Microsoft halts Windows Phone 7 update for Samsung phones

The first, minor Windows Phone 7 update that's bricking some Samsung Omnia 7 handsets has now been pulled, as Microsoft has found a technical issue with it. The software giant wrote back to WinRumors, informing it that the problem applies only to a small number of Samsung phones. As a result, the update was temporarily pulled and the update is being fixed before Microsoft releases it again.

The update was a minor one to ready handsets for the larger NoDo update due for early March. This will bring with it copy and paste functionality along with a number of performance improvements.


Users were reporting that some Samsung Focus phones, not just the Omnia 7, were bricked during the software update process. Pulling the batteries or hard resetting the devices wouldn't help. Microsoft has gone to the point of telling users to bring in their broken devices to the store.

by alectronista

Cyberlink PowerDirector 9 Review

By Dustin Sklavos, NotebookReview.com Contributor

I've stated as much that I'm not a big fan of consumer grade video editing software. While skills adopted in Final Cut Pro are just as useful in Premiere or Avid, consumer video editors all require an unreasonable amount of adaptation. The learning curve winds up being worse than just going with the professional grade stuff to begin with. So that said, if I had to pick one out of a crowd of "meh," up until this point I chose Pinnacle Studio 14. The best of a bad bunch, Pinnacle Studio 14 actually did a pretty reasonable job of streamlining the video editing process. But if I say they're a bad bunch that means there's room for improvement.

PowerDirector 9 makes me wonder where I was for entries one through eight, because at least on the cover, Cyberlink is leveraging some pretty awesome stuff for version 9. The checkboxes just in terms of the technology are impressive: Cyberlink claims first-to-market bragging rights on 64-bit consumer video editing software, and they bring support for GPU acceleration to the table -- from both AMD and NVIDIA. While Adobe is very proud of their CUDA-powered Mercury Playback Engine in Premiere Pro CS5, Cyberlink went ahead and got in touch with the competition, too. In many ways, this actually puts PowerDirector 9 ahead of the curve, though it still isn't quite as robust as professional grade kit.


IT'S ALL ABOUT THE INTERFACE
Honestly, what struck me about PowerDirector 9 more than anything was the user interface. I found Pinnacle to be a robust piece of kit, but PowerDirector 9 is actually remarkably logical. From the moment you open the program, it drops you into what will hopefully be familiar territory: a new project.

Cyberlink breaks things down into four subsections: Capture, Edit, Produce, and Create Disk, but the entire layout struck me as being incredibly thoughtful. Above those buttons are the basic menus you're used to from Windows applications, alongside a series of common buttons (save, undo, redo), and then an aspect ratio toggle for the project. It's a simple idea, but it works fantastically, and it abstracts project formats in a way that greatly simplifies things.

I'm actually incredibly enamored with the interface and as we break down the individual sections you'll begin to understand why.

CAPTURE
We won't spend too much time here, but suffice to say I was very happy with the layout. The icons above the capture window light up depending on what may or may not be available (although the AVCHD icon remained enabled despite the lack of AVCHD connected hardware); just click the one you want to capture from and you're pretty much good. PowerDirector 9 gives you only as much information as you need to get footage into your project.

EDIT
The Edit screen is actually the one PowerDirector 9 opens to, and it's another thoughtful design, though not without its flaws. The project bin is in the upper left corner, with tabs to toggle between effects, titling, particle effects (the purpose of which eludes me), and even "Audio Mixing Room" mode, which smartly lets you adjust the audio levels of individual clips on the timeline along with mixing between stereo channels.

Timeline organization is mostly logical, and Cyberlink wisely pairs the audio and video tracks together while still giving them separate timelines. Right-click and you can choose to unlink them and edit them separately. You can always add more sets of timelines, but what really struck me is what happens when you click on a clip on the timeline: instead of there being a series of tools to manipulate clips as in a more conventional editor, a series of text buttons come up that give you different options as to what you can do with the clip. It's remarkably clever.

If there's one fatal flaw to the timelines, it's the stacking order. The lower on the timeline a clip is, the higher the layer it is in the rendered video. It's nonsensical and runs completely counter to basic logic. If one video is on top of the other on the timeline, it stands to reason that it should also be on top of the other in the monitor, but the program actually stacks them the opposite way.

