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Google hackers were after password system - Telegraph.co.uk
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 20 Apr 2010 | 4:04 am Tumblr Raises Another $5 Million From Spark and Union Square. Now It Wants Your Money [MediaMemo]
Three-year-old Tumblr doesn’t charge its 4.5 million users for the service. It doesn’t sell advertising on the page views they generate. And it’s only now beginning to generate “meaningful” revenue, says founder David Karp. (That’s Karp, flanked by two employees, engaged in some kind of new-fangled xtreme sport, on the cover of this week’s New York Magazine) But that hasn’t dissuaded Spark and Union Square, who were the sole investors in the company’s C round, as well as its B round in 2008.* The company has raised $10.2 million to date. So now what? Karp, who turns 24 this summer, says his company has “carved out a real and substantial niche” in the last year, and brandishes numbers to bolster his case. The service, for instance, is now generating 1 billion page views a month. Here’s a chart!
But until recently all of that use hasn’t done much for Tumblr beyond racking up big infrastructure bills. Now Karp says the company is changing that, by rolling out a series of paid services. The LA Times has a nice summary of them, and Karp says there are a “dozen more in the pipeline.” But the short version is that these are primarily bells and whistles — like digital “stickers” you buy for your friends at a buck a pop — that passionate Tumblr users may like, but don’t need. That’s a switch from the company’s earlier plan to bundle lots of must-have features into a “Tumblr Plus” subscription service aimed at its most passionate users. This strategy is a little more seat-of-the pants, but the bet is that it may be easier to coax money out of people a couple dollars at a time. Not coincidentally, it’s the same model that’s working out very well for social gaming companies like Zynga, which is also funded by Union Square Ventures (and to a lesser degree OMGPOP, which is backed by Spark). Zynga is reportedly profitable, and many have it pegged for an IPO in the near future. I don’t see that in Tumblr’s cards, but if Karp and crew were interested I can see them attracting interest from the likes of Google (GOOG) and Yahoo (YHOO) sooner than later. Maybe sooner in Yahoo’s case, if it can’t snap up another company whose CEO also graces New York Magazine’s cover this week. *”Inside rounds” like these are supposed to be no-nos in the VC world, because existing investors traditionally want to find new money to validate their wager. For the counter-argument, consult Tumblr investor Bijan Sabet’s blog (hosted by Tumblr, of course). Source: All Things Digital | 20 Apr 2010 | 4:00 am Iphone 4G prototype is not a fake - Inquirer
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 20 Apr 2010 | 3:59 am Apple worker leaves new iPhone in California bar - Times Online
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 20 Apr 2010 | 3:49 am Discovery set to land at Kennedy Space Center - NECN
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 20 Apr 2010 | 3:49 am Trailer Leak Confirms Marvel vs. Capcom 3 - Atomicgamer
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 20 Apr 2010 | 3:39 am Ford launching SYNC AppLink with voice control over BlackBerry, Android apps - ZDNet (blog)
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 20 Apr 2010 | 3:30 am Review: 'The Edge of Physics' by Anil AnanthaswamyA review of a new physics book with a difference: It's an adventure of global proportions, it explains complex physics in a non-threatening way, and there's humor thrown in for good measure.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 20 Apr 2010 | 3:10 am Baidu to Report First Quarter 2010 Financial Results on April 28, 2010BEIJING, April 20 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- Baidu, Inc. (Nasdaq: BIDU), the leading Chinese language Internet search provider, today announced that it will report its financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2010, after the U.S.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 20 Apr 2010 | 3:00 am Quantum Cryptography Now Fast Enough For Videocremeglace sends in news of a major advance in the speed of quantum key distribution. "Researchers at the Cambridge Lab of Toshiba Research Europe have solved the problem of transferring highly sensitive data at high speed across a long distance network. The team were able to demonstrate the continuous operation of quantum key distribution (QKD) — a system that allows the communicating users to detect if a third party is trying to eavesdrop on the data communication — at a speed greater than one megabit/sec over a 50 km fibre optic network, thanks to the use of a light detector for high bit rates and a feedback system which maintains the high bit rates during data transfer. ... The faster one megabit/sec data handling will allow the one-time pad to be used for the encryption of video — a vast step forward over the current ability to only encrypt voice data."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 20 Apr 2010 | 2:42 am Yahoo Earnings Preview: Cheat Sheets [BoomTown]
Yahoo will announce its first-quarter earnings after the markets close today and also have a call with Wall Street analysts at 2 pm PT. BoomTown will be liveblogging the proceedings, of course. Until then, here’s preview reports about Yahoo (YHOO) from a pair of sharp analysts: Imran Khan of JPMorgan Chase and Mark Mahaney of Citigroup. Overall take: Recovery mode for the Internet giant, due to an upswing in display advertising online, which has been a good thing for the stock. It has risen smartly to prices above $18 in recent weeks, closing yesterday at $18.39. Khan:
Mahaney:
Source: All Things Digital | 20 Apr 2010 | 2:22 am OhGizmo! Review Apple iPadBy Chris Scott Barr Since it was officially announced, I have openly ridiculed the iPad for its shortcomings. I’ve mocked the name (who hasn’t?), the fact that it’s just a big iPod Touch,...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 20 Apr 2010 | 2:17 am New Oriental Announces Results for the Third Fiscal Quarter Ended February 28, 2010BEIJING, April 20 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- New Oriental Education & Technology Group Inc.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 20 Apr 2010 | 2:00 am Mobiqa's Mobile Tickets Save Over 7,000 Miles of Paper for the Travel and Entertainment IndustriesEDINBURGH, Scotland, April 20, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Mobiqa, a leading supplier of content optimised for mobile devices, celebrates Earth Day 2010 by helping its clients save over 7,000 miles of paper - 10 times the length of Britain - with paperless ticketing technology. Mobiqa specialises in the worldwide delivery of barcoded tickets to mobile phones and also in building mobile websites.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 20 Apr 2010 | 2:00 am Jaspersoft Evaluated in Leading Industry Analyst Firm's Report on Business Intelligence PlatformsSAN FRANCISCO, April 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Jaspersoft announced today that leading IT analyst firm Gartner evaluated it in its recently published "BI Platform Licensing Models and Negotiating Strategies." Gartner reports open source BI license models remain a low cost disruptor to traditional BI software offerings, providing both significant initial and long-term cost savings. According to Gartner, "If low license price options meet your functional and other BI platform ownership cost requirements over time, they can offer significant cost savings.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 20 Apr 2010 | 2:00 am Apple Demands iPhone Prototype Back From Gizmodo (PC World)PC World - The latest on that alleged iPhone 4G prototype: Brian Lam, Gizmodo's editorial director, has published an official letter he received from Apple requesting that the device be returned immediately. Gizmodo believes that such official communication proves the device is real. However, it should be noted that this does not necessarily mean that the device is the next iPhone--just that it's an Apple prototype of some sort.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 20 Apr 2010 | 2:00 am An Early Look At Next-Gen Shooter BodycountIf you ask fans of first-person shooters what feature they'd like to see in a new game, their answers — now and for the past 15 years — probably involve destructible environments. Game developers have tried to satisfy this demand with scripted events, breakable objects, and more crates than you can shake a rocket launcher at. However, Bodycount, an upcoming game from Codemasters Guildford, is aiming to deliver what gamers have wanted for so long: the ability to blast apart whatever you please. Quoting the Guardian's games blog from their hands-on with the game: "... it's not just about effect, it's about access. In Bodycount, you can blow chunks out of thinner interior walls, allowing you to burst through and catch enemies by surprise. You can also brilliantly modify cover objects – if you're hiding behind a crate and want to take out enemies without popping up from behind it, shoot a hole in it. Bingo, you've got a comparatively safe firing vantage. The difference between this and say, Red Faction or Bad Company, is that the destruction isn't limited to pre-set building sections. It's everywhere. This should, of course, grind the processor to a halt, but the team has come up with a simple compromise to facilitate its vision. 'The trick is that we're not running full physics on everything,' explains lead coder, Jon Creighton. ... This is tied in with one of the best cover systems I've ever seen. While in a crouching position (gained by holding the left trigger down), you can use the left analogue stick to subtly look and aim around your cover object, ducking and peeking to gain that perfect view of the war zone. It's natural, it's comfortable and it's adaptive, and it will surely consign the whole 'locking on' mechanic to the graveyard of cover system history."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 20 Apr 2010 | 1:59 am Privacy of text messages draws Supreme Court reviewSupreme Court justices appeared open Monday to a California city's claim that a SWAT team officer should not have expected text messages he sent on a government pager to his wife and, separately, a mistress,...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 20 Apr 2010 | 1:37 am Best iPhone Apps For People With CancerAbout.com has published their review of 7 of the best apps for people dealing with cancer. The best iPhone apps for people undergoing cancer treatment or caring for someone with cancer are: iChemoDiary,...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 20 Apr 2010 | 1:27 am China Warns Against IBM Slogan 'Smarter Planet' (PC World)PC World - A Chinese official appeared to take aim at IBM as he warned recently against "Smarter Planet" projects, or the use of technology like networks of sensors in cities to gather and analyze data.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 20 Apr 2010 | 1:20 am For Apple, Lost iPhone Is a Big Deal [Voices]By Miguel Helft and Nick Bilton For anyone who has ever lost a cellphone, remember this: it could be worse. You could be the person who left his phone in a bar in California. And it wasn’t just any phone; it was a supersecret version of the next iPhone. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 20 Apr 2010 | 1:05 am Aquent Announces its Latest New Product Offering - ReviewPadSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 20 Apr 2010 | 1:05 am Steven Levy on Typos In the Kindle Age [Voices]By Steven Levy, Senior Writer, Wired Before a recent trip, I downloaded the latest Stephen Hunter novel to my Kindle. Hunter writes about shooters, so it’s not surprising that the name of the book is I, Sniper. Not that you’d know it from the title screen. The only words on that e-ink page were “I, Snipper.” Snipper! Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 20 Apr 2010 | 1:04 am After Tax Day, Intuit Does Its Own Accounting [Voices]By Ben Worthen, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal Intuit this tax season distributed 10 percent more units of its popular TurboTax software than last year, the company said Monday. Key to that success: giving it away for free. The Mountain View, Calif., software maker said it delivered more than 20 million copies of its software for preparing federal tax returns, a figure which includes a version that consumers can use for free on Intuit’s Web site and another free version that it makes available through the IRS for lower-income people. Surprisingly, Intuit has managed to increase revenue despite adopting a sales strategy that attracts people to TurboTax by offering its use for free. The number of people who use the free version grows every year, says Dan Maurer, senior vice president of Intuit’s consumer group. Intuit’s revenue per return and profits margins for TurboTax have either climbed or remained flat each year. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 20 Apr 2010 | 1:04 am Tweet Tweet Boom Boom [Voices]By Doree Shafrir, Contributor, New York Magazine On any given day in New York City, there are usually close to a dozen, if not more, “meetups” for people who work for tech start-ups. There are NY Tech Meetups, monthly events that can attract nearly a thousand people to an auditorium at the Fashion Institute of Technology, where developers have five minutes to demonstrate what their technologies do and then get to network with the venture capitalists and entrepreneurs and bloggers and assorted hangers-on in attendance afterward at Black Door, a bar on West 26th Street. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 20 Apr 2010 | 1:03 am Four Questions For Nicholas Kristof About Technology and the Developing World [Voices]By Steve Myers, Contributor, Poynter.org New York Times (NYT) columnist Nicholas Kristof has feet in both the First and Third worlds. He’s observed and written about poverty, crises and humans rights abuses around the world. He’s won Pulitzers for writing about the 1989 pro-democracy movement in China and the genocide in Darfur. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 20 Apr 2010 | 1:02 am New Regulations on Campus Piracy Don't Mean New Antipiracy Actions [Voices]By Jeffrey R. Young, Sr. Staff Writer, Chronicle of Higher Education Students who are about to graduate often hand down the tricks of stealing music and movies to the next senior class, in a digital rite of passage. 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. So says a senior at the college, who is moving that computer to the dorm room of an underclassman who has agreed to maintain it next year. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 20 Apr 2010 | 1:01 am Daily Crunch: This Is Amiga Speaking Edition
Vegetable synthesizers are pretty tasty
Source: CrunchGear | 20 Apr 2010 | 1:00 am Cardboard Beer Boxes - New Eco-Friendly Cardboard Kegs Will Revolutionize the Way You Drink(TrendHunter.com) Although beer purists might argue that carbonation can't be maintained in cardboard kegs, this new design by Australian student Thomas Hussey might prove them wrong. These 4-liter...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 20 Apr 2010 | 1:00 am VASCO Showcases DIGIPASS for Mobile at MEFTECOAKBROOK TERRACE, Ill., and ZURICH, April 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- VASCO Data Security Inc.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 20 Apr 2010 | 1:00 am VASCO Showcases DIGIPASS for Mobile at MEFTECSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 20 Apr 2010 | 1:00 am Space shuttle Discovery aims for Florida landingThe weather is looking up for space shuttle Discovery. NASA says the forecast appears favorable for Tuesday morning's landing attempt in Florida. On Monday, rain and overcast skies...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 20 Apr 2010 | 12:58 am And Now For A Moment Of Reflection And Zen In A Harried Day
Narendra Rocherolle, a hippy-type who lives up in Marin County and lives life to the fullest, had a zen moment today while contemplating his dog’s toilet. Dogs, he realized, have been playing foursquare forever. We’re just trying to catch up to our four legged friends.
