jjrff writes "Phoronix has a little piece about the future (or lack thereof) of OpenSolaris. It appears based on the current support lifecycle, OpenSolaris may be going away. There is a fun thread (read: mild flameage) on a ZFS list about it."
In late 2006, students at a school in Turin, Italy filmed and then uploaded a video to Google Video that showed them bullying an autistic schoolmate. The video was totally reprehensible and we took it down within hours of being notified by the Italian police. We also worked with the local police to help identify the person responsible for uploading it and she was subsequently sentenced to 10 months community service by a court in Turin, as were several other classmates who were also involved. In these rare but unpleasant cases, that's where our involvement would normally end.
But in this instance, a public prosecutor in Milan decided to indict four Google employees —David Drummond, Arvind Desikan, Peter Fleischer and George Reyes (who left the company in 2008). The charges brought against them were criminal defamation and a failure to comply with the Italian privacy code. To be clear, none of the four Googlers charged had anything to do with this video. They did not appear in it, film it, upload it or review it. None of them know the people involved or were even aware of the video's existence until after it was removed.
Nevertheless, a judge in Milan today convicted 3 of the 4 defendants — David Drummond, Peter Fleischer and George Reyes — for failure to comply with the Italian privacy code. All 4 were found not guilty of criminal defamation. In essence this ruling means that employees of hosting platforms like Google Video are criminally responsible for content that users upload. We will appeal this astonishing decision because the Google employees on trial had nothing to do with the video in question. Throughout this long process, they have displayed admirable grace and fortitude. It is outrageous that they have been subjected to a trial at all.
But we are deeply troubled by this conviction for another equally important reason. It attacks the very principles of freedom on which the Internet is built. Common sense dictates that only the person who films and uploads a video to a hosting platform could take the steps necessary to protect the privacy and obtain the consent of the people they are filming. European Union law was drafted specifically to give hosting providers a safe harbor from liability so long as they remove illegal content once they are notified of its existence. The belief, rightly in our opinion, was that a notice and take down regime of this kind would help creativity flourish and support free speech while protecting personal privacy. If that principle is swept aside and sites like Blogger, YouTube and indeed every social network and any community bulletin board, are held responsible for vetting every single piece of content that is uploaded to them — every piece of text, every photo, every file, every video — then the Web as we know it will cease to exist, and many of the economic, social, political and technological benefits it brings could disappear.
These are important points of principle, which is why we and our employees will vigorously appeal this decision.
Posted by Matt Sucherman, VP and Deputy General Counsel - Europe, Middle East and Africa
AFP - European regulators said on Wednesday that they are investigating complaints filed by three web companies that contend US Internet giant Google is not playing fair.
I just fell for a Twitter phishing scam -- it took the form of a direct message from one of my contacts, with the message "This you????" and a link to a site that prompted me for my Twitter password (which, like an idiot, I entered before noticing that the URL was twitter.scammysite.com; blame it on browsing with a tiny mobile-phone screen while in line at the coffee shop). You have been warned -- stay away from anything that reads "This you????" or "This you in this video????" Hell, I think that a good rule of thumb is to ignore anything that uses multiple question marks for emphasis. Even if it's not a scam, it's probably too dumb to read.
They also apparently want to ship one million units in the first year, which may sound like big numbers but actually, after shipping nine million in 2009, it doesn't sound too aspirational. [Digitimes]
On January 12 Google claimed that hackers from China had attempted to break into its infrastructure, in order to access the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. Because of those hacks, along... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 24 Feb 2010 | 2:19 am
AP - Three Google executives were convicted of privacy violations Wednesday in allowing a video of an autistic boy being abused to be posted online — a case that has been closely watched for its implications on Internet freedom. Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 24 Feb 2010 | 2:19 am
Reuters - Google Inc has scrapped the China leg of a regional event to show software developers its first smartphone, the Nexus One, in Beijing, its second such move following its threatened pull-out from the country.
Twones started life as a FriendFeed-type service that aggregated various music services into a single stream, which we dubbed a social music feed when we first caught wind of it.
Problem was, the startup says, since users generally couldn’t play the music on their site and were constantly being directed to third-party websites and apps for streaming, people never really got that FriendFeed experience that would compel them to come back.
The Dutch company figured they needed to do something else, and the result of their overhauled strategy will be going live in alpha mode this morning. The short version: it’s Delicious-type bookmarking meets StumbleUpon-type discovery for online music.
The service will be going live within the next few hours, but here’s what I gathered from the demo they gave me last night.
Essentially, Twones will now focus on what it refers to as the “Music Bar”, a browser add-on / bookmarklet that lets users bookmark music that is being streamed on other websites or MP3 blogs and discover music others have bookmarked in a fun way. The Music Bar will debut as a Firefox extension, but Chrome and Internet Explorer versions are near completion, I’m told.
When installed, you can use Twones to bookmark music on thousands of supported websites, manage your virtual collection in a sidebar that looks a lot like Delicious, and share music with others in Twones or on services like Twitter and Facebook. In addition, any music you stream can be scrobbled to Last.fm so you can keep track of it there.
Finally, there’s an ‘Explore’ button that basically lets people jump to any random track that is in Twones’ database – no need to install the Music Bar even for that. This can be a great way to discover new music, but arguably there is a need for some kind of controller that lets you explore tracks within a certain genre, at least.
The problem with Twones is that, since it revolves almost entirely around music that’s being shared online elsewhere, you’re never quite sure if the songs you’re so carefully bookmarking are going to be there tomorrow, because the source could be gone for whatever reason. The startup says it’s working on ways to downsize that issue.
Twones aims to make money from advertising, affiliate revenues, maybe a premium version down the line, and/or as an analytics service for online music sharing (kind of what Bit.ly does for general links today). They haven’t really figured out which path to take right now, but the startup says the $500k seed funding it raised earlier is enough to buy them time to do so, as they are very ‘cost efficient’ in the sense that there’s no need to store a gigantic amount of music on their servers, seal license deals or run a complex content distribution network.
All in all, I could see myself using Twones for sure, but it feels more like a feature than a solid business to me. We’ll see if the next iterations of the service will make me change my mind.
Following developer events at Macworld and MWC, they were scheduled to tour around Asia, visiting Hong Kong, Taiwan and Beijing with armfuls of Nexus Ones to give away. Really driving the point home, they've pulled out ahead of the event next week. Not launching Android phones from Motorola and Samsung is one thing, but no Nexus Ones? This could be the end of China's censorship, for once and for all. [Reuters]
BEIJING (Reuters) - Google Inc has scrapped the China leg of a regional event to show software developers its first smartphone, the Nexus One, in Beijing, its second such move following its Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 24 Feb 2010 | 1:49 am
arcticstoat writes "Forget Farmville, Flash puzzlers and 8-bit home computer emulators. The next generation of browser games will be able to take advantage of DirectX 11 effects, not to mention multi-core processing and both Havok and PhysX physics effects. A new browser plug-in called WebVision will be available for Trinergy's new game engine, Vision Engine 8. This will enable game developers to port all the advanced effects from the game engine over to all the common browsers. Of course, any budding 3D-browser-game dev will face the problem that not every PC has a decent graphics card that can handle advanced graphics effects. Not only that, but limited bandwidth will also limit what effects a developer can realistically implement into a browser game. Nevertheless, this is an interesting development that could result in some tight 3D programming, as well as some much more interesting browser games."
The Environmental Working Group has published a user-friendly interactive cell phone radiation list and database. Motorola Droid, Blackberry Bold 9700, HTC Magic and LG Chocolate Touch, hyped as the... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 24 Feb 2010 | 1:24 am
Secretary Clinton’s recent speech on Internet Freedom has signaled a strong interest from the US State Department in promoting the use of the internet to promote political reforms in closed societies. It makes sense that the State Department would look to support existing projects to circumvent internet censorship. The New York Times reports that a group of senators is urging the Secretary to apply existing funding to support the development and expansion of censorship circumvention programs, including Tor, Psiphon and Freegate.
