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On Monday June 6th there will be a keynote address from Apple and undoubtedly this address will not only give you an idea of how Apple is doing but also where Apple is heading. The first thing Apple will most likely show is its new software Lion. This will be the 8th major release of a Mac OS X. Then from what I understand they will also be showing off the iOS 5, which is the next version of the mobile OS which powers all of the Apple mobile devices. They will also be announcing the much anticipated iCloud service as well. Although this is only speculation it seems like the deal is all but done, but no word on if the announcement will cover pricing and subscriptions. Also at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference or the WWDC there will also be more than 100 technical sessions presented by Apple engineers. Mac® developers will see and learn how to develop world-class Mac OS X Lion applications using its latest technologies and capabilities. Mobile developers will be able to explore the latest innovations and capabilities of iOS and learn how to greatly enhance the functionality, performance and design of their apps. All developers can bring their code to the labs and work with Apple engineers.

Nvidia introduced a brand new chip, the quad-core Kal-El processor. They showed a demo of Glow Ball tech demo which showed examples of dynamic lighting on mobile devices and shows so great physic calculations, for example fully modeled cloth motion. So this processor takes out static lights that are the norm in mobile gaming today. With this new technology that Nvidia has shown off it is more than possible to create lighting that moves, responds realistically to its environment, and also fluctuates in intensity of light. The most amazing part is this will be done on your smart phone and your tablet device that carries this processor. It is no doubt that Nvidia has done something truly remarkable and is looking to revolutionize graphics as we know it today on mobile devices!

Google gave out a demo on the 26th of the Google wallet. This is what the Google blog had to say about this amazing new technology.
Google Wallet is a key part of our ongoing effort to improve shopping for both businesses and consumers. It’s aimed at making it easier for you to pay for and save on the goods you want, while giving merchants more ways to offer coupons and loyalty programs to customers, as well as bridging the gap between online and offline commerce.
At first, Google Wallet will support both Citi MasterCard and a Google Prepaid Card, which you’ll be able to fund with almost any payment card. From the outset, you’ll be able to tap your phone to pay wherever MasterCard PayPass is accepted. Google Wallet will also sync your Google Offers, which you’ll be able to redeem via NFC at participating SingleTap™ merchants, or by showing the barcode as you check out. Many merchants are working to integrate their offers and loyalty programs with Google Wallet.

A few days ago I wrote a blog about how a major investor Einhorn is questioning Ballmers resolve and how he feels that Ballmer is not focused on the future but in fact feels that he is living in the past. Well the Microsoft board is standing behind their man, Steve Ballmer. Microsoft’s nine-person board, including Chairman and co-founder Bill Gates, supports Ballmer, this is from a source from reuters.com Microsoft itself declined comment. Gates is still the largest shareholder in Microsoft and it looks like if a management shift was to be needed he would be the man to make such a decision. Gates, who spends most of his time on his philanthropic foundation, has given no indication he is considering a change. A representative declined comment on Thursday.

The big thing for most of the companies who provide digital music such as Apple and Amazon is getting a cloud set up. The cloud if you already didn’t know lets users upload their own music collections into what is being called digital lockers on the internet so you may stream your music from any device that allows it. Although with Amazon and Google the cloud is limited due to not being able to reach deals with music labels, which I feel they shouldn’t need to do since they are just storing items you already own for you to access anywhere. Although if anyone could strike the deals it is Apple and reportedly they have. It is said they have reached agreements with three of the four major music labels, with the fourth label being very close to reaching a deal. iCloud as it has been dubbed is going the be Apple’s answer to all the other clouds out there.
Apple will be able to scan customers’ digital music libraries in iTunes and quickly mirror their collections on its own servers, say three people briefed on the talks. If the sound quality of a particular song on a user’s hard drive isn’t good enough, Apple will be able to replace it with a higher-quality version. Users of the service will then be able to stream, whenever they want, their songs and albums directly to PCs, iPhones, iPads, and perhaps one day even cars.
This wonder however won’t be free. Apple has most likely paid a huge price for any cloud music licenses, and it’s unclear how much of those costs it will eat or pass on to consumers. One possibility would be to bundle an iCloud digital locker into Apple’s MobileMe online service, which currently costs $99 a year and synchronizes contacts, e-mail, Web bookmarks, and other user data across multiple devices. Users will be able to store their entire music collections in the cloud—even if they obtained some songs illegally. That would finally give the labels a way to claw out some money on pirated music.