     
Source: TechCrunch | 20 Apr 2010 | 12:36 am Sassy Highlighter Sandals - The 'Fiona Multi' by Lovely People is a Must-Have for Spring (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) The 'Fiona Multi' by Lovely People is the ultimate sandal for spring. How can a girl be anything but rainbows and sunshine when wearing these hyper-highlighter shoes with an array of...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 20 Apr 2010 | 12:30 am STMicroelectronics Reports on Main Resolutions to be Proposed at the 2010 Annual General Meeting of ShareholdersSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 20 Apr 2010 | 12:30 am STMicroelectronics Reports on Main Resolutions to be Proposed at the 2010 Annual General Meeting of ShareholdersGENEVA, April 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM) has announced the main resolutions to be submitted for shareholder approval at the Company's Annual General Meeting which will be held in Amsterdam on May 25, 2010. The main resolutions, proposed by the Supervisory Board, include: Approval of the Company's 2009 accounts reported in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS);The reappointment for a three-year term, expiring at the 2013 Annual General Meeting, for the following members of the Supervisory Board: Mr.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 20 Apr 2010 | 12:30 am Boozey Bedrooms - The Veuve Once Upon a Dream Exhibit Creates an Intoxicating Experience (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) The Veuve Once Upon a Dream Exhibit was created to showcase the champagne maker's vision of taste and luxury. The bedroom, looking like spaceship sleeping quarters, is meant to offer...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 20 Apr 2010 | 12:00 am Manpower Business Solutions' New 'Resume Response' Offering Addresses Age-Old Recruiting Issue: How to Properly Qualify High Volumes of Resumes, QuicklyMILWAUKEE, April 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Manpower Business Solutions (MBS), the world leader in recruitment process outsourcing, today announced the launch of its newest offering, Resume Response, the first of its kind standalone front-end recruiting solution.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 20 Apr 2010 | 12:00 am Volcanic Eruptions Forces GOeuroSourceIT to Advise its IT Equipment Stockists to Prioritise IT Spares and Parts Supply for the UK and Europe's Emergency and Other Critical Public ServicesGLASGOW, Scotland, April 20, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- As the Icelandic volcano eruption continues to ground many aircraft across Europe and in many parts of the world, IT buyers who are struggling to source IT equipment now have a potential lifeline. With its strong UK and European IT presence of IT equipment stockists and its huge IT inventory database, GOeuroSourceIT is supporting the UK and European IT buyer community by providing the ability to source urgently needed IT equipment such as critical IT spare parts for the UK and Europe's emergency services as well as general business users. GOeuroSourceIT Director, John Wilson says "IT manufacturers with overseas manufacturing who may be struggling to supply critical IT equipment, simply may not be able to meet critical IT equipment buyer demands in the UK and Europe. It may take a little but longer for GOeuroSourceIT stockists to move IT equipment by land and sea within the UK and European market but our members are rising to the challenge.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 20 Apr 2010 | 12:00 am Volcanic Eruptions Forces GOeuroSourceIT to Advise its IT Equipment Stockists to Prioritise IT Spares and Parts Supply for the UK and Europe's Emergency and Other Critical Public ServicesSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 20 Apr 2010 | 12:00 am Ridge Global, Prism eSolutions Form Strategic Alliance To Address Growing Enterprise Risk Management NeedsSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 20 Apr 2010 | 12:00 am Ridge Global, Prism eSolutions Form Strategic Alliance To Address Growing Enterprise Risk Management NeedsWASHINGTON and KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa., April 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Ridge Global and Prism eSolutions (Prism) have created a strategic alliance to offer enterprise risk management services to the private and public sector markets.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 20 Apr 2010 | 12:00 am Online conferencing takes off amid volcano chaos (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 19 Apr 2010 | 11:52 pm Steve Jobs Reiterates: “Folks who want porn can buy an Android phone”
When questioned about Apple’s role as moral police in the App Store, Jobs responds that “we do believe we have a moral responsibility to keep porn off the iPhone.” Better, is what he said next: “Folks who want porn can buy and [sic] Android phone.“ Last week, another Jobs email about the Fiore situation was published in which Jobs called the situation a “mistake.” He noted the same thing in this email, but the porn/Android link is the key here. Assuming this email is legit, this isn’t the first time Jobs has suggested users try Android if they want porn. Earlier this month, during a Q&A session after the iPhone 4.0 OS event, Jobs said:
This is noteworthy both because it’s funny, and because Apple and Google are in the early stages of a war that’s brewing between the iPhone and Google’s Android platform. Jobs is apparently going to keep taking these jabs from what he considers to be the moral high-ground. Read the full back-and-forth below: Matthew Browing, an Apple customer wrote the following to Jobs:
In response, Jobs replied:
Yes, Jobs apparently made a typo (and -> an), but we checked the IP headers on the email and they are legit. Of course, these can be faked, but it seems hard to believe that someone would go to all the work of sending us an email in which they changed all the IPs or manipulated all the time elements only to attach their real name and real email address to send it to us. And no, the email doesn’t end with the usual “sent from my iPhone” or the new favorite, “sent from my iPad,” but again, looking at the header information, that’s because it was sent using Apple Mail. Jobs has been known to do this in the past (and recently) as well.
     
Source: TechCrunch | 19 Apr 2010 | 11:40 pm GeeknRolla London: Live Stream And Agenda For The Day #gknr Well, we know some of you have gone through a lot to be here for GeeknRolla in London, the startup conference from TechCrunch Europe.
And some have had to hang around in London long longer than you thought.
But we know everyone is here to make this a great day to discuss the wonderful world of tech startups, so here's our programme for today.
Below you'll find our live video stream. We're also live blogging on TechCrunch Europe.
Source: TechCrunch | 19 Apr 2010 | 11:39 pm 321 Water Bottle With Built-in Self-Filtering PlungerBy Andrew Liszewski Besides convenience, the reason a lot of people buy bottled water is because they’re leery of the extra ingredients that might be lurking in regular tap water. And while re-usable...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 19 Apr 2010 | 11:23 pm IE8's XSS Filter Exposes Sites To XSS AttacksBlue Taxes writes "The cross-site scripting filter that ships with Microsoft's Internet Explorer 8 browser can be abused by attackers to launch cross-site scripting attacks on websites and web pages that would otherwise be immune to this threat. The IE8 filter works by scanning outbound requests for strings that may be malicious. When such a string is detected, IE8 will dynamically generate a regular expression matching the outbound string. The browser then looks for the same pattern in responses from the server. If a match is made anywhere in the server's response, the browser assumes that a reflected XSS attack is being conducted and the browser will automatically alter the response so that the XSS attack cannot succeed. The researchers figured out a way to use IE8's altered response to conduct simple abuses and universal cross-site scripting attacks, which worked against sites that would not otherwise have been vulnerable to XSS." Here is the researchers' backgrounder (PDF) on the attack. Microsoft says that they have issued two patches that address the issue, but the researchers insist that holes remain.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 19 Apr 2010 | 11:22 pm LEGO Technics iPhone SteadicamBy Andrew Liszewski I’m still excited about the Smoothee Steadicam for the iPhone, Droid and Flip that Tiffen revealed at CES earlier this year. Even if they were a bit sketchy on if or when it was...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 19 Apr 2010 | 11:18 pm Amazon files lawsuit to block N.Carolina's data request(Reuters) - Online retailer Amazon.com has filed a lawsuit in a federal court to block the North Carolina state government's demand it disclose all transaction details, including names and...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 19 Apr 2010 | 11:16 pm 3D Graffiti Programs - Graffiti Analysis Software Breaks Down the Intricacies of Tagging (VIDEO)(TrendHunter.com) Graffiti is an art form that requires a vast amount of skill and technique which is why this Graffiti Analysis software has been invented. The program studies "the motion of graffiti...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 19 Apr 2010 | 11:13 pm Third of U.S. teens with phones text 100 times a dayLOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A third of U.S. teenagers with cell phones send more than 100 texts a day as texting has exploded to become the most popular means of communication for young people,Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 19 Apr 2010 | 11:11 pm Third of U.S. teens with phones text 100 times a day (Reuters)Reuters - A third of U.S. teenagers with cell phones send more than 100 texts a day as texting has exploded to become the most popular means of communication for young people, according to new research.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 19 Apr 2010 | 11:09 pm Fake security software still big problem - SymantecWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Fake security software was the No. 1 cybersecurity woe afflicting computer users in 2009, and Apple users lost some of their immunity to cybercrime as they stored...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 19 Apr 2010 | 11:08 pm Thoughts From the Man Who Would Sell The World, Nicely"My background is in Artificial Intelligence and my last business was building predictive data. Most of our customers were oil companies, and you can hold that against me if you like. But my pitch back...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 19 Apr 2010 | 11:05 pm Selftrade Signs FinScan for 3rd EU Directive Screening ComplianceLONDON, April 20 /PRNewswire/ -- FinScan, a leading international provider of sanctions, PEP and heightened risk screening solutions for the financial services industry, today announced the signing of a new contract with Selftrade, one of the UK's largest execution-only stockbrokers.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 19 Apr 2010 | 11:00 pm 'Greatest Nature Photographs of All Time' Featured in Earth Day AuctionThe "top 40 nature photographs of all time," as selected by the International League of Conservation Photographers (ILCP), will be auctioned by Christie's International on April 22 in honor of Earth Day.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 19 Apr 2010 | 10:53 pm Technology companies fear new legal challenges will come in international trade agreementWASHINGTON - Companies across the technology industry - from Internet access providers to social networking sites to video-sharing services - are bracing for this week's release of a...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 19 Apr 2010 | 10:38 pm Andreessen Horowitz drops out of funding race for Foursquare - CNET
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 19 Apr 2010 | 10:29 pm Tech companies fear implications of trade pact (AP)AP - Companies across the technology industry — from Internet access providers to social networking sites to video-sharing services — are bracing for this week's release of a draft of a trade agreement that they fear could undermine all sorts of online activities.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 19 Apr 2010 | 10:18 pm Low-power version of Bluetooth coming for watches (AP)AP - A new version of the Bluetooth wireless technology could expand what can be done by watches, toys, home sensors, medical monitors and other devices that typically have been limited in their functions because they don't get their batteries changed or charged very often.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 19 Apr 2010 | 10:15 pm Hitler Is Very Upset That Constantin Film Is Taking Down Hitler Parodies
Earlier today, someone attempted to upload a new version surrounding the massive iPhone 4G (or iPhone HD, whatever) news. Unfortunately, as you can see on YouTube, that video has already been removed with the message, “This video contains content from Constantin Film, who has blocked it on copyright grounds.“ Constantin Film is the German film production and distribution company behind the film Downfall (Der Untergang in German). The uploader of one of the Hilter parodies notes in the comments of his video that, “Constatin Films has filed a copyright infringement claim against this video, right before it was about to reach 500,000 views! Even though it falls under Fair Use, I suspect this video will be taken down soon. Sad face.“ Sure enough, many of the other Hitler meme parodies have started disappearing as well (Hitler on Xbox Live, for example). But as of right now, there are so many out there that are subtly different enough that plenty are still up. Still, you can probably expect YouTube’s smart content system to hunt down and find all of these clips sooner rather than later. Now may be the time to appeal to Constatin Film. Downfall is a great movie, but it’s also in German which sadly means that many people outside that country will never watch it. But I’d bet these clips have sparked an interest in the film beyond what any type of traditional marketing could have done. Mostly, I just really want to see Hitler’s reaction to the stolen iPhone 4G. Also, someone really needs to make a video about Hilter being upset that Constantin Film is DCMAing Hitler parodies.
Information provided by CrunchBase      
Source: TechCrunch | 19 Apr 2010 | 10:10 pm Report: China hackers stole key Google program (AP)AP - Computer hackers stole a program that controlled access to most of Google Inc.'s services when they attacked the Internet company late last year, according to a report published late Monday.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 19 Apr 2010 | 10:02 pm Ford’s Sync AppLink is the missing link between driver and smartphone
At launch Pandora, Sticher, and Orangatame’s OpenBreak App for Twitter will work with the service. More apps are sure to come but they need to incorporate a special Sync API in order to work. Drivers will then be able to control the apps via the apps through Sync’s voice commands and steering wheel buttons. This will of course free up the driver’s attention to do other things like, say, driving. On a related note, I’ll be testing driving a 2011 Fiesta this week. Watch out for a full report and hopefully we’ll get to see this new feature in action.
