Windows 8.1 Free Update Available June 26th

Since it was announced, Windows Blue has functioned like a carrot on a stick for Windows 8 userswho have had complaints about the operating system. Well, that may very well be majority of the users, but Windows has never been a stranger to complaints anyway. It is quite expected then, that Microsoft quickly came up with an update that was supposed to address those concerns. Initially labelled Windows Blue, Microsoft has decided to launch the more appropriately named Windows 8.1 update in June this year.

There’s even better news. Windows 8.1 is going to be a free upgrade. Current Windows 8 users will be able to gain access to the upgrade from the home screen, that is, when Windows 8.1 launches. Don’t hold your breath for when that happens, though, as no details about the release date have been announced.

You might want to mark your calendar, specifically June 26, as this is going to be the date when a preview version is going to be made available to the public.

Considering that there has been so much noise about Windows Blue – in spite of the fact that all we had to go on were rumors – the news that Windows Blue is dead in the water should satisfy many an armchair critic. From bringing back the Start button (optional) to providing the capability to boot to the desktop – these rumored features have given pundits fodder.

Now we don’t know if these features are going to make it to the renamed Windows 8.1, but this move of Microsoft’s might just be a good thing for the much maligned operating system.

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NeoLucida, The 21st Century Camera Lucida

A 200-year-old device primarily used by artists to sketch their subjects before falling into oblivion is making quite a comeback. NeoLucida is a 21^st century camera lucida that is very easy to use and highly affordable, making it one of the most successful crowdfunding campaigns in recent months.

The camera lucida was first patented in the early 19^th century as a prismatic reflection device that works like a reverse overhead projector. The device allowed artists to sketch any objects accurately but stopped being used later on.

The device consists of a small eyepiece that contains a prism. The eyepiece is mounted on a goose neck which can be easily attached to the drawing board or to the table with the help of a clamp. The device is pointed at the subject and creates a superimposed reflected image of the subject onto a sheet of paper. The artist just has to look down into the eyepiece and start tracing the reflected image.

Some may argue that this is like cheating. And perhaps it was exactly this argument that drove the camera lucida out of use back in the 19^th century. However, NeoLucida creators Pablo Garcia and Golan Levin, both artists and art professors, say the device emphasizes the relationship between technology and art, especially photo-realistic art. More specifically, Garcia and Levin say their device is aimed at stimulating interest in media archeology – the interconnected history of imaging technologies and visual culture.

Their device is the first portable camera lucida manufactured in almost one hundred years and it is the most affordable ever designed. The NeoLucida is priced at $30, which is significantly cheaper than other similar devices available on the market. Modern camera lucidas are sold for about $200 and are 

not as portable as the NeoLucida.

The low price is due to the fact that it is manufactured from prefabricated parts. It is probably the reason why the device was so successful on Kickstarter: with still 20 days to go, the campaign has almost 10,500 backers and has raised $410,000, while its initial goal was $15,000. The initial run of 2,500 units has been sold out already, but Garcia and Levin are not planning to manufacture others for the time being. The device is expected to become commercially available starting next year.

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Corning launches Lotus XT Glass, promises more efficient production

Corning’s Gorilla Glass was instrumental in helping to change the landscape of mobile devices just as smartphones really started to take off. The company planned to follow up that success with Lotus Glass in 2011 but the technology never really became a commercial success partially due to the fact that it was difficult to produce reliably at high temperatures.

That’s all been rectified according to Corning with the commercial launch of Corning Lotus XT Glass, a second generation glass substrate designed specifically for high performance displays. One of the key elements of the new material is best-in-class total pitch variation, or the distance features move during panel processing.

If you can predict the amount that glass shifts then you can account for this movement, according John P. Bayne, vice president and general manager for Corning High Performance Displays. Deviation from this predictable movement can result in yield loss but with Lotus XT Glass having improved thermal and dimensional stability over higher temperatures, it will generate higher yields for customers.

