5 tech pranks for April Fool's

5 tech pranks for April Fool's
USA TODAY
By Alice Truong, Special for USA TODAY In the spirit of having a little fun, here are five ways to prank your friends on April Fool's Day. The Ninja Remote Jammer helps you take over the TV without notice. The Ninja Remote Jammer helps you take over ...

USA TODAY

Poll: Tech industry more crucial to California than entertainment
Los Angeles Times
More than 65% of those surveyed in the latest USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll said thetechnology industry was more important to the state's economy than entertainment, perhaps showing that SoCal's famous vixens and heartthrobs are losing the ...

RIM's Rocky Road: Tech Weekly
TheStreet.com
By Chris Ciaccia 03/31/12 - 09:30 AM EDT NEW YORK (TheStreet) - Earnings results from Research In Motion(RIMM), Red Hat(RHT) and Best Buy(BBY) helped shape the week in technology, to mixed results. RIM, the embattled Canadian handset maker, ...

TheStreet.com

Searching for speech technology's holy grail
USA TODAY
Somehow, voice recognition — despite some of technology's most awesome achievements (tablets! the remote control!) — remains an anathema. We still can't talk to computers like Captain Picard on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Turns out building voice ...


USA TODAY

Tech Ticker: HuffPo bloggers lose suit, Siri may expand to Macs
San Jose Mercury News
The Huffington Post doesn't have to pay bloggers for providing content for its website in part because they knew from the start they wouldn't be paid and could have taken their work elsewhere, a federal judge ruled Friday. US District Judge John Koeltl ...

Is Technology A Zero-Sum Game?
TechCrunch
In last week's Get Rich or Die Trying article, I mentioned that “tech is a zero-sum, winner takes all game”. A reader objected, arguing: “I think that may be an inappropriate use of the term 'zero-sum' – one company's increase in profits (or revenue) ...


TechCrunch

Westerners consumed by tech toys wallow in misplaced guilt
Sydney Morning Herald
Technology writers around the world had called for a boycott of Apple products. Yet Foxconn has better working conditions than comparable workplaces in China. Apple conducts more inspections and audits of its supplier than any other electronics company ...


Sydney Morning Herald

1 Revolutionary Tech Stock We Like Right Now
DailyFinance
In this segment, the guys discuss a technology company revolutionizing the concept of printing and talk about why they believe the stock is worth taking a look at. Apple is just one company in the next generation of multibillion-dollar companies riding ...

The week in tech: 5 must know things
USA TODAY
Here are the five things from this week that you absolutely must know about tech. Explorer James Cameron emerges from the Deepsea Challenger submersible after his successful solo dive to the Mariana Trench. Explorer James Cameron emerges from the ...


USA TODAY

TweetDeck back up after bug
CNNMoney
By Laurie Segall @CNNMoneyTech March 31, 2012: 3:04 PM ET NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Twitter's popular TweetDeck client was back up Saturday after it was temporarily taken offline over a glitch that allowed some users to access other users' accounts.

The key to Facebook's success
Washington Post
Identity is important to everyone, but many startups get it wrong. Getting identity right has been one of the main keys to Facebook's success. As Facebook gets ready for its monster IPO, which will likely value the company at more than $100 billion, ...

Apple Deadlocks With Nokia on Standard for Shrunken SIM Card
Washington Post
March 30 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc. and Nokia Oyj's proposals for smaller SIM cards face a second round of debate after talks stalled following the Finnish mobile-phone company's threat to withhold its patents. A two-day meeting in Sophia Antipolis, ...

Google's April Fools' Day Prank: 8-Bit Google Maps
Mashable
Old school flashback! Google couldn't wait for April Fools' Day to prank the web with its 8-bit version of Google Maps, temporarily replacing its standard version. Shortly after the “upgraded” Google Maps went live, Reddit users posted world landmarks ...

Leader of Disputed Faster-Than-Light Neutrino Experiment Resigns
PC Magazine
By Damon Poeter The leader of the research team that shocked the scientific world last year with findings that seemed to show that neutrinos can travel faster than light quit his post this week. After further experiments cast grave doubts on the ...

Why Steve Jobs Can Rest Easy
DailyFinance
By Tim Beyers, The Motley Fool If you've read Walter Isaacson's biography of Apple (NAS: AAPL) co-founder Steve Jobs, you know he had a profound respect for current CEO Tim Cook. You also know that he never considered Cook a "product person.

Blind man tests self-driving car
msnbc.com
A legally blind man takes Google's self-driving car for a spin earlier this week. The tech giant claims the car has been driven over 200,00 miles without a safety incident occurring. >>> have you heard about google's self-driving cars? think it is ...

