Facebook has updated its ability to store high resolution photos and made improvements to viewing, bulk tagging, and uploading images. The photo quality improvements should be available for some people today, with the other new features rolling out over the next month.
The improvements mean users can soon upload higher resolution images: up to 2048 pixels on the largest edge (for those keeping count, that's about 3.1MP, or enough to print out a 5x7 print at 300 DPI), compared to the previous 720 pixels limit. The site is also planning to launch a faster and smoother new photo viewer that opens over the main Facebook page. It allows users to browse whole albums without having to jump to a new page, reducing the number of page refreshes needed. The new Flash-based uploader, meanwhile, will let users tag multiple photos in the same album all at once (no, this isn't face recognition technology), as well as tag photos of the same person with a lot less effort.
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Microsoft sues Motorola
Microsoft has announced today that it is suing Motorola, citing that the mobile phone maker is infringing nine of Microsoft's patents on its Android devices. The patents referred to cover such things as email, calendar, contact syncing and the technology used to notify applications of the devices signal strength and battery charge.
The allegations have been filed with both the U.S. District Court in Washington and the International Trade Commission (ITC).
Below is the Press Release Microsoft have issued.
Microsoft Files Patent Infringement Action Against Motorola
REDMOND, Wash. - Oct. 1, 2010 - Microsoft Corp. today filed a patent infringement action against Motorola, Inc. and issued the following statement from Horacio Gutierrez, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel of Intellectual Property and Licensing:
"Microsoft filed an action today in the International Trade Commission and in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington against Motorola, Inc. for infringement of nine Microsoft patents by Motorola's Android-based smartphones. The patents at issue relate to a range of functionality embodied in Motorola's Android smartphone devices that are essential to the smartphone user experience, including synchronizing email, calendars and contacts, scheduling meetings, and notifying applications of changes in signal strength and battery power.
We have a responsibility to our customers, partners, and shareholders to safeguard the billions of dollars we invest each year in bringing innovative software products and services to market. Motorola needs to stop its infringement of our patented inventions in its Android smartphones."
The allegations appear to be a direct attack at Google's Android operating system which Microsoft claimed earlier this year was infringing on some of its own patents. This case comes just weeks before Microsoft is expected to release its own, new mobile operating system, Windows Phone 7.
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6 Million downloads of IE9 beta in two weeks
Microsoft said on Friday that since the launch of Internet Explorer 9 beta, two weeks ago, the software giant has recorded six million downloads.
Internet Explorer 9 beta made its debut on September 15 to a fanfare of Gorillaz appearances and anticipation of Microsoft's new look browser. The next generation browser has received a warm welcome from tech enthusiasts, developers and the media. The browser has been so popular that it has grabbed 0.25% of browser market share in just two weeks.
"Two weeks after IE9 Beta launch, we continue to see great reactions from our customers. As of today, IE9 Beta has been downloaded 6 million times, which is two and half times what we saw with IE8 Beta in a similar timeframe", wrote Ryan Gavin, Senior Director of Internet Explorer Business and Marketing.
Microsoft has targeted developers in a heavy way with Internet Explorer 9. IE 9 takes advantage of the power of the GPU for all page rendering and developers can exploit this using CSS, DHTML and javascript. A new JS engine (codenamed Chakra) is also built into Internet Explorer 9 with greater interoperability and standards support all round. Features such as rounded corner CSS support are now built in.
Microsoft has also introduced broader support for HTML5 in IE9 through its new script engine. Microsoft recently performed W3C Web Standards tests on IE9, including HTML5, SVG 1.1 2nd edition, CSS3 media queries, CSS3 borders & backgrounds, CSS3 selectors, DOM level 3 core, DOM level 3 events and DOM level 2 style. Microsoft's IE9 is the first and only browser to deliver full hardware acceleration of all HTML5 content. Other competitors, including Mozilla and Google, are planning select hardware acceleration but at the moment Internet Explorer 9 wins hands down.
Microsoft, with the help of W3C, performed a total of 2,138 tests on a variety of browsers. Internet Explorer 9 scored above 90% in average across all tests, while every other browser, except Safari 5 and Chrome 5 didn't come close to scoring 90% or above in any of the test categories. Microsoft is expected to issue a second beta of Internet Explorer 9 at its Professional Developers Conference in October later this month. Internet Explorer 9 is expected to become broadly available in early 2011.
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