When you run as many services as Google does, every once in a while you’re going to have to do some pruning. Evidently Mountain View’s got the secateurs out, having just announced the next batch of its projects that will be getting axed wound down. For the chop are: AdSense for Feeds, Classic Plus, Spreadsheet Gadgets, Places for Android, and +1 Reports in Webmaster Tools. Other services are being merged into existing properties to prevent overlap, such as Google Storage for Picasa and Drive — which are now consolidated — and Insights for Search is now part of Google Trends. Naturally, the search giant claims this is all about streamlining, and improving other core products. If the retired service involves a paid subscription, or legacy data, then you’ll need to check the specifics on the official blog to find out how this will affect you, which fortunately for you, is just a tap of the source link away.
[Image Credit: Shutterstock]
Google retires more services, consolidates others in continued efficiency bid originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 30 Sep 2012 07:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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With Logitech’s Squeezebox platform having quietly and unexpectedly reached its EOL status, the company found it necessary to let its customers know where they stand going forward. In a very detailed letter from UE product director Ariel Fischer, the Harmony maker reassured current Squeezebox owners it will continue to offer support for these products, adding that the current “mysqueezebox” website and certain apps will still work with existing devices. What’s more, those who managed to snag one of those Squeezebox Radios will have the option to upgrade to the outfit’s new UE Smart Radio service — which, according to Logitech, can play nicely alongside existing Squeezebox products, though this “will operate and be controlled separately.” All in all, it could be worse — and, in age where customer service can sometimes be rather unpleasant, we’re sure most of us can appreciate the transparency being shown in the open letter. Speaking of which, you’ll find that at the source link below.
Filed under: Misc, Portable Audio/Video, Software
Logitech promises continued support for Squeezebox, says it won’t force a switch to UE Smart Radio originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 29 Sep 2012 06:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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…question about not being able to remove apps and such still is bothering me. Why can I not remove the Blockbuster app? I got the new 2.2 but when I go to remove the app the uninstall button is grayed out. Isn't this like what Joshua Topolsky (from Endgadget) was saying about a phone that has Bing on and not being able to remove it or perhaps how…
gdgt – new in gadgets
Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) Leader nlyte Software Demonstrates Continued Strong Market Momentum MENLO PARK, Calif.—-nlyte Software, the only provider of performance-based solutions for Data Center Infrastructure Management , today announced strong company momentum for the 6 months ending June 30th, 2010.
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6. Windows 7
Yeah, sue me — while I’m by no means a Microsoft cheerleader, I am a huge Windows fan. 2009 saw the release of, dare I say, the best operating system ever made. Sales figures of both the bundled-with-new-PCs and boxed standalone versions have been massive, blowing all other competitors out of the water. Software support is great, the Superbar is awesome… I’m hard-pushed to think of something bad about Windows 7. I guess the lack of Network Activity icon in the system tray is pretty annoying…
Can I sneak in a quick shout-out to Bing in this section too? It’s not that Bing itself is amazing, but the competition with Google and the competitive one-upmanship that it fuels is priceless. It is no coincidence that Google has released a vast number of advances and technologies this year — we have the scary, looming behemoth of Microsoft to thank for that.
Also, moving into 2010, it’s vital that we put Microsoft’s awful attempts at advertising behind us.
7. The Cloud, Web Apps, Botnets 2009 was the year of cheap, easily-accessible computing power. As we all know, with great power comes great responsibility! For every Panda Cloud Antivirus, there is a 250,000-zombie botnet that needs taking down. Amazon’s EC2 (and scalable storage!) is growing in power, diminishing in cost and being utilized by more and more large-scale services every day. Did you know that Twitter runs in the Amazon Cloud? That’s how they’ve managed to scale so quickly (and turn a profit!) with little initial outlay and tiny numbers of staff.
With Google now fully on board with cloud computing, and invested in its vast array of web apps, we will continue to see more end-users, large corporations and even governments move towards the Cloud in 2010.
8. Real-time news takes over as Twitter gives the faceless Iranian horde a voice
This year, mostly driven by Twitter, we have seen the proliferation of real-time news: proper, breaking news — not an hour after the fact, but usually within mere minutes. We’ve always known the Internet to be pretty special and capable of some wild things (like Flash mobs!), but it’s not often that we actually hear of the Internet doing something important like this. With the Iranian presidential ‘scandal’, Twitter was very suddenly thrown into the limelight. Here, handed on a social media silver platter, was Twitter’s legitimacy. Who cares if 80% of all Tweets are about your bout of irritable bowel syndrome if it can also provide a voice for the oppressed protesters in Iran? Twitter’s impact was so big that the event has even been nicknamed the ‘Twitter Revolution’.
Recognizing the importance of news as-it-happens, most of us now follow BreakingNews (BNO) on Twitter. MSNBC, acknowledging that the conventional news wire is just too damn slow bought them out this year. Who knew that reporting on the Tiger Woods situation 30 minutes after BNO would ever be considered ‘slow’… Damn Internet!
9. Google’s Online (for now) Domination
I really want to love Google. They do so much good — they offer so much value for such a low price — but… part of me remains cautious. I know that while I get to search maps and trawl billions of expertly-indexed websites for free, someone else is footing the bill. Is this capitalism? I pay $300 for a LCD monitor, which Samsung then spends on Google AdWords. Google takes its cut, Samsung turns a juicy profit, and I get tons of free stuff. It sounds pretty damn good to me.
2009 must surely go down in history as one of Google’s greatest years. Its stock prices are soaring, their fluid cash reserves are strong and they’re buying up bright new start-ups like there’s no tomorrow — recession? What recession? Meanwhile, Microsoft sits in the wings and humbly mumbles to itself about how it ‘used to be my job’. I think it’s fairly well-accepted that Google is fast becoming the new Microsoft — the only real difference is the business model. Microsoft struck gold via its monopoly of the operating system market. Google’s livelihood is accruing and analyzing your Internet-usage habits.
It’s just a question of which method of doing business you prefer. It’s very hard to say no to a free lunch though, that’s for sure.
10. The Large Hadron Collider runs Linux
The largest science project. The most powerful particle accelerator. The biggest and coolest cryogenic system in the world. And it runs on open-source software. Linux — Scientific Linux, a modified Red Hat distro, to be exact — powers a machine that propels atomic nuclei to speeds within 99.9999991% of the speed of light… and then smashes them together! This year saw the first actual collision, and while the boffins at CERN haven’t quite worked up to full speed yet, nor have they worked out a way of keeping baguettes out of the system, 2010 should see some really big bangs.
With a total budget of nine billion dollars, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is by far the most expensive scientific experiment ever devised. Hopefully we’ll discover crazy new particles and uncover the laws of quantum mechanics. No one knows what’s really going to happen — it’s an experiment after all — but scientists assure us that the creation of a black hole is unlikely. Phew.
THE PREVIOUS FIVE* * *
tweetmeme_url = ‘http://www.downloadsquad.com/2009/12/29/sebs-10-greatest-geekiest-and-most-awesome-things-of-2009/’; tweetmeme_source = ‘downloadsquad’; ShareI think I’ve hit just about every major geeky-newsy story from 2009, but if I’ve missed something big, let me know in the comments.
Seb’s 10 greatest, geekiest and most awesome things of 2009 (continued) originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 30 Dec 2009 17:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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