Summary: Question of the week: Facebook, G+ or Twitter? Or all of the above? Gozer: Twitter & G+ ( kind of ) Aaron: All News: WWDC 2012 schedule posted, keynote confirmed, app released WWDC 2012 is on. Apple confirmed the keynote, released this year's app, and posted the talkschedule for attendees first thing Tuesday morning, officially sending the lucky 5,000 attendees (and a smattering of media folks) into full WWDC-planning mode. As usual, the keynote will take place the first day of WWDC: Monday, June 11 at 10:00am Pacific Time. Apple did not explicitly confirm who would be speaking, but it's a safe bet that CEO Tim Cook will take the lead. Apple made tickets available for this year's WWDC a month ago but sold out in the blink of an eye—about two hours. The company had not posted much in the way of further information, however, until now. But don't go thinking you'll find out anything juicy by looking at the latest materials. Only registered developers have access to the online version of the schedule, and the WWDC app for iOS is largely geared toward attendees with things like maps, news items, and descriptions for each talk. Still, if you are attending, we have heard from many developers that the app can be a lifesaver, so it's worth a download so you can begin favoriting the sessions you want to attend, among other things. (And as usual, not all sessions have been announced yet—Apple usually waits until after the keynote to release the names of certain NDA'd sessions.) http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/05/wwdc-2012-schedule-posted-keynote-confirmed-app-released/ Slick new Chromebook, first "Chromebox" desktop out from Samsung today A year after unveiling Chromebooks to the world, Google and Samsung today are announcing two new devices, including the first "Chromebox" desktop PC. Google is also rolling out several major software improvements, including a new window manager for Chrome OS, better trackpad support, upgrades to a remote desktop access tool, and offline editing for Google Docs. The new Chromebook has a slicker, more attractive design than previous models, and both the new laptop and desktop take a big step forward in memory and CPU. Instead of Intel Atom processors, Samsung's latest Chrome computers use Sandy Bridge-based Intel Celeron CPUs, and double the RAM to 4GB. Both devices will be on sale online today and in Best Buy stores soon. The Samsung Chromebook Series 5 550 has a 12.1" display with resolution of 1280x800, starts up in about 7 seconds, weighs 3.3 pounds, is rated for six hours of battery life, and costs $449 for a WiFi-only edition and $549 for one with WiFi and 3G cellular access. Google says it's about 2.5 times faster than last year's models, while the Samsung Chromebox Series 3 will be 3.5 times faster. The Chromebox, which costs $329 and has roughly the same size and shape as an Apple Mac Mini, runs faster because with battery life not being a concern, it can use a higher-wattage version of the Intel Celeron processors. The new Samsung Chromebook runs a dual-core Intel Celeron Processor 867 at 1.3GHz, compared to last year's Chromebook which ran a dual-core Intel Atom N570 at 1.66GHz. The Celeron architecture is more advanced, and the laptop certainly seems zippy in our limited testing so far. We'll have more to say on performance in an upcoming article, which will include some benchmarking. The Chromebox has an Intel Celeron B840 running at 1.9GHz. The Chromebox has a good number of ports, including six USB 2.0 ports and two DisplayPort++ slots that are compatible with HDMI, DVI, and VGA. Chrome OS is optimized for screens up to 30 inches and can support multiple monitors, Sengupta said. Chromebox, with mouse and keyboard Oddly, the Chromebox has no SD card reader, but USB devices that can read SD cards are common anyway. The new Chromebook has two USB 2.0 ports, DisplayPort++ output, and an SD card reader.