See all stories on this topic »Is Google Better Off Killing Android?
DailyFinance
By Evan Niu (TMFNewCow), The Motley Fool With every quarter that goes by, the theme in the mobile landscape continues to be Apple (NAS: AAPL) iOS and Google (NAS: GOOG) Android gobbling up market share at the expense of just about everyone else.

News of the world in photos: Earth Hour
Seattle Post Intelligencer
A child lights a candle during a ceremony to mark Earth Hour at Palace Square in St.Petersburg, Russia. Earth Hour takes place worldwide at 8.30 pm local times and is a global call to turn off lights for 60 minutes in a bid to highlight the global ...

NASA Chief Salutes 'Bold Venture' to Raise Sunken Apollo 11 Engines
Space.com
by Robert Z. Pearlman, collectSPACE.com Editor NASA's chief hopes that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has "all the luck in the world" recovering one or more of the engines that launched the first manned moon landing mission from where the dot-com billionaire ...

A Pasco County beekeeper knows why bees are dying and colonies are collapsing
Tampabay.com
By Dan DeWitt, Times Columnist A worker in David Hackenberg's crew pumped smoke from hand-held bellows around stacks of bee boxes in a pasture near Dade City on Thursday evening — a bee-calming trick used for centuries. Hackenberg, 63, in case you ...


Tampabay.com

April skywatch: Mars shines brightly; Lyrid meteor shower
Arizona Republic
by John Stanley - Mar. 30, 2012 12:56 PM Venus is the most obvious, shining brilliantly in the west after sunset. Jupiter, bright but not nearly as bright as Venus, hangs well below Earth's closest planetary neighbor.

IDC Predicts Smartphones and Tablets to Reach 1.84 Billion Shipped Units by 2016
Daily Disruption
By Duane Barnhart | @dailydisrupt | March 31st, 2012 The universe of smart connected devices, including PCs, media tablets, and smartphones, saw shipments of more than 916 million units and revenues surpassing $489 billion dollars in 2011, according to ...

Survey Reveals American's Love Their Apple's – Apple Products Now in Half of ...
Daily Disruption
By Bill Klump | @TheKlumper | March 31st, 2012 A study earlier in the week as part of CNBC's All-America Economic survey revealed that half of all US households now own at least one Apple product. That's more than 55 million homes with at least one ...

Honda recalls CR-V, Pilot for low-beam headlight failures
The Detroit News
By David Shepardson The 2002 Honda CR-V is one of the models involved in the recall. This is the third recall since 2004 for the headlight problem. (Honda) Honda Motor Co. is recalling 554000 CR-V and Pilot SUVs after federal safety officials raised ...

Case Based in China Puts a Face on Persistent Hacking
New York Times
SAN FRANCISCO — A breach of computers belonging to companies in Japan and India and to Tibetan activists has been linked to a former graduate student at a Chinese university — putting a face on the persistent espionage by Chinese hackers against ...

Google Heightens Rivalry With iPad
Wall Street Journal
By AMIR EFRATI Google Inc., undaunted by a short-lived attempt to market and sell smartphones on its own, is now trying the approach with tablet computers in a quest to capture market share from Apple Inc.'s iPad. The Internet search company will sell ...


Wall Street Journal

No sign of Saturday hacker attack on Internet
Daily Caller
Monitors display the hacked Greek ministry of justice website on February 3, 2012. Online hackers group Anonymous attacked the Greek justice ministry website in criticism of the country's tough fiscal reforms and its decision to join a controversial ...


Daily Caller

Analyzing the physics of 'Angry Birds Space'
The Verge
By Adi Robertson on March 31, 2012 03:32 pm 0Comments We've had some time to play with Angry Birds Space, but even our hands-on didn't go into how exactly the physics of space differ from the birds' natural terrestrial environment.

Expedia adds to Google's EU antitrust woes, decision expected after Easter
Engadget
By James Trew posted Mar 31st 2012 1:02PM Google's position as the dominant search engine doesn't come without a price. Smaller search sites have already tapped on the EU Commission's door to register their complaints about how they are ranked, ...

The Next PlayStation is Called Orbis, Sources Say. Here are the Details.
Kotaku
While the official reveal of Sony's next home console could still be months away, if not longer, Kotaku has today learned some important details concerning the PlayStation 3's successor. For one, the console's name—or at least its codename/working ...

