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Emergency network still needed, FCC public safety chief says - Computerworld
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 19 Apr 2010 | 4:02 am Lenovo eyes rapid mobile Internet growth (Reuters)Reuters - Lenovo Group, the world's No.4 PC brand, said mobile Internet products will account for 10-20 percent of revenue in five years, as it embarks on a new drive into wireless computing.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 19 Apr 2010 | 3:55 am Rain threatens to delay space shuttle's return - The Associated Press
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 19 Apr 2010 | 3:47 am Apple sets 3G iPad for May 7 as Sprint ups ante to 4G - Register
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 19 Apr 2010 | 3:37 am For Reasons Unknown, Ukrainian Journalist Sends First Underwater Tweet
And you thought tweeting from space was an achievement? Ukrainian TV journalist Julia Gorodetskaya (@gorodetskaya) has sent the first documented underwater tweet from the floor of a 19-feet deep dolphinarium in Odessa, Ukraine. The scuba tweeting session was broadcasted by local media (see subtitled video below) and documented by regional press. The tweet was sent via a mobile phone sealed in plastic from the Twitter website, using the Opera Mini browser. Radio waves passed to the surface through an elongated antenna. The preparation process and the actual underwater tweeting was also filmed and broadcasted live by Boris Khodorkovsky to his QIK account and published on YouTube and other social media services. You can find pictures of the whole thing on Flickr. Gorodetskaya, who did not know how to dive or swim prior to the event, sent a total of four messages to Twitter. Below is the first one. In English, it reads: “This is first in history #underwater_tweet. I told you, @netocrat.” The event was dreamed up and organized by a national mobile operator to tout the quality of its network. And I can’t help but think about the wonderful opportunity to raise awareness for a good cause in the process that was somehow overlooked, and therefor terribly wasted.
(Image via Flickr / NETOCRAT Communications)
Information provided by CrunchBase      
Source: TechCrunch | 19 Apr 2010 | 2:59 am See what the Real iPhone 4G will Look Like - Techtree.com
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 19 Apr 2010 | 2:54 am Cross With the PlatformTim Bray tweeted, No platform has hit the big time till it's been flamed by JWZ. He was referring to this rant in which Zawinski systematically dismantles any claim the iPhone has to cross-platform compatibility. "I finally got the iPhone/iPad port [of Dali Clock] working. It was ridiculously difficult, because I refused to fork the MacOS X code base: the desktop and the phone are both supposedly within spitting distance of being the same operating system, so it should be a small matter of ifdefs to have the same app compile as a desktop application and an iPhone application, right? Oh ho ho ho. I think it's safe to say that MacOS is more source-code-compatible with NextStep than the iPhone is with MacOS. ... they got some intern who was completely unfamiliar with the old library to just write a new one from scratch without looking at what already existed. It's 2010, and we're still innovating on how you pass color components around. Seriously?"
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 19 Apr 2010 | 2:50 am LCD makers' outlook improves on strong TV demand (Reuters)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 19 Apr 2010 | 2:24 am Gawky Warrior Editorials - 'Modern Gladiator' in Razor Red Magazine Shows the New Face of a Fighter (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) Say adios to images of gladiators with rippling muscles and swords; the vision presented in 'Modern Gladiator' in Razor | Red Magazine is significantly skinnier. Model Pawel Bednarek...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 19 Apr 2010 | 2:00 am WSJ.com's "Digits" Show: Yahoo/Foursquare, Silicon Valley Hiring and More! [BoomTown]
Here’s a video of BoomTown’s appearance on Friday on the WSJ.com’s “Digits” online tech show. In it, we discuss the post I did on the machinations about whether Yahoo (YHOO) can get its mitts on social geo-location phenom Foursquare or if venture capitalists will swoop in with a bag of cash. Also on the dock: Tech hiring has returned and tricked-out buoys. Here’s the video: Source: All Things Digital | 19 Apr 2010 | 1:30 am Ganja-Friendly Roomate Finders - 420 Room Search Helps You Find Sticky Icky Room Rentals (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) I honestly never expected to run across 420 Room Search. This website is every card-carrying medical marijuana user's dream come true. Finally the discrimination of a sick and misunderstood...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 19 Apr 2010 | 1:30 am Tim O'Reilly Explains the Internet of ThingsThe Internet of Things is the idea of a web of data provided by things like real-world devices and sensors. It's something we've covered in great detail here at ReadWriteWeb because where there is data,...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 19 Apr 2010 | 1:27 am Sage Group: chief executive leaving after 16 years (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 19 Apr 2010 | 1:16 am Sports Will Drive 3-D Adoption and Broadband Upgrades [Voices]By Stacey Higginbotham, Writer, GigaOm Hollywood is awash in 3-D these days, as witnessed by films from “Avatar” to a “Alice in Wonderland,” but the real driver of 3-D demand was on display last week in the form of the Master’s golf tournament, which Comcast and Verizon both showed in 3-D. Indeed, sports, not Hollywood movies, will drive 3-D adoption, and in doing so will likely lead to a wave of upgrades in our last-mile broadband infrastructure. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 19 Apr 2010 | 1:05 am Out of the Loop in Silicon Valley [Voices]By Claire Cain Miller, Staff Writer, New York Times Candace Fleming’s résumé boasts a double major in industrial engineering and English from Stanford, an M.B.A. from Harvard, a management position at Hewlett-Packard and experience as president of a small software company. But when she was raising money for Crimson Hexagon, a start-up company she co-founded in 2007, she recalls one venture capitalist telling her that it didn’t matter that she didn’t have business cards, because all they would say was “Mom.” Another potential backer invited her for a weekend yachting excursion by showing her a picture of himself on the boat — without clothes. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 19 Apr 2010 | 1:04 am Video Games Can Never Be Art [Voices]By Roger Ebert, Film Critic, Chicago Sun Times Having once made the statement above, I have declined all opportunities to enlarge upon it or defend it. That seemed to be a fool’s errand, especially given the volume of messages I receive urging me to play this game or that and recant the error of my ways. Nevertheless, I remain convinced that in principle, video games cannot be art. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 19 Apr 2010 | 1:03 am Some Cheer, Jeer AP Change from 'Web site' to 'website' [Voices]By Mallary Jean Tenore, Writer, Poynter Institute When the AP Stylebook announced via Twitter that it was changing the style for “Web site” to “website,” some users let out shouts of praise: “Finally!” “Yes!!!” “Yeeha!” The reactions aren’t surprising, given how many people have asked the AP to change the style from two words to one word, arguing that “Web site” is an antiquated way of writing it. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 19 Apr 2010 | 1:02 am Is Android Evil? [Voices]By Andreas Constantinou, Blogger, Vision Mobile You thought Android was open? The Android governance model consists of an elaborate set of control points that allows Google (GOOG) to bundle its own services and control the exact software and hardware make-up on every handset. All this while touting the openness rhetoric that is founded on the Apache permissive license used in the Android SDK. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 19 Apr 2010 | 1:01 am Goldman Prize honors activists working to save land, animals - USA Today
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 19 Apr 2010 | 1:01 am CrunchGear Week in Review: Look to the Sky Edition
Here are some stories from the past week on CrunchGear: The User’s Manifesto: in defense of hacking, modding, and jailbreaking
Source: CrunchGear | 19 Apr 2010 | 1:00 am China Creates New Bureau To Monitor Social Networking Sites [Voices]By Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron’s Tech Trader Daily China has created a new government bureau to police social networking sites and other user-driven Web sites, the New York Times reported on Saturday. The piece says that “people informed of the expansion say the authorities are retooling their media apparatus to deepen their leverage over the Web, and regulators are jostling for the growing power and prestige at stake.” Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 19 Apr 2010 | 1:00 am Mobster Menswear Editorials - 'Kings Highway' in BlackBook April 2010 Shows the Life of a Go-Getter (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) With movies like 'Goodfellas' and the series of 'The Godfather,' the mob has always been at the forefront of pop culture; 'Kings Highway' in BlackBook April 2010 continues that theme...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 19 Apr 2010 | 1:00 am Don’t Sell Out, Foursquare. Not Now. Not To Yahoo.
