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A new field of forensic study for iPhonesiPhones store more information than users may realize writes USA Today, and some of it could be used against them if they're ever charged with a crime. Law enforcement officials have long used phone...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 11 Jul 2010 | 4:57 am Over 5 billion mobile phone connections worldwideMore than a billion mobile phone connections have been added to the global tally in just 18 months, according to Wireless Intelligence, reports the BBC. In many regions, penetration exceeds 100%, where...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 11 Jul 2010 | 4:45 am Hidden Formulas Send Mixed Signals on CellphonesIn theory, the bars on a phone represent the power of a phone's connection to its wireless network but it turns out the number of bars has more to do with the whims of handset manufacturers than it does...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 11 Jul 2010 | 3:38 am Rickshaw Fares on cell phonesA soon to launch mobile application will provide fares to AutoRickshaw passengers and drivers on their mobiles - without any connectivity. TelecomTalk reports. The unique technology works on any Java...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 11 Jul 2010 | 3:13 am Witty Homeless Signs - Frank Jenkinson Would Really Like to be Cured of 'Invisiblemanitus' (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) Poor Frank Jenkinson; he's homeless, poor and stricken with Invisiblemanitus! What a rough road he's led. The clever homeless sign is pretty hilarious and rather inventive. Invisiblemanitus...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 11 Jul 2010 | 2:20 am China confirms renews Google's China license (Reuters)Reuters - China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said it had renewed the Chinese operating license of Internet giant Google Inc, confirming an announcement made by the company on Friday.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 11 Jul 2010 | 2:19 am Open Mountain Bungalows - The Mummy Mountain Residence by Chen and Suchart Studio is Comfy (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) The Mummy Mountain Residence by Chen + Suchart Studio is one amazing mountain home. The house is located in Paradise Valley, Arizona. The exterior of the home looks pretty standard,...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 11 Jul 2010 | 2:00 am Porky Bubble Guns - The Bacon Bubble Buddy Provides a Tasty Treat for Dogs and Their Owners (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) You may never have to walk your dog again thanks to the Bacon Bubble Buddy. This bubble gun shoots out bacon-flavored bubbles that are sure to keep your pooch happy. I know what you...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 11 Jul 2010 | 1:40 am Personal Meditative Spaces - The Kosha by Claudio D'Amore is an Individual Haven (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) Kosha by Claudio D'Amore is definitely interesting looking, but an amazing idea for those who can't seem to get enough time for themselves. The design is essentially a big U-shape,...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 11 Jul 2010 | 1:20 am European probe Rosetta flies by asteroid: ESAThe European spacecraft Rosetta performed a fly-by of a massive asteroid, the European Space Agency said, taking images that could one day help Earth defend itself from destruction. ...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 11 Jul 2010 | 12:56 am Droid X Debuts This Week - PC World
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 11 Jul 2010 | 12:36 am Amphibious Sedans - Peter Igloi Nagy's Mercedes C-ROC Can Run on Land and Water (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) Hungarian industrial designer Peter Igli-Nagy has designed a unique vehicle, the Mercedes C-ROC, that is able to drive both on land and water. The design and functionality of the car...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 11 Jul 2010 | 12:29 am Paw-Friendly Dog Kennels - Artificial Turf is a Greener-than-Grass Alternative for Military Mutts(TrendHunter.com) As part of a larger project, Luke Military Base in Arizona will be adding artificial turf to its dog training unit. Natural grass is difficult to keep healthy in the hot Arizona sun...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 11 Jul 2010 | 12:09 am Mergers key to survival in India's crowded mobile market (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 10 Jul 2010 | 11:29 pm China Says US Uses Facebook To Spread Political Unrestcrimeandpunishment writes "A Chinese government-backed think tank says the US and other western governments use Facebook and other social networking sites to spread political unrest. Their report says 'We must pay attention to the potential risks and threats to state security as the popularity of social-networking sites continues to grow,' and calls for increased scrutiny of the sites."
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Source: Slashdot | 10 Jul 2010 | 11:02 pm CHART OF THE DAY: Here's What People Are Actually Doing With Their Cellphones ... - San Francisco Chronicle
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 10 Jul 2010 | 9:53 pm Verizon allowing early Droid X customers to activate immediatelySection: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones
170 lucky Verizon customers already received the Motorola Droid X in the mail, yet Verizon didn’t want you to activate it until now. Due to network provisions not being in place, Verizon was warning early Droid X owners to hold off on activation until the launch date of July 15. However, since it was Verizon’s fault the Droid X’s shipped early to begin with, Big Red decided to go ahead and launch all network provisions and allow customers to activate their brand new Droid X. After all, who could wait to use latest Android smartphone when its just sitting around, teasing you to use it. If you are one of the lucky owners, feel free to shout out and let us know how the activation process went and how the Droid X is performing. Via [Droid-Life] Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 10 Jul 2010 | 9:39 pm SVG and The Indexing of Web Standardswombatmobile writes "The world's most popular search engine company is a leading supporter of open standards. It pours money and people into initiatives that promote, assist, support and implement Web standards. As a core foundation of is mission statement, all web assets should ideally be of a kind that it can work with. Strange then, that the world's most popular search engine doesn't index all of the current important Web standards formats. Doug Schepers of W3C blogs about how Scalable Vector Graphics content is recognized and not recognized by search engines, currently and historically." Readability really helps out on this site.