It’s said to work with organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays and liquid crystal displays (LCD) that use either low-temperature poly-silicon (LTPS) or oxide thin-film transistor (TFT) backplanes. The result, Corning claims, is an energy efficient, immersive display device that features high resolution, fast response times and bright picture quality.

The new technology is commercially available as of writing but of course it will be some time before manufacturers implement it in new devices. Until then, interested parties can get a closer look at Lotus XT Glass during the Society for Information Display’s Display Week in Vancouver starting May 21.

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Building a Thin Mini-ITX PC: Small and Silent Performance

While many of us are content with traditional desktop tower PCs, there are those who have been pushing for a more compact and quieter alternative.

One of the pioneers of small computing, VIA Technologies, developed the Mini-ITX form factor over a decade ago in 2001. Although VIA’s solutions were too underpowered for daily usage, over the next few years motherboard manufacturers were able to adapt more powerful AMD and Intel platforms to use along the tiny 170 × 170 mm (6.7 × 6.7 in) Mini-ITX motherboards.

Subsequently case manufacturers provided support with a range of creative Mini-ITX solutions such as the Lian Li PC-Q25, which we reviewed and awarded a couple of years ago. Considerably smaller than traditional ATX and Micro ATX computer cases, the PC-Q25 not only supported the latest Intel Core i7 processors, but it also allowed for a PCI Express x16 dual-slot graphics card. An impressive feat no matter how you measure it.

But what if you want to go even smaller? That's where Thin Mini-ITX motherboards come in.

Thin Mini-ITX motherboards are similar to standard Mini-ITX as they still measure 170 × 170 mm, except they are not as tall. Whereas standard Mini-ITX boards measure 35mm tall and are designed to be used with standard coolers and memory modules which can take the total height to over 50mm, the Thin Mini-ITX format dictates that no board should be taller than 20mm (25mm with I/O shield).

Yet the Thin Mini-ITX format is more than ultra-low-profile motherboards, it’s an entire ecosystem that requires new cases and memory, favoring laptop SO-DIMM modules over the standard desktop DIMMs.

The idea behind the Thin Mini-ITX format, besides the obvious which is to create seriously compact computers, is also to allow for DIY all-in-ones (think of little PCs you can attach to the back of your monitor). Having that said, we don't fully intend to go the all-in-one route in this article, but are aiming to build a powerful Thin Mini-ITX system that can be used in the office or at home as a media PC.

So, to recap, this is our goal: extremely compact, powerful, and near silent operation, as in no-moving-parts silent. For less than $700 including a 256GB SSD, we believe you'll love what the final product will look like.

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Dell's thumb drive-sized computer will ship in July for $100

Project Ophelia, Dell’s Android-based computer on a USB stick that was first showcased at CES early this year, is scheduled to begin shipping in July for around $100. The device is designed to plug directly into the HDMI port of a monitor to turn any display into a PC, gaming machine or even a set-top box.

Jeff McNaught, executive director of cloud client computing at Dell said users will be able to download apps, movies and television shows from the Google Play store. The device can also run Android games and stream videos from Netflix and Hulu.

Dell believes the thumb PC will appeal to those that do most of their computing on the web. What’s more, it’s positioned price-wise for people looking for an inexpensive alternative to tablets and notebooks. True enough, the form factor will allow users to take their computer with them on the go but the lack of display means you’ll have to have a visual aid handy wherever you plan to use it.

The company is expected to demonstrate the system-on-a-stick at the Citrix Synergy Conference in Los Angeles this week. It will be shown using a 19-inch display as well as a 55-inch television, we’re told.

As for shipping, the unit will first be available to Android app developers. Dell plans to make the mini systems available to telecom and cable providers in August for inclusion in cable or data plans before finally offering it up to the average Joe via their website.