There are so many reasons why this deal shouldn’t happen. Here are just a few: 1. It’s bad for Yahoo: Yahoo’s senior team is grasping at straws, and they desperately want to find a way to stay relevant. But this is not it. What the heck is Yahoo going to do with Foursquare that will somehow turn around their business? Absolutely nothing, that’s what. M&A for PR purposes is not what savvy executive teams do. Whatever tech cred they think they’ll get by buying Foursquare is in their imagination. 2. Yahoo is a horrendous choice for Foursquare. It’s where startups go to die. They’ve bought so many companies that were so promising, only to see them wither on the vine. And the founders always leave in disgust (see Flickr, Delicious and the rest in the left sidebar on their CrunchBase page – how many of these were successful?). And sometimes they buy companies just to shut them down entirely a year later. See Yahoo Kills Maven: From Acquisition To Deadpool In 17 Months Try to imagine what Facebook would be today if Yahoo had successfully acquired them in 2006. 3. You only sell now if you think your business doesn’t have legs. Aardvark did it because of very slow user growth and the founders got nervous. They were in a similar situation at Foursquare – lots of VCs ready to put in money at a great valuation, but they took the sale to Google instead. Now we’ll never know what Aardvark could have become had it stayed independent. Guys like Facebook and Twitter stayed independent despite outrageous acquisition offers. If the Foursquare team believes in their product, they should stay in the game. 4. The Dodgeball/Google debacle should have given founder Dennis Crowley enough of a taste of what happens to most companies when they get acquired. Dennis, remember when you wrote this – “It’s no real secret that Google wasn’t supporting dodgeball the way we expected. The whole experience was incredibly frustrating for us – especially as we couldn’t convince them that dodgeball was worth engineering resources, leaving us to watch as other startups got to innovate in the mobile + social space.” You sold your startup too soon once before. Why do it again now? 5. You can hedge. Lots of startups take money off the table in a venture round instead of selling outright. The WordPress guys did it, for example. The Aardvark team had the option of doing it. You can ask your VCs to redo their term sheets and double the amount raised. Take half off the table and you, your children and their children will never want for anything material in their lives, even if Foursquare goes south right afterwards. Foursquare has a destiny. It may be to go out of business. It may be to go public and be a huge force in our culture. It may be something in between. But selling out now is like dropping out of college to take up drugs. Whatever you would have become, that isn’t what you’ll become once you sell out to Yahoo. Call Caterina from Flickr and ask her if she wishes she hadn’t sold to Yahoo. Call Joshua Schachter from Delicious and ask him the same thing. My guess is both will privately tell you NFW would they have sold to Yahoo knowing what they were stepping into. Facebook and Twitter hitting the geo space must be a scary thing for a small startup to contemplate. But there’s real momentum and that intangible buzz behind your product right now. Play this out. In ten years, you’ll be glad you did. Unless you’re broke then because Foursquare failed, of course, and bitter that you didn’t take the money from Yahoo when it was offered. But there’s a reason why you became an entrepreneur and didn’t just stay a mid level developer grunt at a variety of large organizations. You have the fire to change the world. So go do it.      
Source: TechCrunch | 19 Apr 2010 | 12:50 am #GeeknRolla Update – Not Even A Volcano Can Stop Us Well folks, it's been an interesting weekend of email and phone calls, but the good news is that TechCrunch Europe's GeeknRolla is STILL ON tomorrow in London, and there is not one single damn volcano on the planet, however ash-filled, that can stop us bringing this awesome event to you. The very last tickets and DemoPit tables are available here.
And frankly, we have to pay tribute to you guys. We have been hearing amazing stories of how people are getting to London for tomorrow's event - from hiring boats, airplanes and even keynote speaker Morten Lund driving to London in a banged up car from Copenhagen. And our live streaming partners Bambuser are on a "#volcanrolla" road trip from Stockholm, overland and sea. Speaker Cédric Giorgi just got the very last ticket available on Eurostar, and Jennifer Lee has been collecting people at Calais to take over by car ferry. Amazing.
Of course, because of the airlines situation, there will be one or two changes to the line-up. But we are working hard to make sure it all goes smoothly. For breaking news about GeeknRolla we have fired-up the @GeeknRolla Twitter account to help people with information on travel plans, ticketing and anything else relevant to the event. And if you can't make the main day but want to party with us and SixNationState, hit the After Party which has a separate ticket.
Here are some more details for you.
Source: TechCrunch | 19 Apr 2010 | 12:49 am Facebook E-Commerce App Payvment Allows Retailers To Use Coupons To Attract Fans
Payvment’s Facebook App lets anyone create a retail store on Facebook. The app lets you set up products, categories of products (i.e. shoes, T-shirts, sweaters), import photos, list terms of service and shipping options and more. Once you set up your online shop on Facebook, it will show up in a separate tab on your profile or page under “storefront”. Called the Facebook Fan Incentive Pricing feature, the new functionality essentially bridges the gap between social interactions on the site and retail behavior using coupons and discounts. With the new feature, sellers can provide an electronic coupon or instant discount to potential and current fans by simply enabling the feature via Payvment’s storefront application for Facebook. The pricing feature allows users to choose the discount amount to be provided to anyone that becomes a Fan of their Facebook page and current Fans are automatically provided the discount. And when visitors that are not Fans come to a storefront, Payvment automatically prompts them to become a Fan to receive special Fan pricing. Another compelling feature of Payvment’s e-commerce app is the ability to allow shoppers to carry their goods with them across thousands of Payvment-powered storefronts on Facebook. It makes shopping on Facebook almost like shopping at Target, where you can visit multiple departments and buy all of your diverse purchases at once. Users can also add comments and reviews to Payvment-enabled storefronts. As retailers flock to Facebook for both brand awareness and e-commerce, Payyvment’s free offerings are attractive because the platform is a one-stop shop for both efforts. However, Payvment isn’t the first to implement this strategy; 1-800-Flowers started offering discounts to users who became fans of its page last July. The startup, which just raised $1.2 million in funding, faces competition from BigCommerce, Alvenda and others.
Information provided by CrunchBase      
Source: TechCrunch | 19 Apr 2010 | 12:49 am Mars bar cake
I found this Mars bar cake at a cake shop in Oxford. I wonder if it just looks like a Mars bar, or tastes like one too.
