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Firefox Mobile 1.1 ReleasedAn anonymous reader writes "Firefox Mobile 1.1 has been released for Maemo devices such as the Nokia N900. Madhava Enros has put together a field guide for Firefox Mobile 1.1 which highlights what's new and notable in this release."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 3 Jul 2010 | 4:20 am 5 ways iPhone users get ripped off - Computerworld
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 3 Jul 2010 | 4:03 am How To Jailbreak iOS4 and 3.1.3 in 5 Minutes - Tool For Iphone 3G/3Gs 4.0 ! - Breaking Updates
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 3 Jul 2010 | 3:05 am UK Gov't Launches 'Your Freedom' Website To Seek Laws Worth RepealingFirefalcon writes "The UK Government launched Thursday the 'Your Freedom' website, headed by the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, to 'identify laws that should be repealed.' In a recent tweet, Police State UK pointed out an article in the New Statesman which appeals for people to call on the Government to repeal the ill thought-out Digital Economy Act that was rushed through Parliament without sufficient scrutiny. While part of the Act is regarding the digital TV switchover, other sections allow for users to be restricted or disconnected from the Internet at the behest of copyright owners, which goes against the principle of 'innocent until proven guilty' that has been in place since the Magna Carta."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 3 Jul 2010 | 3:04 am Scrunchie Comebacks - The '90s "It" Accessory in the Joyrich Fall/Winter 2010 Lookbook (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) The Los Angeles-based clothing company Joyrich has recreated everyone's favorite fashion "don't" for the Joyrich Fall/Winter 2010 lookbook. Carrie Bradshaw said in the 'Sex and the...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 3 Jul 2010 | 2:40 am Wait, Me Too! I Am Also Secretly A Deep Cover Russian Spy
They weren’t particularly good spies, apparently. They were directed to gather information on nuclear weapons, American policy toward Iran, C.I.A. leadership, Congressional politics and many other topics. But at least two of them chose to pursue these goals by working at tech startups. But statistics don’t lie. Based on recent espionage data we’ve rigorously gathered (from the NYTimes article), fully 18% of all Russian spies also work at tech startups. Amazing. It seems mathematically improbable to say the least that two of the people accused of being Russian spies are in our relatively small tech community. One is Anna Chapman, who was recently pitching her startup NYCRentals.com to just about anyone who’d listen. The other spy (lol) who is also a tech startup employee is Tracey Foley:
When Foley wasn’t throwing those very loud parties, Foley pursued her spy career by working as a field agent for Seattle-based Redfin, a real estate startup we’ve covered often. Foley’s job consisted of showing people houses for sale when a lead agent was taking a long lunch or something.
But what Kelman is really saying, of course, is “HFS, how cool is it that one of those spies worked for us! Redfin FTW!” I mean it’s not like he now has to worry about thinking up interesting anecdotes at cocktail parties for the next twelve months at least. He’s all set. I just wish someone at TechCrunch – me for instance – was actually secretly a deep cover spy. Blogger by day, but at night I throw on a tuxedo and zip off to North Korea in a stealth jet to kick some serious communist butt. And then get the girl(s) and take off in the rogue nuclear submarine I just stole. My God, the links we’d get once I was finally arrested would be worth millions. And the book and movie deals…priceless. err, sorry, back to my point. Which I do have one I think. And it’s basically this: WTF?      
Source: TechCrunch | 3 Jul 2010 | 2:23 am Graffitied Magazine Covers - Artist D*Face Designs the Be Street Issue 9 Cover (VIDEO)(TrendHunter.com) The French urban publication Be Street has commissioned the English graffiti artist D*Face to design the cover for Be Street issue 9. The issue features all the big kahunas in street...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 3 Jul 2010 | 2:10 am Redesigned Rocker Tees - The JC Penney Charlotte Ronson Collection Updates a Classic (VIDEO)(TrendHunter.com) For the JC Penney Charlotte Ronson collection, the designer from the famous Ronson family has redesigned the classic Foreigner t-shirts. Part of a venture to support the ARTZ charity,...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 3 Jul 2010 | 1:50 am Men's Sock Booties - The Tim Hamilton Spring 2011 Collection Mixes Preppy & Avant-Garde (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) This American fashion designer has worked for the likes of Ralph Lauren, J Crew and Madewell, but the Tim Hamilton Spring 2011 newest collection is more avant-garde than his previous...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 3 Jul 2010 | 1:20 am Video from last week's talk in DCIt was great to see so many Boing Boing readers at my talk last week at the New America Foundation in Washington, DC (co-sponsored by DC Copynight and Public Knowledge). The New America folks recorded...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 3 Jul 2010 | 1:10 am Video from last week's talk in DCIt was great to see so many Boing Boing readers at my talk last week at the New America Foundation in Washington, DC (co-sponsored by DC Copynight and Public Knowledge). The New America folks recorded the event and have put the video online, along with the Q&A.
Thanks to Everyone who Attended CopyNight DC with Cory Doctorow
Advice for girls from Kotex, March 1953 Here's some handy lifestyle advice for ambitious young women from the March, 1953 issue of Cosmo, courtesy of Kotex: What to do about the Spaniel Type?Are you in the know? (Mar, 1953)  Source: Boing Boing | 3 Jul 2010 | 12:58 am Advice for girls from Kotex, March 1953Here's some handy lifestyle advice for ambitious young women from the March, 1953 issue of Cosmo, courtesy of Kotex: What to do about the Spaniel Type? _ Rush away screaming _ Linger and learn Adoring...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 3 Jul 2010 | 12:58 am Deepwater Horizon: New NASA images from space show oil invading Louisiana wetlandsImages released today from NASA: "Multiple cameras on JPL's MISR instrument on NASA's Terra spacecraft were used to create two unique views of oil moving into Louisiana's coastal wetlands." More details...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 3 Jul 2010 | 12:40 am Deepwater Horizon: New NASA images from space show oil invading Louisiana wetlands Images released today from NASA: "Multiple cameras on JPL's MISR instrument on NASA's Terra spacecraft were used to create two unique views of oil moving into Louisiana's coastal wetlands." More details about what we're seeing here: The left-hand image contains data from MISR's vertical-viewing camera. It is shown in near-true color, except that data from the instrument's near-infrared band, where vegetation appears bright, have been blended with the instrument's green band to enhance the appearance of vegetation.(NASA/GSFC/LaRC/JPL, MISR Team) Source: Boing Boing | 3 Jul 2010 | 12:40 am Interactive Childhood Tales - The Little Mermaid iPad App is the Next Gen Bedtime Story (VIDEO)(TrendHunter.com) The recently released 'The Little Mermaid' iPad app includes all of your favorite childhood classics by H.C. Andersen in a new, updated way. Using the iPad's unique tilting technology...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 3 Jul 2010 | 12:31 am New York Times and other papers use deceptive death-notice companyAfter a close friend committed suicide, Maciej Cegowski discovered that a company called Legacy.com provides the back-end for almost every US paper's death notices, and that this company uses deceptive...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 3 Jul 2010 | 12:09 am New York Times and other papers use deceptive death-notice companyAfter a close friend committed suicide, Maciej Cegłowski discovered that a company called Legacy.com provides the back-end for almost every US paper's death notices, and that this company uses deceptive practices to get money from vulnerable, grieving people:The Great Legacy.com Swindle (via Waxy) Source: Boing Boing | 3 Jul 2010 | 12:09 am Turtle settlement - San Francisco Chronicle
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 3 Jul 2010 | 12:01 am Metalhead Screen Grabs - Sacha Maric Takes Photos From YouTube for 'Thrasher' Project (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) Photojournalist and fine art photographer Sacha Maric is trying her hand at a completely different subject for her 'Thrashers' project. The London-based artist is known for her fashion...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 3 Jul 2010 | 12:01 am IE9 Flaunts Hardware-Accelerated CanvasAn anonymous reader writes "Over on the IE blog they have a rundown of IE9's hardware accelerated support for the canvas element. They write, 'With the recent release of the latest IE9 platform preview, we talked about how we're rebuilding the browser to use the power of your whole PC to browse the web, and to unlock a new class of HTML5 applications. One area that developers are especially excited about is the potential of HTML5 canvas. Like all of the graphics in IE9, canvas is hardware accelerated through Windows and the GPU. In this blog post we discuss some of the details behind canvas and the kinds of things developers can build.'"
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 3 Jul 2010 | 12:01 am Miraculous concrete house is pink, firesafe and cheap
Source: Boing Boing | 3 Jul 2010 | 12:00 am Apartment made out of booksRintala Eggertsson's Ark is part of the Victoria and Albert Museum's Small Spaces exhibition: 6,000 books turned into a small and delightful flat. I Want to Live Inside The Bookshelf Apartment Source: Boing Boing | 2 Jul 2010 | 11:59 pm Industrial music pioneer Chris Carter with gear, 1980 Chris Carter of Throbbing Gristle and Chris & Cosey at his Industrial Records studio, 1980. Chris recently tweeted, "WTF! I've just exceeded (by quite a margin) ONE MILLION views of my photos on Flickr - this image was tops at 10k+" From his Flickr stream: The gear is...Chris Carter "Me @ Industrial Records Studio 1980" (via @chriscarter) Source: Boing Boing | 2 Jul 2010 | 11:58 pm Riepl's Law: how future media compost the pastHere's a useful rule of thumb from 1913: Riepl's Law says, "new, further developed types of media never replace the existing modes of media and their usage patterns. Instead, a convergence takes place in their field, leading to a different way and field of use for these older forms." (via Beyond the Beyond)Source: Boing Boing | 2 Jul 2010 | 11:54 pm Online video patents: an impassable thicket?Posting on New America Foundation's site, copyfighting lawyer Wendy Seltzer gives an excellent primer on the patent thicket around online video, where multiple corporations assert overlapping claims to ownership of patents on practically every video format, and reserve the right to use these claims to shut down video-sharing sites. Luckily, a pair of free/open video formats are on the scene, and have the potential to make video on the Web as unrestricted as HTML, RSS, and the other standards that power it:On June 20, 2009, nearly 150,000 people witnessed the death of 26-year-old Neda Agha-Soltan, but unlike the Iranians who passed her by in the street, they weren't bystanders to the post-election turmoil in Tehran that claimed her life. They were merely the first of over 600,000 who have since viewed a now-symbolic YouTube video that helped propel the opposition political movement forward in the following days of protest. The democratizing power of the Web lies in video like this one--not just because of its content, but because anyone with an Internet connection can contribute to a global dialogue.Video Prison: Why Patents Might Threaten Free Online Video (Thanks, James!) Source: Boing Boing | 2 Jul 2010 | 11:52 pm 8-bit costume
Kiel Johnson and Klai Brown recently built a fantastic 8-bit costume for a Toshiba commercial. They cut the "pixels" from large sheets of high density foam and glued them to an articulated cardboard suit structure. Kiel says, "I think I cut around 4000 pixels. Not all used for Gary... we are building two more characters for a video project." He's posted a posted a slew of terrific images from the build and commercial shoot. "8-Bit Gary" Source: Boing Boing | 2 Jul 2010 | 10:51 pm Porting Aquaria To the PSPApple Prophet writes "Just a few short weeks after BitBlot released the source to Aquaria as part of the Humble Indie Bundle, Andrew Church hacked up an ambitious homebrew port of the game to the PSP. He wrote a detailed synopsis of the technical challenges in an article on the Wolfire Blog, and of course, contributed all of the patches back to the project so anyone with a homebrew-equipped PSP can try it out. Check out the mercurial repository for the source."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 2 Jul 2010 | 10:18 pm Chrome Web Apps Coming Along Quite Well. Some Already Work
Builds of Chromium (the open source browser behind Chrome) have actually been able to run early apps for weeks now. The ability is still hidden behind a flag, but if you go here you can figure out how to turn on the functionality. As you can see in the screenshots below, these builds allow you to install apps (you can find some here) that then reside on your main “Most visited” Chrome page (the one with web page thumbnails for sites you often visit). From here, you can click on any of these apps to launch them in a new pinned tab. Obviously, this isn’t as simple as it’s going to be with the full Web Store in place. But it’s still not too bad either. Clicking on a link to an app brings up a prompt to ask if you’d like to install it — just like you get when you install a Chrome extension. An overlay at the top of the browser then lets you know when the app is installed. Eventually, it looks as if installed apps will have different looking tabs than regular pinned web pages (for now they look the same). It also looks like the UI for these apps will be a lot nicer by the time things launch, and there will be an easier way to delete apps from the page they reside on (see bottom image). One quick note: the latest builds of Chromium for Mac appear to have the way to get to apps disabled. So you might want to try an older version from early June. At least one thread warns that apps might be available on the Windows versions of Chrome first, and Mac and Linux later.
[thanks Joe] Information provided by CrunchBase      
Source: TechCrunch | 2 Jul 2010 | 10:04 pm Another tough month for video game industry - San Francisco Chronicle
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 2 Jul 2010 | 9:55 pm /C O R R E C T I O N -- ChinaNet Online Holdings, Inc./Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 2 Jul 2010 | 9:48 pm /C O R R E C T I O N -- ChinaNet Online Holdings, Inc./In the news release, ChinaNet Online Holdings, Inc. Continues Employment Initiative Efforts through Public Service Programs, sent over PR Newswire, we are advised by the company that the last sentence of the third paragraph should read "In addition, 28.com, a subsidiary of ChinaNet, made the first collectively raised donation of approximately $735,000 to the Entrepreneurship Fund for Chinese College Students..." rather than "In addition, 28.com, a subsidiary of ChinaNet, made the first donation of approximately $735,000 to the Entrepreneurship Fund for Chinese College Students." The complete, corrected release follows: ChinaNet Online Holdings, Inc. Continues Employment Initiative Efforts through Public Service Programs Company launches the "Chinese College Students Start-up Forum" with support from six government agencies in China BEIJING, July 2 /PRNewswire-Asia-FirstCall/ -- ChinaNet Online Holdings, Inc. (NYSE AMEX: CNET) ("ChinaNet" or the "Company"), a leading Internet services and media technology company providing online advertising and brand management solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the People's Republic of China (China), is continuing its commitment to help China's college students develop entrepreneur skills and spur growth of small and medium enterprises in China while expanding the Company's "www.28.com" brand recognition. ChinaNet co-founded the "Entrepreneurship Fund for Chinese College Students", which will make resources available to attract successful entrepreneurs for guiding students and providing active assistance for developing business plans. Mr. Cheng Handong, President and CEO of ChinaNet, confirms the company's commitment to support this public activity and plans continued assistance for undergraduates' startups and ventures. Small and medium sized enterprises make up 75% of the urban employment in China and are a popular destination for recent college graduates. In appreciation of this initiative, www.28.com, a subsidiary of ChinaNet, recently sponsored an opening ceremony commencing the Chinese College Students Startup Forum ("Forum") and was jointly sponsored by six government agencies, including China Federation of Industry and Commerce, Ministry of Education, Central Committee of the Communist Young League, United Front Work Department of CPC Central Committee, Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, and Ministry of Civil Affairs. The opening ceremony of the Forum was held in the Great Hall of People in Beijing with more than 200 participants, including Chinese government officials, mainstream media reporters and student delegates. In addition, 28.com, a subsidiary of ChinaNet, made the first collectively raised donation of approximately $735,000 to the Entrepreneurship Fund for Chinese College Students. ChinaNet also recently sponsored the first "28.com Business Opportunity Cup". This competition is designed to allow Chinese college students the opportunity to showcase their entrepreneur skills and teach them the process of starting a business. The successful event attracted over 2000 student applicants and received 322 projects. Future competitions are planned to be held regularly. "These programs have increased the presence and awareness of ChinaNet among China's universities, industry and venture communities, as we continue to provide meaningful assistance to undergraduates' startup and job hunting activities," stated Mr. Handong Cheng, Chairman and CEO of the Company. "ChinaNet's web portal, www.28.com, is the leading networking website in China for matching entrepreneurs with business opportunities. ChinaNet anticipates these programs could yield an additional 50 to 100 branded clients annually who would utilize the portal to advertise to this population of college students and graduates, their products, services and business opportunities over the internet. The company estimates that each new client would contribute approximately $15,000 to $22,000 in annual revenues." About ChinaNet Online Holdings, Inc. The Company, a parent company of ChinaNet Online Media Group Ltd., incorporated in the BVI ("ChinaNet" or "Zhong Wang Zai Xian"), is a leading Internet services and media technology company providing online advertising and brand management solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) in China. The Company, through its certain contractual arrangements with operating companies in the PRC, provides Internet advertising and other services for Chinese SMEs via its portal website 28.com, TV commercials and program production via China-Net TV, and in-house LCD advertising on banking kiosks targeting Chinese banking patrons. Website: http://www.chinanet-online.com . Safe Harbor Statement This release contains certain "forward-looking statements" relating to the business of ChinaNet Online Holdings, Inc., which can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "believes," "expects," "anticipates," "estimates" or similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, including business uncertainties relating to government regulation of our industry, market demand, reliance on key personnel, future capital requirements, competition in general and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially different from those described herein as anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Certain of these risks and uncertainties are or will be described in greater detail in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These forward-looking statements are based on ChinaNet's current expectations and beliefs concerning future developments and their potential effects on the company. There can be no assurance that future developments affecting ChinaNet will be those anticipated by ChinaNet. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties (some of which are beyond the control of the Company) or other assumptions that may cause actual results or performance to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. ChinaNet undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws. For further information, contact: HC International, Inc. Ted Haberfield, Executive VP Tel: +1-760-755-2716 Email: thaberfield@hcinternational.net SOURCE ChinaNet Online Holdings Inc.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 2 Jul 2010 | 9:48 pm Dan Morrill clarifies Android 3.0 rumorsSection: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones
A few days ago, a Russian blogger named Eldar Murtazin shed some details on the upcoming Android 3.0 (codenamed Gingerbread). He spoke about the details in his native language (Russian) in his podcast. Someone at UnwiredView was able to translate his information into English and reported the details from the podcast. Apparently, Murtazin happened to know the minimum requirements of Android 3.0, which were top notch specs. They include a 1GHz Processor, 512MB RAM, 3.5 inch screens, and devices with screens bigger than 4 inches will have resolutions of 1280 x 760. Devices with mid-range specs currently running Android 2.1 would have a hard time upgrading to Android 3.0 if these were, indeed, the minimum specifications. In addition, he claimed Android 3.0 would be launched sometime in mid-October with the first handsets running Gingerbread to launch sometime in December. As of yesterday, Dan Morrill (Android Open Source & Compatibility Tech Lead) posted some interesting thoughts on his Twitter account which effectively claimed Murtazin as nothing to be taken seriously. Here are some tweets from Morrill:
At a time when Android news is abuzz with Android 2.2, Motorola Droid X, Samsung Galaxy S, it is easy to believe rumors such as these. Fortunately, a credible source was able to debunk the rumor before it got out of hand. UnwiredView has since updated their post claiming the minimum specs are really just recommended specs. Read [Dan Morrill’s Twitter Account]
Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 2 Jul 2010 | 9:16 pm Russian spaceship 'under control' - BBC News
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 2 Jul 2010 | 9:14 pm Diaspora On Schedule, One Month Inschlick writes with word that the Diaspora project (last mentioned here several weeks back) has an update with a demo and some screen shots. Diaspora's goal: to provide social networking without the privacy invasion possibilities inherent in sites like Facebook.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 2 Jul 2010 | 9:03 pm Google lands ITA for $700m, bolsters airplane search technologySection: Web, Websites, Google
Frequent fliers probably use services such as Kayak and Bing Travel to find out flight information. Google doesn’t have a very comprehensive database when it comes to flying, but that is definitely going to change in the coming months. On July 1, Google announced the acquisition of ITA Software for $700 million and will soon begin to implement ITA’s vast database when it comes to flight information. Google’s main objective is to “benefit passengers, airlines and online travel agencies” by aggregating information from ITA and organizing it in a convenient manner so travelers can compare airfares and flight information. Remember, Google will not be directly selling any flight tickets nor adjusting airfare prices, only providing information. This is good news for travelers as they have another method to find the best deal available. Via [Google] Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 2 Jul 2010 | 8:00 pm TechCrunchTV: No Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Invest
Originally it was going to be a hilarious romp through the week’s news, but it seems that slot has been taken by the charismatic and slightly better titled “OMG/JK.” So in a bid to be different, we decided we would cover only tech and entrepreneurship news from outside of Silicon Valley. Of course, the problem is Valley companies tend to drive more traffic. So in a way, this show is an experiment to see if TC readers do indeed care about life outside the echo chamber. Our first episode involves spies, sex, lies, giggling and of course videotape: We discuss the weird story of alleged Russian spy, Anna Chapman and her odd social media approach to spying. It makes us wonder how many entrepreneurs out there are really just sleepers for foreign powers. Loic LeMeur, we’re watching you. (This post will self-destruct in five seconds.)      
