Message from Me offers dispatches from early education, we go eyes-on (video)

Message from Me offers dispatches from early education, we go eyes-on (video):

What do you get when you attach a point-and-shoot, display, microphone, RFID reader and a bunch of big buttons to a clear plastic box and stick it all in a classroom with a bunch of three- to five-year-olds? Carnegie Mellon's CREATE Lab calls the creation Message from Me. It's a way of engaging early education students with technology, developing language and social skills and helping keep parents abreast of their school day activities.
The tool encourages kids to record a thought or take a picture and send it to a parent by pulling a card with their face on it down from the wall and scanning on the RFID reader. Parents can get updates via text message or email from kids who are often unable to pass along such information at the end of the day. According to the lab, the machines have already been installed in nearly a dozen schools in the Pittsburgh area -- and from the looks of the boxes on the floor in the CREATE Lab, plenty more are on the way.

Gallery: Message from Me

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Message from Me offers dispatches from early education, we go eyes-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Oct 2012 00:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Walmart Carves a Prepaid Broadband Niche with New 4 GB Data Plan

Walmart Carves a Prepaid Broadband Niche with New 4 GB Data Plan:

Walmart makes an old plan relevant, by turning a bad deal into a good niche offering.
The nations largest department store retailer launched their own branded prepaid mobile broadband service, earlier this year. Previously, Walmart had partnered with Virgin Mobile, and even still offers their own exclusive-to-Walmart $20-for-1GB data plan on Walmart-sold MiFi devices.
However, Walmart’s own “Internet On the Go” branded prepaid service was targeting a different market than Virgin Mobile; the more casual data user. While Virgin Mobile targets customers with relatively similar data usage paterns with its per-month service, Internet On the Go worked with tiered data access, including plans with no expiration date on the prepaid data.
However, Internet On the Go broadband has struggled to catch on. First, Walmart’s offering lacks a 4G component, whereas old stalwarts like Virgin Mobile and Clearwire now offer totally unlimited data starting as low as $35/month. And, newcomers like NetZero and FreedomPop offer free data tiers that are meant to scale up based on usage. Internet On the Go’s only main rival at this point is TruConnect, which also offers a pay-for-what-you-use 3G data solution.
What’s new with Internet On the Go is their new $45 plan. The plan offers 4 GB of 3G nationwide data, with no expiration date. The plan previously cost $119/month, but has been slashed dramatically to make Walmart Internet On the Go service competitive with its 4G rivals.
At $45 for 4 GB, a casual mobile data user could theoretically go an entire year with just one $45 payment. And, at 4 GB, there isn’t a need for 4G data, making the stale MiFi 2200 hotspot not seem like as much of an issue.
Finally, the $45 plan has an interesting secondary option. If you only plan to use the data over a 30 day period, you can opt to waive the never-expiring option for double the data. That nets you 8 GB of data to use in one month. Outside of unlimited tier plans, it’s the most data we see available in a sub-$50 prepaid data plan. It’s actually the best bang-for-your-buck in terms of metered, nationwide 3G prepaid data that we’ve seen since AT&T offered unlimited 3G prepaid data nationwide on its GoPhone pay as you go offering. PhoneNews.com was blamed directly by AT&T for exposing the potential, and triggering the demise of that plan.
Walmart Internet On the Go is a Sprint CDMA/EV-DO MVNO, and uses the Sprint 3G network exclusively.
Walmart Internet On the Go Prepaid MiFi 2200 Portable Hotspot
Walmart Internet On the Go Prepaid $45 Refill Card

Copyright 2012 PhoneNews.com

MediaInfo 0.7.61 (32-bit)

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Windows 8 freezes? Here is a fix

Windows 8 freezes? Here is a fix:
When I started to work on my Windows 8 PC today I noticed a strange behavior after updating some apps in the store. The system would freeze occasionally, so that some controls simply were not functioning anymore. I first though this was a desktop freeze, as standard desktop controls like the clicking on buttons, closing of windows or scrolling in the task manager did not work anymore, but it quickly turned out to be more complicated than this. While I was able to switch between the desktop and the start screen of Windows 8, I could not launch start screen applications either.
I first assumed that it had something to do with the store updates, even though I found that hard to believe. Still, after several restarts I decided to run a system restore first, only to find out that the issue was not resolved by it. Strange as it was, I had other options in my arsenal. Below are the things that I tried to fix the freezes that I experienced.

1. System Restore

System Restore basically restores a previous system state which should resolve any issues caused by software or system updates. To run a system restore in Windows 8 do the following:

• Use Windows-C to open the Charms bar on the desktop and select Settings > Control Panel from the options.
• Select System and Security there, and then System again
• Select Advanced system settings on the right and switch to System Protection in the window that opens up
• Click on System Restore and select one of the available restore points to restore a previous system state.
• Note that the PC needs to be rebooted as part of the process.

