AFP - Pakistan on Thursday blocked access to the popular video website YouTube in a bid to contain "growing sacrilegious" material one day after banning Facebook for a similar reason, officials said.
AP - The U.S. government is not alone in ceding responsibility to the oil industry for the design of key safety features on offshore rigs, a trend coming under scrutiny worldwide following the deadly blowout in the Gulf of Mexico.
AP - The Pakistani government blocked access to YouTube on Thursday because of "sacrilegious" content on the video-sharing website, signaling a growing Internet crackdown against sites deemed offensive to the country's majority Muslim population.
In a typical Jason Calacanis move today, the West Coast based entrepreneur will delete his Facebook page live on the Internet. He has 22,969 fans. You'll be able to watch it here. Jason announced this move today on his JasonNation newsletter, which replaced his regular blogging way back in 2008.
In a less typical move however, he has set up a newsletter list which now enables every one of his 23,286 members to reply to the entire list. Now, whether this was intentional or not is unknown.
So far only 6 members have replied to the whole list, perhaps because the majority are in the US, where most people are asleep right now. [Update, make that over 50 and counting]
By Chris Scott Barr I spend a lot of time in my office working, but the jobs I do allow me to work from home. Thus, there are times where I’ll work outside on my porch, or even on the couch. While... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 20 May 2010 | 3:47 am
Reuters - The Internet is a lifeline for Asian mothers, with a survey finding two-thirds use it to shop for themselves and their children and an even bigger number going online to research purchases and talk about them. Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 20 May 2010 | 3:46 am
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - The Internet is a lifeline for Asian mothers, with a survey finding two-thirds use it to shop for themselves and their children and an even bigger number going online... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 20 May 2010 | 3:46 am
BREAKING: The Apple iPad store is now popping up in other countries allowing iPad users to purchase apps directly on iPad using your their iTunes account.
So far we've confirmed it's appeared in the UK, Belgium, Spain, Israel, France and New Zealand among others.
In fact, a quick check around the other stores also confirms that this looks like a worldwide release.
However it looks like there is no iBooks or iWorks app outside the U.S., yet.
European iPad users could pre-order the iPad on May 10, with shipping expected on May 28.
Good news for international iPad owners. Apple has finally switched on the iPad App Store in your country. Or rather, it is in the process of switching it on in those countries that will be lucky enough to get the iPad itself at the end of this month.
Up until today, getting iPad apps outside the US had to be done via iTunes (I have a bunch of apps queued-up on my Mac ready for my iPad delivery, due any minute now) and then transferred across via sync. Now reports are coming in that the in-iPad store is live for direct browsing and download. This has the advantage of allowing you to narrow-in on iPad-only and universal apps, as the on-device store excludes anything else.
It does seem that the iBooks application is still unavailable internationally, if only so you can read your own, home-converted EPUB files. As it is a free app, though, you can just make a US iTunes account and download anyway.
We’re pretty sure some international Gadget Lab readers already have iPads. How did you get them? Is the new App Store showing up in your country already? Answers, as always, in the comments.
The Netflix iPad application will now let you watch your streamed movies on the big screen. The 1.0.2 update brings support for the iPad Dock Connector to VGA Adapter, allowing you to pipe the video out to any VGA-compatible TV, monitor or projector.
The trick with Apple’s $30 dongle is that developers need to explicitly give it a purpose. Unlike hooking a monitor up to a notebook computer, you don’t automatically get either an extra screen or a mirrored version of the existing one. Instead, the developer decides what, if anything, gets shown. Apple’s Keynote app, for example, shows the presentation slideshow only, letting the iPad’s own screen show the control interface. Many apps will only show a blank external screen until a movie is played or a slideshow started.
So now you can hook your iPad up to a TV, sit back and watch big screen Netflix movies, albeit in low-res, analog VGA. It’s handy for hotels, we guess, or ad-hoc movie sessions at a friend’s home, but we can’t help thinking that Apple’s rather more flexible, do-anything Camera Connection Kit is a far better first accessory to buy.
When I covered Rakuten back in July last year, I called it “the biggest e-commerce site you never heard of”. And in fact, the eponymous Japanese company behind the B2B2C market place (which is currently used by over 33,000 Japanese merchants) generated less than 10% of total sales overseas at that time. But that’s about to change very soon.
Rakuten (which, in its home market, is much bigger than Amazon Japan) today announced [PDF] it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire California-based shopping portal Buy.com for $250 million next month. The all-cash deal will be handled by Rakuten USA (headquartered in Boston), which is expected to merge with Buy.com in the process.
Rakuten in Japan counts 64 million members, while Buy.com claims 14 million customers who are mainly located in the US and Europe. Last fiscal year, the Japanese company reached $3.2 billion in sales (Buy.com: $62.5 million), and currently boasts a market cap of $9.4 billion at the Tokyo Stock Exchange
Rakuten already expanded into selected markets in Asia (subdisiary Rakuten Travel, for example, is active in Korea, Thailand, China and elsewhere), after acquiring New York-based advertising network LinkShare for $425 million five years ago. But the Buy.com deal marks the first try for the Japanese to seriously enter the American e-retail market, with Rakuten CEO Hiroshi Mikitani saying he sees the acquisition as a chance to set up a truly global marketplace that can eventually be used by sellers and buyers regardless of their location.
There seems to be a lot going on in Asia’s e-commerce sector lately. The Rakuten-Buy.com deal follows the spectacular cross-border partnership forged by China’s e-commerce behemoth Taobao and Yahoo Japanjust ten days ago. Rakuten itself and China’s leading search engine company Baidu announced plans to invest $50 million in a virtual shopping mall that is scheduled to go live later this year back in January.
(TrendHunter.com) Nothing says summer better than flip-flops, tank tops, shorts, the beach and a pair of tar-dripping sunglasses. There's no wow factor with regular eyewear and just about everyone from... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 20 May 2010 | 2:36 am
Perhaps the biggest story of day one at Google I/O was the announcement of the Chrome Web Store. This store is meant to highlight web apps while at the same time, providing a way for developers to better monetize them (if they choose to). But the store isn’t ready to be shown off just yet, and so as you might imagine, there are a lot of questions about it. Throughout the course of the day today, Google addressed some of them.
One question that came up a few times in various discussions was if the Chrome Web Store would be Chrome-only? It will, for now, Google VP of Product Sundar Pichai acknowledged. The store itself will be limited (and built-in) to Chrome and Chrome OS (when it’s available). That said, apps written for the web are apps written for the web, so they should work on any browser. Of course, those that rely on some sort of Chrome Web Store payment structure likely won’t be accessible without the store (though Google won’t say either way).
A follow-up question asked if Google would consider allowing other browsers to run the Chrome Web Store? Pichai noted that as with everything Google does, they’d prefer it to be open. That’s not really an answer, but he did say they were talking with other browser makers about possible partnerships for the store. That said, again, at first, it will be Chrome-only.
One person asked if Google Checkout would be used for payments through the store. Google said that they weren’t ready to give details just yet, but that users could expect the structure to work similar to the way it does on Android. There’s a good chance it will be Google Checkout powering the store.
In terms of revenue sharing, Google says it will be consistant with standard practices. Pinchai later confirmed that it would be a 70/30 (developer/Google) split. This is the split in the Android Marketplace, as well as Apple’s App Store.
More questions were answered in the Google Group forum for Chromium Apps.
Someone wondered how updates to apps would be handled. Apparently, it will work just as updates to extensions in Chrome are. That is to say, automatically.
Interestingly, Chrome Apps will have less security clearance than Chrome Extensions do. Googler Aaron Boodman explains this rationale:
If you need cross-origin requests, you can implement your app as a Chrome extension. Extensions are higher privilege, and have more strenuous security warnings. We want to keep web apps nice and safe so that the install can be very lightweight.
Yes, Flash apps will work just fine as Chrome Apps — the demo of Plants vs. Zombies was run in Flash during the keynote.
A number of questions wondered why if these new apps are just web apps they would need different file extensions? Google says they need to wrap apps in minimal “glue” to get them listed in the Web Store and to make them installable within the Chrome browser.
More often than not, Google’s answer to questions about the Chrome Web Store was that today’s unveiling was just a preview, and that more details would come shortly. Considering that early app-enabled builds are already popping up in the latest batches of Chromium, shortly may indeed be very soon.
Oh, you lucky HTC Hero owner. As of yesterday, you can download and install Android 2.1 from the HTC site and enjoy some speech-to-text and pinch-to-zoom. But not so fast. Heed this warning from the download page:
WARNING: Installing this software will erase your current user data. Please see instructions below for details.
Specifically, applying the update will “delete all information from your device.” And it means all. While losing contacts and other mail details is no big deal (a single sign-on to Google will bring them all back), how do you fancy losing all your text and picture messages and all applications?
There are workarounds. Well, not really workarounds: More lame excuses and procedures to fix a broken design. You can back up text and picture messages, “by forwarding them to an email address”. This sounds handy until you realize you need to send a single email for each and every message. And applications? Easy, just “re-download the desired applications from the Market after this update completes.” Presumably you’ll need to re-input all your user and app login details. Nice.
There is one area that the update won’t wipe, and that’s your microSD card. We’d pop that sucker out during the update, though, just in case.
This is why normal people buy iPhones. Forget “open” or “closed”. This is about ease of use. To update an iPhone, you click a button when iTunes tells you and then wait for all the shiny new features, complete with all your old data. Here’s one more terrifying snippet to go home with:
WARNING: During the upgrade process, do not attempt to make/receive calls, press any buttons on your device or disconnect the device from the USB cable as this will stop the update and your device may be rendered inoperable! [exclamation mark in original]
(TrendHunter.com) Stomping Ground Photo is taking on the world of ugly class portraits, and appears to be winning. No more will the photographer call us 'Princess' or 'Captain,' with our eyes one way... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 20 May 2010 | 2:18 am
China plans to build a center where giant pandas born in captivity will be trained to survive in the wild, state media reported Thursday. The $8.8 million (60 million yuan) center will... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 20 May 2010 | 2:16 am
(TrendHunter.com) Could Britney's Circus album be the start of all these circus innovations? Whether the answer is yes or no, people seem to have an interest in the strange and the carnivalesque. With... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 20 May 2010 | 2:05 am
The Atlantis astronauts finally get a chance to relax in orbit, following two grueling spacewalks. Only one spacewalk remains for the shuttle crew, on Friday. The astronauts will finish... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 20 May 2010 | 2:01 am
Today during a press discussion at Google I/O, Matthew Glotzbach, Google’s Director of Product, Enterprise, strongly hinted that Google Apps would soon be getting a key new feature: unified search across all of a user’s Google Apps. In other words, there’s a good chance that we’ll soon be able to enter a search query into, say, Gmail, and see not just matches from Gmail, but also results in Google Calendar, Docs, and Wave as well.
The topic was brought up by a reporter during the event, who asked if a unified search feature was in the works. Glotzbach coyly responded that “he couldn’t agree with [him] more” about the benefits of such a feature, but that “he had nothing to announce on that front.” He then reiterated that he thought it was a great idea, and hinted that we’d probably see a “unified search layer” first across Google’s own Apps, and that eventually it would be worked into other applications available through the Google Apps Marketplace.
This would be great news to the millions of consumers and businesses on Google Apps. Under the current system, if you want to search through Google Apps for a certain document, event, or email, you need to open up the corresponding App. It’s hardly a deal-breaker, but those lost seconds and extra mouse clicks add up.
Obviously there isn’t a timeframe for when this will launch yet, but it sounded like this is well beyond the initial planning stages.