Source: CrunchGear | 19 Apr 2010 | 10:01 pm Velvet Underground vs. Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell
My pal Tara over at Dangerous Minds found this mashup of Velvet Underground's "Venus in Furs" and Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell doing "Ain't No Mountain High Enough." As someone who considers VU one of the greatest bands of all time, and also has a lifelong love of old soul, I was expecting the worst but hoped for the strange. On that, I think it delivers. April 20, 1841: 'Rue Morgue' Paves Way for Detective GenrePoe may not have actually invented the detective story beloved of techies, but his improvements to it have shaped a century-and-a-half of fiction.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 19 Apr 2010 | 10:00 pm Google-Backed Pixazza Extends “AdSense For Images” To Home, Travel And Sports Sites
Pixazza allows publishers to identify, tag and match products found within online images on their sites and then link them back to the inventories of Pixazza’s network of advertisers. The service, which can be integrated in a site by adding a single line of code, allows consumers to browse the photos featured on a site and mouse over it to reveal information and pricing about similar products, and if desired, click to purchase. Additionally, Pixazza shares advertising and affiliate revenues with publishers. More than five million products are available through Pixazza’s service today from retailers and merchants. Pixazza’s technology launched last year with an inventory of listed products catered to entertainment and fashion blogs (Access Hollywood and OK Magazine use the product). And today, the startup is announcing that it has scaled its vast database of products to include images and tags related to the travel, home and sports industries. So, a home decor blog could implement Pixazza on its site. Pixazza’s tagging technology is also compelling; the startup crowdsources workers to list products and tag them with the appropriate link to a retailer. IPixazza’s web service currently serving 5 billion image views per year and seeing more than 19 million unique visitors a month, 70 percent of whom are in the U.S. And the startup says that its images are moused over 14 percent of the time on sites in which its technology is implemented. Pixazza caught the attention of newly launched Google Ventures last year; the startup raised $5.75 million from August Capital, CMEA Capital, and Google Ventures. Pixazza faces competition from Like.com, Image Space Media, GumGum and others. Information provided by CrunchBase      
Source: TechCrunch | 19 Apr 2010 | 9:55 pm Exclusive: Andreessen Horowitz Drops Out of Funding Race for Foursquare [BoomTown]
In an unusual move for a venture firm chasing a hot start-up, Andreessen Horowitz said it has dropped out of the race to be an investor in social location company Foursquare. In an interview tonight, Ben Horowitz, partner in the high-profile VC outfit he helms with Marc Andreessen, said enough was enough related to the intense media and other machinations around the deal, which has included talks to be acquired by Yahoo. “We withdrew our funding offer to Foursquare and we are out,” said Horowitz in an interview with BoomTown. “This is playing out too much in public and clearly someone has an interesting agenda here, so this is not something we want to participate in.” In addition–after making an offer three weeks ago at valuations lower than has been reported, although he would not specify the exact number–Horowitz said that he felt the company had conducted a “process that is very long and undefined.” Indeed, it is not clear what is going on and the situation is rife with speculation about what Foursquare and, specifically, its Founder and CEO Dennis Crowley will do. Foursquare’s board met last week about the acquisition offer by Yahoo that priced the start-up at just above $100 million. It turned that offer down flat, according to sources at both Foursquare and Yahoo. But (YHOO) is still interested, sources said, and seems possibly willing to raise its bid. Also still in the running, Gideon Yu of Khosla Ventures, a rival firm to Andreessen Horowitz, and perhaps several others. In large part, the decision of what to do rests with Crowley, who controls a large chunk of the shares of the start-up. Many think he might be inclined to not sell Foursquare to a large company and take venture funding instead, remaining independent and turbocharging the fast-growing status-update service. Crowley already sold another start-up he founded, Dodgeball, to Google (GOOG) several years ago, and had a very bad entrepreneurial experience. Perhaps that’s why he and Foursquare have so far been very slow to take any of these lucrative offers, despite the fact that it is still small (about one million users) and unprofitable. But, even in dropping out, Horowitz underscored his admiration for Foursquare, noting that Andreessen Horowitz still considered it a great investment. “If the process was changed, we still like the company,” said Horowitz. “But since it has been long and undefined, it is prone to manipulation.” It’s an astounding thing for a VC to say on the record, of course, and entirely true. If you want more of Horowitz, please enjoy this most excellent video interview I did with him last week in Silicon Valley: [ See post to watch video ] Source: All Things Digital | 19 Apr 2010 | 9:26 pm HP Slate finally gets some un-scripted publicitySection: Computers, Mobile Computers, Netbooks  It seems that the only thing in the news these days is tablets. This will be my fifth article in a row about them and I can still say I’m not tired of them. We’ve talked about the iPad and the three models of the Dell Streak; this time, it’s all about the Slate from HP. We’ve seen videos, all pre-planned and scripted to highlight all its amazing features. But today, we get our first real review of the device and well… it isn’t flattering. Conecti.ca had the pleasure of playing with the tablet and the first vibe I get out of it was the love for Apple. Admittedly, all of their claims about an iPod or iPhone killer never really surfacing are true. But I don’t think Apple will have the same foothold in the tablet market. Anyways, they basically say that the Slate being an actual computer has both some big ups and big downs. The good side being that it is basically a Windows netbook so you can install office, chrome, and anything else you could normally have on a Windows computer. On the opposite end of the spectrum, it is a Windows netbook so you get all the long waits that come with it as well. Another upside they mention is the plethora of ports it has including HDMI and USB. That was one of my biggest gripes with the iPad so I find the above fact comforting. Durable design coupled with a brighter screen brings some positive views our way as well.  But looking over the photos myself, one thing sticks out. The dock for the Slate has more I/O ports on it to give the docking station more purpose than just for charging. Maybe Apple will get the message and do something similar with their docking station to make it a bit more worth the $30. Overall, they give the HP Slate a “meh.” Not such a good ending to this story but it seems like they were a bunch of Apple lovers anyway. No Apple fan-boy will ever be satisfied with a Windows computer it seems. But here are the rest of the photos to hold you over. Read[Conecti] Full Story » | Written by Greg Billetdeaux for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 19 Apr 2010 | 9:19 pm Microsoft planning low-cost Windows Phone 7 devices for developing markets
According to Sudeep Bharati, who works on Microsoft India’s Visual Studio team, says that “the low-cost version of the phone will have a different chassis than version 1 to be launched by 2010 end.” Now, it’s not clear whether this is a chassis different from the three already announced. That is to say, it isn’t clear whether it is the third of those chassis or a secret bonus chassis. If I had to guess, I’d say it would sport the minimum spec, since Sudeep said nothing of a different spec sheet. My guess would be: cheaper materials, candy bar build, 320×480 non-LED screen, and bargain bin graphics. [via Engadget]
Source: MobileCrunch | 19 Apr 2010 | 8:59 pm McClure: Hundreds Of Millions Of Dollars For The Web’s Foursquares [Video]
Angel investor, Dave McClure, kicked up some dust this month with his post, “Check-Ins Are Coupons. Game Mechanics Are Bullshit.” His thesis: location based services (LBS) will have to offer real economic incentives if they ever hope to be a mainstream success. Foursquare, with some one million users, is signing up 10,000 to 20,000 new members each day— not too shabby, but it’s certainly no Facebook (try +400 million users). If you need a visual analogy, that’s the equivalent of weighing a male guinea pig (approximately 2 lbs.) against an adult grizzly bear. McClure predicts that Foursquare, Gowalla and others will have to pony up roughly $5 to $10 per user and $50 to $100 per offline business to bulk up fast. But he’s not condemning the sector, in fact he’s quite bullish. Very bullish. McClure says the location based services market should be worth north of $20 billion and the best LBS could realize valuations of several hundred million dollars based on the potential of the market. All of a sudden, Yahoo!’s rumored $125 million offer to Foursquare sounds downright quaint. He predicts that it will take two to five years for an LBS to reach a critical mass of users and small businesses. “It’s no small task to sign up a lot of businesses large or small in 50 metros across the country,” McClure says. That will take years for many people….The advantage in those situations is going to go to the larger brands, more recognized brands, like Google, Apple and Facebook and maybe Twitter.” Speaking of Facebook, McClure still sees Zuckerberg’s portal as the ultimate LBS winner, whether that’s through a hefty acquisition or in-house products. I don’t fully agree with McClure’s conclusions. For example, I don’t think Foursquare, Gowalla, etc., will have to shell out $5+ per head (and $50+ per offline business) to solidify their user base— there is an obvious incentive for offline businesses to get into the LBS game and voluntarily offer users coupons. However, I do think Facebook is the most logical, future king of LBS (barring the fact that they are unfashionably late to the party) because of their huge installed base and high level of user engagement. It’s theirs for the taking, if they want it. See my full video with McClure above. Information provided by CrunchBase Information provided by CrunchBase Image Source: Flickr/bivoir      
Source: TechCrunch | 19 Apr 2010 | 8:38 pm 5-inch Dell Streak to hit T-MobileSection: Computers, Mobile Computers, Networking, Wireless  Dell’s Streak series has been in the news quite a bit lately. Big reveal was last weeks photos of the 7 and 10-inch flavors of the Streak series to surface on the web. Today, it is a filling by the FCC for the Mini 5/Streak/5-inch Streak that shows us Dell wants to get this thing in as many hands as possible. Previously, Dell had filed this Streak to be have 3G under AT&T’s network which would limit its users to ones who have AT&T(if they want 3G). But the most recent filling has the tablet under T-Mobile’s network. It would seem Dell doesn’t like exclusivity, they know that the more people they can offer this product to, the more profit they will make. The wave of tablets is about to crest within the next year. That may seem like a while, but I don’t think it will be long enough to secure any brand’s domination in that market. Dell has two tablets rumored for release within the year. HP has one, Asus, the WePad, possibly Google, the list goes on. We’re about to have a full blown war at our fingertips. Check back on Gadgetell to see who has the largest foothold in this battle. Read [Engadget] Full Story » | Written by Greg Billetdeaux for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 19 Apr 2010 | 8:08 pm Source Code To Google Authentication System StolenAardvark writes "More details are coming out about the extent of the break-in at Google a few months ago. The NY Times is reporting that one of the things stolen was the source code to Google's single sign-on authentication system, called Gaia. Though Google is making changes to the system, the theft raises the possibility that attackers could analyze the code to find new exploits to take advantage of in the future. No wonder that Eric Schmidt recently said they've become paranoid about security."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 19 Apr 2010 | 8:04 pm As Abbott Flocks From Palm To Twitter, Pass Becomes The First Twitter CTO
Abbott will be joining Twitter as the company’s new vice president of engineering, we’ve learned and confirmed with the company. To make room, Twitter’s current VP of engineering, Greg Pass, is being promoted to chief technology officer — becoming the first person to hold the CTO title for the fast-growing company. Pass came over to Twitter as a part of the Summize acquisition (now known as Twitter Search) almost two years ago. He was previously the CTO (and co-founder) of Summize, and before that was a system architect at AOL and co-founded ToFish. Obviously, the Summize acquisition has worked out well for Twitter, as search is now a key part of the service, and is leading the way in the company’s push to start making money — Promoted Tweets will at first rely completely on Twitter Search. Abbott, meanwhile, was previously the general manager for .NET online services at Microsoft. Prior to that, he co-founded Passenger Inc and founded Composite Software. But obviously the Palm gig was his big one as he’s the man who introduced webOS to the world. And while it may have not saved Palm, pretty much everyone agrees that the software was innovative, and the best part of the Pre. Twitter continues to build up one hell of a team. [photo: flickr/jeffrey j schwartz] Information provided by CrunchBase      
Source: TechCrunch | 19 Apr 2010 | 7:26 pm Kindle to expand beyond Amazon? (Christopher Null)Christopher Null - It's a tricky little issue: What if you designed a piece of hardware and were also the only one who sold the software for it? You'd basically have to work twice as hard at sales to get the job done.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 19 Apr 2010 | 7:06 pm Roger Ebert irritating gamers with words once againFROM GAMERTELL - Film critic Roger Ebert has decided to lift his silence on games as art and once again posted his thoughts on the topic on his Chicago Sun Times blog titled “Video games can never be art.” Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 19 Apr 2010 | 7:02 pm Could Apple get in bed with AMD? (Christopher Null)Christopher Null - The headline seems almost unfathomable: Apple is said to be in advanced talks with AMD to integrate its CPUs into its products.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 19 Apr 2010 | 6:58 pm Facebook Borrows Another Feature From Twitter (Or Was It FriendFeed?): The Hovercard
There’s been quite a bit of Facebook news today, with a redesigned Interests page, the addition of a new section to Facebook’s privacy settings, and the launch of Communities as Facebook sets out to own people’s interests. We’ve just come across one more subtle new change: Facebook is getting hovercards. During a press briefing today Facebook mentioned the use of the new popups in its redesigned Interests section, which now links your favorite books, activities, and movies with their corresponding Facebook Pages. Mouseover one of these now, and you’ll see a small popup that shows how many users also ‘Like’ that page. What Facebook didn’t mention is that these popups are also being used throughout the site.
Hover your mouse pointer over a user’s name in the News Feed, and you’ll see how many friends you have in common, along with a link to message them. Mouseover an event, and you’ll get an at-a-glance look at where and when it’s being held, and how many of your friends are going. It’s quite handy. From what I can tell this hasn’t been rolled out to everyone yet — it may well be rolling out alongside the Community feature and updated Activity/Interest pages. Twitter launched similar hovercards in February, and they’re also included in Twitter’s @anywhere platform. But Twitter was hardly the first to implement the feature: FriendFeed (which Facebook used to copy quite regularly and eventually acquired) has had them for quite a while.
Information provided by CrunchBase      
Source: TechCrunch | 19 Apr 2010 | 6:57 pm HTC Droid Incredible pre-order beginsSection: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones
As many early HTC Droid Incredible reviews circulate on the web, the Verizon, Android, and HTC faithful have already begun flocking to Verizon’s online website to pre-order the latest Verizon-Android smartphone. The pre-orders between now and the launch date (April 29) will cost only $199 assuming a new two year contract. All customs with pre-orders placed before 4PM EST on April 28 will receive their HTC Droid Incredible on the 29th. Here’s a quick recap of the notable HTC Droid Incredible specs: it operates on Android 2.1 (and HTC Sense), features a 1GHz processor, 8GB onboard memory, can download and install over 30,000 apps, and sports a 8MP camera. Place your pre-order today [Verizon] Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 19 Apr 2010 | 6:55 pm Volcano science update: Two surprising reasons to go boom
Geologic wonder and part-time smoke bomb, Eyjafjallajokull, was still burping out ash clouds today, though experts say the eruption is showing signs of slowing down. Our thoughts are with all the stranded travelers and the tongue-tied TV journalists forced to go on trying to pronounce the volcano's name. On the plus side, the Eyjafjallajokull eruption has become a bright and shiny news hook for all sorts of interesting volcano science stories.
First fun fact:One volcanic eruption can trigger a blast in a nearby volcano
Volcanoes explode because the pressure of the magma building up in the chamber forces it out, which then relieves the stress in the chamber; but what relieves stress in the one chamber could increase stress in a neighboring chamber. Next up: Some recent research suggests that climate change could trigger more frequent eruptions in Iceland
Source: Boing Boing | 19 Apr 2010 | 6:44 pm What's up on the Internet: Yaka-wow! Are you a breezy person who goes, "Yaka-wow!"? Maybe you already were, and just didn't know it. Alice Bell, science communication lecturer at Imperial College, London, explains:
More specifically, yaka-wow is the accidental brainchild of British neuroscientist Susan Greenfield. In the UK, Greenfield is known for holding the rather controversial position that use of computers and video games irreparably damages children's brains—unless, of course, said children are using her computer games, in which case they will become smarter. You see the problem. Last Thursday, Greenfield gave an interview to the London Times, which led to this fabulous exchange:
Within hours, yaka-wow had inspired a Twitter stream, poster, T-shirt and burgeoning personal philosophy. But why yaka-wow? Bell says it's probably a fortuitous typo:
Naturally, that quote inspired mathematician Matt Parker to thoroughly wow the web by pulling both his socks on at the same time. Image courtesy the brilliant mind of Adam Rutherford. Source: Boing Boing | 19 Apr 2010 | 6:16 pm Drupal upgrade to be slower but more scalable (InfoWorld)InfoWorld - Drupal, the popular open source Web content management system, will sacrifice speed for scalability in the upcoming Drupal 7 upgrade, the founder of the project said on Monday afternoon.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 19 Apr 2010 | 6:03 pm DirecTV would like to remind you that they will have Avatar on time, unlike Netflix
In a press release issued today, DirecTV took the rather predatory approach of pointing out that while Netflix and RedBox won’t have movies like Avatar on the release date, you will be able to rent them using DirecTV. Of course, that’ll cost you between $4.99 and $5.99 per title, which ironically is nearly the same cost of a month of Netflix. DirecTV also stated that they were really really sorry, but due to their deal with the movie studios, they can’t offer a subscription model like Netflix does. So there.
