Ezine Articles

Introduction

Windows Phone 8 is officially in the race. It probably isn't time to count the horses just yet but Team Windows seems ready to bounce - major OEMs have backed Microsoft up with flagships and mid-range options. Redmond is doing its part with what looks like one of the biggest OS overhauls this year.

If you're looking to pick up a new BlackBerry PlayBook in Canada, there is a fantastic deal going on this weekend only at Future Shop. From 8PM EST to 10AM EST tonight and 5PM EST to 10AM EST Sunday you can grab a 32GB PlayBook for just $129 with free shipping.

Not every developer had the luxury of putting a flight to Redmond on the corporate tab so that they could attend Microsoft's Build 2012 conference in person. Much to their delight, they won't have to. The company has posted streaming video for every session addressing Windows 8, Windows Phone 8 and beyond, ranging from the two keynotes through to nuts-and-bolts framework talks.

Hurricane Sandy didn’t stop Apple fans from coming out in droves in New York City to get their hands on the new iPad mini tablet, but the kickoff event was a bit less enthusiastic than previous product launches in recent history. It also started a bit later than scheduled.

Although an Apple spokesperson confirmed to Mashable on Thursday the launch would begin at 8 a.m. ET on Friday, doors didn’t open until 10 a.m. Once the line started moving, shoppers could get in and out relatively quickly.

 Android distribution numbers for October are in and Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean are still short of the reach Google might have hoped for.

Calling all six billion humans who are not yet members of Facebook: should you decide to join the world’s largest social network, the company will now make sure you understand "how sharing works."

While that may sound like a lesson you (should have) learned in kindergarten, Facebook wrote Friday that it new users would be taken through a "more prominent and detailed educational privacy information to new users as soon as they begin the process of signing up for Facebook. These updates to our sign-up process will be visible to most new users around the globe starting today."

Beta version mandates a secure channel before connecting to sensitive sites.

Developers of Mozilla's Firefox browser are experimenting with a new security feature that connects to a specified set of websites only when presented with a cryptographic certificate validating the connection is secure.

A beta version of the open-source browser contains a list of sites known to deploy the HTTP Strict Transport Security mechanism that requires a browser to use the secure sockets layer or transport layer security protocols when communicating. HSTS is designed to provide an additional layer of security by mandating the channel is encrypted and the server has been authenticated using strong cryptography.

Twitter plans to alter its mobile apps in the coming months and add photo filters so that its members can skip Facebook-owned Instagram, according to a report by The New York Times.

If the juicy rumor proves true, and it probably will as the Times’ Nick Bilton is well-sourced at Twitter, it speaks to the information network’s naiveté over what’s attracted more than 100 million users to Instagram.

The specifications for the Wii U's internet browser have been made public, and it's no surprise that the software shares its technical underpinnings with the 3DS' browser. Specifically, the Wii U's window into the web is actually NetFront NX, which is a WebKit-based browser designed for smart TVs, mobile devices, game consoles and the like. NetFront, in one form or another, has powered the 3DS, PSP, PlayStation 3 and Vita's browsers.

Introduction

Roughly a year after Motorola brought the RAZR franchise back to the masses, we have the second generation of the popular DROID on our hands. The Motorola DROID RAZR HD for Verizon Wireless comes to the market hot on the heels of its frameless baby brother, bringing a few extra tricks to go with the more impressive screen.