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Newegg scores new victory against "corporate troll" Alcatel-Lucent

For a few years now Newegg.com has made it policy never to settle with patent trolls. Following up from theirvictory over Soverain Software in January, who claimed to have invented the online shopping cart, now the retailer has scored another favorable verdict against French telecom equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent over a single patent covering “a way to exchange information with multiple users.”

The case dates all the way back to 2009 when Alcatel-Lucent, using patents it acquired from Bell Labs when the latter shut down in 2006, sought to get $6 million from Overstock.com and $12.4 million from Newegg.com for allegedly infringing on three of its patents. But in 2011 a lower court’s initial ruling said that the online retailers didn’t infringe on any of the patents and even declared one as invalid. That was no small feat considering seven other retailers, including giants like Zappos, Sears, and Amazon had settled before going to trial.

For its appeal, Alcatel-Lucent decided to drop the other two claims and focused on reviving the one that had been killed in court, only to have the three-judge panel uphold Newegg and Overstock’s win in just three days.

Ars Technica spoke with Newegg’s chief legal officer Lee Cheng about the outcome of the trial and his views on patent trolls. "There's good news and there's bad news. The good news is, we won this case on every point. The bad news is, we're running out of lawsuits,” he joked, adding that patent trolls are dismissing their cases against Newegg before any dispositive motions. That’s a vindication of their decision to always fight frivolous lawsuits, as in the company’s view, settling would only encourage others to come looking for their cut.

He went on to lament how Bell Labs’ patents -- a company with roots going back to Alexander Graham Bell -- were sold off for “a few bucks” and now Alcatel Lucent is out to monetize them by throwing a big net and hoping to catch something. According to Chen, their approach has been threatening companies left and right, simply based on the fact that they own 27,000 patents, so there must be something they are infringing.

As a further example of how clueless patent trolls are regarding the technologies they’re supposedly defending, Cheng noted that during trial, Alcatel-Lucent's corporate representative couldn't even name the technology or the patents it was suing Newegg over. “What a joke,” he lamented.

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Imagining Google's own country

Google CEO Larry Page made a surprise appearance at the end of the company’s I/O opening keynote on Wednesday. Among other things, he gave an emotional speech on how technology improves our lives, calling on people to focus on "creating things that don't exist" instead of being dragged down by negativity.

At one point he even entertained the idea of “setting aside a part of the world” for unregulated experimentation. We all know how that would end up. Didn’t he play Bioshock?

I’m all dried out of Weekend Open Forum ideas so I thought why don’t I take this chance to help out a bigger cause and use your collective intelligence to figure out a few things. Where should this place be? What should it be called? Who would rule it? What sort of experiments should be run? Should people be required to give out all their personal information? Would you live there? Let your imagination run wild in the comments.

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Congress pressures Google on Glass privacy concerns

As I’ve said before, Google is garnering a ton of press from Glass – a product that isn’t slated for release until sometime in 2014. While the majority of attention has been positive, some have called into question what could be described as pressing privacy issues.

The topic has since gone from casual discussion to a demand for answers as a Congressional privacy group recently requested that Google CEO Larry Page address several lingering privacy concerns regarding the technology. The bi-partisan group sent Page a letter containing eight questions with a deadline of June 14 to respond.

In it, the group asks how Google plans to prevent unintentional collection of data from users and non-users without consent. The second question is a multi-part question that deals with protecting the privacy of those not wearing Glass. Next up is a question designed to clarify facial recognition features and determine limits that Google will place on it to avoid invading privacy.

The next five questions simply dig deeper into Google’s plans for privacy. I’ll spare you for the sake of brevity but if you’re interested in reading through the entire letter, it can be viewed simply by clicking here.

In an interview with The New York Times on the matter, Google’s director of product management for Glass Steve Lee said they have consistently said they won’t add new face recognition features unless there are strong privacy protections in place. What’s more, he said they are thinking very carefully about how they design Glass because new technology always raises new issues.

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