Products from the former Soviet Union

Once Russia turned capitalist in the early 1990s, it was only a matter of time before “the weeds” got cleared out. Presently, most Soviet products are extinct, or at least endangered; perhaps they still could be found on flea markets, or far in the provinces. We picked them at random during our early visits to Russia, driven, in part, by collectors’ instinct, in part – by a desire to amuse our American design colleagues.

Today, these products may still amuse someone, but their unpretentious simplicity can also teach us a few design lessons. Eventually, they will pass into the realm of historical artifacts. In November 2008, part of our collection has been presented in a small exhibition at KIOSK Gallery in New York City. A few highlights are shown below.

Net Neutrality fighters to head Obama's FCC transition team

Ms. Crawford is a former partner of a Washington law firm that specializes in communications law and recently left the board of directors of ICANN, a group that oversees Internet domain-name registration. Mr. Werbach edited Release 1.0, a technology newsletter, and founded Supernova Group, a technology analysis and consulting firm.

The Obama transition team includes a number of former FCC officials, but under the conflict-of-interest rules adopted by the president-elect’s team, many may be barred from directly examining FCC issues.

President-elect Obama’s office said today that Ms. Crawford and Mr. Werbach are part of the Science, Tech, Space and Arts Team that will be directed by Tom Wheeler, a former president of National Cable and Telecommunications.

Unreleased Jonathan Coulton album on a limited edition USB stick -- Creative Commons fundraiser

Creative Commons is in the midst of its annual fundraising campaign. To help support us, Jonathan Coulton has released his greatest hits compilation "JoCo Looks Back" on limited edition CC-branded USB drives that come stocked not only with the standard mixes of the album's songs, but also the unmixed audio stems (i.e. separated vocal track, guitar track, drum track, etc.). All of the material is under a CC BY-NC-SA license and ready to share and remix. The drives are available to people who contribute $50 or more to Creative Commons before December 31.

And if you haven't already seen it, Jesse Dylan (who directed will.i.am's "Yes We Can" music video in support of the Barack Obama campaign) has released a video about Creative Commons, also in support of our fundraising efforts. Entitled "A Shared Culture," the clip is made up of interviews with people like Lawrence Lessig, Jimmy Wales, and Joi Ito, discussing the importance of Creative Commons. The video uses CC-licensed music from Nine Inch Nails, as well as many dozens of CC-licensed photographs taken by people around the world, in order to highlight how CC licenses enable new creativity to be built from older works. See the video here.

Sprint: Plug into widget overload

Section: Communications, Cellular Providers, Web, Websites

Sprint is all over the place.  They just lost 1.3 million customers, they’ve got their CEO on television yammering about technology, and now they’ve unveiled this thing.  What is it? 

It is Sprint’s promotion of its mobile broadband service featuring over 30 widgets.  At random intervals, a woman’s voice will say things like, “Feel free to touch it.“  You can listen to music, mess around with some of the widgets just by clicking on them like the cuckoo clock and be inundated with all kinds of information that you don’t need.

It’s actually a pretty cool way to waste a lot of time.  Does this make you or I want Sprint mobile broadband?  Not really.  It does remind me of Jarvis in the “Iron Man” movie.  I think I’ll go watch that.

See it at Sprint via UneasySilence.

Full Story » | Written by Iyaz Akhtar for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

PBS on science fiction pulps vs. the web

"The problems with the pulps -- the big three -- has very little to do with the advent of the web, though they could have done a much better job of positioning themselves when the web was younger," he said. "I think the major thrust of their problem has been that all the pulps have seemed to be content to work with what they have in terms of subscribers and readers, as opposed to being very active about acquiring new readers."

It's this constant state of defense, he said, that made them more vulnerable once the web had matured and publications across the board began to face increased competition online. Like Williams, Scalzi attributed much of the decline in speculative fiction magazines to changes in newsstand distribution, but noted that other publications had still managed to thrive despite these changes. The sci-fi mags, he argued, did not adequately adapt to the new landscape. He compared it to America Online in the '90s when it quickly began losing its market dominance.

"And then people started migrating to the web, and AOL started doing a bunch of me-too initiatives," he explained. "It was member retention. They were like, 'Look we're doing this too, so you don't have to leave us.' Eventually people went 'Yeah, there's other stuff out here, and it's cheaper or it's free or it's more interesting,' and they leave anyway. What eventually happens with those retention efforts is that perhaps they delay the inevitable for a little while, but eventually the inevitable is inevitable. It eventually comes."

TSA "behavior detection" is wrong more than 99 percent of the time

"That's an awful lot of people being pulled aside and inconvenienced," said Carnegie Mellon scientist Stephen Fienberg, who studied the TSA program and other counterterrorism efforts. "I think it's a sham. We have no evidence it works."...

The TSA has not publicly said if it has caught a terrorist through the program. The agency says that some who are arrested, particularly on fake ID charges, may be scouting an airport for a possible attack.

Some scientists say the TSA effort is just as likely to flag a nervous traveler as a terrorist.

"The use of these technologies for the purpose that the TSA is interested in moves into an area where we don't have proven science," said Robert Levenson, a psychologist at the University of California-Berkeley.

Although observers can perceive whether someone appears anxious or is acting deceptively, they can't tell whether that person is planning an attack or something such as an extramarital affair, Levenson said.

Levenson and Fienberg were part of a National Academy of Sciences team whose report last month said "behavioral surveillance" has "enormous potential for violating" privacy.

Girl with a perl earring

HOWTO hack a index-divots into a Moleskine

The squared notebook gives a nice line to follow for the cuts. Any tool should aim to exactly fit these lines, just to enhance the feel of the finished tab.

The very square edge is a little open to becoming frayed and bashed, so the tool should be a curved die giving a nicely rounded corner to the tabs. Either the square shallow tab as shown here, or a deeper semi circular version would be nice. I clipped only 5 pages at the start of a section.

Moleskine indexing hack tool (via Make)

National Geographic enters the sea of video games (Reuters)

It’s Official. Facebook Is Running A Protection Racket On App Developers

Earlier today Facebook released details on its new Verified App Program for third party developers.

