Google has released a beta version of Chrome that introduces what the company describes as “richer” notifications from the browser’s apps and extensions.

The Chrome browser has been able to display this type of notification for more than two years, but Google has now revamped the interface and functionality for these alerts, the company said on Thursday.

Google

The purpose of the enhancements is to boost the effectiveness of these notifications, which remind users of meetings logged in Google Calendar, alert them about incoming Gmail or IM chat messages and display urgent headlines from news applications.

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For all the controversy surrounding Windows 8, it's a solid OS under the hood. And based on a list of API clues discovered by a former Nokia and Silverlight developer, it should only get better with the Windows Blue update.

Based on an extensive examination of the software APIs found within Windows Blue (now offically called Windows 8.1 by Microsoft), developer Justin Angel compiled a lengthy list of more than 25 features that he says will be included in the updated OS: the possibility of ultra-HD "4K" screen support, lock-screen calls, HDR photo support, better multi-screen formatting, and much more. 

Angel teased out the new features by examining the APIs he found in the leaked build of Windows 8.1 (version 9385), which appeared online at the beginning of May. Other Microsoft watchers have installed and played around with the leaked OS—Paul Thurrott published a thorough examination of its forward-facing features—but Angel's API deep-dive reveals even more hidden secrets.

Microsoft representatives declined to comment on what they called rumors and speculation. Angel is no stranger to diving deep into Microsoft products. Last December, he made news when he discovered a method to pirate Windows Store downloads by turning trial versions into full-version apps.

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Intel’s upcoming family of Core processors, code-named Haswell, will offer 50 percent more battery life in laptops than did their “Ivy Bridge” predecessors, Intel said on Thursday.

Haswell chips were designed with laptops and tablets in mind, and the main focus was on lowering power consumption, said Rani Borkar, corporate vice president and general manager of the Intel Architecture Group, in a media briefing.

The longer battery life won’t come with a cost to performance, according to Borkar. And in idle or standby mode the chips will do even better, extending battery life by up to 20 times, she said.

The improvements are vital for Intel and its PC-making partners. PC sales are in one of their worst slumps ever, with users snapping up tablets and smartphones instead for mobile computing. Any improvements Intel can offer will help keep the PC market alive.

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Deploying an update of its DB2 database, IBM is pitching its SmartCloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS) for use in data reporting and analysis.

“We’re the only player in the marketplace that has [a cloud service] for data-in-motion—being able to analyze data in real time,” said Bob Picciano, IBM’s general manager for Information Management.

Starting in the second half of this year, the IBM SmartCloud IaaS will start using version 10.5 of IBM’s DB2 database, which should be generally available by early June. One new set of technologies that will come with this database, collectively called BLU Acceleration, can speed data analysis by 25 times or more, IBM claimed.

IBM also announced that SmartCloud can now run copies of SAP’s HANA in-memory database, initially for test and development jobs.

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SoftBank has received all the necessary state approvals for the Japanese mobile carrier to acquire a majority stake in Sprint Nextel for US$20 billion, the companies announced.

On Thursday, California Public Utilities Commission voted to approve the transaction, giving the companies the final state approval needed for the transaction. The two companies filed applications in 23 states and the District of Columbia.

Still on the table for Sprint is a $25.5 billion counteroffer from Dish, a satellite TV service provider. This week, SoftBank gave Sprint permission to negotiate with Dish.

Still, Sprint and SoftBank appear to be moving forward with their deal. The companies continue to work with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission and other agencies on approval of the deal, they said in a press release. The two companies anticipate closing the deal by July 1, they said.

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U.S. companies should be allowed to take aggressive countermeasures against hackers seeking to steal their intellectual property, contends the private Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property.

The 100-page report, released this week, stops just short of recommending that the U.S. allow businesses to actively retrieve stolen information from within an intruder’s network, and to disable or destroy it without any limitations.

However, the report does make clear that some so-called hack-back options be available if simpler attempts to deter IP theft fail, which will likely gain the attention of rights advocacy groups.

The commission is co-chaired by Dennis Blair, former U.S. Director of National Intelligence and Jon Huntsman, former U.S. Ambassador to China.

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Microsoft has made it official: The new-and-improved Kinect that will ship with the Xbox One later this year will also come to Windows in 2014.