Study: Conservatives' Trust of Science Hits All Time Low
U.S. News & World Report
A sociologist at UNC-Chapel Hill says more people are moving to a conservative "anti-intellectual" ideology, and more people than ever are lumping scientific and political agendas together. By Jason Koebler It's not just the vitriol surrounding this ...

Facebook and the Creep Factor
Mother Jones
A few days ago I finished reading Rule 34, which reminded me once again that I should probably read Charlie Stross's blog more regularly. But of course, I did nothing about this because I'm a lazy sod and I had other things on my mind.


Mother Jones

Apple, Foxconn revamp China work conditions
Reuters
By Poornima Gupta and Edwin Chan | SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - In a landmark development for the way Western companies do business in China, Apple Inc said on Thursday it had agreed to work with partner Foxconn to tackle wage and working condition ...

Nokia Recruits Vespa Rider in Race Against Androids in China
BusinessWeek
By Diana ben-Aaron on March 29, 2012 Adam Guli, a 35-year-old social media entrepreneur who commutes across Beijing on a Vespa scooter, is giving Nokia Oyj (NOK1V) a ride in its race against Android handsets and Apple Inc. (AAPL) (AAPL)'s iPhone in ...

Facebook and Google: the Next Antitrust Menaces?
PC Magazine
By Chloe Albanesius Sen. Al Franken this week warned antitrust officials to keep an eye on Internet firms like Facebook and Google, lest they become like the telco monopolies of years past. "It isn't time for alarm bells just yet.

Intel Ivy Bridge Chips: Launch Dates Leaked
PCWorld
By Melanie Pinola, PCWorld Mar 30, 2012 2:23 PM Intel Ivy Bridge processors may finally be on their way to new desktops and laptops, according to leaked launch schedules. If you've been wondering whether you should buy a laptop now with a ...

BlackBerry Just 5% Of Recent Smartphone Purchases
InformationWeek
In the last three months, only 5% of US smartphone buyers chose a RIM BlackBerry, says Nielsen. Nielsen compiled data about smartphone buying habits in the three-month period ending in February, and the news isn't good for Research In Motion or ...

Zipper Interactive Says Goodbye To The Fans
Just Push Start
Developer Zipper Interactive posted a farewell statement on Twitter following the closure of the studio yesterday. The closure came after countless rumors of Sony's plans to shut them down, but rumors are always hard to believe.


Just Push Start

Chance coral can survive warmer ocean
Sydney Morning Herald
CORAL that has been exposed to fluctuating water temperatures in the past may be able to survive warmer ocean climates in the future, giving hope to the long-term wellbeing of the world's reefs. A team of scientists from the Australian Nuclear Science ...


Sydney Morning Herald

Follow @expricom

Cook More Popular Than Jobs at Apple? So what!

Editorial: The implication of the following story is that popularity determines success, or is equal to effective "leadership." There is no such correlation in the real world despite the desires of journalists or employees. Cook, in particular, has already made a mistake by taking such high profile positions in the media (China trip etc.)--it may satisfy his ego, or be pleasing to his personal supporters, but he's no "Steve Jobs." In fact, the more he asserts his personality over the legacy of Jobs and the inherited culture of Apple, he damages the Apple brand. In the meantime, quality issues accompanying the release of the "new iPad" indicate a lack of both attention to detail and the quality of leadership that Jobs provided.  At some point, the pipeline of products that Apple built up under Jobs' leadership will end, then what will be the judgment of Cook? Remember, even Jobs knew that Cook is not a "product guy."

Cook More Popular Than Jobs At Apple
CIO
It hasn't taken long for Tim Cook to capture the hearts and minds of the Apple faithful. By John P. Mello Jr. TechBriefcase is a new, free service where IT Professionals can Search, Store and Share IT white papers and content like this.

CIO

The Top 9 Tech CEOs Of 2012, As Rated By Employees: Glassdoor Survey
Huffington Post
Glassdoor.com, a career review and rating site, surveyed employees at the country's top techcompanies to determine the approval ratings of their respective chiefs. According to a press email, the site asked a simple question of employees working at ...

Google Launches Startup Base in London `Tech City'
Washington Post
30, 2012 - March 30 (Bloomberg) -- Bloomberg's Mark Barton reports on the launch of Google Inc.'s new technology hub in east London's "Tech City." He speaks on Bloomberg Television's on "First Look." (Source: Bloomberg) (/Bloomberg) Correction: ...

"MotionBEAT" to Exhibit at ad:tech SF April 2-4
MarketWatch (press release)
TOKYO, Mar 30, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- "MotionBEAT,Inc." will be exhibiting at ad:tech San Francisco ( http://na.ad-tech.com/sf/ ) next week in SF, April 3rd and 4th. We will be located on the first floor (booth# 1527). If you are attending, ...