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Source: Slashdot | 10 Jul 2010 | 8:27 pm Find a parking spot with ease using Open Spot on AndroidSection: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Web, Google  There is nothing worse than traveling for a long time and not being able to find a parking spot at your destination. Similarly, if you are in a hurry, it’s nice to know where there is a free parking spot even if it means having to park across the street. Unfortunately, it’s hard to know ahead of time how the parking situation is without having a person there to tell you. However, Google recently released an app in the Android Market called Open Spot which helps you find a parking spot in a .9 mile radius of your current location. No, Google will not be installing cameras at every parking lot to alert users when there is a parking spot available; instead, the app relies on users reporting when parking spots become available. If you open the app and see a red pin, that means a user has pinged the location in the last few seconds. If the pin is orange, the user has pinged the location over 5 minutes ago. If the pin is yellow, the user has pinged the location over 10 minutes ago. After 20 minutes, the pin will disappear no matter what. In addition, Google is employing certain measures to help prevent against griefers who may ping fake parking spots which would definitely be frustrating for all involved. The app will only work if everyone with an Android app actively participates, but the only incentive to do so is something called karma points. Unfortunately, Karma points have no bearing on your account, so hopefully people will help each other out anyway to reduce traffic, pollution, and save time. Read [Google Open Spot] Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 10 Jul 2010 | 8:21 pm Borders on Android and other top Android Apps of the Week (Appolicious)Appolicious - Things are really heating up with ebook readers for Android; a release from Borders makes this the third week in a row we’ve seen a major ebook reader launch a product in the Android Market.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 10 Jul 2010 | 7:30 pm Report: Android 2.2 now running on HTC DesireSection: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones
In case you don’t want to wait until Q3 (at the earliest) to run Android 2.2 on your HTC Desire, you may want to use the latest Android 2.2 Build from udK_dev. It supposedly works very well even with the tricky HTC Sense, however, there are a few little bugs and kinks that need to be worked out. There is a full set of directions and a link to the file that needs to be downloaded over at XDA-Developers’ forum. Apparently the camera can now record in 720p, which is a nice bonus. Be sure to proceed with caution if you choose to port your HTC Desire to Froyo. Read [XDA-Developers] Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 10 Jul 2010 | 7:11 pm Free Apps Roundup for July 9th, 2010FROM APPLETELL - iAds are in full effect, but that’s okay, because it means more free apps for you. You’ll definitely find something useful or entertaining this time around. Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 10 Jul 2010 | 6:09 pm Google Secretly Invested $100+ Million In Zynga, Preparing To Launch Google Games
The investment part of the deal closed a month ago or so. A larger strategic partnership is still in process. The investment was made by Google itself, not Google Ventures, say our sources, and it’s a highly strategic deal. Zynga will be the cornerstone of a new Google Games to launch later this year, say multiple sources. Not only will Zynga’s games give Google Games a solid base of social games to build on, but it will also give Google the beginning of a true social graph as users log into Google to play the games. And I wouldn’t be surprised to see PayPal being replaced with Google Checkout as the primary payment option. Zynga is supposedly PayPal’s biggest single customer, and Google is always looking for ways to make Google Checkout relevant. And there’s more. These same sources are saying that Zynga’s revenues for the first half of 2010 will be a stunning $350 million, half of which is operating profit. Zynga is projecting at least $1.0 billion in revenue in 2011, say our sources. This blows previous estimates out of the water. Zynga continues to work on high level strategic business development deals. The reason these deals are so attractive to companies like Yahoo and now Google is this – Zynga allows them to rebuild the massive social graph, currently controlled by Facebook. For whatever reason people love to play these games and get passionately addicted to them, coming back day after day. That’s helped Facebook become what it is today. Google, Yahoo and others want some of that magic to rub off on them, too. We’ve reached out to both Google and Zynga for comment. Neither have responded. There will be lots more news on Google Games in the near future, we’re guessing. Here’s a job opening for a Product Lead for Google Games, for example:
     
Source: TechCrunch | 10 Jul 2010 | 6:03 pm The Hobby of Energy Secretary Steven Chuquanminoan writes "Nobel Laureate and US Secretary of Energy Steven Chu has continued to publish even while in federal office. While previous research topics include gravitational redshift, Chu has coauthored a paper entitled 'Subnanometre single-molecule localization registration and distance measurements' which discusses a way to optically image objects as small as 0.5 nm — a major step down from the previous limit of 10 nm. Chu does this in his free time, claiming 'I just consider it my equivalent of ... vegging out in front of the TV.'"
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 10 Jul 2010 | 5:49 pm Climategate shows the need for openness by scientists - The Guardian
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 10 Jul 2010 | 5:06 pm Study shows reading on tablets is slower vs. booksSection: Gadgets / Other, ebooks  According to a recent study conducted by Dr. Jakob Nielsen of the Nielsen Norman Group (no relation to the Nielsen fametrics company), it will take longer to read a book on the Kindle or an iPad when compared to an actual book. Jakob compared the reading times of twenty-four users on the Kindle 2, an iPad using the iBooks application, a PC monitor and regular paper. The study showed that reading on an electronic tablet was 10.7 percent slower than when reading straight from a book. Nevertheless, Nielsen’s test subjects favored reading on tablets over printed material and most everyone didn’t like reading from a computer monitor citing that it reminded them of being at work. Can’t really argue against that one. While reading speeds were faster on the iPad than the Kindle 2, Nielsen stated that the differences were “not statistically significant,” and shouldn’t sway consumers’ purchasing decision. The subjects were told to decide how much they liked the reading experience based on a seven point scale and the iPad, Kindle 2 and book ranked 5.8, 5.7, and 5.6 respectively with PC trailing at 3.6 points. I for one don’t care what the studies say; I’ll always prefer printed material to an electronic screen. Read [msnbc]
Full Story » | Written by Tarun Kunwar for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 10 Jul 2010 | 4:51 pm US Cellular’s irresistible smartphone deal: free GPS navigation from TeleNavSection: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile, Gadgets / Other, GPS/Navigation
US Cellular offers the smartphone bundle with free GPS navigation on high end phones like the Android running Samsung Acclaim, HTC Touch, HTC Touch Pro, HTC Touch Pro 2, HTC Snap, BlackBerry® Tour™ 9630, BlackBerry® Pearl Flip™ 8230, BlackBerry® Curve™ 8530 and Samsung i225. Some nice choices from the nations sixth largest carrier. The GPS navigation service is called Your Navigator Deluxe (catchy right?). As with other TeleNav products, users will recieve voice-guided navigation, powerful search, and even speech recognition for searching and addresses. Users simply speak the name or address and Your Navigator Deluxe will begin guiding users to their destination. Company site: [US Cellular] Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 10 Jul 2010 | 4:16 pm Has Any Creative Work Failed Because of Piracy?Andorin writes "Anyone familiar with the piracy debate knows about the claims from organizations like the RIAA that piracy causes billions of dollars in damages and costs thousands of jobs. Other studies have concluded differently, ranging from finding practically no damages to a newer study that cites 'up to 20%' as a more accurate number (PDF). I figure there's got to be an easier way to do this, so here's my question: Does anyone know of any creative works that were provably a financial failure due to piracy? The emphasis on 'provably' is important, as some form of evidence is necessary. Accurately and precisely quantifying damages from p2p is impossibly hard, of course, but answering questions like this may lead us to a clearer picture of just how harmful file sharing really is. I would think that if piracy does cause some amount of substantial harm, we would see that fact reflected in our creative works, but I've never heard of a work that tanked because people shared it online."
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Source: Slashdot | 10 Jul 2010 | 3:16 pm MTV Networks acquires casual game developer Social Express Inc.FROM GAMERTELL - MTV Networks has bought into the casual gaming craze with the purchase of Social Express Inc, a company whose executives have worked for Zynga, Yahoo and Apple. Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 10 Jul 2010 | 2:35 pm It’s As If Apple Has Hired Don Draper
It’s one thing to know what an iPhone is, but the fact that he was aware that there was a new iPhone caught me a bit off guard. As did the fact that he was talking to me about it. I directed him to my review. But he took one glance at the 3,500+ words and immediately came back at me. “I just want to know if it’s any good.” I told him I thought it was the best out there. He thanked me and said goodbye. But before I let him go, I asked him why on Earth he wanted to know. I mean, again, this is a guy who undoubtedly uses one of these types of phones. He said that he travels a lot now and wants a better way to connect with his girlfriend on the road. I asked him, “why the iPhone?” His answer? The commercial. Watching Apple’s iPhone 4 FaceTime commercial again, it reminds me of something: Mad Men. The television show is starting its fourth season in a couple of weeks, but the commercial takes me back to the end of season one — an episode called “The Wheel.” I’ve actually talked about this episode before because it contains a scene that is perhaps the best in the entire series. In it, ad man Don Draper gives a presentation to Kodak showing why Sterling Cooper should be handling the account for their new picture projector. The pitch (which you can see here, but sadly I can’t embed) starts out with two execs from Kodak acknowledging that creating an ad around this “wheel” is hard because “wheels aren’t really seen as exciting technology, even though they are the original.” Draper fires back, “Technology is a glittering lure. But there’s the rare occasion when the public can be engaged on a level beyond flash. If they have a sentimental bond with the product.“ In the iPhone 4 FaceTime commercial, that’s exactly what Apple is playing up. As we’re all well aware, video chat, even on phones, is nothing new. Sure, Apple has simplified it, but they’re not really showcasing that here. Instead they’re going right for the heart strings. They’re doing something rather incredible. They’re conveying how you’ll feel if you use the product, by making you feel alongside those in the commercial. They’re creating this sentimental bond.