Source: CrunchGear | 19 Apr 2010 | 6:00 pm Geek Power: How Hacker Culture Conquered the WorldThe author of Hackers circles back some 25 years later to catch up with some of the coders, visionaries and nerds who built our digital world -- and checks in with the next gen of masterminds.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 19 Apr 2010 | 6:00 pm Rough Riding Cellphone Is a Glutton for PunishmentCasio's newest rugged cellphone isn't just a slick touchscreen-sporting piece of hardware, but it will survive abuse short of a nuclear blast.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 19 Apr 2010 | 6:00 pm Rough Riding Cellphone Is a Glutton for PunishmentCasio's newest rugged cellphone isn't just a slick touchscreen-sporting piece of hardware, but it will survive abuse short of a nuclear blast.
Source: Wired: Gadgets | 19 Apr 2010 | 6:00 pm What Is the Future of Firewalls?jlmale0 writes "When I mess with my WAP/router at home or coordinate with the network team at work, it seems like I'm stuck in 1995. We're still manually listing IP address/port combinations for our firewall rules. There's a certain simplicity to this when dealing with a single system, but there are firewalls everywhere these days. What's available for managing complex firewall arrangements? What's being developed? Can I take a Visio diagram, run it through a script, and get a list of firewall rules? What about a GUI that illustrates the current system configuration and then lets me drag and drop systems across firewalls, and have the individual firewall ports automatically configured? What about tying a firewall into an authentication system so that when jdoe logs in, only then are the firewalls opened to pass her traffic? What about managing distributed firewalls so that one repository of rules opens up your system's firewalls, the DMZ firewall, and the public firewall all at once? Let's get a conversation started. What cool projects do I need to know about? What cool management features would you like to see? What's next for firewall management?"
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 19 Apr 2010 | 5:59 pm Volcano Can't Match GeoengineeringOne of the top geoengineering schemes to address global warming calls for injecting aerosols into the stratosphere, similar to a ginormous volcano eruption. And look--there's a ginormous volcano erupting right now in Iceland! In an ironic twist, scientists are reporting ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 19 Apr 2010 | 5:55 pm New iPhone captured in the wild?FROM APPLETELL - Tech blog Gizmodo seems to think they’ve actually got their hands on the new iPhone. And unlike all those grainy Bigfoot images and video, they’ve got many crisp, clean photos and video to prove it. Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 19 Apr 2010 | 5:54 pm Chimerical Avatars and Other Identity Experiments from Prof. Fox Harrell
After spending his youth happily playing computer and table-top role-playing games as pale-grey-skinned elves with long, straight, silver hair (usually over one eye), or "forcing African-coifed robot pilots into the anime world of Macross," Fox Harrel says he started wanting to play characters that expressed and presented themselves in ways that captured his real world cultural values, though still set in those same fantasy worlds. That hasn't always come easily. I asked Fox, a computer scientist and literary artist, for some examples.
Fox is a professor and director of the Imagination, Computation, and Expression Lab/Studio at Georgia Tech. His research and software development are all about creating new opportunities for fluid, nuanced narratives, identities, and social categories to take shape--and shift shape--online.
Shape-shifting poetics
Fox: If I were to enter that "Lissa is courageous like a lion" and someone else enter that "Lissa is strong like a stegosaurus," the system would output a hybrid animal images as an avatar. The idea is to look at how people define each other socially, like the collective ratings of sellers on eBay, but through richer imagery and with more nuance. It is also about the difference between one's self-conception and how others might see her, an idea written about as long ago as W.E.B. DuBois's introduction of the term "Double Consciousness" in The Souls of Black Folk. Conjuring social change through computation
Source: Boing Boing | 19 Apr 2010 | 5:44 pm Palm now waiving the $99 annual fee for webOS development
It’s no secret: Palm’s webOS needs apps. The iPhone has over 180,000. Android has over 68,000. webOS has, as of right this second, 1,812. Quantity by no means equals quality — but when the difference we’re talking about is that huge, it gets harder and harder to pitch that angle with a straight face. Looking to capture the hearts and minds of developers everywhere who might not otherwise give webOS a chance, Palm is now waiving the $99 dollar fee associated with publishing apps on the platform.
The catch: Palm says it’s only for a limited time. In other words, its almost certainly a test run. If their development numbers spike, they’ll probably keep it free; if there’s not much of a change, it’s not worth giving away something they could be selling. It’ll be interesting to see how this pans out for Palm. The SDK itself — the bit needed to actually start developing — has always been free. Only once a developer wanted to push their app to the App Catalog were they required to cough up the $99 bucks. Was that entry fee holding back a massive crowd of dirt-broke developers? Probably not. But each new developer that comes on board could potentially build something amazing — and if all a great, platform-defining App costs Palm is a Franklin, it’s probably worth it. Ready to get your fee-less development on? Check out their registration page here while the gettin’ is good.
Source: MobileCrunch | 19 Apr 2010 | 5:35 pm Don’t let Tron guy have all the fun – get this glowing Tron shirt
The sweet glow-in-the-dark piping looks to be very nicely adapted from the movie, and the shoulder pads are a nice touch. Of course, wearing this is perhaps even nerdier than wearing a Wi-Fi detecting shirt. Girl not included. [via The Daily What and Dvice]
Source: CrunchGear | 19 Apr 2010 | 5:30 pm Airlines Push to Reopen European AirspaceAirlines conduct flight tests and find no damage from the volcanic ash that's grounded air travel. The industry may seek a bailout to recover from its losses.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 19 Apr 2010 | 5:30 pm Adding Some Spice To *nix Shell ScriptsAn anonymous reader writes "Developing GUI script-based applications is time-consuming and expensive. Most Unix-based scripts run in a CLI mode or over a secure ssh session. The Unix shells are quite sophisticated programming languages in their own right: they are easy to design and quick to build, but they are not user-friendly in the same way the Unix commands aren't (see the Unix haters books). Both Unix and bash provide features for writing user friendly scripts using various tools to build powerful, interactive, user-friendly scripts that run under the bash shell on Linux or Unix. What tools do you use that spice up your scripts on the Linux or Unix platforms?"
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 19 Apr 2010 | 5:14 pm IBM's Net Rises 13 Percent [Voices]By Spencer E. Ante, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) showed further evidence of a recovery in technology spending, posting a 13 percent rise in profit for the first quarter driven by growth in the company’s software business and emerging markets. The wide-ranging conglomerate said it is seeing broad improvement in its business lines and raised its outlook for the full year. The outlook reflects some optimism about the business environment and the company’s long-running shift into higher-margin activities and faster-growing areas of the globe. “We are in more of a growth mode,” IBM Chief Financial Officer Mark Loughridge said on a conference call. “I feel like we have a good hand going into the second quarter.” Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 19 Apr 2010 | 5:05 pm Are video games art?
I’m hesitant to write this because, really, who cares? And I don’t mean that in a negative, cynical way at all, but rather in a practical way. Clearly there are people who enjoy playing video games, just as there are people who enjoy creating video games. Why should these people concern themselves with whether or not Roger Ebert, a 67-year-old man who wouldn’t know the difference between World of Warcraft and The Legend of Zelda if you smashed his face in with the blunt end of the Master Sword, “approves” of their pastime or vocation? Let’s not forget, Mr. Ebert, that movies weren’t always considered art. How could a movie tell a story as well as a novel? And surely a movie is nothing but a poor imitation of a play—who would sit in front of a screen to watch a lousy recording when they could sit mere feet away from the actor himself, live and in the moment? Later, once movie forced their way into mainstream culture, wasn’t there a debate as to whether serious movies would ever have sound, or would ever be in color? (The same debate is happening right now with 3D movies.) So let’s not pretend that movies were always beatified—or that they were considered works of art. And what does “art” even mean? It comes to English by way of Latin (eventually), and it means “arm.” That is, it’s merely something you do (with your arms). “Nice painting, that must be art. Nice poem, that must be art. Nice chair you carved, must be art. Nice code you’ve written, must be art.” Aren’t the truly great athletes considered artists? Isn’t what someone like Leo Messi does, or what LeBron James does, considered “art”? More importantly, why should gamers (and the people who make them, who presumably are also gamers) worry about whether or not today’s generation of critics consider what they do to be art? Again, Mr. Ebert is an older gentleman who doesn’t really have a horse in this race, so to speak. You show him Heavy Rain and all he sees is Galaga. There’s no point in trying to convince him the world is round when he knows the world is flat. I just mixed about 800 metaphors in there and I don’t care. “Are games art?” Well yes, obviously, but we shouldn’t feel as though we have to impress anybody by affixing a handy label—art—to doing what we like to do. Do your own thing, that’s all. Stop worrying about whether or not The Man places his stamp of approval on you. But I suspect Ebert was just trolling. Well done, then.
Source: CrunchGear | 19 Apr 2010 | 5:00 pm Toyota and Top Gear Tackle Icelandic VolcanoToyota, eager for some good publicity, is happy to crow about the feat. At least it sent along some good pics.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 19 Apr 2010 | 4:57 pm Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens are planning to have the Pope arrested in the UKIt's a buddy-cop movie plot for the new millennium: Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens are teaming up to arrest the Pope when he comes to Britain in September.Dawkins, author of The God Delusion, said: "This is a man whose first instinct when his priests are caught with their pants down is to cover up the scandal and damn the young victims to silence."Richard Dawkins calls for arrest of Pope Benedict XVI Source: Boing Boing | 19 Apr 2010 | 4:37 pm A Next Generation iPhone Walks Into A Bar…
Yes, it appears that the next hardware iteration of the iPhone (two common monikers are ‘iPhone 4G’ or the ‘iPhone HD’) has been outed. And while the apparent specs are sexy (higher rez screen, front-facing camera, bigger battery, etc), the story behind the leaked device seems even more interesting. The Pictures This weekend, Engadget ran pictures of the device, stating that they were taken by someone who found it on the floor of a San Jose bar (!). The pictures were a little blurry and didn’t show the device running, so naturally, many were skeptical. In fact, shortly after Engadget’s post, a number of sites, including MacRumors, were reporting that the images were actually of a cheap Asian knock-off of the iPhone. Engadget came back with another post supposedly proving the device was real (noting the same device appeared to be in an early leaked picture of the iPad). Then Daring Fireball’s John Gruber talked to some of his sources and concluded that the device was, in fact, real (but wasn’t sure if it was a prototype unit or the real deal). MacRumors then came back and reported that the story about it being an Asian knock-off was itself fake. Then things got really interesting. The Hands-On In Engadget’s initial post, they noted that the author of the pictures was offering to sell some hands-on time with the device for an unstated fee. For some unknown reason (perhaps so as not to tip off rivals), Engadget quickly removed this part from the post. But it didn’t matter, because it appears that rival gadget blog, Gizmodo, jumped on the opportunity to pay for access to the device. Only they didn’t just pay for face-time, they bought the whole thing. After playing around with it for a few days, this morning, Gizmodo ran a full review of the device including several pictures and videos. Judging from this review, which includes a look inside the device, it does appear that this thing is very real.
The Skepticism Still, that isn’t stopping others from continuing to claim that the hardware is fake. (They apparently believe that the insides of an iPhone 3G were simply ripped out and stuffed into this Asian rip-off case — a claim that seems highly unlikely, at best – and ludicrous, at worst.) Others are suggesting this was a controlled leak by Apple. This also seems highly unlikely. It is believed that Apple does leak out information from time to time — notably to the Wall Street Journal — but it’s never hardware. Pulling a Nine Inch Nails and leaking USB drives with new songs in concert venue bathrooms is simply not the Apple way of doing things. They’re more subtle, and let journalists draw their own (sometimes wrong) conclusions. The Legality There are still a few oddities to all of this. First, assuming this is real, it is definitely the most high-profile leak of all time out of the super-secretive Apple. Hell, it may be the most high-profile hardware leak of all time from any company. If there has ever been anything that will draw the wrath of Apple’s legal team, this would seem to be it. And yet, if Gizmodo (or its parent, Gawker) have gotten a take-down notice, they haven’t let it be known yet. It’s possible, and likely even probable, that Apple is taking this as something worthy of action much more serious than the fairly common takedown notices the company sends from time to time. As Gruber noted earlier today, according to his sources, Apple considers this device to be not lost, but stolen.
The Money And that angle comes into play when you consider that Gawker did, in fact, pay for the device. Also interesting is a tweet from Engadget writer (and former attorney) Nilay Patel, “Here’s an interesting fact: in California, the finder of a lost item is required to tell the police and turn it over to rightful owner.” It’s not clear if that’s why Engadget did not purchase the device after posting the pictures. The price paid for the device is not known, though a $10,000 figure is being thrown around (others are saying $5,000 plus traffic bonuses). As you might imagine, the traffic for Gizmodo have been huge today, something above 3 million hits already. Some have tried to calculate out if this makes the $10,000 worth it (based on ad revenues). But, as Gawker’s Erin Pettigrew points out, “Ad demand only matches ad supply that way if using remnant networks/exchanges. We’re not, so no real rev gain in news spikes.” The Power Then there’s the whole issue of Gizmodo not being able to power on the device, despite having it. While it is possible to remote wipe iPhones, this wouldn’t completely kill the device, just remove all its data. But perhaps Apple built a special kill functionality into this prototype unit for situations exactly like this. The device does show a “Connect to iTunes” screen (which is how Gizmodo is able to judge the higher-resolution screen), but that is all.