It's been a four year ride, but TrustedPlaces, the UK's earliest and oldest Yelp-like local reviews site, has been acquired by Yell Group Plc, the holder of the Yell.com local business directory. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed but we understand both founders and investors HOWZAT Media, the fund setup by dotcom veterans Hugo Burge and David Soskin, are "very happy".
Sokratis Papafloratos, chief executive and co-founder of TrustedPlaces, is now joining Yell as head of social products in the UK. His former co-founder Walid Al Saqqaf departed last year for other opportunities but we understand the parting was amicable.
The reason for the purchase is clear. Yell has been unable to innovate well enough to generate recommendations from local consumers. As a small fast moving startup which has iterated well TrustedPlaces now has a tonne of expertise in this. And the last we heard, the site also become profitable last year.
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese online mall operator Rakuten said on Thursday that it has agreed to acquire Buy.com Inc of the United States for $250 million, in a bid to expand its e-commerce... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 20 May 2010 | 1:50 am
Yesterday, BoomTown caught up with Shelby, the former CEO of CNet who is now running Whiskey Media, the social publishing start-up.
Sausalito, Calif.-based Whiskey is debuting its latest site today, called Screened, focused on video entertainment, which will combine both professional and user-generated content, much as its other four sites–Anime, Vice, Giant Bomb, Comic Vine and Tested–do.
Heaped on top of the niche content, aimed at passionate fans, is social networking, as well as gaming and wikis.
It’s yet another twist on the creation and distribution of content and another example of how quickly the publishing industry is changing and innovating sometimes too.
Here’s the video of my interview with Bonnie, who has been through a lot of these shifts:
[ See post to watch video ]
And here is the press release from Whiskey on Screened:
Whiskey Media Debuts Screened for Passionate Fans of Film, TV and Online Video
Media company’s fifth web property delivers measureable brand engagement by combining original editorial content with social gaming mechanics
San Francisco CA, May 20, 2010–Social publisher Whiskey Media today announced the debut of its fifth property, Screened–a new online destination dedicated to video entertainment across all screened devices. Screened, created by former CNET executives, joins Whiskey’s four other category-leading properties–Anime Vice, Giant Bomb, Comic Vine and Tested–in combining original editorial content with social networking, game mechanics and wikis to create one of the most relevant and engaging film, TV and video destinations.
“We see our model as a new breed of media company, native to the Internet and not just an assimilation of content that many sites have done before. The Internet generation expects their media to be socialized and relevant to their lives,” says founder and CEO Shelby Bonnie. “Social publishing attracts highly loyal, knowledgeable and motivated audiences and provides brands the opportunity for even deeper integrated engagement than currently available elsewhere online.”
Screened is created by fans, for fans
Screened will simultaneously spark and settle debates, create and squash rumors, and stimulate engaging conversations. The site will also feature a comprehensive movie and TV database with detailed information about films, actors, directors and writers, as well as other content such as locations, characters, objects, clichés and more.
Screened is built for the savvy entertainment fan who will watch video content across multiple devices and different screens. For a generation who will consume video entertainment across phones, iPads and computers in addition to movie screens and TV screens, Screened will help people find the best in Hollywood blockbusters, independent and classic films, TV shows and online video entertainment that can be watched or streamed to screens both large and small.
“The beauty of Screened is that its content is governed by real people who are passionate about movies, TV and video, and want to share their enthusiasm and opinions with like-minded people,” said Alex Navarro, general editor, Screened. “We’re entertainment enthusiasts too, which is why we’re so excited to create a dynamic community that we believe will be worthy of a discriminating audience’s time.”
Screened entertains and rewards with Quests
Like Whiskey’s other properties, Screened will feature game mechanics, called Quests, incentivizing viewers to become active contributors and motivating communities to participate at the editorial-level of content creation. Quests incorporate features typical of online social games–badges, points and scavenger hunts–rewarding site users for creating new pages, starting a forum topic, cleaning up existing content or engaging with brand advertisers.
During a one-week preview of Screened for members of other Whiskey Media properties, the community completed more than 24,844 Quests that produced 20,000 movie entries, 200,000 actor and movie images and 1,500 genres. The average person who contributes content contributes 43 items to the community and spends more than 11 minutes on the Screened site.
Beyond Screened, the community across the other four Whiskey Media sites has started more than one million Quests that have produced more than 7,500 new product reviews and product description pages since launch. Quests have been shown to increase page views and time spent on the site by more than 53 percent, providing increased opportunities for brand marketers to interact with Whiskey’s loyal communities.
Quests work because they are a part of the community experience in each Whiskey Media brand. The ability to share and consume information about the topics people love creates a different type of online community where each member is rewarded more for their knowledge and contribution versus whom they know. Quests create a way to show their knowledge and passion to a like-minded community.
Because Quests are an integral part of the community experience and enjoyment, they also provide ways for brand marketers to reach an audience without disrupting the audience experience.
“Whiskey Media is in a unique position to deliver engagement for brands given its community-based approach and ability to integrate campaigns into its sites, enhancing the user experience, not disrupting it,” said Brian Monahan, SVP, global lead social media, Universal McCann.
CWmike writes "Reducing energy consumption in data centers, particularly with the prospect of a federal carbon tax, is pushing vendors to explore an ever-growing range of ideas. HP engineers say that biogas may offer a fresh alternative energy approach for IT managers. Researchers at HP Labs presented a paper (download PDF) on using cow manure from dairy farms and cattle feedlots and other 'digested farm waste' to generate electricity to an American Society of Mechanical Engineers conference, held this week. In it, the research team calculates that 'a hypothetical farm of 10,000 dairy cows' could power a 1 MW data center — or on the order of 1,000 servers. One trend that makes the idea of turning organic waste into usable power for data centers is the moves by several firms to build facilities in rural locations, where high-speed networks allow them to take advantage of the cost advantages of such areas. But there are some practical problems, not the least of which is connecting a data center to the cows. If it does happen, the move could call for a new take on plug and play: plug and poo."
(TrendHunter.com) This Solve Sundsbo, Julia Stegner editorial from Harper's Bazaar features Stegner, the leggy model, playfully posing while riding in the backseat of a convertible with the sun out and... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 20 May 2010 | 1:34 am
By Harry McCracken, Founder and Editor, Technologizer
Technology, in case you hadn’t noticed, is a topic that inspires passion. When people like stuff, they tend to really like it. And many tech enthusiasts have trouble dealing with people whose tastes differ from theirs.
Spotted on boingboing, a giant iPhone Monument inspired by Tatlin's Tower. By Russian art collective and electronics hacker group Electroboutique. Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 20 May 2010 | 1:25 am
The lawyers who do most of the jousting over Internet copyright issues were abuzz last week after learning that a federal court judge suggested one of the more prominent among them had advised clients to destroy evidence.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge Kimba Wood issued a 59-page decision in Manhattan granting summary judgment in favor of the Recording Industry Association of America in its long-running copyright fight against file-sharing service LimeWire. The order opened the door for the top four record companies to force a closure of the service.
Yesterday I attended the always worthwhile SF Music Tech Summit. This has to be the fourth or fifth time I’ve gone, and I always find that after it’s all over and I’ve had some time to think about it, I recognize one key theme that kept hitting me over and over again throughout the event. This time it was the increasing irrelevance of the major record labels.
(TrendHunter.com) The Sixties was known for its libertine attitudes and experimental designs, which is clearly evident in these lamp creations displayed in the Space Age Lights exhibition. Exploring... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 20 May 2010 | 1:16 am
AFP - US legislators have accused Canada, China, Mexico, Russia and Spain of "robbing Americans" by failing to crack down on piracy of movies, music, videogames and other copyrighted works.
(TrendHunter.com) Paul Dateh's 'Top 40 Mashup' is a fantastic combination of the most popular songs and one man's fantastic abilities. Alone, he plays several layers of songs like Lady Gaga's 'Telephone'... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 20 May 2010 | 1:03 am
By Loretta Chao, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
Many have taken guesses about why official sales of the iPhone in China have been lackluster, despite the device’s popularity in other markets, with some suggesting that the long delay of the handset’s official launch in China is to blame, while others say it’s the iPhone’s high price tag or the fact that Chinese iPhones don’t have wireless Internet capabilities.
But a recent survey of 2,000 mobile users in China between the ages of 22 and 32 by China Market Research Group, or CMR, suggests that the cause of the iPhone’s performance in China may stem from the relative unpopularity of Apple’s (AAPL) partner, China Unicom, among its target users, as well as a lack of desire among those users to sign up for two-year contracts and subscribe to 3G services.
While in New York earlier this month, I attended New York University's annual ITP Spring Show. ITP is a graduate program for communications studies and the Spring Show is a chance for students to showcase... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 20 May 2010 | 1:00 am
(TrendHunter.com) The Ce Ce Chin Footwear collection '80 ' is show-stopping fierce even without sky-rocketing heels. With pumps only 3 inches in height, their awesome styles are enough to earn their... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 20 May 2010 | 12:47 am
PC World - The first (and only) official Twitter app for the iPhone launched today, and is available in the App Store for free. Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 20 May 2010 | 12:45 am
According to two Japanese researchers, we might be able to spot an 'aurora' crowning the poles of the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. But this isn't your average aurora. Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 20 May 2010 | 12:41 am
Earlier today at Google I/O, the company announced that its web browser, Chrome, was now 70 million users strong. That’s a big number, and up more than 100% in the past year. But wait a second, let’s get some perspective. Enter, Mozilla’s Asa Dotzler.
As he points out on his blog this evening, while Chrome may be at 70 million active users, Firefox is at nearly 370 million active users. And while Chrome grew by 40 million users in the past year, Firefox gained over 100 million new users in the same span — yes, more users than Chrome has total. He also made a nice chart to underscore his point.
This also ties into the news from yesterday that Firefox co-founder Blake Ross thinks Firefox may be headed towards a massive decline over the next 3 to 5 years. His reasoning behind this is that Mozilla is too timid and beauracratic in handling the browser. Meanwhile, upstarts like Chrome are surging quickly. As Dotzler’s graph shows, Firefox is also still surging quite quickly itself.
The problem for Firefox is that pretty much all of those users are coming from Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. That browser just dipped below 60% market share for the first time, but Microsoft seems committed to improving it with the IE9 release and beyond. Even if it’s still not perfect, it’s likely that the rate at which Firefox will be able to pull users from Internet Explorer will decrease. Firefox doesn’t appear to be pulling users from the other browsers (as they’re not declining), so their only other hope would be to get new people to start using the web (with Firefox, of course).
One big question over the next few years will be if Chrome is able to pull users from Firefox and IE faster than Firefox can pull new users from IE alone? The other big question will be how quickly the browsers on mobile platforms (including tablets) grow? As we’ve seen first-hand, the growth is already happening fast. Others are seeing it too.
Something else interesting in Dotzler’s graph: apparently, 10 million or so active Firefox users just stop using the browser during the holidays. Dotzler says this is normal given the time of year, but Chrome has no such dip.
Massively reports that NCSoft's fantasy MMO Aion will soon be getting a round of server mergers to balance player populations and shore up in-game economies. A newsletter from Aion producer Chris Hager also brought word that character transfers will be an option starting in June, and NCSoft will be "offering them to all of our players for free for a limited time." This is happening in the lead-up to the game's 1.9 patch, due on June 2, which contains a number of measures to make the XP grind a bit less harsh (among other things; patch notes). They're creating more quests, increasing XP rewards from existing quests, and implementing a system that "grants you experience bonuses as you continue to play."
Government and industry attempts to withhold information are delaying our ability to understand and respond to the spill, not to mention hold the parties involved responsible. Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 19 May 2010 | 11:53 pm
AP - Symantec Corp.'s decision to pay $1.28 billion to buy a division of VeriSign Inc. that sells security technology to websites highlights how quickly the companies are moving in opposite directions.
