SmartScreen was announced by MediaPhone last week, an iPhone app for jailbroken iPhone and iPod touch devices that will give you some very exciting informational widgets on the lock screen similar to Apple dashboard widgets.
These “widgets” show information such as your calendar, weather, stocks and they can be easily organized using the familiar drag and drop functionality on the iPhone. Widgets can live on multiple screens and you can flip through your screens on the locked screen. Again this is not going to be sold in the App Store. You will need a jailbroken iPhone and have Cydia or Installer.app on your iPhone or iPod touch to install SmartScreen when it comes out.
Developers for jailbroken iPhone’s will be pleased to know about the SmartScreen SDK to be released in November 2009 as the beta testing starts out.
Here is a video demo of the SmartScreen app on the iPhone
Use iPhone mods and hacks at your own risk! Installing 3rd Party iPhone apps requires you to jailbreak the iPhone before installing the native software and apps. You can use Installer.app for Mac OSX and iBrickr for Windows PC to do this. Browse the full list of all iPhone and iPod touch native 3rd party apps filed under the software category.
This past summer, interns at Google designed an equation editor for Google Docs. This makes it easy to easily complete math problems and write papers. It also makes it easier to take notes while in class because symbols such as derivatives and fractions. Google Docs also has subscripts and superscripts for writing chemical compounds and algebraic expressions.
Google Docs has added several additional features too. The service now also has translations features. Either single words or entire documents can be translated. This makes it useful for writing foreign language essays. Anyone that wants to make surveys using Google Docs can create a “Go to page based on answer” option. This can also be used for making tests. If a person answers the question right, they can move on to the next question. Google Docs also added a footnotes and header notes function too.
The new features were announced by Google Docs Summer Interns Rita Chen and Stephanie Vezich on the official blog. Below is a video of the new feature.
Xerox Corporation (NYSE:XRX) is getting into the IT consulting market by acquiring Affiliated Computer Services Inc. (NYSE:ACS) for $5.5 billion. The deal was made in cash and stock. This was one of the first major moves made by Ursula Burns, the current CEO of Xerox. This move is in direct competition with Dell’s recent acquisition of Perot Systems and HP’s acquisition of EDS.
After the acquisition was announced, Xerox’s shares fell 14.48% to $7.68. Xerox bought Global Imaging Services (GIS) for $1.5 billion in April 2007. Xerox has been able to efficiently integrate both companies together since then. So it is surprising that the stock price dropped.
Xerox has about $1 billion in cash and said that $3 billion of the deal will be financed through capital markets. If the deal ends up being terminated by Xerox, then ACS will be compensated $235 million. If ACS terminates the deal, Xerox will be paid $194 million.
NewEgg.com is an online retail company that sells electronics such as digital cameras, cell phones, and laptops. The company plans to file for an IPO and raised roughly $175 million in the process. NewEgg.com started in 2001 and made about $2.2 billion in revenues last year. Insight Venture Partners invested $20 million in NewEgg.com around 2005. Insight Venture Partners has a 12.7% stake in NewEgg.
Newegg.com Inc. is based in City of Industry, California. Newegg was founded by Fred Chang and the company is run by CEO Tally C. Liu. When NewEgg.com was founded, it was a subsidiary of ABS Computer Technologies Inc. NewEgg has about 1,500 employees. The funds raised will be used to fund operations expansion in Canada and China. The company has even been profitable since they started in 2001. The IPO is being managed by JP Morgan, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and Citi.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has hired Michael Tchao as the VP of Product Marketing. Tchao was one of the original developers of the Apple Newton PDA. Tchao joined Apple this past Monday as the VP of product marketing. Tchao will be reporting to Apple SVP Phil Schiller. Tchao joins Apple after leaving about 15 years.
Tchao’s most recent job was at the Nike Techlab as the general manager. Nike Techlab designs armbands and sneakers for the iPod. It is uncertain what Tchao will be working on specifically at Apple. Tchao had convinced former Apple CEO John Sculley to make the Newton a consumer device. After that device failed to take off, Tchao parted ways with the company. “He’s got the scars and the great ideas,” stated a former Apple employee in an interview with The New York Times.
This may indicate that Apple is making a tablet computer after all. An Apple tablet with App Store download capabilities would be awesome.
SmartScreen was announced by MediaPhone last week, an iPhone app for jailbroken iPhone and iPod touch devices that will give you some very exciting informational widgets on the lock screen similar to Apple dashboard widgets.
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