Mars bar cakeI found this Mars bar cake at a cake shop in Oxford. I wonder if it just looks like a Mars bar, or tastes like one too.Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 19 Apr 2010 | 12:32 am Eco-Racing Ambassadors - The American Le Mans Series Green Dream Team of Epic Biofueled Athetes(TrendHunter.com) The American Le Mans series Green Dream Team is leading the way in greener auto racing. The Green Dream Team was revealed at the MIA-SEMA 'The Race Has Gone Green Conference' in Long...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 19 Apr 2010 | 12:15 am UPDATE 1-Novartis buys generics firm OrielZURICH, April 19 (Reuters) - Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG bought privately held U.S. company Oriel Therapeutics to boost its generics portfolio, targeting the multi-billion market for drugs against respiratory...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 19 Apr 2010 | 12:14 am Mini Samurai Sword Handle UmbrellaBy Andrew Liszewski I’ll admit to being somewhat tempted by the Samurai Sword Handle Umbrella that ThinkGeek’s been selling. But when it’s raining I like to carry an umbrella that can...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 18 Apr 2010 | 11:46 pm 3D Tattoo Previews - Obsessive Ink Lets You Visualize Your Tattoo Design at Your Leisure (VIDEO)(TrendHunter.com) Obsessive Ink is a new easy to use 3D virtual service for the tattoo-inclined who want more creative control to visualize their potential tattoo ideas. The site also allows users to...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 18 Apr 2010 | 11:45 pm China's Research Ambitions Hurt By Faked ResultsHugh Pickens writes "AP reports that plagiarizing or faking results is so rampant in Chinese academia that some experts worry it could hinder China's efforts to become a leader in science. China's state-run media recently rejoiced over reports that China publishes more papers in international journals than any other country except the US; but not all the research stands up to scrutiny. In December, a British journal retracted 70 papers from a Chinese university, all by the same two lead scientists, saying the work had been fabricated, and expressing amazement that a fake crystal structure would be submitted for publication. 'Academic fraud, misconduct and ethical violations are very common in China,' said professor Rao Yi, dean of the life sciences school at Peking University. 'It is a big problem.' Last month the Education Ministry released guidelines for forming a 35-member watchdog committee and has asked universities to get tough but Rao remains skeptical. Government ministries are happy to fund research but not to police it, Rao says. 'The authorities don't want to be the bad guy.'"
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 18 Apr 2010 | 11:42 pm XAuth: The Open Web Fires a Shot Against Facebook ConnectA consortium of companies including Google, Yahoo, MySpace, Meebo and more announced tonight that it will launch a new system on Monday that will let website owners discover which social networks a site...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 18 Apr 2010 | 11:36 pm Bonfire Concept A Nomadic System For Hybrid Laptop-Tabletop Interaction Or, How To Make Laptops Extra Cool With Cameras And Pico ProjectorsBy Andrew Liszewski Researchers at the University of Washington and Intel have come up with a clever way to expand the desktop real estate of a laptop, without increasing the size of the display or the...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 18 Apr 2010 | 11:32 pm The Neutron Star Cooling MysteryA cooling neutron star has been probed in the hope of understanding its interior. However, using data from the Chandra X-ray Telescope, researchers have returned more questions than answers.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 18 Apr 2010 | 10:43 pm Dish Network agrees to carry Epix movie channel (AP)AP - Dish Network subscribers will have available to them some of the latest movies from three major Hollywood studios when Epix becomes one of their channel choices this month.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 18 Apr 2010 | 10:41 pm It’s Official: Groupon Announces That $1.35 Billion Valuation Round
We wrote an extensive overview of the company last year when they closed their last round of financing. Since that time the service has been extended to new cities – 54 total now offer a daily deal via Groupon. 4 million Groupons have now been sold, says the company. Press release is below.
     
Source: TechCrunch | 18 Apr 2010 | 10:29 pm Q+A-Australian PM Rudd's health reform fightCANBERRA, April 19 (Reuters) - Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd began difficult talks with state leaders on Monday to convince them to accept his health reform proposals, with failure threatening Rudd's...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 18 Apr 2010 | 10:19 pm Unboxing the HTC Incredible - PC Magazine
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 18 Apr 2010 | 10:13 pm Spearheaded By Meebo, XAuth Looks To Make Social Sites Smarter
Here’s how the official site, XAuth.org is describing the platform:
So what does that mean? Imagine visiting TechCrunch and seeing share buttons tailored to the services you use. If you don’t use Google Buzz but are an avid Reddit user, we could automatically hide Buzz and swap the appropriate Reddit button in. Yes, there are already ways to do this, but currently TechCrunch.com would have to issue requests to every popular sharing service each time a new user visited the site, which isn’t always practical — XAuth is more efficient, because it already knows which services you belong to. But what about privacy? There is a central XAuth server that exists to facilitate data transfer between domains, but your personal information is never actually transferred through it. Instead, all personally identifiable information is stored in your browser using HTML5’s local storage — XAuth.org exists to verify which tokens a third party has access to. If you’re still wary, you can choose to opt out of XAuth using a control panel at XAuth.org. When it comes to exploring XAuth’s potential, personalized sharing buttons are just the beginning— services can include whatever information they want in their token. Say MySpace decided it wanted to allow Meebo to automatically have access to its users’ friend lists. MySpace could include a session ID as part of its token that would grant Meebo access to that data, without any input required from the user. Using XAuth, MySpace could grant access to this token only to a select few partners on a whitelist, or it could open it up to any third parties who wanted it. In effect, XAuth’s flexibility allows any social service provider to achieve the ‘auto-connect‘ functionality that we hear Facebook plans to launch soon. That could be powerful, but it also has the potential to be creepy — do users really want their information pre-populated as they browse the web? The answer isn’t clear yet. That said, most sites (particularly sites where security is a priority) will probably only use XAuth to inform third parties that the user has an account with them, without actually sharing any of their personally identifiable data (in other words, we’ll see the personalized button scenario discussed above). Update: Here’s a video taken by Robert Scoble of Meebo CEO Seth Sternberg explaining XAuth:
     
Source: TechCrunch | 18 Apr 2010 | 10:03 pm Ivar Jacobson International Announces New Version of EssWorkEssWork 3.0 Drives Adoption of Large Scale Agile Software Development OTTAWA, April 19 /PRNewswire/ - Ivar Jacobson International today is releasing a new version of EssWork which provides a "smart" framework for developing, browsing and executing software development practices.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 18 Apr 2010 | 10:01 pm Ivar Jacobson International Announces New Version of EssWorkSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 18 Apr 2010 | 10:01 pm Unboxing the Verizon Droid Incredible by HTCAt last! After oh-so-many painstaking months of waiting, the HTC Incredible for Verizon is here. Well, almost. It doesn’t launch until April 29th — about 10 days from today — but we got our hands on one a bit early. People are pretty excited for this thing, and for good reason: with a 1GHZ Snapdragon CPU, an 8 megapixel camera, and Android 2.1, it’s easily the most spec’d out Android handset on Verizon’s line up — and on any US carrier’s current line up, for that matter. Plus it’s running HTC’s custom Sense UI overhaul on Android 2.1, which really seals the deal Our full review of the device should be up this afternoon. In the mean time, enjoy the unboxing video and image gallery!
Source: MobileCrunch | 18 Apr 2010 | 10:00 pm April 19, 1965: How Do You Like It? Moore, Moore, MooreGordon Moore publishes the paper that establishes Moore's Law: Microchip capacity doubles at regular intervals.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 18 Apr 2010 | 10:00 pm Jacket-Tent Combo Repels Hail, But Still FailsA jacket that turns into a tent? We'd rather be homeless.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 18 Apr 2010 | 10:00 pm Jacket-Tent Combo Repels Hail, But Still FailsA jacket that turns into a tent? We'd rather be homeless.
Source: Wired: Gadgets | 18 Apr 2010 | 10:00 pm VOlcanic Ash Gives Jet Engine a TurbochargeAsh affects engines in strange ways, sometimes "turbocharging" them for short periods of time.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 18 Apr 2010 | 9:57 pm Obama’s Vision for NASA Bolsters Space SciencePresident Obama’s new direction for NASA will help us better pursue fundamental questions about the universe: are we alone? Can we avert lethal space debris?Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 18 Apr 2010 | 9:53 pm Virtualizing Workstations For Common Hardware?An anonymous reader writes "We have approximately 20 workstations which all have different hardware specs. Every workstation has two monitors and generally runs either Ubuntu or Windows. I had started using Clonezilla to copy the installs so we could deploy new workstations quickly and easily, when we have hardware failures or the like, but am struggling with Windows requiring new drivers to be installed for all new hardware. Obviously we could be booting into Ubuntu and then load a Windows virtual machine after that, but I'd prefer not to have the added load of a full GUI underneath Windows — we want maximum performance possible. And I don't think the multi-monitor support would work. Is it possible to have a very basic virtual machine beneath to provide hardware consistency whilst still allowing multi-monitor support? Does anyone have any experience with a technique like this?"