Another Iconic Tech Player Throws In the Mobile Towel
DailyFinance
By Evan Niu (TMFNewCow), The Motley Fool Tech companies nowadays need a mobile strategy to stay relevant, especially if we're talking about a gadget maker. Unfortunately for one of the few remaining domestic PC makers, it's been grasping for a mobile ...

Tech Minute: Photo sharing now easier than ever
CNET
Install Flash now Video description: Smartphone cameras are a thriving phenomenon with improved technology, software features, lenses, and apps that rival the quality that was once only available in dedicated cameras. And thanks to a new photo-sharing ...

Tech review: How to watch March Madness on your mobile device
Fond du Lac Reporter
AP Photo/Turner Sports AP Technology Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Madness is one way to describe my experience with March Madness Live, a service for watching the annual college basketball tournament on computers and mobile devices. Don't get me wrong.

Some Technology You Might Find Very Useful For MMOs — MMO ...
By Hugh Hancock
Keyboard, two-button mouse, single monitor, webcam, headset, FRAPS. But there's an entire world of assistive tech out there – and some of it's. ... Some Technology You Might Find Very Useful For MMOs. by Hugh Hancock on March 29, 2012 ...
MMO Melting Pot

New technology needs more assessment « SciDev.Net's Blog
By scidevnet
Net, the Science and Development Network, providing news and analysis from events relating to science, tech and development. ... While the zero draft of the outcome document for the upcoming UN Conference for Sustainable Development ( Rio+20) talks about the need fortechnology transfer and capacity building — it fails to mention the equally valuable need for impact assessment of those technologies before they are released, said Kathy Jo Wetter, a researcher at the Action ...
SciDev.Net's Blog

Florida Laptop Program Brings Tech to Disadvantaged Students ...
It is funded by donations--Everest University Online gave $14000 to the foundation March 22, which will provide laptop, headset, AC adaptor, information technology support, and shipping to 20 students. "The Laptop for Learners program ...
THE Journal: All Current Articles

Google Campus opens in London's Tech City - ComputerworldUK.com
By cwukfeedback@idg.co.uk (Derek du Preez)
“The way that Google has engaged with the east London technology community, and designed this campus to meet the needs of local entrepreneurs and tech companies, is absolutely exemplary,” said Osborne. East London Tech City firms ...
Computerworld UK Public Sector

Top 4 NYSE Stocks In The Information Technology Services Industry ...
By Monica Gerson
Below are the top information technology services stocks on the NYSE in terms of cash. Accenture plc (NYSE: ACN) had $5.57 billion .... CNBC's Joe Terranova Bullish On Tech Sector Equities Google, IBM... What's Next in US Macro? Q4 GDP ...

When Office Technology Overwhelms, Get Organized - NYTimes.com
When Office Technology Overwhelms, Get Organized. Stuart Isett for The New York Times. The 21st-century workplace extols open space, not hierarchy. At the ...
www.nytimes.com/.../when-office-technology-overwhelms-get...

Apple Labor Pact Could Ripple Across China
Wall Street Journal
By LORETTA CHAO, JAMES T. AREDDY and ARIES POON Manufacturers grappling with rising labor costs and worker demands in China could face further pressure if a critical probe of a major Apple supplier sets a new standard for China's factory workers,...

Nano-SIM Battle Between Apple, Nokia Delayed
PC Magazine
By Chloe Albanesius The world will have to wait a bit longer for a new SIM card standard, as officials on Friday failed to adopt a proposal from Apple. The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) said in a statement today that its smart...

Verizon Talks Up Mobile Video Service
PC Magazine
By Mark Hachman The chief executive of Verizon Wireless said Friday that his company could have the beginnings of a wireless video network in place by the holidays. Speaking to The Wall Street Journal, Verizon chief executive Lowell McAdam said that ...

Microsoft Courier Lives On Via New iPad Apps
PC Magazine
By Angela Moscaritolo Microsoft's dual-screen Courier tablet may have never made it to market, but the innovative idea lives on in two, new content-creation apps just released for the iPad: Tapose and Paper. The Courier tablet, which first made ...

Why Windows 8 Will (and Won't) Matter to Enterprises
PC Magazine
By Michael J. Miller I've heard a lot of talk about Windows 8 in the enterprise lately. Some people say that the new "Metro" interface is so different that it will prevent enterprise customers from migrating to the new operating system.