Source: TechCrunch | 2 Jul 2010 | 7:30 pm Scrubbing CO2 From Atmosphere Could Be A Long-Term CommitmentWith carbon dioxide in the atmosphere approaching alarming levels, even halting emissions altogether may not be enough to avert catastrophic climate change. Could scrubbing carbon dioxide from the air be a viable solution? A new study by scientists at the Carnegie Institution suggests that while removing excess carbon dioxide would cool the planet, complexities of the carbon cycle would limit the effectiveness of a one-time effort. To keep carbon dioxide at low levels would require a long-term commitment spanning decades or even centuries.Previous studies have shown that reducing carbon dioxide emissions to zero would not lead to appreciable cooling, because carbon dioxide already within the atmosphere would continue to trap heat. For cooling to occur, greenhouse gas concentrations would need to be reduced. "We wanted to see what the response would be if carbon dioxide were actively removed from the atmosphere," says study coauthor Ken Caldeira of Carnegie's Department of Global Ecology. "Our study is the first to look at how much carbon dioxide you would need to remove and for how long to keep atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations low. This has obvious implications for the public and for policy makers as we weigh the costs and benefits of different ways of mitigating climate change."For the study, Caldeira and lead author Long Cao, also at Carnegie, did not focus on any specific method of capturing and storing carbon dioxide from the ambient air. The possibilities include approaches as diverse as industrial-scale chemical technologies and changing land use so more carbon dioxide is naturally absorbed by vegetation. For the study, the researchers used an Earth system model under projected conditions at the middle of this century when global surface temperatures have been raised 2° C (3.6° F). They then simulated the effects of an idealized case in which carbon emissions were reduced to zero and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was instantaneously restored to pre-industrial levels.The researchers found that removing all human-emitted carbon dioxide from the atmosphere caused temperatures to drop, but it offset less than half of CO2-induced warming. Why would removing all the extra carbon dioxide have such a small effect? The researchers point to two primary reasons. First, slightly more than half of the carbon dioxide emitted by fossil-fuels over the past two centuries has been absorbed in the oceans, rather than staying in the atmosphere. When carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere, it is partially replaced by gas coming out of ocean water. Second, the rapid drop in atmospheric carbon dioxide and the change in surface temperature alters the balance of the land carbon cycle, causing the emission of carbon dioxide from the soil to exceed its uptake by plants. As a result, carbon dioxide is released back into the atmosphere.According to the simulations, for every 100 billion tons of carbon removed from the atmosphere, average global temperatures would drop 0.16° C (0.28° F).Further simulations showed that in order to keep carbon dioxide at low levels, the process of extracting carbon dioxide from the air would have to continue for many decades, and perhaps centuries, after emissions were halted."If we do someday decide that we need to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to avoid a climate crisis, we might find ourselves committed to carbon dioxide removal for a long, long time. A more prudent plan might involve preventing carbon dioxide emissions now rather than trying to clean up the atmosphere later." ---On the Net:Carnegie InstitutionSource: RedOrbit News - Science | 2 Jul 2010 | 7:21 pm Metal band Black Veil Brides crafts elaborate image (Reuters)Reuters - Black Veil Brides' first album, "We Stitch These Wounds," doesn't arrive until July 20. But long before the debut of the metalcore/glam/goth outfit's record, the act has racked up millions of YouTube views, moved plenty of merchandise and scored sponsorships with such companies as Mehron Makeup.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 2 Jul 2010 | 7:15 pm First Kin, then Sidekick -- Is the Danger Division Well-Named? - PC World
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 2 Jul 2010 | 7:11 pm UPDATE 1-Cliffs wins Spider backing, KWG bows outNEW YORK, July 2 (Reuters) - Spider Resources Inc agreed to a takeover by Cliffs Natural Resources Inc and ended a deal with KWG Resources Inc , giving up on its efforts to fend off Cliffs' unsolicited...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 2 Jul 2010 | 7:10 pm TechCrunch NOW: Yammer CEO, DoubleTwist Co-Founder On Apple, Google MeWhat does Yammer’s David Sacks have to do with Apple’s reception hiccup? And what does DoubleTwist’s Jon Johansen have to do with Google Me? To be honest, not a whole lot. But we had both founders in on Friday morning, for our fifth episode of TechCrunch NOW. For those who are unfamiliar with the program, TechCrunch NOW is a daily show (Monday-Friday, 3 PM PST) where we combine an assortment of entrepreneurs, investors, reporters and other tech personalities to debate the top headlines. This week, our line-up included Cyan Banister, founder of Zivity (and host of Speaking Of), Brian Singerman of Founder’s Fund, Ryan Sweeney of Accel Partners, Andy McLoughlin, co-founder of Huddle, Michael Seibel, CEO of Justin.tv, Evan Soloman, VP of Marketing for Justin.tv, and our OMG/JK dream team MG Siegler and Jason Kincaid. We don’t expect our guests to be designated experts for each headline— however, as an engaged player in technology, his/her perspective will add an extra layer of context and facilitate intelligent discussion. On today’s episode, we got a chance to delve a little deeper into Apple’s amusing press release, its botched formula for calculating reception, the problems with the Android marketplace, and the upcoming fight between Google and Facebook. Below are a few highlights:
During our show, Jon Johansen got a chance to elaborate on his recent post, “Google’s Mismanagement Of the Android Market.” On Sunday, the co-founder of DoubleTwist (a music service often described as the ‘iTunes for Android’), ripped Google for failing to curate the Android marketplace— leaving it vulnerable to clutter, less-than-legal apps and making it difficult for quality apps to surface. Rant aside, Johansen says there is a “middle ground” here, where Google can balance its desire to remain open and the need to control the Android eco-system: “Both Palm and Android have this option where you can actually install apps from outside the market…so even if Google started curating the Android market more and flushing out some of these spam apps for instance, that wouldn’t necessarily make the Android market not open anymore because you can still install apps from anywhere else.” Sacks, also agreed that Google needs to overhaul its system to be more developer-friendly. As a CEO who has an app on the iPhone and the Android platforms, he said it has been a struggle for his team to design apps around the different Android devices and for each iteration of the operating system (although he notes that both Apple and Google still rank higher than RIM). After our interview, Johansen told me he was looking for more editorial control and improved search algorithms for the market. Google, if you’re listening, he actually has a four-pronged plan for the Android:
On Google Me vs. Facebook Meanwhile, in the last portion of our round-up, David Sacks delivered a bold prediction for Google Me: Google Me, on its own will not be able to take down Facebook, if they want to tackle the 800-pound gorilla in social they will have to buy Twitter:
He also ominously warned that in the long term, the market might not be big enough for both a Twitter and Facebook. See the full video above. Any suggestions for our show or guests you want to see? E-mail me at onair@techcrunch.com, subject: TechCrunch NOW.      
Source: TechCrunch | 2 Jul 2010 | 7:05 pm Rumor: Android 2.2 hitting up Motorola Droid on July 13Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones  According to “one of [Droid-Life’s] most reliable sources,” Android 2.2 is scheduled to roll out to Motorola Droid devices on July 13. Two days before the big Motorola Droid X launch? I guess Motorola wanted to have a little something for everyone the week the Droid X launches - Android 2.2 for the Droid and the Droid X for eligible Verizon customers. The Android 2.1 roll out occurred on a Tuesday for Droid users so, keeping with tradition, the July 13 timeframe makes sense because it is a Tuesday. In addition, the Motorola Droid is slated to receive the Android 2.2 update sometime in July, so the timing works with previous reports. Also, Google updated the Nexus One with the official Android 2.2 update, so it looks like Android 2.2 is ready to go. Of course, this is still in rumor stage and has yet to be confirmed by Motorola or Verizon. If any more news comes, we will update you here. Via [Droid-Life] Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 2 Jul 2010 | 6:59 pm For Female Baboons, Too, It's Good To Have FriendsFemale baboons that maintain closer ties with other members of their troop live substantially longer than do those whose social bonds are less stable, a recent study has found. The researchers say that the findings, reported online on July 1st in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, add to evidence in animals from mice to humans that social bonds have real adaptive value."Our results suggest that close, stable social relationships have significant reproductive benefits," said Joan Silk of the University of California, Los Angeles. "The data add to a growing body of evidence from humans and other animals that females with a strong, supportive social network are healthier and have greater reproductive success."Silk said that she and her colleagues were surprised to discover that the effects are at least partially independent of a given female's status in the group. In other words, the benefits of social ties don't just derive from greater competitive ability or greater access to resources for those of higher dominance rank."Given that high-ranking females have priority of access to food resources, one might have predicted that rank would be the primary factor influencing longevity," said Dorothy Cheney of the University of Pennsylvania. "Our results indicate instead that the quality of a female's social bonds with other females is more important, suggesting that subordinate females may be able to offset the competitive disadvantage of low rank through their social relationships."The quality and stability of baboon relationships trump quantity, the researchers say. Females who were able to maintain the same grooming partners from one year to the next lived longer and had more surviving offspring.Baboons most often form close bonds with relatives, the researchers said, and the stability of those connections is partly a matter of luck since lions and leopards often prey upon baboons. But it appears that isn't the whole story. The researchers found that 80 percent of females that switched close grooming partners from one year to the next did so despite that fact that their earlier companion was still in the group.Silk and Cheney said they aren't exactly sure how the relationships lead baboons to live longer lives, but it might have something to do with lower stress levels in those with dedicated grooming partners. It's also possible that females with such networks are more likely to be resting and foraging near other animals, making them less vulnerable to predators.The findings in baboons may lend humans some added insight into our own social lives, the researchers said."Having friends is important for us and for female baboons—and maybe for some of the same reasons," Silk said. "Our findings are strikingly similar to evidence from humans showing that social ties have important effects on our mental and physical health and our longevity. We suspect that the human motivation to form close and lasting friendships has a very long evolutionary history."---On the Net:Cell PressCurrent BiologySource: RedOrbit News - Science | 2 Jul 2010 | 6:42 pm Antenna Expert: Apple is Right, iPhone 4 Signal Woes Overblown (PC World)PC World - Apple on Friday issued a carefully worded statement admitting that, yes, there's something wrong with the iPhone 4; but, no, it's not the alleged problem you've heard about.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 2 Jul 2010 | 6:11 pm Free apps roundup for July 2nd, 2010FROM APPLETELL - If you have an iPhone 4 raise your hand. Okay, bad idea, I can’t see any of you. If you did, though, congrats. Now I’m positive that most of you want some free apps, so why why don’t we get right to it? Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 2 Jul 2010 | 6:05 pm Russia's Unmanned Capsule Misses Space Stationmikesd81 writes "Russia's unmanned cargo ship Progress 38 missed docking with the ISS and sailed right on by it instead of docking on autopilot. A telemetry lock between the Russian-made Progress module and the space station was lost and the module flew past at a safe distance. NASA said the crew was never in danger and that the supplies are not critical and will not affect station operations. There will be no other attempts at docking today, and the orbit of the module raises questions of any other attempts again. Packed aboard the spacecraft are 1,918 pounds of propellant for the station, 110 pounds of oxygen, 220 pounds of water and 2,667 pounds of dry cargo — which includes spare parts, science equipment and other supplies."
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Source: Slashdot | 2 Jul 2010 | 5:58 pm Voices For Mac puts more people in your head (Macworld.com)Macworld.com - Getting tired of Alex? Has your relationship with Victoria waned over the years? Voices for Mac can spruce up your aural interactions with Mac OS Xâs text-to-speech feature, with the addition of new voices for your listening pleasure.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 2 Jul 2010 | 5:54 pm Apple addresses reception issues, prepares update, but continues to ignore battery life issueSection: Apple, Communications, Mobile
Meanwhile, they continue to ignore the outcry about the poor battery life many, particularly iPod Touch owners, have been experiencing since they upgraded. They have firmly ignored both the flood of complaints in their own support forum and as well as complaints sent via their feedback system. Many owners have reported that when they called Apple or visited their local Apple store they were told their batteries needed to be replaced. Wake up Apple! Great battery life before update/extremely bad battery life after is not a battery issue it’s an OS issue! Many theories about the cause of the issue have been floating around but the one that makes the most sense to me is that Apple was so focused on the much demanded multitasking feature that they ramped up work needing to be done by the processor and changed the WiFi to be constantly on and constantly searching for packets so that apps like Skype could function in the background. What they either stupidly didn’t consider, or perhaps didn’t care about, were the millions of second generation Pod Touch owners and iPhone 3G owners whose devices were not given the multitasking functionality (or even the simple ability to have homescreen wallpaper!!) , yet are still stuck with the always on WiFi and demands on the processor. Many workarounds have been suggested but they all involve turning off email, push notifications, or even WiFi itself, which makes many apps useless. It’s inexcusable that Apple is ignoring this issue. Many seem to think they did this on purpose to force people to upgrade to newer devices. I think it’s more likely that users of their older devices just aren’t important to them. They are focused on those who buy the latest and greatest right away because that’s where the money is. I for one will not be spending another dime with Apple until they do the right thing and address this. Read [PCWorld] Full Story » | Written by Sue Walsh for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 2 Jul 2010 | 5:49 pm Bart Decrem explains why he sold Tapulous to Disney - VentureBeat
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 2 Jul 2010 | 5:30 pm Lady Gaga heads for 10 million Facebook fan record (Reuters)Reuters - Glam pop singer Lady Gaga is on the brink of becoming the first living person to have 10 million fans on a single social networking site, having already overtaken U.S. President Barack Obama on Facebook, a British group that measures online popularity said on Friday.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 2 Jul 2010 | 5:24 pm UPDATE 1-Devon, Murphy claim force majeure on Diamond rigs* Devon, Murphy adds to Cobalt Gulf of Mex. force majeureSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 2 Jul 2010 | 5:12 pm The 'Back' Button the Most Clicked Firefox Icondarthcamaro writes "How many times did you click the 'Back' button in your browser last week? According to a new study from Mozilla, it's likely that you clicked 'Back' a whole lot. 'Across Windows, Mac and Linux 93.1 percent of users clicked the button at least once over the course of a five-day period. In total the study reported that users clicked on the back button 66 times over the course of five days. The next most used button is the 'Reload' button with 73.2 percent usage and 22 clicks on average per user over five days. Other areas of the main window that were heavily used include the Search Bar where users input search queries. The study found that 67.9 percent of users used the Search Bar for an average of nearly 16 clicks per user over the course of five days.'"
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Source: Slashdot | 2 Jul 2010 | 5:03 pm Boy Builds Wall-Climbing Machine Using Recycled VacuumsJoe McIntosh writes "Hibiki Kono just might be a boy genius. The 13-year-old decided he wanted to climb vertical surfaces like his hero, Spiderman. So, he used two 1,400-watt recycled vacuum cleaners and a little bit of elbow grease to make a machine that allows him to scale walls. Kono has been scaling the walls of his UK school and has told the media that he hopes his invention will help window washers eliminate clumsy ladders from their daily routine."
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Source: Slashdot | 2 Jul 2010 | 4:51 pm CORRECTED - CORRECTED-UPDATE 1-Par Pharma's nausea drug gets FDA approval(Removes reference to Monosol RX being a German company and fixes amount of milestone payment, both in paragraph 4)Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 2 Jul 2010 | 4:47 pm Report: Google will not launch a Google Nexus TwoSection: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Web, Google  Ever since the Google Nexus One launched, people thought there would always be a possibility that Google will consider and launch a successor in the Google Nexus Two. In an interview with Telegraph, Eric Schmidt debunks the rumor saying the Google Nexus One served its purpose and Google does not feel a reason to launch another similar device. Here is his complete response:
Whether or not the Google Nexus One moved the whole Android hardware industry forward is a debatable issue. I think phones such as the the HTC EVO 4G, the HTC Droid Incredible, Samsung Galaxy S, and Motorola Droid X would launch regardless of the Nexus One. I personally don’t have a problem with Google not creating a successor, because some other Android manufacturer will create another solid phone. But it would be cool to see Google launch another phone, just for kicks. Schmidt goes on to add a few jabs at Apple:
Via [Telegraph] Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 2 Jul 2010 | 4:33 pm Listing for “Arc Touch Mouse” suggests a Microsoft response to Apple’s Magic Mouse
The FTIR mouse or Cap mouse would be the likeliest candidates for a transplant, the others requiring a much more significant change in form factor. So far the only evidence is a listing on a couple European retail sites with the name, and perhaps more significantly, the “arctouchmouse.com” domain registered by Microsoft. Kind of a giveaway, that. A Microsoft rep has said they have “nothing to announce at this time.” Very encouraging! We’ll keep an eye on this and let you know when anything more substantial lands on our virtual laps.