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 18 Apr 2010 | 8:29 pm Appletell reviews the iA5 app-enhanced alarm clock from iHomeFROM APPLETELL - The iHome iA5 does more than just wake you up in the morning. Combine it with the iHome+Sleep app and you’ve got an alarm clock that actually becomes part of your lifestyle. Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 18 Apr 2010 | 8:21 pm Groupon Grabs $135 Million From DST and Battery–Valuation Above $1 Billion for Social Buying Site [BoomTown]
Groupon, the social buying site that has become one of the hotter start-ups of late, has gotten a giant round of funding from the same Russian investors who backed social networking powerhouse Facebook and game phenom Zynga. Digital Sky Technologies is the main funder of the round, but Battery Ventures is also participating. The money, the company said would be used to grow the business–and to speed far ahead of numerous rivals–as well as cash out employees and early investors. Groupon is profitable and has 270 employees. In December, Groupon nabbed $30 million in its second round of funding, led by Accel Partners. The innovative Chicago-based service, which launched only a year ago, had previously received $4.8 million in funding from New Enterprise Associates, as well as $1 million from an angel investor. Groupon features a daily deal with a huge discount on a wide range of things–from spas to skydiving–in dozens of U.S. cities, including Chicago, Boston, New York and San Francisco, for large groups of potential buyers on the Web, through email or via social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter. Using social tools, Groupon–which is a mashup terms for “group” and “coupon”–tries to use collective buying power to get low prices and to push customers to local businesses. If it reaches the number of buyers it needs, which can be in the thousands, Groupon sells coupons to the consumers and collects a hefty fee for the sale from the businesses it sends customers to. At the cost of discounting and paying off Groupon, small businesses get a crack at a lot of new customers–think of it as social networking lead-generation or, perhaps, the “Social Shopping Network.” Groupon grew out of a project of The Point, an online community launched in 2007 for organizing group action. This kind of thing has been tried before, of course, centering on consumers who group together to get discounts on items by purchasing them in bulk. In Web 1.0, there were many group-buying sites, most of which failed badly. One of the more high-profile ones–Mercata–got $90 million in funding from investors, including Paul Allen’s Vulcan Ventures. But now the group-buying space has been reinvigorated, with a spate of competitors, some of which are clear copycats of Groupon. Here’s an interview BoomTown did with its CEO and Founder Andrew Mason, who is one of the more affable and level-headed entrepreneurs around–at least until this mega-funding. (Don’t go changing, Andrew!) I have been quite interested in the innovative Groupon, as I said in that post in March: “The last time I really was truly bullish on a start-up and its founder–BoomTown’s motto is wait-and-see rather than hype-it-up–was AdMob’s Omar Hamoui. That turned out pretty well, with the sale of the mobile advertising site to Google (GOOG) for $750 million last fall. My 2010 start-up that passes the slightly-less-raised-eyebrow test is Groupon.” Here’s the video interview with Mason: [ See post to watch video ] Here’s the official press release:
Source: All Things Digital | 18 Apr 2010 | 8:07 pm Best Buy to expand Mobile stores in U.S.: report (Reuters)Reuters - Electrical goods retailer Best Buy plans to open up to 1,000 new mobile phone shops, the Financial Times reported in its Monday edition.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 18 Apr 2010 | 7:09 pm IPad Struggles on Campus - Wall Street Journal
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 18 Apr 2010 | 7:04 pm CouchPad It's taken this long to attempt to write something on the iPad. I took some notes at Google's Atmosphere event just to try out the system, but quickly discovered that the newly realtimed Google Docs were only available in read only mode. A Google PR guy told me they were waiting on a "real browser" before rolling the tool out to iPad users sometime later this year. I ended up in gmail draft mode.
By now I've gotten the fundamental message, which is that Apple is rebuilding the Mac from the ground, or rather the pocket, up. The AppStore debuted with iPhone and iPad apps mushed together; now they are segregated as the iPad specific tools build out. The iPhone OS 4 announcements made clear that multitasking was the bedrock of the new OS, with the concurrent processes opening the door to sharing data between various services in realtime i.e. the network. Micromessages, popups, alerts, some kind of cross-app communication that makes realtime aware applications possible. 
Source: TechCrunch | 18 Apr 2010 | 7:03 pm FDA mulls killing Avandia safety study-WSJNEW YORK, April 18 (Reuters) - U.S. regulators are considering ending a safety study on GlaxoSmithKline's diabetes drug Avandia, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, saying the move could also...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 18 Apr 2010 | 6:35 pm The Sopranos Meet H-1B In New Jerseytheodp writes "We smack this IT geek around a little, take him for a nice car ride, threaten to 'take care of him' if he doesn't recant his story, give him 5 G's for his trouble, and badda boom, badda bing, case dismissed. Federal prosecutors allege that an H-1B visa-holding IT employee who was owed some $53,000 in back wages was threatened in meetings at restaurants and in his home if he didn't change his story. However, the victim captured some of what happened on tape, and two employees of an Illinois-based IT staffing company — not named in the indictment but identified by the NJ Star-Ledger as ComData Consulting Inc. of Rolling Meadows, IL — are now facing extortion-related charges and a possible 20 years in prison."
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Source: Slashdot | 18 Apr 2010 | 6:18 pm Publishing venture bets on iPhone short storiesLONDON (Reuters) - A new publishing company is betting that readers will bypass electronic readers such as Amazon's Kindle and Sony's Reader in favor of reading bite-sized stories on mobileSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 18 Apr 2010 | 6:03 pm Publishing venture bets on iPhone short stories (Reuters)Reuters - A new publishing company is betting that readers will bypass electronic readers such as Amazon's Kindle and Sony's Reader in favor of reading bite-sized stories on mobile devices they already own.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 18 Apr 2010 | 6:03 pm Top 10 Gamertell posts for the week of April 11, 2010FROM GAMERTELL - Haven’t caught all of the Gamertell news this week? Here’s your chance to catch up on this week’s top 10 articles! 3DS not just an updated DS or DSi“Ever since the 3DS was announced, people have been wondering if it was going to be just like the DS lite and… MORE » Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 18 Apr 2010 | 6:00 pm Publishing venture bets on iPhone short storiesLONDON, April 19 (Reuters) - A new publishing company is betting that readers will bypass electronic readers such as Amazon's Kindle and Sony's Reader in favour of reading bite-sized stories on mobile...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 18 Apr 2010 | 5:59 pm Best Android apps for ChaCha and other community-driven search apps (Appolicious)Appolicious - As mobile search becomes more personal and readily used, the accessibility around mobile-friendly app design has opened up opportunities for companies such as ChaCha. Funded by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, ChaCha’s mobile presence has been extended to Android, thanks to a contest encouraging apps to be built around its community-driven search tool.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 18 Apr 2010 | 5:59 pm Australia to extend Reef tracking after China ship crisisAustralia Sunday said it would extend a satellite ship-tracking system to cover all of the massive Great Barrier Reef after a Chinese ship ran aground threatening an environmental...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 18 Apr 2010 | 5:41 pm World court to rule on Argentina-Uruguay river disputeThe UN's highest court is set to deliver judgment Tuesday in a dispute between Argentina and Uruguay over a paper mill that Argentina claims pollutes a shared river. In public hearings...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 18 Apr 2010 | 5:36 pm Qualcomm Joins the 2010 Shanghai World Expo as the Official Wireless Chipset Technology and Solutions Partner of the USA National PavilionSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 18 Apr 2010 | 5:30 pm Qualcomm Joins the 2010 Shanghai World Expo as the Official Wireless Chipset Technology and Solutions Partner of the USA National PavilionSHANGHAI, April 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Qualcomm Incorporated (Nasdaq: QCOM), a leading developer and innovator of advanced wireless technologies, products and services, today announced its sponsorship of the USA National Pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo as its Official Wireless Chipset Technology and Solutions Partner. "We are proud to welcome Qualcomm as an Official Partner of the USA National Pavilion," said Ellen R.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 18 Apr 2010 | 5:30 pm Shuttle Reentry Over the Continental USTheOtherChimeraTwin notes that the shuttle Discovery will land at Kennedy Space Center on Monday morning at 8:48 EDT. The craft will make a rare "descending node" overflight of the continental US en route to landing in Florida. Here are maps of the shuttle's path if is lands on orbit 222 as planned, or on the next orbit. Spaceweather.com says: "...it takes the shuttle about 35 minutes to traverse the path shown... Observers in the northwestern USA will see the shuttle shortly after 5 am PDT blazing like a meteoric fireball through the dawn sky. As Discovery makes its way east, it will enter daylight and fade into the bright blue background. If you can't see the shuttle, however, you might be able to hear it. The shuttle produces a sonic double-boom that reaches the ground about a minute and a half after passing overhead."