Nathan Myhrvold and I have exactly the same goal. We’d both like to promote useful innovations that have a positive social impact. But we have very different opinions about how to do it.
FRANKFURT, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Swisscom AG will seek a quick resolution of allegations against its Italian unit Fastweb SpA in a money-laundering probe, it said on Wednesday, adding it was investigating... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 24 Feb 2010 | 1:08 am
Sometimes you see something you just can’t believe. And yet, there it is in cold type (or warm electrons).
Today’s candidate is a single sentence by Washington Post writers Peter Whoriskey and Frank Ahrens, discussing the Congressional investigation of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s response to multiple reports of Toyota safety problems.
Years ago I worked for Jann Wenner, the legendary founder of Rolling Stone. On one of my first days on the job, Jann came by, and while he was talking to me about a project, he reached for a box of chocolates he spotted on my desk (a kind former colleague had sent the box to congratulate me on my new gig). Jann riffled through the chocolates and popped one in his mouth. A minute later, another. And then a little later, another.
And there it is, Google’s European antitrust review.
The European Commission has opened an investigation into Google’s (GOOG) dominance of the search and search advertising markets in Europe at the behest of three complainants — French legal search engine ejustice.fr, UK price comparison venture Foundem, and Ciao!, a product review and price comparison site. Perhaps, unsurprisingly that latter two both have ties to Microsoft (MSFT). Ciao is a subsidiary of Google’s Redmond rival and Foundem is a member of Microsoft funded organisation called ICOMP.
In any event, the three companies have all accused Google of undermining their business in some way, either by unfairly demoting their rankings in its search results or by saddling them with onerous terms and conditions. And the European Commission has taken their complaints seriously enough to look into them. The inquiry is at an “early, fact-finding stage” and may not result in any further action, but it’s clearly got Google worried. It was the EC, after all, that ultimately beat Microsoft into submission and forced it to alter its business practices.
In a post to Google’s Public Policy Blog entitled “Committed to Competing Fairly,” Julia Holtz, the company’s Senior Competition Counsel, denied the charges against Google, saying the company has done nothing wrong. “Though each case raises slightly different issues, the question they ultimately pose is whether Google is doing anything to choke off competition or hurt our users and partners,” she wrote. “This is not the case. We always try to listen carefully if someone has a real concern and we work hard to put our users’ interests first and to compete fair and square in the market.”
By Joseph De Avila, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
Harvard University senior Drew Robb is so attached to his cellphone that he keeps it by his bedside at night and in his front jeans pocket every day. He uses the Apple (AAPL) iPhone to check email, text his friends and play games, pretty much for everything—except phone calls.
Calling “really slows you down,” says the 22-year-old physics and math major from Honolulu.
The way Mr. Robb and his friends use their phones offers a glimpse of where consumer technology is heading. Their phones are used non-stop for their social lives and their group project to design a mobile guidebook to Cambridge. The friends also show how quickly change is happening: When Mr. Robb’s friend Winston Yan, a 21-year-old physics major from Alexandria, Va., arrived as a freshman in 2006, he had a phone that couldn’t send or receive email.
Worldwide phone sales were flat in 2009, but the fourth quarter showed an 8% bump in sales, says market research firm Gartner. Some 1.21 billion phones sold in 2009. USA Today reports. Smartphones from... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 24 Feb 2010 | 12:56 am
Citrix Online has announced the acquisition of Paglo Labs. The deal was completed in early 2010 and no financial terms have been disclosed. Paglo’s entire team has joined Citrix Online; Paglo CEO Brian de Haaff is now senior product director, IT Services for Citrix Online. The deal was announced concurrently with the launch of GoToManage, a new Citrix Online Product based on Paglo’s software.
Citrix Online is a market leader in SaaS web-based technical solutions. Its GoToAssist software allows customers to interact directly with a clients computer, resolving issues remotely. Paglo Labs is a leader in IT Management SaaS. Customers are able to monitor, analyze and manage their devices, networks, server, logs and more.
GoToManage combines the abilities of both platforms. It offers remote surveillance, control and support of IT infrastructure. Citrix plans on leveraging its existing relationships with businesses to enter the SaaS-based IT management market. Brett Caine, general manager of Citrix Online notes:
“As a trusted partner to SMBs, we are well positioned to capitalize on the huge market potential in IT management with our signature and proven ‘simpler is better’ approach to Web-based services. We’re confident that GoToManage will be enthusiastically embraced by our customers and the market at large.”
GigsVT writes "The Second Life viewer has been available under the GPL for three years. Linden Lab, the maker of Second Life, recently released a 'third party viewer' policy that all but erases the freedoms granted under the GPL. It includes such draconian measures as 'You agree to update or delete at our request any data that you have received from Second Life or our servers and systems using a Third-Party Viewer,' 'You must not mask IP or MAC addresses' (reported to the server), 'you must have a published privacy policy explaining your practices regarding user data,' and 'You acknowledge and agree that we may require you to stop using or distributing a Third-Party Viewer for accessing Second Life if we determine that there is a violation.'"
PC World - While Google's Nexus One may have its issues (its many, many
issues), one thing that nobody is complaining about is its gorgeous, 800-by-480 pixel AMOLED screen. When compared to the iPhone 3GS's paltry 480-by-320 pixel LCD screen, well, it hardly seems a contest. Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 24 Feb 2010 | 12:00 am
In the past, we've talked a bit about issues of gender and technology, but today, this blog post brought another important aspect of tech and discrimination to our attention. We polled some of our friends... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 23 Feb 2010 | 11:50 pm
I still plan (hope) to do an extended review of the new Second Life viewer later today, but want to start by opening the conversation to my readers. What are your favorite features of the Second Life viewer... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 23 Feb 2010 | 11:45 pm
Alex Kreis sez, "Four years ago with Cory's encouragement, I attended Viable Paradise, the SF/F writing workshop. While there, Teresa Nielsen Hayden set us an exercise to write a story using the Evil... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 23 Feb 2010 | 11:37 pm
I know Alex from his technology work, as an astute and forward thinker; and as a nice guy. I'm delighted to discover that's he's also a very, very funny writer.
I am very sorry about seizing the throne of Falland and establishing a dictatorship based on terror and intimidation. As ruler of Falland, I enforced a number of highly unfair and immoral policies for which I now feel very badly, including putting all orphans raised by any forms of wildlife to death, and ordering the execution of all wandering bards (although I must say in my defense that that decision was not entirely unpopular). I congratulate the Directorate for their more enlightened social and economic policies, and am certain that their wisdom will see Falland through these deeply troubled times. I urge the People of Falland to be patient while awaiting results from the Directorate's programs.
If I had the chance to do it again, I would never have perverted nature and desecrated the holy by destroying the bones of St. Elias the Healer in the ritual that granted me immortality. While it is a natural thing for men to wish to live forever, it is not given to us by nature to have beyond our allotment, and I was wrong to offer to grant immortality to those of my followers who aided me in significant ways. It is for the best that I am no longer in a position to do so.
I am particularly embarrassed that I ordered the foul murder of Giles Sunbearer, who entered Castle Ironbound in a perfectly reasonable attempt to put a stop to my illegitimate reign. His plan of disguising himself as a clan chieftain who wished to enlist his tribe in my armies was ingenious, and if not for the fact that all of my guards knew what he looked like and had orders to stab him on sight, would undoubtedly have worked. Once Giles was dead, his companion Polonius Seidkirk was of no further threat to me, and thus having him executed was unwarranted. I feel terrible that I propositioned Giles's lovely companion Raven Livintra so soon after Giles's death; it was tasteless and inappropriate. I should have waited at least six months, and I certainly should not have had her killed when she rejected me. Finally, it was cruel and unnecessary to feed Giles's clever pet marmot, Twiggy, to my wolves.