The Windows version will offer the same improvements found in the Xbox One’s Kinect. The device has a wider field of view, better depth detection, an improved noise-canceling microphone, more precise skeletal tracking, and ambient light detection.

But don’t expect Kinect to replace your PC’s mouse and webcam anytime soon. Microsoft still envisions Kinect primarily as a product for businesses and organizations, though the company expects consumers to interact with the motion controller in public places.

Microsoft

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Welcome to the dawn of the SSD age. Solid-state drives now offer great performance at affordable prices, which is why more and more users are choosing them in new PCs and adding them to older ones.

I'm a big fan myself, but I want to share a cautionary tale. About six months ago, an acquaintance of mine installed an SSD in his laptop. Initially, he was delighted: the drive helped his system boot faster and run longer between trips to the wall socket.

Then, one day, out of the blue, the drive died. No clicking, no "imminent failure" message, no warning of any kind--just a dead drive.

It's under warranty, but so what? He has a laptop that won't boot and data he can't access.

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Thin clients introduced this week by Dell and Hewlett-Packard have faster processor than existing thin clients as well as high-definition graphics capabilities, so they could be alternatives to traditional PCs as computing continues moving to the cloud.

The desk-side thin clients also have advanced virtualization features for virtual desktops to host multiple applications in one session. They were announced at the Citrix Synergy conference in Los Angeles.

Dell introduced its first quad-core thin clients called the Wyse D90Q7 and Z90Q7, and also its first dual-core thin client, the Xenith Pro 2. HP upgraded its TM40 thin client to run Advanced Micro Devices’ A-series processors code-named Richland, which are an upgrade from Intel’s third-generation Celeron processors. The thin clients are optimized to work with Citrix’s virtualization stack, which includes Xen hypervisors and server and client software.

The latest thin clients are PCs with network connectivity but no local storage. Virtual desktops on thin clients typically run applications stored in remote servers, using virtualization technologies from Microsoft, Citrix and VMware. The new thin clients have the ability to run high-definition games delivered over the cloud or full instances of Windows 8 complete with touch interaction.

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It's been almost a year since Microsoft moved its newly acquired Skype for Linux out of beta with the release of version 4.0, surprising more than a few Linux fans with its apparent commitment to maintaining a telephony client for the free and open source operating system.

This week, however, that commitment became even harder to dispute given the release of yet another significant update to the software.

“We rolled up our sleeves and reconsidered the heart of the Skype for Linux client,” wrote Skype software engineer Marco Cimmino in a blog post on Monday. “Not only did we conquer the navigation issues and bugs from previous releases, but we increased the stability when logging in from a Microsoft Account.”

The new version 4.2 of the proprietary Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) client brings a number of tweaks and enhancements, in fact. Here's a rundown of some of the highlights.

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Box has acquired an unreleased application called Folders, designed to give iPhone and iPad users a mobile front-end interface for the cloud storage and file management and sharing service as well as for competitors Google Drive and Dropbox.

The Folders technology will be deeply integrated with Box’s own iOS application, which will be upgraded with the Folders improvements later this year, Box’s Vice President of Engineering Sam Schillace said in a blog post on Thursday.

“When we saw Folders we saw a beautiful experience and set of design patterns that we had to bring to Box’s users,” he wrote, adding that Box’s iOS app will become “cleaner, faster and more beautiful.”

Folders includes a PDF viewer, a music player, document, photo and video viewers, a photo and video recording tool and the capability to create and edit notes.

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Foxit Software's PhantomPDF (in both Standard and Business editions) make a good choice for basic office needs, but it suffers from an identity crisis once you get to the high-end features. Foxit's download page makes the bold claim that it is "Better than Adobe Reader and Acrobat," but a more accurate statement would be that it might be better, in very specific circumstances that may or may not apply to you.

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Samsung released data this morning showing that their newest flagship model, the much hyped Galaxy S4, has been a huge success with consumers.  Since its release on April 27, the S4 has sold 10 million units.  To celebrate the milestone, the manufacturer announced the production of a slew of new colors to supplement the stock white and black models that are currently available.

Ten million sales is a pretty impressive benchmark for the Galaxy S4, and reaching it in under a month shows a clear trend of rising popularity for Samsung’s phones.  The S4’s predecessors, the S3 and S2, took 5 and 2 months, respectively, to reach the same level of sales.