As we all know, the battle between Flash and HTML5 for the future of online video is raging. But what about that other plugin some sites use for video? You know, the one made by Microsoft — Silverlight? A new posting tonight may call that platform’s future in video into question as well. Because arguably their most important client is looking to jump on the HTML5 video bandwagon: Netflix.
A post tonight by Adrian Cockcroft (as noticed by the blog Hacking Netflix), Netflix’s Director of Web Engineering, indicates the company’s intention to embrace HTML5 going forward. The move is apparently spurred on by Netflix’s move to Amazon’s cloud, which will require a re-architecting of the codebase, Cockcroft notes. So what better time to start supporting the latest technologies? “One of these is HTML5, which is raising the bar for cross browser support for advanced user interface features, and is now supported by a large and rapidly growing percentage of the visitors to netflix.com. In addition many TV based devices now embed webkit, which is the HTML5 compatible technology that underpins the Safari and Chrome browsers,” Cockcroft writes.
It’s interesting that Cockcroft never actually mentions the video capabilities of HTML5, instead he talks about the “advanced user interface features.” Still, I think we all know what he means.
He also points out that Netflix is looking to hire to make this transition happen. The one posting he highlights is for a Senior User Interface Engineer — HTML5. The position description reads as follows:
Are you passionate about building great website experiences used by millions of visitors each day? Come to Netflix where we are using HTML5 based web technologies to move ecommerce directly onto to televisions in our customers’ living rooms. As part of our Customer Acquisition team, you will lead the way to our internationalized television user interface designed to help new customers find Netflix and start streaming movies in seconds. This new experience will be deployed to HTML5 capable embedded browsers and served from our cutting edge cloud based backend service.
This move shouldn’t be all that surprising considering that Netflix was one of the first apps to embrace the iPad, bringing its videos (h264 encoded) to the device through a native app. Still, this is a huge potential win for HTML5, presuming it happens.
eldavojohn writes "In a disturbing case for average consumers, nine DRAM chip manufacturers have been fined more than $400 million for price fixing. The named companies are Samsung, Hynix, Infineon, NEC, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, Toshiba, Elpida, and Nanya. A tenth company, Micron, avoided fines by reporting the other nine to the authorities. Since all companies cooperated with the probe, they received a 10% reduction in fines, so it could have been worse. The US DoJ has had its own history with chip makers and LCD makers in price fixing scandals."
AP - HTC's Evo 4G phone is fast, powerful and fun to use — as long as your heart isn't set on tapping into the speedier new network it was designed for.
AP - BIG DEAL: HTC's Evo 4G is an Android phone with a massive 4.3-inch multi-touch screen. It's fast and fun to use, and while its 8-megapixel camera and high-def video function don't measure up to stand-alone devices, they're better than on many smart phones. Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 19 May 2010 | 10:01 pm
FROM APPLETELL - Leaked images from Tinhte from Vietnam are again supporting the rumor that the next iPod touch will include a 2 megapixel camera. MORE »
VALENCIA, Calif., May 19 /PRNewswire/ -- (http://www.myprgenie.com) -- For years, residential interior designers everywhere have been burdened with the near impossible task of designing a beautiful bedroom with a TV in it. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 19 May 2010 | 8:21 pm
// UPDATE: Apple reversed its "no cash for iPads" policy late today, presumably in part to the controversy around this story in the news. A good move. Original blog post follows. // In the news this week, a story about a disabled lady on a fixed income who'd saved up for some time to buy an iPad—and was denied the ability to complete her purchase at an Apple Store, because they don't accept cash for iPads. She didn't have debit or credit cards, just a backpack full of greenbacks. It's not the only such tale I've heard, but this would-be customer certainly inspires empathy. Apple instituted this policy (and others) in an attempt to limit the number of iPads shipped to overseas markets for unauthorized reselling—but as the article points out, there are ways for sneaky grey market profiteers to get around this, and this lady wasn't one of them. I wonder if Apple ended up resolving the issue with her? I'll post an update, if so. Read: Apple won't take iPad buyer's cash.
RedmondChris writes "A team of scientists from Joseph Fourier University in France have successfully implant biofuel cells into rats, generating 6.5 microwatts by harnessing the power of glucose. From the article: 'The device uses enzymes to harvest energy from glucose and oxygen found naturally in the body. Past attempts at using such a device in animals have failed because the enzymes have required acidic conditions or were inhibited by charged particles in the fluid surrounding cells. But Philippe Cinquin and his team from Joseph Fourier University in Grenoble, France, overcame these obstacles by confining selected enzymes inside graphite discs that were placed into dialysis bags. Glucose and oxygen flowed into the device, but enzymes stayed in place and catalyzed the oxidation of glucose to generate electrical energy.'"
A recent report by the local ABC affiliate in the Bay Area uncovered some startling information: Apple Stores weren’t accepting cash for iPads. That’s right, you had to pay with credit or no iPad for you.
Following the 7 On Your Side report, there was “outcry all across the country,” ABC 7 reports. Not anymore. Apple has responded. Thank God.
Apple has changed its store policy to now accept cash and credit cards when customers want to pay for an iPad. “We want to make sure it’s as fair as possible for people to get iPads,” said Apple Sr. Vice President Ron Johnson tells ABC 7.
Effective immediately across the country, if you want to use cash to buy your iPads, you can now do so (provided you register for an Apple account, which you’ll need for the iPad anyway).
And that’s not all. Apple was so moved by the story of one woman feature in the investigation, that they decided to drive to her home and deliver her an iPad for free. Her key quote for the investigation? “Mr. Jobs, give a sister a break.”
A break, she got.
“What I would like to say to Steve is thank you,” the woman now tells ABC.
In all (okay, somewhat) seriousness, this part is somewhat interesting:
Johnson tells 7 On Your Side that grey market sales were never the issue, as many assumed. He says the policy was instituted to make sure the tablets were fairly distributed during a time of high demand. Now, he says, he hopes it will be even more fair by reaching customers who want to buy with cash.
So the policy was in place for a stated reason, that reason hasn’t gone away, and yet Apple just decided to change its policy? It sounds like some of Apple’s critics need to take a lesson from ABC 7 and this woman.
This is great news for anyone with with $500 to $1,000 in cash burning a hole in their pocket. Well, unless they actually want to buy an iPad. Those are still sold out across most of the country.
Actually, the HIIDE (stands for “Handheld Interagency Identity Detection Equipment”) won’t detect whether you’re a synthetic human, only whether you’re you. But it’s very thorough. It checks your iris, your face, and your fingerprints. I hope they’ll settle for two out of three, I can’t imagine it’s got a 100% hit rate on all of them, all of the time.
Here’s the crazy thing, though. This machine, supposedly state of the art, has a grand total of 256MB, that’s megabytes, of internal storage for biometric profiles. But it can store 22,000 profiles. What the hell? That leaves like 100KB for each profile. Yeah… so as it turns out, this thing takes pictures at 640×480.
Now, I’m not megapixel fiend — far from it — but I wouldn’t trust my identity to a thing with such mean data allocation. Seriously, it’s 2010 and our biometric scanners are taking VGA iris scans?
FROM APPLETELL - Steve Jobs recently engaged in an e-mail debate with Valleywag editor Ryan Tate about battery life, Flash, and “freedom from porn.” MORE »
It’s too bad we didn’t hear about these before Bag Week. Feuer Bags is a German company that makes bags out of decommissioned fire hose. You better believe they’re tough. Plus, they have a beautiful worn-in look right out of the box. I know “pre-worn” is a bit of a cliché now, but there’s something beautiful about objects that are genuinely hard-used and have stood up to the punishment. That’s these bags to a thread.
They’re mostly red, black, and white, as you can see — those likely being the colors used by the fire department in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland.
See, these things are made to last. Truck tarp is what waterproofs messenger backpacks, and of course nylon seat belts are practically indestructible. And what can I say about fire hose? It’s fire hose.
Urbanspoon plans to continue its assault on OpenTable, and its weapon of choice is going to be the iPad. I am not talking about Urbanspoon’s slick iPad app which is already out and is aimed at consumers. I am talking about the RezBook, which is part of Urbanspoon Rez and is aimed at restaurant owners.
When it comes out in June, RezBook will be a full reservation system. Instead of writing down reservations in a paper book, restaurant owners will be able to enter them directly into the iPad, see bookings by time and by table. With a $500 iPad and RezBook, any restaurant will be able to afford a computerized reservation system. It won’t be free. RezBook will charge $1 per reservation, plus a low monthly fee. It will be much cheaper than a dedicated reservation system, and slightly cheaper than OpenTable, which is the company Urbanspoon is really going after.
RezBook works hand-in-hand with UrbanSpoon Rez, an iPhone application that launched last Fall. Urbanspoon Rez helps restaurants promote open tables and add a Rez button to their Websites, their page on Citysearch, mobile apps like Urbanspoon, or to other sites and apps through CityGrid. RezBook takes those incoming reservations and manages them on the backend, and creates a customer database in the process.
The combination of Rez button promotions and the iPad’s off-the-shelf affordability should allow Urbanspoon to target a wider swath of restaurants than the kind you currently find on OpenTable. At least that is the plan. I place RezBook in the same category as Square’s iPad app, which turns the tablet into a mobile cash register. Both of these apps leverage the iPad to bring sophisticated business software to small merchants with the promise of bringing them into the digital age.
When is OpenTable going to come out with its iPad app?
The major wireless phone companies have begun building out the next generation of cellular phone systems, called 4G, or fourth-generation, networks. These networks are designed to offer much faster data speeds than the current speediest networks, which are called 3G.
Sprint is leading this race. Its 4G network already is available in 32 cities, and the company plans to add at least 14 more by year end.
[ See post to watch video ]
Now, Sprint (S) is preparing to release the first 4G-capable phone in the U.S. on June 4. I’ve been testing it for about a week in two cities: Baltimore, where Sprint has fully rolled out 4G, and Washington, D.C., where it is in the process of doing so.
This new phone, which also works on Sprint’s 3G network, is called the EVO 4G. It runs Google’s (GOOG) Android operating system and is built by HTC, based in Taiwan. It will cost $200 after a $100 mail-in rebate, with a two-year contract. Monthly fees will start at $80 for unlimited data and text messages, 450 talk minutes, and free calls to any mobile phone on any network. That’s a $10 hike from Sprint’s comparable plan for 3G phones.
My verdict: The HTC EVO 4G, when used on Sprint’s 4G network, offers the highest consistent downstream data speeds I have ever seen on a cellular network. It also has a number of other strong features: a front-facing camera for video chatting, and the ability to serve as a Wi-Fi hotspot (for an extra fee of $30 a month) that can simultaneously connect up to eight laptops or other devices to the Internet.
However, the data speeds I got in my tests weren’t spectacular, or anywhere close to the typical maximum Sprint claims, even in Baltimore, where the company’s 4G network is mature. And, when using 4G, the EVO’s battery runs down alarmingly fast. In my tests, it didn’t last through a full day with 4G turned on. The carrier, in fact, is thinking of advising users to turn off the 4G network access when they don’t think they need it, to save battery life. This undercuts the whole idea of faster cellular speeds.
Sprint’s HTC EVO 4G cellphone
In addition, the 4G advantage isn’t yet available in most cities. And the phone is heavy. Also, like other Android phones, it has limited storage for third-party apps—just 358 megabytes of total memory capacity of 9 gigabytes.
The phone itself is physically similar to T-Mobile’s HD2, a 3G phone also built by HTC. Like the HD2, it has a larger screen than on other smart phones—4.3 inches measured diagonally versus the more typical 3.5 or 3.7 inches. That makes the EVO, like the HD2, bulkier and heavier than most competitors.