The Guardian asked several writers to list up to ten rules for writing (inspired by Elmore Leonard's little book, 10 Rules of Writing). The result (in two parts) is, by and large, excellent advice. I especially like "Do back exercises. Pain is distracting" (Margaret Atwood -- amen); "A problem with a piece of writing often clarifies itself if you go for a long walk" (Helen Dunmore); "Do it every day" and "Have regrets" (Geoff Dyer); "Don't wish ill on your colleagues" (Richard Ford); "The reader is a friend, not an adversary, not a spectator" (Jonathan Franzen); "Are you serious about this? Then get an accountant" (Hilary Mantel -- amen!); and best of all, "Find an author you admire (mine was Conrad) and copy their plots and characters in order to tell your own story, just as people learn to draw and paint by copying the masters" (Michael Moorcock). Also: "You know that sickening feeling of inadequacy and over-exposure you feel when you look upon your own empurpled prose? Relax into the awareness that this ghastly sensation will never, ever leave you, no matter how successful and publicly lauded you become. It is intrinsic to the real business of writing and should be cherished" (Will Self).
The Guardian asked several writers to list up to ten rules for writing (inspired by Elmore Leonard's little book, 10 Rules of Writing). The result (in two parts) is, by and large, excellent advice. I... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 23 Feb 2010 | 11:28 pm
eldavojohn writes "Kotaku is running an investigative piece examining what internet censorship means for games in Australia. Australia has some of the most draconian video game attitudes in the world, and the phrase 'refused classification' should strike fear in game developers and publishers looking to market games there. Internet censorship may expand this phrase to mean that anybody hosting anything about the game may suffer censorship in AU. Kotaku notes, 'This means that if a game is refused classification (RC) in Australia — like, say, NFL Blitz, or Getting Up — content related to these games would be added to the ISP filter. [This would bring up] a range of questions, foremost of those being: what happens when an otherwise harmless website ... hosts material from those games (screenshots, trailers, etc) that is totally fine in the US or Japan or Europe, but that has been refused classification in Australia?' Kotaku received a comment from the Australian Department of Broadband Communication promising that the whole website won't be blocked, just the material related to the game (videos, images, etc). Imagine maintaining that blacklist!"
"Final Placement" is a teen Christian Rock band from Midland, Texas. Dangerous Minds more or less discovered this video of the band earlier this week, and internet infamy exploded.
Sneering at off-key amateur god-pop is easy enough, but what's interesting about the story is this: the young man who plays guitar in this video jumped right into the comment thread, and owned up to how epically awful it was. "I am not in the band. I helped them out on this song, unfortunately," he says. "The guitar solo I played— hate it. It deserves to get ripped."
Not everyone feels that way. Someone took his guitar solo and made a loop of it.
To top it all off, the guest-blogger who spotted this over at DM, and is engaging with the guitarist in that thread, is none other than Brad Laner of the band Medicine. Internet gold.
"Final Placement" is a teen Christian Rock band from Midland, Texas. Dangerous Minds more or less discovered this video of the band earlier this week, and internet infamy exploded. Sneering at off-key... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 23 Feb 2010 | 10:41 pm
Breaking news from Russia: "Police in the southern city of Novorossiisk have arrested a man accused of hacking into a video billboard in Moscow last month and showing a pornographic movie that spawned... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 23 Feb 2010 | 10:37 pm
Breaking news from Russia: "Police in the southern city of Novorossiisk have arrested a man accused of hacking into a video billboard in Moscow last month and showing a pornographic movie that spawned a traffic jam as curious drivers slowed to watch the film." (thanks, Duffong)
Stephen Levy, one of the great technology journalists, got an unprecedented inside look at Google's search algorithm and wrote up his experience in a long, fascinating Wired feature. Reading this piece, there were several a-ha moments for me as it helped me understand what was going on beneath the hood when I run my queries in my little search-box.
Google is famously creative at encouraging these breakthroughs; every year, it holds an internal demo fair called CSI -- Crazy Search Ideas -- in an attempt to spark offbeat but productive approaches. But for the most part, the improvement process is a relentless slog, grinding through bad results to determine what isn't working. One unsuccessful search became a legend: Sometime in 2001, Singhal learned of poor results when people typed the name "audrey fino" into the search box. Google kept returning Italian sites praising Audrey Hepburn. (Fino means fine in Italian.) "We realized that this is actually a person's name," Singhal says. "But we didn't have the smarts in the system."
The Audrey Fino failure led Singhal on a multiyear quest to improve the way the system deals with names -- which account for 8 percent of all searches. To crack it, he had to master the black art of "bi-gram breakage" -- that is, separating multiple words into discrete units. For instance, "new york" represents two words that go together (a bi-gram). But so would the three words in "new york times," which clearly indicate a different kind of search. And everything changes when the query is "new york times square." Humans can make these distinctions instantly, but Google does not have a Brazil-like back room with hundreds of thousands of cubicle jockeys. It relies on algorithms.
VIENNA, Austria, February 24, 2010 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --
- Mobile Communication customer base increases by 6.4% to 18.9 million
customers despite a difficult economic environment
- Increase in access lines in the Fixed Net segment during 4Q 09 for the
first time in more than a decade
- Revenues decline of 7.1% to EUR 4.8 billion driven by lower Fixed Net
revenues, FX movements and lower prices in Mobile Communication
- Successful cost reduction in both segments reduces operating expenses
and softens impact of lower revenues on EBITDA
- 2009 target for operating free cash flow of EUR 1.1 billion achieved as
Capex reduction compensates lower EBITDA on like-for-like basis
- Based on full year results 2009, Management Board proposes dividend of
EUR 0.75 per share
- Reiteration of outlook for 2010 excluding the impact of the merger of
domestic operations
- Merger of domestic operations creates considerable customer advantage
and meets increasing demand for convergent products
% %
in EUR million 4Q 09 4Q 08 change FY 2009 FY 2008 change
Revenues 1,181.5 1,306.5 -9.6% 4,802.0 5,170.3 -7.1%
EBITDA 399.4 -211.6 n.a. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 23 Feb 2010 | 10:05 pm
What if you could move the contents of your PC directly onto your TV? If you’re a tech-savvy reader, you may already be doing this. And if you’re not, you may wonder why you’d want to.
But Cablevision says it will let any of its subscribers pull this trick off without any extra cables or boxes, and promises that they’ll love it. The Long Island-based cable company will be testing out the technology later this spring, under a clunky but accurate moniker: “PC to TV Media Relay”.
That means you can move anything you can put on your monitor or laptop screen — from streaming video to photos to word-processing documents, if you were so inclined — on your TV. Audio, too.
Of course, that’s the idea behind plenty of services and gadgets, from Boxee to Internet-connected TVs to Apple’s (AAPL) not-very successful Apple TV box.
And of course, you can already do this without any of that stuff, and it’s not that hard to pull off. Time Warner Cable (TWC) even showed its customers how during its fight with News Corp. (NWS) over subscription fees for Fox and other channels.*
But the DIY version still requires at least a couple steps — figuring out what kind of cord you need to connect your computer to your TV, and then actually connecting it. From a consumer’s perspective, Cablevision’s solution is more elegant, since it’s cable-free; the company says you’ll only need to download one piece of software.
But it’s quite a bit of work on Cablevision’s end, since it has to port your stuff from your PC through its network, and then back down to your TV through a set-top box, to a channel it reserves just for your stuff.
Why go through all the trouble?
If you sort of squint at this for a while, it sort of looks like Cablevision’s version of the “TV Everywhere” idea that Time Warner (TWX) and cable players like Comcast (CMCSA) have been pushing. But in reverse.
TV Everywhere’s offer is that if you pay for cable, you can watch your TV shows on your PC. Cablevision lets you watch your PC on your plasma. But both ideas end up at the same place: They’re meant to give cable subscribers another reason to keep subscribing to cable.
Cablevision (CVC) says the service will launch by June in a “technical trial”, which likely means just a fraction of its 3 million New York-area subscribers will get to try it. And they’ll have to be Windows users; the cable company says a Mac version will be introduced later on.