Why Google's Tablet Store Isn't the Nexus One All Over Again
PC Magazine
By Sascha Segan The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Google is starting a store to sell Android tablets online. This is an attempt to jumpstart the sales of tablets running Google-approved versions of Android, which haven't been doing well ...

'Speed of light' experiment professor resigns
msnbc.com
ROME — The Italian professor who led an experiment that initially appeared to challenge one of the fundaments of modern physics by showing particles moving faster than the speed of light has resigned after the finding was overturned earlier this month.

Compared to other groups, conservatives have least confidence in science
Ars Technica
By John Timmer | Published March 30, 2012 11:53 AM In the US, science has become a bit of a political punching bag, with a number of presidential candidates accusing climatologists of fraud, even as state legislators seek to inject phony controversies ...

Ars Technica

LG Intros 6-inch Flexible E-Paper Plastic Display
Tom's Guide
Soon you don't have to worry about breaking your new e-reader's display, as LG is now mass producing a flexible plastic version to replace the current glass-based e-paper. LG Display said on Thursday that it has begun mass producing the "world's first" ...

Will your next iPhone have a 3-D camera?
Los Angeles Times
By Michelle Maltais The cameras on generation after generation of iPhone have gotten increasingly better. So much so that it's often the only camera owners carry these days. What could Apple have in mind for the future? The next dimension in iPhone ...

Oracle, Micron settle lawsuit that alleged price-fixing
San Jose Mercury News
AP BOISE, Idaho -- Micron Technology has settled a lawsuit in which Oracle (ORCL) accused the Idaho memory chipmaker and other companies of artificially inflating prices for microchips. The 2010 lawsuit claimed that Micron and the other companies ...

Canada's Flaherty says RIM to set own fate
Reuters
| TORONTO, March 30 (Reuters) - Asked if the Canadian government would accept at takeover of Research In Motion, Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said on Friday that the BlackBerry maker would set its own fate. "RIM is a private company that ...

Nielsen: first time Smartphone and Feature Phone usage equal
SlashGear
It's the first time this has ever happened folks, so mark it on your calendar: Nielsen Wire has reported that they've found both Smartphones and Feature Phones (every kind of cell phone other than Smartphones) are being used an equal amount in the USA.

SlashGear

Siri pairs with MacBook Pro this summer
SlashGear
In a move that may well portend this summer (or winter) reveal of the iPhone 5, Apple has had a patent revealed which shows an iPhone connecting to a Desktop computer for the sharing of Siri. Since Siri became wildly popular and was picked up by Apple ...

SlashGear

Analyst: Next-gen consoles won't block used games
TG Daily
Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter says there's no way the PS4 or the Xbox 720 will ban used games. Both consoles have been rumored to incorporate technology that will be able to recognize whether or not a game disc has ever been put in another ...

TG Daily

Venus and Pleiades Star Cluster Shine in Celestial Show Tuesday
Space.com
by Joe Rao, SPACE.com Skywatching Columnist As the bright planets Venus and Jupiter go their own separate ways after their spectacular tryst in mid-March, Venus continues to grow ever-brighter as the northern spring evenings warm up.

Obsidian Gears Up For Wasteland 2
Escapist Magazine
Brian Fargo has added a huge incentive to drive Wasteland 2 Kickstarter funding to even higher levels: Obsidian Entertainment. I'll get right to the point. If the Wasteland 2 Kickstarter, currently sitting at $1.65 million in funding, can reach $2.1 ...

Getting Deep with Sylvia Earle
National Geographic
Driver training in a 1 person sub. My instructor was ocean scientist Dr. Sylvia Earle. I did this story several years ago but was reminded of the experience when James Cameron and National Geographic teamed up this week to dive the Mariana Trench, ...

Facebook Is Going After Google In Search, But That Doesn't Mean What You Think ...
San Francisco Chronicle
Yesterday we learned that Facebook has hired an ex-Google engineer and tasked him and two dozen other engineers with improving Facebook Search. Now Techmeme is full of people saying that Facebook is arming up to go after Google.

Yahoo Plans Support for 'Do Not Track' Web Privacy Tool
Wired News
By Scott Gilbertson Yahoo has announced it will soon support the Do Not Track privacy header across its sprawling network of websites. Supporting Do Not Track means you will soon be able to easily tell Yahoo to stop tracking your movements around the ...

New Evidence that Our Insecticides are Killing Off the Bees
io9
We've all heard that bee populations are dwindling. Far less clear, however, is what's actually causing the slump. Now, two studies have provided some of the most compelling evidence to date that a popular class of insecticides may be contributing ...

