Software : Google News gets slick new look for iPad and Android tablets

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• Google News gets slick new look for iPad and Android tablets
• Channel 4 inks deal with Microsoft to bring 4oD to Windows 8
• Tutorial: Windows 8 upgrade: how to migrate to Microsoft's new OS
• Microsoft investigating 'mouse tracking' flaw in Internet Explorer
• Google axing 'less popular' products and features, saying so long to Sync

Google News gets slick new look for iPad and Android tablets Posted: Google has launched a slick, new version of its Google News service for tablets like the iPad and the Google Nexus 7. The popular portal, which aggregates trending stories from around the web, has a new spacious design, which highlights the lead article from a particular news item, rather than a list of multiple sources. Users can then choose to 'Explore in depth' to view related stories from a host of other online sources. The company has also included neat swiping gestures, allowing users to move freely between the various news categories (sport, business, technology, etc.). If users are looking at a story 'In depth' then a swipe to the left and right will switch to the next story, while staying within the in-depth view. Six billion and counting Product manager Mayuresh Saoji claimed on the Google News Blog that the new UI was akin to flipping through a newspaper. He wrote: "There's something special about reading news on your tablet. "Indeed, swiping through articles brings to mind the familiar feeling of flipping through a favorite magazine or newspaper. Starting today, Google News feels even more natural and fluid on tablet devices." Websites currently receive over 6 billion referrals a month from the Google News portal. The update is only appearing on the news.google.com portal at the moment and doesn't appear to have rolled out to the regional offerings as yet.

Channel 4 inks deal with Microsoft to bring 4oD to Windows 8 Posted: Channel 4 and Microsoft have announced a commercial partnership, which brings the on-demand 4oD app to Windows 8. The free 4oD application is available to download from the Windows Store now and is the first of the major UK providers to launch on Microsoft's new operating system. The app brings content from Channel 4, E4 and More 4, allowing users to catch up with the latest shows and the best from Channel 4's 30-year archive, including Father Ted and The Inbetweeners. "The intuitive and visually captivating Windows 8 layout means that watching a programme, reading the synopsis in snap view and searching for other favourite programmes is truly discrete across all media forms: PC, laptop and tablet alike. Three views, one experience," said Channel 4 in a media release. Cross-promotion Beyond the launch of the app, which beats the likes of the iPlayer, ITV player and Sky Go to the new platform, C4 and Microsoft have come to a commercial arrangement to cross-promote their offerings. Co-branded pre-roll apps will run across all 4oD platforms (online, Xbox 360, etc.) for the next three months. Sarah Rose, Director of Commercial & Business Development at Channel 4 said: "This exciting collaboration has seen various teams at Channel 4 and other key stakeholders work closely together to deliver something that not only showcases our leading commercial VOD platform on Windows 8, but also Channel 4's ability to deliver a complete pioneering commercial solution."

Tutorial: Windows 8 upgrade: how to migrate to Microsoft's new OS Posted: Windows 8 has been around for a few weeks now and has had a generally positive reception. If you weren't one of the early adopters who rushed out to buy it on launch day, you might now be starting to think about an upgrade or considering buying a new PC with Windows 8 pre-installed. But what about all of your programs and data? Does the thought of having to reinstall and transfer everything put you off making the switch? Well fear not; migrating to Windows 8 needn't be as difficult as you think. Read on and we'll take you through the various options that are available, whether you're upgrading an existing system or moving everything across to a new PC. Windows 8 upgrades for existing systems If you have a PC running Windows XP with Service Pack 3, Windows Vista or Windows 7 then you should be able to upgrade. To find out if you can, go to windows.microsoft.com and download the free Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant. This will analyse your system and tell you whether it's suitable. If it is, then the Assistant will take you through the process of purchasing and installing the new OS. As a first step in the process the Assistant looks at all your existing software and will check if it's compatible with Windows 8. You'll be alerted to any possible problems before continuing. What happens next varies a little depending on your old version of Windows. On Windows 7 systems everything should be transferred intact so that you end up with a system that's ready to go as soon as the upgrade is complete. If you're running XP or Vista, your files will be copied over but you'll need to reinstall all of your applications. Make sure you have the necessary installation media and licence keys before you start. On pre-SP3 XP or older systems, you can still install Windows 8 – if the hardware is up to it – in which case your documents, photos, etc, are saved to a Windows.old folder. You can retrieve them from there once the upgrade is complete. This also applies on any system if you select the 'keep nothing' option during the upgrade; as long as you don't format the disk your files will still be saved in a Windows.old folder. Using Windows Easy Transfer to move to Windows 8 If you've decided to make a fresh start and do a clean installation there will doubtless still be some files that you want to retain. Fortunately, there are tools for earlier versions of Windows that can help you with this process. On Windows 7 systems you can use Windows Easy Transfer, which is supplied as part of the OS to copy your data to an external drive or network location. XP and Vista users can visit http://bit.ly/dhSU1h to download an appropriate version of Windows Easy Transfer for their systems. Once you've saved the data you want with Easy Transfer you can go ahead and install Windows 8. When the installation is complete, open the Search charm and type 'transfer' to find Windows Easy Transfer on the Windows 8 system. You can then connect the drive or network where you saved the data and import it to the new system. The disadvantage of Easy Transfer is that it only handles files, so be sure you have copies of any software you need to reinstall after the upgrade; in particular you'll need the installers for any programs you've bought as downloads. Transfer via backup If you already have a backup program, then provided it's compatible with Windows 8 you can simply install it and restore your data from the latest backup copy. It's a good idea to make a fresh backup to an external drive or DVDs before you start the upgrade, and verify that you can access the media before you proceed. There's nothing worse than finding your backup is unreadable. Again, this is a good way of moving data, but you'll still need to reinstall programs. Using disk-to-disk copy to move to Windows 8 If you've bought yourself a shiny new PC with Windows 8 pre-installed, then of course you'll want to move your files across from the old one. You can use Windows Easy Transfer, or a backup as above, but if you're handy with a screwdriver then there's another way. You can take the hard drive out of your old machine and connect it to the new one. External enclosures can be bought for a few pounds that allow you to plug the old hard drive in via a USB port. You can then simply use Windows Explorer to drag the files you need across. Your programs will need to be reinstalled though. A slightly different approach to this for people with a network is to use a NAS drive to save the data you want to keep so that it's accessible over the LAN. Whilst convenient, this method isn't really suitable for large volumes of material. Using Laplink PCmover to move to Windows 8 For those who want a lazy man's approach and don't mind spending a bit of money, PCmover from www.laplink.com will cost you £27.95 for the Home edition, and allows you to transfer not only files, but also your applications between machines. Spend a bit more (£39.99) on a boxed Ultimate version and they even throw in a cable so that you can connect two PCs via their Ethernet ports to do a direct transfer. Whilst it's not a cheap option, PCmover is attractive for its ease of use, particularly if you want to migrate applications from XP or Vista systems. You can choose exactly what you want to transfer, then simply let the machine get on with it. The Ultimate edition has the added bonus of a SafeErase program so that you can wipe the personal data from your old PC before disposing of it. Upgrading Windows or moving to a new PC is never something to be undertaken lightly. Select the right tools for the job, though, and it needn't be as daunting a task as you might think.