One thing Cablevision wouldn’t tell me is what it expects to hear from Hulu, the Web video joint venture owned by Fox, GE’s NBC (GE) and Disney’s ABC (DIS).
Hulu’s attitude about people watching the TV programing it delivers via the Web on a TV screen has ranged from disapproving to downright hostile — just ask Boxee.
That’s partly because Hulu’s TV owners want to enforce the idea that Hulu is a compliment to TV, not a replacement for TV. And it’s also because Hulu’s owners see Hulu on a big screen as a feature worth paying for.
In any case, Hulu will have a hard time complaining openly about Cablevision’s plan. Because unlike Boxee’s solution, Cablevision is literally just moving what’s on your PC to your TV.
But there may still be some interesting emails flying back and forth from Long Island to Santa Monica in the next few days.
Contrary to recent research about social networks and efficiency, taking a break from work to read that tweet about Lady Gaga's lingerie might actually stoke creativity and enhance problem-solving skills.
The Eiffel Tower of Terror, the Cantilevered Coaster and Hurricane Simu -- should we be happy or sad that these amusement park rides are not real?
You see, reader Pascal wrote us about a recent experience he had with Google Voice's transcription feature:
I recently set up Google Voice on my wife's new Nexus One, and today I was leaving work late and left her a voice mail whilst there was some background noise in the rain admittedly.
My message was supposed to be something like " Hey babe, I've just left work, its about 7:15. I'll see you at home. Bye. "
Pictured above is what his wife saw as a result of a voice transcription mangling. It reads like a dirty confession about Pascal's upbringing, drinking habits, and age.
Of course I'm exaggerating about something like this ruining a relationship, but it could certainly create some temporary confusion. Especially if you call your girl to tell her about the "trucking stunt" you saw earlier in the day. [Thanks, Pascal!]
Sharpcast’s SugarSync,, an application that synchronizes data across desktop computers, laptops, mobile phones, and even televisions, is making it easier for users to backup their data via email. The startup is launching an “Upload by Email” feature that lets users store email attachments in their SugarSync account with the ease of sending an email.
The new feature allows a SugarSync user to sync any email attachment to a dedicated folder in their SugarSync account by simply forwarding it to a special email address. Instantly, the file(s) is available on all synced devices and accounts. For example, if a user receives an email with many attachments, they can simply forward it to their SugarSync email address (comprised of random numbers and letters for spam protection). All attachments will transfer to their SugarSync account.For added security, SugarSync will scan all file attachments for viruses prior to syncing, and certain file types are not accepted (e.g., .exe, .cmd, .bat) to prevent malicious files from landing in an account.
At the moment, SugarSync is supporting 2 petabytes of data from users. SugarSync’s CEO Laura Yecies says that because of the popularity of the product, the company is adding a new power-user storage account that has 500 GB of storage, priced at $39.99 per month. Previously, the highest level of storage available was 250 GB.
SugarSync recently launched a small business friendly offering, which Yecies says is gaining considerable traction. You can read our past reviews of SugarSync here and here. The startup has ramped up its mobile offerings, with supports for Android, iPhone, Blackberry, and Windows Mobile powered phones.
You can watch the Maddow Show segment here. In it, canine behavioral expert Robert Brandau is accompanied by Chomper, a labrador retriever who is totally adorbs. Together, they explain why so many dogs have been observed in internet videos to have "a howling reaction" to the theme song of the Law and Order TV series.
Video above: Internet remix artist extraordinaire Joe Sabia takes a Final Cut knife to pretty much every YouTube video of a dog flipping out over this theme song.
(thanks again to Tara McGinley for first pointing us to this phenomenon)
BB pal Mister Jalopy points us to this Charlie Rose episode, viewable (for folks in the USA, anyway) on Hulu. The episode contains a good fashion roundtable followed by a heartbreaking and inspiring conversation with Alexander McQueen from 1997.
The Rose/McQueen conversation starts right around 45 minutes into the show, and explores his personal and creative history, and his vision of the sort of idealized woman he designs for. The most interesting and revealing piece of media I've seen on the late fashion icon. He is missed.
Update: BB pal Brian Ashcraft says, "The Charlie Rose Show website has clips viewable to those outside the US. So no need for Hulu! It's under the recent shows sidebar." Thanks!
So Skullcandy headphones sound good, that’s pretty much a given. And while the styling is cool and everything, they seem a bit.. generic. Don’t worry though, you can get your awesome cans and be individual too. One crafty DIY person is selling customized Skullcandy SK-Pro headphones – but you better hurry, she/he is only making three pairs.
So take a plain old pair of SK-Pro’s, add some custom artwork, hand sculpted stitches, and military insignia, and you’ll have a pair of cans like only two other people in the whole world. And not only do you get a sweet pair of headphones, but the seller is also including an 8″ Lily Black customized toy to hold them. Buying these custom headphones will set you back $279.99, but what price individuality?
An anonymous reader sends word that USB VOIP company Magicjack lost a lawsuit against Boing Boing when the judge declared the legal action a SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation). Magicjack must pay more than $50,000 in legal costs. Boing Boing has posted a page linking and summarizing all the legal documents relating to the lawsuit.
Allergic to Apple Stores, like me? Not to worry. Tim Cook, COO at Apple, has said (though there is no direct quote at the moment) that Apple will indeed be selling the iPad at places like Best Buy and other partners. This will likely follow a period of Apple Store-only availability, as the sales process is more fully fleshed out and the world becomes more familiar with the device. This isn’t too much of a surprise; after all, they sell other Apple products at Best Buy. The iPad may be Apple’s baby now, but after a little time on the market it’ll be well-understood enough to have a big yellow tag under it.
If you’re curious about the other stuff the man said in this little Q&A, there’s a sort of rough paraphrase over at SAI that’s worth checking out. Nothing should be taken as gospel until a real transcription comes out, but there’s nothing life-changing in there. Just good news for those of us that get creeped out by Apple Stores.
Reuters - Yahoo Inc plans to integrate Twitter into its collection of websites, as the company seeks to enhance the appeal of its online properties with popular social networking features.
These clever little German kids toys from Kaufladen cost about $400 and are pretty silly but I think the best part is when DaddyTypes writes:
Kids in the US get play kitchens. Kids in Germany get play sales kiosks. Which country has a childhood obesity problem and which one has already pulled out of the recession? That’s what I thought.
Phaethon360 writes "Now, more than ever, we're seeing many Mature ratings (M+, 17+, 18) being distributed by various national media regulators. But that isn't the only indicator for a game's intended audience. It doesn't take a thousand swear words, scantily clad women or gratuitous violence to differentiate a ten-year-old's game from a twenty-year-old's. The spectrum of human emotions encompasses a wider palette than just revenge, fear, and loss, but the games that shy away from these are frequently mistaken as being for a younger audience. From the article: 'The human experience is one that is made up of great hardship, pain, loss, death, and a multitude of experiences seemingly designed to destroy a person. However, that same experience is also filled with joy, love, laughter, family and friends. ... These so-called “grown-up” games need not be relegated to the category of niche gaming. In fact, at times we find that these video games are capable of reaching mass popularity among the gaming community. It is here that we find one of our generation’s outlets for the expression of conflict.'"
We’ve gotten word of another departure from MySpace in the wake of CEO Owen Van Natta’s firing two weeks ago. The latest to leave is Chris Bissell, MySpace’s Chief Software Architect, who has been with the company for over four years. Bissell was one of the few remaining members of MySpace’s old guard, which has gradually left (or been fired) from the company since the executive shakeup last spring that removed long-time CEO Chris DeWolfe.
Bissell was charged with maintaining MySpace’s backend architecture and ensuring that the site scaled to meet demand. MySpace has confirmed that he is leaving the company. The news comes on the heels of the departure of SVP of User Experience and Design Kate Geminder and stream architect Monica Keller, who both left within a week of Van Natta’s firing.