Samsung’s Galaxy series is well known for integrating innovative features like Air View and Air Gesture technology, which economize your finger movements and make for a faster, easier experience.  Each model in the series has also boasted impressive hardware, with the S4 feeding its 5-inch AMOLED screen and 13 MP camera with a super fast Qualcomm Snapdragon processor.

Perhaps intended as a gesture of gratitude to Samsung fans, the company also announced the imminent arrival of several new colors to the S4 line.  The stock White Mist and Black Forest models will soon be accompanied by Blue Arctic, Purple Mirage, and Brown Autumn.  There will also be a Red Aurora model, which is being reported as an AT&T exclusive color.  It should make for an exciting summer for Samsung fans.

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Lyft, the ridesharing service known for its fleet of pink mustache-festooned cars, is eyeing international expansion supported by its biggest funding round yet.

The company will be looking at entering new markets, including overseas, between now and the end of 2014, Lyft co-founder John Zimmer said Wednesday.

Specific countries of interest were not named. Lyft currently operates its cars in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Chicago.

Zimmer’s remarks were made on the eve of Lyft’s first anniversary, and its official announcement of having secured a new round of funding from Andreessen Horowitz. The amount of funding, Lyft’s largest yet, was $60 million, Zimmer said.

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Windows 8 has changed the way we navigate the desktop, so it’s not surprising that Microsoft has a pair of new wireless mice designed specifically for Windows 8 (they’re also compatible with Windows 7 and the Mac OS X OS).

Sculpt Mobile Mouse

Microsoft’s Sculpt Mobile Mouse will fit into the tightest backpack or pocket while you’re on the go, and it will keep you from swearing at your notebook’s annoying trackpad or touchscreen when you reach your destination.

Microsoft

The mouse is very small—in fact, it’s almost as long as it is wide. As such, the mouse isn’t the most comfortable to grip if you have large hands: Your palm will drag over the surface, but the high arc will keep your fingers resting happily. Those with smaller paws will appreciate its ambidextrous design and the rubber sides that provide a good grip.

The mouse uses Microsoft’s BlueTrack laser technology, which enables it to track over any almost any surface (except for clear glass or mirrored surfaces). When you’re on the road, the only available mouse pad might be the fabric covering your leg, and the Sculpt Mobile works just fine in that scenario.

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A freelance Java developer claims it took him only 30 days to build and launch a basic open source office suite that runs on multiple OSes.

Called Joeffice, it works on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux as well as in browsers, according to the developer, Anthony Goubard. It includes a very basic word processor, spreadsheet program, presentation program and database software, Goubard said.

The office suite was built with NetBeans and uses many popular open source Java libraries, Goubard said. That allowed him to built the program in 30 days, he said, a process that he documented daily on YouTube.

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Ericsson may have a contender for oddest networking product if it commercializes the wireless bus windows it demonstrated at this week's CTIA Wireless trade show.

The windows would have built-in, translucent antennas connected to an internal Wi-Fi system for passenger use while on the road. In the example Ericsson showed at CTIA, the dual-band Wi-Fi antenna was just a square of barely visible red metal embedded between layers of glass.

The mobile infrastructure giant demonstrated the concept on the upper level of its booth at CTIA, above a showcase of other technologies designed for so-called heterogeneous networks with both Wi-Fi and cellular radios. On Tuesday, the company announced enhancements to its network management software that will allow carriers to do a better job shifting subscribers between the two systems for the best possible coverage.

Stephen Lawson

Ericsson's solution had its origin in a problem for wireless users on buses, cars and trains. For insulation and sun protection, some windows are now being built with thin, translucent layers of aluminum sandwiched between glass. Combined with the metal that covers the rest of a vehicle, those windows essentially create a so-called Faraday cage, a box that blocks all outside radio waves, said Bryan Coley, a marketing program manager at Ericsson.

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Europe's Digital Agenda Commissioner on Thursday set out plans for the E.U. to produce more micro- and nano-chips than the U.S. in the next seven years.

"I want to double our chip production to around 20 percent of global production. I want Europe to produce more chips in Europe than the United States produces domestically. It's a realistic goal if we channel our investments properly," said Commissioner Neelie Kroes as she announced a strategy to use public financing to supplement industry funding.

The strategy will see €5 billion ($6.5 billion) in public funds going to R&D. Around 30 percent of that will come from the E.U. with the rest coming from national and regional funds and the European Investment Bank.