Draper continues, talking about an old copyrighter he used to work with, Teddy. “He also talked about a deeper bond with the product. Nostalgia. It’s delicate. But potent.” Draper fires up the projector. “Teddy told me that in Greek, Nostalgia literally means ‘the pain from an old wound.’ It’s a twinge in your heart far more powerful than memory alone.” Again, that’s this FaceTime commercial. It’s not old pictures, but it’s more powerful. It’s loved ones that you haven’t seen in a while, that you’re apart from, right there in front of you, live. ”It takes us to a place where we ache to go again,” as Draper puts it. ”It lets us travel the way a child travels. Round and around and back home again. To a place where we know we’re loved.“ And Apple goes a step further. Rather than just playing up the family bond which they do with the baby crawling on the bed, the mother with the baby, and the grandparents with the graduating grandchild, Apple shows a pregnant wife getting an ultrasound and her husband in the military, presumably overseas, watching. When the wife hits the button to flip the camera and show the unborn baby on the monitor, they cut to a shot of the husband and his face drops as if he’s about to cry. It’s extremely powerful stuff. Then Apple kicks it up another notch. They show a girlfriend waving to a boyfriend through FaceTime just as any other couple might. Only then they reveal that the boyfriend is deaf. But thanks to the video functionality, the two can sign with one another. The commercial wraps with them each looking at the phone in awe after they sign their goodbyes, as if they’ve just done something unbelievable. Something extremely important to them. And they have. It’s delicate. But potent. It shouldn’t be surprising that Apple hired Hollywood director Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Revolutionary Road) to direct this commercial. Levels of sentiment that people often feel while watching movies rarely, if ever, travel over to advertising. But they have in this FaceTime commercial, just as they have in Draper’s Kodak presentation. It’s as if the Apple commercial borrowed a page out of the playbook that Draper was talking about in that episode. Apple, of course, has a history of great advertising campaigns. From the ’1984′ Super Bowl commercial (directed by another Hollywood guy, Ridley Scott), to the Think Different campaign, to the Get a Mac spots, each was effective at conveying different things about the brand. But this latest commercial is the first (to my knowledge) that really aims to connect with people on a deep emotional level. And it’s going to help Apple sell a massive amount of iPhone 4s.To people like my friend.
     
Source: TechCrunch | 10 Jul 2010 | 2:08 pm FCC Dodges Pointed Questions On US Broadband PlanArs covers a series of questions that US senators put to the FCC chairman following up on his appearance before the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee in April. The headline question was a blunt one asked by octogenarian Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI): "The National Broadband Plan (NBP) proposes a goal of having 100 million homes subscribed at 100Mbps by 2020," he wrote, "while the leading nations already have 100Mbps fiber-based services at costs of $30 to $40 per month and beginning rollout of 1Gbps residential services, which the FCC suggests is required only for a single anchor institution in each community by 2020. This appears to suggest that the US should accept a 10- to 12-year lag behind the leading nations. What is the FCC's rationale for a vision that appears to be firmly rooted in the second tier of countries?" In the FCC's formal response (PDF), Chairman Genachowski doesn't rise to the "second tier" bait, and in fact talks about "ensuring that America remains a broadband world leader," as if he believes we currently are. A blogger over at Balloon Juice is a little more forthright on the "What is the FCC's rationale" question: "The rationale is that this is the best they can do with a legislative branch in the pocket of telecom providers."
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Source: Slashdot | 10 Jul 2010 | 1:55 pm Green Tech Lights the Way In HaitiCash-strapped, earthquake-ravaged Haiti is an ideal place to put renewable energy to the test. One American social entrepreneur is making it happen.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 10 Jul 2010 | 1:40 pm YouTube to give away $5 million to its top vloggersSection: Web, Online Music/Video, Google
And right about now is when you wished you had started your own web show. Read [The LA Times] Full Story » | Written by Hunter Clarke for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 10 Jul 2010 | 1:20 pm DevHub Now Turns Building A Website Into A Game
DevHub cofounder Mark Michael says that a lot of users of the old version of DevHub would create their sites and only take advantage of the most basic features, leaving skeleton websites in their wake (a phenomenon that is doubtless seen on other website creators). To help remedy this, the new DevHub walks you through creating your site step by step, rewarding you for completing actions with points that can be used to further improve your site. When you first sign up you’re asked to choose from four tracks: blog, ‘WebHub’ (which is a portal with your social media profiles), a small business site, and a product promotion site (Michael says more tracks are on the way). After choosing a track, the site will show a wizard pointing out its main features. Finally, once you’re in the builder, you’ll be prompted to complete tasks like adding a profile photo, connecting your Facebook account, and blogging something. Completing these actions allows you to accrue virtual points, which can in turn be used to further improve your site. Additional features that can be purchased in the DevHub marketplace include new templates, the ability to embed widgets, and a link roll. Michael says that earning these doesn’t actually take very long (he wagers you could earn them in around twenty minutes of fixing up your site) — the goal is to get people to fill everything out and build a full-fledged website, and this provides a way to handhold them through the process. Alternatively, users can purchase these features without earning them for pretty steep amounts of real money. Obviously there’s a ton of competition in the site creation space, but this seems like a pretty good way to get users engaged to the point that they’ll keep coming back to DevHub after signing up. Along with the main site, DevHub also white-labels its platform. The company has raised around $1.5 million dollars and has around fifteen employees.
Information provided by CrunchBase      
Source: TechCrunch | 10 Jul 2010 | 1:01 pm European probe Rosetta successfully flies by asteroid: ESAThe European spacecraft Rosetta performed a fly-by of a massive asteroid on Saturday, the European Space Agency said, taking images that could one day help Earth defend itself from...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 10 Jul 2010 | 12:38 pm Google Chrome Extension Steals Login DetailsAn anonymous reader sends word of a proof-of-concept Google Chrome browser extension that steals users' login details. The developer, Andreas Grech, says that he is trying to raise awareness about security among end users, and therefore chose Chrome as a test-bed because of its reputation as the safest browser. Grech says he does not doubt that Chrome is a safe browser, but the point is that such an extension could be written for any of them. Grech says he has not uploaded his extension to the Google Chrome repository or anywhere else; but he has published enough details to allow others to reproduce the technique easily.
