switch

Google is getting bold, telling OEMs 'no' on other OSs

Update: Google's Andy Rubin finally responds. See after the break...

A bit of a controversy is slowly erupting over Acer’s widely publicized plan to use the Aliyun OS in a new line of low-cost smartphones, mostly destined for the Chinese market. Aliyun OS is a Linux-based system developed by the Chinese company Alibaba Group and offered a way for OEMs like Acer to diversify.

Acer has now abruptly canceled plans after Google “expressed concerns” over the announcement.  Though Acer still wants to use the Aliyun OS, the move by Google is being interpreted as a hostile action to block competition. Reportedly Google threatened to cancel Acer’s license to make Android devices, which many consider playing hardball.

The question is, how far is Google willing to go to maintain dominance?

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President Barack Obama has been known to be a die-hard BlackBerry fan for years now, even as the Waterloo company is scrambling for its life to stay afloat. While he can wait for BlackBerry 10 to arrive sometime next year, we think he should start considering other options. (After all, that platform won’t have 100,000 apps, right?)

In a somewhat humorous moment this past weekend, the President started to use an iPhone, presumably either as a backup, transition device or just someone else’s. Either way, he evidently wasn’t at all familiar with neither the phone nor the OS and he scrambled a bit when trying to dial out.

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There's a risk to changing your LiveID on Windows Phone

With today’s announcement of Outlook.com many of you have noticed that if you were logged into Hotmail with your old account and navigated to Outlook.com you were automatically logged in to the new “preview” of Microsoft’s new email service.

What’s more, you actually have the option—even on an old Hotmail address—to change it to @outlook.com. But there is a catch for Windows Phone users…

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Want to get a whole new Live ID and start fresh with Microsoft? Here's how to transfer your account.

Microsoft's Live ID (soon to be renamed "Microsoft Account") is the key to all things from Redmond these days. Whether it’s your Xbox 360, SkyDrive, Live Mail, Zune Pass, App Hub account, Messenger or Windows Phone, your Live ID is at the heart.

The question is what if you want to change your Live ID?

Here we don't mean switching just on the phone, which unfortunately requires a hard-reset (and no, we don't have a work around for that, sorry). Instead, we're talking about what if you have an old Hotmail.com email account and you want a new Live.com one instead? Maybe you're not happy with your current user name or like us, you have used your Hotmail account since 2002 as a glorified spam experiment.

We'll walk you through the process of getting a new Live ID and making sure all your other services back-propagate to reflect the change keeping all of your services intact.

Read on after the break for our guide...

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The Windows Live team have published an article on the official blog that'll help readers who are possibly considering to switch from Gmail to Hotmail for email and other cloud services. Should you be on the fence about leaving Google, and wish to take up Microsoft to host your e-life, there are only three simple steps you're required to take to achieve this goal.

1. Create a Hotmail account. A Hotmail/Live ID is required (name@hotmail.com/name@live.com) to use the web service, but there is no domain restriction. When signing up for an account (should you not already possess one) you are allowed to use your own personal domain for email.

2. Import your old messages from Gmail. Should you not wish to use an email client to do the job, a service such as TrueSwitch will work wonders moving across from Gmail.

3. Connect your Gmail account. You have now successfully set up your Hotmail account, but one more optional step is available. You can have Hotmail actively retrieve any future messages that you receive on your Gmail account by carrying out the following:

  • b. Click Sending/receiving email from other accounts.
  • c. Click Add an email account.
  • d. Provide your Gmail account details.

Rocking out Hotmail is arguably the best way, should you not be using Exchange of course, for Windows Phone email users, since improvements have been made to the service and it integrates seamlessly with all other Microsoft products.

Source: Windows Team Blog

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Jon Rettinger of TechnoBuffalo has published a video of himself explaining that he's switched from the iPhone to Windows Phone, and the HTC Titan is now his main handset. One of the main features he loves about the platform (and the device in this case) is the size of the live tiles and content on the massive 4.7" screen. Rettinger's main concern with making the switch (as is with every potential buyer) is the choice of apps on the Marketplace, but goes onto state that every app he required was actually present in the catalogue, or an equivalent available.

Overall he's impressed. What's more is that when Rettinger shows his Titan to other people when out and about, there's generally a positive response, but he notes that the biggest flaw of the system that could be turning away a lot of folk is the attached "Windows" brand. Let's not forget that Microsoft is in a reforming stage, if you will. Closing up, he has no regrets in switching and doesn't look back at the iPhone 4S. Take that Siri.

Source: TechnoBuffalo, thanks Theo for the tip!

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