Basically, application developers (there are 48,000 applications on Facebook today) can apply to become a Verified App. If they pass they get a badge and special placement in the Application directory, plus increased communication limits with users, increased visibility in the news feed and some free advertising credits. If they don’t pass, they get stuck into the unwashed masses of apps that aren’t verified because they aren’t “meaningful,” “trustworthy,” or “well designed.” The complete guidelines are here.

Basically, you don’t want to be in the loser group. Facebook users aren’t going to be quick to add an application that can’t meet basic competence or honesty standards. A developer trying to get users on an unverified app is sort of like someone trying to get a job as a doctor without a medical degree. It’s going to be hard.

So how do you get into the Verified App category? You pay. $375. Well, you have to pass those tests, but then you pay. You can be so Meaningful people make religious pilgrimages to your office. So Trustworthy that your Wikipedia edits are never questioned. And so Well Designed that the Apple guys call you up for tips. But unless you pay that $375, you ain’t getting the badge.

And then you pay again. Each year. The Verified designation is good for just twelve months.

There’s a word for this kind of system. I just can’t remember what it is. Oh yeah. Protection Racket.

It’s a beautiful model. And I have no problem with it, as long as we’re all willing to admit that it is what it is. I just wish Facebook put as much effort into launching their payments platform as they did on the new verification system. Because then app developers could start charging for apps like they do quite successfully on the iPhone, and make some of this money back.

And just one last thought - if an application isn’t meaningful, trustworthy and well designed, why is it in the app store at all?

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Anti-Matter Created By Laser At Livermore

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

National Geographic getting into video games (AP)

Why Apple Won't Allow Adobe Flash on iPhone

Shine Sports Form Over Function, But Offers Crisp Optics

Barcode Your Clothes to Get Web Traffic

Don't talk to strangers — scan them instead. That's the idea behind the so-called ShotCodes on clothing by W-41, a Netherlands-based online apparel company. If you spot one of these unique logos in the wild (bar, club, methadone clinic, DMV), you surreptitiously snap a photo of it with your phonecam and a tiny app directs you to the wearer's LinkedIn, Facebook, or MySpace profile. You can then decide whether a "Hello" is in order. To get in on the action, simply visit W-41.com, download a free mobile app, select a ShotCode, and purchase gear from the online store ($50 to $57 a pop). Owners can connect their symbol to any Web site. Beats having to dust off lines like "If you were a phaser, you'd be set on 'stunning.'"*

*Other pickup line options: "Later, when my Facebook page asks me what I'm doing, can I write 'You'?" "You're as curvy as a toroid." "If I said you had top-specced hardware, would you interface with me?"

Barcode Your Clothes to Get Web Traffic

Don't talk to strangers — scan them instead. That's the idea behind the so-called ShotCodes on clothing by W-41, a Netherlands-based online apparel company. If you spot one of these unique logos in the wild (bar, club, methadone clinic, DMV), you surreptitiously snap a photo of it with your phonecam and a tiny app directs you to the wearer's LinkedIn, Facebook, or MySpace profile. You can then decide whether a "Hello" is in order. To get in on the action, simply visit W-41.com, download a free mobile app, select a ShotCode, and purchase gear from the online store ($50 to $57 a pop). Owners can connect their symbol to any Web site. Beats having to dust off lines like "If you were a phaser, you'd be set on 'stunning.'"*

*Other pickup line options: "Later, when my Facebook page asks me what I'm doing, can I write 'You'?" "You're as curvy as a toroid." "If I said you had top-specced hardware, would you interface with me?"

Nov. 18, 1883: Railroad Time Goes Coast to Coast

1883: U.S. and Canadian railways adopt five standardized time zones to replace the multiplicity of local times in communities across the continent. Everyone would soon be operating on "railroad time."

Noon on a well-made, properly paced sundial is whenever the sun is highest right there. The advent of mechanical timekeeping in the Middle Ages didn't change that. Noon in your town was whenever the sun was highest right there. If that meant that noon in a town a hundred miles away might be a few minutes ahead or behind your local noon, big deal. You couldn't get there fast enough for it to matter.

The railroad changed that, starting in the early 19th century. The horse had been the fastest way to move people and goods from one place to another since the species was domesticated, as early as 4000 B.C. The six-millennium reign ended quickly as networks of rails spread across North America and Europe at mid-century.

But timekeeping was still medieval. Local jewelers synchronized their customers' watches to local solar noon. In a small town with one jeweler, everyone might use the same time settings. In a large city, the many jewelers' various observations might diverge by several minutes. Some places achieved citywide synchronization by dropping a time ball on a highly visible tower at noon every day. (It worked better than ringing a bell. You might hear a great bell two or three miles away, but that would be 10 or 15 seconds after it was struck.)

Thousands of municipalities each worked to their local times. The Chicago Tribune, for instance, showed 27 local times in Michigan, 38 in Wisconsin, 27 in Illinois and 23 in Indiana.

Railroad timetables used about a hundred different standards. A single railroad that traveled east to west would use multiple noons: The Union Pacific, for example, had six different settings in what are today the Central and Mountain zones. The Union Station that served multiple railroads in a big city might have five or six different clocks, one for each railroad in the station, each running on is own time.

As new technology let railroad trains go even faster, the need for a better system was increasingly evident. The multiplicity of local time settings also created complexity and confusion for operators and users of the telegraph (whose lines usually followed the rails) and the newfangled telephone.

England, Scotland and Wales standardized to Greenwich Mean Time on Dec. 6, 1848, after two decades of urging by Sir John Herschel. In the United States, Charles F.Dowd, principal of Temple Grove Ladies' Seminary at Saratoga Springs, New York, pushed the case in 1869 for four time zones, each the width of 15 degrees of longitude. Professor Benjamin Pierce of Harvard picked up the cudgels in the 1870s.

The cause was also championed by William F. Allen, secretary of the General Time Convention, the group the railways had formed to coordinate their schedules. (That group evolved into Association of American Railroads.)

The railroads finally agreed to General Time Convention on Oct. 11, 1883. They adopted five time zones: Intercolonial Time (now known as Atlantic Time in eastern Canada) and the Eastern, Central, Mountain and Pacific time zones. The U.S. zones were based on solar noon at 75, 90, 105 and 120 degrees west of Greenwich.