In a strategy paper published last December, companies and institutes in Europe's nanoelectronics sector promised to stump up €100 billion over the seven years if the E.U. kept its side of the bargain.

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As Ethernet marks its 40th birthday this week, some of those celebrating will also be looking ahead to yet another use for the nearly ubiquitous technology: the cloud.

On Thursday at the Ethernet Innovation Summit, which will include a commemoration of Ethernet's invention on May 22, 1973, a group of cloud vendors and users are launching the CloudEthernet Forum. It will be announced on the second day of the event in Mountain View, California, with the backing of Alcatel Lucent, Juniper Networks, Tata Communications, Citrix, and other founding members.

Ethernet, originally a LAN, increasingly is also used for WANs (wide-area networks) operated by enterprises and service providers. The CloudEthernet Forum aims to make Ethernet better suited to large-scale cloud services that may operate across many data centers.

Enterprise and service-provider clouds have grown to the point where they may have millions of virtual machines and, in the case of public clouds, thousands of customers. At that level, Ethernet can start to show some limitations, said James Walker, president of the CloudEthernet Forum.

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Cloudian

Cloudian is integrating its platform with Citrix's CloudPortal Business Manager as it aims to make it easier to roll out and manage storage as a service.

CloudPortal Business Manager is a services delivery platform that lets enterprises and service providers control user management, provisioning and other operational aspects of a cloud from a single interface. This is functionality Cloudian will take advantage of, according to Jay Desai, vice president of product management at Cloudian, whose platform is used to provide storage for private, public and hybrid clouds.

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After coming out swinging a few days back with a Surface ad that focused on Office, Microsoft has a new ad that confronts the iPad head-on. And here’s the crazy part: it’s surprisingly amusing.

The commercial is a takeoff of Apple’s iPad Mini piano commercial. In the Microsoft version—entitled “Windows 8: Less talking, more doing”—the company pokes fun at Apple’s personal digital assistant Siri, all the while showing off the advantages of a Windows 8 tablet over the iPad.

“Sorry, I don’t update like that,” Siri says when the disembodied hand often seen in Apple commercials tries to get Live Tile updates from the iPad’s grid of icons. “Sorry, I can only do one thing at a time,” Siri chimes in again while a Windows 8 tablet shows off the Snap feature that lets you view two apps at once.

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Russell Caplan still uses Office 2003, which Microsoft will stop supporting next year. He asked if he will need to upgrade to a more current version.

You probably should upgrade before next April. After that month, Microsoft will no longer provide security updates for Office 2003 (or, for that matter, Windows XP). If someone finds a new vulnerability in one of the programs, Microsoft won't make and release a patch for it. Your copy of Office will remain vulnerable.

[Email your tech questions to answer@pcworld.com or post them on the PCW Answer Line forum.]

How dangerous is it to use old, no-longer-supported software? If the program is obscure, probably not too dangerous. But if it's something that millions use, it can become a tempting target.

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PC sales in China and high growth in smartphones shipments helped boost Lenovo's net profit for its fiscal fourth quarter by 90 percent year-over-year.

For the quarter ended March 31, Lenovo's net profit was $127 million, the company said on Thursday. Revenue broke records and was at $7.8 billion, growing four percent from the same period last year.

In Lenovo's home market of China, the company had an operating margin of 4.9 percent, an increase of 8 percent year-over-year. The company also saw continued profitability in its mobile devices business, which makes up 9 percent of its overall sales. At the end of the quarter, Lenovo's smartphone shipments were up 206 percent year-over-year.

Globally, PC shipments were down 13.9 percent year-over-year in the quarter, the market's steepest decline since research firm IDC began tracking the market in 1994. Lenovo itself posted flat year-over-year PC shipment growth in the period.

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Advanced Micro Devices has opened the door to embrace Google's Android operating system, but said it would continue to focus on Windows with its upcoming tablet and laptop chips.

AMD on multiple occasions has said it had no interest in putting its chips in Android tablets and would focus exclusively on Windows 8. A change of heart could open up a wider market for tablets for the company.

For now, the company's focus remains on optimizing chips for usage on Windows laptops, desktops and tablets, said Kevin Lansing, director of the notebook product line at AMD's client business unit.

In an email, however, AMD spokesman Gary Silcott said OS adoption depends on device makers.