These departures aren’t really surprising given yet another executive shakeup at the company (though Bissell didn’t have any clear ties to Van Natta), but MySpace has some serious rebuilding to do. We’re hearing that the company has shelved a total redesign Geminder and her team were working on in favor of a Hail Mary strategy to become a discovery recommendation engine.
So we’ve got some official news from LG and some, shall we say, unofficial news. First, they’ve put out a nice-looking little CULV-based 11.6-inch ultralight laptop. You can get it with a Core2 Duo as well, but I’m thinking they offer CULV for a reason: battery life. At any rate, now you’ve got one more lappy to choose from. Specs below.
Also, someone accidentally hit the “share” button on a Google Docs spreadsheet, where a few interesting little tidbits were revealed. Actually, pretty predictable tidbits, but if you’re an HDTV fanatic, they’ll be nice to know. First, the TVs we saw at CES are coming out in the March-April time frame, which was kind of what was expected. You’re also going to get 3D versions of the top-shelf TVs along with 3D-compatible Blu-ray stuff in May. Just long enough that you can’t return the one you bought in March. Future damn!
One of the big things with this round of HDTVs was that they’re going to support 720p Skype. And of course, LG is going to be providing their own webcam accessory soon. That was leaked too. Then there are the 47-inch, 480Hz LEX8 and LEX9 models, which are whispered to be about a quarter of an inch thick. Not that it makes that much difference from those TVs that were a third of an inch think last year, but hey, why not?
I believe CNET found the leak but the link from Electronista seems to be dead… I think the black LG helicopters got to them. But I shall post without fear. It’s all for the greater good, or something.
Oh – those laptop specs! Right, here you are: 2GB of RAM, a 320GB or 500GB hard drive for the CULV and Core2 versions respectively, and the usual complement of USB ports, Wi-Fi capability and so on. They’re Korea-only for now, and cost the equivalent of 1000 United States Dollars, sir. Not too exciting, but choice is good.
I gotta admire him for his preference of playability over having this-gen graphics. And for finding a use for all that junk he had lying around his house. [GBFans via Destructoid via Nerd Aproved]
Wescotte writes "There is an important error in most photography scaling algorithms. All software tested has the problem: The Gimp, Adobe Photoshop, CinePaint, Nip2, ImageMagick, GQview, Eye of Gnome, Paint, and Krita. The problem exists across three different operating systems: Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows. (These exceptions have subsequently been reported — this software does not suffer from the problem: the Netpbm toolkit for graphic manipulations, the developing GEGL toolkit, 32-bit encoded images in Photoshop CS3, the latest version of Image Analyzer, the image exporters in Aperture 1.5.6, the latest version of Rendera, Adobe Lightroom 1.4.1, Pixelmator for Mac OS X, Paint Shop Pro X2, and the Preview app in Mac OS X starting from version 10.6.) Photographs scaled with the affected software are degraded, because of incorrect algorithmic accounting for monitor gamma. The degradation is often faint, but probably most pictures contain at least an array where the degradation is clearly visible. I believe this has happened since the first versions of these programs, maybe 20 years ago."
AP - Google says it has been notified by European regulators that three rivals have filed complaints targeting the Internet search leader's business practices. Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 23 Feb 2010 | 7:09 pm
Amy Greenfield received notice from YouTube that her works, which contain some artistic nudity, did not conform with YouTube's "community standards." Under YouTube's policies, "films and television shows may contain [full nudity]; however, videos originating from the YouTube user community must abide by the YouTube Community Guidelines and are not permitted to include such content." (emphasis in original). The Community Guidelines purport to allow nudity with "some educational, documentary and scientific content, but only if that is the sole purpose of the video and it is not gratuitously graphic," but does not recognize the value of nudity in art.
Video Above: TIDES, by Amy Greenfield, which has been screened at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; The Museum of Modern Art, NYC; The London and Edinburgh Film Festivals.
"We do not stand on the shore and inquire of the ocean what was its movement in the past. We know that the movement of its nature is eternal to its nature."—Isadora Duncan, The Dance Of The Future.
In the future, when overpopulation has forced us all to live in 6×6-foot pods, flat pack furniture will be indispensable. You’ll wake up, collapse your bed, and pop open a chair and coffee table for your morning bowl of nutrient gel. The hidden Illuminati of the world are already planning for this and hoarding them, which explains why you can’t order anything from Ecolok, a company which produces tasteful and practical flat-pack stuff.
These tables are made of quality wood and are “relatively” light weight, not that it matters much with a piece of furniture that size. And I guess you can order stuff, it’s just that they want you to tell them what you want! What, I can’t pick from nine muted colors of the same particle board bookcase like at Ikea? So inconvenient! God!
Wait, maybe they can make that Tetrad storage unit I’ve always wanted but couldn’t afford…
Amazon’s Kindle DX has been undergoing testing by several universities as a possible replacement for printed course materials. Last year, University of Washington students reported that it didn’t quite make the cut due to complaints about it’s navigation, folder, and note taking systems, and now Princeton University is chiming in with the same complaints.
Both schools loved the device’s portability and battery life but is that enough for it to be a success in the academic world? Not likely. In order for e-readers to gain a foothold there they will need to offer powerful features for taking notes and highlighting texts as well as a top notch file system.
Another cog in the wheels is the agreement three universities-Pace University, Reed College, and Case Western Reserve-reached with the Justice Department saying they would refuse to buy, promote, or recommend any e-reader that was not fully accessible to the blind. This is where things could get sticky as several publishers refuse to allow their ebooks to be read using the built in text to speech feature.
Hopefully the feedback from the schools and the Justice Department will lead Amazon to release a truly revolutionary Kindle 3 sometime in the future!
For the past two days, Yahoo has been trying to get me to agree to an embargo on some piece of news they had for tonight. As you probably know, we hate embargoes, so I wasn’t about to accept it. Good thing. Not only did the news leak out almost 5 hours early, but actually, Yahoo itself was giving people hints on Twitter all day, and encouraging people to take guesses to break the embargo on Twitter. And yes, the news is a deal with Twitter.
So first, the news: Yahoo and Twitter have reached an agreement to share data between their properties. That’s great. Yahoo is only a few months behind Google and Microsoft (Bing) doing the same thing. And really, I’m not entirely sure why some kind of special deal was needed. For search, Bing is about to take over the data aspect for Yahoo, and that will very likely include the Twitter data. Meanwhile, Yahoo’s frontend elements and services already include Twitter integration, including Flickr. Plus, isn’t Facebook Connect handling all the social stuff for Yahoo soon anyway?
Well, I’ll wait for the press release coming in 4 hours for more details about that (see below).
The more amusing angle to me is not only the embargo break, but the fact that Yahoo is so starved for attention, they’re resorting to playing games with their Twitter followers to make them guess embargoed news. Here are the first four of five clues that Yahoo tweeted out today:
Clue #1/5: Who has approx 29,000 followers as of this morning? #ybignews
Clue #2/5: What kind of “moon” had teen moviegoers swooning last fall? #ybignews
Clue #3/5: Who might you greet with a friendly “howdy”? #ybignews (use hashtag for previous clues)
Clue #4/5:What’s both a sugar substitute & a mathematical symbol? #ybignews (use hashtag for previous clues-forms a phrase)
Our own Jason Kincaid is a master of reading these clues (and apparently knows something about the Twilight saga). Here are the answers:
1: Yahoo
2: New
3: Partner
4: Equal
And, of course, 5, which hasn’t been released yet, will equal “Twitter” in some way. And those quick enough on the uptake could probably figure out that since Yahoo was using Twitter to hint this new deal, the partner is in fact, Twitter.
Oh, Yahoo, thankfully you have MySpace to make you look not-so-bad by comparison (cycling team and all). As for Twitter, this is likely another solid revenue stream for the hot startup that now has the money-making engines going (with more coming soon).