Before I finish with the Edit section, though, there's something that I have to deem a killer feature of PowerDirector 9: multi-monitor support. For editing in Premiere Pro, I stretch the main window across two screens then use the third as a pure playback monitor. In PowerDirector 9, you can actually set it to use a secondary screen as a playback monitor. You don't have to stretch the application across two screens, you just set a toggle and it works. With 1080p monitors under $200 these days, camcorder jockeys would do well to pick up a second screen if they plan to use PowerDirector 9 for editing.

PRODUCE
The Produce screen couldn't make exporting your finished video project any simpler. There are four tabs that separate the types of renders you can...well...produce, and it's broken down fairly logically.

Under "File," PowerDirector 9 will just output your project to the file type of your choice, with selections offered in big, smart buttons. Within each format are presets you can choose from, and some of these can actually be hardware-accelerated through using an NVIDIA or AMD video card, or even the integrated hardware encoder block on the upcoming Core 2011 Intel processors. Switching to "Device" brings up the usual suspects, allowing you to export to tape, to camera, phone, iPod, or even Sony and Microsoft consoles, and again certain formats allow for hardware acceleration.

I'm always happy to see YouTube integration in consumer video editors, and PowerDirector 9 makes getting your video on YouTube staggeringly easy. Rather than worry about which codec or format to render to so you can upload your project, you can instead just choose the resolution you want your project rendered at, log in to YouTube through PowerDirector 9 and you're golden. Encoding here is hardware accelerated, too.

Finally, there's Facebook integration, too. Facebook is becoming a popular way to share video and, again, PowerDirector 9 keeps rendering simple.

CREATE DISC
Ending our one-stop shop is the Create Disc screen, which allows you to author your video to any of the popular optical media formats. Chapter breaks are defined under the Edit screen, but from here you can produce a fairly simple set of menus and layering, and PowerDirector 9 supports producing Video CDs, DVDs, and even Blu-rays if you're one of the lucky devils to catch a sub-$100 writer after Black Friday.

CONCLUSION
It's probably painfully obvious, but I'm extremely fond of what Cyberlink has done with PowerDirector 9. Essentially they've created a reasonably robust consumer-grade video editor that's able to leverage every ounce of modern technology at its disposal. Even beyond those underpinnings, PowerDirector 9 boasts a smart, usable interface that should make video editing neophytes feel right at home. While I still ultimately feel like consumer-grade video editors may be more trouble than they're worth, I'm overjoyed that I finally have a program on hand that I can suggest to PC users. iMovie on the Mac is actually fairly solid and easy to use, but PC users haven't had anything that simple.

PowerDirector 9 is a little more complex, but the layout is smart, thoughtful, and polished. The suite is complete in a way that feels organic, and it easily earns my recommendation.

PROS
* 64-bit support
* Non-CPU hardware acceleration
* Slick, intuitive interface

CONS
* Illogical layering in timeline
* Some features can be difficult to find
* No tutorials

Fresh iPhone Apps for Dec. 20: Word Lens, WikiLeaks, Friend Update

by Phil Hornshaw, Appolicious

One of the best uses for augmented reality outside shooting down TIE fighters from Star Wars leads our Fresh Apps list today: it�s Word Lens, and it�ll translate Spanish words to English, or vice versa, instantly using your iPhone�s camera. Check it and some other cool stuff out below.

Word Lens (iPhone) Free (add-ons for $4.99 each)

In one of the coolest uses of augmented reality yet, Word Lens performs one simple but amazing function. Turn on the app and it takes control of your iPhone�s camera -- point the camera at a word on a sign, for example, and Word Lens translates it into the language you designate.

Currently there are only two available language packs, Spanish to English and English to Spanish, but more are undoubtedly on the way. Language packs will run you five bucks each, but this is a super-handy app for vacations in foreign countries. It also includes a fun demo to show off the app�s capabilities -- either reversing English words, or erasing them from objects shown by your camera.

WikiLeaks App (iPhone, iPad) $1.99

Full access to the WikiLeaks website is available through this iOS app, allowing you to get hold of the latest in leaked government documents and other information available on the website. It�s a cool way to see what everybody on the news is talking about, straight from the source.

In addition to being able to read WikiLeaks content, you also get direct access to WikiLeaks� Twitter feed, including items posted from Wikleaks itself and other people using the #wikileaks hashtag. And a dollar from every app purchase goes toward supporting websites that advocate Internet democracy, so you can feel good about your purchase.