Cops: Blind man's trip in Google's self-driving car legal
Police News
By Mark Hachman Google's video showing a trip to a Taco Bell in a self-driving car was within the law, according to police who monitored the test drive. Google's video showing a blind man taking a ride to a Taco Bell in a self-driving car was legal, ...

Reports: Toshiba, Micron, Hynix to bid for Elpida
Power Management Design Line
SAN FRANCISCO—Micron Technology Inc., SK Hynix Inc. and Toshiba Corp. are all in the process of throwing their hats in the ring to acquire all or part of bankrupt Japanese DRAM vendor Elpida Memory Inc., according to media reports.

iPhone 4 Owners To Get $15 For Antennagate Issues
ITProPortal
The old time issue that plagued the iPhone 4 release, yes, we are talking about "antennagate" is concluded. The class-action lawsuit ended in favour of iPhone 4 owners who will get the compensation from Apple, of $15. Since the reception issues ...

Android To Surpass Windows by 2016
HispanicBusiness.com
Google's Android will surpass Microsoft's Windows as the most popular operating system in the world by 2016, research firm IDC predicted in a study released Thursday. The study, which combines usually disparate computer sectors such as PCs, ...

HispanicBusiness.com

LG Optimus Elite gets photographed, decked out in Sprint and Virgin livery
Engadget
By Edgar Alvarez posted Mar 30th 2012 1:09PM Not a fan of that 5-inch, IPS display on the Optimus Vu? Perhaps, you'd be more interested in a smaller, lesser-specced member of the family. According to PocketNow, the Optimus Elite is sprinting its way ...

Lucid by LG Review
SlashGear
We're taking a look at a smartphone being released by Verizon this week as the newest addition to their 4G LTE lineup: the inexpensive yet surprisingly powerful Lucid by LG. This device features a dual-core Qualcomm processor, a lovely IPS LCD display, ...

Tornado the size of 5 earths twists on Sun's surface
KSL-TV
By David Self Newlin SALT LAKE CITY -- There's tornadoes, like the one that hit downtown Salt Lake City in 1999, and then there's tornadoes, like the giant F5 that hit Manitoba in 2007. And then there's the great great granddaddy of all the vicious ...

Follow @expricom

Google to Sell Tablets on Its Own This Year; BlackBerry maker to cede most consumer markets

Google to Sell Tablets on Its Own This Year
Wall Street Journal
By AMIR EFRATI Google Inc., undaunted by a short-lived attempt to market and sell smartphones on its own, is now trying the approach with tablet computers in a quest to capture market share from Apple Inc.'s iPad. The Internet search company will sell ...

BlackBerry maker to cede most consumer markets
BusinessWeek
By ROB GILLIES Struggling BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Ltd. said Thursday that it will cede most consumer markets after failing to compete with flashier touch-screen phones such as Apple's iPhone and models that run Google's Android software.

Conflict Over How Open 'Do Not Track' Talks Will Be
New York Times
WASHINGTON — Technology companies want to talk with the government about protecting privacy on the Internet. They just want those talks to be private. Representatives of advertising companies, Internet sites and technology companies told a House ...

2 Studies Point to Common Pesticide as a Culprit in Declining Bee Colonies
New York Times
Scientists have been alarmed and puzzled by declines in bee populations in the United States and other parts of the world. They have suspected that pesticides are playing a part, but to date their experiments have yielded conflicting, ambiguous results ...

New York Times

Jeff Bezos Unveils Plan to Recover Apollo 11 Rocket Engines
PC Magazine
By Damon Poeter It's turning out to be a huge week for well-heeled amateur adventurers. Just days after filmmaker James Cameron took his one-person submersible down to the deepest point on Earth, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos announced a plan to recover ...

Update: Apple supplier Foxconn hit on poor working conditions
Computerworld
By Agam Shah IDG News Service - An investigation by the Fair Labor Association into factories operated by Apple supplier Foxconn in China found poor working conditions and worker abuse, leading Foxconn to pledge it will make improvements.

New Zeus P2P bots: anonymous cyber-crime ready for mass market
Ars Technica
By Sean Gallagher | Published March 29, 2012 6:00 PM The recent resurgence of the Hlux/Kelihos botnet, taken down last week by a team of security companies, demonstrates how hard it is to detect and permanently shut down the latest generation of ...

Ars Technica

Will Flash's new 'premium features' drive game developers away?
Gamasutra
Adobe's recent decision to add "premium features" to Flash 11.2 has caused a bit of a stir within the game development community. With the company planning to charge royalty fees for its new high-end features, some developers are worried the platform ...

