According to a recent blog post by LinkedIn, Twitter has decided to end a two and a half year partnership with the website. The partnership allowed users of the social networking site for business professionals to publish tweets directly to their LinkedIn profiles. Consumer Product Chief for Twitter Michael Sippey recently wrote a post on the site's developer blog that the changes were part of a move to "deliver a core Twitter consumption experience through a consistent set of products and tools."

This isn't too surprising as Twitter has been slowly trying to push out partners who show tweets on their websites. However, those efforts have also been primarily focused on mobile clients, the same place Twitter has been emphasizing its own offerings.

LinkedIn and Twitter users will still be able to post updates on LinkedIn and broadcast them to Twitter, though the content sharing will not go the other way. This actually goes along with what Twitter's overall strategy has been recently. The social network is welcoming of others sending content to Twitter but isn't so keen on having others use tweets as content on their sites.

The strange thing about all of this, however, is that Twitter just upgraded its own Facebook app, which crossposts tweets to users' Facebook profiles, which is the exact same thing that the partnership with LinkedIn allowed since the partnership between the two sites formed back in 2009.

Twitter has struggled with rule and practice consistency for some time now with its partners like LinkedIn. Developers who have created apps for viewing tweets have found themselves placed at a disadvantage by changes to Twitter's rules and the site's efforts to develop its own mobile clients.

Source: Business Insider - Twitter Gives LinkedIn The Bird

ARM has just created a brand new, entry level version of its Mali graphics processor that, if incorporated, could expand the market of low cost Android tablets. Known as the Mali-450, this GPU is designed to help manufacturers build tablets that are less expensive than the ones currently leading the markets, like Apple's iPad which runs $399. However, these manufacturers still want good enough graphics performance to keep most users satisfied.

Touchscreens and HD video are pretty standard when it comes to tablets these days, with the GPUs in these devices accounting for a big share of the price you pay. In addition to that, more powerful GPUs take up more space on the CPU, which could also increase costs. A lot of manufacturers are looking for cheaper parts that offer decent graphics performance while also occupying less space. This is where the Mali-450 fits in.

The new GPU is offered with as many as eight cores and offers double the performance of its predecessor the Mali-400. The Mali-450 is also expected to appear in tablets in the first half of 2013 according to Director of Marketing for ARM's Media Processing Division Ian Smythe.

Tablet makers are showing an increased demand for a wide range of price and performance characteristics, which is where this new ARM GPU comes in . The company is planning on offering the Mali-T600 series for high-end devices and the Mali-400 series for low-end devices.

Both series will be able to do gaming and video playback but, according to Smythe, only the high-end parts will be able to handle "computational graphics". That includes things like matching points on two images to do facial recognition or stitching photographs together into a panorama. ARM is also developing a high-end part known as Skrymir (not to be confused with Skyrim, cheeky devils) which is due out sometime in 2014.

Source: Computer World - ARM preps Mali GPU for low-cost Android tablets

How many people actually use Bing? I mean, I'm sure there are people who use it religiously, I just prefer Google. But what I think doesn't matter right now because Bing users can rejoice (or cringe) because if you head over to Bing right now, you will find that the service has an all new layout. That's right, the search engine has slapped on a fresh coat of paint and added some new things to test on the Bing community.

The Bing Team just announced that the latest version of the search engine is now available for every single Bing user in the United States. Microsoft had announced a couple of weeks ago that Bing would be getting an update, promising to deliver it to the entire U.S. "in due time". For once, a company has actually made a promise and made good on it. Is this the dawn of a new era of company trust and customer loyalty? Probably not, but it's still nice.

The new face of Bing is definitely a noticeable difference from the old look. Users will now find a three-column layout. The left column includes search results, the center column (known as "Snapshot" by Microsoft) is designed to give users relevant information and services that are related to web results and the right column (or "Sidebar") adds some social features like an activity feed for Facebook updates and the ability to ask your friends questions.