When the new system took effect at noon on Nov. 18, conductors all over the United States and Canada resynchronized their watches from their individual railroads' times to the new standard times. Some folks objected, thinking they were being robbed of minutes, just as people felt robbed of days when the calendar shifted from Julian to Gregorian in previous centuries.

But businesses followed the lead of the railroads, and people showed up for work when employers said they needed to, and customers visited stores when shopkeepers said they were open. And people arrived at the railroad station to catch trains that ran on the same time settings as the watches in their pockets and the clocks on the sidewalks.

So convenient was the system of time zones that it thrived entirely on the say-so of the railroads for 35 years. Congress did not enact Standard Time until March 19, 1918, when it also initiated Daylight Saving Time as an efficiency measure during World War I.

Source: FREMO (Friendship Association of European Model Railroaders)

The Madness of King Jerry Yang

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X-Ray Discovery Sparked 19th-Century DIY Craze

A hot keyboard always needs a partner…

Section: Peripherals, Mice / Keyboards

You may remember the slightly odd Thanko Hot Cooler USB Keyboard which warmed/cooled your hands whilst you typed, which could be in some circumstances quite good.  Well, undeterred they have moved to mouses (yes, that is the plural of a computer mouse) and mouse mats with the “USB Warm mouse” and “USB Warm Mousemat.“  Unfortunately, it would appear that they still haven’t sacked the guy who names these things, as they are as unimaginative as ever.

However the awful naming does make my life a little easier: it is fairly obvious what they do.  The mouse version is a basic optical mouse that connects to your PC through USB and comes in a range of colors such as black, black, black or black (seriously, I’ve seen paving slabs more imaginative than this company).  The only clever thing about this mouse is the heater inside it, operated by a little switch about 10cm up the wire which can reach temperatures of up to 45 degrees Celsius.

The USB Mousemat is similarly basic and unimaginative, although at least this has a USB hub integrated to the mat which creates four more USB ports, making up for the two that it takes up. This again can get up to 45 degrees Celsius, which is pretty much guaranteed to keep your hand warm what ever the weather (unless of course you are outside, at night, in a snowstorm).

Personally, I think that they are quite cool, and that even if you aren’t cold it would be quite nice to have your hand gently warmed whilst you work/play away.  I also think that the mouse is a lot more effective than the mousemat, which when coupled with the fact that many people do not use mousemats reiterates the point.  However it is more expensive, at around $30 for the mouse, and $20 dollars for the mouse bearing in mind that these are direct exchanges, not including shipping.

Is it worth it?  Given the low price and general appearance the optical mouse is probably pretty poor quality but given that you can’t get your hands on it yet it is just a guess.  I think that for pure novelty value these are great, and if you get particularly cold hand then they would also be quite practical, but apart from that probably not.

Source [Gearlog]

Full Story » | Written by Christian Milsom for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

Spansion sues Samsung over flash memory patents (AP)

Digital Photos Give Away a Camera's Make and Model

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Google’s Voice Search Finally Hits The iPhone

Google’s search-by-voice application is finally available on the App Store. To grab it, visit this link (the page still shows the old version, but you’ll download the new one). The application was originally announced on Friday, leading to widespread excitement that quickly turned to unrest as the application failed to make its debut on the App Store. The delay led to criticism of Apple’s App Store approval process, which apparently leaves all developers in the dark - even Google.

The app allows users to speak into their iPhones to submit queries to Google’s search engine, which can serve up both standard search results as well as movie showtimes, addresses, and other handy information. Voice detection seems to work pretty well, though it sometimes takes a few tries with long phrases and names (I was able to correctly search for the “answer to life, the universe, and everything” after only two tries). And when it works, it’s really cool - I’ll probably be using it on a daily basis.

My biggest issue with the app is that there is apparently no way to use the voice detection feature to call a contact, despite the fact that you can search through contacts using manual text entry. One of my biggest gripes about the iPhone is that there’s no way to make a hands-free call, and while this would still require at least one buttonpress, it would be an improvement. A free application called Say Who offers voice dialing on the iPhone, but it would have been nice to see the functionality integrated into the Google app.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

'iFun' Turns iPhone Into Wii-Like Controller

A new suite of free iPhone games turns the handset into a controller, potentially creating competition for Nintendo's Wii.

Social Gaming Network's iFun consists of four sports games -- golf, baseball, basketball and bowling -- that you'd play on your computer screen, taking advantage of the handset's accelerometer to use it as a controller. Also cool is you can play with other iPhone users over the internet.

It's pretty straightforward: Connect your iPhone to 3G or the same Wi-Fi network as your computer (the latter is preferred), register for an account, download the app and start whacking away.

I gave iFun some testing, and given that the phone is communicating with the on-screen game over the web, there was some lag between my motions and those on screen; it's definitely not as smooth as Wii. Long story short, there's a lot of work to be done here, but this is a rather interesting development in iPhone gaming with a lot of potential.

Download Link [iTunes]

What's Next for Microsoft Robotics (PC Magazine)

Sci-Fi Writer Wears His Book on His Shirt

The image above may look like a meaningless block of jumbled up pixels to you, but it's actually a multimedia science fiction novel.

The novel's called Manga Man, and you'd access it by snapping a photo of the black-and-white block with your camera phone and a piece of software. Then, the software will direct your mobile browser to the novel.

Smartphone owners in Asia are more likely familiar with the technology being used, called Quick Response (QR) Codes. The squares are actually 2D barcodes containing URL information; many Asian companies are beginning to print QR codes on advertisements to direct smartphone users to product or company web sites. The tool is especially popular in Japan, where most phones ship with QR Code reading software pre-installed.

Manga Man, made by Alexander Besher, is a pretty interesting example: He wears a t-shirt with the QR Code linking to his book printed on it. Unfortunately, this marketing method has yet to take off in the United States, since not many smartphone owners use QR Code reading software. Until then, Besher is probably better off wearing this shirt and walking around Japan.   

Have an iPhone? Why not reader Besher's book? Download the free app NeoReader [iTunes], tap the "Scan" button and snap a photo of the code at the top of the page.