2. Enable Hyper-V

I read that his fixed freezes for some users and decided that it was worth a try. To enable Hyper-V do the following:

• Use Windows-C to open the Charms bar on the desktop and select Settings > Control Panel from the options.
• Select Uninstall a Program here.
• Select Turn Windows features on or off on the left sidebar and check the Hyper-V box on the Windows Features window that opens up.
• A restart is required to complete the installation.

3. Update your video card

This one should be quite obvious. If a video card update is available try and install the update on the system to see if it resolves the issues that you are experiencing. You may also want to try and experiment with installing a previous version of the video card drive to make sure it is not an issue of the latest driver version.

• Nvidia drivers
• AMD drivers

4. Verify your system files to make sure none are corrupt

To verify all system files do the following:

• Press the Windows key to go to the start screen if you are not already there
• Enter cmd
• Right-click the Command Prompt listing there and select Run as administrator from the bottom toolbar.
• Accept the UAC prompt
• Enter sfc /scannow and wait for the results.

5. Sign out and in

This is the step that resolved the issue for me. I know, it sounds really strange. To do that do the following:

• Press the Windows key to open the start screen
• Right-click your account name and profile picture and select sign out
• Select the account again on the sign in page and log in again

The funny thing is, this is almost the same step that resolved issues that I had when I tried to install Windows Store apps. I also tried the Microsoft Accounts Troubleshooter to see if there was an underlying problem with the account, but that was not fruitful either.

What is Xbox SmartGlass?

What is Xbox SmartGlass?:
Xbox SmartGlass is a new application for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 that is being released on October 26 and October 29 respectively when the new operating systems are officially announced. The app basically enables you to control and share information between your Xbox 360 gaming system and your Windows Phone 8 smartphone or Windows 8 tablet.
SmartGlass on first glance looks like a remote control application for the Xbox 360, but that is far from it. While you can use it to play and manage music and video on your Xbox system, you can also share information between devices.
The remote control feature enables you to control your Xbox dashboard right from your phone or tablet, so that you can select movies or music to play, and use built-in functionality to pause, skip or rewind the media.

The SmartGlass app offers additional functionality that goes beyond remote controlling content on the Xbox. You can for instance use it to send a video that you have been watching on your tablet to the big screen to continue watching it on it and vice versa. The same feature is available for Internet Explorer as SmartGlass enables you to continue your browsing sessions on all connected devices. You can furthermore use the tablet or smartphone to control your browsing session on the television, using native controls such as zooming in or out.
Another interesting feature is the ability to display related information right on the tablet or phone while listening to music or watching movies on the television. The app may display information about related artists or actors that you currently see on screen, display statistics about a basketball, baseball or football game, and give you options to replay highlights whenever you want.

Xbox SmartGlass may be interesting to Xbox 360 owners who plan to purchase a smartphone running Windows Phone 8 or a tablet running Windows 8, or upgrade one of their existing PCs to Windows 8. The app certainly offers advantages over controlling your Xbox dashboard with a game controller, and the interactivity that Microsoft has built in to the app sounds interesting as well. The features that I think have the most appeal to a larger audience are the remote control and the information displayed on the device while you are listening to music or watching television or movies on the Xbox. As far as web browsing goes, it may be a nice feature to quickly look something up but I can’t see myself using it to browse the Internet for a longer period of time.

Repair Internet Explorer with Browser Repair Tool

Repair Internet Explorer with Browser Repair Tool:
If your favorite web browser is acting up, for instance after a successful malware attack on your computer system or other issues, you have have problems troubleshooting and repairing the issues that you are facing. Issues that you may be facing may include a different home page or search engine, hijacked file associations, the installation of plugins in the browser that are used for spying or worse, or making changes to a browser#s security settings.
While it is certainly possible to resolve the issues manually, for instance by uninstalling and reinstalling the browser on the system completely if possible, or resetting its features, you may prefer a solution that restores the browser automatically on the system.
Browser Repair Tool is a free program for the Windows operating system that can repair Internet Explorer and soon Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome as well.