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Source: Slashdot | 18 Apr 2010 | 5:16 pm Better ash dispersion models would limit air traffic chaos: expertBetter research models of how ash is dispersed would greatly reduce the air traffic havoc wreaked in Europe since an Icelandic volcano began spewing a giant cloud of the toxic dust last...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 18 Apr 2010 | 5:04 pm Underwriters Laboratories Publishes Paper on Groundbreaking High-Tech Safety Standard IEC 62368-1NORTHBROOK, Ill., April 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Underwriters Laboratories (UL) released a white paper on the new industry standard for audio/video, information technology and communication technology equipment, IEC 62368-1.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 18 Apr 2010 | 5:00 pm Thoughts On the State of Web Developmentrmoskal recommends his blog post up at Most Media on finding the right level of abstraction, Grails, and SOFEA. "[Three years ago] I was very excited about Apache Wicket as the way to develop line of business applications with a domain model, CRUD [create-read-update-delete] screens for maintaining the model, and in the most interesting cases, doing something else useful besides. I still like Wicket. It has, as its website says a small conceptual surface area.' It reminds me of python in that 'You try something it usually just works.' In many respects, though, Wicket seems to be at the wrong level of abstraction for the for the sorts of line of business applications described above. If your team is spending any time at all writing code to produce listing, filtering, and sorting behavior, not to mention creating CRUD screens and the back end logic for these operations, they are probably working at the wrong level of abstraction. ... Recently I did a small project using Grails and was quite pleased. Grails uses groovy, a dynamic language compatible with Java and is based on the proven technologies that I know and love well: Spring, Hibernate, SiteMesh, Maven, etc. ... I get all the power of the Java ecosystem without the fustiness and lack of expressivity of the core language (no more getters and setters, ever!)."
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Source: Slashdot | 18 Apr 2010 | 4:12 pm Appletell reviews business card/contact apps for iPhone, iPod TouchFROM APPLETELL - In this round up, we take an in-depth look at Business Card Reader and GeoRolodex—business card and contact related apps to help you manage your contacts. Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 18 Apr 2010 | 3:44 pm More Execs Walk Away From Fox/MySpace: Slingshot Labs President & EVP Resign
This leaves Slingshot Labs in disarray at a crucial moment. Their “LinkedIn Killer” product, internally known as WSJ Connect or Streetfeed, is supposed to go into beta testing next month. We first wrote about the project last year. Slighshot Labs has also had a couple of other successful product launches. Daily Fill is still going strong. Another project, SocialPlan, is now the backbone of the new MySpace Events. MySpace even grabbed that team out of Slingshot and made them full time MySpace employees. This also marks the departure of the last MySpace founder from News Corp. Josh Berman was the COO of MySpace at the time it was acquired. Chris DeWolfe (CEO), Tom Anderson (President), Aber Whitcomb (CTO), and Colin Digiaro (SVP Sales) have all now left to work on different projects. Except for Tom, it’s not clear what he’s up to these days.      
Source: TechCrunch | 18 Apr 2010 | 3:34 pm America, This Is Your Wake-Up Call. The Shuttle is Landing!Space Shuttle Discovery will do a rare flyover of a large swathe of North America on Monday morning. But don't underestimate the double-sonic boom the shuttle will make during the flyover, it might wake you up.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 18 Apr 2010 | 3:28 pm Shuttle's Glide Through Sky Should Be Visible Across U.S.On Monday morning, be sure to wake up early for an opportunity to see and hear the shuttle fly over North America on its approach to Kennedy Space Center, Fla.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 18 Apr 2010 | 3:25 pm Microbe Mat the Size of Greece Discovered In the SeaNewYorkCountryLawyer writes "A mat of microbes the size of Greece has been discovered on the sea floor off the Pacific coast of South America. 'These tiny creatures can join together to create some of the largest masses of life on the planet... A single liter of seawater, once thought to contain about 100,000 microbes, can actually hold more than one billion microorganisms...'"
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Source: Slashdot | 18 Apr 2010 | 3:01 pm Chatroulette Founder: All Your Chats Are Belong To Me
What’s important, though, is that I don’t want this space to lie empty for the week. So how fortunate that on Tuesday Andrey Ternovskiy from Chatroulette stopped by the office to say hello. And in keeping with the new TC policy of pointing a camera at all of our visitors, I bullied him into a video interview. Andrey, as you probably know, is from Moscow. And despite the fact that his English is far better than my Russian, his accent – coupled with my ineptitude as an interviewer – did not make for the most gripping viewing. However, there is one clip that stands out, both in clarity and in providing an insight into Andrey’s future strategy for Chatroulette. It came just after I asked Andrey what new features he was planning to add to the service using all the VC money he’s allegedly in town to raise… As he explains in the video, Andrey is worried that when people meet on Chatroulette they frequently decide to keep in touch by exchanging Facebook or Skype details. This is something Andrey wants to discourage, preferring instead to add that functionality to Chatroulette. I asked him to clarify whether he means adding features that will make it easier for users to connect through third party services, or whether he literally means he wants to stop users leaving the site at all – preferring, Veruca Salt style – to keep them all for himself. Andrey was clear: “I don’t like connecting third parties” he said, citing the fact that many Chatroulette users would like to keep in touch with their new friends while retaining the anonymity the service affords them. Given the general Silicon Valley obsession with openness and the decentralisation of the social graph, Andrey’s plan to build walls and lock users in, ostensibly for their own protection, seems odd. Even, one might even say, Soviet. It’ll be interesting to see if VCs in the Valley agree. Another thing that stuck me as I spoke to Andrey was how similar his story sounds to that of an old friend of mine, Alex Tew. Alex, for those with short memories, was the kid who – while still at university – built the Million Dollar Homepage, and in doing so was feted as the web’s biggest marketing genius. VC’s courted him, media outlets around the world profiled him – but like all child stars, the fame was short lived and Alex soon has to return to the realities of running his business and figuring out what to do next. Given the parallels, I couldn’t resist calling Alex on Skype and asking him, firstly, whether he thought Chatroulette would prove to be a sustainable business and, if so, how – especially given that the site is basically “a sex crime waiting to happen”. Here’s what he had to say… I still think the Million Dollar Homepenis idea is a winner. Normal column service resumes next week. Information provided by CrunchBase Information provided by CrunchBase      
Source: TechCrunch | 18 Apr 2010 | 2:59 pm The Chinese Matrix and the War of Internet Addiction