A mobile phone novel read via a T-shirt [NewScientist via BBG]

Supercomputer race gets faster

Section: Computers

Supercomputers are great, in fact even the name is great: conjuring images of CPUs in red capes flying to the help of damsels in distress.  However, in the real world they are hundreds of cabinets stuffed full of computer stuff and do in fact look incredibly dull.  The opposite can be said of what they actually do as they push the boundaries of what is capable using solely 0s and 1s to solve complex calculations, help define new theorem, and play Crysis on full graphics.

Yet, as with everything in this world, it has become a competition to have the fastest computer and this has been going on since computers began; in fact, even Romans competed over abacus skills.  In June, the Roadrunner which was built by IBM, became the fastest computer ever achieving a sustained speed of 1.026 petaflops.  FLOPS actually stands for FLoating point Operations Per Second, so 1.026 petaflops is 1 026 000 000 000 000 floating point operations per second which, in every sense, is a lot.

However there could be a new leader on the Top 500 list which is compiled by computer experts and is to be updated this week in a supercomputing conference in Austin.  This is Cray’s Jaguar XT, which claims to have reached 1.64 petaflops, a massive increase on its probable predecessor and is set to gain this prestigious honor.  It runs Linux and has a massive 362TB of memory which is spread out over its 284 cabinets, each of which holding 192 quad-core AMD Opteron chips.

This is a result of a $100 million upgrade, and it now takes up 5,700 square feet and if you add the interconnecting wires together you get an astonishing 6 000 miles.  This is one big mean computing machine.This may seem pointless, but discoveries made in this highly advanced field often trickle down to home computers, meaning you can always expect quicker computers.  However is it really worth hundreds of millions of dollars?  Your guess is as good as mine.

Source [TheInquirer]

Full Story » | Written by Christian Milsom for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

SGN’s iFun Turns iPhone Into PC Game Controller

We’ve had a blast playing SGN’s suite of Wii-like games over the last few months - iGolf, iBowl and iBaseball (basketball, tennis and boxing are coming soon). The apps are being downloaded like crazy on the App store, and no wonder - you get to swing your iPhone all over the place while you play the games.

Now SGN is rolling out something a little different. iFun turns the iPhone into a Wii-like controller, but the actual games are played on normal desktop and laptop computers.

The first title to launch is golf. If you don’t quite get it, see the video below. SGN says they may license other online games to add to the iFun platform, and will release an API for other developers to launch their games on iFun.

Super. Duper. Cool.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

BoomTown Scoop Confirmed: The Entire Yahoo Press Release on Yang Stepping Down as CEO [BoomTown]

As BoomTown reported earlier today in an exclusive scoop, Yahoo has confirmed that CEO Jerry Yang will be stepping down and a search for his replacement is underway.

(Yang also penned a memo to Yahoo employees about the move.)

Here is the entire Yahoo (YHOO) press release about the development:

Yahoo! Conducting Search for New CEO

“From founding this company to guiding its growth into a trusted global brand that is indispensible to millions of people, I have always sought to do what is best for our franchise,” said Jerry Yang. “When the Board asked me to become CEO and lead the transformation of the Company, I did so because it was important to re-envision the business for a different era to drive more effective growth. Having set Yahoo! on a new, more open path, the time is right for me to transition the CEO role and our global talent to a new leader. I will continue to focus on global strategy and to do everything I can to help Yahoo! realize its full potential and enhance its leading culture of technology and product excellence and innovation.”

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

Urine Passes NASA Taste Test

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Yahoo's Jerry Yang Stepping Down — For Real

Yang Steps Down As Yahoo CEO, Search For Successor Begins

Expect Yahoo’s share price to jump tomorrow - Jerry Yang will be stepping down as CEO of the company, a job that he took on an interim basis in June 2007.

Yang will return to his former role as Chief Yahoo, and will remain on the board of directors. The company has hired executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles to find the new CEO.

This was an unavoidable event, and in our opinion Yang took too long to step down. In May it was clear that Yang’s heart was no longer in it, and he reconfirmed that last month at the Web 2.0 Summit. Under his watch the company has lost tens of billions of dollars in market cap and thousands of former Yahoo employees (and hundreds of execs) are now gone.

How much of the downfall was his fault? It’s impossible to say, except that he takes full responsibility for mishandling the Microsoft acquisition offer last February. One thing you have to love is Yang’s tenacity in keeping Yahoo an independent company at any cost. But what shareholders and employees need is a leader with an actual plan.

Who will be the next CEO? We speculated back in June that Jeff Mallet or Dan Rosensweig were possible candidates. Mallet wouldn’t consider the job, we’ve heard. But Rosensweig would probably take it if offered.

Whoever ends up with the job, let’s just hope it’s an outsider. Yahoo is being clear that they are considering internal candidates. President Sue Decker is likely being considered. But ex-execs we’ve spoken with say she was a big part of the problem at Yahoo, and if she takes over as CEO it will likely be more of the same.

The press release:

Yahoo! Conducting Search for New CEO
Co-Founder Jerry Yang to Step Down Following Appointment of New CEO
and Return to Former Role as Chief Yahoo! and Board Member

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Nov 17, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) –

Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO) today announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a search for a new Chief Executive Officer. Jerry Yang, co-Founder of Yahoo!, has decided to return to his former role as Chief Yahoo! upon the appointment of his successor as CEO, and he will also continue to serve on the Board. Yang, 40, assumed the CEO role at the Board’s request in June 2007, and he has led Yahoo! through a strategic repositioning and transformation of its platform.

Chairman Roy Bostock, working with the independent directors and in consultation with Jerry Yang, is leading the process of assessing potential candidates and determining finalists for consideration. The search will encompass both internal and external candidates, and the Board has retained Heidrick & Struggles, a leading international executive search firm, to assist in the process.

“Over the past year and a half, despite extraordinary challenges and distractions, Jerry Yang has led the repositioning of Yahoo! on an open platform model as well as the improved alignment of costs and revenues,” said Roy Bostock. “Jerry and the Board have had an ongoing dialogue about succession timing, and we all agree that now is the right time to make the transition to a new CEO who can take the company to the next level. We are deeply grateful to Jerry for his many contributions as CEO over the past 18 months, and we are pleased that he plans to stay actively involved at Yahoo! as a key executive and member of the Board.”