Gamasutra

Half of US households own at least one Apple product
CNN
By Peter Pachal, Mashable The overall ownership rate is 1.6 Apple products per American household, according to a new survey. (Mashable) -- Apple has taken firm root in America. Just over half of all households in the country own at least one Apple ...

Daimler opens first Mercedes plant in E. Europe
AFP
KECSKEMET, Hungary — German automaker Daimler opened its first Mercedes-Benz factory in eastern Europe here Thursday, a rare sign of foreign investor confidence in a country at odds with the European Union. "We are making history today: less than four ...

AFP

Obama gets the big data bug
Register
By Richard Chirgwin • Get more from this author Six US federal government agencies are putting more than $US200 million to try and wrap their heads around the dizzying world of “big data”. The big-ticket buzzword hunt is being led by the White House ...

HTC One V video spotted in the wild
SlashGear
In the same breath as realizing that HTC's One X phone has been leaked, we have discovered a video of its brother, the One V. Both are set to make their official debuts shortly, but so far HTC has been rather mum on the new family of Android phones.

SlashGear

Apple iPhone 4 owners can claim $15 in 'antennagate' settlement
Los Angeles Times
By Nathan Olivarez-Giles Apple's "antennagate" is finally coming to an end, with $15 going to each qualifying iPhone 4 owner who claims a share in a class-action lawsuit over the fourth-generation iPhone's infamous antenna problems.

Feds: Park recalled BMWs outside till fire risk fixed
USA TODAY
By Fred Meier, USA TODAY BMW and US safety regulators said today that owners of 5 and 6 Series cars recalled this week should park them outside until a battery cable fire risk in the trunk is checked and fixed. As we reported on Monday, BMW announced ...

USA TODAY

Google's self-driving car takes blind man to Taco Bell
USA TODAY
By Michael Winter, USA TODAY In another milestone in the development of self-driving cars, Google's robotic Toyota Prius has chauffeured a blind man to a Taco Bell and the dry cleaners, the tech company says. "Where this would change my life is to give ...

USA TODAY

Japan's People's New Party Leaves Coalition Over Sales Tax Bill
Bloomberg
Japan's People's New Party left the ruling coalition due to opposition over a planned bill to raise the country's consumption tax, party leader Shizuka Kamei said today. Kamei made the remarks after meeting with Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, ...

Google Now Comes With Monthly Statement
Discovery News
Wednesday morning, Google announced that users with a Google Account could sign up to get a monthly "Activity Report" itemizing their use of some of the Web giant's services. Opting into this takes all of one click after you sign into your account; ...

How did humans evolve to walk upright? Fossil discovery complicates the...
Christian Science Monitor
Foot bones unearthed recently in Ethiopia belonged to a contemporary of 'Lucy,' the 3.2-million-year-old early human discovered in 1974. But these bones seem to belong to a different species, one thought to have split its time between walking upright ...

Christian Science Monitor

Supercomputer To Be Faster Than 50 Million Laptops
Cleveland News - Fox 8
By Matthew Knight, CNN (CNN) — A new era in computing that will see machines perform at least 1000 times faster than today's most powerful supercomputers is almost upon us. By the end of the decade, exaFLOP computers are predicted to go online ...

Cleveland News - Fox 8

Facebook App Lets You Declare Enemies, Not Friends
PCWorld (blog)
By Ian Paul, PCWorld Mar 29, 2012 2:46 PM Facebook may not offer a dislike button, but a new app on the social network called EnemyGraph lets you publicly pour some hate on anything that raises your ire. EnemyGraph lets you declare any of your Facebook ...

iPhone closes in on Android in growing US smartphone market
Apple Insider
By AppleInsider Staff As of February, smartphone users accounted for nearly half of all wireless subscribers in the US, and Apple's iPhone adoption rate saw growth while Android handset activations slipped. According to new data from Nielsen published ...

Dell plans new smartphones in the US later this year
Computerworld
By Agam Shah IDG News Service - Dell plans to introduce new smartphone models in the US later this year, the company said on Thursday. The company has discontinued sales of all smartphones in the US, saying that Wednesday that its Venue and Venue Pro ...

The Next PlayStation is Called Orbis, Sources Say. Here are the Details.
Kotaku
While the official reveal of Sony's next home console could still be months away, if not longer, Kotaku has today learned some important details concerning the PlayStation 3's successor. For one, the console's name—or at least its codename/working ...