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Source: Slashdot | 10 Jul 2010 | 12:34 pm iChatr: Chatroulette For the iPhone
     
Source: TechCrunch | 10 Jul 2010 | 12:26 pm iChatr: Chatroulette for the iPhone
Give it a try right now before it becomes a haven for masticators.
Source: CrunchGear | 10 Jul 2010 | 12:24 pm Russian Subs: The Answer to BP’s prayers?Russian scientists believe their deep-diving Mir submarines could cap the leaking BP oil rig.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 10 Jul 2010 | 11:30 am YouTube Adds 'Leanback,' Support For 4K Videoteh31337one writes with news that YouTube has announced support for 4K video, which runs at a resolution of 4096 x 3072. From their blog: "To give some perspective on the size of 4K, the ideal screen size for a 4K video is 25 feet; IMAX movies are projected through two 2k resolution projectors. ... Because 4K represents the highest quality of video available, there are a few limitations that you should be aware of. First off, video cameras that shoot in 4K aren't cheap, and projectors that show videos in 4K are typically the size of a small refrigerator. And, as we mentioned, watching these videos on YouTube will require super-fast broadband." They provided a small playlist of videos shot in 4K. This announcement comes a few days after YouTube debuted "Leanback," a service that attempts to find and serve videos you'll like based on past viewing habits, as well as offering a simplified method of browsing.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 10 Jul 2010 | 11:20 am iPhone 4 jailbroken, but not for you A bit of bittersweet news for all you crazy cats and kittens. GeoHot has jailbroken the iPhone 4 but, as he says in his comments, don't ask him for it. He won't give it to you.
What does this mean? It means you'll eventually be able to pop homebrew software on the phone but it doesn't mean you'll be able to unlock it - yet. That's next. As Tom Petty wrote, "Waayyaaaayting is the hardest part."
Source: CrunchGear | 10 Jul 2010 | 11:16 am iPhone 4 jailbroken, but not for you
A bit of bittersweet news for all you crazy cats and kittens. GeoHot has jailbroken the iPhone 4 but, as he says in his comments, don’t ask him for it. He won’t give it to you. What does this mean? It means you’ll eventually be able to pop homebrew software on the phone but it doesn’t mean you’ll be able to unlock it – yet. That’s next. As Tom Petty wrote, “Waayyaaaayting is the hardest part.”
Source: MobileCrunch | 10 Jul 2010 | 11:16 am Sea Otters, the Cutest Way to Fight Global WarmingApart from being totally adorable, sea otters may account for $700 million worth of carbon sequestration.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 10 Jul 2010 | 11:15 am European Space Agency looking closely at asteroidThe European Space Agency took the closest look yet Saturday at asteroid Lutetia in an extraordinary quest some 280 million miles in outer space between Mars and Jupiter. The...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 10 Jul 2010 | 11:13 am World Cup search trends: the final countdownIn the past two weeks of World Cup action, 16 teams have been narrowed down to just two—Spain and the Netherlands—who will face off in the World Cup final tomorrow. For both countries, there are high stakes: not only are the two sides contending for the title of best football team in the world, but this will be the first-ever Cup win for either team and Spain is in the finals for the first time. We took another look at the search data to see what people have been interested in during the round of 16, quarterfinals and semifinals.Some matches, of course, were more interesting to people than others—whether they were eagerly anticipated or just more nail-biting during play. Brazil, chosen as the champion in many an office pool, lost to the Netherlands in a quarterfinal upset. Perhaps it’s indicative of people’s disappointment in that match that Felipe Melo, who gave up an own goal and then was shown a red card in the 73rd minute with his country down 2-1, was more searched-for than Robinho, who made Brazil’s one goal in the match. Another favored South American team, Argentina, also lost in the quarterfinals, to Germany. It’s interesting to note that searches for that team’s two biggest names, Lionel Messi and coach Diego Maradona, have spiked in popularity with each match—and the player was usually more interesting to people than the coach. But over time—and after Messi’s skills failed to carry his team to the semis—Maradona overtook Messi in search volume. Clearly, his fate as Argentina coach in the future is more up for debate than Messi’s career (after all, the latter has a comfy year-round spot on FC Barcelona). Controversy continued to be a major driver of search traffic. On June 27, Argentina’s first goal in their victorious match against Mexico, a Carlos Tévez header, was widely considered offsides (and therefore should have been disallowed). That same day, Germany beat England 4-1, although many say it should have been 4-2 thanks to a Frank Lampard goal that just barely made it into the net but wasn’t counted. Both of these calls brought the issue of instant replay to the forefront in an already controversial tournament. Perhaps the most surprisingly exciting game was the quarterfinal match between Uruguay and Ghana. Ghana had several shots on goal in the last minutes of extra time, with the game tied 1-1. Uruguay’s Luis Suárez saved his team from a near-certain loss with a handball that earned him a red card (and increased search traffic). Uruguay went on to win in penalty kicks, and became the only South American country to make the semifinals. Searches for [penalty kick] were at their highest on the day of this game—they had also spiked on June 26, when USA’s Landon Donovan scored on a penalty kick against Ghana, and on June 29, the day of another quarterfinal match (between Japan and Paraguay) that also ended in penalty kicks. Many fans, eager for semifinal predictions, turned to an unlikely source: a “psychic” octopus in a German zoo. Paul the octopus had successfully predicted the winner of each of his home country’s matches by selecting a tasty mussel from either side of a box marked by both teams’ flags. The day before Germany faced Spain in the semifinals, he chose the Spanish mussel—and searches for [octopus] skyrocketed. (Incidentally, he has picked Spain to win against the Netherlands on Sunday.) Searches were also high for Carles Puyol, the Spanish defender whose header won the match against Germany. Historically, he’s been one of the least searched-for Spaniards—and he continues to be behind stars like David Villa and Fernando Torres—but search volume for him in July is already more than five times as high as in June. Villa still dominates search traffic amongst the Spanish players, and no wonder: he’s scored five of his team’s seven goals in the tournament and is a contender for the Golden Boot. Searches for Dutch players are a bit more distributed than for Spanish ones. Arjen Robben, who started the tournament in the spotlight in part due to injury, still has the most search volume overall, but Wesley Sneijder has caught up as the tournament’s gone on. Searches for him were higher than for Robben on June 19, when he scored his first goal in the tournament against Japan, and on July 2, when he scored both goals in the match against favored Brazil. Now Sneijder, like Villa, has five goals in six matches and is a front-runner for the Golden Boot. Clearly he’s been a surprise factor in this World Cup for many, including searchers! For me—well, I’ve got cava in my fridge and my fingers are crossed for Paul’s prediction to come true. But whomever you’re rooting for, have fun watching La Furia Roja and the Oranje fight for the Cup on Sunday! Posted by Emily Wood, Editor, Google blog team    
 Source: The Official Google Blog | 10 Jul 2010 | 11:13 am Cellphone gaming on the rise, according to studyFROM GAMERTELL - A study by the Pew Research Center said a growing number of Americans are getting into the gaming habit on their mobile devices. Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 10 Jul 2010 | 11:00 am Online Chess With Physical Pieces On a ChessboardD4C5CE writes "A chess-playing German tinkerer has contrived (and made a video of) an amazing contraption that plugs real chess pieces into the freechess.org server using a 20W LED projector and an old webcam to read moves on a projected chessboard."