Finally, you have to wonder how the hell Apple let someone out of the building with this device? Apple is known to lock employees in rooms (entered through several secure doors) in order to use new devices. It’s even believed that sometimes they make people working on the devices do so under black cloaks. Naturally, the people in these rooms are monitored at all times. The Turn So if someone left Apple with this product, you almost have to believe it was a high-level executive. But still, what on Earth are they doing bringing it to a bar? (Maybe one of their kids swiped it from home? Who knows.) Yes, Apple employees were spotted in the wild with the original iPhone before its launch, but that device had already been unveiled on stage by Steve Jobs months earlier. This is much, much different. The Prestige On the other hand, you almost have to believe that this device was meant to leave 1 Infinite Loop — that’s why it had the false iPhone 3G cover. Apple may have given a few of these devices out to trusted employees in this disguise to test in real-world situations. After all, if this thing does have a new type of back (glass, ceramic?), they’ll want to know how the wireless radio performs before it’s released to the public. Yes, even in bars. (Let me make the first “more bars in more bars” joke.) Update: Gizmodo has now outed the Apple employee who lost the phone. He’s apparently a software engineer working on iPhone baseband software (so you can actually make calls when AT&T is cooperating), and supposedly he left the phone at a bar in Redwood City on March 18. The fact that the phone is that old makes an earlier TwitPic leak make more sense, and means the device could very well be an early prototype that will change. The Unprecedented Often, the best tech stories have interesting backstories — and this certainly fits the bill. We’re likely two months away from the actual unveiling of the iPhone HD (we’ll go with that name for now, given the screen resolution), and yet, we’ve apparently already seen it. With Apple, given the lengths they go to to make sure something like this doesn’t happen, it’s unprecedented. And while I’m sure Apple is beyond pissed off about this leak, it has the Apple base super-excited about the future today — even as the apparently best Android phone yet, the Droid Incredible, is set to launch. All anyone is talking about is the iPhone. As usual. Of course, this means that when Steve Jobs takes the stage in June, he may actually need a “one more thing” moment. Without it, we may be bored by a presentation full of what we already know. Update: And finally, here’s a note from Apple’s legal team requesting the device back. Gizmodo’s Brian Lam says he took a call from Apple today (no word on whether it was Jobs himself) and that he would give the phone back if Apple sent proof in writing that it was actually their equipment. They sent the note, now Gizmodo is giving it back. Thus ends the iPhone 4G saga. For now.      
Source: TechCrunch | 19 Apr 2010 | 4:31 pm Splinter Cell: Conviction: A sneaking suspicion - CNET
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 19 Apr 2010 | 4:30 pm Mother explains why she gives pot to her 9-year-old autistic sonMarie Myung-Ok Lee wrote a great piece for Slate about giving cannabis to her 9-year-old autistic son.Why I Give My 9-Year-Old Pot Source: Boing Boing | 19 Apr 2010 | 4:30 pm Gates, Zuckerberg Meet for Wired Cover ShootAfter his appearance on five Wired covers, Bill Gates finally sits for our photographer for the May 2010 issue with Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 19 Apr 2010 | 4:30 pm SEC Proposes Wall Street Transparency Via PythonAn anonymous reader writes "A US federal agency is considering the use of computing languages to specify legal requirements. 'We are proposing that the computer program be filed on EDGAR in the form of downloadable source code in Python. ... Under the proposed requirement, the filed source code, when downloaded and run by an investor, must provide the user with the ability to programmatically input the user's own assumptions regarding the future performance and cash flows from the pool assets, including but not limited to assumptions about future interest rates, default rates, prepayment speeds, loss-given-default rates, and any other necessary assumptions.' Does this move make sense? If the proposed rule is enacted, it certainly will bring attention to Python or other permitted languages. Will that be a good thing?" The above quotes were pulled from pages 205 and 210 of the dense, 667-page proposal document (PDF). Market expert and professor of finance Jayanth R. Varma says it's a good idea.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 19 Apr 2010 | 4:25 pm Celebrate Ooma Purevoice with a free Ooma Telo handset and 1 year of service
How do you win? The press release follows, but you know what to do.
Source: CrunchGear | 19 Apr 2010 | 4:12 pm Motion Comics Evolve With 'Iron Man: Extremis'Marvel's latest audiovisual update tackles the popular Shell-Head series by writer Warren Ellis and artist Adi Granov.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 19 Apr 2010 | 4:03 pm JOBO announces updated two new photoGPS models
Both of the new GPS units feature improved memory storage, additional coverage, and more points of interest. The new versions will be available at the end of this month, and are expected to retail at $99 for the photoGPS 2, and $129 for the photoGPS 4. From the press release:
Source: CrunchGear | 19 Apr 2010 | 4:00 pm Facebook integration coming to the iPhone? - Los Angeles Times (blog)
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 19 Apr 2010 | 3:52 pm Ancient Hominids Had Humanlike GripHominids may have evolved thumbs long before they figured out how to make tools.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 19 Apr 2010 | 3:50 pm Roger Ebert On Why Video Games Can Never Be ArtRoger Ebert has long held the opinion that video games are not and can never be considered an art form. After having this opinion challenged in a TED talk last year, Ebert has now taken the opportunity to thoughtfully respond and explain why he maintains this belief. Quoting: "One obvious difference between art and games is that you can win a game. It has rules, points, objectives, and an outcome. Santiago might cite an immersive game without points or rules, but I would say then it ceases to be a game and becomes a representation of a story, a novel, a play, dance, a film. Those are things you cannot win; you can only experience them. She quotes Robert McKee's definition of good writing as 'being motivated by a desire to touch the audience.' This is not a useful definition, because a great deal of bad writing is also motivated by the same desire. I might argue that the novels of Cormac McCarthy are so motivated, and Nicholas Sparks would argue that his novels are so motivated. But when I say McCarthy is 'better' than Sparks and that his novels are artworks, that is a subjective judgment, made on the basis of my taste (which I would argue is better than the taste of anyone who prefers Sparks)."
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Source: Slashdot | 19 Apr 2010 | 3:42 pm Facebook To Twitter: Back Off, We Own People’s Interests
The battle over who owns your interests on the Web intensified today as Facebook started rolling out a set of new features designed to connect people more closely to the topics they care about. Millions of new so-called Community Pages now exist around topics such as cooking and yoga. They should more properly be called Interest Pages, though. Members are being prompted in their profiles to “like” some of them (which is replacing the notion of becoming a fan of a page). Not only that, but Facebook is planning on spreading these “like” buttons throughout the whole Internet. So what is behind these seemingly esoteric changes and what does it have to do with Twitter? Whoever knows what your interests are right now and can package them up for advertisers has the chance to make a lot of money. Of course, Google does this right now every time you declare your interests in a search box and it offers up matching ads on the side of results. But Facebook and Twitter are trying to capitalize on the shift from search to sharing. Your interests are expressed by what you follow and react to (“like,” “retweet,” etc.), not only what you explicitly seek out through search. Last week at Twitter’s Chirp developer conference, COO Dick Costolo described Twitter as a “realtime interest graph” (watch the beginning of the video below). If the social graph is defined by the social connections between people, the realtime interest graph is defined by the topics those people pay are attention to right now. Here is how Costolo explained it:
In other words, by studying who someone follows, retweets, and favorites, Twitter thinks it can paint a picture of a person’s interests for better targeting by advertisers. But Facebook tries to collect much richer data about people’s interests than simple status updates. Facebook’s announcements today are in part a way for it to assert its dominance over the interest graph. Facebook has always asked people what their interests are and allows advertisers to target them based on those interests. The problem is that nobody ever updates those interests, and many people don’t even bother to fill them out. With the new Community Pages, when you “like” an interest you start getting updates from that page inserted into your stream, making it a more dynamic relationship. The same thing could happen once Facebook’s like buttons appear on other Websites. It is very easy to click a “like” button, but if that automatically subscribes you to a particular feed, it could also become a social marketing opportunity. So be careful what you like. Who do you think is better positioned to build a realtime interest graph, Twitter or Facebook?      
Source: TechCrunch | 19 Apr 2010 | 3:39 pm Microsoft Fix It comes to Windows Vista, XP
Good news for those of you who are still plugging along on Windows XP and Vista. Microsoftis bringing Fix It to said operating systems; it’s already available on Windows 7. Fix It tries to—wait for it—fix your PC problems before they require your to break out a sledgehammer and teach your hard drive a lesson. It’s in beta right now, so feel free to give it a shot. “Feel free,” as if I’m the arbiter of your free time! Fix It seems pretty handy. It scans your PC (and any devices you have connected to it, like external hard drives and the like) for some 300 glitches and problems, and offers to fix ‘em for you then and there. Thank you, Microsoft, though it’s a shame there are so many issues to begin with. Or, as John’s unhelpful suggestion goes, “Fit It? Get a Mac.” Yes, let me spend an arm and a leg to buy an underpowered, overpriced laptop. A nice laptop, certainly, but it’s not exactly cost-efficient. I’ve been using Windows 7 pretty much full steam ahead since December (though I still old Macs laying about), and I’ve had zero issues to speak of. Viruses, trojans, inexplicable glitches, etc. Knock on wood, of course.
Source: CrunchGear | 19 Apr 2010 | 3:30 pm WWE Latest: Two years after App Store launch, WWE launches 1st iPhone App
It took WWE almost two years to release an iPhone App, but here we are. That’s right, today the company, which fancies itself as some sort of catch-all, cutting-edge entertainment juggernaut, has bequeathed upon the world WWE Latest [iTunes link], a 99 cent App for the iPhone and iPod touch. It’s fairly basic, but should help those of you itching for, I don’t know, Diva photos or Raw results. You do know your iPhone has a perfectly viable Web browser, right? No, 99 cents isn’t a lot of money—it’s pretty much free, guys—but what would compel someone to pay one cent for something that’s freely available via Safari (or Opera Mini)? There’s not too much going on in the App. You’ve got News, Photos, and Videos to choose from, and that’s it. Again, you can find news, photos, and videos on the Internet just fine. For something that took two years to come out, it’s sure a little lackluster. You look at other sports Apps, most notably the MLB App [iTunes link], and think, “Well, now this is something that I can show my friends.” It really makes use of the iPhone’s hardware, whereas WWE Latest seems like WWE.com in a self-contained window. Push the cruiserweights, etc.
Source: MobileCrunch | 19 Apr 2010 | 3:00 pm LEGO Prince of Persia – wait, it’s actual LEGOs?I suppose it’s mixed blessing for LEGO that when I saw the headline “LEGO Prince of Persia” I immediately thought of their successful video game line. I played with LEGOs when I was young, but I wonder how long they’ll remain relevant when even fans like myself cease to think of LEGO as the actual blocks, and think of them more as a brand of toys and games. Ah well. At any rate I would have played the hell out of this set when I was a kid, though I would probably lose that dagger pretty quickly.
Source: CrunchGear | 19 Apr 2010 | 3:00 pm Fatal Flaw Discovered In Invisibility CloaksKentuckyFC writes "Carpet cloaks took the world by storm last year because they were the first devices to hide objects at optical frequencies. The idea is that a thin layer of dielectric material placed on a surface can make light look as if it is reflecting off the original surface. In other words, the layer is invisible and anything embedded within it is invisible too. This trick is like hiding something under a carpet, hence the name. Carpet cloaks are relatively easy to make because the dielectric material does not need to be specially constructed to steer light in special ways; physicists call this an isotropic material. Now a group at MIT has shown that isotropic carpet cloaks have a fatal flaw. When viewed at an angle, the carpets don't hide objects at all. Instead, they simply shift their position by about the same distance as they are high. So when viewed from an angle of 45 degrees, an object 0.2 units high is shifted to one side by a distance of 0.15 units, says the team. That's a serious limitation for carpet cloaks."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 19 Apr 2010 | 3:00 pm PlayPen: an open-ended adventure game made of Wiki
In other free-form gaming developments, Farbs -- the mind behind local favorite 'Game To Get', Captain Forever -- has officially unveiled PlayPen, a community site that harnesses the scale and ease-of-use of wikis and morphs it into an open-ended lo-fi adventure game.
Which makes it sound a bit more complicated than it actually is: in essence, PlayPen is a low-res pixel-art editor that allows anyone to branch or modify individual screens, hyperlinking them in as many varied directions as you or anyone could imagine.
Is it chaos? It absolutely, beautifully is: even in the few short days that the public release has been open, it's already seen some 1500 new pages added, with paths laid down to meet pathetic gnome-centaurs while on mushroom-addled freakouts, or, uh, unmediated poetry discussions with Duck Harold Bloom, which is about all you could ask for -- and is yours for the modifying if it doesn't live up to your darkest desires.
PlayPen [Farbs]Source: Boing Boing | 19 Apr 2010 | 2:55 pm Gene Test Shows Who Could Benefit from StatinsSame gene involved in statins lowering cholesterolANN ARBOR, Mich.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 19 Apr 2010 | 2:47 pm Rewiring Plants Could Super-Size CropsNewly discovered chemical reactions might provide a more efficient way for plants to process carbon.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 19 Apr 2010 | 2:45 pm Don't Let Anyone See What Websites You're VisitingLearn how to initiate incognito browsing sessions in each of the major web browsers: IE, Firefox, Safari, Chrome and Opera.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 19 Apr 2010 | 2:45 pm Gene Found that Ties Stress to Obesity and DiabetesThe constant stress that many are exposed to in our modern society may be taking a heavy toll: Anxiety disorders and depression, as well as metabolic (substance exchange) disorders, including obesity, type 2 diabetes and arteriosclerosis, have all been linked to stress.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 19 Apr 2010 | 2:44 pm Key Brain Regions Communicate DirectlyIntegrated functional network could explain some mysteries of Parkinson's and dystoniaPITTSBURGH -- Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have found new evidence that the basal ganglia and the cerebellum, two important areas in the central nervous system, are linked together to form an integrated functional network.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 19 Apr 2010 | 2:42 pm Gene Variant May Protect Memory and ThinkingST. PAUL, Minn. – New research shows a gene variant may help protect the memory and thinking skills of older people.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 19 Apr 2010 | 2:34 pm Microsoft supports niche F# language in Visual Studio 2010
F# was developed by Don Syme at Microsoft Research, and is a variant of ML. F#, like ML, is a functional language. According to an article at The Register, F# is well-suited for the financial industry, as well as a good choice for parallel processing on multi-core systems. Just how F# is better than ML, or OCaml, or other functional languages is not particularly clear. My layman’s guess is that it’s the strength of the underlying .NET framework available to F# that makes it a strong contender in an already crowded space. The Register article cites major savings in terms of lines of code, and I can’t imagine that the new language itself offers that much savings, so much as the list of supporting libraries that are part of the .NET framework help programmers reduce duplication and write more svelte code. I’m not a programmer by trade so I asked a full-time developer friend of mine. While not specifically familiar with F#, he observed that F#’s support for Language Integrated Query (LINQ) and lambda expressions is a big deal. “Transformative” was his word, actually. It’ll take quite a bit of effort to get programmers to see that F# may be a good choice for anything, given the saturation of available alternatives. Most interesting to me was this bit:
So in addition to “traditional” .NET languages, and all of PHP, and Java, and good ol’ fashioned Perl, Microsoft is hoping to bring F# to the web development party… “It’s clearly a niche thing,” is how my programmer friend concluded his remarks. Since Microsoft has made no real effort to advertise F# as part of Visual Studio 2010, I’m inclined to agree. And I guess Microsoft does, too.