Source: CrunchGear | 2 Jul 2010 | 4:30 pm Apple drops restocking fee for returned iPhones
Sure, $20 or $30 isn’t that much money, but when all signs seem to point to your having returned a faulty product, and you still have to give them money, it can sting a bit.
Source: CrunchGear | 2 Jul 2010 | 4:22 pm Apple drops restocking fee for returned iPhone 4s
Sure, $20 or $30 isn’t that much money, but when all signs seem to point to your having returned a faulty product, and you still have to give them money, it can sting a bit.
Source: MobileCrunch | 2 Jul 2010 | 4:21 pm Berkery Noyes Releases First Half 2010 Software Industry Merger & Acquisition Trends - Going MobileNEW YORK, July 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Berkery Noyes, a leading middle market investment bank, has released its 2010 Half Year Software M&A Trends Report. This report analyzes merger and acquisition activity in the Software Industry in the first half of 2010 and compares it with activity in the four previous sixth month periods from 2008-2009. (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100702/NY30521 ) (Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20100702/NY30521 ) EBITDA multiples in the Software industry experienced a 30% half-to-half increase from 11.3 in 2nd Half 2009 to 14.7 in 1st Half 2010. This is a 42% increase from the low of 8.5 in 1st Half 2009. The sector saw a 24% increase in volume, exceeding the total volume of each of the four preceding sixth month periods. Consumer Applications saw a 94% jump in volume from 2nd Half 2009, indicating a market eager to attract end users with innovation. The proliferation of smartphones, and in particular those with application oriented operating systems, have helped to drive mobile application software to rise 79% from the past half year, from 31 to 59. This is a sharp rise as opposed to the modest growth of 27% from 1st half of 2009 to the 2nd half and of 24% from 2nd half 2008 to 1st half 2009. Of the top ten deals, four companies being acquired have been in business since 1995. The sale of Cybersource Corporation, Sybase Inc., Palm Inc., and the exit of Verisign, Inc. from its main authentication business, marks the consolidation of once-prominent software industry brands. Online Transactions within the Software Industry increased, rising to 43% of the total software market in 1st Half 2010. The rise was driven mostly by the strength of Cloud Computing, SaaS, Mobile, and Internet Enabling Applications. Google, Inc. was the most active buyer within the Software Industry, with nine transactions, acquiring technologies from social network search engines to online document editing. To view the full report, Click Here. (http://berkerynoyes.com/visit/1stHalfSoftwareEmailVersion.aspx). Berkery Noyes provides skilled transaction management to publicly traded and privately held businesses and private equity groups in both sell-side and buy-side mergers and acquisitions. We have managed transactions ranging from several million to more than four billion dollars in value, with an emphasis on mid market transactions of $10 million to $500 million in enterprise value. Our clients include private companies seeking a buyer, most of the major international information companies, and private equity firms who use the firm's expertise in locating, analyzing and negotiating with acquisition candidates and in managing divestitures. The firm operates with a staff of forty professionals serving the information industry. For more information, visit www.berkerynoyes.com. SOURCE Berkery, Noyes & Co., LLCSource: RedOrbit News - Technology | 2 Jul 2010 | 4:17 pm Indian Government Threatens RIM, Skype With Bangauharjk writes "India's Department of Telecommunications has been asked by the government to serve a notice to Skype and Research In Motion to ensure that their email and other data services comply with formats that can be read by security and intelligence agencies, or face a ban in India if they do not comply within 15 days. A similar notice is also being sent to Google, asking it to provide access to content on Gmail in a readable format."
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Source: Slashdot | 2 Jul 2010 | 4:16 pm Cypress Semiconductor easing off U.S. power gridSAN JOSE, Calif., July 2 (Reuters) - A California technology company is attempting a feat usually associated with hippies in communes -- going off the power grid to generate all its own electricity --...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 2 Jul 2010 | 4:05 pm So Hot Right Now: Top 10 Gadgetell posts for the week of June 27, 2010Section: Haven’t caught all of the Gadgetell news this week? Here’s your chance to catch up on this week’s top 10 articles!
Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 2 Jul 2010 | 4:01 pm Möbius-style LED desk lamp is tasteful, yet Galactus-like
The lamp uses 4.5W (far less than the Worldship Taa II) and uses 120 LEDs. If you want to buy one, you’d better contact the designer directly. Now if you’ll excuse me, the hunger is upon me yet again (I need a bagel). [via NotCot]
Source: CrunchGear | 2 Jul 2010 | 4:00 pm iPhone 4 "Reception Problems" Due to Bad Math (PC World)PC World - Whoops! So it turns out the big iPhone 4 "death grip" hooplah was just an arithmetic error.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 2 Jul 2010 | 3:59 pm Exclusive: The Sexy Russian Spy’s Business Plan (And A Video Interview)
The bizarre case of Russian Spy ring arrested by the FBI earlier this week just keeps on getting stranger. In particular, one of the alleged spies, 28-year-old Anna Chapman, is getting a lot of attention because of her “vixen” looks and lingerie shots on Facebook. Now, her former husband in London says her father was a former KGB officer and that she left him to pursue her startup dreams in the United States. Chapman networked her way into the New York City entrepreneurial scene. In fact, before New York Entrepreneur Week last April, she sat down for a video interview to talk about her apartment rental Website, NYCRentals.com. You can watch the video below, courtesy of And Now Media (it has appeared elsewhere on the Web). Chapman does not come across as a very sophisticated businesswoman, or spy for that matter. Initially, she comes across as something of a red-headed ditz flirting with the camera, or maybe she is just nervous, but as she begins to talk about her business she starts to sound a little more believable. The Website is up and running, although it is barebones. And she was shopping around a business plan, really more of a two-page executive summary, which we have obtained exclusively (also embedded below). NYCRentals is an apartment search engine which brings together listings for a very limited number of apartments in some neighborhoods of New York City. The executive summary pitches it as a vertical search engine for apartment rentals which aggregates listings from different broker sites. It is not a particularly original idea. The name of the company behind the site is PropertyFinder, which is described as an “affiliate of a holding company in Russia by Anna Chapman who holds the majority shares in that company as well.” It is obvious the document was written by someone without a full mastery of English. It lists “Graigslist” as a competitor and is filled with grammatical errors. One typical sentence reads:
Maybe NYCRentals was just a front to give Chapman an excuse to meet high-profile targets. Or maybe she really thought she could crack the New York City rental market. Update: It appears that the domain NYCRentals.com was only recently purchased on June 22 for $25,350. It is still not clear what Chapman’s role in the alleged spy ring was or why she sought publicity. One theory is that these so-called spies were really trying to infiltrate different parts of American society to network and perhaps find valuable contacts who could provide real intelligence to Russia. But all evidence so far is that these spies who could not shoot straight. One contact from New York Entrepreneur Week who met with Chapman on several occasions, Aron Shoenfeld (no relation to me), describes her as a “very aggressive networker.” But she seemed no more aggressive than any ambitious entrepreneur. Maybe entrepreneurs would make good spies. Or maybe she just wasn’t a very good spy.
     
Source: TechCrunch | 2 Jul 2010 | 3:50 pm Google Apps highlights – 7/2/2010This is part of a regular series of Google Apps updates that we post every couple of weeks. Look for the label “Google Apps highlights" and subscribe to the series. - Ed.In the last couple of weeks, we added a set of new features to help you handle various file types more efficiently in Google Docs and Gmail, and new capabilities to help large complex organizations manage Google Apps. We also have some exciting news about new customers in the education sector. Google Voice available for more users Last week we were happy to open up Google Voice for everyone in the U.S. Now millions more people can get a phone number that rings all their phones, voicemail that works like email, free calls and text messages to the U.S. and Canada, low-priced international calls and more. Google Voice isn’t ready for businesses and schools quite yet, but we’re exploring additional functionality for organizations. View more file types right in your browser Gmail already lets you view .pdf, .ppt and .tiff attachments in your browser without downloading these files to your computer, and last week we added support for viewing .doc and .docx files. Just click the “View” link next to the attachment in Gmail to see the file.  On Monday we also added the ability to view .pdf, .ppt, .doc and .docx files that you have in Google Docs on mobile devices. From your iPhone, iPad or Android device, you can quickly flip from page to page and pan/zoom within a page.  Optical character recognition (OCR) in Google Docs You were already able to upload and share images and PDF files with Google Docs, and last week we launched a feature that converts images of text into editable text. JPEG, GIF, PNG and PDF files can be uploaded as editable Google documents with this feature. Supported languages include English, French, Italian, German and Spanish, with more languages and character sets on their way.  Support for Google Apps customers with multiple domains Until last Wednesday, Google Apps customers with users at more than one domain (like bob@domain1.com and sue@domain2.com) had to manage Google Apps separately for each domain. Last week we added the ability for customers to administer two or more domains together. This feature also makes it much easier for employees to share information through Google Docs, Calendar and Sites with their counterparts in different divisions. For example, Brady Corporation is using this feature to streamline the use and administration of Google Apps across 88 domains! Google Apps Innovation in the first half of 2010 Businesses using Google Apps not only save money, but also their employees get access to new features and functionality at a much faster pace than with conventional business technologies. We've launched over 50 improvements to Google Apps in the last six months, and last week we hosted a webcast to recap noteworthy recent updates for businesses, including more powerful search in Gmail, next-generation editors in Google Docs, Google Wave, the Apps Marketplace and more. If you missed the webcast, you can watch it on YouTube. Who’s gone Google? We’re thrilled about the news from Colorado and Iowa, both of which have opened the doors to Google Apps for teachers and students at schools state-wide, right on the heels of Oregon’s decision to use Google Apps at their schools, too. We also wanted to shine the spotlight on a couple other new customers: Brown University and Imagination, an 800-employee marketing and communications agency based in the U.K. You can watch their stories here: I hope you're making the most of these new features, whether you're using Google Apps with friends, family, coworkers or classmates. For more details and updates from the Apps team, head on over to the Google Apps Blog. Posted by Jeremy Milo, Google Apps Marketing Manager    
 Source: The Official Google Blog | 2 Jul 2010 | 3:48 pm Revolution CEO Steve Case at D8: The Full, Uncut Video [D8 Conference]Today, please enjoy this interview I did with former AOL (AOL) kingpin Steve Case, who is still an active investor in the digital space, especially in the healthcare arena. Of course, he is most famous for building the Internet’s first mega-company and for merging it with Time Warner (TWX), which became the worst corporate marriage in recent history. Case did not shy away from talking about AOL–which had its 25th anniversary this year–and much more in this interview at D8. Here’s the full video of the session: [ See post to watch video ] Want to see it bigger? Click here. Source: All Things Digital | 2 Jul 2010 | 3:33 pm Most Console Gamers Still Prefer Physical Mediaarcticstoat writes "Despite the advent of online game stores on all three major consoles, most console gamers apparently still prefer hoarding collections of gaming discs to downloading games. A recent survey conducted by Ipsos in the UK revealed that 64 per cent of the 1,000 users polled would rather have games on physical discs, while only 25 per cent would prefer digital copies. In the survey, 55 per cent of those polled said price was the key factor in determining their interest in downloading games, while 27 per cent said they wanted games available online before they were in the shops. Ipsos' director Ian Bramley explained, 'Interest absolutely drops away when you get to the types of pricing that you might charge for a new physical disc. People's perceptions are that they're not prepared to pay as much for digital content — they make the connection that it's not a physical disc and therefore it should be cheaper.'"
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Source: Slashdot | 2 Jul 2010 | 3:32 pm New Study Predicts Yield For Biofuel JatrophaAn article in the current issue of Global Change Biology Bioenergy predicts the yield of the biofuel crop, Jatropha curcas L., for present and future climates.Researchers related reproductive potential with the natural occurrence of Jatropha, with biogeographic modeling and ecological principles. This model allowed them to estimate yield response to climate factors and map worldwide productivity for present and future climates.They used a novel fitness-based modeling approach because agroclimatic and physiological data on Jatropha is limited.In their article, "Global mapping of Jatropha curcas yield based on response of fitness to present and future climate," Antonio Trabucco and colleagues point out that Jatropha grows in a wide range of climatic conditions, including tropical and subtropical areas with limited suitability for intensive cropping.Jatropha requires higher annual precipitation to achieve significant biofuel production than previously thought. In addition, the study shows that climate changes over the next decade will lead to decreased yields in zones with reduced precipitation and increased yields in regions with reduced frost risks. ---On the Net:Wiley-BlackwellSource: RedOrbit News - Science | 2 Jul 2010 | 3:31 pm Apple says iPhones overstate signal strength (Reuters)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 2 Jul 2010 | 3:30 pm Optical Imaging Could Create Pathway For RadiotracersThe next generation of imaging techniques could harness a technology that moves faster than the speed of lightA study published in the July issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine (JNM) reports on investigative research of a novel optical imaging technique called “Cerenkov luminescence imaging (CLI).” According to the authors, the technique could lead to the faster and more cost-effective development of radiopharmaceuticals for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer and other conditions.“The development of novel multimodality imaging agents and techniques could represent the frontier of research in the field of medical imaging science,” said Jan Grimm, M.D., Ph.D., a professor and physician at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York and corresponding author for the study. Grimm explained that his group’s work, along with current work from groups at the University of California Davis (Simon Cherry, Ph.D.) and Stanford University (Sanjiv Sam Gambhir, M.D., Ph.D.), may open a new path for optical imaging to move into the clinic.When light travels through water, its speed decreases. A particle that moves faster than light produces a “shock wave” (much like the sonic boom that broke the sound barrier), which emits a visible blue light known as “Cerenkov radiation.” The researchers write that their study is among the first to explore Cerenkov radiation’s applications for medical imaging using optical imaging techniques.Optical imaging is a molecular imaging procedure in which light-producing molecules designed to attach to specific cells or molecules are injected into the bloodstream and then detected by an optical imaging device. It usually requires either excitation by an external light source or by a biological process. Cerenkov imaging produces the light from the radioactivity, so no external illumination is needed. Combining optical imaging with nuclear medicine presents a new path for imaging medical isotopes, Grimm said. “It provides optical imaging with an array of approved nuclear tracers already in clinical use today, which can be used immediately, as opposed to fluorescent dyes,” he added.For the study, researchers evaluated several radionuclides for potential use with CLI. Researchers used CLI and positron-emission tomography (PET) imaging to visualize tumor-bearing mice. The results show that CLI visualizes radiotracer uptake in vivo. The resulting decrease of light over time correlates with the radioactive decay of the injected tracer.An added value of this technique is its ability to image radionuclides that do not emit either positrons or gamma rays—a current limitation for nuclear imaging modalities. CLI brings to light isotopes that could not be visualized previously. Additionally, optical imaging techniques show promise for endoscopy and surgery because of the ability to visualize tumor lesions, which could provide real-time information to surgeons and help guide operations.“The benefits of optical imaging are numerous, and we’re on a path to realizing them,” said Grimm. “We are optimistic that these new techniques will one day be available to physicians as another tool for the diagnosis and treatment of disease.”---On the Net:SNMThe Journal of Nuclear MedicineSource: RedOrbit News - Science | 2 Jul 2010 | 3:28 pm GM makes second major ad agency switch since May* The switch is second major GM ad agency change since MaySource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 2 Jul 2010 | 3:23 pm ConocoPhillips Sweeny FCCU has upset in stormHOUSTON, July 2 (Reuters) - ConocoPhillips reported an upset in the gasoline-making fluid catalytic cracking unit at its 247,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Sweeny, Texas, refinery during bad weather on Thursday,...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 2 Jul 2010 | 3:23 pm Worker in trouble for snarky iPhone-Evo video (AP)AP - When Brian Maupin made two snarky online videos poking fun at zealots of the iPhone and the Evo phone, he thought it was just a good way to vent some of the frustrations inherent in selling smart phones.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 2 Jul 2010 | 3:23 pm Shields Up!: Opera joins forces with AVG in new browser updateSection: Computers, Security, Software / Applications
The new update also promises better performance and speed and enhanced HTML5 support. It’s available for download now at Opera.com. Read [CNet] Full Story » | Written by Sue Walsh for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 2 Jul 2010 | 3:22 pm UPDATE 3-Apple says iPhones overstate signal strengthNEW YORK, July 2 (Reuters) - Apple Inc came clean on Friday about an embarrassing software glitch that overstates network signal strength in its hot-selling iPhone, as complaints mounted about the phone's...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 2 Jul 2010 | 3:20 pm Nest Incest Targets MalesFewer males than females are surviving the negative effects of inbreeding in a reintroduced population of a rare New Zealand bird, reports new research published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.Studying a population of the endangered New Zealand Hihi, researchers from the Zoological Society of London found that male survival rate was 24 per cent lower than their female siblings during early development, and as chicks.The researchers analysed 98 clutches on Tiritiri Matangi Island, a predator free island off the East coast of New Zealand, where a population of 51 Hihi was reintroduced between 1995 and 1996. They also found that for both males and females, 35 per cent of eggs laid failed to hatch compared to an average of only 10 per cent hatching failure in outbred species.Lead author Dr Patricia Brekke from the Zoological Society of London says, "Our results show that inbreeding can have serious implications for the long-term survival of reintroduced species."She adds: "The major problem we face today is finding suitable habitats to support big enough populations that mean inbreeding is no longer a problem. In the case of the Hihi, options are limited."The researchers believe that the greater sensitivity of male Hihi is due to the stress they undergo during early development. Hihi males are heavier than their sisters from a young age and grow to be larger and heavier by the time they fledge the nest. This fast growth rate, combined with hormonal changes, may be contributing to their low survival rate.Co-author, Dr John Ewen says, "Reintroduction of rare species is an increasingly common conservation strategy, but we need to consider the longer-term ramifications of our management. One option is to initiate gene-flow between isolated small populations of Hihi by translocating individual birds, but this is labour intensive and requires considerable commitment."He adds: "The situation we're facing with the Hihi highlights the need for a long-term perspective when using reintroduction as a strategy for ensuring the survival of endangered species."New Zealand's Little Barrier Island currently holds the only self-sustaining and remnant population of Hihi. The researchers will continue to work with the local Department of Conservation and NGOs to manage relocated populations.