Nokia tried on Android for size before the Microsoft buyout

      It’s perhaps unfathomable for diehard Windows Phone users, but Nokia had once considered going the way of Android before Microsoft bought it out.

      The New York Times reports that Nokia had the blueprints all drawn up for an Android version of the Lumia phone before this month’s $7.2 billion buyout by Microsoft. The “Android Lumia” was apparently a fallback for Nokia in case it decided to rescind its deal with Microsoft. And it wouldn’t have been too hard to make the switch, at least hardware wise.

      Simply porting over Android probably wouldn’t have fixed Nokia’s problems. The company would have faced extreme competition against Samsung—which currently holds the top spot for global phone sales—not to mention that there are also plenty of other Android phone manufacturersstruggling to make any money, despite their solid hardware.

      But Nokia is, as we wrote a while back, hemorrhaging money. It posted a $196 million loss in the first quarter of 2013, and its shareholders were begging CEO Stephen Elop to take a different approach with its business. Despite Elop’s protests to “give in” to the operating system, it comes as no surprise that this was considered as the last resort. Analyst Patrick Moorhead, of Moor Insights and Strategy, had told us that “Nokia would be incredibly competitive if [it] moved to Android. With that great camera software, [it] could definitely give Samsung a run for its money.” Now we’ll never know if this would have come true.

It would have been a great risk to come out with a new operating system after having been identified as the Windows Phone for some time now. Entering an already saturated market with a new identity would have proved too risky for company—and too confusing for consumers.

Mematahkan Sembilan Mitos Teknologi

Mac tidak bisa kena virus.

Makin besar resolusi kamera, makin baik.

Kabel mahal pasti lebih bagus.

Mitos itu (dan banyak lagi!) adalah beberapa mitos paling umum seputar teknologi yang kita gunakan setiap hari. Mulai dari menghabiskan daya baterai sampai menghapus file dari komputer Anda, kami akan menjelaskan dan mematahkan beberapa mitos teknologi paling populer.

1. Anda harus menguras habis baterai ponsel Anda sebelum pengisian ulang.
     Sudah jadi mitos bahwa cara terbaik untuk menjaga umur baterai laptop dan ponsel adalah dengan menggunakannya hingga kosong sama sekali sebelum pengisian ulang.

       Hal itu tidak sepenuhnya salah. Kalau Anda menggunakan baterai Nickel-Cadmium, Anda harus menhabiskan baterai telepon Anda sepenuhnya sebelum pengisian ulang. Mengapa? Tak seperti baterai Lithium-Ion, baterai Nickel-Cadmium akan mengalami "efek memori". Ketika mereka diisi dan dikosongkan ratusan kali, benda itu mulai kehilangan kemampuan untuk terisi hingga 100%, dan hal itu akan menguras umur baterai secara signifikan.

      Barang elektronik yang kita pakai dahulu pernah menggunakan baterai Nickel-Cadmium. Telepon tanpa kabel dan mesin penjawab pada umumnya menggunakan baterai Nickel-Cadmium. Pada 2006, sebagian besar baterai NiCd diganti dengan teknologi yang menggunakan baterai Lithium-ion. Baterai ini ada pada semua perangkat Apple dan tak mengalami "efek memori" seperti pada baterai NiCd.

      "Baterai polimer Lithium-ion memiliki kepadatan daya tinggi," kata Apple di situsnya," Anda juga dapat mengisi ulang baterai lithium-ion polimer kapan pun Anda mau, tanpa harus mengikuti siklus mengisi daya hingga penuh atau mengosongkan baterai."

    Namun Apple tetap menyarankan agar perangkat tersebut melewati setidaknya satu siklus pengosongan dan pengisian setiap bulannya untuk membantu menjaga agar elektron tetap bergerak (kebalikan dari baterai NiCd yang perlu melalui siklus pengosongan dan pengisian setiap beberapa hari). Menguras baterai perangkat dari 100 % hingga kosong 0 % membantu untuk mempertahankan umur baterai.

2. "Jailbreaking" itu ilegal.

 
       Penting untuk dicatat bahwa jailbreaking dan unlocking perangkat sangat berbeda. Unlocking berarti Anda telah ‘membebaskan’ perangkat Anda untuk berfungi dengan operator mana pun, tidak hanya dengan operator yang pertama Anda beli, sedangkan jailbreaking mengacu pada menembus keamanan Apple untuk menginstal modifikasi yang tidak diperbolehkan di App Store.