However, in addition to its greater speed due to 4G, the EVO has several other features the HD2 lacks. Notably, it has that front-facing camera, the ability to connect to a big-screen TV using a modern connector port called HDMI, and a built-in kickstand to keep it upright for video viewing. In addition, because it runs Android and not the creaky Windows Mobile software used by the HD2, the EVO offers a much cleaner interface and many more available apps.
But the big deal about the EVO is that it can handle 4G, and I focused my tests on this.
Sprint claims that average users will see downstream data speeds of between 3 and 6 megabits per second on the EVO when 4G is in use. In my tests, in the heart of Baltimore’s popular Inner Harbor district, I averaged 3.4 mbps downstream over 4G, and just under 1 mbps upstream (the upstream speed is capped by Sprint at 1 mbps.) That downstream speed was double the EVO’s speed when using 3G, and the upstream speed was about triple.
In D.C., where the Sprint 4G network is still being completed and tuned, downstream streams varied widely, from under 1 mbps to a high of around 4 mbps.
The EVO was much faster than an iPhone using AT&T’s (T) network, which in Baltimore never got to even 1 mbps downstream and in D.C. averaged about 1.8 mbps. Verizon’s (VZ) new Droid Incredible, another HTC Android phone, did well in both cities, averaging about 2 mbps downstream, but that was still slower than the EVO.
Sprint explains I never saw anything close to its top claimed speed by pointing out that both cellular reception and test methods can vary greatly, and that my sample was small.
I tested other features successfully. I used the EVO to provide Internet connectivity to a Lenovo ThinkPad and an Apple (AAPL) MacBook laptop simultaneously, and both performed speedily. I also could view photos and videos on my TV by connecting the EVO with a special cable. But I couldn’t test the video-chatting feature because the necessary software wasn’t ready yet.
If you are hungry for more cellular data speed, and live in a current 4G Sprint city, the EVO may be just what you need, as long as you’re prepared for short battery life.
That’s a nice looking bike. A bit of suspension on the front… nice commuter frame… I’d pay $500. What’s that, it costs more than twice that? I assume there are gold nuggets inside the frame. No? Indeed. Then I’ll bid you good day, sir.
This design from TATO is a good idea — nobody wants to bungee their stuff onto one of those racks — but the price really is quite a lot for what seems otherwise to be a decent mid-range commuter bike. The gear arrangement is Shimano, though. I guess when you consider high-mid-range parts and a bit of a designer premium, $1300 (1500 Swiss Francs) is understandable, if not entirely justified.
Powermat just released a new bundle: Wireless Charging System for iPhone. This bundle, unlike others from the company is specifically built for the iPhone and features a very small footprint to go with the smaller price. The company is shipping the units now for $69.99.
Unlike previous offerings, the Powermat Wireless Charging System for iPhone works only with one iPhone. It is a one-device, specific product. The mat is a new 1XA and the iPhone case has a specially designed square, so the mat and iPhone orientation is very specific. This isn’t a drop it on the mat and go system, just a hair more attention is required, but hey - still no wires.
And it’s smart: once the iPhone reaches full power, an auto shut off cuts power to protect your battery’s life. An international power cord for the mat is included, which should make life easier for those traveling overseas.
Also new is the receiver case for the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G. The back features the male square that looks like it might protrude just a bit, but the case offers some protection, a micro-USB port and supplied cable for syncing.
Expect a review on Gadgetell in the near future. Video:
eldavojohn writes "Moving for the first time from a cautious message to a message of urgency, the National Academy of Science has advised the United States government to either adopt a carbon tax or cap and trade legislation. This follows their most comprehensive study in three parts released today from the National Academies that, for the first time, urges required action from the government to curb climate change."
Ben Patterson - Now that it owns the touchscreen WebOS, HP has all kinds of plans for Palm's impressive mobile platform, including new WebOS-based smartphones, tablet PCs — and, oddly enough, printers. Sounds crazy, but it just might work. Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 19 May 2010 | 6:02 pm
With a Tegra 2Tegra 2-esque ARM A9-based processorconfirmed Tegra 2 inside, 9.7″ wide screen, and a full gig of RAM, these tablets from Foxconn (unnamed and undated) look to be pretty serious pieces of hardware. They run Android, which I’ve always thought is unsuited for tablets that size, but hey, until something nicer comes out, it’s free and it works. More info over at Giz. Netbook News has a video for you, as well (thanks for the Tegra confirmation).
Social network services must ensure that users have ongoing privacy and control over personal information stored with the service. Users are not just a commodity, and their rights must be respected. Innovation in social network services is important, but it must remain consistent with, rather than undermine, user privacy and control. Based on what we see today, therefore, we suggest three basic privacy-protective principles that social network users should demand...
Ashleigh Nankivell created this fabulously creepy remix short, sliced and diced from an old public domain social guidance PSA and re-animated with AfterEffects.
This summer, scientists, hackers, students, patients, and activists will convene to discuss the future of our science/technology paradigm. Topics include:
Synthetic Biology, Gene Patents, Open Data, Open Access, Microfinance
for Science, DIY science, DIY Biology, Alternative Funding for Science, Open
Source Drugs, Patent Pools, Open Health/Medicine, Patient Advocacy for Innovation
Ready for a rapid, radical reboot of the global innovation system for a truly free and open 21st century knowledge economy? Join us at the first Open Science Summit, an attempt to gather all stakeholders who want to liberate our scientific and technological commons to enable an new era of decentralized, distributed innovation to solve humanity's greatest challenges.
Sounds great to me! The event runs July 29-31 in Berkeley, CA.
When I was a pothead in my misspent youth, "stoner cuisine" meant dingdongs and Domino's. In today's New York Times, a THIS IS SRS BIZNESS trend feature on on marijuana as an inspiration for highfalutin' cookin'. Not food that includes pot as an ingredient—weed brownies, or candies made from oil-soluble THC extracts— but instead, food inspired by what one wants when one has the munchies. Sweet, fat, carb-y goodness: the sort of sensual cravings you experience when you are baked. Featured in the NYT piece are such foodies as Anthony Bourdain, the hopheads behind Momofuku in NYC (cereal milk soft-serve icecream, maaaaannnn!) and the Kogi barbecue truck in LA.
DENVER, May 19 /PRNewswire/ -- ProtoTest, Denver's quality assurance gurus, have just announced the launch of LoadLabs -- the first and only flat-rate load and performance testing solution (www.LoadLabs.com). Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 19 May 2010 | 5:04 pm
The technology associated with 3D content is getting better, and the dark screens and headaches plaguing the more sensitive viewers may soon be a thing of the past. Personally, I hope these expensive, complicated LCD shutter glasses go the way of the dodo, but until then, they may as well be as good as they can get.
These new Toshiba screens, made specifically for shutter glasses, have improved switchover time between open and shut, and block more light when shut to boot. It cuts down on 3D field “crosstalk,” in which your left eye sees partially the image meant to be seen by the right. Causes headaches and such.
Yet this will not be the end of the improvements. Like TVs and cameras, they’re taking their time perfecting the art. Another few months will bring another improvement… and this is something theater owners and projectionists need to be aware of. What a pain! If you’re using dual projectors and polarized light, this isn’t an issue; that’s why I think that technology will win out in the end. Simplicity is a powerful thing on a mass market, and so is low cost. Active shutter glasses will be gone in… I’m going to say two years. It’s like a VHS-beta thing.
Lucas123 writes "The SEC and national securities exchanges announced a new rule that would help curb market volatility and help to prevent 'flash crashes' like the one that took place on May 6, when the Dow dropped almost 1,000 points in a half hour. That crash was blamed in part on automated trading systems, which process buy and sell orders in milliseconds. The new rule would pause trading on individual stocks that fluctuate up or down 10% in a five-minute period. 'I believe that circuit breakers for individual securities across the exchanges would help to limit significant volatility,' the SEC's chairman said. 'They would also increase market transparency, bolster investor protection, and bring uniformity to decisions regarding trading halts in individual securities.'"
BOSTON, May 19 /PRNewswire/ -- TPI, the largest sourcing data and advisory firm in the world and a unit of Information Services Group, Inc. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 19 May 2010 | 4:58 pm
ORLANDO, Fla., May 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced it was awarded two 2010 SAP® Pinnacle Awards including Customer Satisfaction and Global Technology Partner of the Year. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 19 May 2010 | 4:53 pm
As ice recedes, Greenland is popping up at nearly an inch per year. And the rise seems to be accelerating. Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 19 May 2010 | 4:35 pm
By Martin Vaughan, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
Supporters of legalizing Internet gambling told a House panel Wednesday that to do so would raise $42 billion for the federal government over the next 10 years.
Under companion bills from Rep. Barney Frank (D., Mass.) and Jim McDermott (D., Wash.), most of that revenue would come from income taxes collected on individuals’ winnings.
But Mr. McDermott’s bill would also impose an eight percent tax on online gambling deposits, paid by the operators of gaming websites.
“We are sending a multi-billion dollar industry offshore and underground. As a result, we are making tax criminals of Americans who can’t declare their online winnings to the IRS,” Mr. McDermott told the House Ways and Means Committee during a Wednesday hearing.
We have to give concept designers points for trying, but I don’t think this resizable battery is going to fly. For one thing, the actual core is tiny, and batteries derive their power from packing as many volatile chemicals into their little bodies as possible. Imagine putting six of these, at D size, into a boom box — the thing would die in like 15 minutes.
There’s also a question of heat. That memory foam is, I’m guessing, rather a good insulator. Batteries generate heat when they’re in use and rechargeables really hot up when they’re plugged in. I’d be concerned that these suckers would catch fire.
That said, though, it’s good to see thought being applied to battery design. Unlike wall outlets, which are surprisingly hard toimprove on, batteries are pretty much a blank slate. Sure, we’ve got AAs and stuff, but there’s a lot of room to play in as a designer. This particular concept just doesn’t seem to have legs.
Chinese counterfeiters have beaten Google to producing an Android tablet.
The Chinese wholesaler ActFind, which carries knockoffs of many electronics including iPhones and iPods, is selling an iPad-lookalike running the Android OS.
Priced at $150, the Android tablet is haphazardly labeled “MINI iPadⅡ8 Inch Android1.6 Ebook Tablet PC UMPC MID Netbook.” According to the product description, it features an 8-inch touchscreen, Ethernet and Wi-FI connectivity, a USB port, 88MB of built-in storage (expandable to 16GB with a TF card) and an 800-MHz VIA processor. The tablet runs version 1.6 of the Android OS.
China is notorious for its knockoff culture. When manufacturers release products, counterfeiters move quickly to replicate gadgets using cheaper parts to offer inexpensive alternatives through the black market. Shenzhen, the southern Chinese boomtown near the border with Hong Kong, harbors a prolific knockoff market. The town is home to a number of tiny shops selling pirated versions of everything from bootleg copies of Microsoft Windows 7 to fake MacBook Airs, according to Reuters.
Google’s plans to make a tablet are unofficial, but multiple publications have received tips that an Android slate is imminent. Though you can own an Android tablet today thanks to knockoff makers, we generally wouldn’t recommend purchasing counterfeits. The iPhone clone we bought through ActFind in 2008 was one of the worst gadgets we’ve ever tested. Also, legitimate manufacturers have warned consumers that fake products pose potential health hazards, such as exploding batteries.