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Source: Slashdot | 10 Jul 2010 | 9:59 am Almost half of all Windows 7 installations are 64-bitSection: Computers, Software / Applications  This has really come as a surprise to me. But on the same note, I don’t think most users know the difference between 64 and 32-bit operating systems. Recent figures published by Microsoft show that forty-six percent of all Windows 7 installations are running the 64-bit operating system (as compared to Vista which only saw an eleven percent overall usage).
Bottom line: 64-bit operating systems are future proof. Those of you running the 64-bit version of Windows 7, give yourself a nice pat on the back. Tell us about your rig in the comments section; we’d love to hear what kind of hardware you’re running with. Via [ArsTechnica]
Full Story » | Written by Tarun Kunwar for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 10 Jul 2010 | 9:52 am Fusion Core Solution Now Available to First Responders to Better Analyze and Respond to Security Threats, Natural DisastersSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 10 Jul 2010 | 9:30 am Fusion Core Solution Now Available to First Responders to Better Analyze and Respond to Security Threats, Natural DisastersSAN DIEGO, July 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Today, at the Esri Homeland Security GIS Summit being held in San Diego July 10-13, Microsoft Corp. announced the broad availability of the Fusion Core Solution (FCS), a public safety and homeland security solution architecture jointly developed by Esri and Microsoft. The solution allows federal, state, local and tribal agencies to efficiently manage the intake, analysis, dissemination and archiving of information to more effectively identify and help prevent threats posed by organized crime, gangs, drug cartels and terrorists. The Fusion Core Solution leverages technologies within Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Esri's ArcGIS Server to provide enhanced intelligence and information-sharing capabilities. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20000822/MSFTLOGO) (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20000822/MSFTLOGO) "Fusion centers work with massive amounts of information, which can be difficult to organize, analyze and distill into meaningful and usable intelligence," said Joe Rozek, executive director of Homeland Security and Counterterrorism at Microsoft. "Without access to effective information management, fusion center managers and analysts often lose valuable time and effort determining what information is relevant to the current task." Recently, the first full-scale deployment of FCS took place in Salt Lake City at the Utah Statewide Information & Analysis Center (SIAC). Already FCS is at work enhancing Utah's security through collaborative intelligence, and eventually it will be available to over 180 local law enforcement agencies including police departments, sheriff's offices, state corrections and specialized task forces. SIAC is a public safety partnership designed to collect, analyze and disseminate intelligence, enhancing protection provided to Utah's citizens, communities and critical infrastructure. The impetus to build the SIAC stemmed from the state's need for a solution to help identify growing threats posed by organized crime, gangs, drug trafficking organizations and potential terrorists. "Previous attempts to work in such a collaborative way proved fruitless, as it involved an inefficient use of time and resources. Now we can better use existing assets and integrate with domain-specific applications, while improving business processes, compliance and communication," said David Carabin, former Intelligence Bureau Chief and Commander of the Utah Department of Public Safety. "This allows us to take more proactive action to prepare for and respond to crises and to counter potential threats and criminal activities." The state uses FCS's enterprise geographic information system (GIS) platform for the spatial analysis of suspicious activity reports, crime data and other criminal threat information. This has been shown to increase situational awareness and help expedite the dissemination of alerts, notifications and intelligence products to first responders. Through the tools available in SharePoint Server, analysts are also able to collaborate on generating and viewing intelligence reports, as well as risk assessments, from remote locations via the Internet. More information about the Fusion Core Solution is available at http://www.microsoft.com/fusion. About Esri Since 1969, Esri has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in GIS, Esri software is used in more than 300,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. Esri applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of Web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world's mapping and spatial analysis. Esri is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms. Visit us at www.esri.com/news. About Microsoft Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential. SOURCE Microsoft Corp.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 10 Jul 2010 | 9:30 am Rosetta probe passes space rock - BBC News
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 10 Jul 2010 | 9:29 am China Censors HIV/AIDS Awareness Documentaryeldavojohn writes "Amnesty International is reporting an unusual case of censorship in which Chinese police questioned HIV/AIDS workers in China and instructed them to cancel an airing of a documentary made by Aizhixing Institute of Health Education on the disease. The director of that NGO recently left China after constant police harassment. The canceled documentary was about Tian Xi, a patient who contracted HIV by blood transfusion at age 9."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 10 Jul 2010 | 8:41 am Total solar eclipse fans chase a moment in the sun - Los Angeles Times
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 10 Jul 2010 | 8:37 am Boom! Foursquare Crosses 2 Million Users
Over the past several months, Foursquare has had a number of impressive stats for a startup. Some of them involved SXSW, some involved overall check-ins numbers. And it seems to be growing faster than its main competitor, Gowalla. Of course, to expand upon this growth Foursquare has just raised $20 million in funding at a $95 million pre-money valuation, led Andreessen Horowitz with existing investors Union Square Ventures and O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures participating. The new funding is going to be used to hire additional staff, for product development and a new office space. And we know that Foursquare has some interesting ideas to incorporate gaming with check-ins. It’s important to note that other competitors have already crossed this mark. MyTown, another location-based network hit that number in May, Brightkite hit 2 million users in February. And, Loopt just passed 4 million users. Congrats to Travis E for being Foursquare’s 2 millionth member. Hat Tip to Finbarr. Information provided by CrunchBase      
Source: TechCrunch | 10 Jul 2010 | 8:20 am Entrepreneur: You’re No Steve Jobs, So Look Before You Leap
Most of the entrepreneurs I know fancy themselves to be like Jobs. They think they know—better than their customers—what the customers want, and what they need. Or they believe, as in the movie Field of Dreams, that if you “build it, they will come”. But it just doesn’t work this way in real life. The vast majority of technology startups fail because no one buys or uses their products. Strategy consultant Sramana Mitra calls this failure “Infant Entrepreneur Mortality”. She says that in the hundreds of companies she has mentored, lack of customer validation is by far the biggest cause of failure. Startup guru Eric Ries says that “validated learning” about customers is even more important than revenue for a nascent startup. Revenue, by itself, doesn’t build traction for a business; it is only when you have products that are tested and proven, that customers are ready to buy, and that you can sell and deliver profitably that you have the right ingredients for a successful business. How do you determine what customers will buy (or, if you’re building a free web technology, what it is that they will invest the time and effort to use)? Unfortunately, this isn’t a simple matter of asking. Your customers know what their problems are; they know what they like; and they know what they don’t need. They don’t know what you can uniquely develop for them that they will really want. This is what you need to figure out. Start by understanding what the customer’s problems are; use your experience and vision to conceive solutions; share this with potential customers in ways that they can understand; and learn. It is an iterative process. The best example I’ve seen of a startup looking before it leaps is Campfire Labs. The startup has spent 14 months prototyping products. It hasn’t even started developing its products yet. It could be that Campfire never gets off the ground, but if and when it does, it has a better than average chance of becoming a Zynga or Facebook. In the meantime, it has already lived at least three lives (but, fortunately, hasn’t had to die three painful deaths). Campfire was founded by former Yahoo! search technologist Naveen Koorakula and, former Youtube head of international strategy and product, Sakina Arsiwala. Their goal is to change the way people collaborate on line—to make it more meaningful and to better manage the many contexts in which they interact (work, home, school, etc.). Naveen and Sakina started by building a prototype of a personalized news/media site and sharing it with friends. But, while their techie friends would really get excited about algorithms, the others would scratch their heads trying to figure what the purpose of the product was. Next, they experimented with content sharing, interest graphs, and other technical concepts. They came with product ideas and asked their friends who were specialists in various disciplines to brainstorm with them. Once they thought they were on to something, they talked to random people on the street and workers in the mall next door. They went to university campuses and bought smoothies and sodas in order to get students to spend a few minutes with them. They carefully observed user reactions, read between the lines, and dug deeper to understand what the users were really saying. They incorporated what they learned into the next iteration. Last time I met the Naveen and Sakina, they were still trying out new ideas. But they seemed to be getting closer and closer to having a product that users were eager to use.