      US Library of Congress menyatakan bahwa tindakan meng-unlock telepon yang dibeli setelah 26 Januari 2013 menggunakan vendor pihak ketiga itu ilegal, tetapi jailbreaking iPhone Anda masih legal sampai setidaknya 2015 di bawah pengecualian dalam Digital Millennium Copyright Act ( DMCA). Namun jailbreaking untuk iPad dianggap ilegal.

 
3. Lebih banyak bar sinyal berarti layanan yang lebih baik.

 
       Bar sinyal pada ponsel cerdas Anda sebenarnya menunjukkan kekuatan sinyal ke menara ponsel terdekat Anda. Layanan Anda bergantung pada berapa banyak perangkat yang dilayani menara tersebut pada waktu yang sama.

      Wilayah metropolitan dilengkapi menara untuk menangani banyak orang yang mencoba untuk menggunakan ponsel mereka dalam satu ruang lingkup. Dalam situasi yang tidak terduga (katakanlah, sebuah festival musik yang dipenuhi banyak orang di satu lokasi), telepon Anda bisa menampilkan banyak bar, tapi tidak ada layanan yang tersedia, karena semua orang berusaha untuk memasuki satu menara seluler tersebut.

4. Semakin besar megapiksel, semakin baik kamera.

 
     Jumlah megapixel pada kamera digital terbaru tampaknya terus meningkat setiap tahunnya, dengan beragam iklan yang membuat Anda gelisah karena informasi yang didapat seakan memaksa Anda untuk melakukan upgrade kamera dengan versi megapiksel yang lebih besar dan lebih baik dari kamera yang masih berfungsi baik milik Anda.

   Semakin besar sebuah megapiksel berarti semakin tajam foto yang didapat, tetapi sering ada kesalahpahaman mengenai berapa besar megapiksel yang dibutuhkan untuk menghasilkan foto berkualitas yang dapat tampil baik di ponsel atau layar komputer. Untuk keperluan tersebut, ukuran foto tiga megapiksel sebenarnya sudah cukup, dan bahkan masih memungkinkan untuk melakukan cropping. Dengan tujuh megapiksel, Anda dapat menghasilkan foto hingga ukuran poster tanpa masalah yang berarti.

    Untuk para fotografer amatir yang menggunakan perangkat point-and-shoot untuk menangkap momen biasa, semakin besar ukuran megapiksel tidak berarti merujuk pada semakin baiknya kamera yang dimiliki, atau hasil foto yang lebih baik.

5. Mengosongkan "recycle bin" berarti file Anda akan terhapus secara permanen.

 
     Anda pasti berpikir bahwa dengan membuang file ke recycle bin, kemudian mengosongkannya maka file Anda akan terhapus secara permanen.

    Tidak secepat itu. Menghapus sesuatu (file), dan kemudian menghapus lagi dari recycle bin, hanya membebaskan ruang yang diambil pada hard drive, meninggalkan sisa data (fragmented) yang secara teori data dapat dikembalikan.

    Pada Mac, pilih "Secure Empty Trash" sebagai langkah terakhir dalam proses penghapusan. Pada PC, unduh program seperti SDelete, yang membantu untuk mengamankan semua data yang terhapus.

 
6. Private browsing membuat Anda tetap anonim.

 
    Mengatur browser Anda ke mode incognito dipercaya agar browser tidak menyimpan informasi tentang situs yang Anda kunjungi atau apa yang Anda ketik saat mengunjungi situs tersebut, tapi itu tak berarti Anda mendapat kerahasiaan identitas pribadi. Kunjungan Anda masih dapat direkam, dan file yang Anda unduh ketika berada dalam incognito akan tetap berada di komputer, ponsel, atau tablet Anda.

 
7. Mencabut "flashdisk" dengan tidak benar akan menghapus semua data Anda.
       Lebih baik mencari aman daripada menyesal. Jika Anda menggunakan flashdisk dan mencabutnya setelah semua file ditransfer, Anda masih bisa bernapas lega. Anda juga mungkin bisa saja tidak sengaja mencabut flashdisk ketika sedang mentransfer data, tapi hal tersebut bisa berujung pada risiko hilangnya data atau mengakibatkan sistem perangkat lunak tidak berjalan dengan baik.

       Akan lebih baik jika Anda mencabut USB dengan langkah-langkah yang dianjurkan (safe remove dengan mengeklik ikon drive eksternal di system tray PC), mengambil semua tindakan pencegahan untuk melindungi file serta data pekerjaan Anda.