Velcroman1 writes with this snippet from Fox News: "Using lead weights and depth sounders, scientists have made surprisingly accurate estimates of the ocean's depths in the past. Now, with satellites and radar, researchers have pinned down a more accurate answer to that age-old query: How deep is the ocean? And how big? As long ago as 1888, John Murray dangled lead weights from a rope off a ship to calculate the ocean's volume — the product of area and mean ocean depth. Using satellite data, researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute set out to more accurately answer that question — and found out that it's 320 million cubic miles. And despite miles-deep abysses like the Mariana Trench, the ocean's mean depth is just 2.29 miles, thanks to the varied and bumpy ocean floor."
SHREVEPORT, La., May 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Celebrating their 5th year of innovation, ArcMail Technology is marking this milestone by announcing a departure from how the category charges for email archiving and management solutions. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 19 May 2010 | 4:01 pm
NORTHBROOK, Ill., May 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Malcolite, a business-to-business lighting solutions provider based in Northbrook, Ill., is a recipient of the PM100 Progressive Manufacturing Award from Managing Automation Media, joining world-leading businesses such as 3M, IBM, Pepsi Americas, Dow Corning and Dole Food Company.
Malcolite earned its award for service-focused improvements. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 19 May 2010 | 4:00 pm
jitendraharlalka writes with this excerpt from Al Jazeera English: "A Pakistani court has issued a ban on the social networking site Facebook after a user-generated contest page encouraged members to post caricatures of Prophet Mohammed. The Lahore High Court on Wednesday instructed the Pakistani Telecommunications Authority (PTA) to ban the site after the Islamic Lawyers Movement complained that a page called 'Draw Mohammed Day' is blasphemous. ... 'We have already blocked the URL link and issued instruction to Internet service providers,' Khurram Mehran, a spokesperson for the PTA, said."
Facebook might have a slew of privacy complaints against it right now, but that’s not stopping it from announcing some interesting new deals. According to Facebook, about 100 million out of its 400 million users access the site from their mobile devices. It seems that isn’t enough, however, as the company wants those without smartphones to experience Facebook on their cell phones.
The plan to bring in more mobile users comes in the form of 0.facebook.com, or Facebook 0. The site is available in many “emerging economies” such as Brazil, India and Greece among others, along with the UK, Finland and Hong Kong. The idea is that Facebook struck a deal with mobile carriers to make 0.facebook.com free of data charge for users. In exchange, users get a text-only version of the social networking site. If the user is linked to a photo, video or other website then they are charged with data fees. The users will also see a small note at the top of the page saying that they have free access thanks to their mobile carrier.
The amazing part about this is that Facebook accomplished the feat without having to pay for the data usage of those who choose to use it. That, along with the ubiquity of mobile Internet for many could explain it’s absence in the US. If US carriers were to sign onto the plan, it may end up making customers happier, and could possibly even lead to more data plans being sold once people realize the allure of mobile Internet. There is also the chance, however, that many will not want data plans if 0.facebook.com was available because that could be all they want from the web. Either way, the first company to implement it would certainly win the hearts of teens whose parents refuse to pay for data plans.
I recently wrote wrote about Colourlovers, a site that's revolutionizing the business of hues with inexpensive software and a vibrant community of—well, color lovers. Users can create their own palettes or patterns (like plaid, sunburst, or polka dots), and share them or import them to their Illustrator or other software.
If you've created your pattern and want to use it to make something outside of the digital realm, like curtains, clothes, bags, pillows, whatever, go to Spoonflower, upload your pattern, and create your own eco-friendly fabric. All of the fabric is printed in Mebane, North Carolina.
From the site:
It was founded in May 2008 by two Internet geeks who had crafty wives but who knew nothing about textiles. The company came about because Stephen's wife, Kim, persuaded him that being able to print her own fabric for curtains was a really cool idea.
I love it when chics and geeks put their heads together. Along with the site's 70,000 fabric enthusiasts, you have the option to enter a fabric-designing contest or vote in one. You can also order fabric designed by other users. Check out the "gingham invaders" fabric at the top of this post. The pattern is made of tiny space invaders.
Julie188 writes "Some 2,000 licenses cover the 230,000+ projects in Black Duck's open source knowledge base. While 10 licenses comprise 93% of the software, that leaves 1,980-odd licenses for the other 3% — and some of them have really crazy conditions. The Death and Repudiation License, for instance, requires the user to be dead."
MSpot, which has a healthy presence on multiple smartphone platforms, unveils an impressive cloud-based music locker at the Google I/O conference that could pre-empt whatever Apple may or may not do with its Lala acquisition.
EDGEWOOD, N.Y. and LONG ISLAND, N.Y., May 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Tii Network Technologies, Inc. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 19 May 2010 | 3:08 pm
Some Christmas family traditions include baking a cake together or going caroling. But Tony DeRose and his family have their own way of doing things.
This year, that involved an animated, fire-breathing robot dragon.
For the last three Christmases, DeRose and his two sons have decided on a project for the coming year. Then they built each one, aiming to complete whatever it is in time for Maker Faire.
This year’s creation was a fire-breathing dragon called Saphira, inspired by a character from the Eragon book series.
“She’s very articulated,” says DeRose, of his dragon. “She can really move her head around and she will be breathing a 8-foot to 9-foot fireball.”
Saphira, along with more than 600 exhibits, will be on display at the fifth annual Maker Faire Bay Area, which will be held this coming Saturday and Sunday, May 22 and 23, in San Mateo, California. The annual event, put on by O’Reilly Media, is a celebration of DIY culture, arts and crafts, and will likely draw more than 70,000 attendees, organizers say.
The dragon, built out of parts from the hardware store and online specialty shops, combines pneumatic actuators, flame effects and an Arduino microprocessor to put on a spectacular show.
“We wanted the head to be pretty highly articulated so we wanted it to go up and down, side to side, and we wanted the jaw to be able to open and close,” says DeRose, who works at Pixar Animation. “Designing a mechanism for the head was very tough.”
To get started, DeRose and his sons created pencil sketches of how they wanted the dragon to look. In earlier projects, he says, he has used Google’s Sketch-Up design software, but the dragon’s design and different angles made it easier to draw on paper.
In its crouched position, the dragon will be about 3½ feet high and have a wingspan of about 8½ feet.
Balancing the weight of the finished sculpture will be the biggest challenge, says DeRose. Saphira weighs about 45 pounds.
“It has to be lightweight but strong so it couldn’t wave around too much. The penumatic actuators are light, but once you add tubing, spark plugs and transformers it adds up,” says DeRose.
To control the beast, the team uses a Logitech game joystick connected to a Mac laptop. The Mac is connected to an Arduino board that drives pneumatic solenoid valves using a SN75441 motor controller chip. For the flame, they use propane gas.
Overall, the project cost him about $1,200. At Maker Faire, DeRose and his family hope to have Saphira breathe a giant ball of fire at least twice every hour.
See below for more photos and a video of Saphira.
Check out the video that shows the making of Saphira.
A fire-breathing animatronic dragon called Saphira, inspired by a character from the Eragon book series, will be one of the attractions at Maker Faire, the largest DIY electronics show.
A fire-breathing animatronic dragon called Saphira, inspired by a character from the Eragon book series, will be one of the attractions at Maker Faire, the largest DIY electronics show.
Luxury storage masters LaCie have introduced a new drive (well, drives) intended for maximum data protection and connectivity. Inside that forbidding black box are two hard drives, and every bit that’s written to one is written to the other in true RAID 1 fashion. It has built-in server and torrent download functions, which could be nice, and if it’s connected to your router, you should be able to access your files from pretty much anywhere.
It’s also got a USB 2.0 interface, so you can use it as a normal hard drive as well. Capacity is either 2TB or 4TB, though if I’m not mistaken, effective capacity is half that. After all, there are only two drives in there and they’re mirroring each other exactly. 4TB of space would require two 4TB hard drives… and those don’t exist yet. $480 for a total of 2TB of space is a bit insane if you ask me.
You might remember the Drobo FS that debuted a month or so back that shares many of these features. The LaCie is cheaper, but the limited capacity really kind of sinks it if you need a versatile or professional solution. For a little light storage and torrenting, the Network Space MAX will be fine, but if you need expandability and more options on the accessibility front, the Drobo is a necessary buy — though it’s significantly more expensive.
A blogger critical of Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett fights a subpoena to Twitter to unmask the blogger's identity. The subpoena from Corbett comes amid a string of efforts to reveal anonymous online writers.
And here I thought we were protected by the first amendment against this sort of bologna. Apparently the ruling of this brilliant notion has come down to two cases. One of these cases has already been completed (and could possibly be appealed) while the other is scheduled for some time later this year.
The Obscene Publications Act is being used to prosecute Gavin Smith of Swanscombe, England for publishing an obscene online chat he had with another individual. The whole gray area here is whether or not internet chat falls under the “publication” or private conversation umbrella. The fact that Smith’s conversation was posted through a “public electronic communications network” is the very thing that has him nailed to a cross.
It’s obvious that this could spell disaster for those of us with a sick sense of humor. In any case, if this law is passed, Twitterers will need to be very cautious in posting any content that could be seen as “grossly offensive, indecent, obscene, menacing, annoying, inconveniencing or causing needless anxiety.” In other words, you’ll be limited to Tweeting about what you had for lunch.
SANTA MONICA, Calif., May 19 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Consumer Watchdog today formally launched its new Website, Inside Google, to focus attention on the company's activities and hold Google accountable for its actions. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 19 May 2010 | 2:44 pm
SANTA ANA, Calif., May 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Demonstrating its commitment to successful business partnerships, Ingram Micro Inc. (NYSE: IM) today announced its U.S. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 19 May 2010 | 2:40 pm
EconolineCrush writes "Tired of paying the Windows tax on notebooks? Asus's Eee PC 1201T budget ultraportable comes without a traditional operating system and sells for only $380. The 12-inch system has promising specifications, sporting an Athlon Neo processor, Radeon HD 3200 graphics, Bluetooth, and 802.11n Wi-Fi. It weighs just 3.2lbs with a 6-cell battery and can even handle light gaming duties. However, battery life in Ubuntu is considerably shorter than it is under Windows. Are there any better options for would-be laptop Linux users?"
I’ve been thinking of writing up a post detailing the different viewing methods for 3D TV/gaming/cinema and their various strengths and weaknesses, but it looks like that won’t really be necessary. Cyberlink has put together a really nice and very detailed guide to pretty much everything the end user needs to know about 3D.
If anything, they err on the side of objectivity. Whether one method or another is better isn’t really the point — and as I mentioned in my reply to Roger Ebert’s issues with 3D, these technologies are maturing quickly and to pick a winner (or declare them all losers) would be shortsighted. And as a commenter points out (I noticed this as well), polarized solutions are given a sort of lowballing, though higher resolutions and/or dual projectors in cinemas can easily circumvent the resolution issue Cyberlink cites. Might Cyberlink be in the business of selling active shutter glasses, perhaps?
We could either give Best Buy the benefit of the doubt and chalk these stickers up to an over-zealous blue shirt or Best Buy really does expect to con some ignorant customers out of some cash. Your call. [via Consumerist]
Verizon removed a utility pole from the front lawn of a home in Albany, NY, but the workers filled in the resulting crater by dumping in several sealed bags of rocks and then sprinkling some dirt on top. When the homeowner tried to garden the spot, she discovered the shoddy work:
She found there were big gaps between the bags, and dirt already was starting to settle into them and leave a sinking depression in the soil. Also, because the heavy stone-filled bags were so close to the surface, it would be difficult to plant the rose bush she wanted to put there.
Knapp said she has managed to haul out 13 bags but could not reach the bags at the very bottom of the hole. She opened six of the sacks and dumped the loose stones back in.
"This really seems like a pretty shoddy way to fill these holes, and I can't imagine mine is the only one they filled this way," Knapp said. "If they'd only opened the bags, ... ."