Editor’s note: Guest writer Vivek Wadhwa is an entrepreneur turned academic. He is a Visiting Scholar at the School of Information at UC-Berkeley, Senior Research Associate at Harvard Law School and Director of Research at the Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization at Duke University. You can follow him on Twitter at @vwadhwa and find his research at www.wadhwa.com.      
Source: TechCrunch | 10 Jul 2010 | 8:00 am ScienceBlogs.com Deals With Community Backlash Over PepsiCo ColumnHistory's Coming To writes "Several writers for the ScienceBlogs.com collective have publicly resigned from the site, and many more have voiced concerns over parent company Seed's decision to include a paid blog under the nutrition category from PepsiCo. The blog was to be written by PepsiCo food scientists, detailing their work. The UK's Guardian newspaper has picked up on the story, and includes a letter from Seed editor Adam Bly which covers the company's rationale." The ScienceBlogs Team later canceled the PepsiCo blog and apologized, instead leaving their users with a few tough questions: "How do we empower top scientists working in industry to lead science-minded positive change within their organizations? ... How do companies who seek genuine dialogue with this community engage?"
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 10 Jul 2010 | 7:23 am ESA preparing for close look at asteroidThe European Space Agency is preparing to take the closest look yet at asteroid Lutetia in an extraordinary quest some 280 million miles in outer space between Mars and Jupiter. ESA saysSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 10 Jul 2010 | 7:07 am Study: Cell Phone Towers Don’t Raise Cancer RiskA new study finds no link between childhood cancer and exposure to cell phone towers.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 10 Jul 2010 | 7:00 am Google To Resume Street View Next WeekAfter much controversy surrounding the collection of private information by Internet search giant Google, the company announced it will return its “Street View” cars back to the road next week, but all wireless scanning equipment has been removed. Google’s vice president of engineering, Brian McClendon stated in a blog post that the camera-equipped cars will begin operating again in four countries next week and in others later. “Having spoken to the relevant regulators, we have decided to start Street View driving in Ireland, Norway, South Africa and Sweden again starting next week,” he said in the posting. Google parked all Street View cars in May after disclosing that they had accidentally collected private data sent over unsecured Wi-Fi networks. The California-based search giant is facing investigations and lawsuits from a number of countries in connection with the illegally obtained data. Google maintains that the data collected from Wi-Fi networks from more than 30 countries was purely by accident. McClendon said the cars will no longer collect Wi-Fi information, “but will continue to collect photos and 3D imagery as they did before.” “We recognize that serious mistakes were made in the collection of Wi-Fi payload data, and we have worked to quickly rectify them,” he added. “However, we also believe that Street View is a great product for users, whether people want to find a hotel, check out a potential new home or find a restaurant,” McClendon said. Google has issued an apology in Australia over the collection of private data there by its cars and has pledged to work closely with the country’s officials in the future. “We want to reiterate to Australians that this was a mistake for which we are sincerely sorry,” Google senior vice president Alan Eustace said in a blog post. “Maintaining people’s trust is crucial to everything we do and we have to earn that trust every single day,” Eustace said. “We are acutely aware that we failed badly here.” Street View, launched in 2006, allows users of Google Maps to view panoramic street scenes and take virtual tours through city streets such as New York, Paris and Hong Kong. ---On the Net:Google Street ViewBlog PostImage Courtesy WikipediaSource: RedOrbit News - Technology | 10 Jul 2010 | 6:48 am June Was A Warm, Wet, And Windy MonthDepending on where you lived in the United States this June, chances are it was warm, wet and windy! The Associated Press (AP) reports that the South and the East saw very hot temperatures in June, with wetter than normal conditions across the northern section of the country. June may have also seen the second most number of tornadoes of any June on record, the National Climatic Data Center said on Friday. On a national average, June was warmer than normal, a pattern that has been continued through recent years as the greenhouse effect is taking its toll. Warming due to greenhouse gases is caused by industrial and other emissions increases. However, the global June climate data was not yet available. The climate center said the states of New Jersey, Delaware and North Carolina all had a record hot month for June, as high pressure directed hot, sunny weather over the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It was the second hottest June on record for the states of Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina, Florida and Louisiana, the agency added. In the contiguous 48 states only Washington and Oregon recorded a cooler than normal June, and both states were wetter than usual. Conditions in the Pacific Northwest were to blame for storms that pushed across the northern and central states, bringing wetter than normal conditions. Near-record rainfall was recorded in Iowa, Illinois and Nebraska. Michigan had its wettest June on record as well. The US Storm Prediction Center said there were 387 preliminary tornado reports during the month of June. If confirmed, it will be the second most active June on record. The most active June on record for tornadoes occurred in 1992. Minnesota had 67 preliminary tornado reports in June, smashing the previous record of 35 tornadoes during June 2005. ---On the Net:National Climatic Data CenterUS Storm Prediction CenterSource: RedOrbit News - Science | 10 Jul 2010 | 6:40 am Blizzard's Real ID Snafu: 4 Lessons - PC World
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 10 Jul 2010 | 6:36 am US Company Files Suits Against Tech GiantsUS patent-holding company NTP has filed a suit against Apple, Google, Microsoft, LG Electronics, HTC and Motorola, making accusations that the tech giants infringed on its email patents in mobile phones, according to a report by the AFP news agency. NTP filed the suits Thursday in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. It accused the companies of eight patent infringements it holds for wireless email. “Use of NTP’s intellectual property without a license is just plain unfair to NTP and its licensees,” NTP co-founder Donald Stout said in a statement. Legal action is essential to “ensure that those companies who are infringing NTP’s patents will be required to pay a licensing fee,” said Stout. Canada’s Research in Motion (RIM), maker of the BlackBerry, agreed to pay NTP 612 million dollars in 2006 to settle patent infringement claims and to license NTP-patented technology. NTP has also filed separate suits against mobile phone maker Palm and several other telecom companies for alleged patent infringement. Those claims, filed in 2006, are still ongoing. Nokia, not named in Thursday’s filing, has a licensing agreement with NTP. Patent lawsuits are a dime a dozen when it comes to technology companies. Apple is being sued by Nokia for patent infringement. Apple fired back with a countersuit against Nokia. HTC and Apple are also currently suing each other over patent infringements.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 10 Jul 2010 | 6:25 am Indonesia's Bumi says H1 coal output up 13 pctJAKARTA, July 10 (Reuters) - Bumi Resources , Indonesia's biggest coal miner, said on Saturday that it produced 30.2 million tonnes of coal in the first half of 2010, up 13 percent from the same period...