Frank Yu is a Chief Product Officer with BokanTech in Beijing. He also writes the China Angle Column for the Game Developer’s Conference website Gamasutra. Sometimes in the bustle of news and product launches, we tend to overlook some significant events that emerge from the net until months later. One such item was a Chinese machinima video that came out in February of 2010 via online video sites in China called the The War of Internet Addiction. I heard about it back then but thought it was just yet another user generated parody adventure for cheap laughs. I was wrong. While we were chatrouletting in the West, something was brewing in the Chinese Matrix and a homegrown Neo/John Conner had spawned. Using the game World of Warcraft, 100 volunteers, 3 months development time and lots of cigarettes and greasy lunch boxes, video blogger known as Sexy Corn 性感玉米, (age 26 from Hunan China) created a 64 minute machinima that touched a national nerve in China among not just online game players, but a whole generation of young people. The video won the Best Video award in the Tudou Video Film awards in Beijing on April 17, 2010, 3 months after it was first unleashed in China. Tudou, one of China’s largest video sharing sites, holds the awards ceremony each year that has been described as China’s version of Sundance to both honor and focus attention on China’s emerging animation and film making talent. To have what some consider to be one of the most emotional and widespread appeals by Chinese citizens for the end of government repression of the internet and its netizens winning a public award marks an incredible milestone in Chinese media. Getting the award also made me reconsider and watch it for the first time yesterday. The War of Internet Addiction at one level talks about the various plans and rules that Chinese authorities impose on the common netizens in the guise of protecting them from pornography, sensitive topics and as the title implies internet addiction. At another level it mentions the failed government Green Dam content filters, the corruption and tainted food scandals as examples of the many injustices that the common people endur. One of the characters in the video makes a dramatic plea to let them play games and enjoy the virtual world of the internet without government interference. It was this plea that moved the video from being just a game parody but a manifesto for freedom with gut wrenching emotional impact. The censorship and monitoring of domestic web sites and discussion groups are common in China. There is even talk of a new government bureau intended to monitor social network sites alone. Foreign sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Blogspot and Youtube are currently blocked. Flickr, Wikipedia and various Google sites are open now but have been blocked in the past and may be blocked again in the future. In this environment, many creative filmmakers, artists, musicians use “egao”, a Chinese term for a kind of remix culture satire that criticizes without directly confronting, in their works in order to get past the censors and avoid prosecution. Creating a video in the guise of a game narrative gave the video makers a subtle and coded platform to get the message out to their audience and to fly it under the radar of the very people that the video makes fun of. Much of the video alludes to Chinese memes and topical events, such as the bickering between the government regulating agencies for games and the operation transition of WoW from The9 to Netease. The writing and dialogue can best be described as sophomoric but the issues that they confront are not shock tactics to gain notoriety or to make money. The appeal is sincere, even naïve, and has struck a chord with many Chinese, old and young, gamer and non gamers alike. The following is an English translation reprinted with permission by Kaiser Kuo and Jean Shao.
Although there have been many other machinimas and remix videos released in China in the past few years, this video differs in that it is in some ways a call to arms, or more precisely a call to not remain silent, as a protest to current conditions. Although flashmobs may technically be illegal in China, flash mobbing in games has proved to be an outlet by Chinese netizens for expressing dissatisfaction in the past. The winning of this particular video at the Tudou Video Festival this year in China is a window into this growing sentiment against staying quiet when it comes to internet censorship in China.      
Source: TechCrunch | 18 Apr 2010 | 2:51 pm A look at 3 cloud music subscription plans (AP)AP - A look at some of the features offered by competing subscription plans that allow you to listen to songs of your choosing while connected to the Internet over cell phone networks:Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 18 Apr 2010 | 2:47 pm `Cloud' music plans no longer just pie in the sky (AP)AP - There's no more need to own songs before being able to listen to them at your convenience.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 18 Apr 2010 | 2:46 pm Med Tech: New Brain Implant May Cure ParalysisScientists have developed a brain implant that essentially melts into place, snugly fitting to the brain's surface.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 18 Apr 2010 | 2:45 pm Economic Impact of Ash Cloud Rises DailyThe Icelandic volcano eruption has already crippled European air travel, but the overall economic impact is only beginning to be understood.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 18 Apr 2010 | 2:25 pm Why Intel Wants to Get into EnergyIntel showed off an experimental device last week in China that could someday substantially cut the costs of wiring homes and offices for energy efficiency, one more step in the company’s foray into energy.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 18 Apr 2010 | 2:18 pm Newspaper Death Notices May Be a Dying BusinessHugh Pickens writes "Alan D. Mutter writes in his journalism blog 'Relections of a Newsosaur' that some newspapers exploit bereaved families with exorbitantly priced death notices — a distasteful and strategically inept way for them to try to make ends meet. 'I stumbled across the problem this week when I tried to buy a death notice in... the San Francisco Chronicle, which proposed charging $450 for the one-day run of a crappy-looking, 182-word death notice,' writes Mutter. But lose the death notice business, and newspapers risk losing a huge audience driver as well. The solution may be partnering with websites like Legacy.com, a site that already publishes death notices for about two-thirds of the people who die each day in the US. 'It may not be easy to figure out the terms of a broader collaboration, writes Rich Gordon on Poynter.org, 'partly because some newspaper executives are wary of Legacy and feel the company could become a competitive threat for audiences and revenue. But this is exactly the reaction many newspaper executives had to collaborating with Internet companies in other classified advertising categories. I'd hate to see newspapers make the same mistake with death notices and obituaries.'"
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Source: Slashdot | 18 Apr 2010 | 1:53 pm Die Antwoord live, 1-3pm on Coachella Oasis webcastIf you're online between 1pm and 3pm today, tune in to the Coachella Oasis webcast I'm hosting with the LA Times and we will be joined by special guest Die Antwoord, who just played their first US show last night here at the music festival. Tweet me your questions!Source: Boing Boing | 18 Apr 2010 | 1:48 pm NASA Satellite Sees Iceland Volcanic FalloutAs Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull continues to erupt, a NASA satellite images the region and estimates that the volcano is generating enough energy for 60,000 US homes.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 18 Apr 2010 | 1:39 pm Nook, threatened by the iPad, plans many upgrades in the near futureSection: Gadgets / Other, ebooks, Household, Miscellaneous
One big letdown of the Nook is the lack of a web browser. Sure, you really didn’t but it to go online but both the Kindle and iPad have web browsers on them, albeit the Kindle’s is a bit iffy. So B&N is sending out a firmware update (supposedly in the next few weeks) that will add a web browser to your nook. Not sure how that might work with that tiny touchscreen on the bottom but we can hope they tried to make things simple. Maybe just making the touchscreen something like a laptop’s trackpad wouldn’t be that bad. Next change is a cheaper Nook. Like the iPad, B&N will offer a wi-fi only Nook for $199. So you won’t be able to buy books in the park, but hopefully you were going there planning on having something to read anyway. Though the 3G might be helpful with that new browser, 400,000 wi-fi only iPad’s prove that people don’t care. The device is rumored to be ready by the end of Spring. And the big news is a Nook sequel. Codenamed Project Encore, the next edition of the Nook will be ready by the end of the year. Other than that, not much is known. Read [Electronista]
Full Story » | Written by Greg Billetdeaux for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 18 Apr 2010 | 1:20 pm File Sharing Remains a Perk of College LifeAn anonymous reader points out a story on the effect of a new law on file sharing on campuses — in short, it may not make much difference. "Students who are about to graduate often hand down the tricks of stealing music and movies to the next senior class... At the College of New Jersey, that means surreptitiously finding a new home each year for a computer holding an enormous directory of illegal files on the campus. ... The machine runs software called Direct Connect, which lets people on a local network easily trade files among their hard drives in a way that is usually undetectable to anyone outside the network. ... Educause recently unveiled a website with information about the new regulations. It provides case studies from six 'role-model campuses,' listing the steps they are taking to combat piracy. Another page lists 57 legal sources of music and movies on the Web. But when asked which campuses have forged new policies in reaction to the law, Educause officials were unable to name any."