Source: CrunchGear | 19 Apr 2010 | 2:30 pm Daniel Rubin's celebrity caricatures
Several years ago, I posted about a funny series of finance videos Daniel Rubin created for Motley Fool. Lately, Daniel has been drawing celebrity caricatures that remind me a bit of what a Hirschfeld/Savage Pencil collaboration might look like. And yes, I know that's a rather strange collaboration to imagine. Above left, Sid Vicious and Johnny Rotten; right, The Dude. Daniel Joshua Rubin (Thanks, Bob Pescovitz!) Source: Boing Boing | 19 Apr 2010 | 2:23 pm SIDTube: Watch Sleep Is Death stories, play online
Even though Jason Rohrer's mediated-multiplayer storytelling engine Sleep is Death -- first featured here on Boing Boing -- has only been in the hands of early buyers for just over a week (with a wider official release date due tomorrow), third parties have already jumped into the fray to support its fast-growing community of players.
Chief among these is SIDTube, a low-res but highly-functional site featuring both matchmaking capabilities to host and play online with friends and strangers alike, and a gallery of completed stories that can be flipped through and rated.
Above: The Machine, a Modern Times-ish slapstick story by one 'FranticPea', with plenty more available for your perusal. For more info on Sleep is Death and to get the game yourself, check Rohrer's official site.
Source: Boing Boing | 19 Apr 2010 | 2:20 pm Network Solutions Sites Hacked AgainCWmike writes "A week after Web hosting company Network Solutions dealt with a large-scale infection of WordPress-driven blogs, the company acknowledged that other sites it hosts have been compromised. 'We have received reports that Network Solutions customers are seeing malicious code added to their websites and we are really sorry for this experience,' said spokesman Shashi Bellamkonda in a blog post. 'At this time, since anything we say in public may help the perpetrators, we are unable to provide details.' Securi Security Labs said on Sunday that at least 50 sites hosted by Networks Solutions had been hacked, and that malicious JavaScript injected into those sites was redirecting unsuspecting users to a Ukrainian attack server. The same server was involved in the earlier attacks against Network Solutions-hosted blogs. According to the StopMalvertising blog, the attacks planted a rogue IFRAME on the hacked sites to shunt users to the attack server. That server then launches multiple exploits, including an attack kit of ActiveX exploits and three more leveraging Adobe Reader vulnerabilities, against visiting PCs. Several browsers, including IE8, Chrome and Firefox, display warnings when users are redirected to the attack site."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 19 Apr 2010 | 2:17 pm How Volcanic Ash Plumes End Up In The Jet StreamNew techniques under development could provide better tracking of volcanic plumesA University at Buffalo volcanologist, an expert in volcanic ash cloud transport, published a paper recently showing how the jet stream – the area in the atmosphere that pilots prefer to fly in – also seems to be the area most likely to be impacted by plumes from volcanic ash."That's a problem," says Marcus I. Bursik, PhD, one of the foremost experts on volcanic plumes and their effect on aviation safety, "because modern transcontinental and transoceanic air routes are configured to take advantage of the jet stream's power, saving both time and fuel."The interaction of the jet stream and the plume is likely a factor here," says Bursik, professor of geology in the UB College of Arts and Sciences. "Basically, planes have to fly around the plume or just stop flying, as they have, as the result of this eruption in Iceland."In some cases, if the plume can be tracked well enough with satellites, pilots can steer around the plume, he notes, but that didn't work in this case because the ash drifted right over Britain.Bursik participated in the first meetings in the early 1990s between volcanologists and the aviation industry to develop methods to ensure safe air travel in the event of volcanic eruptions. He and colleagues authored a 2009 paper called "Volcanic plumes and wind: Jet stream interaction examples and implications for air traffic" in the Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research."In the research we did, we found that the jet stream essentially stops the plume from rising higher into the atmosphere," he says. "Because the jet stream causes the density of the plume to drop so fast, the plume's ability to rise above the jet stream is halted: the jet stream caps the plume at a certain atmospheric level."Bursik says that new techniques now in development will be capable of producing better estimates of where and when ash clouds from volcanoes will travel.He and his colleagues have proposed a project with researchers at the University of Alaska that would improve tracking estimates to find out where volcanic ash clouds are going."What we get now is a mean estimate of where ash should be in atmosphere," says Bursik, "but our proposal is designed to develop both the mean estimate and estimates of error that would be more accurate and useful. It could help develop scenarios that would provide a quantitative probability as to how likely a plane is to fly through the plume, depending on the route."Bursik also is working with other researchers at UB, led by UB geology professor Greg Valentine, on a project called VHub, a 'cyber infrastructure for collaborative volcano research and mitigation.'VHUB would speed the transfer of new tools developed by volcanologists to the government agencies charged with protecting the public from the hazards of volcanic eruptions. That international project, which Valentine heads up at UB, with researchers at Michigan Technological University and the University of South Florida, was funded recently by the National Science Foundation.Bursik's co-authors on the jet stream paper are Shannon E. Kobs and Aaron Burns, both former UB graduate students in geology, L.I. Bazanova and I.V. Melekestves, of the Russian Academy of Sciences, A. Kurbatov of the University of Maine, Orono, and D.C. Pieri of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at California Institute of Technology.The research was funded by NSF, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and California Institute of Technology and Science Applications International Corp.Bursik and Valentine are members of the UB Center for GeoHazards Studies, which is supporting the UB2020 goals in Extreme Events.---Image Caption: NASA's Aqua and Terra satellites captured this visible image of the ash plume (brown) from the Eyjafjallajökull volcano On April 19. Credit: NASA's MODIS Rapid Response TeamSource: RedOrbit News - Science | 19 Apr 2010 | 2:10 pm An Open Approach to Online Sharing Takes on FacebookThere's a new way for websites to know if you're logged into your favorite e-mail and social networking services. The idea is to help speed sharing online content. It's an open alternative to Facebook's plan for web domination.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 19 Apr 2010 | 2:00 pm The art of search resultsWe’re always honored and often surprised by the many ways people can be inspired by Google. Take for example artist Ken Solomon, who has done a series of watercolors of Google Image Search results, like this one: Ken's "Google Portrait - Warhol 2" Just as societies preserve important documents and works of art, archivists and historians are now developing ways to preserve digital ephemera, from tweets to book drafts, as part our cultural and global history. On a small scale, Ken is doing just that, and we’re intrigued by his creative method of preserving moments in time. We may not have majored in art history, but we like the “meta” quality of Ken’s paintings of search results for pop artists. From Brillo pad boxes to Google in under 25 moves...? You can see more of Ken’s work on his website. And if you live in New York, Ken is exhibiting these pieces in a one-man show at the Josée Bienvenu Gallery until May 15. Posted by Emily Wood, Google Blog & Twitter team   
 Source: The Official Google Blog | 19 Apr 2010 | 2:00 pm RadioShack ditching Palm? [Update: Confirmed]
Yikes, talk about kicking a fellow while he’s down. With Palm doing their best to hang on to their executive team whilst also reportedly looking for a buyer, they’re not exactly at a high point right now — and now, it looks like they might be about to lose a major distribution partner: RadioShack.
As crazy as it may seem to the hardcore-lot that hangs around these parts, RadioShack is a pretty important point-of-sales for the wireless market. It’s one of the few big chains that people know to turn to when they’re ready for a new phone, be it that no other authorized retailers are nearby or they’ve got something against the Internet. In short, it’s definitely not a bad place to be for anyone looking to sell some phones. As John Paczkowski over at AllThingsD points out, searching for the Palm Pixi or Palm Pre on the Shack’s online store returns nil. Neither are listed in Sprint’s line up, either. It seems to be the same deal at the meatspace outlets: while most of them had a unit or two in stock, managers are indicating that no future shipments are on the way. RadioShack’s comment on the matter doesn’t really help:
Great – but will the relationship continue immediately, or once Palm churns out some new handsets? Update: Barron’s just got confirmation from Sprint that RadioShack is phasing out the Pre in favor of an unnamed BlackBerry device, and the Pixi in favor of an unnamed messaging device. It looks like this phase-out is RadioShack only; Sprint itself doesn’t appear to be ditching Palm.
Source: MobileCrunch | 19 Apr 2010 | 1:49 pm Just look at this bad-ass volcanoAmazing volcano pictures. Boston.com's Big Picture has them all.Source: Boing Boing | 19 Apr 2010 | 1:46 pm Robotic Buggy Takes Stunning Photos of African Wildlife
Wildlife photographers will risk life and limb to get the perfect close-up, but a few ingenious hacks can make the process easier. Shutterbug Will Burrard-Lucas and his brother Matthew rigged up a four-wheel-drive, remote-control buggy called BeetleCam that has a DSLR camera mounted on top. Almost Wall-E like in its appearance, the BeetleCam can click photos of African wildlife from a ground-level perspective. “We like to get really close to the animals with a wide-angle lens,” Will Burrard-Lucas told Wired.com. “That’s the photo we really enjoy getting.” Conventional photographers use either a telephoto lens or camera traps — stationary cameras triggered to click when an animal breaks an invisible infra-read beam — to get close-ups of wild animals. But while telephoto lenses zoom in on the animal, they cut out the beautiful landscape, while camera traps require a great degree of patience and more than a fair share of luck. A remote-controlled buggy with a wide-angle lens could offer a new perspective, says Burrard-Lucas. “We can find the animals and use BeetleCam to approach it and we wouldn’t have to fear for our lives,” he says. To build the BeetleCam, the Burrard-Lucas brothers used a Lynxmotion robot chassis and a Hitech 6-channel radio control. They reinforced the chassis and replaced the wheels with bigger, sturdier versions, then added a tripod plate. Two 7.2 Volts Ni-MH 2800mAh battery pack also from Lynxmotion offers day-longer power to the device. Tweaks ensured that the camera, a Canon EOS 400D, would interface with the same controller used to drive the buggy. They also put together a split ETTL off-camera flash cord that would allow the camera to control the output of the two flashes on board the BeetleCam. To have the camera take an exposure, they use the remote control to activate a relay switch that tells the camera to fire. BeetleCam’s biggest challenge has been getting over the uneven terrain in Tanzania’s national parks with a heavy camera, lens and flashes on its back. But the buggy did pretty well, says Burrard-Lucas, capsizing completely only about twice. The duo are always about 50 meters (approximately 165 feet) away in a land rover trying to make sure that the BeetleCam’s view is unobstructed by the grass or flipped over. They have chronicled their adventures with the BeetleCam on their blog.
Once on the ground, Burrard-Lucas says Beetlecam offered some interesting lessons. Elephants, for instance, turned out to be very tricky to photograph using the buggy because they are wary of unfamiliar objects and have extremely sensitive hearing. But putting the BeetleCam in front of the animals and letting them walk up to it worked well. Lions were tricker. On the BeetleCam’s second day in the jungle, the device was mauled, smashed and carried off into the bush by a pack. “We were extremely lucky to retrieve an intact memory card from the mangled Canon 400D body,” says Burrard-Lucas. The photos from the card survived the wrath of the lions and a few pieces of string and wood later, the BeetleCam was on the ground once more. This summer, BeetleCam will be back in action in Kenya, says Burrard-Lucas, but with a less expensive camera. “We will use a Canon 500 or 500 D,” says Burrard-Lucas. “We don’t want the camera smashed again.” Check out some of the photos shot by the BeetleCam:
To see video clips of BeetleCam in action and more of the resulting photographs, check out the BeetleCam project page. Photos: Burrard-Lucas.com 
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 19 Apr 2010 | 1:26 pm Chinese Pigs 'Direct Descendants' Of First Domesticated BreedsImage 1: Though pigs are not native to New Guinea, since being introduced by people from Southeast Asia, they are now a dominant part of the culture. Credit: Image courtesy of Will MillardImage 2: The remains of a 4,000-year-old pig found at the Chinese archaeological site of Taosi. The descendants of this domestic pig are now found all over the world. Credit: Image courtesy of Jing YuanImage 3: Several species of native wild boar are found in the Philippines, though all domestic pigs, including this one, were originally domesticated in East Asia and introduced by incoming farmers. Credit: Image courtesy of Michael HerraraSource: RedOrbit News - Science | 19 Apr 2010 | 1:26 pm Robotic Buggy Takes Stunning Photos of African WildlifeTwo wildlife photographers have built "Beetlecam," which has a DSLR camera mounted on top of a four-wheel drive, remote-controlled buggy to click photographs of African wildlife.
Source: Wired: Gadgets | 19 Apr 2010 | 1:26 pm Airlines Brave Volcanic Ash CloudsAfter days of flight deadlock, European officials have designated zones for air travel to help bring stranded passengers home.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 19 Apr 2010 | 1:15 pm UK Government Study: Homeopathy WorthlessThe British government recently conducted an inquiry into whether homeopathy is a scientifically valid and effective treatment. The results are in, and homeopaths won't be happy.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 19 Apr 2010 | 12:26 pm April 19: A History of ViolenceApril 19 is a heavy day in history. Fifteen years ago, a truck bomb blasted through the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, claiming the lives of 168 people. Two years prior, April 19 marked the end of the 51-day siege ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 19 Apr 2010 | 12:24 pm A look at the next iPhone, as it leaks across the Internet
Today, Gizmodo won at the Internet, and all it took was So what does all this mean? Is it real? Read on for the details. The hardware: The device won’t boot up (though it did briefly, and was seemingly remote wiped) and much of the internals are unlabeled, so only so much is known about the insides. But here’s what we know so far:
Is it real? Given today’s evidence, however, it’s pretty much undeniable: Apple made this. Giz ripped the backing off the handset for a peek inside. I say this as someone who has disassembled one too many iPhones for their own good: that.. that is very much Apple’s work. From the shape of the clips to the types of connectors used, it’s all too familiar. Faking the outside of a phone to look like an Apple product would require man-power and cash money far beyond most people’s reach; faking the inside seems nigh impossible. But the new design! It’s, it’s.. so different! Yep. It is. And that’s by no means evidence against it being real. People seem to have this false idea that Apple doesn’t take rapid departures in their product designs — when in actuality, they do it often. Regularly, even. Every few years, Apple takes their flagship products, tears them apart, and rebuilds them from the ground up. Sometimes, they come back looking the same on the outside, but being drastically different inside (see the unibody MacBook Pros). The rest of the time, they come back looking nothing like their predecessors. In 1999, Apple released the iBook G1, a brightly colored clamshell that came in a rainbow of hues. In 2001, Apple dropped the colors (and took the “clamshell” design a bit less literally) in favor of a squared-off, sterile white design of the iBook G3. Look at the iMac of 2001 and the iMacs of 2004 and 2009 and try to say that Apple’s “design language” is unwavering.