And here’s the full release for those interested in the actual news:
SUNNYVALE, Calif., Feb. 23, 2010 – As part of its ongoing commitment to be the center of people’s online lives, Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) today announced a global partnership with Twitter to integrate Twitter’s real-time social experiences with more than 600 million people in Yahoo!’s global network. The integration is part of Yahoo!’s commitment to provide personally relevant information to people, from sources across the Web.
A little bird told me: @yahoo is the place to tweet and be tweeted
This partnership includes three primary elements:
People will be able to access their personal Twitter feeds across Yahoo!’s many products and properties, including the homepage, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Sports, and others, letting them check in more easily on what’s happening with the people and things they care about while on Yahoo!.
People will be able to update their Twitter status and share content from Yahoo! in their Twitter stream, so they can easily share their Yahoo! experiences with their friends and followers on Twitter.
Yahoo! Search and Yahoo! media properties like News, Finance, Entertainment, and Sports will include real-time public Twitter updates across a variety of topics. Yahoo! Search users will immediately see real-time Twitter results today; go to Yahoo! and try it out.
Tweet and shout: @yahoo pumps up the social volume
Today’s Twitter partnership, along with Yahoo!’s recently announced Facebook relationship, will transform Yahoo! into a highly customizable social experience that lets people bring together and unify their activity from their many social experiences across the Web. Because of these connections, anyone with a Yahoo! ID can update multiple social networks simultaneously and stay in touch with the people and information that matter most at every moment of the day.
“Let me try to capture the enormity of this integration in 140 characters or less: We’re turning the key to the online social universe — you will find the most personally relevant experiences through Yahoo!,” said Bryan Lamkin, senior vice president, consumer products group, Yahoo!. “We’re also simplifying people’s lives by bringing their social worlds — and the world —- together for easy access.”
Add an exclamation point to your tweets
The Twitter integration also provides full access to the complete Twitter public data stream, which Yahoo! will use to improve the relevance and freshness of content across Yahoo! properties. This will drive deeper user engagement, and create new and compelling opportunities for developers, advertisers, and publishers.
“The information in one single tweet can travel light-years farther with this Yahoo! integration.” said Twitter cofounder, Biz Stone. “Tweets in more places brings relevance where and when you need it most.”
The real-time Search integration is available immediately. Other parts of the integration are expected to launch later this year. About Yahoo!
Yahoo! attracts hundreds of millions of users every month through its innovative technology and engaging content and services, making it one of the most trafficked Internet destinations and a world-class online media company. Yahoo!’s vision is to be the center of people’s online lives by delivering personally relevant, meaningful Internet experiences. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. For more information, visit pressroom.yahoo.com or the company’s blog, Yodel Anecdotal (yodel.yahoo.com).
Yahoo! is the trademark and/or registered trademark of Yahoo! Inc.
All other names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
Yahoo announced tonight that it is dramatically expanding its relationship with Twitter, integrating it broadly through its Web site, much in the same way it did recently with Facebook.
In December, Yahoo (YHOO) announced that it would integrate Facebook Connect with its many properties–from its powerful media sites to its Flickr photo service to its email.
While the Internet giant once had grand plans to socialize itself, it seems that task is being outsourced to more successful and innovative companies in the social networking space, part of a massive integration of them across the giant Internet portal, in an effort dubbed internally “Project Rushmore.”
So, as it previously indicated, Yahoo is now moving beyond Facebook, weaving Twitter’s real-time feed throughout the service in a variety of ways.
Under terms of the deal, users can access the microblogging service’s data stream while on Yahoo, make status updates and share Yahoo content.
In addition, Yahoo said that search and media properties “like News, Finance, Entertainment, and Sports will include real-time public Twitter updates across a variety of topics.”
Yahoo once again declined to comment on whether and when the service would be striking similar deals with other social networking sites.
But sources told me that MySpace and LinkedIn are likely candidates for the next two spots on Yahoo’s social monument.
That would, of course, account for the four presidential stone faces on Mount Rushmore–George Washington, Teddy Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln.
No money was exchanged in the five-year deal with Facebook; nor was there any other financial or advertising element. Yahoo declined to give such details about the Twitter deal.
Whatever the case, other big Internet companies are getting into the social act.
Yahoo’s deals are broader, because such an overall move by the company is an important and necessary one.
It is also very late in coming, since Yahoo nearly completely missed the social networking train and needs to figure out how to be part of it in a way that is useful to users, as well as open.
Here is the full press release from Yahoo, with more bird puns than BoomTown can stand (Sheila, I give):
@yahoo + @twitter Sitting in a Tree…T.W.E.E.T.I.N.G.
Yahoo! gives ‘em something to tweet about, partnering with Twitter to integrate content and social experiences from across the Web
SUNNYVALE, Calif., Feb. 23, 2010–As part of its ongoing commitment to be the center of people’s online lives, Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) today announced a global partnership with Twitter to integrate Twitter’s real-time social experiences with more than 600 million people in Yahoo!’s global network. The integration is part of Yahoo!’s commitment to provide personally relevant information to people, from sources across the Web.
A little bird told me: @yahoo is the place to tweet and be tweeted
This partnership includes three primary elements:
1) People will be able to access their personal Twitter feeds across Yahoo!’s many products and properties, including the homepage, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Sports, and others, letting them check in more easily on what’s happening with the people and things they care about while on Yahoo!.
2) People will be able to update their Twitter status and share content from Yahoo! in their Twitter stream, so they can easily share their Yahoo! experiences with their friends and followers on Twitter.
3) Yahoo! Search and Yahoo! media properties like News, Finance, Entertainment, and Sports will include real-time public Twitter updates across a variety of topics. Yahoo! Search users will immediately see real-time Twitter results today; go to Yahoo! and try it out.
Tweet and shout: @yahoo pumps up the social volume
Today’s Twitter partnership, along with Yahoo!’s recently announced Facebook relationship, will transform Yahoo! into a highly customizable social experience that lets people bring together and unify their activity from their many social experiences across the Web. Because of these connections, anyone with a Yahoo! ID can update multiple social networks simultaneously and stay in touch with the people and information that matter most at every moment of the day.
“Let me try to capture the enormity of this integration in 140 characters or less: We’re turning the key to the online social universe–you will find the most personally relevant experiences through Yahoo!,” said Bryan Lamkin, senior vice president, consumer products group, Yahoo!. “We’re also simplifying people’s lives by bringing their social worlds–and the world–together for easy access.”
Add an exclamation point to your tweets
The Twitter integration also provides full access to the complete Twitter public data stream, which Yahoo! will use to improve the relevance and freshness of content across Yahoo! properties. This will drive deeper user engagement, and create new and compelling opportunities for developers, advertisers, and publishers.
“The information in one single tweet can travel light-years farther with this Yahoo! integration,” said Twitter cofounder Biz Stone. “Tweets in more places brings relevance where and when you need it most.”
The real-time Search integration is available immediately. Other parts of the integration are expected to launch later this year.
Here’s a great concept, take an electronic stethoscope, combine it with an iPod/iPhone, and what do you get? A diagnosis tool that’s portable, and (relatively) cheap. The expensive part is the iPhone and the stethoscope (it’s $279.99), the app is cheap at $69.99.
It is a cool app though, you can display the heartbeat as a spectrograph or waveform in real time, save a recorded sound, and then email the sound clip as needed. Definitely a niche product, but very neat to see the convergence of technology. I’m definitely going to mention this to my doctor next time I see him. You can check out the stethoscope here, and the read more about the app here.
Macworld.com - LaCie on Tuesday announced three new network-attached storage products aimed at small to midsize businesses. Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 23 Feb 2010 | 6:28 pm
Mobile app analytics company Distimo has compiled their findings on the six largest mobile app stores offered by Apple, Palm, Research In Motion, Google, Nokia and Microsoft.
Distimo presented its findings about app store size, growth, average price and free-versus-paid-app ratio at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain last week.