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Source: Slashdot | 18 Apr 2010 | 12:46 pm The User’s Manifesto: in defense of hacking, modding, and jailbreaking
These questions are natural, because a few years ago they wouldn’t even be possible. What reason would you have for breaking open an first-generation iPod, or hacking an original Playstation? The question of “unauthorized software” on System 9 and Windows XP was plainly moot. But as the capabilities of the PC, console, and phone have expanded, so have their magisteria. And as their power grew, so did their chains. These chains were so light before that we didn’t notice them, but now that they are not only visible but are beginning to truly encumber our devices, we must consider whether we are right to throw them off. The answer, to me at least, seems obvious: no company or person has the right to tell you that you may not do what you like with your own property. It really is as simple as that. But let me restate it so no one thinks I was just being deliberately dramatic or provocative. As long as what you are doing is restricted to the privacy of your home or person, no company, no individual, no designer or engineer, no manager, no CEO, can tell you what you may or may not do with a device which you have purchased legally. How could it be otherwise? It’s yours. In other words, you may use your iPhone, PS3, Wii, iPad, TiVo, PC, and any other device you can think of as anything from home server to killer robot control core. Interestingly, it is for some reason far more controversial to oppose Apple’s wishes than, say, Microsoft’s or Sony’s, even when the nature of the opposition is identical (custom software running on a device, for instance). For that reason I’ll be using Apple as my primary example. Now, this isn’t a license to do whatever you want, to whomever you want, at all times. There are several things that limit your freedom, and it is your responsibility to be aware of them: You may have signed a legally binding contract; the effects of your use may extend beyond what you can reasonably expect to be called your own home or person; there are laws governing certain kinds of use. Essentially, know that your device does not exist in a connective vacuum, and you do not live in a social or legal vacuum. Let us say that you bought a hammer. The hammer is clearly designed for hitting nails, and it is sold at a hardware store, next to nails. Are you really restricted to using it for hitting nails? Do you need to buy a special license to photograph it, or use it to tenderize meat? Of course not. But if you stand outside hitting a bell with it all day, your neighbors may rightfully complain. And you can’t go around beating people with it, because that’s assault. I really don’t see why a more complicated device, more versatile, sure, but still a piece of hardware bought at a store, should be subject to fundamentally more stringent restrictions. Your use of the tool or device that you bought is limited only by law and your discretion. Acme Hammer company doesn’t get a say in what you do — and for that reason, they are not liable if you do decide to start hammering people.
But also reflect on the fact that nobody thinks twice about crossing a street at 3AM when there are no cars, because jaywalking laws have no authority when the conditions they are meant to govern are not present. Can we say the same thing of license agreements? We can leave aside the complex philosophical debate that goes along with Law, Justice, and so on — we’re talking about simple cases here. Are you the kind of person who will wait at a “Don’t Walk” sign on an empty street? Then you probably live in Seattle. Also, you’re probably not the jailbreaking type and you’re likely infuriated by what I’ve written so far. At any rate, the most extreme consequence for modding is usually a broken warranty and discontinued support. Oh no! To illustrate this, here’s the relevant portion of the iPad license agreement:
Some will say that because of these you do not “own” the device you bought. But few will say what they mean, viz. that there is in fact no way for you to buy just the Apple hardware — you are actually prohibited from doing so, and are told told to please return the device for a full refund if you do not agree to the EULA for the software. Fortunately, such a flippantly restrictive license is as easy to ignore as it is to create. Make no mistake — such an act is surely “a violation of the rights of Apple.” A violation they will never know about, because there is no way they could ever know. They have as much effective jurisdiction over your home and person as they do over the dark side of the moon. Many EULAs (Sony’s, for example) establish similar unlimited control, which one may (and often will, without knowing) also ignore with impunity as long as the license-granter or other users are not materially effected in any way. It is telling that the punishment for violating the license is effectively voluntary. Although I just recommended a casual disregard for certain laws, you must remember that there are laws you ought to respect. Texting and driving comes to mind. That’s not “doing what you want with your device.” That’s putting the people and things around you in immediate danger. Likewise, it seems obvious that modders should refrain from behavior that strays beyond the bounds of their device or home. Have you broken your Xbox 360 to pieces, installed custom software, and are currently using it as a home media server? Great! Have you modded your PS3 so that it pulls extra packets in online games and causes everyone’s pings to rise? Not so great! Use discretion, and don’t be surprised if, when your practices affect more than just you and yours, you get taken to task for it.
Finally, if you decide to hack or mod your device, you are essentially cutting ties with the company that makes and supports it. If that’s a problem for you, don’t do it. And if you do it, don’t complain. Your complaints will be ignored, as they should be. I hacked my PS2, and when it broke (I had resorted to using a SweeTart to keep one component at the right angle) I didn’t try to return it to Sony. I had made my bed, and I lay right down in it. You’ll have to do the same, even if you brick a brand new iPad while trying to flash its BIOS and install a second OS. The reasoning and explanation above can basically be boiled down to a few basic laws. It seems to me that as long as you stay within these bounds, you should be free from prosecution and criticism. Do no harmHacking your device should not affect anybody else’s user experience. If you break any laws, you should be the only potential victim. Be informedThe risks you take are your own, and you should thoroughly research anything you’re thinking of doing. Don’t pretend cracking open your 360 or jailbreaking your iPhone is a trivial act. Accept the consequencesYou’re giving up your warranty and all the benefits that come with it. You may also be committing a crime. But if you’re okay with all that… Do what thou wiltNo one can tell you what to do with your property in the comfort of your home or on your person. We’re on the frontier, here, which is why this debate is happening. It’s just a bit weird that people who were alarmed by Amazon sucking content off of Kindles are okay with Apple, Sony, and others dictating what you can do with a device you bought. It was only natural that they would try to extend their power to your living room once that was possible, but you can still shut the door in their face. Note that this discussion is not about content or piracy, although there are parallels. This is about the right to use a device as you will. Some of the same arguments apply, and just as information wants to be free, hardware is always at its best unfettered as well. But while there is legitimate dispute about the rights surrounding digital media, I don’t see any real objections to the hacks and modifications possible for your hardware and devices. A popular objection is that one doesn’t have to buy the devices that happen to be wrapped up in restrictive systems or deliberately limited. Vote with your wallet, right? Sure, and even when you jailbreak or mod, you are doing just that. You bought the device most suited to your needs. With the iPad it’s the nicest tablet hardware out there and it has a big user base, which will prompt lots of interesting projects to develop — not all approved by Apple. And while the Apple-imposed limitations on the iPhone were less visible because of the highly-limited competition it leapfrogged, the iPad wears its chains on its sleeve with its lack of extra storage, single proprietary interface, and so on. The numbers of the curious and the dissatisfied will swell as the chains begin to weigh on them. There are greater principles at stake here as well, but I think the simple utility of hacking our devices and the total lack of consequences for anyone involved are the only arguments necessary at this stage. I’ll leave the questions of property, privacy, and other rights to discussion by abler thinkers. Lastly, I would like to humbly thank Apple, Sony, Microsoft, and all the others, for creating wonderful devices which I plan to enjoy to the fullest extent. But I humbly ask them, and everyone else, not to tell me what I can and can’t do with it once my purchase is complete. You should do the same. Digg/Reddit this article!
Source: CrunchGear | 18 Apr 2010 | 12:27 pm School Admin Takes Fifth Amendment in "Peeping Tom" Case - PC Magazine
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 18 Apr 2010 | 12:02 pm Why Linux Is Not Attracting Young Developersjudeancodersfront writes "Jonathan Corbet recently pointed out at the Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit that the Linux kernel team was getting older and not attracting young developers. This article suggests the Linux kernel no longer has the same appeal to young open source developers that it did 10 years ago. Could it be that the massive code base and declining sense of community from corporate involvement has driven young open source programmers elsewhere?"
