Summary: News: Amazon claims it streams more instant video than Hulu or Apple All gaming aspirations aside, Amazon says it has a good reason for building its newFire TV set-top box: People really like its streaming video content. The company is claiming that its instant video usage has tripled year over year, surpassing both Apple's and Hulu's instant video numbers. So, what sparked all the growth? Amazon doesn't say specifically, but the press release dedicates a considerable portion of text to lauding its exclusive Prime Instant Video content, its original series and its large catalog of titles available for digital purchase and rental. All well and good, but the announcement is clearly a thinly veiled advertisement for its new hardware -- which is fine, but it does leave us wondering by what margin Amazon is leading its competition. After all, Netflix's standing is conspicuously absent from the reported line-up. http://www.engadget.com/2014/04/08/amazon-claims-it-streams-more-instant-video-than-hulu-or-apple/ Microsoft Ends Support for Windows XP It's the end of the line for Microsoft's Windows XP: as of today, the company will no longer release security updates for the 12-year-old operating system. "Microsoft has provided support for Windows XP for the past 12 years. But now the time has come for us, along with our hardware and software partners, to invest our resources toward supporting more recent technologies so that we can continue to deliver great new experiences," wrote Microsoft in an announcement. Microsoft's Office 2003 is another product that will not get security updates after this date. Launched on October 25, 2001, Windows XP is one of the most successful Microsoft products ever; its successor, Windows Vista, was quickly replaced with Windows 7, and it took as long as September 2012 for Windows 7 to overtake XP as the most popular desktop operating system. Microsoft released three Service Packs for Windows XP; the last one, SP3, was launched in May 2008. In April 2009, Microsoft ended Mainstream Support for the OS, meaning it stopped providing free technical support and accepting warranty claims. Up until today, the company provided Extended Support, which included paid technical support and security updates. What does it mean for the end user? Simply put, you can continue to use Windows XP and Office 2003, but as time goes on, they will be more and more vulnerable to malware and other security risks. For users still running Windows XP, Microsoft recommends upgrading their PC to a model that can run the latest version of Windows, 8.1. For instructions for moving your data from Windows XP to 8.1, go here. http://mashable.com/2014/04/08/microsoft-ends-support-windows-xp/ Battery Prototype Recharges Smartphones in 30 Seconds A battery that uses nanotechnology to charge your smartphone in 30 seconds may sound like something out of a sci-fi movie but an Israeli startup claims to have created just that. StoreDot unveiled its battery charging prototype Monday at Microsoft's Think Next conference in Tel Aviv. StoreDot's prototype is able to completely recharge a smartphone battery from 0%-100% in just 30 seconds. It relies on bio-organic nanodots, tiny conductive crystals that help enable rapid charging. Currently, the device is closer in size to a laptop charger than a smartphone charger, but the company says it expects the final product will be about the size of a typical smartphone battery. The charger is still a prototype, which means it will be some time before it is commercially available. The Wall Street Journal reports the company hopes to begin production in "late 2016." “The only disadvantage is that the industry is not ready for it,” Dr. Doron Myersdorf, CEO and cofounder of StoreDot, the nanotechnology company behind the charger, told TechCrunch. "We are talking about a new type of materials that can be introduced into different types of devices."