To use the program simply download it from the official website and run it afterwards. For now, only Microsoft’s Internet Explorer can be repaired using the program. The developers promise to add Firefox and Google Chrome support in version 2.0 of the application.
The program makes available the following repair options for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer:

• Restore title bar
• Restore Internet Explorer homepage
• Block Windows startup pop-up
• Restore Explorer Security Item
• Repair Network Associated Items
• Enable Internet Options
• Repair Windows Safe Startup Items
• Unlock Registry Editor
• Restore IE Default Security Item
• Repair default path
• Restore default agreement
• Remove Content Advisor
• Repair file associations
• Repair Windows IFEO hijack
• Empty Outlook Express title bar
• Restore IE desktop icon
• Set IE as default browser
• Restore IE favorites
• Restore right-click menu
• Remove browser cookies
• Clear browsing history
• Clear BHO plug-ins
• Restore WinSockLSP
• Reset DNs settings

Not all repair options are selected by default, and it is up to you to make a selection here. It may make sense to select more options if Internet Explorer is really broken and you have no idea why. I’d recommend to check only the items that you want repaired or resolved as you may end up making changes to the browser’s that are not necessary and maybe not wanted at all.
The program is compatible with all recent versions of Windows from Windows XP to the very latest version of the operating system. The homepage does not reveal the versions of Internet Explorer it is compatible with. It worked fine on a Windows 7 system with Internet Explorer 9 installed.
Do not get confused by the download trial button on the program homepage, it is not clear why Anvisoft has selected that button for the download as the browser repair tool is completely free to use. Please note that the program displays advertisement in a small ticker area at the top.

Say goodbye to Windows service packs

Say goodbye to Windows service packs:
A service pack contains a number of patches, fixes and improvements for the software it has been released for. Microsoft up until now released service packs for many of its popular products including the Windows client and server operating system and Office. The service packs usually consists of patches that have already been available in one form or the other, with notable exceptions that are then released together with the service pack.
It is not uncommon for companies to wait for the release of the first service pack for a new Microsoft product before it started migrating of systems to a new version of a software product. One of the reasons for this practice is that it usually takes less time to test and deploy a service pack, which basically is a single software product, than the testing and deployment of dozens of smaller updates.
We know that Microsoft decided to do away with service pack for Windows 8 to concentrate on smaller updates and patches instead. Users may actually benefit from this as updates may be available sooner. This is for instance the case for the recently released Windows 8 performance and reliability update  which improves a variety of systems and features including battery performance, audio and video playback or driver compatibility.

According to news published by The Register, Microsoft won’t release a second service pack for Windows 7 either. This does not mean that there won’t be any updates anymore for the operating system, only that updates will be made available via Windows Update and Microsoft Download Center when they are released, and no longer as part of a service pack. Depending on the priority of the updates, it may mean that some updates slip past the user if they are not automatically installed by the operating system if Windows Update is used to update the operating system. Windows users who download the updates from Microsoft manually, for instance to deploy them on several systems without having to download them multiple times, may also run into the same issue as it may happen that a patch gets overlooked on the download site. Third party solutions that download all available patches for a particular system can be an option in this case to avoid this from happening.
It needs to be noted that Microsoft has not commented yet on the news, so that it is still in the realm of possibility that we will see a second service pack for Windows 7 after all.
What’s your take on this? Service packs yay or nay?

MSN for Windows 8 Launches, Immediately Goes Down

MSN for Windows 8 Launches, Immediately Goes Down:
It’s a big time for Microsoft with the upcoming release of Windows 8 and the Surface tablet this Friday.  They have also been actively updating almost all of their software and web apps, with new versions of Skydrive and Hotmail already released as well as the Outlook.com email site, and even new versions of Office and Windows Phone will be coming very soon.  The company has also updated all of their logos, but now they are moving on to web sites and MSN is the latest to get the Metro (or Modern) interface.
This isn’t a complete surprise since Microsoft announced a few weeks ago that an update would be coming, but it was a bit surprising that it slipped out a couple of days ahead of the Windows 8 release.  The site uses your location information, if you have enabled this, to customize everything for each user.  You will find weather for your local area displayed right at the top of the page, but you will also find all kinds of other information like news, sports, entertainment, money, and more.  All of this is displayed in a very Windows 8/Windows Phone 8-style tiled interface.

Microsoft had previously stated that the new MSN would be specifically for Windows 8 and Internet Explorer 10 and it seems that is really the case.  While I haven’t attempted to access the site on an old Windows 7 system, I can verify that only IE 10 brings up the new interface, while both Chrome and Firefox continue to display the older, original version of MSN.
The user interface apparently rolled out this morning and the folks over at LiveSide were the first I saw to pick up on it.  Apparently when the news broke earlier, the site did briefly go down under the weight of the traffic, but Microsoft quickly got it back up and running and it’s been rock-solid ever since.  Use IE 10 to browse to http://t.msn.com and check it out for yourself.
Update: When you try to access the site with another web browser, even Internet Explorer 9, you are automatically redirected to the same article on the “old” Msn website instead.