“From founding this company to guiding its growth into a trusted global brand that is indispensible to millions of people, I have always sought to do what is best for our franchise,” said Jerry Yang. “When the Board asked me to become CEO and lead the transformation of the Company, I did so because it was important to re-envision the business for a different era to drive more effective growth. Having set Yahoo! on a new, more open path, the time is right for me to transition the CEO role and our global talent to a new leader. I will continue to focus on global strategy and to do everything I can to help Yahoo! realize its full potential and enhance its leading culture of technology and product excellence and innovation.”

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Bill O’Reilly complains about video games, Heidi Klum

FROM GAMERTELL - Bill O’Reilly has issue with Heidi Klum dancing around like Tom Cruise in a TV ad for Guitar Hero… MORE »

Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

Jerry Yang’s Entire Memo to His Employees on Stepping Down as CEO [BoomTown]

BoomTown has obtained the entire memo from Jerry Yang to his employees at Yahoo about his plans to step down as Yahoo CEO.

Yang, a truly nice man–which has been a plus and a minus for him–and an Internet visionary for sure, penned a classy note to the Yahoo (YHOO) troops. And BoomTown, feeling sentimental, will not even make fun of the lack of capitalization this time.

Here is the link to Yahoo’s official press release on Yang’s stepping down as CEO. And here is this blog’s scoop about the move.

And here’s the Yang memo to employees:

To: all yahoos
Fr: Jerry
Subject: update

thank you,
jerry

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

Yahoo’s Jerry Yang to Step Down, As a Search for New CEO Commences [BoomTown]

Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang will step down from his job as CEO, as soon as the board finds a replacement for him, in what sources close to the situation call a joint decision by him and the company’s directors.

Yahoo (YHOO) will announce the move within the next hour. [UPDATED: Yahoo confirms the move in its official press release.]

But, in a memo to Yahoo’s employees, obtained by BoomTown, Yang confirmed the pending departure, writing: “…we believe the time is now right to transition to a new ceo who can take the company to the next level.”

Yahoo has hired Heidrick & Struggles, the well-known executive search firm, to evaluate candidates, both internally and externally.

After a replacement is found, which the company hopes will be quickly, sources said, Yang will resume his former title as Chief Yahoo and will also remain on the Yahoo board.

While did-he-walk-or-was-he-pushed speculation will no doubt run rampant, sources said Yang already has and will play an important role in the search for his replacement.

Sources close to the board expect the choice will end up being an outsider and is not likely to be current Yahoo President Sue Decker, although she is being considered for the job.

But both she and Yang have been closely affiliated with each other, as the company has struggled to right itself after tumultuous year and its stock price has plummeted.

Yahoo shares close today at $10.63, after trading at historic lows for a while and giving the company a valuation of only $14.7 billion.

While Yahoo’s board has some execs in mind to become CEO, obvious candidates include News Corp. (NWS) COO Peter Chernin, as well as former AOL head Jon Miller, former eBay (EBAY) CEO Meg Whitman, Google (GOOG) ad exec Tim Armstrong, former Fox Interactive exec Ross Levinsohn and former Yahoo COO Dan Rosensweig (who is currently with the Quadrangle Group).

BoomTown would also throw in former Microsoft top exec Kevin Johnson, who is now CEO of Juniper Networks (JNPR), who led the software giant’s abandoned takeover bid against Yahoo earlier this year.

According to sources, both Yang and the board have been discussing the move for months, although Yang has been saying quite explicitly in public that he was going to stay in place to see through the many changes he has made in his 16-month tenure.

In a recent interview with me, in fact, Yang said about his determination to lead:

“In this uncertain environment, I think I am absolutely the right person. Times like this require a leader who really understands this company and its customers, and I think I do. The world is a different place today than even a month ago and I think I am the best person to guide Yahoo through this volatile time.”

In fact, it has always been a volatile time for Yang at Yahoo. He took over suddenly last June from former CEO Terry Semel, whose departure also came after Yahoo’s struggles became increasingly apparent.

Things only got worse for Yang, due to both his own and previous management missteps and also massive external forces, including a hostile takeover attempt by Microsoft (MSFT), which was soon followed by a proxy fight by activist shareholder Carl Icahn.

The Microsoft bid–which was $31 a share–was abandoned and Icahn dropped the proxy fight, with Icahn joining the board with two other directors he had handpicked.

And while Microsoft has been interested in a deal related to Yahoo’s search business, its CEO Steve Ballmer has categorically ruled out a renewed bid.

Yahoo also saw its search business decline in the face of dominance in the market by Google, which had ironically started its then-nascent business on Yahoo as its search partner.

Worse still, Yahoo’s strong graphical ad business has suffered badly in the midst of the current economic meltdown.

There has also been an exodus of major executives over the last year, along with recently announced layoffs of 10 percent of the company, which are set to take place December 10.

In addition, Yahoo’s controversial search ad with Google (GOOG) recently collapsed and its talks to merge with Time Warner (TWX) online unit AOL have dragged on.

With all this, sources close to the company said that both Yang and the board felt the company needed another leader to take it to the next level, and complete the turnaround efforts Yang has been trying to pull off.

“It was time for someone else,” said one source close to the board.

More, obviously, to come…

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

New Insta-Photo Cameras Seek to Ride Long Tail of Polaroid Nostalgia

The Polaroid instant-photo system was supposed to die a natural death.

But the kitchy format proved to be so much of a nostalgia-inducing favorite for certain groups of people (most of them weird lovers of instantaneous, smudge-full, and tiny portraits) that it's been practically willed into a modern day resurrection. Now, opportunistic companies with an eye into cashing in on that demand are creating new versions that move away from the old designs, but keep the main idea: print the photos fast and print them pocket-small.

Fujifilm announced today that it is bringing the Instax 200 instant film camera to the U.S., which makes 3.9 × 2.44-inch instant photos and costs $70. The company will use its own Instax instant film for the prints. After taking a picture, a photo will immediately come out undeveloped like Polaroid photos of old, and the user will see it come into focus in real time.

There's no word on whether you'll have to shake it (to pretend) to accelerate the process, but there’s no question some folks will do so out of habit. As a result, anyone who does shake them vigorously will immediately expose their old (over-30) age.

According to FujiFilm, the Instax film will sell for $29 for every pack of 20 pictures. Since a regular set of pictures (about 32) is easily developed in any drug store for much less, it looks like people will be paying a lot for the pleasure to relive their childhoods.

