operating

PARIS--Free, a French company that already shook up the Internet service provider business here, just shook up the mobile phone service business, too.

Last week, Chief Executive Xavier Niel took to Twitter to announce a service plan that gets subscribers unlimited calls, unlimited text and picture messages, and data transfer of up to 3GB per month, after which download rates are throttled.

One big departure is the price: 20 euros per month, or $25.45. An even bigger departure: there's no long-term contract. And free international calls (though only to some countries, and not with cheap international roaming) … Read more

Apparently, Nokia isn't content with just two mobile operating systems.

The Finnish handset giant scooped up Smarterphone, a small Norwegian company that has an operating system designed for more basic cell phones, known in the industry as feature phones. The acquisition was disclosed by Smarterphone's Nordic investor parent, Ferd Capital.

A Nokia representative confirmed the acquisition but declined to comment further on what it means for the company.

This operating system would sit alongside Microsoft's Windows Phone platform, which is meant for high-end smartphones, and Nokia's own Symbian platform, which is now intended for lower-end devices … Read more

Samsung is still the biggest maker of mobile phones, but Apple is gaining ground, according to data released today by market researcher ComScore.

Samsung accounted for 25.6 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers for the three months ending November 11, a slight increase of 0.3 percent over the previous three months. While Apple came in fourth with 11.2 percent, its 1.4 percent increase was the greatest market share increase for the previous three months.

Samsung and Apple were the only mobile phone makers in the top 5 to boost their share of the market during that … Read more

People frustrated by the upgrade and setup process in prior versions of Windows may find a more user-friendly experience in Windows 8.

Ensuring that Windows installs properly across a variety of hardware and software configurations has always been a major challenge, and one that Microsoft has never solved to the satisfaction of all users.

Microsoft has already taken some big steps forward in this respect with Windows 7. Its next version of Windows promises further improvements, as described in the latest edition of the Building Windows 8 blog by Christa St. Pierre from Microsoft's setup and deployment team:

Google removed the "+" operator from searches a few weeks ago, but the replacement hasn't been received with open arms.

According to Google, the plus operator was being used incorrectly and was used in a very small amount of searches. In its place, double quotation marks were implemented and seen as operators that would be used more efficiently. However, a lot of users were not excited by this alternative.

To please the masses, Google is rolling out another way to make sure you're searching for something worded in the exact way that you typed it in: meet … Read more

Designing Windows 8 for virtually any device from smartphone to PC, Microsoft says it's had a key goal in mind for all hardware platforms--energy efficiency.

With laptops and mobile devices slurping up battery power and desktops and servers chewing up electricity, Microsoft has wanted to ensure that any device running Windows 8 can tap into better power management.

"Very small changes done well in Windows can result in very large positive environmental impact because of our scale," Pat Stemen, a program manager on Microsoft's Kernel team, said in the latest Building Windows 8 blog. "In … Read more

Windows XP continues to shed market share but still won't give up its crown as the most used operating system.

Eyeing the OS market in October, Net Applications pegged the total share for XP at 48 percent, the first time the 10-year-old OS has dipped below 50 percent specifically among desktop platforms. That's down from 50.5 percent in September and 52.5 percent in August.

Since Windows 7 made its official debut more than two years ago, XP has gradually dropped in usage from 72 percent in August 2009 to its current share. On a natural upswing, … Read more

Hewlett Packard reaffirmed its commitment to the computer business yesterday, bringing to a close three months of dramatic upheaval.

Since August, when HP and then-CEO Leo Apotheker outlined a plan to "explore strategic alternatives" for its Personal Systems Group, HP shaved roughly 20 percent off the price of its stock, damaged its supplier relationships, bewildered consumers and analysts, and, ultimately, ousted Apotheker and replaced him with former eBay CEO Meg Whitman.… Read more

The Mac still owns a tiny market share compared with Windows, but it's one that's slowly been inching up.

In the U.S., Apple held 6.45 percent of all personal computers last month, according to new data from Net Applications, a gain from 6.03 percent from August. The growth from the prior month isn't a surprise, though, since Apple typically enjoys a boost in September thanks to what Net Applications calls "the Back-to-School Bump."

But the latest number also shows a slow but steady rise over the past couple of years from October … Read more