According to a blog post that Microsoft released last month detailing the changes, "Whether it's making a purchase, deciding on a vacation destination, choosing a great restaurant, or figuring out which movie to see this weekend, the new Bing focuses on bringing friends, experts and enthusiasts into your search experience through a dedicated social 'sidebar'."

Reports are coming in from people who have already started using the new layout and the response was generally positive. Many people are praising the responsiveness of the the new Bing, though there are some disappointments with the lack of content offered. According to Rafe Needleman of CNET, "I expect that as this socially enabled version of Bing matures, Microsoft (and Facebook) will figure out a way to layer in more and better content. But I expect a more useful offering for a major update to social search from a partnership between tech giants Microsoft and Facebook."

If you are an avid Bing user then head on over to the search engine right now and take the new layout for a spin. Then come back here and tell us what you think. Do you like the new three-column structure? Are the social features cool or pointless? Do you believe that there is a general lack of content? We want to know everything you think about the new and improved Bing so let us know!

Source: CNET - New-look Bing hits U.S., but will it satisfy?

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Microsoft had a nifty back to school special last year that awarded customers a brand new Xbox 360 with the purchase of any new Windows PC. Well, it seems as though the promotion was a success, enough of one at least to make the company want to do it again this year as well. Starting on Sunday, May 20, U.S. students who buy a new Windows 7 PC will also receive a free Xbox 360 as well.

The deal doesn't just apply to U.S. students, however, as Canadian students also qualify for the deal which started on the 18th. In order to be eligible you will have to be a high school or college student with proof of status, like a campus ID or an email address that ends in .edu. If you qualify, you will receive a 4GB Xbox 360 with the purchase of a Windows PC for $699 or more. If you're a Canadian student, you only have to buy a $599 PC.

The Xbox that students will receive is Microsoft's current $199 console, which is the lowest priced model the company offers and the one that doesn't come with a Kinect motion sensor. Best Buy was the only retailer partner that Microsoft paired with for the offer the last time, though the company has greatly increased their partners this time around. In the U.S. Microsoft is partnering with Best Buy and Fry's Electronics while the company will be teaming up with Best Buy, Future Shop, Staples and The Source in Canada. You can also get the deal online through Dell, HP and Newegg in the U.S. and through Dell in Canada.

If you happen to live close to an actual Microsoft store, you can also get the deal there as well. There are 21 Microsoft stores currently open (or expected to open in the summer), all of which are located in the United States. Microsoft's online store will also support the deal. Also new this year is the amount of control Microsoft has left in the hands of the retailers. This means that the deal won't last the same amount of time for every retailer so make sure you check your dates before you go in for the deal.

Source: PC World - Buy a Windows 7 PC, Get an Xbox

Find out what is going on in the Tech Army World.

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The FBI has warned hundreds of thousands of people that they could lose their internet connections in July. That is, of course, if they don't take steps to diagnose and disinfect their computers. The problem that these individuals are facing is related to malware known as DNSChanger, which was first discovered in 2007 and has since infected millions of computers around the world.

Basically, what this malware does is that whenever you type a web address into your browser, your computer contacts DNS servers to discover the numerical IP address of the site you are looking for and then takes you there. The DNSChanger malware messes with an infected computer's settings and directs it to a rogue server set up by an internet crime ring.

According to an Attorney General for the United States in an FBI press release, these criminals "were intentional cyberbandits who hijacked millions of computers at will and rerouted them to Internet Web sites and advertisements of their own choosing -- collecting millions in undeserved commissions for all the hijacked computer clicks and Internet ads they fraudulently engineered."

However, the FBI busted up the crime ring last year and took control of the rogue servers. Considering so many infected computers relied on the servers to reach the internet, the agency decided not to shut them off and instead converted them to legitimate DNS servers. However, running these servers is costing the government money, which is why they are being turned off in July. If you are one of the unfortunate ones whose computer got infected, the internet will no longer exist for you.

The DNSChanger Working Group (DCWG) has created a website designed to help you diagnose your computer and see if you are infected and remove the DNSChanger if necessary. I'd recommend checking it out, especially before July 8, or you can say goodbye to Facebook, Google and whatever else you use the internet for.