Portable photo camera/printers might seem like too much of a niche product to succeed (especially when placed against its digicam competitors in price and quality), but it fits right in to the 'Long Tail' business strategy that many manufacturers have adopted in the last few years. As Wired Magazine Editor-in-Chief Chris Anderson detailed in his book, modern business has shifted to a strategy where most of the growth is at the 'shallow end of the bitstream,' so that rabid supporters of a niche gadget (or photo format) can boost its fortune and keep it afloat by just maintaining their own established pattern: to keep buying instant-photo cameras if companies keep making them or supporting them. Many other items have survived, and even thrived in this type of environment (See: 50% of all eBay transactions).

The Polaroid-style instant cameras and photos are no exception to this rule. Flickr has several Polaroid aficionado groups, and popular software applications have been created to recreate the classic white-border and smudgy appearance of those prints.

But the Instax isn't the only camera that's gonna take advantage of the Polaroid nostalgia trip.

The upcoming TOMY Xiao TIP-521 digicam will be the closest thing we'll have to a modern version of the Polaroid camera. A joint project between a Japanese company and Zinc, the digital printing outfit that came out with the PoGo USB printer attachment late last year, the TOMY Xiao is expected to create big business out of the gate with that small minority of hard core former Polaroid users but it has a chance to catch on with the teenage set.

The Xiao features a 5-megapixel digicam and comes with its own attached mini-printer, but the old Polaroid quirky 'box' design is gone and in its place you'll find a plain digicam with an attached printing cartridge. To us, it looks more like a digicam with a metal beard.

The kit pushes out full-color 2 x 3-inch pictures (of thermal-based ink) in less than a minute, and comes with a bunch of small customizable features, such as a gallery set that squeezes images into a single frame.

The camera is also wireless IrDA-enabled. In theory, this means that your friend could send you a picture from his phone to your Xiao for a quick print out. But we think the social implications of this feature are so fraught with the danger of monotony that it should instead be safely hidden from the pushiest of friends.

The Xiao will be released in Japan for about $350 dollars, starting next week, and should be available in the U.S. by January 2009.

Riding the Rails in Tokyo Is Overwhelming, But Easy

New Top 500 Supercomputer List

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Transmeta Re-Enters “Stealth Mode” [Digital Daily]

The buzz surrounding Transmeta Corp. reached a new high Monday night when the company’s 13 million-share initial public offering was priced at $21 a share, raising at least $273 million for the company in one of the hottest IPOs seen in many months.”

– The Wall Street Journal, November 2000

$255.6 million in cash seems like a small price to pay for the “Most Important Company in Silicon Valley.” But that’s what semiconductor company Novafora will spend to acquire Transmeta (TMTA), the fallen chip design venture that was awarded the heady title a decade ago by the now defunct Upside.

A pitiable end to a company that helped calibrate the bubble-era Silicon Valley hype machine.

A decade ago Transmeta was one of tech’s most talked about stealth start-ups. And for a time, its low-power Crusoe processor was something of a celebrity in the semiconductor world. But ultimately, Crusoe just wasn’t able to hold its own against competing chips from Intel (INTC) and AMD (AMD). And after a string of nasty financial losses, the company left the processor manufacturing business in 2005 to focus on intellectual property licensing. Sadly, Transmeta wasn’t able to find success there, either. In the end, it proved to be little more than a dim reflection of the fantastical company its hype machine created.

“We believe the technology has been over-hyped, and that Intel is fighting back with improved products,” Piper Jaffray analyst Ashok Kumar said in November 2000. “So the question is, will Transmeta end up with an ‘Intel Inside’ tread on its back?”

Seems Kumar’s finally gotten his answer.

Internet:  It’s the most important thing in people’s lives

Section: Web

Everybody loves a survey (especially me) as it is a great way not only to identify the underlying social changes within the growing world, but also a good chance to laugh at the astonishing number of people who can’t identify where Australia is on a map.  This is no exception, as a survey released by YouGov in conjunction with their sponsors AMD showed that 77% of Europeans asked are addicted to the Internet.

However, one thing that surveys like this have told me: beware of gross assumptions.  So I dug out a dictionary (yes, I thought that given the subject of this survey it would be too ironic if I used the Internet) and found the definition of an addict:

add’ict noun  One who has become dependant on something

The actual answer that 77% people who answered the questionnaire ticked was:  “”[The person in question] could not live without daily access to the Internet.“  I think that counts as addicted.

Intrigued, I looked up some other famous addictions as a comparison to this figure (using European figures to make it fair).  I found that 3-7% of people are addicted to alcohol, around 10% people are addicted to smoking, and less than 1% are addicted to chocolate.  Admittedly these are estimates, but it is still amazing to see how developed the Internet is in the context of its importance in people’s lives.  In fact, it would appear it is more important to people than transport or even hygiene, with only 54% of people saying that they could not live without a car, and 61% saying they could not live without a washing machine.

There were a few other interesting figures that also arose from this survey, namely ones regarding computer use.  Although less surprising, they still give a good indicator of how our computer use is changing, with 81% of people having uploaded photos, 66% downloaded music, 77% watched something on YouTube and 76% have been gaming online in the last year.  Also, 51% have downloaded movies, but only 43% have streamed: an indicator that people not only prefer the quality of downloaded content/streamed content, but also that it is easier to download illegally than stream.  Sad but true.

Obviously, we should take this survey with a pinch of salt.  We do not know who was asked, where it was asked or whether the questions were in any way leading.  If you asked 5,000 people (the sample sized used) ages 18-23 at a gaming convention then you would expect more people to answer positively: we just don’t know. 

So is it time for Intenet-aholics anonymous?  Unfortunately, yes.  People will soon struggle to do mundane tasks without a computer: social skills in situations over the phone for example.  But people will deny that they have problems, and obviously it is less easy to identify if they are detached from society and harder to combat as many peoples jobs revolve around the Internet.

I know that I would struggle big time without the Internet: I went to Canada for a month and spent a lot of the time looking for Internet cafes.  Scary.  Perhaps they could hold IAA (catchy, I know!) meetings in chat rooms, at least you are more likely to get people to come!