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 10 Jul 2010 | 6:18 am Gulf Spill Could Be Contained By MondayThe oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico from a blown out BP well could be effectively contained as early as Monday, National Incident Commander Thad Allen said on Friday, day 81 of the disastrous leak.The operation to swap in a new cap could begin on Saturday, with the entire process taking "about three to four days,” he said.If the plan works, the new cap could capture all of the oil spilling into the Gulf, siphoning it up to container vessels on the surface. However, the days-long process of swapping containment devices could result in a temporary increase of up to 15,000 barrels of oil per day spilling into the sea."There would be a multi-day period there when we're putting the containment cap on where there would be some exposure of hydrocarbons going into the environment," Allen said.The operation is the latest attempt to contain the oil leak triggered by the April 20 explosion aboard the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon oilrig. The resulting spill has endangered fragile coastlines and wildlife throughout the Gulf Coast.Estimates of the spill based on analyses of a live video feed of the leak range from 35,000 to 60,000 barrels a day.Allen said the new cap, along with a connection to another processing ship known as the Helix Producer, could increase the amount of captured oil by more than 300 percent, to 60,000 to 80,000 barrels a day.Bringing the Helix online may "mitigate the gap" in switching containment caps, which would prevent the full amount of oil from leaking into the sea, he said.President Obama has pressed for the new containment device because its superior seal is expected to capture the entire leak, and it is better able to withstand strong storms and hurricanes.Cleanup and containment efforts have already been hindered by bad weather from Hurricane Alex, and with an active storm season predicted this year, officials are developing contingency plans for future turbulent weather.The new containment system includes "quick-disconnect couplings" that will allow container ships to shut down operations and rapidly exit the area should weather conditions deteriorate, Allen said.An estimated two to four million barrels of oil have leaked into the Gulf since the spill began. A permanent solution is not expected until one of two relief wells is completed, currently planned for mid-August. However, although drilling to date is proceeding ahead of schedule, officials have warned that the final part of the process is the slowest and most challenging.Allen said the new containment cap may help shut down the leak with the relief well, and would also allow for an accurate measure of the amount of crude spilling into the Gulf waters."Once the cap is on and we've completely sealed the wellhead, we will have internal pressure data that will actually tell us for the first time what the flow is," Allen explained.Oil has already reached the coastlines of all five Gulf states – Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida, causing fishing ground closures and threatening many coastal communities with financial devastation.In the aftermath of the spill, President Obama had ordered a six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling. But a federal court overturned the order last month in a ruling upheld by an appeals court on Thursday.In a 2-1 ruling, the appeals court said the government’s motion was denied because the administration failed to demonstrate "a likelihood of irreparable injury if the stay is not granted.”The government also "made no showing that there is any likelihood that drilling activities will be resumed pending appeal,” a panel of appeals court judges said.However, future legal uncertainties have kept oil firms from resuming their drilling. The concerns may be well founded, as U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has said he will soon issue a new order to prohibit deepwater drilling despite the court ruling.Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, a Republican who had cautioned that a drilling freeze could cost his state 20,000 jobs, praised the court's decision."We absolutely want drilling to be done safely and do not want another spill or one more drop of oil on our coast or in our water, but thousands of Louisianans should not have to lose their jobs because the federal government can't adequately do its job of ensuring drilling is done safely," he said.---Image Caption: Coast Guard Seaman Michael Paluh scans the site of the Deepwater Horizon Response at dawn as the Coast Guard Cutter Resolute patrols nearby July 8, 2010. The Resolute, home-ported in St.Petersburg, Fla., is serving as a search and rescue guard to help support and protect people and ships involved in Deepwater Horizon response efforts to stop the leak and recover oil on the water. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Matthew Belson. ---On the Net:BPGovernment Response WebsiteSource: RedOrbit News - Science | 10 Jul 2010 | 6:15 am Reddit Asks Users For Money To Hire People Because “Revenue Isn’t Great”
In a slightly odd blog post published Friday night, Condé Nast-owned news recommendation service reddit calls for help. The company would love to hire engineers to complement the current technical team, which has been struggling with site sluggishness and outages lately and would also like to add some new features to reddit at some point. However, they write, although the company is owned by a mega media corp with billions of dollars in revenue, there’s isn’t any budget to hire people and add more resources. Its own revenues are too weak, they add, in a – refreshingly – brutally honest way.
According to the company, reddit traffic has now grown to roughly 280 million pageviews per month, and a team of merely four engineers to sustain the site and add new features is simply not cutting it any longer. So the team turns to what is arguably its most powerful asset: its very own user base. Reddit is hoping that its users and fans will donate the money needed to hire more people and buy more servers, so they don’t have to revert to other tactics like intrusive and obnoxious advertising. But rather than call it what it is – donations – the company is asking people to subscribe to reddit gold and pay as much as they want for it. What does one get for subscribing to reddit? Nothing yet, apart from the team’s “undying gratitude and an optional trophy on your userpage”, but should the program become successful enough, reddit hopes to give subscribers better incentives in the coming months. Evidently, there’s a lot of debate on reddit about the program, the blog post, and a ton of other topics. To join the conversation or learn how the community is responding to the pledge drive, go here and check out the comments (2837 at the time of publication). Or tell us what you think of all this hereunder, of course. Information provided by CrunchBase      
Source: TechCrunch | 10 Jul 2010 | 6:08 am Apple Targets Searchers For ‘Dell Streak’, ‘HP Slate’ With Google Ads For The iPad
In a move that suggests a tad of insecurity on Apple’s behalf, the iPad maker is apparently buying Google AdWords ads targeting potential buyers of the Dell Streak, the Android-powered micro-tablet or netpad or whatever it is people cooler than me call the device. The screenshot above was taken after I did a search for ‘Dell Streak’ on Google.co.uk (thanks for the tip, Tom from Rudefox). As you can see, Cupertino is trying to capture the attention of Dell Streak searchers by buying text ads on Google, in an attempt to get them to click through to the iPad product page instead of moving on with said search. Update: same deal for ‘HP Slate’
We can debate the quality of the text ad copy that’s supposed to lure people away – “A revolutionary Multi-Touch device with nearly 200,000 apps.” – as it, for reasons unknown, lacks the bulletproof marketing term ‘magical’. But, rather, let’s debate whether companies buying ads against keywords that contain the names of their competitors or their products is an effective, elegant and/or ethical means of promoting one’s wares on the Web. I’ll kick things off: I think it makes perfect sense, although Apple is about the last company I’d expect to see revert to these tactics. Your take?      