For quantity of apps, the results aren’t surprising: It’s common knowledge that Apple’s App Store and Google’s Android Market are in the lead. More interesting is the lesser-known state of the smaller players. Windows Mobile has 690 apps, Palm has 1,450, Nokia carries 6,120 and BlackBerry serves 4,760. (Figures are all rounded.)
Distimo also analyzed growth rate of the stores. Android is in a distant second with 19,300 apps compared with Apple’s 151,000 apps. However, Android’s growth rate is faster relative to the number of apps housed. Android’s growth is picking up with 3,000 new apps per month (15 percent). Apple is growing with about 14,000 new apps added per month (9 percent).
As for the average cost of apps in each store, RIM’s apps were the priciest at an average of $8.26 for apps, followed closely by Windows Mobile’s, priced at $7 on average. Apps sold by Nokia, Apple, Google and Palm all came out in roughly the same average price range ($2.50 - $3.60).
Other observations? Android has the most free apps, and for the iTunes App Store, games were the most popular category. A full summary and more charts of Distimo’s presentation are available at ReadWriteWeb, which first reported the story.
By Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron’s, Tech Trader Daily
RealNetworks (RNWK) acting CEO Robert Kimball said the decision to spin-off its Rhapsody music business reflects a move to focus the company–and to figure out what the focus of the company ought to be. He says both the music and games businesses are non-core to its decision to focus on technology creation, and not on reselling content created elsewhere. In effect, Real wants to be a platform provider to the carrier market, while hanging on the old RealPlayer business. Everything else is going to get the axe.
Kimball made the remark at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference in San Francisco Tuesday afternoon.
Kimball says the Rhapsody spin should be done by the end of the quarter. When that’s done, they will decide how to separate the company’s casual games business; he says Real will take the “value maximizing path.”
Here's Instructables co-founders Eric and Kristy testing out their $150 treadmill desk, which allows them to work and walk at the same time. Their incredibly cute baby seems to enjoy it.
By “all” I mean one Vuzix Wrap310 and by “give” I mean “give away in a contest.” What is a Wrap 310? It’s a 16:9 widescreen set of high resolution glasses that you can connect right to your iPhone or iPod touch, allowing you to look totally like Geordi LaForge on the plane. How do you win?
Just comment. That’s it. We’ll pick a winner on Friday.
Arnold Kim quit his job treating kidneys to dissect the secrets of his favorite electronics company, the famously confidential Apple.
Kim launched his independent blog MacRumors.com on Feb. 24, 2000 during his fourth year in medical school. His Apple enthusiasm eventually outweighed his passion for nephrology.
“The medicine stuff, even as much as you enjoy the job, it’s a lot of stress, a lot of responsibility and certainly isn’t what I would choose to do on my free time,” said Kim, now 35. “MacRumors was my fun time, my vacation from work, and eventually [when it made enough money], it eliminated the financial obligation of working.”
As the creator and lead writer of MacRumors.com, which celebrates its 10-year anniversary on Wednesday, Kim takes a scientific approach to analyzing and reporting Apple rumors. Every day, he filters out bogus news tips in search of seemingly truthful gems while sniffing up clues hinting at Apple’s future plans.
With the help of a catchy domain name, a solid track record and clever sleuthing, the soft-spoken blogger now owns an empire built out of whispers, attracting an average of 7 million unique visitors a month — one of the highest-traffic Apple-centric blogs to date.
Also advantageous for MacRumors’ traffic, of course, is the site’s focus on a company that operates on a level of secrecy comparable to the CIA. Apple takes extreme measures to prevent leaks for the purpose of generating maximum buzz and excitement about new products prior to their official unveiling. At Apple headquarters, the company reportedly spreads disinformation to its own employees about product plans to track down leakers. Former employees have said workers in product-testing rooms have had to cover up gadgets they’re working on with black cloaks and flip on a red warning switch when they were unmasked to tell everyone to be extra careful.
Apple has also in some instances taken action against the press, filing cease-and-desist letters demanding removal of leaked information. For example, Apple in 2005 sued Nick Ciarelli, independent owner of the Apple rumor blog Think Secret, alleging violation of trade secret law by encouraging and inducing people to provide product information in breach of agreements. Three years later, Ciarelli reached a settlement with Apple, in which no sources were revealed and Think Secret ceased publishing.
More shielded from Apple’s legal sharks, MacRumors operates as an aggregator of rumors from other websites and message boards rather than posting exclusive leaks from loose-lipped employees. (Though there was a time several years ago when Apple accidentally posted details about a Power Mac G5, which Kim screengrabbed and published. Apple’s legal team phoned Kim, and he complied to a takedown request — but by that time, the news had already spread.)
Because tech gossip is hardly scarce, the credibility of a rumor rests almost entirely on the writer’s reputation or his publication’s prestige. So rather than post every piece of gossip that appears on the web, Kim said he carefully scrutinizes every source, assessing their track records and the plausibility of the rumor in relation to Apple’s past moves and overall history. He also relies on the genius of the crowd, scanning through tips and observations from MacRumors readers in message boards.
“When I look at MacRumors, what I like about it is that it’s a community,” said Leander Kahney, owner of the independent Apple fan blog Cult of Mac and former news editor of Wired.com. “It’s basically a gigantic forum, and Arn’s done a great job at building this great community of people who are really keen to find out what Apple’s up to and devour the rumors.”
MacRumors is one of a plethora of blogs regularly posting gadget-related rumors. Tech rumors often come in the form of pure hearsay, leaked product literature or observational tips from gadget freaks. Reporters are often tipped off by loose-lipped employees who are under non-disclosure agreements, which requires them to anonymize their sources.
Why read rumors? They help the average gadget shopper to avoid buyer’s remorse — when credible, rumors help you know when, and when not, to buy a product. If an upgrade for a gadget is likely due out in a few weeks, you probably don’t want to buy the current version today.
Rumors also help analysts and journalists keep their fingers on the pulse of a company, to anticipate its future moves and direction.
“We take rumors seriously,” Kim said. “In med school, medicine requires a very scientific approach that’s evidence-based. You want to have studies and prove treatments before you invest tons of money into it…. Similarly, with MacRumors stuff, you have to prove to me you’re a reliable source. I’d like to think that people appreciate that sort of approach.”
Other than relying on message boards and tips, Kim juggles a few tricks of the trade to sleuth for Apple news nuggets. One of Kim’s favorite recent scoops was related to the Apple tablet’s name. Prior to the iPad’s announcement, Kim discovered evidence that “iSlate” was a potential candidate for the tablet’s name: Apple had purchased the domain name iSlate.com, according to its registrant history. Later, a digital trail revealed Apple had also filed for the iSlate trademark through the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Then Kim received a tip that iPad would be the name of Apple’s tablet. He found evidence that Apple had filed for the iPad trademark in Europe, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Australia.
Still, Kim crossed his fingers that iSlate would be the name, based on his personal preference. But Apple went with iPad. (That’s too bad, too, because after the iSlate rumor spread, Dell and Microsoft branded their tablets “slates.”)
Nonetheless, the process of tracking trademark filings and domain registrations revealed some fascinating insights into how Apple shrouds its products with secrecy. Trademark histories, for instance, reveal that Apple sets up dummy corporations to avoid giving away its plans. For the iPad, Apple employed Corporate Trust, an agency that assists corporations in expediting legal services and other requests, to create a client called “Slate Computing,” a name Apple used to stealthily file for the tablet’s trademarks.
The giveaway clue that Slate Computing was Apple? The trademark filing was signed by Regina Porter, Apple’s senior trademark specialist.
Even though Apple has grown in popularity and works with multiple partners, including publishers, carriers and software developers, the company is still masterful at keeping secrets, Kim said. Apple traditionally prevents partners from obtaining early knowledge of its products, he explained. For example, Apple inked its deal with AT&T to carry the iPhone without showing the device to the telecom company.
“They’ve gotten a lot tighter in terms of their hardware,” Kim said. “They insulate their development teams a lot better, and they still shield their partners from the hardware.”