Since she wasn't home when the pole was removed, Knapp had no idea who did the work or who to ask to come back and do a better job filling the hole.
With incredible vistas, interesting characters and that unmistakable Rockstar feel, this cowboy-era epic looks like another killer release from the folks who jacked the videogame world with Grand Theft Auto.
The big blue ocean takes up a large chunk of our planet and yet our understanding of its enormity is shockingly poor. A new study calculates the oceans depth and volume, bringing us one step closer to defining just how ... Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 19 May 2010 | 2:04 pm
Ozge sez, "These stickers turn a laptop webcam into a CCTV camera. The idea is to comment on the latest incidents of spying on school children (in Lower Merion and the Bronx), which you have been covering."
Alas, they don't appear to be for sale. I'd love to give 'em out on school visits!
'POSES SIGNIFICANT RISKS'The compelling case that climate change is occurring and is caused in large part by human activities is based on a strong, credible body of evidence, says ADVANCING THE SCIENCE OF CLIMATE CHANGE, one of the new reports. While noting that there is always more to learn and that the scientific process is never "closed," the report emphasizes that multiple lines of evidence support scientific understanding of climate change. The core phenomenon, scientific questions, and hypotheses have been examined thoroughly and have stood firm in the face of serious debate and careful evaluation of alternative explanations."Climate change is occurring, is caused largely by human activities, and poses significant risks for -- and in many cases is already affecting -- a broad range of human and natural systems," the report concludes. It calls for a new era of climate change science where an emphasis is placed on "fundamental, use-inspired" research, which not only improves understanding of the causes and consequences of climate change but also is useful to decision makers at the local, regional, national, and international levels acting to limit and adapt to climate change. Seven cross-cutting research themes are identified to support this more comprehensive and integrative scientific enterprise.The report recommends that a single federal entity or program be given the authority and resources to coordinate a national, multidisciplinary research effort aimed at improving both understanding and responses to climate change. The U.S. Global Change Research Program, established in 1990, could fulfill this role, but it would need to form partnerships with action-oriented programs and address weaknesses that in the past have led to research gaps, particularly in the critical area of research that supports decisions about responding to climate change. Leaders of federal climate research should also redouble efforts to deploy a comprehensive climate observing system.BEYOND 'BUSINESS AS USUAL'Substantially reducing greenhouse gas emissions will require prompt and sustained efforts to promote major technological and behavioral changes, says LIMITING THE MAGNITUDE OF FUTURE CLIMATE CHANGE, another of the new reports. Although limiting emissions must be a global effort to be effective, strong U.S. actions to reduce emissions will help encourage other countries to do the same. In addition, the U.S. could establish itself as a leader in developing and deploying the technologies necessary to limit and adapt to climate change.An inclusive national policy framework is needed to ensure that all levels of government, the private sector, and millions of households and individuals are contributing to shared national goals. Toward that end, the U.S. should establish a greenhouse gas emissions "budget" that sets a limit on total domestic emissions over a set period of time and provides a clear, directly measurable goal. However, the report warns, the longer the nation waits to begin reducing emissions, the harder and more expensive it will likely be to reach any given emissions target.The report does not recommend a specific target for a domestic emissions budget, but suggests a range of emissions from 170 to 200 gigatons of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent for the period 2012 through 2050 as a reasonable goal, a goal that is roughly in line with the range of emission reduction targets proposed recently by the Obama administration and members of Congress. Even at the higher end of this range, meeting the target will require a major departure from "business-as-usual" emission trends. The report notes that with the exception of the recent economic downtown, domestic emissions have been rising for most of the past three decades. The U.S. emitted approximately 7 gigatons of CO2 equivalent in 2008 (the most current year for which such data were available). If emissions continue at that rate, the proposed budget range would be used up well before 2050, the report says.A carbon-pricing system is the most cost-effective way to reduce emissions. Either cap-and-trade, a system of taxing emissions, or a combination of the two could provide the needed incentives. While the report does not specifically recommend a cap-and-trade system, it notes that cap-and-trade is generally more compatible with the concept of an emissions budget.Carbon pricing alone, however, is not enough to sufficiently reduce domestic emissions, the report warns. Strategically chosen, complementary policies are necessary to assure rapid progress in key areas such as: increasing energy efficiency; accelerating the development of renewable energy sources; advancing full-scale development of new-generation nuclear power and carbon capture and storage systems; and retrofitting, retiring, or replacing existing emissions-intensive energy infrastructure. Research and development of new technologies that could help reduce emissions more cost effectively than current options also should be strongly supported.MANAGING THE RISKSReducing vulnerabilities to impacts of climate change that the nation cannot, or does not, avoid is a highly desirable strategy to manage and minimize the risks, says the third report, ADAPTING TO THE IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE. Some impacts – such as rising sea levels, disappearing sea ice, and the frequency and intensity of some extreme weather events like heavy precipitation and heat waves – are already being observed across the country. The report notes that policymakers need to anticipate a range of possible climate conditions and that uncertainty about the exact timing and magnitude of impacts is not a reason to wait to act. In fact, it says boosting U.S. adaptive capacity now can be viewed as "an insurance policy against an uncertain future," while inaction could increase risks, especially if the rate of climate change is particularly large.Although much of the response to climate change will occur at local and regional levels, a national adaptation strategy is needed to facilitate cooperation and collaboration across all lines of government and between government and other key parties, including the private sector, community organizations, and nongovernmental organizations. As part of this strategy, the federal government should provide technical and scientific resources that are lacking at the local or regional scale, incentives for local and state authorities to begin adaptation planning, guidance across jurisdictions, and support of scientific research to expand knowledge of impacts and adaptation.Adapting to climate change will be an ongoing, iterative process, the report says, and will involve decision makers at every scale of government and all parts of society. A first step is to identify vulnerabilities to climate change impacts and begin to examine adaptation options that will improve resilience. To build the scientific knowledge base and provide a basis for increasingly effective action in the future, adaptation efforts should be monitored and analyzed to judge successes, problems, and unintended consequences. The report also calls for research to develop new adaptation options and a better understanding of vulnerabilities and impacts on smaller spatial scales.Adaptation to climate change should not be seen as an alternative to attempts to limit it, the report emphasizes. Rather, the two approaches should be seen as partners, given that society's ability to cope with the impacts of climate change decreases as the severity of climate change increases. At moderate rates and levels of climate change, adaptation can be effective, but at severe rates, adapting to disturbances caused by climate change may not be possible, the report says.FLEXIBLE AND ADJUSTABLE Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 19 May 2010 | 1:57 pm
Potatoes come in all shapes, sizes and colors-including tubers with red, yellow, orange and purple flesh. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 19 May 2010 | 1:54 pm
New report seeks to retain 70 percent of the region in forestNew England forests are at a turning point. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 19 May 2010 | 1:53 pm
The KIN TWO from Microsoft has recently been ripped open and photographed, which has resulted in more images than you probably need of the inner guts of the phone. Still, if you like to see the insides such as the boards, image sensor, touch screen controller and processor than this should be right up your alley. Me, I am just glad the Internet is here—that way others can do the teardowns and I can reap the benefits of seeing the images that come as a result. Anyway, hit the two links below and see a pretty complete collection of Microsoft KIN TWO images….
AT&T says it’s unfazed by persistent rumors of a Verizon iPhone debuting this year.
The telecom company’s CEO Ralph de la Vega said this morning during the JP Morgan investors conference that discounted plans would retain customers.
70 percent of AT&T’s subscribers are on family plans, and it would be difficult to transition multiple devices, he explained. Additionally, 40 percent of subscribers are part of corporate plans, and employers are unlikely to switch company-owned devices for a new carrier. (There is some overlap between the two types of plans.) The CEO added that “churn” rates (i.e., a measure of customers leaving) for AT&T are staying at record-low rates, so he expects that iPhone customers will remain loyal.
Verizon iPhone rumors gained heat in March when The Wall Street Journal published a story citing sources who claimed Apple was preparing to produce a CDMA-compatible iPhone in September. CDMA is the standard used on Verizon phones.
Many tech observers have wondered whether a Verizon iPhone would compel a large number of AT&T customers to switch to the rival carrier. AT&T has been the exclusive carrier for the iPhone since its release in 2007, and the touchscreen handset has been a major source of revenue for the carrier. Incidentally, many dissatisfied iPhone customers have complained about the performance of AT&T’s 3G network since the release of the iPhone 3G in 2008.
Though AT&T is likely talking tough to impress investors, I’d lean toward agreeing that a hypothetical Verizon iPhone probably wouldn’t pose great threats to AT&T for the reasons cited by de la Vega. Some peeved customers will probably switch over, while others cling on to see if the network improves as a result of people leaving. The parties who should feel nervous about a Verizon iPhone are those already offering smartphones through Verizon: HTC and Google.
Image Caption: At 3 p.m. EDT on May 18, NASA's Aqua satellite swept over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill from its vantage point in space and the moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer instrument captured sunglints in a visible image of the spill. Credit: NASA Goddard/ MODIS Rapid Response Team Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 19 May 2010 | 1:05 pm
Image Caption: By using the bomb curve data from above ground nuclear weapons testing during the Cold War (inset), Lab scientists can determine a victim’s birth date by examining dental enamel. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 19 May 2010 | 1:03 pm
Although they aren't yet advanced enough to replace field combatants, robots can perform routine tasks that would otherwise put troops in harm's way. Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 19 May 2010 | 1:00 pm
As a dog lover, owner and advocate, I can let a lot slide when it comes to dogs behaving badly. But badly behaving owners: they’re another story. One of my BIGGEST pet peeves is when dog owners don’t clean up ... Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 19 May 2010 | 12:46 pm
Image Caption: NASA's Aqua satellite captured an image of Tropical Storm 2A at 09:41 UTC (5:41 a.m. EDT) just as the storm was strengthening to tropical storm status. The visible image clearly shows higher thunderstorms around the center. Credit: NASA/JPL/Ed Olsen Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 19 May 2010 | 12:41 pm
For developers, being able to make a bit of cash from your app after the user has downloaded it is wondrous — especially if the initial app download was free. Nothing like being able to, you know, pay rent, or eat.
While the iPhone has supported the idea of In-App purchase for a bit over a year now, Android has yet to adopt it.
A few third-parties have manually integrated their own payment system into their apps — but everyone reinventing the wheel for their own use is a bad idea. Not only is it a ton of leg work, but it puts the responsibility of handling the customer’s sensitive financial data in the laps of developers.
Enter Paypal.
Today, Paypal is announcing Mobile Payments Library for Android — which is exactly what it sounds like: a library for Android developers to use to integrate Paypal payments into their app. Customers get to make transactions without ever leaving the app, while developers get to accept payments without having to handle credit card info. And of course, Paypal gets their customary cut. Everyone wins.