The Shroud:
Perhaps I’m just overly geeky, but the case this thing was wrapped in is one of the coolest parts of the story. If this thing was out and about in someones pocket in some way that it could be dropped, the design team has apparently reached the point where it’s time for real world testing. With the iPhone reaching an almost ubiquitous level of popularity, however, an easily distinguishable new model wasn’t really something that could be carried around unnoticed. Apple’s solution? Make it look like a 3GS. Apple camouflaged this thing, much in the same way that car manufacturers tape all kinds of extra junk and obfuscation layers onto prototype cars when they’re testing them on the tracks. It sat inside a case that would make it look like a 3GS to anyone taking a cursory glance, with special holes cut in all the right places for the new bits. On Legality Before I get into this: this is by no means an indication of some moral objection on my part. Given the same opportunity — that is, to buy the next iPhone long before its release — I imagine I’d have done the exact same thing Giz has done. With that said, I do wonder about where all of this sits from a legal standpoint. The story, as it goes so far: guy finds what looks like an iPhone 3GS in a protective case sitting on the floor of a bar in San Jose. He pops the case off and, lo and behold, it’s not the iPhone 3GS at all, but a brand-stinkin’ new, unreleased iPhone. He sends some pictures to Engadget, and then sells the unit itself to Gizmodo for the aforementioned rumored price tag of $5k. Giz then spends a few days attempting to prove that it’s real before posting it. It goes without saying: I am not a lawyer. But given the circumstances and that all parties involved knew (or at least, have been working to prove) that this is an Apple prototype that didn’t rightly belong on a bar floor in San Jose, does this all fall into “possession of stolen goods”? Either way, it’ll be incredibly interesting to see how Apple responds to this. If they send a cease and desist, fight for some sort of injunction, or send in the A-Team to bust through the windows and steal the unit back, they’re essentially admitting its legitimacy. If they do nothing, they’ve got a prototype of their next handset floating around in the wild, months before its unveiling. Read Giz’s full coverage here.
Source: MobileCrunch | 19 Apr 2010 | 11:54 am Study: Aerospace Industry Must Evolve New Ways To Recruit, Retain Future EngineersAerospace companies must consider offering newly recruited workers flexible job assignments and a variety of projects to remain competitive with other scientific fields of employment.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 19 Apr 2010 | 11:51 am Results From Fifth Howler Monkey Census On Barro Colorado IslandImage 1: According to the fifth census of Mantled Howler Monkeys, Alouatta palliata, on Barro Colorado Island in Panama, monkey numbers have changed little since the late 1970s. Credit: Greg WillisImage 2: An ongoing study of the cause of death of howler monkeys on Barro Colorado has identified the howler monkey bot fly Cuterebra baeri as the single most important factor. Very young monkeys are the most affected. Credit: Katie MiltonSource: RedOrbit News - Science | 19 Apr 2010 | 11:46 am iPhone OS 4.0 to have Facebook Contact and Event Integration?
While this may not be a new concept for the Android and WebOS devout among us, it is one that the iPhone could really benefit from. Having contacts linked to Facebook means that your phonebook is automatically updated whenever your contacts update any of their numbers. As long as your contact keeps their Facebook details up-to-date, you never have to worry about losing that number again, Rikki. Or Milli, for that matter. Calendar Integration with Facebook events will also be a boon for the socialites, as Facebook Events are becoming an ever more popular way to organise, promote, and prepare for keg parties. Apple Insider last week noted the existence of a “linked contacts” feature in iPhone OS 4.0, which ties in nicely with the newly discovered Facebook integration, but it seems that it was a nail gun safety blog entitled Gunning For Safety that broke the news of the system-level integration with Facebook. They have the evidence and reasoning behind it on their website, as well as some statistics on nail gun related injuries. So, whaddaya waiting for? [via Engadget]
Source: MobileCrunch | 19 Apr 2010 | 11:34 am Microbial Fuel Cell: A New Source Of Green EnergyShowcasing its energy research initiatives for an Earth Day event on April 22 at the Pentagon, the Office of Naval Research (ONR) will highlight the microbial fuel cell, a device with the potential to revolutionize naval energy use by converting decomposed marine organisms into electricity.These fuel cells convert naturally occurring fuels and oxidants in the marine environment into electricity, offering a clean, efficient and reliable alternative to batteries and other environmentally harmful fuels.The fuel cell can be a viable power source for long-term operation of autonomous underwater unmanned vehicles, in-water sensors, and devices used for surveillance and monitoring the ocean environment.Named as one of TIME magazine’s “Top 50 Inventions for 2009,” the fuel cell, with its powerful return of clean energy, can potentially reduce carbon emissions in the environment and change the way we fuel our vehicles and supply power to our homes."Microbial fuel cell research is a great example of naval needs propelling advanced technology that also has potential benefit to the public" said Chief of Naval Research, Rear Adm.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 19 Apr 2010 | 11:30 am New Species Of Bacterium Found In The GullmarsfjordBrand-new speciesIn a scientific article, he and his colleagues from the Lovén Centre in Kristineberg describe a brand-new species of bacterium, an endosymbiotic prokaryote living in the gut of a marine worm called Xenoturbella, a creature also unique to the Gullmarsfjord. Honoring nameAs discoverers, Obst and his colleagues had the honor of naming the new bacterium: "To acknowledge the Lovén Centre and its importance as a base for marine biological research, we've decided that the species will be called Endoxenoturbella lovénii," he says.Unique animalThe bacteria's host, the Xenoturbella worm, has the size of a thumbnail and possesses a unique body plan, with no brain and no reproductive or sensory organs. This unique creature is invaluable for studies of the early evolution of the animal kingdom, and has drawn researchers from all over the world to the Sven Lovén Centre for Marine Sciences in Kristineberg ever since it was discovered. ---Image Caption: The unique Xenoturbella, found only in the Gullmarsfjord, is the host for the new bacterium. Credit: Mattias Obst, University of GothenburgSource: RedOrbit News - Science | 19 Apr 2010 | 11:23 am Soaring into the cloudNearly 400 IT executives joined us last week for a discussion on the future of enterprise IT at Atmosphere, our first cloud computing summit at the Googleplex. It was an exciting day of conversation and debate about the power of the cloud. If you’re interested in seeing it for yourself, you can watch the public talks online:
The complete set of Atmosphere videos is now online, and you can learn more about our cloud computing solutions for businesses on the Google Apps website. We want to thank all those who participated in Atmosphere for their contributions to this unique experience! Update 8:41PM: Removed video. Posted by Dave Girouard, President of Google Enterprise  
 Source: The Official Google Blog | 19 Apr 2010 | 11:00 am Gadgetell Roundup: HTC Droid Incredible reviewsSection: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile
It looks like the review embargo has been lifted, and that means this morning brings plenty of Droid Incredible reviews. So for anyone that had been unsure of how well the Droid Incredible would perform when it hit the real world, read on and see for yourself. All things considered, this seems to be the hot new Droid. Of course, that will likely change in another month or two. In short, the Droid Incredible seems to be well worth the month. That is as long as you remember the quick pace that Android is moving at these days and don’t get upset when you have an ‘outdated’ phone in two months time. For me, I had been holding out for a Verizon Nexus One, but this put a whole new twist in my once finalized plan.
Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 19 Apr 2010 | 10:49 am Controversial content and free expression on the web: a refresherTwo and a half years ago, we outlined our approach to removing content from Google products and services. Our process hasn’t changed since then, but our recent decision to stop censoring search on Google.cn has raised new questions about when we remove content, and how we respond to censorship demands by governments. So we figured it was time for a refresher.Censorship of the web is a growing problem. According to the Open Net Initiative, the number of governments that censor has grown from about four in 2002 to over 40 today. In fact, some governments are now blocking content before it even reaches their citizens. Even benign intentions can result in the specter of real censorship. Repressive regimes are building firewalls and cracking down on dissent online -- dealing harshly with anyone who breaks the rules. Increased government censorship of the web is undoubtedly driven by the fact that record numbers of people now have access to the Internet, and that they are creating more content than ever before. For example, over 24 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute of every day. This creates big challenges for governments used to controlling traditional print and broadcast media. While everyone agrees that there are limits to what information should be available online -- for example child pornography -- many of the new government restrictions we are seeing today not only strike at the heart of an open Internet but also violate Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” We see these attempts at control in many ways. China is the most polarizing example, but it is not the only one. Google products -- from search and Blogger to YouTube and Google Docs -- have been blocked in 25 of the 100 countries where we offer our services. In addition, we regularly receive government requests to restrict or remove content from our properties. When we receive those requests, we examine them to closely to ensure they comply with the law, and if we think they’re overly broad, we attempt to narrow them down. Where possible, we are also transparent with our users about what content we have been required to block or remove so they understand that they may not be getting the full picture. On our own services, we deal with controversial content in different ways, depending on the product. As a starting point, we distinguish between search (where we are simply linking to other web pages), the content we host, and ads. In a nutshell, here is our approach: Search is the least restrictive of all our services, because search results are a reflection of the content of the web. We do not remove content from search globally except in narrow circumstances, like child pornography, certain links to copyrighted material, spam, malware, and results that contain sensitive personal information like credit card numbers. Specifically, we don’t want to engage in political censorship. This is especially true in countries like China and Vietnam that do not have democratic processes through which citizens can challenge censorship mandates. We carefully evaluate whether or not to establish a physical presence in countries where political censorship is likely to happen. Some democratically-elected governments in Europe and elsewhere do have national laws that prohibit certain types of content. Our policy is to comply with the laws of these democratic governments -- for example, those that make pro-Nazi material illegal in Germany and France -- and remove search results from only our local search engine (for example, www.google.de in Germany). We also comply with youth protection laws in countries like Germany by removing links to certain material that is deemed inappropriate for children or by enabling Safe Search by default, as we do in Korea. Whenever we do remove content, we display a message for our users that X number of results have been removed to comply with local law and we also report those removals to chillingeffects.org, a project run by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, which tracks online restrictions on speech. Platforms that host content like Blogger, YouTube, and Picasa Web Albums have content policies that outline what is, and is not, permissible on those sites. A good example of content we do not allow is hate speech. Our enforcement of these policies results in the removal of more content from our hosted content platforms than we remove from Google Search. Blogger, as a pure platform for expression, is among the most open of our services, allowing for example legal pornography, as long as it complies with the Blogger Content Policy. YouTube, as a community intended to permit sharing, comments, and other user-to-user interactions, has its Community Guidelines that define its own rules of the road. For example, pornography is absolutely not allowed on YouTube. We try to make it as easy as possible for users to flag content that violates our policies. Here’s a video explaining how flagging works on YouTube. We review flagged content across all our products 24 hours a day, seven days a week to remove offending content from our sites. And if there are local laws where we do business that prohibit content that would otherwise be allowed, we restrict access to that content only in the country that prohibits it. For example, in Turkey, videos that insult the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Ataturk, are illegal. Two years ago, we were notified of such content on YouTube and blocked those videos in Turkey that violated local law. A Turkish court subsequently demanded that we block them globally, which we refused to do, arguing that Turkish law cannot apply outside Turkey. As a result YouTube has been blocked there. Finally, our ads products have the most restrictive policies, because they are commercial products intended to generate revenue. These policies are always evolving. Decisions to allow, restrict or remove content from our services and products often require difficult judgment calls. We have spirited debates about the right course of action, whether it’s about our own content policies or the extent to which we resist a government request. In the end, we rely on the principles that sit at the heart of everything we do. We’ve said them before, but in these particularly challenging times, they bear repeating: We have a bias in favor of people's right to free expression. We are driven by a belief that more information means more choice, more freedom and ultimately more power for the individual. Posted by Rachel Whetstone, Vice President, Global Communications and Public Affairs  
 Source: The Official Google Blog | 19 Apr 2010 | 10:23 am Friday News Feedbag for April 16, 2010!If this is your first exposure to the Friday News Feedbag...we're glad to have you in the club. Welcome to Feedbag Nation, which stems from our weekly science news podcast that you can subscribe to here on iTunes and chat ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 19 Apr 2010 | 10:08 am Imagery for Qinghai, China earthquake(Cross-posted from the Google LatLong Blog)  (click image to view full-size; click here to view in Google Earth) In addition, an international team, including many of our Chinese Googlers, have worked to create a Crisis Response page for the earthquake with several additional resources:
Posted by Pete Giencke, GIS Data Engineer  
 Source: The Official Google Blog | 19 Apr 2010 | 9:56 am Social Media Sites Help Volcano-Stranded TravelersNot since 9/11 has air traffic been disrupted so much. So far, the volcano in Iceland has disrupted tens of thousands of flights across Europe as it spews ash into the atmosphere. According to the European Organization for the Safety ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 19 Apr 2010 | 9:41 am T-mobile myTouch 3G Slide Specs Revealed
Live wallpapers, as seen on the Nexus One, Droid Incredible, and other Android 2.1 phones, will not make an appearance on this device due to the lower-spec CPU. Interestingly, the phone will come pre-installed with Swype as the default keyboard, but — as with all Android devices — this can be changed if desired. The popular (and really quite fun) Android game, Abduction, will also come installed, along with a heap of T-mobile apps, including a music streaming service similar to Pandora. The device is expected to launch in May. [via Electronista]
Source: MobileCrunch | 19 Apr 2010 | 9:41 am Gizmodo Gets Hands On New 4G iPhoneGizmodo has managed to get its hands on the next-gen iPhone, and has posted videos and photos of the new handset. At this point we’re pretty much certain it is this summer’s new model.