Source: CNET - Web could vanish for hordes of people in July, FBI warns

A report surfaced recently about a vulnerability in Facebook that allowed people to access someone else's account. The report initially stated that this vulnerability only affected people on a jailbroken iPhone, however, that doesn't seem to be the case anymore as two new reports are stating that it isn't only jailbroken phones that are at risk.

Gareth Wright, an app developer from the U.K., along with The Next Web have each confirmed, separately, that this new vulnerability affects any and all iPhones, not just jailbroken ones. In addition to that, it has been discovered that the vulnerability originated in Facebook's iPhone app.

Wright released his report earlier in the week and claimed that the iPhone Facebook app includes a vulnerability that fails to encrypt log-on credentials whenever you get on Facebook on your iPhone via the app. Wright also said that he also discovered a Facebook access token in the Draw Something game. Wright copied the token, used the Facebook Query Language and extracted the information.

According to Wright's report, "Sure enough, I could pull back pretty much any information from my Facebook account." Wright also mentioned that the property list of the app contained any and all information needed to allow someone other than you to access your Facebook account, send private messages and do anything else imaginable.

However, Facebook is sticking by their claim that the vulnerability only affects jailbroken phones. In a statement from the social media giant, the company said, "Facebook's iOS and Android applications are only intended for use with the manufacture provided operating system, and access tokens are only vulnerable if they have modified their mobile OS (i.e. jailbroken iOS or modded Android) or have granted a malicious actor access to the physical device."

That may have been believable had The Next Web not released their very own report separate from Wright's. The Next Web confirmed themselves that the vulnerability also affects non-jailbroken phones. However, The Next Web also found that Dropbox also suffers from the same vulnerability, leaving the application open to a property list hack.

According to The Next Web, "We copied the .plist from one device, with the app installed and logged in, over to another which had a fresh installation of Dropbox on it. The profile copied and it worked seamlessly, as if we had logged on ourselves, which we had not." The Next Web also added that the Dropbox vulnerability works on phones that are passcode protected.

Facebook keeps saying that the vulnerability is only on jailbroken phones, though with the reports from Wright and The Next Web, I don't know how much longer the social media company can keep that story going.

Source: CNET - facebook ID theft impacts all iPhones, Dropbox

Power Point Projectors
Most business class projectors will do a good job displaying your PowerPoint presentation. If you have a small presentation group, a 2000 lumen LCD projector will be able to produce a nice and clear picture. For larger audiences you should consider a 5000 lumen LCD projector.

In recent news it has been discovered that AOL has decommissioned nearly 10,000 servers, saving the company almost $5 million on its way to winning a competition that highlights the cost of running inefficient or underutilized IT equipment.

Nobody really realizes how much underutilized or inefficient servers can cost until they see the numbers. Decommissioning a 1U rack server could potentially save you $500 a year in energy costs, $500 a year in operating system licenses and $1,500 a year in hardware maintenance, and that's just one server!

Uptime Institute is behind the competition, which it is calling the Server Roundup Contest. Companies that participate could move workloads to newer, virtualized equipment or even into the cloud. In addition to that, each company had to provide paperwork to verify what they had done, which included work requests and recycling receipts and even photographs.

AOL decommissioned 9,484 servers over the past year, which accounted for nearly 1.4 of its worldwide servers. The savings included nearly $1.65 million in energy bills, $2.2 million in operating systems licenses and $62,000 in maintenance costs. AOL also gained $1.2 million from scrap and resale while reducing its carbon emissions by 30 million tons.

AOL was the best in the competition by far, beating out five other companies. The closest competitor was NBCUniversal, which removed 284 servers. However, AOL may have benefited from the fact that the company is in the middle of a multi-year effort to reinvent itself from an internet access provider to a content and advertising company. A majority of the servers AOL replaced were running applications and web properties that had become useless, according to the company.

