Microsoft reported working on the touched-enabled watch device

Microsoft is reportedly exploring the idea of joining what promises to be a crowded smartwatch market.

The tech titan has asked suppliers in Asia to ship components for a potential touch-enabled watch device, executives at the suppliers told The Wall Street Journal. One executive told the Journal that he had met with Microsoft's research and development team in Redmond, Wash., but it's unclear whether Microsoft will commit to producing such a device.


Microsoft has requested these components to potentially create a touch-enabled watch device, featuring a 1.5 inch display. Microsoft requested displays from component makers for that specific size. No word on exactly if Microsoft will follow through with a touch-enabled watch, but this report gives us a positive outlook on its chances.

Back in 2008, we saw the sales of Microsoft's Smart Watch disappear. Smart Watch was Microsoft's first interest in a wearable gadget, which provided news headlines, sports scores, and instant messages via a FM radio and a subscription fee.

Source:WJS
Via:WinBeta

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Ubuntu Warns Windows 8 Users

A week after it was announced that WUBI, the Windows-side installer for Ubuntu, is likely to be dropped from Ubuntu 13.04. The Ubuntu website is now also warning users not to use WUBI to try Ubuntu 12.10.


When clicking the ”Install from Windows’ link on the Ubuntu download page the following banner appears, advising against using the WUBI tool with Windows 8 or UEFI hardware.

Instead, Ubuntu recommends installing Ubuntu 12.10 64bit on its own dedicated partition – a task that is made easy with Ubuntu’s installer, but not entirely without risk.

The warning appears following reports of stability and potential data-loss encountered by WUBI users on Windows 8.

Canonical’s Robert Bruce Park recently said of WUBI:

“It needs to die a quick and painless death so we can get on with providing positive experiences to new users of Ubuntu.”

You can see the new WUBI warning by visiting the Ubuntu page.

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WhatsApp: We’re Not Selling to Google

Popular messaging app WhatsApp says it is not in discussions to sell the company to Google.
Neeraj Arora, WhatsApp’s business development head, said the company is not holding sales talks with Google.

Earlier this week, reports from most sources stated that the company was contemplating a $1 billion sale to the search giant Google.

WhatsApp has been the subject of similar rumors before, but with Facebook as the rumored buyer in December. At the time, the company said the reports were “not factually accurate.”

Source

Google Play Store Updated to Version 4.0.25

Google Play Store app for Android has just been updated and features a brighter, card-based interface from which users can more easily source new content. For a long time, the Play Store has presented Droidsters with a decidedly dark look, but the lighter aesthetic really helps accentuate the card-based theme, and the official rollout is now underway.

Google has placed a great deal of emphasis on improving the design of its products across the board, and the revamped Play Store app certainly falls in line. In fact, the card-based look borrows heavily from the rather pretty Google Now, and although there’s no mention of improved performance therein, the new look will certainly make the process of finding new and exciting apps just that little bit more pleasurable.

Google Play’s update is unfortunately not one that you can download, so if you’re eager to try out the new look, you will be required to play the waiting game for the time being. But thanks to the good folks over at XDA, you can grab the APK right now and install it on your device, provided that you have Unknown sources checked under the Security menu in Settings. However, if you want the Play Store update to tickle to on to your device on its own, then be ready to play the waiting game.

As well as showcasing Google’s desires to up the ante in the field of design, the revised look of the Play Store app is being marketed as a win for those in favor of simple, uncluttered user interfaces. As big fans of minimalism here at Redmond Pie, we’d say the Big G has done a pretty good job, and we cannot wait until our own fleet of Android devices has been treated to this new look.

You can update Google play store app on your Android device or visit the link below to download.
Download Google Play Store

Source: XDA developers
Via: RedmondPie

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Google Reported to Acquire WhatsApp For $1 Billion

WhatsApp Messenger, the cross-platform instant messaging app serving iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Symbian and Windows Phone, is a life-saver to those looking for a hassle-free mode of communication, and according to a new report, the search giant is very interested in buying it.

According to the report from Gizmodo, WhatsApp founded by former Yahoo pioneers Brian Acton and Jan Koum, is said to be holding out for the $1 billion.

The news, if true, would be pretty significant, but also rather surprising. Google’s mobile messaging department could certainly do with bolstering, and drafting in WhatsApp would certainly be an easy way for the Mountain View-based company to achieve this. However, it has long since been reckoned that Google’s ‘Babel’ chat will be an all-encompassing communications service, and with GTalk already being a popular, strong feature of the GApps (at least, on Android), the immediate benefit would seem to be in the user base WhatsApp has amassed in its four years of existence.

Google has, on numerous occasions, acknowledged that the quality of its messaging services have fallen below par, and buying WhatsApp would be a big statement of intent. It would also, as many perceived as motive to Facebook’s Instagram purchase, eliminate one of the main competitors in this field, helping Google quickly place itself among the likes of Facebook Messenger and Apple iMessage.

Unless Google Babel is, contrary to reports, not culminating into the great service Google needs to make its presence known in the IM market, then this could also go a way to explaining why the company is rumored to be considering WhatsApp. After all, the service, which was founded only in 2009, handles tens of billions of messages a day, and if it were to provide the engine for the upcoming Babel service, Google would have one hell of a beast to unleash.

Via: RedmondPie

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