Source [MarketWatch]

Full Story » | Written by Christian Milsom for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

Welcome to Den-Den Town, Osaka’s Akihabara

FROM GAMERTELL - Akihabara, the epicenter of all that is otaku, has got some stiff competition coming from a little place in the western city of Osaka named Nipponbashi, or now better known as Den-Den Town.
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Feds Can Locate Cell Phones Without Telcos

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Why Apple Won't Allow Adobe Flash on iPhone

Don't hold your breath waiting for the iPhone to support Adobe's Flash software: Apple's terms-of-service agreement prohibits it.

Although Adobe says it is working on a version of its popular Flash player for the iPhone, Apple is unlikely ever to permit it to appear in the handset's App Store, no matter how much customers want it.

"I'm pretty skeptical that Flash could be implemented in a way that doesn't violate the Terms of Service of the developer's agreement," said Bart Decrem, CEO of Tapulous, developer of the popular Tap Tap Revenge iPhone game.

Flash is Adobe's highly popular platform for displaying interactive graphics, animations and multimedia within a browser. According to Adobe, 98 percent of desktop computers currently support Flash, which has led to its widespread use by web developers. Adobe's recent announcement that it is working on a version of Flash for Windows Mobile has prompted speculation that an iPhone version might be coming soon. But the speculators may be waiting in vain, based on Apple's TOS and the company's history of tightly controlling applications for its smartphone platform.

Allowing Flash — which is a development platform of its own — would just be too dangerous for Apple, a company that enjoys exerting total dominance over its hardware and the software that runs on it. Flash has evolved from being a mere animation player into a multimedia platform capable of running applications of its own. That means Flash would open a new door for application developers to get their software onto the iPhone: Just code them in Flash and put them on a web page. In so doing, Flash would divert business from the App Store, as well as enable publishers to distribute music, videos and movies that could compete with the iTunes Store.

Apple's well aware of these problems, which is why the company wrote a clause in its iPhone developers' Terms of Service agreement (.pdf) that prohibits Flash from appearing on the iPhone:

"An Application may not itself install or launch other executable code by any means, including without limitation through the use of a plug-in architecture, calling other frameworks, other APIs or otherwise," reads clause 3.3.2 of the iPhone SDK agreement, which was recently published on WikiLeaks. "No interpreted code may be downloaded and used in an Application except for code that is interpreted and run by Apple's Published APIs and built-in interpreter(s)."

This could come as major disappointment to iPhone owners, as the lack of Flash support has been a paramount complaint about the handset since its release. No Flash means that the iPhone browser is incapable of displaying a large portion of the internet. For example, free Flash games aren't supported, videos can't be streamed from the vastly popular television and movie site Hulu, and websites that use Flash to render content or navigation won't work on the iPhone.

It's no wonder Adobe is expressing reluctance about the prospects of Flash for iPhone. The company on Monday demonstrated a version of Flash for Windows Mobile handsets. And all that product manager Michele Turner could say about iPhone was, "We are working on Flash on the iPhone, but it is really up to Apple."

Adam Dann, CEO of Nullriver, agrees that Flash would take away some of Apple's control. Apple eventually banned Nullriver's application NetShare because it violated AT&T Terms of Service agreement by turning the iPhone into a wireless modem for tethering. If Apple introduced Flash to iPhone, it's possible Nullriver could code a Flash version of NetShare, repeating that violation, Dann said.

Dann added that the only way Flash could ever appear on the iPhone is if Adobe offered an extremely stripped-down version of the software. But even if there is a "Flash Lite" for iPhone, that just reinforces the point that the handset's owners still will not have a true Flash experience.

And aside from taking software control away from Apple, Flash would introduce a slew of other potential headaches as well. Flash apps could hurt battery life, suck up the graphics-processing unit's power, use an inordinate amount of memory, or potentially introduce security risks. Apple has plenty of customer complaints to address about the iPhone; the last thing it needs is to add Adobe and Flash to the pile.

In August, Britain's Advertising Standards Authority pulled an iPhone advertisement because the commercial said, "All the parts of the internet are on the iPhone." The lack of Flash and Java support on iPhone were enough for the ad to be deemed misleading. And it's looking like Apple won't be able to air that ad again.

Apple did not return phone calls for comment.

G1 capable of multi-touch input? Looks like it.

Whenever the G1 vs iPhone debate gets underway, iPhone purists are quick to flag the G1’s lack of multi-touch input support. Turns out, it might just be able to handle it after all -on the hardware end, at least. Whilst tearing his G1’s workings apart line-by-line, a crafty coder going by RyeBrye came across an interesting artifact. It seems the driver for the Synaptics touchscreen has some code commented out; after recompiling the kernel with said code back in, he was able to track two finger presses at once.

So if the hardware supports it, why no multi-touch on the G1? Patents, presumably. While this in no way actually enables to you to do any kind of multi-touch funnin’ immediately (nothing made for the G1 is currently coded for use with multi-touch, afterall), it’s certainly a step in the right direction. Though we probably won’t see any official support for multi-touch on the G1 any time soon, someone with a bit of spare time to tinker will probably figure out a way to make use of it before too long.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Dell rolls out 32GB SSD equipped pink, red Inspiron Mini 9’s in Japan

Section: Computers, Mobile Computers, Laptops

Remember that red colored Inspiron Mini 9 that Michael Dell was spotted carrying around during the All Things Digital conference this past May?  Well, it appears that some customers will soon be able to grab an Inspiron Mini 9 of their own in red, and also pink.  Dell has just released both new models, but sadly, as of now, they are available only in Japan. 

Additionally, and perhaps a little more exciting than the new colors, is the option of a larger SSD.  Customers in Japan can also now choose to get the “platinum package” which includes a 32GB SSD.  The Mini 9 with the larger SSD is retailing for ¥54,980 or about $565 US and also includes the standard 1.6GHz Atom processor, 1GB of RAM and Windows XP.

Hopefully, we will see the new colors make their way over outside of the Japanese market, or at the very least that larger storage option.

Via [PC Watch]

Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

McColo Takedown, Vigilantes Or Neighborhood Watch?