Source: Computer World - AOL unplugs 10,000 servers, saves $5M

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Mozilla just announced that it is about to begin supporting the H.264 video codec, a move the company has said goes against its better judgment. Mozilla suggested that it had been forced into this decision, which is patent laden, and also assured users and developers that it would continue to offer its software free of charge as it currently does.

According to a blog post by Mitchell Baker, Chair of the Mozilla Foundation, "Mozilla is on the cusp of changing our policy about our use of video codecs and making use of a format known as 'H.264'. We have tried to avoid this for a number of years, as H.264 is encumbered by patents. The state of video on the web today and in mobile devices in particular is pushing us to change our policy."

Baker also added that Mozilla resisted the move to H.264 support because it wants to build products that people "love". He also added that using standards that are laden with patents is not supportive of this goal. "We've declined to adopt a technology that improves user experience in the hopes this will bring greater user sovereignty. Not many would try this strategy, but we did. It's time to shift our weighting. It's time to focus on shipping products people can love now, and to work on developing a new tactic for bringing unencumbered technology to the world of audio and video codecs."

Mozilla CTO Brendan Eich posted an additional blog post covering Mozilla's decision in greater depth and also suggests that Mozilla could have avoided this transition altogether if it had support from firms like Google and Adobe. In case you missed it, both Adobe and Google started talks about supporting more open standards recently. Unfortunately both Google and Adobe had to drop those ideas due to the commonplace of H.264.

According to Eich, "Some say we should hold out longer for someone (Google? Adobe?) to change something to advance WebM over H.264. Others say we should hold out indefinitely and by ourselves, rather than integrate OS decoders for encumbered video. What I do know for certain is this: H.264 is absolutely required right now to compete on mobile. I do not believe that we can reject H.264 content in Firefox or Android or or in B2G and survive the shift to mobile. Losing a battle is a bitter experience. I won't sugar-coat this pill.... Failure on mobile is too likely to consign Mozilla to decline and irrelevance."

Source: The Inquirer - Mozilla grudgingly adopts H.264
Mitchell's Blog - Video, user experience and our mission
Mozilla Hacks - Video, Mobile, and the Open Web
Engadget - Mozilla caves, will support H.264 to avoid 'irrelevance'

At this year's South by Southwest conference Metadot Corporation unveiled their very retro keyboard known as the DasKeyboard (German for "The Keyboard"?). Basically, what this device aims to do is bring back the touch and feel of typing on one of those old IBM Selectric typewriters. In fact, Metadot Corporation wanted to let users know just how retro the DasKeyboard feels by having a few of those old IBM Selectric typewriters at their South by Southwest booth.

The keys on the DasKeyboard are larger than most traditional keys with slightly concave tops. In addition to that, they make a rather enjoyable click when you press on them. The DasKeyboard also gives you some tactile feedback as well that provides you with a little assurance while typing.

Metadot Corporation also makes a similar keyboard to the DasKeyboard without the clicky noise, perfect for office settings, school settings or people who talk on the phone a lot while typing. There is even another version that doesn't have any labels on the keys whatsoever, something Metadot believes helps you type faster.

Regardless, if you are looking for some nostalgia or you are really into either retro keyboards, IBM Selectric typewriters or both, the DasKeyboard from Metadot Corporation may be the perfect thing for you. You can get the three different models when they launch later this year with the standard keyboard costing $129, the clickless keyboard costing $135 and the labeless keyboard costing $129.

Source: PC World - The DasKeyboard Brings Back the Feel of an IBM Selectric

According to multiple reports and sources, suppliers of ultrabooks are facing a lot of issues with profitability and market. As a result, many manufacturers are expected to turn to low-cost designs to make up for it. According to an anonymous CNET source that speaks directly to ultrabook suppliers, "The ultrabook adoption during the holiday season was ugly." Before you go jumping to conclusions, this source was only talking about one ultrabook manufacturer specifically.

That being said, the ultrabook market for all suppliers is still facing challenges. According to the same source, "You've got a down market on the eve of a new operating system (Windows 8, obviously) at a price point that's fairly robust (meaning high)." On top of that, Acer, one of the high-profile ultrabook vendors, stated that it is currently not making a profit on lower-end models according to a recent report in The Verge.