David Einhorn an influential hedge fund manager is calling for Ballmer the CEO of Microsoft to step down. Stating that the Ballmer is stuck in the past and a lot of it seems to deal with the fact that it failed to attack new internet and mobile computing markets and giving it up to Apple. It has been said that privately there have been a lot of critics of Ballmer and the direction Microsoft has gone, but Einhorn are public and very critical from a high profile investor.

Speaking at the annual Ira Sohn Investment Research Conference in New York on Wednesday, Einhorn said it was time for Ballmer — who succeeded co-founder Bill Gates in 2000 — to step aside and “give someone else a chance.”

“His continued presence is the biggest overhang on Microsoft’s stock,” he said.

Amazon offered a new album from Lady Gaga for just .99 cents. The deal was really made so that people would go to Amazon and start using its new Cloud service. The problem with it was that too many people wanted the deal and Amazon got overwhelmed. So with the problems they had with it originally it seems Amazon is offering this deal yet again. So now for .99 cents the customer will get the Lady Gaga album ‘Born this Way’ and 20GB of free Amazon Cloud drive storage to boot. Usually Amazon does offer specials on albums but those are mainly sold for between $3 to $5 and right now Apple is selling the ‘Born this Way’ on iTunes for $11.99.

On May 23rd at a developers conference in Japan, Microsfot CEO Steve Ballmer refered to the next Windows as Windows 8. He also stated that it will be out sometime next year. This is what Ballmer had to say according to a transcript from Microsoft.
“We’re obviously hard at work on the next version of Windows. Windows 7 PCs will sell over 350 million units this year. We’ve done a lot in Windows 7 to improve customer satisfaction. We have a brand new user interface. We’ve added touch, and ink, and speech. And yet, as we look forward to the next generation of Windows systems, which will come out next year, there’s a whole lot more coming. As we progress through the year, you ought to expect to hear a lot about Windows 8. Windows 8 slates, tablets, PCs, a variety of different form factors.”
Although later it came out that Ballmer’s statement wasn’t really what it seemed to be, a Microsoft spokesperson had this to say after the statements made by Ballmer.
“It appears there was a misstatement. We are eagerly awaiting the next generation of Windows 7 hardware that will be available in the coming fiscal year. To date, we have yet to formally announce any timing or naming for the next version of Windows.”
Did Ballmer get too excited and let the cat out of the bag too early and this is just Microsoft doing some back steps? I personally think Ballmer is on point but knowing Microsoft 2012 could be 2013. Although I always feel Microsoft seems to rush their OS’s to markets.

There is a lot of rumors and speculation running around the development of the iPhone 5. What features and cool new things will it bring to the table that the 4 could not? So have said that Apple is looking into curved cover glass on the iPhone 5 says some industry sources. There are reports to this rumor that Apple has purchased between 200-300 glass cutting machines that will be utilized by glass makers. The glass slicing machines are currently being stored at associated assembly plants and will be brought online once yield rates for the production of curved glass reaches a satisfactory level, the sources revealed. There is no real date yet on the production of the iPhone 5 and Apple is still working with suppliers such as the lamination, touch sensors and the cover glass and glass cutting. This will be an interesting move if they decided to go with curved glass and if by making a move like this is changes the production volume.

When people read from time to time they may come across a word they have never seen before and would like to know what that means to bring some sort of context to sentence or part of the story. Well now with the Google eBooks Web Reader you can look this stuff up without losing your place or even looking away from the page. Here is a breakdown of these three nice features.

Translate
You can also translate a single word or several sentences of content into dozens of languages, from Afrikaans to Yiddish, by selecting the “Translate” option. As with definitions, you’ll see the translated text displayed in the pop-up window.

Define
Click “Define” and the pop-up now displays a definition of the word via Google Dictionary, without leaving the page you’re on in the Google eBook. Click on the audio icon to the left of the word you want defined to hear the definition pronounced aloud. If you decide you do want to leave the page, select “More” to go to the Google Dictionary page for the word, which provides additional information like usage examples and web definitions.

Search
By selecting one of the search options, you can search for the selected text in other places within the ebook itself or across the entire web.

“Search Book” brings up all the instances in which the selected text appears in the ebook. You can also access the search options by clicking on the magnifying glass icon in the upper right-hand corner of the Web Reader. Click on a search result to jump to that section.

“Search Google” and “Search Wikipedia” open up a new browser tab displaying the search results for that text on Google and Wikipedia, respectively.