have you gotten calls from "Rachel" before? Share your experience in the comments section below.
[Editor's note: The original version of this story misstated that the five companies face "criminal" complaints.]
Samsung won a victory in UK court last month. Now, Apple must revise a public statement admitting Samsung did not infringe on its patents. (Reuters)
Judges say Apple statement on Samsung went too far
Apple has long contended that Samsung, in building its Android line of phones and tablets, stole a few design cues from the iPhone and iPad. But last month, Apple definitively lost a legal battle in the UK to prove those claims, and a British court ordered Apple to post a statement on its Website, admitting Samsung didn't actually steal anything. Which Apple has done – sort of.
In the statement, Apple included two paragraphs taken directly from the ruling, including a line that basically inferred that the Galaxy tablets weren't copied from the iPad, because the iPad is actually "cool." (We're not kidding – take a look.) Apparently unable to resist itself, the company then noted that a similar case in Germany had found Samsung guilty of engaging in "unfair competition."
"A US jury also found Samsung guilty of infringing on Apple's design and utility patents, awarding over one billion U.S. dollars in damages to Apple Inc.," Apple wrote. "So while the UK court did not find Samsung guilty of infringement, other courts have recognized that in the course of creating its Galaxy tablet, Samsung willfully copied Apple's far more popular iPad."
Needless to say, this distinctly non-apologetic statement, which was brought to the attention of the UK court by Samsung, has not made the the presiding judges very happy. According to the BBC, Lord Justice Longmore, Lord Justice Kitchin, and Sir Robin Jacob say Apple is "non-compliant," and has given the Cupertino tech company 48 hours to post a more appropriate statement to their site.
"A consumer might well think: 'I had better not buy a Samsung – maybe it's illegal and if I buy one it may not be supported,'" Jacob wrote in the ruling. "Apple itself must (having created the confusion) make the position clear: that it acknowledges that the court has decided that these Samsung products do not infringe its registered design."
In addition, the judges said, the post should not be buried in a corner of the Apple site – instead, it should appear front and center, on the UK version of the Apple homepage. Apple has agreed to make the changes.
So what's next for Apple and Samsung? More lawsuits. But over at Computer world, Jonny Evans says it may be time to "give peace a chance" – to halt the fighting and get back to innovating.
"Personal opinion aside, the smartphone wars must stop. I wish all the parties in all this foolish litigation would simply man up, say sorry, and reach non-punitive deals with one another, so the focus could turn to products, not politics," Evans writes. "Everyone has attempted to make their point, it’s time for litigation to end."
For more tech news, follow us on Twitter @venturenaut.
In the wake of the storm, Verizon is offering free device charging and domestic calls at select retail stores. (Verizon)
In Sandy's wake, Verizon stores offer free charging, domestic calls
Verizon is rolling out a fleet of mobile charging stations to West Virginia, Ohio, and New Jersey residents affected by Hurricane Sandy. At each Wireless Emergency Communication Center, as Verizon calls the trucks, you can charge your phone or in some cases hop on a laptop to send relatives an email. You can find a full list of station locations here – and no, you don't need to be a Verizon customer to take advantage of the service.
Meanwhile, at least for the time being, charging and domestic calls are free at Verizon stores across the northeast.
As Marguerite Reardon of CNET notes today, compared to rival AT&T, Verizon – which saw its NYC headquarters flooded – seems to be doing pretty well.
"Anecdotally, Verizon Wireless service has fared better than service from other carriers in parts of New York and New Jersey, where the storm has done the most damage. But there have been complaints of poor service on Long Island, as well as in Lower Manhattan," she writes.
In related news, PC Magazine reports that Verizon has installed a temporary wireless antenna in Jersey City, which was hit especially hard by the storm. The company is working simultaneously to restore data service to other parts of the New York metro area.
"Verizon has been able to reroute and restore critical services at several key facilities that were affected by the historic flooding and subsequent power outages on Monday night," a Verizon rep told PC Magazine. "Company engineers and technicians have returned several of these facilities to normal operations, and efforts continue to restore the remaining facilities."
For more tech news, follow us on Twitter @venturenaut.
An attendant checks a computer during the launch of Microsoft Windows 8 operating system in Hong Kong on Oct. 26, 2012. (Reuters)
Windows 8 is a go. Now which Windows device to buy?
At an event in New York earlier this week, Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer presided over the official launch of the Windows 8 operating system, which he called "truly magical." Reviews of Windows 8 have been pretty positive, with critics praising the speed of the software, the tiled design, and the touch-friendly interface. So let's say you're interested in picking a Windows 8 device.
Where to start?
Well, the obvious answer – and the gadget that Microsoft has put a lot of its marketing muscle behind – is the Surface tablet. The Surface is priced starting at $499 ($599 if you want the Touch Cover keyboard), and runs a version of Windows 8 called Windows RT. Microsoft hopes the Surface will compete directly with the Apple iPad, although as plenty of analysts have pointed out, Microsoft will need a more apps first.
On the desktop and laptop front, CNET has assembled a useful list of Windows 8 machines, with pithy capsule reviews. Among them: the Sony VAIO Tap 20, a hybrid tablet/desktop with a Core i3 processor, a 500GB hard drive, and 4GB of RAM. "Thanks to a built-in battery and a semiportable design, the Tap 20 might be the most distinctive Windows 8-launch PC," CNET notes.
Looking for something a little out of the ordinary? You could do worse than the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13, a 13.3-inch laptop with a multi-touch display. The "Yoga" in the name refers to the flexible screen, which bends back or even flat (images here). The price on the Yoga 13 is $1099; an 11-inch model is also available for $799.
Meanwhile, as Kevin Parrish of Tom's Hardware points out this week, Dell is rolling out a few Windows 8 devices of its own. Of particular note are the snappy Inspiron 15z "ultrabook" – a super-light laptop, basically – the high-powered OptiPlex 9010 desktop, and the XPS 10 tablet. The 32GB XPS is priced at $499, more or less in line with the Surface, and should begin shipping in late November or early December, Engadget reports.
Thinking about picking up a Windows 8 device? Drop us a line in the comments section. And for more tech news, follow us on Twitter @venturenaut.
Previous
Become part of the Monitor community