A Tech Travel Agent can get an ultrabook rental to you within 24 business hours in over 1000 cities worldwide.

The company's Aspire S3 ultrabook has been generally priced at $899 but could drop as low as $799. Acer's Chairman also stated back in December that ultrabook sales should be somewhere between 250,000 and 300,000 in Q4. Other top vendors, like HP and Dell, have just started selling ultrabooks, which makes their success or failure hazy.

However, a recent report from Asia has claimed that poor sales for vendors is forcing them to rethink ultrabooks altogether. According to a report in Digitimes citing industry sources, "Existing Sandy-bridge ultrabooks are too expensive." Many are speculating that, as a result, many ultrabook manufacturers will turn to thin laptops similar to ultrabooks that do not incur the high costs of current designs. Things like metal cases, expensive hinges and expensive solid state drives are what are keeping ultrabook prices high enough to dissuade potential buyers.

These new thin laptops are predicted to have prices in the $600 range and launch in Q2 2012, although that strategy could also backfire. Low-cost laptops, like the netbook, have yet to be widely accepted due to the fact that they were built from cheap chassis materials, had low-end components and lacked the performance power of other laptops. What this could mean for the laptop industry as a whole is still up in the air.

Source: CNET - As ultrabook makers seek stronger sales, some opt for low cost

On Monday, March 5 Adobe announced a new service that is designed to reduce the amount of ink used when printing. It is being called LeanPrint.

According to Adobe, LeanPrint will save up to 40 percent of the toner that would normally be used when printing something. It is able to do this in certain modes like “SuperSaver” and “TonerSaver.” The basic idea of LeanPrint is that it will work to squeeze more onto a page and reduce the amount of toner used on prints that use a lot of ink. This will help to not only save on ink but paper as well.

Now, when you think about it, this new software seems like it would be undermining printer company’s plans to sell you a cheap printer that must be replaced with expensive toner when the ink runs out; however, Toshiba America Business Solutions (TABS) is the first printer maker to endorse and promote the new LeanPrint software. According to Adobe, Toshiba will be available to distribute LeanPrint to its customers across the continent.

Adobe said that LeanPrint is targeting both large companies as well as individuals. Those who are interested must purchase a license from a company that is partnering with Adobe, like Toshiba. Customers can either sign up for a 30-day free trial or pay $99 for a one-year subscription.

"Adobe has always prided itself on environmentally conscious behavior, from its LEED Platinum certified buildings to its carbon offsets," said Raman Nagpal, the senior director and general manager of Adobe Print and Scan Business. "With LeanPrint, we are bringing together our commitment to the environment and a deep understanding of the print industry to further drive down printing costs. Adobe is excited to launch LeanPrint with a like-minded company like Toshiba, who will help distribute this technology throughout North America."

All of this news is not good for printer companies like HP. During a second quarter conference call, the chief executive of HP, Meg Whitman, discussed the current shift of corporations and individual consumers towards printing less.

"We faced a number of challenges and the printing market is more mature and more mature markets tend to be governed more by macroeconomic forces," Whitman said. "I am convinced that a number of our challenges do relate to the macroeconomic challenges, weak consumer demand, weak small office, home office demand. The sell-through of ink in particular is at pretty low levels and it's not just our ink, it's industry ink."

This really could pose an issue to printer companies in the near future; however, it also might help to reduce the inflated pricing of toner. It will be interesting to see how printer companies react.

Sources: PCMag - Adobe 'LeanPrint' Claims to Cut Ink Use by 40 Percent and Tom's Guide - Adobe Releases LeanPrint Software to Save on Ink, Paper

Power Point Projectors
Most business class projectors will do a good job displaying your PowerPoint presentation. If you have a small presentation group, a 2000 lumen LCD projector will be able to produce a nice and clear picture. For larger audiences you should consider a 5000 lumen LCD projector.