Microsoft investigating 'mouse tracking' flaw in Internet Explorer Posted: A new report surfaced on Wednesday indicating there was a massive flaw in Internet Explorer which allowed mouse cursor movement to be tracked. The apparent JavaScript problem allowed IE to detect mouse movements even when a window was inactive or minimized. Analytic firm Spider.IO found Internet Explorer 6 through 10 were guilty of the flaw, and even claimed, "the vulnerability is notable because it compromises the security of virtual keyboards and virtual keypads." The firm also disclosed two ad firms were known to be using the exploit, though the flaw didn't allow for clicks to be tracked, nor could it determine what programs were open on the PC at the time. Microsoft has since addressed the complaint, and fired back its own analysis of the problem, disputing some of Spider.IO's claims. IE still safe and secure In a statement delivered on Thursday, Microsoft revealed what it new about the issue, and how developers were working on a solution. "From what we know now, the underlying issue has more to do with competition between analytics companies than consumer safety or privacy," said Dean Hachamovitch, Corporate Vice President, Internet Explorer. According to Hachamovitch, Microsoft believes Spider.IO only brought the issue up to deal with potential competitors, which would explain the knowledge of the two supposed agencies using the exploit. Hachamovitch further explained the lengths to which Microsoft was going to ensure the safety of Internet Explorer and its users, and claimed it would take a lot of effort on the part of an intruder to take advantage of the flaw. "The theoretical use of this behavior to compromise the safety or privacy of consumers is something Microsoft's security team has discussed with researchers across the industry," Hachamovitch stated. "Getting all the pieces to line up in order to take advantage of this behavior... is hard to imagine." Just to make sure minds were at ease, he also reassured that security experts that had researched the problem found no danger for any consumers using the web browser. "From our conversations with security researchers across the industry, we see very little risk to consumers at this time," Hachamovitch concluded. Though Microsoft still hasn't been able to completely eradicate the tracking flaw, it would appear that everyday use of Internet Explorer won't create any additional vulnerabilities for its users.

Google axing 'less popular' products and features, saying so long to Sync Posted: Google announced on Friday that it will shut down several "less popular" products, features and services as part of a "winter cleaning" effort. Google Calendar will see several losses on Jan. 4, after which users will be unable to create new reservable times through appointment slots, though existing appointment slots in Google Calendar will continue working for a year after that date. In addition, the Calendar Labs "Smart Rescheduler" and "Add gadget by URL" will be discontinued that same day. Finally, as of today, U.S. users' ability to check their Google Calendars and create events via SMS will be eliminated, since, according to Google, most people just use Calendar apps at this point. Goodbye to Google Sync Google Sync, which provided users access to Gmail, Google Calendar and Contacts via the Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync protocol, will be discontinued as well on Jan. 30. According to Google Vice President of Engineering Venkat Panchapakesan, who wrote the Google blog post describing the upcoming changes, Google currently offers users access to the same data via other protocols, making Google Sync obsolete. Existing connections will continue to work, but users will not be able to set up new Google Sync connections. Google Sync will also continue to be supported for Google Apps for Business, Government and Education. That's not all, folks As of Friday, Google Calendar Sync will no longer function either, with Google Sync for the Nokia S60 and SyncML, a contacts sync service for older devices, stopping on Jan. 30 as well. Finally, Google's Issue Tracker Data API, which let client applications view and update issues with Google Data API feeds, will stop working on June 14 next year, and Punchd, a digital loyalty card app on iOS and Android, will be discontinued on June 7. Punchd merchants will no longer have to honor Punchd loyalty cards, though Google remains "focused on developing products that help merchants and shoppers connect in new and useful ways," Panchapakesan wrote on Friday. "Last January, we renewed our resolution to focus on creating beautiful, useful products that improve millions of people's lives every day," he added. "To make the most impact, we need to make some difficult decisions." "Technology offers us a way to make a big impact on the world," Panchapakesan concluded. "In 2013, we'll keep working hard to build a seamless, amazing Google experience for you."

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