---On the Net:Zoological Society of LondonProceedings of the Royal Society BSource: RedOrbit News - Science | 2 Jul 2010 | 3:17 pm Spanish Public-Sector Workers Complain Most About Their Work Environment"We compared the prevalence of dysfunctional behaviour between employees of public institutions (courts, penal, health and educational institutions, police forces, old people's homes, etc.) in two very dissimilar cities – Valencia (Spain) and Vaasa (Finland)", María José Báguena, lead author of the study and a researcher at the University of Valencia, tells SINC. "The results confirm our hypothesis – Spanish workers complain more".The authors, who are scientists from the University of Valencia and the University of Vaasa, used the Psychosocial Wellbeing Index (PWI) to evaluate professional burnout, bullying and sexual abuse among 1,055 Spanish and 1,979 Finnish public sector workers.The results, published in the journal Perceptual and Motor Skills, show the Spanish workers reported higher percentages of all kinds of psychological violence than the Finnish ones, except for bullying. However, the authors say the difference was greater than expected."Although it is possible that the results reflect cultural differences, since Spanish people are more prone to complaining, the results also reveal the true workplace atmosphere in Spain", they explain.When broken down by sex, Finnish men complained more about workplace conflict than women. In Spain, men and women were equally likely to complain, except in relation to sexual abuse, where women are the prime target.According to Báguena, "we need more studies to show whether these results can be generalised, or if they are simply relate to a particular kind of worker".Large differences in EuropeAt the start of 2000, the prevalence of bullying at work affected 9% of workers in the countries of the European Union (not including the new member states). A study carried out in 2003 by Di Martino et al. revealed the fluctuations in this 9% average in different countries.The highest percentages (between 15%-12%) were seen in the countries of northern Europe (Finland, Sweden, Holland, United Kingdom) and the lowest (5%-4%) in those of the south (Spain, Greece, Portugal). "Although cultural differences have an impact on these disparities, the results in Spain have worsened", points out Báguena.While Finland is one of the Nordic countries most renowned for its quality of life, and is a pioneer in the study of workplace behaviour, Spain is felt to be more rigid, and the language does not even have its own words for concepts such as bullying or burnout, instead using the English terms.---On the Net:FECYT - Spanish Foundation for Science and TechnologyPerceptual and Motor SkillsSource: RedOrbit News - Science | 2 Jul 2010 | 3:15 pm Apple `stunned' to find iPhones show too many bars (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 2 Jul 2010 | 3:12 pm Scientists find oil blotches on Gulf crab larvaeScientists have found oil droplets on tiny blue crabs in the Gulf of Mexico that are prey to many fish and important indicators of ecosystem's overall health. Researchers say they've...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 2 Jul 2010 | 3:06 pm Great Hill Partners Sends Letter to Vitacost.com StockholdersBOSTON, July 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Great Hill Equity Partners IV, L.P. and certain of its affiliates ("Great Hill") today commenced mailing of a letter to all Vitacost.com, Inc. (Nasdaq: VITC) ("Vitacost") stockholders. Great Hill is Vitacost's largest stockholder. The full text of Great Hill's letter to the stockholders of Vitacost follows: July 2, 2010 Dear Fellow Stockholder: As you know, Great Hill Equity Partners IV, L.P. and certain of its affiliates ("Great Hill") are soliciting written consents from the stockholders of Vitacost.com, Inc. ("Vitacost") for the purpose of, among other things, reconstituting Vitacost's Board of Directors ("Board") by electing Great Hill's four new, highly qualified nominees. Over the past several weeks, we have spoken with many of our fellow Vitacost stockholders, and these conversations have confirmed our belief that immediate change at Vitacost is required in order to stem the significant erosion in stockholder value that has occurred since Vitacost's initial public offering. These conversations have also highlighted to us the importance of bringing changes to Vitacost and the Board that are in addition to those that we have already outlined as part of our consent solicitation. To build on the momentum associated with reconstituting the Board, we and our four nominees are committed to taking the following actions if our nominees are elected to, and constitute a majority of, the Board: Comprehensive Review of Vitacost's Business, Operations and Chief Executive Officer. The Board will commence a comprehensive review of Vitacost's (i) business and operations, and (ii) Chief Executive Officer in order to assess his performance, experience and qualifications to lead Vitacost. To the extent necessary following this review, our nominees would vote to form a Board-level search committee to identify a new Chief Executive Officer.* It is anticipated that any such search committee would consist of a mix of our nominees and at least one other independent Vitacost director. As part of any search, we would expect the search committee to actively consult with Vitacost's other stockholders to ensure that Vitacost hires an experienced new CEO with strong qualifications.Further Deepen and Expand the Talent on the Board in the Near-Term. We and our nominees share the desire of many Vitacost stockholders that the Board be composed of independent, highly qualified individuals who can offer Vitacost the necessary guidance as it seeks to grow and expand its business. As part of this process, our nominees intend to expand the Board by adding at least one additional new director as promptly as practicable after our nominees are elected. Our nominees will actively solicit the views of Vitacost's other stockholders for appropriate candidates to fill this position on the Board (as well as any other vacancies that may occur) at the earliest possible date.Expand and Enhance the Board's Independence. As part of this effort, we and our nominees plan to reshape the Board at or prior to Vitacost's 2010 Annual Meeting of Stockholders ("2010 Annual Meeting") to both enhance its quality and ensure that it sufficiently reflects Vitacost's stockholder base. Our objective would be to reconstitute the Board in conjunction with the 2010 Annual Meeting such that the Board is comprised of nine individuals:three of whom will be drawn from the current nominees proposed by Great Hill,one of whom will be Vitacost's Chief Executive Officer, andfive of whom will be totally independent of both Vitacost and Great Hill.In identifying the new directors who we hope to have join the Board at the 2010 Annual Meeting, our nominees will actively solicit the views of Vitacost's other stockholders in addition to retaining a director search firm. Throughout our consent solicitation, we have always said that our only goal is to be a constructive and engaged partner with Vitacost. We have been consistent with our fellow stockholders that our desire is to grow Vitacost and to enhance stockholder value. To demonstrate our commitment to this objective, we have voluntarily offered to enter into certain restrictions on our relationship with Vitacost, and we reiterate those restrictions now: If Great Hill acquires, either directly or indirectly, in excess of 30% of Vitacost's common stock (including as a result of share repurchases or recapitalizations), then Great Hill will vote or consent all of its shares of Common Stock exceeding such amount in proportion to the votes cast or consents given by Vitacost's stockholders not affiliated with Great Hill (subject to certain exceptions, such as a merger or solicitation of proxies or consents).Great Hill and its affiliates will agree to an indefinite prohibition on affiliate transactions unless such transactions are approved by a majority of the members of the Board not affiliated with, or nominated by, Great Hill.The above restrictions are, of course, in addition to the restriction imposed on Great Hill by virtue of Delaware law, which provides that, until March 23, 2013, any acquisition of Vitacost by Great Hill would require the affirmative vote of at least 66 2/3% of Vitacost's common stock not owned by Great Hill and its affiliates. This restriction is non-waivable regardless of who is serving on the Board. We are excited about Vitacost's future, but we do not believe that it is prudent to further delay the implementation of what we think are necessary changes. This is a critical year for Vitacost, which needs an experienced Board and CEO to execute on its strategic and operational plans. We hope that you agree that the time to act is now and that any further delay is unacceptable. We urge you to act now to install effective leadership on the Board. Please sign, date and return the enclosed WHITE consent card by our target date of July 15, 2010 to cast your vote in favor of putting in place new directors and allowing those directors to initiate the actions described above and in our consent statement. Although Great Hill does not intend to submit any consent cards to Vitacost prior to this date, Great Hill urges all stockholders to sign, date and return a WHITE consent card as soon as possible so that Great Hill will be in a position to act quickly following July 15, 2010. A duplicate WHITE consent card is enclosed with this letter. If you have already returned a WHITE consent card, you do not need to take any further action unless you wish to change your vote. Any later dated WHITE consent card will revoke any prior consent or revocation card that you may have submitted. If you have not yet returned a WHITE consent card, please sign, date and return the enclosed WHITE consent card. You must sign and date the WHITE consent card in order for it to be valid. If you have returned Vitacost's gold consent revocation card, you have every right to change your vote. Simply sign, date and return the enclosed WHITE consent card today. Thank you on behalf of Great Hill. Sincerely, Christopher S. Gaffney Michael A. Kumin For additional information or assistance, please contact MacKenzie Partners, Inc., the firm assisting Great Hill in the solicitation of consents: 105 Madison Avenue New York, NY 10016 (212) 929-5500 (Call Collect) or Call Toll-Free (800) 322-2885 Email: proxy@mackenziepartners.com * Information regarding severance payments and other benefits owed to Vitacost's current Chief Executive Officer following his termination is contained in Great Hill's consent statement dated May 25, 2010. About Great Hill Partners Great Hill Partners is an investment firm that manages over $2.7 billion in capital and focuses on investing in growth companies operating in the business and consumer services, media, transaction processing and software industries. Great Hill Equity Partners IV, L.P. and its affiliates target equity investments of $50 million to $150 million. For more information, please visit the Great Hill Partners web site at www.greathillpartners.com. Great Hill Media Contact: David Lilly and Andrea Calise Kekst and Company 212-521-4800 Great Hill Solicitor: MacKenzie Partners, Inc. 212-929-5500 800-322-2885 SOURCE Great Hill Equity Partners IV, L.P. and Certain AffiliatesSource: RedOrbit News - Technology | 2 Jul 2010 | 3:06 pm Alex impacts on energy output in Gulf of MexicoJuly 2 (Reuters) - Remnants of Hurricane Alex flogged northern Mexico and south Texas Friday after killing six in Monterrey, but the storm spared U.S. oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico. Companies rapidly...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 2 Jul 2010 | 3:05 pm Goodbye Kin, Sidekick and 'Social Phones' (PC World)PC World - If there's any correlation between the recently killed Kin and discontinued T-Mobile Sidekick -- aside from Microsoft having a hand in both discontinued phones -- it's that they tried to distinguish themselves from both high-powered smartphones and simpler feature phones.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 2 Jul 2010 | 3:05 pm Nintendo patents Wii hard drive system, but is it for them or us?
I’m leaning towards the latter. An online and instantly accessible marketplace is something Nintendo wants, but limiting it to VC and Wiiware games is smart. A minor hack to the Wii’s authentication code (say, via a secondary program easily downloadable or accessible online) would be all it would take to make a hard drive full of games into a natively-run pirate operation. Also, since the patent is so simple and there is no mention of accessing user data or online friend lists or rankings, I’m guessing this is for a display thing. Remember that testing/display NES system that had like 50 separate cartridges it could switch between? I can’t find it right now but you know what I mean. This would be like that. Kind of. [via GoNintendo]
Source: CrunchGear | 2 Jul 2010 | 3:00 pm Next Of Kin: A Memorial Site Goes Up For The Deceased Microsoft Kin
As the site notes, the Kin lived from 2010 to 2010 — it died at the ripe old age of 0. “She” was botn on May 13, 2010 and died on June 30, 2010. “We will remember her forever,” the site notes. Visitors are asked to light a candle in remembrance of the device, and already dozens have. You can also add your favorite photos of the Kin to the page. Some choice statements left on the page:
The memorial site, created by Shmuel Tennenhaus, has nearly 7,000 visitors so far paying their respects. It’s not clear if it will end up being as big of a memorial as the IE Funeral yet. Of course that product had millions more users, and is actually still not even dead yet. This site was built using ForeverMissed, a online tool that lets users create memorial pages for departed loved ones for free. Obviously, this Kin page is a joke, but the site behind it seems like a nice idea, so hopefully this will drive more usage of that. RIP Kin.
Information provided by CrunchBase      
Source: TechCrunch | 2 Jul 2010 | 2:39 pm Dell Says Supplier Provided Faulty OptiPlex Components (NewsFactor)NewsFactor - Newly released court documents have alleged that Dell knew about and covered up problems with millions of computers in 2003 and 2004. On Thursday, Dell responded on its company blog that the problems were related to faulty capacitors provided by its supplier, adding that it "did not knowingly ship faulty motherboards." The problematic products are the subject of a three-year-old civil lawsuit against the computer maker.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 2 Jul 2010 | 2:36 pm 3D Tetris on a screen made of water? Yes please
It has an effective resolution of 50 drops wide and 60 drops per second per nozzle, it’s not exactly HD, but it is pretty cool. The sound of dripping water might interfere with my concentration when I play Tetris, though. [via Technabob, VizWorld, and 3D Display Info]
Source: CrunchGear | 2 Jul 2010 | 2:30 pm TerreStar Networks Renews In-Orbit Insurance, Updates GENUS(TM) Roll Out ScheduleRESTON, Va., July 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Mobile communications provider TerreStar Networks Inc. ("TerreStar"), a majority owned subsidiary of TerreStar Corporation (Nasdaq: TSTR), announced today it has renewed the in-orbit insurance on TerreStar-1, the world's largest and most powerful commercial communications satellite, for one additional year. TerreStar also announced it expects to begin commercial roll out of the TerreStar GENUS(TM), the world's first dual-mode satellite-cellular smartphone, in September 2010. "TerreStar-1 continues to exceed performance expectations, and I am pleased with support we received from the insurance community," stated Jeffrey W. Epstein, president and chief executive officer, TerreStar. "Further, while we have delayed the launch of our GENUS(TM) handset, this additional time ensures that when we launch service, the GENUS will truly revolutionize mobile communications for first responders, enterprise users, and those in areas where terrestrial networks are unavailable." About TerreStar Corporation TerreStar Corporation is the controlling shareholder of TerreStar Networks Inc. and TerreStar Global Ltd. For additional information on TerreStar Corporation, please visit the company's website at www.terrestar.com. About TerreStar Networks Inc. TerreStar Networks (www.terrestar.com), a majority owned subsidiary of TerreStar Corporation (NASDAQ: TSTR), plans to offer a reliable and secure satellite terrestrial mobile broadband network that will provide voice, data and video services dedicated to helping solve the critical communication and business continuity challenges faced by government, emergency responders, enterprise businesses and rural communities. TerreStar expects to offer next generation mobile communications through a network of partners and service providers to users who need "anywhere" coverage throughout the United States and Canada. Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act: This press release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, with respect to the strategy of TerreStar Corporation, its plans, and the transactions described in this press release. Such statements generally include words such as could, can, anticipate, believe, expect, seek, pursue, proposed, potential and similar words and terms in connection with future results. We assume no obligation to update or supplement such forward-looking statements. Media Contact: Kelly Adams, TerreStar Networks 703.483.7966 Kelly.Adams@terrestar.com SOURCE TerreStar Networks Inc.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 2 Jul 2010 | 2:30 pm The Tapulous Purchase Price Mystery
All of which of course makes us really, really want to know. The purchase price was somewhere between $22 million and $50 million, we’ve confirmed via multiple sources. Employees, say one source, appear to be getting paid based on that lower number. But there is clearly an escrow and an earnout as well that is bumping the total price, if that money is paid out, to something over $30 million. Our best guess is the total price is somewhere around $35 million. That’s not bad for a company that’s raised just $2.8 million in funding. But Tapulous was profitable almost immediately and didn’t need to raise a lot of money to scale. Revenue comes from multiple sources – ads, song downloads referred to iTunes, song downloads into the game, among others. Last year revenue was around $5 million. This year they are already hitting $1 million/month and will likely have $15 million of so in revenue for all of 2010. The gaming space is very, very hot right now and all startups with any real traction are fielding buy offers left and right. We’ll see a lot more deals like this over the coming months, with Zynga, Disney, Playdom and others buying.      
Source: TechCrunch | 2 Jul 2010 | 2:17 pm New Kindle expands Amazon's e-book system, blur its identity - Washington Post
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 2 Jul 2010 | 2:17 pm Gadgetell Review & Weekend Giveaway: Sony PiiQ Headphones [Triqii]Section: Audio, Headphones, Reviews, Features  First things first, today we have my long-overdue review of the Sony Triqii headphones, which are a part of the Sony PiiQ line. In addition to the Triqii, the PiiQ lineup includes four other models; the Exhale (earbuds) for $14.99, the Qlasp (clip-on) for $24.99, the Giiq for $49.99 and the Marqii for $99.99. The headphones I am reviewing were sent to me by Sony (full-disclosure), but normally sell for $29.99. Plus as an added bonus, Sony is also providing a second pair for giveaway. The pair up for giveaway are the Exhale model, however the details for the giveaway will come after my review. So read on… The specs
My thoughtsI use headphones on a regular basis, but at the same time I refuse to pay top dollar for any of them. Mainly because I either lose or break them, but also because I am cheap in that respect. Given that, $30 is just about the perfect price point for me. In that you tend to get decent products that will last, but generally nothing that feels super-high-end. Well, the Triqii headphones may have changed my mind on that last statement. The headphones as a whole are solid and durable feeling. I had no real worries about putting them in a bag and being on the go. The headphones themselves have a nice rubber coating and the cables are just as sturdy feeling. The cable itself is flat, which kind of looks neat, but its also a good length (3.9 feet). The plug is gold-plated and L-shaped, which seems to make me feel a little better about durability. As far as comfort and sound. Positive on both aspects. The headphones served me well—even for extended wear lasting 5-6 hours at a stretch. Of course that comfort comes into play by the adjustable slider that makes the headband smaller or larger and the soft earpads. The only issue is the lack of adjustments in the earpieces themselves, like I said, they do adjust over the head, but in a style of headphones like this I prefer to have the earpieces rotate a little as well. Still, certainly not a deal breaker. Moving on to the sound. But first, my listening habits—mostly streaming radio (Slacker) and music downloaded from iTunes and Amazon MP3 as well as podcasts. In terms of use, that was with smartphones including the Droid Eris and Palm Pre Plus as well as an iPod touch and iPad. Overall the sound was very nice, and honestly much better than expected with a $30 set of headphones. Of course, that good sound from the headphones was able to be distinguished in part by the poor audio quality on some of my sources. I am referring to some podcasts, the better quality sound with the Triqii headphones resulted in much more hiss on certain shows that I listen to. Also worth noting is that the headphones were decent with a variety of music from rock to pop to hip-hop and rap. The bottom lineThe headphones are solid and I really like them. In summary, the only real issue that I had during my testing came from the constant teasing of my family (wife and two daughters) who all thought it was super funny that I was walking around the house wearing pink headphones. And sorry, no pictures. That aside though, I would not hesitate to recommend these. The giveawayShort and sweet. The contest is open as of this posting and will run through Monday July 5, 2010 at 5PM EST. In order to enter you have to do one thing—send an email to robert (at) gadgetell (dot) com with the subject line of Sony Exhale Giveaway. After the contest ends I will pick one person at random and Sony will be shipping the headphones direct. Which means, yes, you will be getting a brand new set. Product [PiiQ]
Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 2 Jul 2010 | 2:14 pm How Many Palm Employees Did HP Just Lay Off? [Digital Daily]
“Part of the integration strategy is consolidation of functions and operations, as appropriate,” a spokesman for the company told me. “There always is turnover in organizations. Palm employees overall are enthusiastic about having the financial stability and global scale necessary to complete their vision.” Source: All Things Digital | 2 Jul 2010 | 2:01 pm Indinero Launches As The Mint.com For Small Businesses
Like Mint, Indinero uses Yodlee to allow businesses to transferring bank and credit card account information from financial institutions. But Indinero’s site caters to the financial health and needs of small businesses, breaking out data that addresses cashflow, runway, spending, profits and more. Indinero’s co-founder Jessica Mah tells me that complex accounting software like Intuit’s Quickbooks can often be confusing to navigate. Similar to Mint, Indinero’s interface is simple and easy to use. It makes pretty graphs of a business’ finances to make data trends more understandable. Indinero will soon include a forecasting feature, which will provide businesses an future glimpse into their financial performance based on past data and industry trends. And eventually businesses will be able to compare their performance to other companies of their size and industry focus. The startup doesn’t aim to replace a human bookkeepers, but actually helps business owners collaborate with bookkeepers. Inidinero allows you to import data directly into Quickbooks, saving bookkeepers from the arduous task of inputing data into the program. Indinero of course faces competition from Mint. And there are a number of sites providing simple bookkeeping applications for small businesses including Outright, Freshbooks and others.