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Couple divorces over Second Life affair

FROM GAMERTELL - If you ever thought that playing a video game couldn’t destroy your marriage, think again.  This case doesn’t involve playing a game so much that the wife and kids are ruthlessly neglected, it’s about a man who cheated on his wife in Second Life…
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Virgin Mobile USA lays off 10% of staff

Citing “duplication of assignments”, Virgin Mobile USA has announced that they have laid off 45 employees from their New Jersey and California offices, which works out to about 10% of their workforce.

This comes just months after Virgin Mobile purchased post-paid MVNO Helio for $39 million. The terms of that deal already entailed a whole lot of cuts to the Helio team, and I’d imagine that today’s announcement means more jobs lost by that camp.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Plankton Found in 100-Million-Year-Old Amber

Largest Ever Wildlife Bust Made In Africa

RIM working on an LTE BlackBerry? Of course they are.

According to BGR, RIM is already crackin’ away at an LTE device so that it’s ready for launch whenever LTE officially goes live.

For the sake of the folks out there who don’t spend their lives memorizing every last mobile industry acronym: LTE stands for “Long Term Evolution”, and is one of the standards set to make up the next generation of mobile network technologies. In other words, LTE (along with competing technology, WiMax) is 4G. Sprint is siding with WiMax, Verizon and AT&T are going with LTE.

With that in mind, RIM’s rumored work with an LTE handset should come as a surprise to no one. With RIM’s US presence made up predominately by AT&T and Verizon, both of whom are backing LTE, not having a suitable device ready ASAP would be a huge misstep. Hell, I’d be willing to wager that they’re working on at least two of them - one touchscreen (a la Storm), and one in the more traditional candybar form.

Crunch Network: TechCrunch obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies

Marine Biologists Study Whale Shark Poo

Japanese Whalers Set Sail, Say Witnesses

Samsung Gravity hits T-Mo today

T-Mobile said the Samsung Gravity would show up on Nov. 17th and, sure enough, it has arrived.

While the Gravity might not have the same pull as some of the bigger, less wallet-friendly QWERTY handsets on the market, at $49.99 (on a 2-year contract) it’s a decent pick for anyone looking to wear down their thumbs without wearing down their savings. It’s available beginning today in Aqua/White or Lime/Gray at the nearest T-Mo spot.

While the main draw would probably be the slide-out QWERTY keyboard, Samsung has also packed in a 1.3-megapixel shooter (with video capture and 4x zoom, though we’re guessing that’s not optical zoom), IM support for AOL/ICQ/Windows Live/Yahoo, T-Mobile myFaves, stereo bluetooth (A2DP), and quad-band radio. For 50 bucks, that’s actually pretty impressive.

Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors

Intel's Latest Core i7 Processors Hit The Market

Netbooks To Use Ubuntu Software

Manga Man: a multimedia novel readable by mobile phone, via t-shirt

More unusually (at least by Western standards) is that the book is being published direct to mobile phones. Reading novels on mobiles hasn't really taken off over here, but it's all the rage in Japan, where the novels are sent in installments as text messages.

But what grabbed my attention was the bit about scanning a barcode on a T-shirt to be able to read it...

Besher has come up with the sly idea of getting T-shirts printed with a QR code, which when scanned directs people to the website for the novel.

I look forward to increasing sophistication in the cell phone delivery of fiction. Some genius is going to figure out how to do the first literary iPhone ARG one of these days, and he's going to make a million bucks.

A mobile phone novel read via a t-shirt [New Scientist via MAKE]

"What could be more festive than a cross covered in fuzzy Christmas lights?"

"Oh... right. Uhhhhh...."

The American Family Association is selling this Christmas Cross as a way of "letting your light shine for Christ this Christmas season." Can you spot the horrifically offensive cultural faux pas they somehow failed to notice during the product design phase? I bet you can!

Buy A Christmas Cross [American Family Association via Qt3]

Researchers Study How Floods Under Ice Speed Up Glaciers

The Kami Kami chewing sensor measure your child's mastication

Nitto Kagaku's Kami Kami sensor measures the number of bites a child takes, beeping after every thirty and one thousand chomps, respectively. The idea is to promote proper mastication^*, but the parent who makes their kid actually wear something like this has well earned the physically abusive geriatric castle they are exiled into half a century down the line.

Bite Counter [Japan Today via DVICE]

* - I really liked this post a whole lot better before I corrected the Freudian slip.

Panasonic Seeks Sanyo’s Green-Energy Products

MySpace Japan Focuses On J-Pop Demand

Soil May Release Less CO2 Than Expected

Online Patent Experts Aim To Improve Patent Quality

Special Delivery: Stara's Mosquito Air-Drops Right on Target

What it is: Stara Technologies Mosquito

What it's used for: Air-dropping packages to precise coordinates

It's easy to drop stuff out of a low-flying chopper and have it land where you want. But in a war zone, low-altitude aircraft draw attention — and gunfire. To avoid the bad guys, high-flying planes can release Stara's Mosquito. Its customizable cylinder, which can handle up to 150 pounds, contains a GPS unit and servomotor for steering the parachute to a drop site up to 2 miles away. Actuators cut loose the payload at a preset altitude (from 50 to 1,500 feet). This way, anyone tracking the chute will end up as much as a half mile from the goods, which may be camouflaged as, say, a fist-sized rock (like above). The company is promoting the $10,000 Mosquito for special forces deliveries — money, passports, blood packets. Our dream app: air-dropping pizzas to our patio in five minutes or less, guaranteed.

One Laptop Per Child Teams Up With Amazon

Researchers Study How Glacial Erosion Changes Internal Mountain Structure

Obama's Next Hurdle, Parting With His BlackBerry

LHC Repairs To Cost $21 Million

Japanese Whaling Ship Quietly Leaves Port Monday

Flash Expected To Hit iPhones, Others Next Year

Protecting Puerto Rico's Unique Freshwater Fisheries

The Key To Abstract Art Is The Evolution Of The Visual System

Obama Likely to Give Up 'CrackBerry' as President

New Life Discovered Beneath Ice And Sea

Five Gadgets That Were Killed by the Cellphone

Wanted: Polar Bear Pics for Science

Raw Milk Found To Carry New Bacteria

Plankton Contribute to Continental Crackups

Customer Service For Gadgets Lacking, Study Finds

Astronauts Unpack Endeavour's Cargo

Fiery Debate Over Song Swapping Lawsuits

Apple Forgets to Add Google iPhone App to the Store