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When Nvidia announced its graphical powerhouse, the $999 GeForce GTX Titan, in February, eyeballs widened. Fortunately Nvidia now offers the lower-performance GeForce GTX 780, which also cuts the price by a third, to $649.

Today Nvidia will begin shipping its new enthusiast cards to partners, in the form of reference designs that its hardware partners will tweak over time. These third-party versions of the GeForce GTX 780 will be available in about a month’s time, Justin Walker, program manager for Nvidia’s GeForce, said in an interview.

Nvidia

Nvidia claims that the GTX 780 will offer, on average, about 35 percent better graphics performance than the GeForce GTX 680, which Nvidia launched a year ago. (That card’s price now hovers at about $470, temporarily providing a lower-cost alternative if the GTX 780 is still too rich for your blood. You’ll have to move fast, though: The GTX 780 will officially replace the GTX 680.) Nvidia also claims that the GTX 780 outperforms the $400 AMD HD7970 graphics card by an average of about 30 to 35 percent; however, that AMD card debuted at the end of 2011. For gamers who really want to shell out, pairing two GTX 780 cards in SLI mode will improve performance by 75 percent over a single GTX 780 card, Nvidia said.

Basically, Nvidia is positioning the GTX 780 for enthusiast PC gamers who are willing to pony up for a superior rig, running at the maximum graphics settings and screen resolutions, with high levels of antialiasing. The 780 supports both DirectX 11.0 tessellation, for improved rendering of 3D objects, and Nvidia’s PhysX physics enhancements.

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Some sim games are hell-bent on putting you in the middle of realistic action scenarios. Others let you experience some of the world's most elite (or obscure) professions. Looking for science fiction or fantasy? You won't find it here.

So grab your mouse, keyboard, joystick, or driving wheel, and step into some of the most dangerous, toughest, and craziest jobs in the (virtual) world.

Seriously, train conducting? Yes, there's a sim game for that.

Microsoft will boost its Azure cloud offering in Japan, adding two domestic data centers to speed response times and improve reliability in the face of natural disasters.

The software giant said Thursday that it would add cloud-based hosting services in two regions, one near Tokyo and one in the Kansai region further south. Redundancy is a priority in earthquake-prone Japan, where the use of online services usually skyrockets after natural disasters.

"By using two sub-regions, customers will be able build configurations with domestic disaster recovery, and performance will be improved," said Yasuyuki Higuchi, President of Microsoft Japan.

Azure competes in Japan with offerings like Amazon's EC2 infrastructure and local cloud providers such as Sakura. Microsoft is a trusted name in corporate Japan but Azure has a reputation for being slower than rival offerings.

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Adobe has acquired Thumb Labs, a small mobile app agency, as part of its broader push to give its new cloud-enabled software offerings a more social flavor.

Thumb Labs, based in New York, posted a message on its website and Twitter feed on Thursday saying the firm had accepted an offer to become part of Adobe. The company said it will fulfill its existing contracts and begin its new role at the end of the month. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Adobe began a major shift last year with the launch of Creative Cloud, part of a transition from being a traditional software house to becoming a creator of cloud-based, collaborative platforms with online components. This month, the company said it was moving away from boxed software sales all together, to a subscription-based model based on the cloud service.

A major part of the Creative Cloud platform is a social layer that allows customers to share their portfolios online. Adobe acquired social platform designers Behance in December as part of its efforts to make its cloud service “the ultimate hub for creatives worldwide.” Thumb Labs built the mobile app for Behance; a message posted Thumb Labs’ website said, “We are looking forward to contributing to these efforts, as Behance’s vibrant community becomes more deeply integrated into Adobe’s tools.”

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The U.S. government is in negotiations with SoftBank for greater control over equipment purchases by Sprint Nextel and the selection of one of the Japanese company's nominee to the U.S. carrier's board, according to a news report.

Dish Network, SoftBank's rival bidder for Sprint, has meanwhile launched an advertising campaign and a website to argue that "the sale of wireless and wireline infrastructure with national strategic importance to a foreign company will weaken the security of the United States."

SoftBank has agreed to give the U.S. government the right to approve one of the directors it names to Sprint's board, who will be responsible for overseeing national security issues, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The government also wants the right to approve some of Sprint's equipment purchases and wants the removal of Chinese equipment from the network of Clearwire, a Sprint affiliate that it intends to acquire, the newspaper said.

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