Information provided by CrunchBase      
Source: TechCrunch | 2 Jul 2010 | 2:00 pm Secrets of the Old Spice commercials, volume 2
I have a theory about how he got into those jeans at the end. Precision. Note to Isaiah Mustafa: next time you’re in Seattle, drop me a line. We’ll kick it.
Source: CrunchGear | 2 Jul 2010 | 2:00 pm Archaeologists Find Ancient Weapon In Melting Ice PatchArchaeologist Craig Lee unearthed a 10,000-year-old ancient hunting weapon in a melting ice patch in the Rocky Mountains.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 2 Jul 2010 | 1:45 pm NYSE to Hit Eject Button on Blockbuster [Voices]By John Murrell How the mighty have fallen. The New York Stock Exchange is set to delist beleaguered Blockbuster next week after the video rental chain’s shareholders failed to approve measures that would have lifted the stock price above the NYSE’s $1 minimum (it’s currently trading under 20 cents). And if that weren’t enough, Standard & Poor’s downgraded Blockbuster’s corporate credit rating today, a day after the company missed $42.4 million in debt payments. Cue the circling-the-drain sound effect. Source: All Things Digital | 2 Jul 2010 | 1:43 pm Gadget Lab Podcast: The Death of Kin and Other Wireless DramaIn this episode of the Gadget Lab video podcast, the usual nerds talk about all things mobile. First, they mourn over the death of the Kin while reflecting on what Microsoft did wrong. They also talk about what Apple apparently did wrong with the iPhone 4 antenna, which loses signal when held the “wrong” way.
Elsewhere in the mobile world, Intel says it’s hoping to ship its first mobile chips in phones starting next year. We’ll see if that ever happens — and if their efforts will even matter by then. On the other hand, something we’ve wanted on mobiles devices for a long time has finally arrived: Hulu. Unfortunately it comes at a price. You can also get the Gadget Lab video podcast via iTunes, or if you don’t want to be distracted by our mugs, check out the Gadget Lab audio podcast. Prefer RSS? You can subscribe to the Gadget Lab video or audio podcast feeds. See Also:
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 2 Jul 2010 | 1:32 pm Yikes: UFC Undisputed 2010 falls 60 percent from last year
The numbers are in, and UFC Undisputed 2010, while not exactly a bomb, sure as heck (language, I know) didn’t do anywhere near the amount of business that last year’s version did. THQ sold some 413,000 copies of the game (221K on Xbox 360 and 192K on PS3) of the game. Contrast that with last year’s numbers, which worked out to 1.01 million across both platforms (680K for Xbox 360 and 334K for PS3). That’s a drop of around 60 percent! So what gives? Hopefully THQ has learned that you can’t release UFC games like you would Madden. For one, there’s not enough year-over-year change in UFC to warrant a new game. The same fighters who were main-eventing last year (Brock Lesnar, Georges St. Pierre, Anderson Silva, etc.) are main-eventing this year. There’s no excitement of seeing, I don’t know, Brett Favre put on a Vikings jersey. Others are blaming the release of Red Dead Redemption, which was aimed at the same young, male crowd. There’s also the small fact that the game just wasn’t very good. I’ve read complaints on MMA message boards from here to next Tuesday that say the ground game in the game is wildly unfair and seems to be based on luck more than anything else. It’s very much a case of, well, if you bought the game last year, there’s no particular reason to upgrade. In fact, the game is available for only $40 on Amazon right now. I feel sorry for the people who payed full price for the game back in May! (Don’t feel too bad, though, I bought Alpha Protocol for full price, too!) All of this lends credence to the rumor that EA is going to offer Dona White & Co. a giant sack of money for the rights to the next UFC game, making EA Sports MMA very much a beta of sorts. In other news, I fully expect a Shane Carwin win tomorrow.
Source: CrunchGear | 2 Jul 2010 | 1:30 pm How to create your own free iPhone ringtonesFROM APPLETELL - With these steps, you can quickly and easily create custom ringtones for your iPhone, and you’ll only need the help of a couple free third-party Mac programs to make it work. Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 2 Jul 2010 | 1:30 pm Gadget Lab Podcast: The Death of Kin and Other Wireless DramaIn this week's episode of the Gadget Lab podcast, the usual nerds mourn over the death of the Microsoft Kin while discussing the iPhone 4's antenna issues.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 2 Jul 2010 | 1:30 pm Gadget Lab Podcast: The Death of Kin and Other Wireless DramaIn this week's episode of the Gadget Lab podcast, the usual nerds mourn over the death of the Microsoft Kin while discussing the iPhone 4's antenna issues.
Source: Wired: Gadgets | 2 Jul 2010 | 1:30 pm Facebook Unveils Suggested Interests List
Facebook says that it will only suggest Pages of people and organizations that are actually seeing engagement on the network. The new feature is powered by an algorithm, assures Facebook engineer Ziqing Mao, so the suggestions are not sponsored. It’s also unclear what demographic considerations Facebook is evaluating when making suggestions to new members. Unsurprisingly, the new feature resembles a functionality on Twitter. It’s similar in theory to Twitter’s suggested user list, which shows a list of suggested users to follow based on topic. Like Facebook’s pages suggestions, Twitter’s suggestions are based on an algorithm that determines who users are engaging with on the microblogging network. And on Facebook’s suggested list, you can choose to like all of the suggestions Twitter’s Suggested User List hasbeen controversial, because it guaranteed anyone on it hundreds of thousands of Twitter followers. Facebook’s new feature is expected to have the same effect. In January, Twitter actually changed its suggested user list format from just a list of users to suggestions based on topic. This could be something that Facebook might explore in the future to make suggestions of Pages more streamlined (and less random) for users. Information provided by CrunchBase      
Source: TechCrunch | 2 Jul 2010 | 1:29 pm How I Used Twitter to Live-Blog the OperaHow do you convey the scope of a four-and-half-hour Wagnerian epic using nothing but a series of 140-character outbursts? Very carefully.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 2 Jul 2010 | 1:29 pm Unwanted Babies Haunt Roman-Era GraveyardThe ancient Romans slaughtered dozens of babies at a villa in England’s Thames Valley, a new study into the tiny remains has revealed. Located in Buckinghamshire, just northwest of London, Yewden Villa, as the site is known, was excavated in ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 2 Jul 2010 | 1:17 pm Last Indonesian Glacier Under ThreatAmerican glaciologist Lonnie Thompson has spent decades on glaciers drilling ice cores and has never come across a situation that is now occurring on top of Puncak Jaya -- a three-mile high glacier located in the Sudirman Range in the western central highlands of Papua province, Indonesia. Thompson had hoped to chronicle the affect of global warming on the last remaining glacier in the Pacific. But what he found has worried him even more. As he set up camp he could hear the ice melting beneath him. The glacier was pounded by rain every afternoon during the 13-day trip. The nights were spent listening to water gushing below him. In the two weeks he spent on the glacier, ice had melted around their sheltered campsite a shocking 12 inches. “These glaciers are dying,” Thompson, one of the world's most accomplished glaciologists, told the Associated Press (AP). “Before I was thinking they had a few decades, but now I'd say we're looking at years.” Thompson has led more than 55 such expeditions to 16 countries around the globe, from China to Peru. But the Papuan glaciers, because they lie among the fringe of the world’s warmest ocean and could provide clues about regional weather patterns, were considered an unexplored “missing link.” It is this region that generates El Nino disturbances and influences climate from India to the Amazon. Glaciers around the world are retreating, with major losses already seen across Alaska, the Alps, the Andes and other ranges. But, because so little is known about the Puncak Jaya glacier and how it may affect weather patterns, it is very important to study it now. Research permits are difficult to secure in Papua, mainly because Indonesia’s government is hugely sensitive to the region’s long-lasting insurgency. The country prohibits foreign journalists and humanitarian groups are restricted. Along with the team was four tons of equipment, including winches, cables, monitoring equipment, camping gear and boxes to preserve ice core samples, which will eventually join more than 200,000 feet of tropical cores being kept in cold storage in Columbus, Ohio. There, glaciologists study the ice layer by layer. They are able to count down through the years by measuring flecks of dust that fall seasonally and adhere to the ice. Oxygen isotopes, in small air bubbles trapped in the ice, vary with temperature helping researchers understand how ancient weather shifted. “I just hope we weren’t too late,” Thompson told AP, adding that in addition to melting from the top, water likely seeped in to the base of the glacier, tampering with history and leaving them with limited records from a period of time. Thompson of Ohio State University, who co-coordinated the expedition with Dwi Susanto of Columbia University, said they do think they will be able to salvage at least some climate history, though, since the ice cores did have “horizontal layers all the way through.” The team expects to find records of past volcano eruptions, soot from wildfires, plant debris and possibly even some animals frozen in time. Satellite images have shown the glacier in rapid retreat over a long period. The mountain has lost nearly 80 percent of its ice since 1936. Nearly two-thirds of that vanished since the last expedition to the mountain in the early 70s. Thompson says temperatures could be rising twice as fast in the higher altitudes as at the earth’s surface. If this is true, then it could have dire implications on people who depend on glaciers for water during the dry season, such as in the Himalayas. During the 1971 expedition to Puncak Jaya, Geoffrey Hope, a professor at Australian National University had a much different experience on the glacier. “The roof of our tent fell in on many evenings due to the weight of the snow,” he recalled, “and all water coming from the glacier would freeze by 8 p.m. each night.” Although, he noted that Papua has the wettest mountain region in the world, and the high precipitation levels that Thompson’s expedition encountered didn’t come as a great surprise. ---Image Caption: This meltwater lake has formed on the surface of the glacier—a possible portent of quickening destruction. For one thing, liquid water tends to absorb more heat than does snow or ice, which reflect energy. Once a pond forms, it can become a hot spot that eats away everything around it--and indeed, you can see how this one has drilled down through layers of ice. Eventually it will hit the rock bed of the glacier. There the water may flow into and lubricate the bed causing the glacier to slide downhill faster. The water may then find its way to the glacier’s edge, forming a drain of running water that will help consume the ice from the bottom. (Paul Warren calls this picture “the ice jacuzzi.”). Credit: The Earth Institute, Columbia University---On the Net:Ohio State UniversityColumbia UniversityEarth Institute BlogSource: RedOrbit News - Science | 2 Jul 2010 | 1:00 pm Gear Up for Veering Off, Off the Beaten PathIf you take your summer vacation into the back country, pack smart: Start with Outdoor Research's strong and lightweight sack, and don't forget Cobra's Power Pack and Garmin's Navigator.
Source: Wired: Gadgets | 2 Jul 2010 | 1:00 pm Gear Up for Veering Off, Off the Beaten PathIf you take your summer vacation into the back country, pack smart: Start with Outdoor Research's strong and lightweight sack, and don't forget Cobra's Power Pack and Garmin's Navigator.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 2 Jul 2010 | 1:00 pm Icon Motors Re-engineers King of the TrailBuckle up! The Icon CJ3B off-roader may look a Jeep, but its insides are all new. It's faster and insanely maneuverable, its steel body is Teflon-protected, and every light is LED.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 2 Jul 2010 | 1:00 pm Icon Motors Re-engineers King of the TrailBuckle up! The Icon CJ3B off-roader may look a Jeep, but its insides are all new. It's faster and insanely maneuverable, its steel body is Teflon-protected, and every light is LED.
Source: Wired: Gadgets | 2 Jul 2010 | 1:00 pm Double Your Pleasure in a 2-Person TentWhen it's just you and your BFF camping, don't schlep an enormous dome that sleeps eight. Opt for a compact, portable 2-person tent instead.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 2 Jul 2010 | 1:00 pm Double Your Pleasure in a 2-Person TentWhen it's just you and your BFF camping, don't schlep an enormous dome that sleeps eight. Opt for a compact, portable 2-person tent instead.
Source: Wired: Gadgets | 2 Jul 2010 | 1:00 pm Review: Leica V-LUX 20
This camera, the Leica V-LUX 20, is an almost atom-to-atom copy of the $399 Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7, is tough to love off the bat. it costs $699 and has a 12 megapixel sensor with 12x wide angle optical zoom and it takes good pictures in most situations. The V-LUX 20 also includes a GPS chip that allows you to tag your images on the go. However, all of these are available in the Lumix model and the Lumix supports HD video. Which one should you buy?
If you’re going to go the Leica route, I’d recommend the D-Lux 4 before this one. It will be a bit cheaper and the low-light shooting is amazing. However, this is a stable, small, and usable little camera. Would I recommend it over a Canon G11 or an Olympus E-PL1? Probably not, but if you’re a die-hard Leica head you might as well give this a second look. Here are some sample shots. Generally, bright light shooting was perfect whereas low-light shooting was abysmal, as can be expected from this type of camera. It’s a trade-off – and a big one – and definitely something to think about if you plan on shooting lots of nightlife.
Source: CrunchGear | 2 Jul 2010 | 12:50 pm Pandora Founder Tells Charlie Rose The iPhone “Almost Doubled” Growth “Overnight”With more than 50 million users and a recent infusion of cash, music streaming service Pandora is really hitting its stride. Founder Tim Westergren had his Charlie Rose moment last night, and one thing that really cam ethrough was how important the iPhone is to Pandora. “It is impossible to overstate” its impact, saays Westergren. When the iPhone app launched in 2008, it was an instant hit, and it “almost doubled” Pandora’s growth rate “overnight,” says Westergren. But more than that, it freed up Pandora users from being chained to their desks. Now with the ability to run in the background, its usage on the iPhone should continue to soar. In the first clip below, Westergren talks about Pandora’s iPhone and the iPad strategies. In the second clip, he explains to Rose, Pandora’s underlying Music Genome project. You can watch the full interview here.
     
Source: TechCrunch | 2 Jul 2010 | 12:46 pm TaxCloud(TM) Breezes Free Sales Tax System Across the InternetSEATTLE, July 2 /PRNewswire/ -- The Federal Tax Authority (FedTax.net), a private company committed to making it easy for online merchants to collect sales tax, announces the launch of its TaxCloud(TM) sales tax calculation and remittance service. TaxCloud is free and easy to use, and it can be integrated with virtually any accounting or e-commerce shopping cart system. TaxCloud calculates the sales tax due on any purchase in any tax jurisdiction in the nation and stands ready to assist merchants with meeting the requirements of HR 5660, the Main Street Fairness Act, now pending before Congress. FedTax.net has been designated a Certified Service Provider (CSP) by the Streamlined Sales Tax Governing Board. The CSP designation means that TaxCloud meets rigorous standards for sales tax calculation. Merchants who sign up with TaxCloud can instantly calculate the local sales tax due on any transaction for over 13,000 tax jurisdictions. The Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement (SSUTA) is the result of the cooperative efforts of 44 states, the District of Columbia, local governments, and the business community to simplify sales tax collection and administration. The agreement minimizes costs and administrative burdens for retailers that collect sales tax, particularly retailers operating in multiple states. It encourages internet and mail order retailers to collect tax on sales to customers in the SSUTA member states. It also aims to level the playing field, so that brick-and-mortar stores and remote sellers operate under the same sales tax rules. TaxCloud can perform all of a merchant's sales and use tax functions (except the merchant's obligation to remit tax on its own purchases). Each member state has certified the accuracy of the TaxCloud service. TaxCloud automatically monitors tax codes and incorporates any changes--so all TaxCloud merchants maintain compliance with all local sales tax laws with zero effort. TaxCloud also generates reports and automatically files state-by-state Simplified Electronic Returns for the merchant. In addition, merchants who use TaxCloud will qualify for amnesty from the SSUTA member states for failing to collect sales tax in the past. "Achieving Certified Service Provider status is a great accomplishment for FedTax.net," said R. David L. Campbell, Chief Executive Officer. "Our company was founded specifically to offer online merchants a free and easy way to accurately calculate and remit voter-approved state and local sales tax. The introduction of this legislation by Congressman Delahunt is an important step towards the equitable collection of sales taxes and will simultaneously provide local municipalities with much-needed revenue." TaxCloud takes advantage of an extensive cloud computing infrastructure. "By using cloud computing, we were able to build a massively scalable, highly available, and secure service at a much lower cost, which allows us to offer our service free to our customers. We designed our system from the ground up to be easy to use for businesses of any size, even those with no dedicated IT departments," noted Paul Onnen, Chief Technical Officer and Chief Information Security Officer. Now that all the work involved in achieving the CSP designation has been completed, FedTax.net is moving into the next phase of the company's mission: modernizing the sales tax subsystems for every e-commerce and point-of-sale system in the country. About FedTax.net The Federal Tax Authority is a private company that is committed to making it easy for online merchants to collect sales tax. FedTax.net was founded by technology veterans with extensive experience in the large-scale development, deployment, and support of internet-based services in environments with extremely high transaction volumes and financially sensitive information. The management team has been directly involved in building some of the most recognizable brands in e-commerce, including Google, Microsoft, and Expedia. FedTax.net has been designated a Certified Service Provider by the Streamlined Sales Tax Governing Board. The company's TaxCloud service enables e-commerce retailers to easily calculate and remit voter-approved local sales taxes across the country. TaxCloud is free to merchants and can be easily integrated into virtually any accounting or e-commerce shopping cart system. FedTax.net is headquartered in Seattle, Washington, and has an office in Stamford, Connecticut. For additional information, visit FedTax.net or contact: Beatrice Vaccaro The Federal Tax Authority bvaccaro@FedTax.net +1-206-452-1686 SOURCE The Federal Tax AuthoritySource: RedOrbit News - Technology | 2 Jul 2010 | 12:39 pm IBM dives back into water cooling supercomputers to save energy
The system works thanks to micro-channel liquid coolers that are attached directly to processors, one of the biggest culprits of computer heat generation. IBM says water is 4,000 times more efficient at removing heat than air.