 
8. Mac tidak akan terinfeksi virus.

 
     Mac dapat terinfeksi oleh virus. Sampai beberapa tahun yang lalu, Windows adalah sistem operasi yang paling umum digunakan. Kini, seiring dengan semakin banyaknya orang yang menggunakan Mac, mereka menjadi target virus yang lebih rentan.

"Sistem operasi OS X tidak rentan terhadap ribuan virus yang mengganggu komputer berbasis Windows," kata Apple disitusnya.

Tapi Mac masih rentan terhadap virus yang dibuat untuk menargetkan produk dan sistem operasi Apple.

 
9. Kabel mahal lebih baik daripada yang murah.

 
    Tahun lalu, MythBusters Jamie dan Adam menekankan bahwa tidak ada perbedaan antara kabel murah dan kabel mahal.

     Perlu ditekankan, Anda tidak perlu membeli kabel mahal HDMI jika hanya digunakan untuk kebutuhan sehari-hari. Anda boleh saja mengeluarkan uang lebih untuk kabel dengan daya tahan yang lebih lama untuk kebutuhan pemasangan kabel secara permanen di dalam tembok atau langit-langit, tetapi Anda hanya akan menghambur-hamburkan uang jika mengeluarkan biaya ekstra hanya demi konektor berlapis emas dan sejenisnya.

Syria crisis: Barack Obama calls off Congress vote

US President Barack Obama: "I have a deeply held preference for peaceful solutions"

        US President Barack Obama has postponed a Congress vote on military action in Syria, vowing to pursue diplomacy to remove the regime's chemical weapons.

         Damascus has admitted for the first time that it has chemical weapons, and has agreed to abide by a Russian plan to hand over its arsenal.

         The US threatened strikes after a gas attack killed hundreds last month.

         Mr Obama blames the regime and said the military would respond if talks failed. Syria blames rebels for the attack.

More than 100,000 people have died since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in 2011.

        The latest report by UN rights experts, released on Wednesday, says torture and rape are widespread and war crimes are being committed by both sides.

'Encouraging signs'

        Russia announced the plan on Monday and Syria quickly responded, saying it "welcomed" the initiative.

Late on Tuesday, Foreign Minister Walid Muallem then made the fullest public admission of the regime's stockpile and a much clearer commitment to the Russian plan.

         "We are ready to inform about the location of chemical weapons, halt the production of chemical weapons, and show these objects to representatives of Russia, other states and the United Nations," he said.

"Our adherence to the Russian initiative has a goal of halting the possession of all chemical weapons."

       Until Tuesday morning, Mr Obama's government had been lobbying hard for support in Congress for military strikes.

       But surveys of politicians had shown he was unlikely to win the planned vote.

       In a televised speech from the White House, President Obama said the Russian plan and the regime's admission that it held chemical weapons were "encouraging signs".

      "It's too early to tell whether [the Russian plan] will succeed, and any agreement must verify that the Assad regime keeps its commitments," he said.

      "But this initiative has the potential to remove the threat of chemical weapons without the use of force, particularly because Russia is one of Assad's strongest allies."

       He said the diplomatic movements were in part a result of the credible threat of US military action, but that he was willing to postpone the Congress vote to allow diplomacy to be pursued.

      He added: "Meanwhile, I've ordered our military to maintain their current posture, to keep the pressure on Assad and to be in a position to respond if diplomacy fails."

     During his speech, Mr Obama restated the US position that Mr Assad's government was responsible for the 21 August attack, which he described as "sickening".

       He said that such an attack was not only a violation of international law it was also a danger to US national security.

      He confirmed earlier reports that US Secretary of State John Kerry would meet his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Geneva on Thursday, adding: "I will continue my own discussions with President Putin."

     There were heated debates at the UN on Tuesday, with the UK, US and France calling for a timetable and the consequences of a Syrian failure to comply with any resolution spelt out.

      Washington had warned it would "not fall for stalling tactics".

Russia said any draft resolution putting the blame on the Syrian government was unacceptable and urged a non-binding declaration backing its initiative.

Moscow also opposes any resolution that would be authorised under Chapter VII of the UN charter, which would in effect sanction the use of force if Syria failed in its obligations.

3Doodler gadget makes handheld 3D modeling possible

         The 3Doodler, a sort of handheld 3D modeler, made its public debut at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin this week after racking up thousands of preorders as part of a Kickstarter program.

         The gadget extrudes heated plastic, similar to an electric glue gun, that allows users to make a variety of objects. The company plans to offer stencils on its website for beginner users to make everything from the Eiffel Tower to a horse-drawn carriage.

         See the 3Doodler in action in a video on YouTube.