Source: TechCrunch | 10 Jul 2010 | 5:09 am My Fantasy Foursquare Life
Ok, I didn’t really visit any of those places last week. I faked it. If someone you’ve friended on Foursquare checks in somewhere in the world, you can just click the location and check in there yourself. For some reason I really like fake checkins. In the past I’ve checked into Victoria’s Secret in Palo Alto (usually when I was actually at PF Chang’s. That definitely got some interesting comments. One of my favorite things is to check into a company headquarters when they’re having a board meeting. Or at a VC right before they invest in Foursquare. That always freaks them out. I’m never much of a fan of self analysis, but I have pondered why I like fake checkins so much. I like doing it for a few reasons. Part of it is the funny comments I get back from people who see the checkins on Twitter or Facebook, like a “WTF?” to a checkin at a plastic surgery center in Menlo park a couple of weeks ago. But mostly it’s just about having fun. I’m living a parallel fantasy Foursquare Life. Slow day at the office, with the heat and lack of air conditioning getting me down? No problem! Zap, I’m in Waikiki with a rum drink in my hand, hanging out with my friend Christine Lu. One of my friends (Kevin Marks) is at NASA? Jealous! I’m there too! See! Yes it’s lame. I understand this. But it makes some people smile. And in a way it’s kind of like taking a very short break from real life and having a mini vacation. Remember Total Recall where you could go on a cheap vacation and instead of going they’d just embed memories of it into your mind? It’s exactly like that. Just like my robot experience earlier this week is exactly like the movie Avatar. Yes, not really. I hope Foursquare never fully turns off the cheat feature in their service. I’m usually not that interested in checking in where I actually am. But I’ll probably be a lifelong user if I can keep up the #fantasyfoursquarelife. I just need even more interesting friends who are willing to do all the legwork and actually visit these places physically. Enthusiastically written from the Soho House in Berlin. Information provided by CrunchBase      
Source: TechCrunch | 10 Jul 2010 | 4:28 am Conversation with a Univac Boing Boing readers Scott Lloyd and his wife found this old printout of an interactive session with a Univac and sent it along. Ah, memories!
Conversation With a Univac, courtesy of Scott Lloyd
(Thanks, Scott!) Iranian activists release free Persian Little BrotherA group of Iranian activists abroad and in Iran have produced a professional translation of my novel Little Brother and have released it online with the hope that it will be of interest to Iran's online activists. I've written an introduction to the edition on online activism and dissidence. It was a volunteer-led project, but they paid the translator (whose identity is a not publicly disclosed at this time), and are asking for donations to help defray the cost.Little Brother Persian Edition version 1.0 Released!  Source: Boing Boing | 10 Jul 2010 | 4:19 am Electronic Cigarette Retailer Sells at Wholesale Prices to the PublicSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 10 Jul 2010 | 4:18 am Brazil's copyright law forbids using DRM to block fair useA UN treaty called the WIPO Copyright Treaty requires countries to pass laws protecting "software locks" (also called DRM or TPM). Countries around the world have adopted the treaty in different ways: in the US, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act prohibits all circumvention of software locks, even when they don't protect copyright (for example, it would be illegal to for me to break the DRM on a Kindle to access my own novels, were they sold with Kindle DRM).Brazil has just created the best-ever implementation of WCT. In Brazil's version of the law, you can break DRM without breaking the law, provided you're not also committing a copyright violation. And what's more, any rightsholder who adds a DRM that restricts things that are allowed by Brazilian copyright laws ("fair dealing" or "fair use") faces a fine. It's a fine and balanced approach to copyright law: your software locks have the power of law where they act to uphold the law. When they take away rights the law gives, they are themselves illegal. §1º. The same sanction applies, without prejudice to other sanctions set forth by law, to whom, through whatever means:Brazil's Approach on Anti-Circumvention: Penalties For Hindering Fair Dealing
Source: Boing Boing | 10 Jul 2010 | 4:15 am UPDATE 1-Petronas says Newfield pipeline source of oil sheenKUALA LUMPUR, July 10 (Reuters) - A production pipeline belonging to the Malaysian unit of independent energy firm Newfield Exploration Co was the source of an oil sheen spotted earlier off the country's...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 10 Jul 2010 | 3:14 am
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Google has quietly (secretly, one might say) invested somewhere between $100 million and $200 million in social gaming behemoth 
If you’re looking to maximize your dollars value, check out this deal from US Cellular. The company has added GPS navigation from industry leader TeleNav to their $30 smartphone data plan bundle. Unlike offers from Verizon and AT&T, you’ll not be paying an extra $9.99 per month for the luxury of GPS navigation service.
The other day I was talking to an old friend. Not only is this friend outside the tech sphere, he’s just about as opposite of tech savvy as a person can be. He’s basically a luddite. In fact, I was surprised he was even IMing with me, he’s so seldom online. But I was more surprised by what he asked me. “What do you think of the new iPhone?“
YouTube has accomplished an amazing feat of logic. Since all of their users are investing so much time to drive users to their site, YouTube has decided to invest a little bit in them. YouTube have gathered $5 million in grants to distribute to their top vloggers. Although this is one awesome appreciation gift YouTube views it a bit differently. YouTube’s manager of partner development, George Strompolos, says,“We think this is an important investment to make in the future of our original content partners.” In other words, we want our top content creators to stick with Youtube, so we are giving them a gift.
Oh, Internet, is there anything you can’t do? iChatr, a new app for the iPhone, is essentially Chatroulette for the iPhone. It’s pretty barren right now – I saw the same people once or twice – but the quality is pretty good and if you have a 
It appears that Foursquare has just crossed the 2 million users mark this morning. The location based social network has been growing fast, 
I doubt that Steve Jobs has ever asked Apple customers what type of products they want, or that he cares about what they need. Jobs believed that if he developed a mobile phone that plays music and surfs the web, he could create both the want and need. He was right: his iPhone changed the industry and started a mini technology revolution. 
Getting back to Steve Jobs. Does he really have some secret powers or a divine vision that lets him build one earth-shattering technology after another? I don’t think so. My guess is that in his secret lab, Jobs has teams developing and testing hundreds of ideas. He just implements the best of them. Jobs is not afraid of abandoning failures, and when something does click, he rules like a tyrant and makes it happen. Eric Ries agrees with me and 
I’ve had a very full schedule recently. Last Sunday I was in Amsterdam. On Monday I was “on a boat” off the coast of Texas and then zipped over to Dubai to check out the Ritz-Carlton hotel. By Wednesday I was in New York visiting the Foursquare offices. I spent the rest of the week in Waikiki, at NASA, in Monaco and, finally, at Pixar’s studios in California. I really did visit all of these places – I can prove it because I 
We are pleased to announce that the first version of the Persian edition of "Little Brother" by Cory Doctorow is available for download now.