Source: CrunchGear | 2 Jul 2010 | 12:34 pm Zayo Group Appoints Two Independent DirectorsLOUISVILLE, Colo. July 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Zayo Group today announced the appointment of Rick Connor and Don Detampel to Zayo Group's Board of Directors. Mr. Conner and Mr. Detampel are Zayo's first two independent directors. Zayo's seven person board now consists of Dan Caruso, Gillis Cashman of M/C Ventures, Rick Conner, Michael Choe of Charlesbank Capital Partners, Don Detampel, Tony Downer of Oak Investment Partners, and John Siegel of Columbia Capital. Mr. Connor has been appointed Chairman of the Audit Committee and will serve on the Compensation Committee. Mr. Connor brings nearly 40 years of experience as an audit partner with KPMG LLP working primarily with media, telecommunications and energy clients. During the last 12 years of his career he served as Lead Engagement Partner and SEC Reviewing Partner for a variety of publicly traded clients, including Fortune 1000 companies. Mr. Connor meets the SEC's financial expert qualifications to chair the Audit Committee. Mr. Don Detampel has been appointed Chairman of the Compensation Committee and will serve on the Audit Committee. Mr. Detampel has over two decades of senior executive experience within Internet infrastructure, telecommunications and web technology companies. Most recently Mr. Detampel served as the Executive Chairman at New Global Telecom, which was sold to Comcast in February 2010. Prior to that, Mr. Detampel was President and CEO of many successful ventures, including GlobalCenter, a wholly owned subsidiary of Global Crossing that provided complex web hosting and content distribution services to major Internet portals including Yahoo, eBay, Google and Microsoft. Mr. Detampel currently serves as a director on the boards of Masergy Communications and Peer 1 Hosting, and serves on the advisory board of Advanced Data Centers. He is a past director on the boards of Norlight Telecommunications, Inflow Inc., Voyant Technologies, Global Crossing Ventures, OptiGlobe and Schneider Logistics. "The addition of two independent directors is an important step in developing our board," Zayo's President and CEO, Dan Caruso said. "Rick's exceptional career in public accounting and his deep SEC experience will be a great asset to Zayo. Don's wide range of experience in telecom and Internet infrastructure--both as an executive and director--will be leveraged both strategically and operationally. I welcome them both to our team." About Zayo Group Based in Louisville, Colo., privately owned Zayo Group (www.zayo.com) is a provider of bandwidth infrastructure and network neutral colocation services. Zayo provides its bandwidth infrastructure services over its regional, metro fiber and fiber to the tower networks that span 141 markets and 23 states. Zayo Group is organized into three distinct business units: Zayo Bandwidth, which focuses on the carrier and wholesale segment, Zayo Enterprise Networks and zColo. SOURCE Zayo GroupSource: RedOrbit News - Technology | 2 Jul 2010 | 12:25 pm Why You'll Pay to Watch Ads on the iPhone and iPad [MediaMemo]
This isn’t news, exactly. But consider it a reminder: AT&T’s (T) switch from an unlimited data plan to a tiered model means that everything iPad and iPhone users stream down to their devices via the carrier’s wireless network comes at a cost, measured in bytes. So: Streaming a video to your iPad from Netflix (NFLX) or Hulu will chew up a lot bandwidth, and downloading an app will chew up much less. And clicking on an “in-app” ad, like the kind Apple is rolling out with iAd, will cost something, too: Each time you click on an app’s ad, the app makes a real-time call to Apple, which serves up a download. How much will that cost you, bytewise? Web video producer Eric Spiegelman guesstimates that a tricked out iAd like the Nissan spot that debuted yesterday could require five megabytes.* Translate that into AT&T’s data plans, and you’re looking at something like six cents to 40 cents worth of data per iAd, depending on the package. So not a bank-breaker! And again, no different than anything else you download to your iPhone or iPad. But maybe, depending on your use case and data plan, worth thinking about before you click. If the idea of spending any of your precious data budget on ads really rankles you, by the way, you do have a choice. Either make sure you’re connected to a Wi-Fi connection before you click, or go completely offline, and you won’t see the iAds at all. *Anyone else want to weigh in on the size of iAd downloads? Happy to hear your thoughts. Source: All Things Digital | 2 Jul 2010 | 12:20 pm Motorola Droid Rules Android - Wired News
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 2 Jul 2010 | 12:19 pm Alex's Aftermath Brings Flash Flood Watches To TexasTropical Depression Alex dissipated over the mountains of central Mexico, but his rainy remnants have moved into south, central and western Texas. The GOES-13 satellite is keeping an eye on Alex's remnants as they have prompted flash flood watches in those areas today.The latest imagery from the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, GOES-13, revealed Alex's remnants over Texas, and showed a lingering stationary front straddling Texas and the Gulf Coast. The front is apparent in the clouds that stretch from Texas where Alex's remnants are located, east over the Gulf of Mexico in a wavy pattern that extends east of Florida and into the Atlantic Ocean. As the front gradually moves north and dissipates through the Independence Day weekend, it will trigger thunderstorms along the boundary, which could bring heavy rainfall.GOES-13 is operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and images are created by NASA's GOES Project, located at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.After a hurricane or tropical storm makes landfall and moves inland, the potential for heavy rainfall continues. Alex is no exception. The National Weather Service notes today, July 2 that "Tropical moisture associated with the remnants of Alex will continue to lift northwestward from northern Mexico and south Texas through Saturday." Because many locations across west Texas and southeast New Mexico have already received moderate to heavy rainfall over the past few days, the additional rainfall is causing the potential for flooding and flash flooding through Saturday.A Flash Flood Watch has been issued from the early morning of July 2 through Saturday, July 3 for all of southern and central Texas from east to west and for southeastern New Mexico. Major metropolitan areas within that watch that will experience heavy rainfall include Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Victoria, Austin, Corpus Christi, Midland and Lubbock.On July 1, Corpus Christi had received 2.75 inches of rain and Victoria, Texas broke a record for the day with 2.79 inches of rainfall. Both areas remain under flood watches today as 2 to 4 inches more rainfall is possible, with isolated amounts to 5 inches.The National Hurricane Center issued their final bulletin on Tropical Depression Alex on July 1 at 11 p.m. EDT. At that time, Alex's winds were down to 30 mph, and it was moving west at 12 mph. Alex was near 23.3 North and 102.4 West, about 35 miles north-northeast of Zacatecas, Mexico.Hurricane Alex made landfall around 10 p.m. EDT at the village of Soto La Marina, about 100 miles south of Brownsville, Texas. Alex caused power outages and floods that have reportedly killed two people in northern Mexico. The states of Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon reported high winds, heavy rains, flooding and power outages. Alex brought rains and gusty winds to southern Texas as it came ashore in Mexico and even spawned several tornadoes in Brownsville.Over the next couple of days Texas will experience the rainfall from Alex's remnants, as the low pressure center tracks north into western Oklahoma and Kansas, where computer models expect it to dissipate early next week. ---Image Caption: GOES-13 visible satellite imagery from July 2 at 1331 UTC (9:31 a.m. EDT) shows a lingering stationary front straddling Texas and the Gulf Coast. The front is apparent in the clouds that stretch from Texas (left) where Alex's remnants are located, east over the Gulf of Mexico in a wavy pattern that extends east of Florida (right) and into the Atlantic Ocean. Credit: NASA GOES Project---On the Net:NASA/Goddard Space Flight CenterSource: RedOrbit News - Science | 2 Jul 2010 | 12:18 pm Motorola Droid Rules AndroidMotorola’s Droid is the most popular phone among Android users, followed by HTC Hero, while Google’s Nexus One ranks tenth on the list, according to a monthly metrics report from mobile advertising firm AdMob. AdMob has ranked the top ten Android smartphones by market share. The data is based on 12.7 million Android phones in the AdMob network in May. It’s also why the HTC Evo, released in the first week of June, is missing from the mix. About 21 percent Android users have the Droid, while 16 percent users own the HTC Hero. Just 2 percent of Android phone users have Google’s Nexus One phone, says AdMob. Motorola launched the Droid in November 2009 and made it available exclusively on Verizon Wireless. And despite the gaggle of Android phones launched every month, the Droid has been holding strong. The only Android phone that could challenge the Droid’s position is the HTC Evo, which is available exclusively on Sprint. It will be interesting to see if the Evo can beat the Droid, though Sprint has a smaller marketing budget and fewer subscribers than Verizon. Here’s a chart that shows the popularity of different Android smarpthones.
About 67 percent of Android users are in North America while China is the second largest market for Android with 13 percent of Android users coming from the country, says AdMob. Combined HTC and Motorola have 83 percent share among Android devices. Since the Android OS debuted in 2008, the two companies have been on a roll, churning out phones faster than consumers can keep up with.
Last week, Motorola introduced its eleventh Android phone, the Droid X. It was also a big month for HTC, whose Evo phone is the first and only 4G device available currently.
See Also:
Data: AdMob 
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 2 Jul 2010 | 12:07 pm Important Tips for a Safe and Fun Fourth of July WeekendSANTA ANA, Calif., July 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Fireworks are a prevalent and exciting way to celebrate the upcoming Fourth of July weekend, but they can also be dangerous if not used correctly. Universal Services of America has compiled a list of items to consider when planning and enjoying your Fourth of July celebrations. Stay safe and have fun! The best way to stay safe is to avoid the home use of fireworks altogether and attend a public community display instead. Are fireworks legal in your area? Not all communities allow the use of fireworks; always ensure that they are allowed before you purchase or use them. Buy only legal fireworks with a manufacturer's label and store them in a cool, dry place.Fireworks are for outdoor use only and should be used as intended; do not alter or combine them in any way.An adult should always supervise the use of fireworks; never allow young children to ignite or play with fireworks. Even sparklers can cause serious injuries, as they can burn at temperatures near 2,000 degrees.Never shoot fireworks off in glass or metal containers, and do not relight any that fail to function the first time. In the event of an accidental fire, always keep a supply of water near the area where you light the fireworks.Light only one firework at a time, do not hold it over any part of your body and move away from the item as soon as it has ignited.Once you have finished, remember to douse the used fireworks with water to prevent fire. Fireworks and alcohol can be a deadly combination; make sure the adult who is lighting them has not had anything to drink. If any injury occurs, run cool water over the burn and seek medical attention immediately. For additional security tips, please visit: http://www.universalpro.com/SecurityUpdates.html About Universal Services of America Founded in 1965, Universal Services of America combines tradition with advanced technology to provide clients unmatched security protection, systems, fire/life safety and building maintenance services. Universal provides a full range of building services throughout Arizona, California, Colorado and Washington, and includes Universal Protection Service, Universal Building Maintenance, Universal Security Systems and Universal Fire/Life Safety Services. (State Licenses: 1003458, 14417, 1025514, 0600, 58361).Visit us at: http://www.universalpro.com. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100316/LA71355LOGO) (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20100316/LA71355LOGO) SOURCE Universal Services of AmericaSource: RedOrbit News - Technology | 2 Jul 2010 | 12:05 pm Flying Outhouses: Really?Can An Outhouse Go Airborne? Get the answer to that and more questions about the crazy things rockets can send into the great blue yonder.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 2 Jul 2010 | 12:04 pm Digital's Deadliest Catch, Part Two: The MicroHoo Search Transition Team's Nelson and Morrissey Speak! [BoomTown]
Yesterday, BoomTown posted Part One of an interview with Microsoft’s Greg Nelson and Yahoo’s Mark Morrissey. The pair (pictured here) are in charge of a two-year effort to coordinate a massive search and online advertising partnership, the result of a deal the companies struck last year. It is critical they get it right, as Microsoft (MSFT) and Yahoo (YHOO) have a lot riding on the success of the effort, which is an attempt to catch up with search giant and dominant market leader Google (GOOG). The companies–one from Washington state and the other from Silicon Valley–have a combined share of close to 30 percent, and the hope is that together the partnership is a better offering to both advertisers and consumers. We’ll see about that, of course, but here’s the rest of what they had to say about the attempt in all its gory details:
Source: All Things Digital | 2 Jul 2010 | 12:01 pm Alliance for Digital Equality's Statement on President Obama's Announcement of Funding to Expand Broadband in Poor, Rural AreasATLANTA, July 2 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Julius H. Hollis, Chairman of the Alliance for Digital Equality (ADE), issued the following statement regarding President Obama's announcement today of new government investments in 66 projects to expand broadband connections in rural and poor areas across the country. According to the White House, the $795 million in grants and loans funded by the 2009 economic stimulus act will create 5,000 jobs and generate $200 million in associated private investment. "Today's announcement that President Obama and his Administration are setting the wheels in motion to get money, jobs and the invaluable tool of high speed Internet access to communities and people who truly need it, is fantastic news. For those Americans fortunate enough to reap the benefits of this initiative, countless benefits and unparalleled opportunity are coming - and this is very exciting. "This is a phenomenal first step toward achieving the goal of universal broadband, and will certainly make our country better and stronger in the process. But there is an overwhelming need that remains and that must also be addressed. Unfortunately, the government cannot fulfill this need by itself. It will take a new, bold strategy that creates a regulatory framework that incites private sector investment and ensures affordable broadband prices. I hope that the Administration will weigh in and discourage any policies that would hinder affordable access to broadband - specifically plans to reclassify broadband providers as common carrier services - for broadband infrastructure is the gateway to success for future generations. "I applaud President Obama for his effort to help those who need it most. Expanding broadband to poor and rural areas will give these communities opportunities that they have never had, finally allowing them to compete on a level playing field, and to better compete in the global economy. This is a proud day." About The Alliance for Digital Equality The Alliance for Digital Equality (ADE), headquartered in Atlanta, GA is a non-profit consumer advocacy organization that serves to facilitate and ensure equal access to technology in underserved and un-served communities. The Alliance also serves as a bridge between policymakers and minority individuals in order to help the public understand how legislative and regulatory policies regarding new technologies can impact and empower their daily lives. For more information on The Alliance for Digital Equality, please visit www.alliancefordigitalequality.org. SOURCE Alliance for Digital EqualitySource: RedOrbit News - Technology | 2 Jul 2010 | 11:55 am Inventors Asked To Help Oil Clean UpInventors' ideas are being used in an effort to try and clean Florida beaches of the oil that has begun to creep up into the sand. According to a report by the Associated Press (AP), 18 U.S. and Canadian inventors displayed their inventions to save Florida's beaches Thursday in a high-stakes "clean'off" under the critical gaze of evaluators. They were selected from over 400 other inventors who submitted their ideas. "If we can find some gems out here, we hope we can start using them ASAP. We are looking for something that spreads easily and is effective. The answer isn't just one tool, we need a lot of tools for different weather conditions, for out in the water, on the beaches, in the marshes," Darryl Boudreau, assistant director for the Northwest Florida district of the state Department of Environmental Protection, told AP.Hurricane Alex did not stop dozens of local, state, Coast Guard and other officials from coming to watch. Kalty Vazquez of Miami held a bucket in one hand as he spread a green-sandy substance called GreenTech over his plot. Vazquez raked through the tar and GreenTech and scooped the sand with a strainer, leaving clean sand behind. Another group blanketed the sand with a cotton-fiber roll. The idea was for the oil and tar to adhere to the cotton when it was rolled up. However, the group said it worked best when heavy machinery rolled over the cotton and pressed it into the sand. Bill Vasden Jr. has an oil spill solution that he grows on 1,500 acres of land in Tampa. The biodiesel and feed starch farmer believes kenaf, a kind of grass, will help the oil spill clean up efforts. He said that auto mechanics have used the material to clean oil from their floors for a long time. "It's a fibrous grass, it's renewable and we can burn it for energy," he said. "We have 1,500 acres of it already."Buck Lee, chairman of the Santa Rosa Island Authority, was among those who came to check out the inventors' ideas. "Whoever invents the magic dust is going to be a millionaire," Lee said, as he handled phone call after phone call from people concerned about the oil-covered beach.Jeff Powell came up with an idea of a rake that traps tar balls and filters out the sand. In about 30 minutes he raked up his plot of sand and left it clean. John Green of Canada uses peat moss as his solution. He showed off Sphagsorb, a microbe-enhanced peat moss that has helped clean up Canadian oil spills. He said ten pounds of the product could collect about 40 pounds of oil and tar. After an hour of being treated with different inventions, the beach was left much cleaner than when they started. However, evaluators did not say whether they would choose any of the ideas or how quickly the public might see them in action.---Image Caption: An oil-coated feather washed onto a Pensacola beach June 23rd. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Emily F. Alley. ---On the Net:BPDeepwater Horizon ResponseUS Coast GuardWhite HouseLive video links from the ROVs monitoring the damaged riserSource: RedOrbit News - Science | 2 Jul 2010 | 11:55 am Rumor Repeat: Apple TV to Gain iOS-Based Overhaul
The Apple TV might receive a software overhaul based on the iOS operating system powering the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch, sources have told The New York Times. While anonymous sources claimed the company was planning a software upgrade for the set-top box, they noted that it was unclear whether Apple would introduce new hardware as well. NY Times writer Nick Bilton also said he’d heard that Apple’s newest hires included people with a background in television. Some of these claims come in line with a recent rumor published by Engadget, which said Apple was planning to introduce a $100 Apple TV running iOS. The blog claimed the hardware would be redone as well — a minimal gadget described as an “iPhone without a screen,” containing only two ports: a power socket and a video-out. In earnings calls, Apple executives have repeatedly called Apple TV a “hobby,” implying it has not been a breakthrough hit like the iPhone or iPod. Video entertainment has been a tough nut for Apple to crack, as the set-top box market is packed with competitors offering a multitude of ways to watch video. In addition, cable companies subsidize set-top boxes that include a DVR for recording programs. An iOS-based Apple TV sounds feasible, though it remains a question as to how exactly such a device would work, since the interface is controlled by multitouch gestures. We would be surprised if Apple didn’t somehow incorporate its iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad as a controller. For gaming, the iPhone 4 is especially powerful as it contains a gyrosocope, making it even better than Nintendo’s Wiimote. However, it would seem strange if Apple sold an Apple TV that required a pricey iOS device as a controller. Apple declined to comment on this story. See Also:
Image of a current Apple TV menu: Apple 
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 2 Jul 2010 | 11:52 am IBM Exec Endorses Firefox Web BrowserIBM has endorsed Internet browser Firefox, asking its workers around the world to use the open source software for browsing the Web. "Any employee who is not now using Firefox will be strongly encouraged to use it as their default browser," IBM executive Bob Sutor said Thursday in a blog post at his website."While other browsers have come and gone, Firefox is now the gold standard for what an open, secure, and standards-compliant browser should be."Using Firefox as the default browser means that workers will automatically use the software with their computer in order to access the Internet unless told differently. According to Sutor, all new computers for IBM employees will have Firefox installed and the global company "will continue to strongly encourage our vendors who have browser-based software to fully support Firefox."The technology giant has a corporate history dating back a century and now has about 400,000 workers. "Today we already have thousands of employees using it on Linux, Mac, and Windows laptops and desktops, but we're going to be adding thousands more users to the rolls," Sutor said.Firefox is the second most popular Internet browser next to Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Google Chrome knocked out Apple Safari to become the third most popular Internet browser in the U.S. "We'll continue to see this or that browser be faster or introduce new features, but then another will come along and be better still, including Firefox," Sutor said."I think it was Firefox and its growth that reinvigorated the browser market as well as the web. That is, Firefox forced competitors to respond."---On the Net:IBMFirefoxBob Sutor's BlogSource: RedOrbit News - Technology | 2 Jul 2010 | 11:40 am New From Google Labs: The Eric Schmidt Reality Distortion Field [Digital Daily]