Is it the best possible solution? Not really; it’s another third-party brought into the mix, requiring customers to have yet another account. With that said, it’s about as good as it gets until Google gets around to bringing proper In-App purchase support to the platform
You can find more information about the new library at Paypal’s freakishly-short-URL’d X.com
Communication across species boundaries by echolocation calls in batsBats can distinguish between the calls of their own and different species with their echolocation calls, report scientists of the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Seewiesen. This applies even for species closely related and ecologically similar with overlap of call frequency bands (The American Naturalist online, May 11th 2010).As opposed to bird song or the human voice, echolocation calls are primarily used for spatial orientation and search for food and not for communication. Bat species with similar ecological requirements use similar echolocation calls. However, it was recently shown that bats are able to distinguish conspecifics by their individual calls, somewhat similar to how humans can recognize others by voice.Now, Maike Schuchmann and Björn Siemers of the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Seewiesen have been able to prove that echolocation calls carry more information than assumed. As humans are able to recognize different languages, bats can not only distinguish their own calls from calls of other species, but also differentiate between different species, even if there is an overlap in the call frequency bands. The scientists set up behavioral experiments with two horseshoe bat species in Bulgaria. They played echolocation calls of the bats’ own species or calls of three different species through ultrasonic loudspeakers and analyzed the animals’ reaction. Both bat species hardly made a mistake in their distinction, neither between own and foreign calls nor foreign and foreign calls. "Discrimination was however easier for the bats when the call frequency bands were clearly separated from their own", says Maike Schuchmann, first author of the study.This result is exciting but immediately opens up new questions: "Follow-up experiments are necessary to test whether the bats indeed use their ability for acoustic species discrimination in the wild", says Björn Siemers. It could be an advantage for the bats to get out of the way of competitively superior species in their hunting grounds. On the other hand, following a heterospecific with the same roosting requirements may be beneficial for finding new shelters. Research in that direction can deepen our understanding of the sensory and cognitive basis of species interactions on a community level. Reference: Maike Schuchmann and Björn Siemers. Behavioral evidence for community-wide species discrimination from echolocation calls in bats. The American Naturalist DOI: 10.1086/652993---Image 1: Portrait of Mehely's Horseshoe Bat (Rhinolophus mehelyi). Credit: Stefan GreifImage 2: Cave with Mehely's Horseshoe Bats (Rhinolophus mehelyi), Mediterranean Horseshoe Bats (R. euryale) and other species. Credit: Stefan Greif Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 19 May 2010 | 12:20 pm
Scientists at the University of Liverpool have discovered that male topi antelopes deceive their female counterparts in order to increase their chances of mating.The study of topi antelopes in Kenya's Masai Mara National Reserve Park found that male antelopes snort and look intently ahead if an ovulating female begins to stray from their territory. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 19 May 2010 | 12:12 pm
Image Caption: The coffins were unearthed in the eastern coastal resort of Protaras. Image Courtesy Glen Bowman - Wikipedia Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 19 May 2010 | 12:01 pm
See that? That’s Android 1.6 (or “Andriod”, it seems) and Windows Mobile 6.5, on the same HTC Diamond 2(ish phone). Sure, it’s a knock-off made in China — and sure, it may very well explode into a fiery ball of death mere inches from your face. But if you’re worried about that, than you’re just a.. well, actually, you’re a perfectly reasonable person.
Beyond the hidden fiery-ball-of-death feature, this thing’s actually got some pretty decent specs for a Chinese clone. Tucked behind that 3.2″ display is a 624Mhz processor, 5 megapixel autofocus camera, WiFi, 1650mAh battery, 3.2″ display, 256MB RAM, and a 512MB ROM.
This is where we’d normally link to a product page — but to be honest, I’ve got no idea where the hell to buy one of these online, and it’s sort of hard to link to a Chinese street market.
Today at Moscone West in San Francisco, we’re kicking off our largest developer conference of the year, Google I/O. Over two days, 5,000 people from 66 countries will hear from 200 speakers, see 180+ developer demonstrations and participate in more than 90 technical sessions, breakouts and fireside chats to meet engineers from Google and partner companies.
At last year's I/O, we demonstrated the potential of HTML5. Since then, the web has moved from a promising platform to a compelling setting for developers to build apps. This week we’ll celebrate this ongoing evolution of the web and share some of our latest work in moving the web forward and keeping it open.
Today we're announcing Google App Engine for Business, which offers new features that enable companies to build internal applications on the same reliable, scalable and secure infrastructure that we at Google use for our own apps. For greater cloud portability, we’re also teaming up with VMware to make it easier for companies to build rich web apps and deploy them to the cloud of their choice or on-premise. In just one click, users of the new versions of SpringSource Tool Suite and Google Web Toolkit can deploy their application to Google App Engine for Business, a VMware environment or other infrastructure, such as Amazon EC2.
There are already lots of great apps out on the web, but there hasn’t been one destination where you could easily find them. Our new Chrome Web Store is an open marketplace for web apps that helps people find the best web applications across the Internet and allows developers to reach new users. We also joined other web companies in announcing WebM, an open web media format project and open-sourced VP8, a high-quality, web-optimized video codec, that we are contributing to the project under a royalty-free license.
We’re pleased to share some updates to our APIs too. Last year, we announced the Google Maps API v3, which was designed to be faster and optimized for mobile devices. Today this API is graduating from Code Labs and is enterprise-ready as part of Google Maps API Premier. We’re also announcing new ways for publishers to improve the relevance of their AdSense ads, a brand-new version of the Feed API with push updates that make the latest PubSubHubbub-enabled feed data available without requiring visitors to refresh pages, and a library of high-quality open-source web fonts, accessible to everyone through the new Google Font API.
Finally, last year we introduced a new way to communicate and collaborate called Google Wave. Today we’re opening Wave to everyone — no invitation necessary — at wave.google.com, as part of Google Labs. Google Apps administrators can also enable it for their domains and help groups of people work together more productively. To learn more about this, our many new API features and more open-source code for developers, visit the Wave Developer blog.
For centuries, biologists have puzzled over the evolutionary function of the female's delicate off-white casing. Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 19 May 2010 | 11:25 am
Physicists at Fermilab have discovered a clue as to why the world around us is composed of normal matter and not anti-matter. Today, anti-matter is rare, but it can be produced by atom smashers, in nuclear reactions, or by cosmic rays. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 19 May 2010 | 11:20 am
It looks like Sprint is ready to admit that the Palm Pre launch was not all they had hoped for. Or at the very least, the words are coming from the mouth of Sprint CFO Robert Brust who most recently stated that;
“The Pre didn’t work out as well as we hoped,”
Of course, the follow up to that was in regards to the yet to be released HTC EVO 4G so it sort of makes you question it a bit. The follow up was portion dealt with how the inventory for the EVO will not be an issue.
Personally, I cannot recall reading about any inventory issues or the Pre selling out with Sprint, but maybe that part of my memory has faded. Still, I guess for those looking for the EVO 4G—this is good news.
The mantle under Alaska is moving 20 to 30 times faster than the crust -- reversing the usual order of plate tectonics. Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 19 May 2010 | 11:00 am
The folks at HardMac have received an image purporting to reveal protective skins for the next-generation iPhone. The shape of the skin and the round holes for buttons come in line with the characteristics of the prototype iPhone leaked by Gizmodo last month.
Third-party cases have provided clues about unreleased Apple hardware a number of times in the past — sometimes they were legitimate, and sometimes they weren’t. Former Wired.com news editor Leander Kahney explained that the third-party accessory industry has historically been a leaky boat because the people who create the plastics that come with the iPhone are likely connected to the companies making third-party protective cases. (They are all in the plastics industry, after all.)
Never again! Never again do we have to write about Android 2.1 coming to the Sprint Hero. Why? Because it’s here.
Though never officially given a date, the Hero 2.1 update was pinned on dozens of leaked purported dates — all of which were either false or missed due to delays. At long last, all that nonsense is over.
This morning, HTC and ol’ Yellow made the Android 2.1 update package available. Alas, like the Samsung Moment, this won’t be coming over-the-air; you’ll have to run a manual update tool, which also means that this thing is going to wipe everything off your device. Backup your stuff!
Ready to do the update-dance? You can dig up the install kit here — and remember, backup! No one ever remembers to save that picture of their friend’s time as a sharpie canvas until it’s gone.
In a test this week inside the Garrett Coliseum in Montgomery, Ala., E-Green Technologies inflated a 235-foot long, 65-foot diameter airship called Bullet 580. Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 19 May 2010 | 10:29 am
The new Canon P-150 scanner (also called the “Scan-Tini”!) ships with a CD that contains two things: a scanner driver, and a link to install Evernote. That’s the kind of bundled software that I think actually makes sense. Both Windows and Mac are supported by the new plug-and-scan offering from Canon.
As scientists try to plot where the spill is going, officials struggle to contain the impact of where the oil has already been. Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 19 May 2010 | 10:15 am
In the new beta (iPhone 4 beta 4) released yesterday, Apple included settings to control tethering. iPhone users around the world have been using tethering for some time, but here in the States, AT&T denied access to the service. AT&T’s already strained network needed to save face, so they’ve pushed it off. Perhaps we are seeing the first crack in the crumbling of that policy?
It’s a smart move by Apple: slowly add features to the new OS build. Just enough to keep us all interested in what is coming and perhaps keeping customers from purchasing a competing product as the iPhone slowly does a strip-tease, revealing more and more with each build and Vietnamese leak.
Of course, this could quickly be a “be careful what you wish for” scenario. Using a cell device as a hotspot provider, burns through battery life at a good clip. Perhaps that is part of the thinking behind the larger battery in the rumored iPhone 4 hardware. And, users can expect to pay AT&T for the privilege of sharing that data connection.
However, those looking to get by with just a WiFi version of the iPad and avoid the 3G radio who happen to also have an iPhone may soon be able to connect the iPad through the tethered connection from the iPhone.
When HP won the 5 company bidding war for the rights to Palm, just about every tech blog predicted HP tablets with webOS. Well today, these tech blogs have their answer from the Twitter account @HPNews.
In the tweet, “Hurd” (as in HP’s CEO Mark Hurd), announced that webOS will not be limited to phones, but tablets and printers as well.
We had all expected the tablets part of the announcement, but I wonder what a webOS printer would do? I can hear the promo now: “Surf the web, follow your twitter updates, and update your Facebook, just in case you think you are wasting your time while a document is printing!”
In all seriousness, it will be interesting to see what HP has up their sleeve with their new shiny OS. As long as HP can push out some decent hardware, I would not count them out of the tablet, or printer, game.
At a recent investor conference, Sprint’s Chief Financial Officer, Robert Brust, admitted to investors that “The Pre didn’t work out as well as we hoped” (even despite its exciting appearance in Survivor: Heroes vs Villains) and that they’d “love to have” the iPhone.
Sprint was the exclusive carrier of the Palm Pre from its launch in June 2009 through to June 2010, and was hoped to help both Sprint and Palm through a rough period (à la AT&T and the iPhone). Sadly, however, the relationship didn’t seem to work for eithercompany.
With the crazy (and continuing) success of the iPhone, it’s understandable that Sprint would lust after the device, but don’t get your hopes up, Sprint fans: it’s more likely to hit Verizon before Sprint, and only then after AT&T have let it slip from their Vader-like grip.
Always the optimist, Monsieur Brust also said that Sprint had learned a lot since it launched the Pre. Let’s hope some of that fresh knowledge comes in handy for the launch of the super-hot EVO 4G on June 4th.
This is the Canon AE-1D. No, it’s not Canon’s latest retro-styled DSLR. It is an old Canon film camera hollowed out and stuffed with an Ixus 870 IS. It’s also the best hack I have seen this week.
The Canon AE-1 was a classic. First made in 1976, it went on to sell around 5 million units. It featured manual-everything, with the addition of a shutter-priority mode and an electronically controlled shutter. I never owned one, but I have used plenty, and it was a beautiful old camera.
This mod takes on of those 5 million bodies and makes room for the tiny modern digicam. The shutter is connected to the old mechanical shutter release, the opening film-back is replaced by the LCD screen and buttons, and it appears that the lens has been trimmed somewhat, presumably to prevent vignetting. The hack even adds a hinged hatch in the bottom for replacing the battery. Sadly, the viewfinder has been lost, but the camera has gained a pop-up flash.
Many people like the idea of just dropping a digital sensor into an old film SLR, giving the fantastically intuitive controls of a shutter dial and aperture ring and light, tough body, along with access to lots of old manual lenses. This mod, by an unknown hacker, comes as close as we’re ever likely to get. Now where’s my Dremel? Video below.