         During its Kickstarter program, which launched in February, the company raised US$2.34 million and presold 26,000 pens.

         "Since then we've had our heads down making these pens and we're here at IFA for the first time showing it in public," said Daniel Cowen co-founder of 3Doodler.

         Kickstarter is a website that allows entrepreneurs to crowd source funding for various projects and ideas.

         The device uses two different types of plastic sticks, purchased separately, and each has a speciality. ABS, or acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, plastic is good for drawing upwards, creating bendable art or "doodling" on paper and then peeling it off. PLA, or polyactic acid, plastic is better for making acute angles or drawing on glass or metallic surfaces.

        The pen will be available for $99 and is on presale on the company's website. First the Kickstarter orders will ship, then the presale ones and finally general sale purchases will ship. Cowen said he hopes to be in retail stores by early next year.

Intel hires wearable computing talent, but it's late to the game

    

            Intel said Friday that it has hired a pair of high-level engineers from Nike and Oakley to assist the company with building wearable computing devices.

           Intel said that it had hired Hans Moritz, described as the man who led development of the Oakley AirWave heads-up goggles, to work at the “new devices” team being formed within Intel. Moritz has spent his entire 16-year career at Oakley, where he most recently led the integration of the Oakley Airwave smart ski goggles pictured above.

             At Intel, Moritz will join Steven Holmes, most recently of Nike, where he was responsible for the end-to-end development of the Nike GPS Sportswatch as well as the Fuelband fitness tracker accessory. Holmes was hired by Intel a year ago. The Moritz hire was reported by the Intel Free Press, described as a news organization within Intel run by former members of its communications team.

               Both will work for Michael Bell, a former vice president at Apple and former senior vice president for product development at Palm, who leads the “new devices” outfit. So far, Intel has said only that it plans a Roku-like set-top box to stream video to TVs.

               At the time of his hire in 2010, Bell’s mission was to “lead a team with the charter to build breakthrough smartphone reference designs with the explicit intent of accelerating Intel Architecture into the market.” Since then, however, his role has apparently broadened into the taking Intel’s chips into new product areas, regardless of which products they fall into.

              Intel has struggled somewhat in the embedded and mobile space, as low-power RISC designs from ARM and other embedded architectures have moved into phones and other devices. To answer, Intel has developed a series of low-power Atom processors to bring full X86 compatibility to the embedded market. Next week, at the Intel Developer Forum, the company has scheduled press briefings on Bay Trail, a next-generation Atom processor designed for phones, tablets, and other mobile devices.

               So far, however, Intel has said nothing about whether or not the Atom can play inside smartwatches or eyewear like Google Glass, which have even more demanding space and power requirements than even miniature tablets. Intel, for its part, has been a heavy promoter of failed devices like Mobile Internet Devices, and, most recently, ultrabooks. Intel’s existing Clover Trail+ processor for phones has scored design wins in Asia, but not within the United States—in part because of a lack of integrated LTE connectivity.

               “Intel has a history of trying to dictate to the market; we just enable people to do stuff,” said James Bruce, a director of mobile strategy for ARM, in an interview this week.

         It’s not clear whether or not Intel will adopt the same strategy in wearable computing. Moritz didn’t design the heads-up display within the AirWave; that was done by Recon Instruments, which has its own line of HUD modules that project information onto glasses through a series of connected microprojectors. But the knowledge of Holmes and Moritz will at point Intel in the right direction. Whether it or not can catch up is another question.

Alasan Miley Cyrus tampil Gila di MTV VMA 2013

               Miley Cyrus akhirnya sadar sudah bertindak bodoh saat tampil liar di MTV Music Awards 2013 lalu. Dan  ini komentar Miley Cyrus :

              "Aku punya banyak sekali masalah. Aku sedang benar-benar kacau sekarang," ungkap Miley. "Semua orang melakukan hal bodoh ketika mereka sedang kacau."

              "Aku tidak punya kehidupan yang normal," lanjutnya. "Aku beberapa kali mengambil istirahat, tapi aku tidak baik melakukannya."

               Meski begitu, tunangan Liam Hemsworth ini mengaku tidak ingin bersikap munafik. Ia dengan jujur mengatakan imejnya di Hannah Montana hanyalah sekedar akting.

               "Kupikir orang-orang tahu aku sedang berakting. Aku tidak pernah bisa menyembunyikan segala sesuatu, sedikit miripdengan Justin Bieber," tambah Miley. "Orang lain yang pernah membintangi acara anak-anak mencoba bersikap seperti karakter mereka di TV. Tapi aku tidak seperti itu."