Once again we have given the look of our website a refresh. The new design we hope will also help tablet and phone users to view and click into our website easier, hence bigger boxes and easier to navigate.

Please feel free to comment on what you think… is there anything we may have missed / could improve or do you love it the way it is? Check it out as http://www.mediacenter-tv.co.uk

We also have a massive sale on – all media centres over £300 we are giving a massive 10% off the price…. so make the most of it as you only have a few days left!!

Any questions please feel free to contact us at sales@mediacenter-tv.co.uk.

The new Amazon Android tablet would be the number one threat to Apple’s domination of the tablet market, according to industry analysts.
A report from Forrester says that if the Amazon tablet could undercut the iPad in the price department, then it could sell five million devices before the year is out.
“Even though Amazon taking on Apple is a bit like David taking on Goliath,” says Sarah Rotman Epps, the report’s author, “Amazon’s willingness to sell hardware at a loss combined with the strength of its brand, content, cloud infrastructure, and commerce assets makes it the only credible iPad competitor in the market.”
“If Amazon launches a tablet at a sub-$300 price point — assuming it has enough supply to meet demand — we see Amazon selling 3-5 million tablets in Q4 alone.”
While the launch of the device is yet to be confirmed, many expect an announcement to be made in October.
The Forrester report reckons that because Amazon has proved with the Kindle that it is unconcerned about making a loss on the hardware itself, it has the ability to disrupt Apple.
“The bottom line: A year from now, “Amazon” will be synonymous with “Android” on tablets, a strong second to Apple’s iPad.
“If you haven’t yet contemplated how Apple-Amazon tablet domination will change your product strategy, now is the time to plan and act.”

Copy of email:-

Team:
I am looking forward to the amazing opportunity of serving as C.E.O. of the most innovative company in the world. Joining Apple was the best decision I’ve ever made and it’s been the privilege of a lifetime to work for Apple and Steve for over 13 years. I share Steve’s optimism for Apple’s bright future.
Steve has been an incredible leader and mentor to me, as well as to the entire executive team and our amazing employees. We are really looking forward to Steve’s ongoing guidance and inspiration as our Chairman.
I want you to be confident that Apple is not going to change. I cherish and celebrate Apple’s unique principles and values. Steve built a company and culture that is unlike any other in the world and we are going to stay true to that — it is in our DNA. We are going to continue to make the best products in the world that delight our customers and make our employees incredibly proud of what they do.
I love Apple and I am looking forward to diving into my new role. All of the incredible support from the Board, the executive team and many of you has been inspiring. I am confident our best years lie ahead of us and that together we will continue to make Apple the magical place that it is.
Tim

Tim Cook was hired by Steve Jobs from Compaq in 1998 to oversee Apple’s operations. He started at Apple with the title of Senior Vice President for Worldwide Operations, but was promoted to Chief Operations Officer in 2005. Prior to joining Compaq, Mr. Cook spent more than 12 years at IBM.
He filled in as effective CEO in 2004 when Steve Jobs underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer. When Steve Jobs went on a first medical leave of absence in 2009, Mr. Cook was officially named as temporary CEO by Apple’s board of directors, and he was again serving in that role when Mr. Jobs began a second medical leave of absence in January of 2011. On Wednesday, “temporary” became “permanent” when Mr. Jobs resigned and Mr. Cook was named CEO.

Microsoft’s brand new blog, Building Windows 8 is giving details of the software giant plans for the next version of its OS.

Microsoft says it will use the new blog to talk about forthcoming features, user interface decisions, engineering and other Windows 8-related news. “We know developers, IT pros, and gamers all want to know what’s new for them,” wrote Steven Sinofsky, president of Microsoft’s Windows and Windows Live division. “There is so much packed into Windows 8…so we want to be sure to take the time to cover as many of these topics as possible.”

Sinofsky’s debut post for the new Windows 8 blog was short on specifics about the new OS beyond what Microsoft showed off in June. Instead, Sinofsky reiterated Microsoft’s vision for the next version of Windows, which the Microsoft exec says will be the biggest revamp of Windows since Windows 95.
“Windows 8 reimagines Windows for a new generation of computing devices,” Sinofsky said. “Today more than two out of three PCs are mobile (laptops, netbooks, notebooks, tablets, slates, convertibles, etc.)… Screen sizes range from under 10″ to wall-sized screens and multiple HD screens. Storage has jumped from megabytes to terabytes and has moved up to the cloud…These changes in the landscape motivate the most significant changes to Windows, from the chips to the experience.”

Check out the Building Windows 8 blog for more details

The remote control app for MediaCenter is now released for the iPad. Here’s the blurb:-

“Imagine having your entire library of TV shows, music, pictures and videos with you wherever you go – without having to sync.

With Remote Potato, your entire media library is in your pocket wherever you go: Watch a movie on the bus! Listen to that album you forgot to sync up! Show your work colleagues your home photos!

• Watch videos, movies or recorded TV shows streamed from your home PC over 3G or WiFi!
• Stream songs from your home music library – anywhere in the world.
• Remotely view your photos in crystal clear detail; download/email them to friends.
• AirPlay support: send movies and videos to your television via an AppleTV.
• Sync up albums and songs for offline access.
• Listen to music in the background while using other apps.
• Control music playback from Bluetooth or Apple™ remote headphones.
Windows 7 Media Center users can also:
• Browse your TV Guide and schedule recordings.
• Watch previously recorded TV shows – streamed live from your home PC*
• The first app in the world to directly stream WTV recorded TV files to your iPhone!

If you’ve not already installed Remote Potato, now’s the time to grab a copy of the free server softwarewhich runs on your home PC and makes all this possible.