“The idea a year and a half ago was to do the Nexus One to try to move the phone platform hardware business forward. It clearly did,” Google (GOOG) CEO Eric Schmidt told The Telegraph. “It was so successful, we didn’t have to do a second one. We would view that as positive but people criticized us heavily for that. I called up the board and said: ‘Okay, it worked. Congratulations–we’re stopping.’ We like that flexibility, we think that flexibility is characteristic of nimbleness at our scale.” Yes. Just like your focus on Nexus One customer support. Somebody needs to sign Schmidt up for some arrogance management courses, methinks. Source: All Things Digital | 2 Jul 2010 | 11:34 am U.S. Employment Report: Employee Confidence Index Takes a Slight Dip as More Workers Apprehensive about Strength of EconomyFORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., July 2 /PRNewswire/ -- The SFN Group Employee Confidence Index dropped 1.0 points to 51.6 in June. The Index, which measures workers' confidence in their personal employment situation and optimism in the economic environment, decreased as a result of more workers being concerned with the strength of the economy. "Mirroring other confidence reports just released, our latest Employee Confidence Index took a slight dip this month," said Roy Krause, president and CEO of SFN Group, Inc. "Workers are a bit more apprehensive about the state of economy given the market's reaction to the latest job reports, the Gulf Coast oil spill, as well as the European debt crisis. Given all this, the job situation isn't as grim as it may seem. The number of temporary help services jobs has increased since last October -- this is a strong indicator of more employment growth to come. Within our own business, we are seeing a pick-up within the technology, mortgage services and administrative and clerical fields. In addition, we are also starting to see a rise in middle management searches within the finance and accounting field. Discussions with our clients are now moving towards how to support their increasing workloads and how to add flexibility to their workforce." A Look Inside the Report: Confidence in Overall Situation: The SFN Group Employee Confidence Index dropped 1.0 points to 51.6 in June. The Index, which measures workers' confidence in their personal employment situation and optimism in the economic environment, decreased as a result of more workers being concerned with the strength of the economy. Confidence in Macroeconomic Environment: Twenty-four percent of U.S. workers believe the economy is getting stronger, down five percentage points from May.Fifty-seven percent of workers surveyed believe there are fewer jobs available, decreasing two percentage points from the previous month. Confidence in Personal Employment Situation: Forty-two percent of workers are confident in their ability to find a new job compared to 43 percent in May.The percentage of workers reporting confidence in the future of their current employers increased by two percentage points to 65 percent.Job Security: Sixty-nine percent of workers say they are unlikely to lose their jobs in the next year, decreasing two percentage points from the previous month. Job Transition: Thirty-five percent of workers are likely to look for a new job in the next 12 months, showing no change from May's reading.Confidence by Gender: Twenty-seven percent of males believe the economy is getting stronger compared to 22 percent of females.When asked if they are confident in their ability to find a new job, more males reported optimism, with 47 percent reporting confidence (versus 37 percent of females).Less females than males reported that they are likely to look for a new job in the next year (33 percent of females versus 37 percent of males). Confidence by Age: According to the latest results, 28 percent of workers ages 55+ believe that the economy is getting stronger, the highest among all age brackets. Workers ages 35-44 are the most confident in the future of their current employer, with 71 percent of workers in this age group indicating so.Forty-eight percent of workers between the ages of 18-34 are likely to look for a new job in the next year. This is the highest among all age brackets. Confidence by Income: Workers earning $75K or greater are the most confident in the strength of the economy, with 29 percent indicating so compared to 20 percent of those earning less than $35K.Forty-three percent of workers earning less than $35K are likely to look for a new job in the next year. This is the highest reading across all income cohorts. June Full Results and Archive Information About the SFN Group Employment Report Methodology About Harris Interactive About SFN Group, Inc. SFN Group is a strategic workforce solutions company that provides professional services and general staffing to help businesses more effectively source, deploy and manage people and the work they do. As an industry pioneer, SFN Group has sourced, screened and placed millions of individuals in temporary, temp-to-hire and full-time jobs for more than 60 years. With approximately 575 locations in the United States and Canada, SFN delivers strategic workforce solutions that improve business performance. From outsourcing to technology to professional services to staffing, SFN delivers the best combination of people, performance and service to improve the way work gets done. It provides its services to approximately 8,000 customers, from Fortune 500 companies to a wide range of small and mid-size organizations. The company employs more than 160,000 people annually through its network and is one of North America's largest employers. SFN provides its solutions through a family of specialized businesses: Technisource, Tatum, The Mergis Group, Todays Office Professionals, SourceRight Solutions and Spherion Staffing Services. To learn more, visit www.sfngroup.com. 2010 SFN Professional Services LLC SOURCE SFN Group, Inc.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 2 Jul 2010 | 11:33 am Lizard Camouflage Confuses Males About GenderThe recent evolution of camouflage among lizards in the powdery dunes of New Mexico’s White Sands National Monument can lead to some misunderstandings when some males choose to make love, not war.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 2 Jul 2010 | 11:30 am Take Awesome Photos of FireworksSunday is Independence Day in the United States, and we like to celebrate it by shooting massive explosives into the skies above our homes, schools and public spaces. Learn to capture the moment with these photo tips.
Source: Wired: Gadgets | 2 Jul 2010 | 11:20 am Take Awesome Photos of FireworksSunday is Independence Day in the United States, and we like to celebrate it by shooting massive explosives into the skies above our homes, schools and public spaces. Learn to capture the moment with these photo tips.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 2 Jul 2010 | 11:20 am The Swedish Pirate Party moves The Pirate Bay to parliament
Interesting developments coming out of Sweden vis-à-vis The Pirate Bay, a site that I’m shocked is still around. Do you know anybody who still uses it? I sure don’t. The Swedish Pirate Party—inspiration to pirate parties all over the world, including the USA Pirate Party—has decided to take advantage of an obscure clause in the Swedish constitution to defend the site’s very existence. On top of becoming the site’s ISP, the Pirate Party has now decided to use a form of political immunity to protect the site from lawsuits and other forms of harassment. The end result is that The Pirate Bay now, always and forever, seems to be under the legal protection of Swedish law. How about that for a storyline twist? What’s happening is that the Pirate Party has moved The Pirate Bay’s servers inside the walls of the Swedish Parliament. It’d be like running your blog out of your company’s break room. As such, and per the Swedish constitution, TPB is now considered part of the Pirate Party’s political, um, existence. The law is designed to ensure that an elected political party doesn’t have its views expunged from the record simply because they’re controversial or unpopular. Now, assuming everything goes according to plan, outside authorities, be they foreign governments or international copyright agencies, won’t be able to sue or otherwise bother TPB ever again. The Pirate Party isn’t doing this to ensure that people all over the world can download the latest episode Entourage, but to ensure that free speech and unfettered thought can continue to prosper on the Internet. Noble, certainly, given the childish activity that TPB has engaged in in the past I’m not sure how well-received the move will be outside of the “community,” as it were.
Source: CrunchGear | 2 Jul 2010 | 11:15 am 70 Million Swine Flu Vaccine Doses Wasted70 million doses of H1N1 swine flu vaccine prepared for an epidemic that never came will likely be destroyed.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 2 Jul 2010 | 11:01 am CS4HS: helping high school teachers reach their potentialComputer science is a tough field to teach, especially at the high school level. Not only do you need to persuade teenagers that coding isn’t too geeky to attempt, but since CS is a growing field, it’s hard for teachers to keep up with all the latest techniques and computing tools. To help teachers face these challenges, we’re funding a program called Computer Science for High School (CS4HS). CS4HS is a workshop for high school and middle school computer science teachers that introduces new and exciting concepts in computing and how to teach them. The ultimate goals are to “train the trainer,” develop a thriving community of high school CS teachers, and spread the word about the awe and beauty of computing.This summer, we’re funding 20 workshops at colleges across the U.S. and will sponsor another 14 in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. If each workshop in the U.S. has an average of 20 teachers in attendance, and each of them teaches 90 students in a year*, that means that the workshops have the potential to make a difference for 36,000 students—an important start. We had the chance to attend a CS4HS workshop in our own backyard this week. UC Berkeley’s CS4HS highlighted hands-on skills that teachers can take directly back to the classroom. Twenty local math and CS teachers had a chance to share tips and best practices around teaching CS, and created a solid foundation for a community. One of the most popular sessions over the two days was a demo of Scratch, a popular programming language geared towards K-12 students that makes it easy to create interactive stories, animations, games, music and art. Attendees also had the opportunity to form the Golden Gate chapter of the Computer Science Teacher Association (CSTA). Although the summer workshops are just getting started, they're already making a difference for teachers. Emmanuel Onyeador, who teaches AP CS at Oakland Technical High School, told us: “CS4HS is the missing link—as computer science teachers, you find yourself isolated in your classroom. When I sit here I find that we’re all talking about the same issues and the same type of students. What I bring back to my classroom will make a big difference.” You can view a list of all 20 U.S. CS4HS workshops and find more information about the program at www.cs4hs.com.  UC Berkeley CS4HS participants *according to the National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education Posted by Mary Radomile, Education Program Manager   
 Source: The Official Google Blog | 2 Jul 2010 | 10:54 am Twitter Is Down. In Other News, Mideast Peace Still Elusive. [Digital Daily]
The service has been inaccessible for the better part of the last hour. And according to the Twitter Status blog, the company has “received reports of elevated error rates for users; we’re currently investigating.” UPDATE: Ah. Evidently this is “unplanned downtime.” Well, that explains it. UPDATE: Did I say “unplanned downtime”? I meant, “period of high unavailability.” [Image credit: Disassociated Press] Source: All Things Digital | 2 Jul 2010 | 10:52 am Steve Jobs Email on iPhone 4 Labeled as Fake - PC Magazine
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 2 Jul 2010 | 10:43 am Full D8 Interview Video: Former AOL CEO and Investor Steve Case [BoomTown]
As promised, All Things Digital is posting the full videos from our eighth D: All Things Digital conference, held in early June. Today, please enjoy this interview I did with former AOL (AOL) kingpin Steve Case, who is still an active investor in the digital space, especially in the healthcare arena. Of course, he is most famous for building the Internet’s first mega-company and for merging it with Time Warner (TWX), which became the worst corporate marriage in recent history. Case did not shy away from talking about AOL–which had its 25th anniversary this year–and much more in this interview at D8. Here’s the full video of the session: [ See post to watch video ] Want to see it bigger? Click here. Note: We’ll be posting full D8 videos on Mondays and Thursdays. Next up: Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski. Source: All Things Digital | 2 Jul 2010 | 10:35 am Fourth of July: Most Dangerous Day of the YearCrowded roads and drunk driving make summertime travel dangerous.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 2 Jul 2010 | 10:30 am For Best Reception, Do Not Stand Near the Left Side of the Apple Television [Digital Daily]
That was Apple CEO Steve Jobs’s response to a question about Apple TV and the future of the television interface at D8. “The television industry fundamentally has a subsidized business model that gives everyone a set-top box, and that pretty much undermines innovation in the sector,” he said. “The only way this is going to change is if you start from scratch, tear up the box, redesign and get it to the consumer in a way that they want to buy it.” And who better to do this than Apple (AAPL)? The company has arguably already done it for the personal computer (Mac, iPad), the portable music player (iPod) and the cell phone (iPhone). Why not the TV as well? In a research note to clients this morning, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster argues that Apple should–and will within the next two to four years. Apple TV is destined to become an all-in-one connected Apple Television. “As Apple TV sales fail to gain steam, we believe an all-in-one Apple Television solution would provide an ease-of-use that many consumers are looking for,” Munster writes. “Apple could also bring its software expertise to the television market and provide for themselves an immediate advantage against its competition (primarily hardware makers). As connected TVs gain traction, we believe software will be a critical selling point, and Apple could offer best-in-class software on an Apple Television. “We believe that Apple expects to differentiate itself by combining software and hardware designed and developed in-house,” he continues. “With over 125 million addressable iTunes accounts as of Jan. 10 overlapping a $30 billion+ market for home entertainment systems, an Apple-branded television could move the needle. Apple’s ability to deliver hardware, software and content that could replace an entire entertainment system with a single TV, puts Apple in a unique position for the emerging connected TV cycle. Apple already has several of the key ingredients for success in the connected TV market, many of which would differentiate Apple from current market players.” More blue-sky speculation on Apple’s designs on the living room? Perhaps. That said, it does arrive amid reports (and re-reports) that the company is working on a major Apple TV overhaul. Source: All Things Digital | 2 Jul 2010 | 10:28 am What Do Astronauts Eat?The menu is expansive, provided food items can survive microbe-killing heat treatment or complete dehydration. Oh, and there's absolutely no pizza.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 2 Jul 2010 | 9:42 am Video: Here Are the Dudes Disney Got With Tapulous [BoomTown]
Last year, BoomTown visited the downtown Palo Alto, Calif., storefront office of Tapulous, the maker of the hugely popular iPhone music game app Tap Tap Revenge. Disney (DIS) confirmed it bought the Silicon Valley start-up yesterday. The company was one of the first big successes on the Apple (AAPL) service, growing its innovative games strongly with only a small amount of angel funding. But Tapulous is one of many online games makers in the increasingly competitive arena, and its sale is part of what will be an inevitable consolidation in the space. Numerous sources said the company had been looking to sell for some time now, especially since music fees were high for the smaller outfit and hindered its ability to grow its business. Presumably that will not be the case at Disney. In any case, here’s an interview I did then with co-founders Andrew Lacy and Bart Decrem–both of whom are staying with Disney to work on mobile games initiatives–about the iPhone ecosystem and where it is all going: [ See post to watch video ] Source: All Things Digital | 2 Jul 2010 | 9:13 am Signal Problem? It's Just an Illusion, Apple PretendsAs a class-action lawsuit about the iPhone 4’s reception woes gathers steam, Apple issued a statement Friday morning that there is no actual problem with the device’s antenna. Instead, Cupertino claims, the issues stem from a faulty formula in software that indicates the iPhone’s signal strength, which has been present in every iPhone from the first-generation model to the latest iPhone 4.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 2 Jul 2010 | 8:45 am Altitude Adaptation In Tibetans Took Under 3,000 YearsA new study has found that the ethnic Tibetans' adaptation to high altitude occurred less than 3,000 years ago. Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley compared the genomes of 50 Tibetans and 40 Han Chinese. They uncovered over 30 genes with DNA mutations that have become more prevalent in Tibetans than Han Chinese, about half of which are related to how the body uses oxygen. One mutation spread from fewer than 10 percent of the Han Chinese to nearly 90 percent of all Tibetans. "This is the fastest genetic change ever observed in humans," said Rasmus Nielsen, UC Berkeley professor of integrative biology, who led the statistical analysis. "For such a very strong change, a lot of people would have had to die simply due to the fact that they had the wrong version of a gene."According to Nielsen, the Tibetans' widespread mutation was found near a gene called EPAS1. This gene, a so called "super athlete gene" was named because some variants of the gene are associated with improved athletic performance. The EPAS1 gene codes for a protein involved in sensing oxygen levels, as well as balancing aerobic and anaerobic metabolism. Nielsen said the new findings could help direct scientists to genes that play a role in how the body deals with decreased oxygen.The researchers reported their findings on Friday in the journal Science. Nielsen mines genomic information to discover genetic changes driven by natural selection as humans and animals have adapted to new environments. How often the DNA mutations take place is one clue. "You look for rapid evolution in genes because there must be something important about that gene forcing it to change so fast," he said. "The new finding is really the first time evolutionary information alone has helped us pinpoint an important function of a gene in humans."Adapting to low oxygen has allowed Tibetans to live at high altitude. People that move from lower elevations to about 13,000 feet typically tire easily, develop headaches, produce babies with lower birth weights and have a higher infant mortality rate. However, Tibetans do not face these problems. Nielsen used genome data collected by the Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI) in Shenzhen, China in order to discover the genetic changes associated with these physiological changes. "We're looking for footprints of past selection to find something functional in our genome," Nielsen saidThe data collected from the BGI researchers included Tibetans that lived in two villages located at elevations of 14,100 feet and 15,100 feet. All reported at least three generations of ancestors had lived at the same site. The Chinese researchers then took blood samples from the participants and measured oxygen saturation, red blood cell concentration and hemoglobin content in their blood. The BGI team also isolated the active genes from each individual. This involved cutting the DNA into many short pieces, sequencing each about 18 times with Illumina sequencing machines, and then using overlaps to help reassemble the complete genome of each person. The team at Berkeley conducted the analysis by locating all point mutations in the 90 genomes and then comparing Tibetan and Han separately to a control group of 100 Europeans. The analysis showed that the common ancestors of Tibetans and Han Chinese split into two populations about 2,750 years ago, with the larger group moving to the Tibetan plateau. "We can't distinguish intermixing and replacement," Nielsen said. "The Han Chinese and Tibetans are as different from one another as if the Han completely replaced the Tibetans about 3,000 years ago."The Tibetan and Han Chinese genomes are basically identical in terms of frequency of polymorphisms in about 20,000 genes. However, about 30 genes showed dramatic differences between the Tibetans and the Han. "We made a list of the genes that changed the most," Nielsen said, "and what was fascinating was that, bing!, at the top of that list was a gene that had changed very strongly, and it was related to the response to oxygen."The SNP with the most dramatic frequency change was associated with lower red blood cell count and lower hemoglobin levels in Tibetans. This occurred in the EPAS1 gene. Tibetans carrying only one allele with this mutation had about the same hemoglobin concentration as Han Chinese, but those with two mutated alleles had significantly lower hemoglobin concentration. Various Chinese, American and Danish organizations helped to fund the research, including the U.S. National Institute of Health and the National Science Foundation.---Image Caption: Tibetans carry a special version of a gene called EPAS1 that enables them to live at high-altitude without getting sick. Courtesy Wikipedia---On the Net:University of California, BerkeleyScienceBeijing Genomics InstituteSource: RedOrbit News - Science | 2 Jul 2010 | 8:45 am How to Discuss the Oil Spill With Your KidsThe oil spill is bound to make summer vacation look a lot different this year for children around the Gulf.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 2 Jul 2010 | 8:05 am How popular is iOS 4 and where?