Source: Wired: Gadgets | 19 Apr 2010 | 9:16 am Gizmodo Gets Hands On New 4G iPhone
Gizmodo has managed to get its hands on the next-gen iPhone, and has posted videos and photos of the new handset. At this point we’re pretty much certain it is this summer’s new model. Our good friends at the Giz have had the handset for a week, and despite not being able to get past the “connect to iTunes” screen of any new iPhone, they have fully documented it and even opened the thing up. Somebody at Apple is in big trouble. The rear case is, as we saw this morning, flat and shiny. It seems to still be plastic, though, rather than ceramic or glass as rumored (the Giz folks aren’t sure), and the chassis and sides of the body are aluminum. There is a front-facing video-conferencing camera, a high-res screen (which is such “high quality that it was impossible to discern individual pixels”) and a micro-SIM slot, mimicking that found on the iPad. This slot is on the side, moved from the top. There is also a bigger camera lens and a flash. No, not that Flash – a camera flash, and also a second microphone for noise cancellation, like that on the Nexus One. The other major changes are that two round volume buttons replace the previous rocker-switch, and the whole case is thinner than the current iPhone 3GS. Inside, many of the parts are proper Apple components, and they have been shrunk to make room for a bigger battery. When hooked up to iTunes or Apple’s developer tools, it also identifies itself as an iPhone. In short, it looks like the real deal. Like we said, somebody at Apple will be getting into trouble over this. The prototype was lost in a bar in Redwood City, and was sat inside a custom case which makes it look just like a 3GS from the outside, complete with custom cut-outs for reaching the new hardware controls. Apple certainly wanted to keep this one a secret. We believe that this might be the biggest leak from Apple that we have ever seen. It is also a hot-looking iPhone. Keep reading for more pictures of Apple’s new iPhone. This Is Apple’s Next iPhone [Gizmodo] See Also:
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 19 Apr 2010 | 9:14 am Marine Census Counts Creatures Large and SmallHow exactly do scientists go about counting every single microbe that inhabits the oceans?Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 19 Apr 2010 | 9:01 am Video of Next-gen iPhone Emerges
Engadget originally released them, then thought they were fake, but now claim that they are, in fact, genuine. It seems quite likely that they are genuine, especially as Gizmodo has just released a hands-on video of that very same leaked device, and claim to have had it in their posession for a week. A few interesting features have come to light due to these leaks:
Gizmodo back the device’s authenticity, and deliver a convincing argument to say as much. I agree with them: this is likely the real deal. Some design features may change before launch, but this is a very polished device, so I can’t imagine that much will. But don’t take just my word for it, you can go see the video and read Gizmodo’s evidence for yourself here. And the original Engadget post is here.
Source: MobileCrunch | 19 Apr 2010 | 8:47 am Gadgetell Announcement: Slacker Radio Plus giveaway winnersSection: Audio, Web, Online Music/Video, Features, Contests
Last week, (courtesy of Slacker) we were able to run another contest and give away a handful of Slacker Radio Plus subscriptions. That giveaway/contest ended yesterday (Sunday April 18, 2010) and here are the winners. Below are the winners of the 1-year subscriptions: Kevin
Lawrence
Below are the winners of the 3-month subscriptions: NFPwife
Karin
mike D.
A big congrats to the winners, thanks for entering and thanks for reading Gadgetell. Now, I need the winners to send me an email at robert (at) gadgetell (dot) com with the email address that you are using as your Slacker ID. And if you have not set up a Slacker account yet, go here and set up a free account. After you send me your email address I will have your account upgraded to a Slacker Radio Plus account. Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 19 Apr 2010 | 8:26 am Sprint Hacks Together 4G iPad, Kinda
Plucky Sprint has figured out a way to get in on the iPad action. The carrier is offering a free iPad case with a pocket for its 4G cellular Wi-Fi router, allowing you to use a basic Wi-Fi iPad and still enjoy an always-on internet connection. Sprint’s Overdrive modem is like a 4G MiFi, taking a fast cellular data connection and sharing it via its battery-powered Wi-Fi hotspot. Many people, including our own New York Bureau Chief John C Abell, are considering this kind of setup (either MiFi or Overdrive) instead of opting for the 3G iPad. The thinking goes that you can use the connection with any of your devices, not just the iPad. The downside is that you need a contract, the lack of which is one of the 3G iPad’s best features. Still, this case is neat and, despite the “steal-me” Wi-Fi logo on the outside, is a very smart marketing move from Sprint. It comes in two flavors: folio and sleeve. Both have a pouch on the side to carry the Overdrive, and the folio has an extra flap that closes over the top. To get one, you’ll need to buy an Overdrive from a participating BestBuy store. These are sensibly limited to areas where there is Sprint 4G coverage. As you’ll see from the drop down list on the site, there still aren’t many of those. iPad Case [Sprint via Electronista] 
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 19 Apr 2010 | 7:32 am Ride the City bike routing service hits the iPhone
To use it, you simply enter your start and end points and then follow the route. The map takes into consideration low-traffic roads as well as dedicated bike lanes to get you from point A to a Russian bath house in the East Village. It also works on the iPad, but it will be hard to keep one hand free to signal when you’re lugging your slate around. Some points from their announcement:
Source: MobileCrunch | 19 Apr 2010 | 7:27 am C2E2 2010: Arcade DLX showcases their home arcade systems at the expoFROM GAMERTELL - Arcade DLX is showcasing their awesome home arcade systems at C2E2 2010. Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 19 Apr 2010 | 7:11 am Winscape: Convincing Fake Windows for Cubicle-DwellersCubicle-dwellers, take heart. It ain't cheap but with Winscape, a pair of plasma displays drawing 1080p video-feeds from a connected Mac, you can have a window on the world. Any world.
Source: Wired: Gadgets | 19 Apr 2010 | 6:52 am Winscape: Convincing Fake Windows for Cubicle-DwellersIt’s a little known fact* that in Wired’s sunny San Francisco offices, the Gadget Lab crew is forced to work in a locked basement room, devoid of all outside stimulus save the umbilical connection to the internet and the occasional sighting of the Wired chef’s hand as he pushes the lunch leftovers through a hatch in the door. This is why we shall be ordering the Winscape, a pair of plasma displays which are mounted on the wall to mimic windows, drawing their 1080p video-feeds from a connected Mac. Better still, we will be able to control the view from our iPhones, saving us the trouble of calling the IT-crew down to our basement dungeon to unshackle us from our cramped desks for a few moments. Why not just run a screensaver on a TV? Because the Winscape has an extra trick. If you wear an IR necklace or carry a Wimote with you, as you move the software monitors your position and changes the view accordingly. So, if you walk over to the right, say (or strain to the right against the chains which bind you to your desk), you’ll see a little more out the left side of the window. If you have the necessary hardware already (and believe us, we have plenty of hardware down here) you can grab the OS X software for $10 and the iPhone app for $2. If you don’t already have the gear, you’re looking at $2,500 to $3,000. Winscape [Rational Craft via Uncrate] *not fact 
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 19 Apr 2010 | 6:42 am New iPad 3G Orders Pushed Back to May 7th
If you already pre-ordered a 3G iPad, then Apple will still be shipping it to your door in “late April”. Those of you who were too lazy to click the “buy now” button until today will have to wait until May 7th for your order to be filled, indicating that Apple has already sold out of the first shipments of the cellular iPad. Over at Cult of Mac, ex-Wired.com blogger John Brownlee points out that even these delayed 3G iPads will be in your hands before prices and pre-order details are even announced outside the US. This is a rare moment of lucidity for the Berlin-based blogger: in the same post he claims to be European, even though he was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts (or possibly Geelong, Victoria). One thing, though, is very clear. Apple’s “toy” tablet is so far a runaway success, despite its “lack” of flash and all the other nerd-essentials. iPad [Apple via Brownlee's ravings] 
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 19 Apr 2010 | 6:16 am Sprint introduces iPad case with 4G “built in”Section: Computers, Mobile Computers, Wireless, Gadgets / Other, Miscellaneous  I bet Sprint has been feeling pretty left out of the whole iPhone fiasco that has been going on lately. Or any real smartphone fiasco for that matter. With no love from Apple or Google with the Nexus One, they took matters into their own their own hands with the iPad. Sure, its not a phone but it’s pretty close and with the right app, it could be. Anyways, Sprint is selling an iPad case that has a cool little pouch just big enough to fit their “Overdrive” 3G/4G device in it. So basically, you can get internet anywhere as long as you carry your pad around in this case. Pretty nifty. As an added bonus, Overdrive can supply wi-fi to up to 5 devices so if your friends have iPad’s and you just want to have an iPad party in the park, go ahead! And don’t feel left out if you don’t have an iPad; Sprint also advertises that it fits other devices such as the Nook and “other various eReaders” No word on price but the site claims it’s available in BestBuy’s of 13 states, none of which am I a resident of. So their probably is a price somewhere, but it isn’t on BestBuy’s website and nor is it in the BestBuy in my town. So if you happen to live in one of those 13 states (which can be found on the case’s webpage) and find one of them, snap a picture of the price along with the case and shoot us an email. Read [Sprint]
Full Story » | Written by Greg Billetdeaux for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 19 Apr 2010 | 6:01 am High-Resolution External Display for DSLRs
The biggest draw is the screen itself, which has a phenomenal 270 pixels-per-square-inch resolution. This makes it pretty much as sharp and detailed as the best DSLR screens currently available. The DP-SLR plugs into your camera’s HDMI-out port (video can also be fed in through component and RCA sockets) and mounts on the hot-shoe adapter. Given that it weighs 10-ounces, you might want to do this on a tripod. The screen also has a wide, 179-degree viewing angle and measures 5.6-inches on the diagonal. The drawbacks? first, you’ll need to run a power cable to it — there is no battery pack yet (although one is planned). The base model costs $900, and if you want additional 3G/HD/SDI inputs you’ll need to spring for the $1200 version. Finally, if you order one you’ll be waiting 75 days. Not 75 days from now, but 75 days from when your pre-order is turned into an actual order, which could really be any time, ever. DP-SLR [SmallHD via Oh Gizmo!] 
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 19 Apr 2010 | 5:37 am Rumor: Photos of Next-Gen iPhone
Could these photographs show a hardware prototype of the next generation iPhone? Sent by a reader to Engadget, the pictures are claimed to show a next-gen handset which was found inside a case for an iPhone 3G, and outside a San Jose bar. The tipster says that the phone was working, but now it won’t boot. This iPhone also has a front-facing camera and a rather odd 80GB of storage. Weirder still is what seems to be a glass back. Is it real? On the yes side, we have Daring Fireball’s John Gruber, who writes that his sources inside Apple “have confirmed to [him] that the back is made out of some sort of fancy glass”, and further cites a 2006 Apple patent application for a glass-like panel made out of a very tough and scratch resistant ceramic. Why ceramic instead of aluminum? Radio waves go right through it. Engadget raises the stakes with another picture which it (and Gadget Lab) posted back in January, which showed the the then still secret iPad locked down in a frame. That picture turned out to be legit, and also showed a slightly chunky iPhone, similar to this new shot. Further, Twitter member The Ultimate Dream posted very similar photos to these new ones on TwitPic back in February. A closer look at his stream of photos shows rather a lot of Chinese “iPhone 4G” knock-offs, so take that one as you will. This is his picture:
Andy Ihnatko also joins the discussion, calling foul. He points to the rather excellent iPhone knock-offs he saw in China as evidence against this leak, along with a lack of the labels and stickers usually found on prototype hardware. Next, over at the MacRumors forums, we see yet more pictures, found on Chinese website WeiPhone. They too seem to show the same model, with flat front and rear panels sitting on a rather sharp-edged frame.
I’m convinced. I’m not sure that the Engadget photo shows the actual production iPhone 4G. It’s far too poorly finished, with those ugly buttons and obvious seams in the case, But it certainly looks like an Apple-like design, reminding us of the original squared-off iPod, today’s sharp-edged MacBook Pros and especially the rather brutal Apple Universal Dock. I expect the final design to be a sleeker version of what we see here. And the mysterious non-booting iPhone found outside a San Jose bar? The iPhone that worked once, and then suddenly died? Do you think Apple would allow a testing unit in the wild without some kind of remote kill switch? One thing we can all be pretty sure of, though: if this is a real prototype iPhone, lost by an Apple employee on a drunken night out, you can be sure that somebody will be looking for a new job this week. iPhone 4G: is this it? [Engadget] iPhone 4G: proof [Engadget] Apple patent application [USPTO] Inside of iPhone 4G [MacRumors] iPhone 4G? [TwitPic/TUDream] Tablet Photos Look Like Real Deal [Gadget Lab] 
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 19 Apr 2010 | 4:56 am
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Apple CEO 
For my money, memes on the Internet don’t get any better than the Hitler one. You know, the one in which you take some current event (the more mundane, the better) and shove it into the scene from the German film Downfall in which Hitler is told in his bunker that he cannot win the war. The key to these (assuming you don’t speak German, of course) is to replace the actual subtitles with ones of your choosing about a different topic. 
Suppose that in addition to excluding a decade of apps and development, leaving out certain features, and starting out from scratch with a whole new visual theme, your phone is just plain expensive. So expensive, in fact, due to the restrictions you’ve placed on its hardware in order that it might run well, that you’ve priced yourself right out of huge markets like China and India. Which is to say something like a third of the world’s phone-buying population. What do you do? You make Windows Phone 7 Budget Series, of course!
Last Friday, news hit that 
We’re starting to see the results of 
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: a guy walks into a bar. No, a guy walks into a bar with an iPhone. No, a guy walks into a bar with a next-generation iPhone disguised as a current-generation iPhone. No, a guy walks into a bar with his next-generation iPhone disguised as a current-generation iPhone and leaves it there. Okay, we’ve never heard anything like this before.
The Pledge
Last summer, we reached the six-month mark in our cannabis experiment. We'd been using medical marijuana to help quell our autistic son's gut pain and anxiety, and we were seeing some huge changes in his behavior and, presumably, his happiness. J was smiling, interacting (one of home-based therapists said she'd never encountered such an affectionate autistic child), even putting his dirty dishes in the dishwasher—rinsing and everything!—not only without being told, but without ever having been asked to do such a thing. The more I'd been reading, along with J's doctor, about the effects of cannabis—analgesic, anti-anxiety, safe—the more it seemed a logical choice. I've also heard from other parents who've decided to try cannabis for their children. One of the kids has Smith-Magenis, a genetic disorder that includes autismlike behavioral symptoms including self-injury. Another is an autistic child who'd refused to eat and was near death. Post-marijuana, he is thriving. The Smith-Magenis boy, who'd been about to start court-ordered medication, is also doing well.
The specs for the upcoming T-mobile exclusive, lower-end Android device — the myTouch 3G Slide — have been revealed by a source with the device in their possession.
Over the weekend — as is the tradition with upcoming iPhone models — photos were leaked that purport to be of the next-gen (G4) iPhone.