Friend Update (iPhone) $1.99

Adding your Twitter and Facebook accounts to Friend Update allows you to get status updates within the app -- but instead of getting all the updates from every person you follow on Twitter and ever friend you have on Facebook, Friend Update lets you choose just a small contingent of people from whom to get updates. You can also use it to simultaneously post updates and photos to Twitter and Facebook.

The app has recently been updated to run a lot better, decreasing load times and fixing counters to let you know how many updates you have yet to view. Friend Update has also been tweaked so that you can view updates when you�re offline that you�ve already downloaded, without having to reconnect to the Internet.

Android Market experiences serious billing issues

This past weekend, Android Market developers experienced some very serious billing issues. Developers reported a staggering failure rate among attempted downloads, where the transaction would read "Payment declined," even though the decline was an error. As much as 80 to 100% of attempted purchases failed.

The problem has since been fixed, but that's not really the problem. The problem is that Google offered little to no support over the weekend, costing developers their valuable revenues. Many of those affected developers are now asking Google for refunds on the transactions, claiming that Google is responsible for their lost income.

We've now heard that Google was still receiving their 30% cut, even when the developers were seeing "Payment declined" messages. That alone might be argument enough for developers to get at least some of the revenue they lost over the weekend.

A Google representative said that they "regret the inconvenience and pain caused to all of you, and take our responsibility to our merchants and developers very seriously." They have made no mention of potential compensation. Both Google and Microsoft are going to have to work harder to keep their developers happy. In an app-driven mobile market, their satisfaction is just as important as the end-user's.

source: Android and Me

Specs for Motorola Everest tablet are leaked

The other day we showed you Google VP Andy Rubin clutching a Motorola Everest tablet at the D: Dive into Mobile conference. Of course, once you saw it, you wanted to find out all about it and according to a person who happens to know his way around the device, the tablet will launch in both 7 inch and 10 inch versions.

The Motorola tablet will come in different models that will connect to UMTS, CDMA and LTE. Under the hood will be a NVIDIA Tegra 2 T20 dual-core chipset and will feature both a front facing camera (2MP) and one on the rear (5MP). The WXGA display will have a 1280 x 800 resolution and will come with 32GB of internal storage and include a Gyroscope. Don't forget that Android 3.0, Honeycomb, will be running the show as the first Android OS to be optimized for tablets.


source: Mobile01 (translated)

Zynga declares Mafia Wars to Android this December

Game developer Zynga has announced that it will release an Android version of its popular Mafia Wars game in December, according to Zynga's senior VP and ex-Yahoo David Ko. The creator of addictive FarmVille and Mafia Wars, Zynga, is known mostly for its Facebook presence with some 45 million users spending an average 1 hour a day playing its games. But that doesn't seem enough and the company is quickly growing in an effort to woo mobile gamers. First it was the iPhone apps, then some rumors about a Windows Phone 7 app, and now the next milestone is set to be Android.

Does that have anything to do with rumors about Zynga embracing a 100 to 200 million investment from Google? Ko was reluctant to give a final answer:

�We are a very partnership centric company. Stay tuned for more to come.�


The company is also going to target a wider market with localized versions of its games. And the outreach is not limited just to Facebook and smartphone users as even feature phones could get Zynga's apps in the future.

source: mocoNews

Hacker brings ASLR security to jailbroken iPhones

You might be one of the many people who want to jailbreak their iPhone, but are concerned about a reduction in security. Charlie Miller of Security Evaluators affirms your concerns: "When you jailbreak it, it breaks a lot of security of a normal iPhone." Stefan Esser of SektionEins might have a suitable security solution for jailbroken iPhones in the near future.

Esser's solution, called antid0te, will add ASLR (address space layout randomization) to jailbroken devices. ASLR, as the name would imply, randomizes the locations where malware could be installed. That way, your device will be less prone to security breaches.


You should still be wary of jailbreaking your iPhone if it's an enterprise device, but normal users will have one less thing to worry about. "With Stefan's stuff, now maybe it's an option, if you're a security-conscious person, to still jailbreak your phone because you can pick up ASLR, which is going to make it a lot harder to do exploits," explains Miller.

Apple's iOS currently lacks ASLR, though Apple has made some inroads with their Mac OS X. Windows Phone 7, Windows 7, and Windows Vista, on the other hand, already include ASLR.

Esser will be unveiling his ASLR solution for the iPhone on Tuesday at the Power of Community security conference in Seoul, South Korea. Stay safe, jailbreakers.

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