In what locations are people using iOS 4 the most? Interestingly, more than half of the time they’re being used in hotels. I admit I’m surprised by this number. The iPhone has 3G access, making a WiFi connection unnecessary in many situations; so I certainly hope the JiWire hotspots are free to use. Otherwise the early adopters are paying for WiFi access for their phones when they stay in hotels. That in itself is an interesting data point.
And finally, which cities in the U.S. are seeing the fastest iOS 4 adoption? Of course California is fastest, but I’m surprised that Dallas and Miami both beat New York for jumping on the iOS 4 bandwagon. Did you install iOS 4 as soon as you could? If so, why? Or, if you waited to install it, why?
Source: MobileCrunch | 2 Jul 2010 | 8:00 am Driving Cross-Country ... in an ExcavatorWhat starts as a Facebook stunt ends with a month on the road in the last vehicle designed for it.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 2 Jul 2010 | 8:00 am Top 10 Things to Watch for a Geeky Independence DayWe geeks like to be patriotic in our own way, and what could be better than a patriotic-themed couch-fest, watching shows and movies to inspire our love of America, where a geek is free to be a geek?
Source: Wired Top Stories | 2 Jul 2010 | 7:25 am Space Shuttles To Stay On the Job A Bit LongerWith no clear vision of its future, NASA will cling a bit longer to its past.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 2 Jul 2010 | 7:16 am Sniper-Stand Turns Credit-Card into iPhone Kick-Stand
Meet the Sniper Stand, a tiny, adhesive-backed plastic carbuncle which sticks to you iPhone (or any other small flat-backed device) and lets you use a credit-card as an impromptu kick-stand. The lump remains attached, limpet-like, to the rear of the iPhone and has two perpendicular slots crossing its ABS dome. You slide any convenient plastic card into one of these and set the whole assembly down, your phone now tilted back ready for some movie-watching or, more disturbingly, some hands-free FaceTime. The Sniper Stand comes from Lancaster, Pennsylvania-based bartender (and avid Gadget Lab reader) Arthur Larsen, who tipped us off to his patent-pending design. And before you make the obvious complaint about the permanent plastic pimple attached to the back of the iPhone, let Arthur have his say:
Well, Arthur, I think it’s pretty cool. Sniper Stand – Convenient Smartphone Support [Sniper Stand. Thanks, Arthur] See Also:
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 2 Jul 2010 | 6:55 am Microsoft Instaload: Insert Batteries Any Way You Like
Microsoft has come up with an amazingly obvious tweak to battery tech that should save us some headaches, as well as several trillion hours of head-scratching and peering into dark holes. Named Instaload, the invention lets you stuff the batteries into a device any which-way you fancy, eliminating the need to read dark directional diagrams. The most impressive part is the low-tech way this is handled. Each contact in the battery compartment has both positive and negative terminals. If the fat, flat end of the battery is pressing against them, it touches the outside contact. If it is the pointy positive end then it makes contact with a slightly recessed inner contact. This, combined with some simple circuitry, makes sure the current is always running the right way. Unfortunately, this being Microsoft, it wants everybody to play by Microsoft’s rules, and to pay for the privilege. Microsoft “offers fair and reasonable licensing terms” for Instaload, which is kind of like offering licensing terms on the idea of shopping with a shopping cart (wait, what?) A shame, really, as it’s the cheap gadgets that could benefit from this the most. Thanks to this licensing short-sightedness, we see this tech coming to Microsoft mice, and pretty much nothing else anytime soon. InstaLoad Battery Installation Technology Overview [Microsoft via Gizmag] 
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 2 Jul 2010 | 6:39 am Whale Sharks Spotted in Gulf of Mexico Oil SlickThe good news: Researchers spotted dozens of whale sharks in the Gulf of Mexico. The bad news: Some of them have been seen swimming in the oil slick.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 2 Jul 2010 | 6:35 am Far-Out World Leaves Astronomers BaffledThe mysterious planet-like object is circling its star at a distance roughly 300 times farther than Earth orbits the sun.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 2 Jul 2010 | 6:30 am Droid Incredible getting 720p recording and 3G hotspot?
Seeing as the HTC-made Incredible is nearly an HTC EVO 4G with a smaller screen, it’s highly likely that the phone is technically capable of such functions. There might have been some back-room deal with Verizon or even Sprint to cripple the Incredible to make the EVO 4G that much more special. Who knows, but we can’t help dreaming of an Incredible that has all the tasty treats of the EVO 4G smashed into the smaller package. Maybe this is Verizon’s way of apologizing for the short supply of Incredibles. [via AndroidCommunity]
Source: MobileCrunch | 2 Jul 2010 | 6:28 am Spotify Updated for iOS4: Ready to Replace iPod
Spotify is a free, ad-supported or paid application for Mac, PC, iOS, Symbian and Android which lets you play any music in the catalog as if it were iTunes. Unlike Pandora, the US-only music streaming service, you can actually choose an artist and track, and organize music into playlists, even saving them for offline listening. Now, with iOS4’s multitasking, you can continue to listen to Spotify in the background as you send mail, read Instapaper or do pretty much anything else. Just as planned, the music controls in the app-switching dock control Spotify instead of the iPod app, the inline remote on the headphones does the same, as do the music controls on the iPhone’s lock-screen. If your iPhone or iPad is in the universal dock, using the Apple remote will also let you control Spotify. In short, it takes over all iPhone music functions while running. Further, if you play a track from Spotify that is already on your iPhone, it will be pulled from the local copy rather than over the network (currently, this causes the app to pause if running in the background). There are more new features in this release. Just like the latest desktop client, Spotify mobile lets you send music to your Spotify and Facebook friends, as well as browsing the “top lists”, charts based on new and popular tracks. The only thing that keeps Spotify completely replacing your iPod app is podcasts, which can be accessed but cannot be updated automatically. The usability is also a little clunky. Searching the gazillion songs in Spotify’s catalog is fast and easy, but browsing your own saved playlists is an annoyingly linear affair, with much scrolling and clicking to find what you want. Spotify is free, but to use it on your iPhone or iPod Touch you have to pay the premium €10-per-month subscription. I do. I figure its worth it to have 8 million track on my iPad and iPod Touch. Bonus tip: Did you know that in iOS4, music keeps playing even whilst you sync to iTunes? iPhone app updated – background listening arrives! [Spotify] See Also:
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 2 Jul 2010 | 6:18 am Tests Confirm iPhone 4’s Antenna Flaws (Updated)
Update 6 a.m. PT: Apple has published a letter regarding the iPhone 4 antenna, explaining that a faulty formula is making signal strength display incorrectly. The company claims a software update coming in a few weeks will correct the formula. Many customers are complaining that the iPhone 4’s antenna loses the signal when you hold it a certain way. They’re not delusional: Independent tests lend credence to the issue. A study led by AnandTech saw a major drop in signal strength when the iPhone 4 was “cupped tightly,” covering a sensitive area in the lower left corner. The iPhone 4’s external band is actually two antennas — one for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS, and the other for voice and data — and according to Anandtech, touching the point in the lower left, where the two antennas meet, causes attenuation. “The fact of the matter is that either the most sensitive region of the antenna should have an insulative coating, or everyone should use a case,” Anandtech wrote. “For a company that uses style heavily as a selling point, the latter isn’t an option. And the former would require an unprecedented admission of fault on Apple’s part.” Immediately after the iPhone 4’s release, several customers reported that covering the handset in the bottom left corner caused major signal loss, signified by dropped bars on the screen. Criticism about the iPhone 4’s reception doesn’t look good for Apple. For years, dissatisfied customers have quibbled about the smartphone’s spotty 3G network performance. Apple claimed the iPhone 4’s new antenna design would significantly improve reception. Already, the erratic behavior of the iPhone 4 antenna has spawned lawsuits. In a canned response, Apple said all phones experience attenuation when held in different positions. Consumer Reports also published a post agreeing that this is the case with all phones.
Is it a non-issue, as Steve Jobs suggests, or is it a major design flaw? Going beyond anecdotal experiences, Anandtech managed to hack together a way to get the iPhone 4 to display actual signal strength rather than reception bars. (The reception bars, many have explained, are a poor indicator for actual signal strength.) AnandTech then held the iPhone 4 in five different ways — cupping tightly, holding naturally, open palm, resting on an open platform and holding naturally inside a case — and recorded results for each position. The blog ran the same tests with an iPhone 3GS and a Nexus One.
The results: All phones exhibited attenuation behavior in different positions, but the iPhone 4 did show a greater dropoff in signal strength in every holding position compared to the iPhone 3GS. However, the blog noted that the iPhone 4’s reception is definitely better in low-signal situations than the other two phones. In short, the iPhone 4 gets a much stronger signal overall compared to the iPhone 3GS and the Nexus One, but that strength is greatly hampered by attenuation when held in different positions. “Reception is absolutely definitely improved,” AnandTech wrote. “I felt like I was going places no iPhone had ever gone before. There’s no doubt in my mind this iPhone gets the best cellular reception yet, even though measured signal is lower than the 3GS.” Corroborating AnandTech’s findings, antenna expert Richard Gaywood ran a different test gauging the iPhone 4’s speed in different holding positions and came to similar conclusions. Gaywood’s tests suggest that the problem is greatest when signal strength is already low. “I think it’s pretty clear that there was still a performance penalty from gripping the phone in my bare left hand, despite the strong signal conditions,” Gaywood wrote. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com See Also:
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 2 Jul 2010 | 6:00 am Studies Confirm iPhone 4 Antenna Prone to Signal LossA few independent tests suggest the iPhone 4's antenna problems are real.
Source: Wired: Gadgets | 2 Jul 2010 | 6:00 am Holga D, The Ultimate Lo-Fi Digicam
Before I tell you what the digital Holga D doesn’t do, let me recap what Lomo’s plastic-fantastic Holga medium-format film camera does do. The Holga has a cheap plastic lens, an even cheaper light-leaking plastic body, settings so sparse that they’re almost superfluous and, as with all film cameras, delayed gratification in the form of the need for chemical processing before you can see your blurred, distorted photographs. Onto the Holga D, invented by designer Saikat Biswas and noticed on the internet by impossibly handsome Wired.com photographer Jon Snyder. The plain box lacks an LCD screen of any kind, and the camera is controlled by manual focus, shutter, ISO and aperture dials. The status of these controls is shown on a small e-ink circle, and there are switches to choose a B&W mode and also pick an aspect ratio. To keep things low-fi and cheap, the sensor is either a full-frame or crop-frame model from last generation designs. That is, when technology moves on, the Holga D uses what is left behind. The box itself is beautifully minimal, and if Biswas ever gets this into production then he’d probably sell a bunch to hipsters based on looks alone. In lieu of an actual working product, how should we fill the vacuum in reality left by the Holga D? This holiday weekend, why not take your digicam, switch off the LCD, turn on full manual control and take some chances. I guarantee two things: you’ll have a lot of fun, and you’ll get a lot of bad, bad pictures. Holga D [Saikat Biswas via Twitter] See Also:
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 2 Jul 2010 | 5:14 am HP: WebOS Slate on the Way
Palm CEO John Rubinstein will continue to head up his webOS team under new boss HP, and will be working on smartphones, “future slate PCs and netbooks,” according to a statement from HP The computer giant completed its acquisition of Palm yesterday, and announced that Palm will continue to develop both hardware and software, headed up by former Apple employee Rubinstein. This will include new phones (the Pre and Pixi lines are now also owned by HP), but most exciting is the confirmation that there will be webOS tablets. After all, apart from iOS, name another operating system that is as suited to a tablet as the webOS (sure, Android is close, but still a little too clunky). Better still, HP has the deep pockets to go up against Apple, and if Rubinstein and team are left to work on great machines their combined experience (many of them are also Apple alumni) should finally provide an iPad competitor. And even if you are a total, unashamed iPad fanboy, this should still excite you. Competition is good for us buyers. Take a look at the iPhone 4: Do you think it would be this good if Android and Palm weren’t chasing so close behind? HP Completes Palm Acquisition [Yahoo] Photo: Lisa Brewster/Flickr See Also:
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 2 Jul 2010 | 4:31 am Developer Adds Pressure-Sensitive Drawing to iPadWhen they’re not rolling sheets of metal into tubes and stuffing them with conductive foam to make iPhone styluses, the smart engineers at Ten One design are hacking away at the iPad. And quite miraculously, they have managed to turn the iPad’s screen into a pressure sensitive drawing tablet. Proper graphics tablets like those from Wacom have pens which detect thousands of levels of pressure, but the iPad offers just two levels: one and zero. To get around this, the Ten One people, makers of the Pogo stylus, have hacked Apple’s private UIKit frameworks to enable the screen to detect pressure. The video above shows the test software in action (the delay in drawing is due to “an issue with [the] demo application code.” Does this mean that the iPad’s screen is somehow able to know how hard you are pressing? Maybe not. Although the Ten One blog post doesn’t mention just how this information is gotten from the iPad, my guess would be that the size of the tip is being measured by the standard multi-touch detection. As you press on the foam, the tip grows. This also explains how the test software is able to ignore the side of the hand while still reacting to the pen. Ten One plans to release its hack to the world for free inclusion in any software. This rests on Apple opening up the private software framework, which is a notoriously slow process. Still, it would be pretty awesome, and would add a lot of finesse to drawing and painting apps like the excellent Brushes. Pressure-Sensitive Drawing on iPad [Ten One designers blog] See Also:
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 2 Jul 2010 | 3:53 am
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“On Monday, federal prosecutors accused 11 people of being part of a Russian espionage ring, living under false names and deep cover in a patient scheme to penetrate what one coded message called American “policy making circles.””
Redfin CEO 
In other words, the site takes money from bereaved people without disclosing what it's billing them, gambling on the fact that they're probably too preoccupied to care. Whether or not this kind of thing is legal, it is completely unethical. Even an undertaker who has upsold you on everything from coffin to funeral buffet has to show you a number before you sign on the dotted line.
One of the big announcements at this year’s Google I/O was that a new 
Apple has finally ended its silence on the iPhone 4 reception issues, and says it is working on an update to iOS4 to fix it. It blames a faulty algorithm, not hardware flaws for the issue, which causes reception to disappear when the phone is held a certain way. Apple also says that part of the problem is likely with AT&T’s poor network-indeed the algorithm causing the issue and the one that will be in the update were both created by AT&T.
Just a friendly PSA: after facing a tidal wave of customer complaints and bad PR, Apple has opted to 
Opera has released the latest version of its browser and with it has join forces with anti-virus software maker AVG. Starting with this new version, 10.60, the browser will now have AVG’ real-time Web threat data feed built in, which provides instant updates and greater security. Users who attempt to access a page known to be malicious will get a warning page instead. 
Perhaps you heard, Microsoft has 
One thing we tried – very hard – to nail down yesterday was the price 
I’m not quite sure, but make no mistake, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) has cut some former Palm staffers from its ranks as it closes its acquisition of the smartphone maker. I’m hearing different numbers from sources (once) close to the company, so it’s difficult to put a firm number on them. Sounds like it’s not too, too many though. Double digits, not hundreds. Still: sad and awful.
For many small business owners, managing financial health can be an overwhelming process. From credit cards to cash flow to saving, small businesses have many different fiscal elements to consider when monitoring finances. 
Facebook already suggests pages to members based on the pages that their friends are engaging with in their network. But today, Facebook is now 
Today, 
Like the Nexus One? Well, don’t get your hopes up for a Nexus Two, because Google’s not planning to make one. You know why? It doesn’t need to, because the Nexus One–
Oh look: Twitter is down again. How unusual.
“The problem with innovation in the TV industry is the go-to-market strategy. The TV industry has a subsidized model that gives everyone a set-top box for free. So no one wants to buy a box. Ask TiVo, ask Roku, ask us…ask Google (GOOG) in a few months.”
Spotify, the jukebox-in-the-cloud which is still not available in the US has been updated to work with iOS4. This adds several new features, but the game-changer is that it can now run in the background, replacing the iPod app almost completely.