Kim, who lives in Virginia with his wife and two children, plans to launch a redesign of MacRumors soon to celebrate the site’s 10th anniversary. An anonymous tipster provided Wired.com with a leaked mockup of the redesign (below).
MacRumors.com, the most popular Apple rumor publication on the web, celebrates its 10th anniversary Wednesday. The site's creator, Arnold Kim, quit his job as a kidney doctor to focus on his hobby of stalking Apple.
The European Union has opened an antitrust investigation into Google to look into claims made by three European-based Internet companies. Not surprisingly, this key part of the investigation is said to be about search, which is dominated by Google is most of the EU markets. The Telegraph and WSJ have more details.
It’s important to note that this probe is just a preliminary one, and nothing may come of it. But at least three companies have filed complaints against Google — and notably, one of them is owned by Microsoft. And another one is a member of a group that is partially funded by Microsoft.
This is, of course, quite interesting since Microsoft has famously been involved in antitrust investigations for over a decade now in Europe (and previously, of course, the U.S. too). In fact, this whole browser ballot thing is a result of the ongoing EU attempt to make sure Microsoft is playing fairly.
Ciao (which is now called Ciao Bing) is the Microsoft-owned German shopping site making one of the complaints. Microsoft purchased them in 2008 for nearly $500 million. The others are Foundem, a UK-based shopping site, and EJustice.fr, a French site that does legal search inquiries. All three are claiming that Google’s search dominance is hurting their businesses. And Foundem is claiming that Google has placed a “search penalty” on its site, which has crippled it.
Something else interesting, as The Telegraph notes, “Foundem is a member of ICOMP, an internet pressure group which receives funding from Microsoft.”
The European Commission has notified us that it has received complaints from three companies: a UK price comparison site, Foundem, a French legal search engine called ejustice.fr, and Microsoft’s Ciao! from Bing. While we will be providing feedback and additional information on these complaints, we are confident that our business operates in the interests of users and partners, as well as in line with European competition law.
Given that these complaints will generate interest in the media, we wanted to provide some background to them. First, search. Foundem – a member of an organisation called ICOMPwhich is funded partly by Microsoft - argues that our algorithms demote their site in our results because they are a vertical search engine and so a direct competitor to Google. ejustice.fr’s complaint seems to echo these concerns.
And:
We understand how important rankings can be to websites, especially commercial ones, because a higher ranking typically drives higher volumes of traffic. We are also the first to admit that our search is not perfect, but it’s a very hard computer science problem to crack. Imagine having to rank the 272 million possible results for a popular query like the iPod on a 14 by 12 screen computer screen in just a few milliseconds. It’s a challenge we face millions of times each day.
And:
Regarding Ciao!, they were a long-time AdSense partner of Google’s, with whom we always had a good relationship. However, after Microsoft acquired Ciao! in 2008 (renaming it Ciao! from Bing) we started receiving complaints about our standard terms and conditions. They initially took their case to the German competition authority, but it now has been transferred to Brussels.
Though each case raises slightly different issues, the question they ultimately pose is whether Google is doing anything to choke off competition or hurt our users and partners. This is not the case. We always try to listen carefully if someone has a real concern and we work hard to put our users’ interests first and to compete fair and square in the market. We believe our business practices reflect those commitments.
Internet Explorer is notorious for not having features or rendering systems that are in line with today’s trends. Even the latest version of Internet Explorer pales in comparison with other browsers like Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome.
Many video sharing websites such as Youtube are dabbling with HTML5 as a method to display videos. Flash is still the generally accepted method of displaying videos on the internet, but some see HTML5 as the way to go for a more efficient approach, even on mobile devices.
Many recent browsers are already beginning to roll out newer versions that support HTML5, but Internet Explorer 8 still doesn’t support HTML5 (with the exception of a few recent beta versions), and therefore it doesn’t support new tags such as the
The Guardian asked several writers to list up to ten rules for writing (inspired by Elmore Leonard's little book, 10 Rules of Writing). The result (in two parts) is, by and large, excellent advice. I especially like "Do back exercises. Pain is distracting" (Margaret Atwood -- amen); "A problem with a piece of writing often clarifies itself if you go for a long walk" (Helen Dunmore); "Do it every day" and "Have regrets" (Geoff Dyer); "Don't wish ill on your colleagues" (Richard Ford); "The reader is a friend, not an adversary, not a spectator" (Jonathan Franzen); "Are you serious about this? Then get an accountant" (Hilary Mantel -- amen!); and best of all, "Find an author you admire (mine was Conrad) and copy their plots and characters in order to tell your own story, just as people learn to draw and paint by copying the masters" (Michael Moorcock). Also: "You know that sickening feeling of inadequacy and over-exposure you feel when you look upon your own empurpled prose? Relax into the awareness that this ghastly sensation will never, ever leave you, no matter how successful and publicly lauded you become. It is intrinsic to the real business of writing and should be cherished" (Will Self).
BB pal Mister Jalopy points us to this Charlie Rose episode, viewable (for folks in the USA, anyway) on Hulu. The episode contains a good fashion roundtable followed by a heartbreaking and inspiring conversation with Alexander McQueen from 1997. 
We’ve gotten word of another departure from MySpace in the wake of CEO Owen Van Natta’s firing two weeks ago. The latest to leave is Chris Bissell, MySpace’s Chief Software Architect, who has been with the company for over four years. Bissell was one of the few remaining members of MySpace’s old guard, which has gradually left (or been fired) from the company since the executive shakeup last spring that removed long-time CEO Chris DeWolfe.
I gotta admire him for his preference of playability over having this-gen graphics. And for finding a use for all that junk he had lying around his house. [GBFans via Destructoid via Nerd Aproved]
Amazon’s Kindle DX has been undergoing testing by several universities as a possible replacement for printed course materials. Last year, University of Washington students reported that it didn’t quite make the cut due to complaints about it’s navigation, folder, and note taking systems, and now Princeton University is chiming in with the same complaints. 
For the past two days, Yahoo has been trying to get me to agree to an embargo on some piece of news they had for tonight. As you probably know, we hate embargoes, so I wasn’t about to accept it. Good thing. Not only did the news leak out almost 5 hours early, but actually, Yahoo itself was giving people hints on Twitter all day, and encouraging people to take guesses to break the embargo on Twitter. And yes, the news is a deal with Twitter.
Here’s a great concept, take an electronic stethoscope, combine it with an iPod/iPhone, and what do you get? A diagnosis tool that’s portable, and (relatively) cheap. The expensive part is the iPhone and the stethoscope (it’s $279.99), the app is cheap at $69.99. 
The European Union has opened an antitrust investigation into Google to look into claims made by three European-based Internet companies. Not surprisingly, this key part of the investigation is said to be about search, which is dominated by Google is most of the EU markets. The Telegraph and WSJ have more details.
And there it is, Google’s European antitrust review. 
I am very sorry about seizing the throne of Falland and establishing a dictatorship based on terror and intimidation. As ruler of Falland, I enforced a number of highly unfair and immoral policies for which I now feel very badly, including putting all orphans raised by any forms of wildlife to death, and ordering the execution of all wandering bards (although I must say in my defense that that decision was not entirely unpopular). I congratulate the Directorate for their more enlightened social and economic policies, and am certain that their wisdom will see Falland through these deeply troubled times. I urge the People of Falland to be patient while awaiting results from the Directorate's programs.
Google is famously creative at encouraging these breakthroughs; every year, it holds an internal demo fair called CSI -- Crazy Search Ideas -- in an attempt to spark offbeat but productive approaches. But for the most part, the improvement process is a relentless slog, grinding through bad results to determine what isn't working. One unsuccessful search became a legend: Sometime in 2001, Singhal learned of poor results when people typed the name "audrey fino" into the search box. Google kept returning Italian sites praising Audrey Hepburn. (Fino means fine in Italian.) "We realized that this is actually a person's name," Singhal says. "But we didn't have the smarts in the system."
So 
