Tech News Archives - Page 128 of 129

Samsung smart phones outselling iPhones 2 to 1

Posted on April 27, 2013

samsung-smart-phone Korean electronics giant Samsung has quietly become the 800 pound gorilla in the smart phone marketplace.

According to market researcher IDC, in the first quarter of 2013 Samsung shipped 71 million smart phones compared to Apple’s 37 million. In fact, during that three month period Samsung’s market share was greater than the next four companies combined.

Of the top five smart phone vendors, Apple is the only company in the bunch that actually lost market share in the first quarter. And another recent study shows that more customers switch from iPhone to Android when purchasing their next phone than the other way around. [Read more…]

Crucial Memory now selling a 1TB Solid State Drive (SSD)

Posted on April 21, 2013

Crucial Memory is now selling the world’s first consumer-grade 1TB SSD. It’s dubbed the M500, and at $600 you get all that massive storage for a mere 60 cents per gigabyte!

SSDs are quickly becoming standard in new laptop PCs, but their problem has always been limited storage space compared to traditional hard drives. Models in the half-terabyte range have been available for a while now, but their prices have kept them pretty much out of the mainstream.

But now that Crucial is selling this monster of an SSD for such a relatively low price, I look for the prices of smaller drives to drop in order to remain competitive in the market place. Could the traditional “spinning platter” hard drive soon go the way of the floppy drive? I think it very well could if SSDs keep getting larger and their prices per gigabyte keep dropping.

Click here to see Crucial’s complete line of solid state drives, including the 1Tb M500.

Microsoft seems to be considering big changes for Windows 8

Posted on April 17, 2013

Has Microsoft finally learned the value of listening to their customers? It appears that they just might have. Losing sales and market share by the boatloads will usually spur some soul-searching.

Reports leaking out of Redmond indicate that Windows 8.1 (aka Windows Blue) just might have a Start Button/Start Menu as well as an option for booting directly to the Desktop instead of the highly unpopular Start Screen. I for one hope the leaked information is true.

Many great companies have made major blunders (Is anyone reading this old enough to remember the “New Coke”?), but the smart ones eat a bit of crow and reverse course. It appears that the powers that be at Microsoft just might have a clue after all.

What do you think? Will they add these much-in-demand features back to Windows 8.1? Should they? I’d love to hear your opinions.

Microsoft to stop supporting Windows XP in April 2014

Posted on April 14, 2013

It’s been a long time coming, but Microsoft has announced that they will no longer support or release security updates for Windows XP after April 8, 2014, a move that will effectively kill off what has been arguably the most popular version of Windows ever released.

The company had originally planned to end support for XP years ago, but for various reasons they pushed back the “kill” date several times. It appears that the April 2014 date is set in stone however. [Read more…]

T-Mobile does away with all wireless contract plans

Posted on March 25, 2013

T-Mobile has effectively put an end to wireless contracts, opting instead to allow all customers to sign up for “pay-as-you-go” service similar to the plans offered by Straight Talk, TracFone, Virgin Mobile and others. Could this be a trend sweeping the industry? I happen to think it is.

Pay-as-you-go cell phone service has been offered for years by TracFone and their no-contract brethren, but the concept really hit its stride when Wal-Mart jumped into the game with their Strait Talk service. The thought of being able to switch carriers at a moment’s notice without having to pay a penalty is causing customers to jump ship in large numbers when their contracts expire, switching instead to companies that don’t require a contract. [Read more…]