Google-powered Android phones and iPhones are both gobbling up market share. The combined worldwide market share of both operating systems reached 25 percent in the first quarter, up from 12 percent the year before, according to Gartner. The iPhone still has a bigger share, at 15.4 percent (up 5 points), but Android is catching up fast with 9.6 percent (up 8 points). All other smartphones lost relative share during the quarter, even RIM Blackberries, although they still grew in absolute numbers (see table below)
Android is now the fourth largest smartphone operating system, displacing Windows Mobile, which is now No. 5. The iPhone OS is No. 3, RIM is No. 2, and Symbian is still No. 1 on a worldwide basis. If you look at all mobile phone sales, RIM is No. 4 with 3.4 percent share, and the iPhone is No. 7 with 2.7 percent share.
Oh, mobile TV, you really are taking a beating, aren’t you? Despite hopes and promises over the last few years, nothing has really come of it but failures.
And now, Spain has abandoned plans to bring the DVB-H terrestrial mobile TV service to its citizens.
Bernardo Lorenzo, Director General of telecommunications at the Ministry of Industry, has said that if there is not an increase in demand, the government will allocate the frequencies destined for mobile TV to other services, adding that Spain does not want to become “one of the failures that have occurred in Europe”.
The Big B is referencing the fact that there have been several mobile DTV launches across Europe, none of which were successful. Ouch.
And just like that, the official Android 2.1 update for the Sprint branded HTC Hero is here. Certainly good news for any Hero users as they can finally leave behind Android 1.5 and in turn pick up a few new apps such as Maps Navigation and Google Goggles. Of course, there are a few other apps that would not work on 1.5 either such as Runkeeper and the official Twitter app. That aside though, Sprint Hero users can head on over to the Sprint support page (link below) and get the full details and directions for updating your phone. And, sorry this one is not an over-the-air update. In other words, you will need to download the ROM and hook your Hero up to your computer for the update. Still, at least you will be on 2.1 after its all said and done.
Problem: The iPad keyboard, especially in landscape mode, is a little to big for thumb-typing. Lay it on your lap and you’re fine, but if you’re standing, or lying in bed with your iPad above you, you’re out of luck.
Solution: A $1 app called Keyboard Upgrade. Fire it up and you are presented with a blank white screen, the standard iPad keyboard and a few icons. The trick is that you can move the keyboard around, resizing it, splitting it into two parts and even rotating those parts to a more comfortable position. You could, for example, split the keyboard in two, relocate each half to a bottom corner and rotate slightly for easy thumb-access.
It won’t replace the keyboard in any of your other applications, as apps in the iPhone OS aren’t allowed to mess with each other like that, but you can type text to share anywhere else via copy-and-paste. It’s a little kludgy, but at the same time fantastically inventive, and for bashing out long-form text it is sure a lot lighter to carry around than an external keyboard. Available in the App Store now.
Every so often, some new iPhone app comes along that makes me go, “Dang, I really wish I had one o’ dem iPhone thingers.” Well, as you are probably expecting, right now is one of those moments.
I was but a young-un when the game came out, but it was my first real experience with video games, and certainly the most memorable. Maybe that and Stunts.
My point is that it was awesome. Great graphics (you know, for the time), fluid animation, swords, puzzles, a princess… it was like man-Mario.
And now all you lucky iPhone owners get to take one of the greatest 8-bit adventures ever told around with you in your pocket. And you don’t even have to worry about fiddling with extended memory or floppy disks. You darn kids have got it so easy.
The game should come out some time before June 2010. Sadly, the price is not yet announced.
Those crazy reporters at the Vietnamese site Tinhte have gotten yet another Apple hardware scoop. After showing us the upcoming 4G iPhone and then the new MacBook, they now have an iPod Touch with a camera.
The device is the real deal, as far as we can see from the wealth of pictures and a rather comprehensive video. When connected to iTunes, it reports itself as running iPhone OS 3.1, but as you can see, it clearly boots into the factory testing software. You can see, though, that the camera works.
Could this be the next-generation iPod Touch, or is it just a prototype left over from last year, when we fully expected to see a model with a camera? It seems odd that Apple would make no exterior changes apart from a hole for the camera lens to peek through. This would leave the case design almost identical for the third year in a row.
The unit is marked “DVT-1″. DVT, according to Daring Fireball’s John Gruber, stands for “design verification test” and is applied to hardware that is almost ready to manufacture.
My guess is that this is a leftover unit from last year. I’m expecting a new iPod Touch with a squarer form-factor similar to that of the new iPhone. Then again, Apple could just add a camera and keep rolling these things out for another year. That $200 entry-level price is pretty aggressive, and running the same production line for a year longer is probably a lot cheaper for Apple. The video is embedded below.
Japan has been flooded with new cell phones over the last few days. We’ve shown you KDDI au’s 10 new handsets Monday, SoftBank Mobile’s 13 new models yesterday, and now it’s time for NTT Docomo’s summer lineup. Japan’s biggest mobile carrier (55 million) unveiled 20 new cell phones [press release in English] yesterday, some of which are just awesome.
Here’s Docomo’s complete line-up for this summer. (Please note just a few features are listed up below, for example most of these models have TV tuners built in – without me mentioning this. Hit this link for more information on the handsets in English).
Sharp LYNX SH-10B
(rebranded version of the Android 1.6 smartbook ISO01 KDDI showed in March: 5-inch touchscreen with 960×480 resolution, 5.3MP CMOS camera plus 0.43MP front camera, full QWERTY keyboard, Snapdragon processor (1GHz), Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, Wi-Fi, GPS, 4GB of internal memory, Sharp Blu-ray recorder connectivity)
Toshiba dynapocket T-01B
(rebranded version of the Windows Mobile 6.5.3 Professional phone “K01″ KDDI showed in March: 4.1-inch AMOLED capacitive touchscreen (480×800 resolution), 3.2MP CMOS camera, 12.9mm thin body, Snapdragon processor (1GHz), slider QWERTY keyboard,Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR)
NEC N-08B
(4.6-inch full wide VGA (854×480) screen, full QWERTY keyboard, Wi-Fi access-point capability, microSDHC slot, 1,000 hours of standby)
Fujitsu F-06B
(3.5-inch two-way touchscreen with 480 x 960 resolution, 13.2MP camera that lets you shoot full HD videos even under water (waterproof up to 1.5m), HDMI interface, Wi-Fi access-point capability, microSDHC slot, GSM, GPS, Bluetooth, DLNA support)
NEC N-04B
(3.3-inch full wide VGA screen, 12.2MP CMOS camera that lets you shoot HD videos in 1,280×720 resolution, Wi-Fi access-point capability, microSDHC slot, GSM, GPS, Bluetooth, DLNA support)
Panasonic P-04B
(3.3-inch full wide VGA screen, 13.3MP CMOS camera, Blu-ray recorder connectivity, GPS, microSD slot, Bluetooth, GSM)
Sharp SH-07B
(3.4-inch full wide VGA touchscreen, 12.1MP CCD camera that lets you shoot full HD videos even under water (waterproof up to 1.5m), HDMI interface, microSDHC slot, GPS, GSM, Bluetooth)
Fujitsu F-07B
(3.3-inch full wide VGA two-way screen plus OLED mini sub-display, 12.2MP CMOS camera that lets you easily share pictures on social networks, microSDHC slot, GPS, GSM, Bluetooth)
LG L-04B
(2.4-inch screen with 240×320 resolution, 3.1 MP CMOS camera, GSM, designed in collaboration with UK-based Studio Conran)
NEC N-05B
(3.2-inch full wide VGA screen plus OLED mini sub-display, 8.1MP CMOS camera, GSM, GPS, designed in collaboration with Japanese home furnishing store Francfranc)
NEC N-06B
(2.9-inch screen, with QVGA resolution (240×427), 5.1MP CMOS camera, GSM, advanced Deco-Mail functions)
Panasonic P-05B
(3-inch screen with QVGA resolution, 8.1MP CMOS camera, GPS, microSD slot, body with twinkling illumination, one version designed in collaboration with American fashion brand kate spade)
Panasonic P-06B
(3.1-inch full wide VGA touchscreen, 13.2MP CMOS camera, microSD slot, Blu-ray recorder connectivity, GSM, GPS, Bluetooth, waterproof)
Sharp SH-08B
(3.2-inch full wide VGA screen, 8MP CCD camera, GPS, microSD slot, waterproof, designed in collaboration with fashion brand EMILIO PUCCI)
Sharp SH-02B marimekko
(3.4-inch full wide VGA screen, 8MP CCD camera, GPS, Bluetooth, GSM, designed in collaboration with Finnish brand marimekko)
NEC N-07B
(3.3-inch full wide VGA screen, 5.1CMOS camera, Bluetooth, GSM, 760 hours of battery life (standby), designed in collaboration with Tokyo-based design firm amadana)
In a typical Jason Calacanis move today, the West Coast based entrepreneur will delete his Facebook page live on the Internet. He has 22,969 fans. You'll be able to watch it 
BREAKING: The Apple iPad store is now popping up in other countries allowing iPad users to purchase apps directly on iPad using your their iTunes account.
So far we've confirmed it's appeared in the UK, Belgium, Spain, Israel, France and New Zealand among others.
In fact, a quick check around the other stores also confirms that this looks like a worldwide release.
However it looks like there is no iBooks or iWorks app outside the U.S., yet.
European iPad users could pre-order the iPad on May 10, with 
Perhaps the biggest story of day one at Google I/O was the announcement of the 
Today during a press discussion at Google I/O, 
It's been a four year ride, but 
// UPDATE: Apple 
A recent report by the local ABC affiliate in the Bay Area uncovered some startling information: Apple Stores weren’t accepting cash for iPads. That’s right, you had to pay with credit or no iPad for you.
Powermat just released a new bundle: Wireless Charging System for iPhone. This bundle, unlike others from the company is specifically built for the iPhone and features a very small footprint to go with the smaller price. The company is shipping the units now for $69.99.
When I was a pothead in my misspent youth, "stoner cuisine" meant 
She found there were big gaps between the bags, and dirt already was starting to settle into them and leave a sinking depression in the soil. Also, because the heavy stone-filled bags were so close to the surface, it would be difficult to plant the rose bush she wanted to put there.
For developers, being able to make a bit of cash from your app after the user has downloaded it is wondrous — especially if the initial app download was free. Nothing like being able to, you know, pay rent, or eat.
It looks like Sprint is ready to admit that the Palm Pre launch was not all they had hoped for. Or at the very least, the words are coming from the mouth of Sprint CFO Robert Brust who most recently stated that;
In the new beta (iPhone 4 beta 4) released yesterday, Apple included settings to control tethering. iPhone users around the world have been using tethering for some time, but here in the States, AT&T denied access to the service. AT&T’s already strained network needed to save face, so they’ve pushed it off. Perhaps we are seeing the first crack in the crumbling of that policy?
Google-powered Android phones and iPhones are both gobbling up market share. The combined worldwide market share of both operating systems reached 25 percent in the first quarter, up from 12 percent the year before, according to 
And just like that, the official Android 2.1 update for the Sprint branded HTC Hero is here. Certainly good news for any Hero users as they can finally leave behind Android 1.5 and in turn pick up a few new apps such as Maps Navigation and Google Goggles. Of course, there are a few other apps that would not work on 1.5 either such as Runkeeper and the official Twitter app. That aside though, Sprint Hero users can head on over to the Sprint support page (link below) and get the full details and directions for updating your phone. And, sorry this one is not an over-the-air update. In other words, you will need to download the ROM and hook your Hero up to your computer for the update. Still, at least you will be on 2.1 after its all said and done.