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Source: Slashdot | 18 Apr 2010 | 11:33 am Hot gaming news for the week of 4-11-2010Section:  No need to scour the interwebs for hot gaming news, Gamertell‘s already done that for you! Here’s a look at this week’s top stories…
Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 18 Apr 2010 | 11:02 am Census offers glimpse of oceans' smallest lifeforms - BBC News
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 18 Apr 2010 | 11:02 am Octopus Steals Video Camera and Swims Off with ItA New Zealand octopus recently stole a video camera and swam off with it while the camera was still recording. Watch the wild ride.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 18 Apr 2010 | 9:48 am Researchers Create New Class of MicrodeviceBy building a six-dimensional motion sensor from a tiny metal bead in a tiny hole, MIT researchers introduce a new class of microdevice. Miniature motion sensors are everywhere these days, detecting the orientation of cell phones, deploying air bags in cars and measuring stresses in buildings and mechanical systems. But manufacturing the sensors’ tiny moving parts requires the same high-tech, billion-dollar facilities that churn out computer chips.Researchers at MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms (CBA) have now built a motion sensor that consists of a tiny metal bead suspended in what the center’s director, Neil Gershenfeld, describes as “a hole drilled in a circuit board.” A fluctuating electric field holds the bead aloft, in a tight orbit, and disturbances of the orbit indicate the sensor’s direction of motion. Gershenfeld believes that the sensor opens the door to a new class of miniaturized devices that exploit the dynamics of simple physical systems instead of the mechanical interactions of precisely micromachined parts. Such “microdynamical” devices, Gershenfeld says, could enable cheaper, simpler, more responsive sensors for a range of applications, including the measurement of sound, pressure, fluid-flow and magnetic fields.The CBA researchers’ device can do the work of at least six different micromechanical sensors. It can measure linear motion in three dimensions, which would ordinarily require three accelerometers. But it can also gauge its orientation — whether it’s tipped sideways or forward, or it’s been rotated — which would usually require an additional three gyroscopes.A six-dimensional sensor would make the motion detection of handheld devices much more precise. The Wii game controller, for instance, wouldn’t need an infrared emitter mounted to the television, and the Apple iPhone would change its screen orientation more reliably. Rehmi Post, a visiting scientist at CBA who initiated the sensor project as a PhD student at MIT, points out that the three-axis accelerometer is the most expensive component of the Wii remote. He believes that ultimately, a six-dimensional microdynamical sensor could be manufactured for about a tenth as much.“If they can get all six degrees out of it, it would be huge,” says Michael Judy, a researcher at Analog Devices, the company that built the Wii’s accelerometers. “That’s the holy grail right now in the human interface to electronics.” Judy says that the application of motion sensing that has sparked the most interest is navigation in environments where GPS information is either unreliable or too imprecise. For instance, local spatial tracking would let hospital workers immediately determine each other’s locations, even on different floors of a large building.Gershenfeld suggests some other applications, too: scrolling through web pages, or viewing a 3-D virtual object from different angles, simply by moving a cell phone in space; or pens that can digitally record whatever’s written with them.Back in the saddleIn the most recent issue of the journal Applied Physics Letters, Gershenfeld, Post and George Popescu, who worked on the project as a graduate student, describe how they built their microdynamical sensor. At its heart is a particle trap, a device commonly used in experimental physics. Physically, the trap is very simple: two metal plates on either side of a circuit board, with a hole about the diameter of an electrical wire drilled through them. But a computer circuit hooked up to the plates exerts precise control over the electric field they produce.The electric field, Gershenfeld explains, can be thought of as saddle-shaped: front to back, it curves upward at the ends, but side to side, it curves downward. The field fluctuates as if it were rotating, and a particle at its center is like a marble on a warped turntable. The marble starts to roll down one of the downward slopes, but the turntable revolves, and the marble finds itself rolling up an uphill slope instead. When it falls back down the slope, it repeats the whole process on the opposite side of the turntable, and so on.A particle in the trap is thus not perfectly still but rapidly oscillating as, in effect, it rolls back and forth between upward slopes. Each of the six types of motion detected by a complete set of accelerometers and gyros disturbs the particle in a distinctive way.“It’s great research,” says Judy. “It has a lot of possibilities. But it needs a lot of work.” He points out, for instance, that generating the electric field in the prototype sensor required voltages in the vicinity of 1,000 volts. Building up that kind of voltage in a handheld device isn’t impossible, but it can introduce power inefficiencies: “The higher the voltage, the more power you burn to get it,” Judy says. Post, however, observes that the lenses in cell phone cameras typically require about 100 volts and that existing technology can generate that type of voltage efficiently. And a commercial version of the sensor would probably use a smaller particle trap, he says: “The necessary voltage decreases as the diameter of the trap decreases.”Another unresolved question, however, is how to measure the particle’s oscillation. In their prototype, the CBA researchers used a miniature camera, and Gershenfeld says that incorporating an optical sensor into a practical, mass-producible device is an engineering challenge “on the order of the optics of a CD player.” In the meantime, however, the researchers are working on a version of the device in which the metal bead is mounted on a wire that can directly relay electrical information about its oscillation. The wire would restrict the particle’s motion in one dimension, but the sensor would be easier to manufacture, and it would still be useful in cars or other vehicles that tend not to suddenly launch into the air.---Image caption:Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 18 Apr 2010 | 9:00 am BOOM! Top Apple news for the week of 4-11-2010Section:  We may not cover Apple 24x7… but we know someone who does! Here’s a few of this week’s hottest from Appletell to get you started…
Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 18 Apr 2010 | 8:44 am Science Determines When Poultry Goes FoulMom's trusty nose may be good, but researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have gone her one better by designing an instrument that quickly and precisely sniffs trace amounts of chemical compounds that indicate poultry spoilage without damaging the product itself.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 18 Apr 2010 | 8:40 am Award-Winning Jenn-Air(R) Wall Oven Embraces Technology for Unequalled Cooking PerformanceConvect Bake combines all elements with a low fan speed for multiple-rack baking. Convect Roast provides a fast fan speed plus broil and convection elements to eliminate the cold barrier surrounding food to sear and roast meats and poultry. Convect Broil uses a fast fan speed plus the broil element for even heat distribution for broiling large amounts of food. Convect Pastry utilizes all elements plus a pulsing low-to high speed fan help create exceptionally flaky crusts. Convect Slow Roast cycles all elements on and off for roasting at 4, 8 or 12 hours. Convect Frozen PizzaSource: RedOrbit News - Technology | 18 Apr 2010 | 5:00 am EU May Allow Some Flights Monday as Ash ClearsAirline companies conduct test flights over Europe and push to resume flights, claiming volcanic ash has dispersed.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 18 Apr 2010 | 2:42 am
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It is becoming alarmingly apparent that 
Between music, 
We reported the details last week 
Slingshot Labs, a research and development arm for News Corp.’s digital properties, has lost its two top execs. President 
For a variety of reasons, too complicated to explain in this short intro paragraph, there’s no NSFW column from me this week. All will be revealed soon, but suffice it to say that any or all of the following are involved: 1) a semi-secret project 2) an unexpected career turn 3) the future of media 4) a plume of volcanic ash from Iceland.
The iPad is all the rage right now and it is threatening many different devices in many markets. Specifically, it is threatening to destroy the eReader market after it just barely reached its prime this Christmas. Recent advancements by Amazon and Barnes & Noble have resulted in their products being placed in Target and Best Buy respectively. But Barnes & Noble has more up their sleeve than just putting the Nook in different retail stores. Instead, they are planning many changes to their device to make it more competitive.