Then, once it’s up-and-running, head to the App Store to download a copy of Remote Potato to your iPad – for the ultimate multimedia experience, wherever you are!

IBM said on Thursday that its first neurosynaptic computing chips, which have been fabricated and are being tested, use advanced algorithms and silicon circuitry to replicate the brain’s neurons, synapses and axons. IBM’s cognitive computing architecture integrates hardware and software, marking a “critical shift” away from the traditional von Neumann architecture of separate CPU and memory, the company said.

The technology could yield many orders of magnitude less power consumption and space than used in today’s computers.

Called cognitive computers, systems built with these chips won’t be programmed the same way traditional computers are today. Rather, cognitive computers are expected to learn through experiences, find correlations, create hypotheses, and remember – and learn from – the outcomes, mimicking the brains structural and synaptic plasticity.
To do this, IBM is combining principles from nanoscience, neuroscience and supercomputing as part of a multi-year cognitive computing initiative. The company and its university collaborators also announced they have been awarded approximately $21 million in new funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for Phase 2 of the Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics (SyNAPSE) project.
Future chips will be able to ingest information from complex, real-world environments through multiple sensory modes and act through multiple motor modes in a coordinated, context-dependent manner.

According to a new study by Ian Hargreaves and colleagues from the University of Calgary in Canada word recognition behaviour can be fine-tuned by experience and practice. It seems that it is possible to develop visual word recognition ability in adulthood; beyond what researchers thought was achievable. Competitive Scrabble players provide the proof.

Expert players typically dedicate large amounts of time to studying the 180,000 words listed in The Official Tournament and Club Word List. Hargreaves and colleagues wanted to establish the effects of experience on visual word recognition. They compared the visual word recognition of competitive Scrabble players and non-expert participants using a version of the classic word recognition model where subjects need to make a quick decision about whether the word shown to them is a real word.

Competitive players were faster to judge whether or not a word was real. They also judged the validity of vertical words faster than non-experts and were quicker at picking up abstract words than non-competitive players. These findings indicate that Scrabble players are less reliant on the meaning of words to judge whether or not they are real, and more flexible at word recognition using orthographic information.

The authors conclude: “Our results suggest that visual word recognition is shaped by experience and, that with experience, there are efficiencies to be had even in the adult world recognition system. Competitive Scrabble players are visual word recognition experts and their skill pushes the bounds of what we previously considered the end-point of development of the word recognition system.”

It’s not about devices. It’s about patents.

Prophetically one blog last week put it this way:-

“With 17,000 patents, Motorola Mobility is the best mobile partner Google’s Android could ever wish for as industry hostilities heat up… not only does Motorola have far more patents than its nearest competitors, [but] it appears to have more of the key patents that may help the Android camp in a battle against Apple.”

So basically this deal can better protect Android from the legal assaults of rivals and it will drive all kinds of Android development.

So how will HTC and Samsung feel about this deal? Publically they’ll be all smiles. But in the boardroom? Not so happy. One Internet specialist put it this way, “Google always does what’s good for Google – and now that it’s in the handset business, what’s good for Google isn’t necessarily what’s good for other Android manufacturers.”

So is this going to impact in the iPhone?

In a word, yes.
It’s critical to remember who buys Android devices versus iOS devices: kids buy Android (“It’s cheap!”) while adults largely buy iOS (“Pricey, but it makes me cool with the other adults!” – and rightly so!). Guess which group will be buying devices long into the future?
Android/Google owns the future global mobile buyer. However Apple will respond. That should be interesting!

The recording surface of Millenniata’s M-DISC is virtually indestructible. The company claims that its DVD drive–readable discs will last for 1,000 years. Not an easy claim to prove.

What makes this such a sturdy disc is that it has a different recording medium and method than the lasers and dyes used by DVD makers. Instead, actual pits are burned into the recording medium by a laser, and the resulting disc is readable by a standard DVD drive because the DVD laser light reading mechanism works just fine.

The M-DISC uses the same polycarbonate base as a DVD and then adds an “inorganic and synthetic material” data layer, including “metals and metalloids”, with another polycarbonate layer stick on top of that with adhesive, apparently. Does anyone actually know what they mean by that without going to a library or searching Wikipedia?

The M-READY drive has a higher-powered laser than the one found in your standard, garden variety DVD writer, and it’s used to engrave pits into the recording medium’s surface. The pits are permanent, so the disc is write only. Millenniata calls the recording medium layer “rock-like”. The edges of the pits are said to be enhanced because the melted material in the pits moves away from the heated laser spot.

If you have content that you absolutely, definitely, cannot afford to lose, ever, then this could be the archive technology you’ve been waiting for. But will their be DVDs around in a 1000 years? Or will anyone be interested in looking at information from 1000 years ago?

The Samsung Galaxy Xcover runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread with an 800MHz processor. It packs a 3.6in reinforced touchscreen display made from tempered anti-scratch glass. There’s also a 2GB MicroSD card included which can be expanded up to 32GB as well as a 3Mp camera with LED flash.

But the main feature that is so different from the rest is the Xcover is waterproof up to a depth of one metre – for 30 minutes at least – while its IP67-compliant airtight form factor means it’ll also be protected from dust and grit.

There are other toughened Android phones on the market, notably the Motorola DEFY plus the rumoured forthcoming DEFY+, and also the Sony Ericsson Xperia Active which should be available soon. The advantage that the Galaxy Xcover has over the DEFY is a later version of Android (and possibly a faster processor), and the Samsung has a much larger display than the very compact Xperia Active.

Samsung Germany say that the Galaxy Xcover should be available from October onwards.