Researcher publishes specs for real Linux-powered Star Trek tricorder
Ars Technica
By Ryan Paul | Published March 28, 2012 10:45 PM The Star Trek tricorder has become a reality, thanks to the hobby project of a cognitive science researcher. Dr. Peter Jansen has developed a handheld mobile computing device that has a number of ...

Yahoo takes step to protect online privacy
abc7news.com
Internet giant Yahoo took a big step Thursday toward protecting your online privacy. This will give consumers much more control over who's spying on their Internet activity. Yahoo announced it will offer a do-not-track feature starting this summer.

Lumia 900 may not get next major Windows Phone update
IntoMobile
While the upcoming launch of the Nokia Lumia 900 will be AT&T's largest by far users may want to be wary about how future-proof the device will be. I visited Nokia's sparkling headquarters in Sunnyvale to discuss the upcoming launch of the Lumia 900 ...

NASA films Solar tornado, roughly equal to the size of five Earths
Knovel
NASA researchers recently identified a major event on the surface of the Sun, one that is so massive it was significantly larger than the size of the Earth. Scientists using NASA's Solar Dynamic Observatory satellite said recently they had detected ...

Cassini to Make Closest Pass Yet over Enceladus South Pole
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Artist's concept of the Mar. 27, 2012, flyby of Saturn's moon Enceladus by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech NASA's Cassini spacecraft is preparing to make its lowest pass yet over the south polar region of Saturn's moon ...

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Amazon's Kindle Touch comes to Europe, but no Fire news
BBC News
Amazon is launching a touchscreen version of its Kindle e-reader in the UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy. The Kindle Touch will be available for delivery from 27 April, five months after it went on sale in the US. Unlike in America, there will not ...

BBC News

Ubi-Camera makes your fingers the frame
SlashGear
Making a frame of your fingers, peering through it and telling pretty people “yeah baby, yeah, work it for the camera” may one day actually result in photographs rather than odd looks, if researchers at Japan's Institute of Advanced Media Arts and ...

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Apple's iPad 4G advertisements may create legal stir

Apple's iPad 4G advertisements may create legal stir in more countries
Washington Post
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission announced Tuesday that it was going to take legal action against Apple for allegedly “misleading'”consumers with the iPad's 4G label. Now it looks like Sweden and Britain want to do the same.

Why Apple Must Enable FaceTime On LTE
InformationWeek
Video calling is a sci-fi staple, from Star Trek to The Jetsons. But to bring it mainstream, Apple must allow FaceTime on LTE. Ever since Bell Labs unveiled its Picturephone 50 years ago, people have been captivated by the idea that calls would migrate ...

IE10 in Windows 8: Metro style vs. desktop style
CNET
Windows 8 packages Internet Explorer 10 in two different flavors--Metro and desktop, each with their own pros and cons. Which one is better, and how can you manage both? by Lance Whitney March 28, 2012 8:09 AM PDT Follow @lancewhit For better or worse,...

FBI, Army Tap Epic Games For Training Simulations
InformationWeek
Intelligence and military agencies license the game engine behind Gears of War and Mass Effect to simulate decision-making, medical, and crime-scene scenarios. By Elizabeth Montalbano InformationWeek The FBI and other federal agencies are leveraging a ...

Survey pegs Apple gear in half of US homes
CNET
A new survey says that Apple products can be found in half of US homes, and that many who have not purchased, intend to this year. by Josh Lowensohn March 28, 2012 12:04 PM PDT Follow @Josh San Francisco Apple store line-goers in the early morning on ...

Security researchers kill Kelihos again after Bitcoin crime spree
Ars Technica
By Jon Brodkin | Published March 28, 2012 1:45 PM Security researchers have disabled the latest botnet created with Kelihos malware, stopping a 116000-bot-strong operation devoted to Bitcoin hacking and other crimes. Announced today, the operation took ...

Ars Technica

Fossil foot poses human origins puzzle
USA TODAY
By Dan Vergano, USA TODAY Swinging from trees like an ape but sometimes ambling on the ground, the owner of a foot fossil some 3.4 million years old poses a puzzle for paleontologists over humanity's history of walking. Discovered in Ethiopia's Afar ...

Box Launches OneCloud for Enterprise Application Sharing
eWeek
Box OneCloud provides a suite of about 30 free business applications that enable workers to access, edit, and share content from their iPhones or iPads. Online storage and business application tools provider Box has opened a new section of its cloud ...

Microsoft: 10 Fascinating Facts About Windows, Other Products
eWeek
By Nicholas Kolakowski on 2012-03-28 Whether it's Windows on their office PC, an Xbox 360 powering their video games and entertainment, Hotmail for their email or some collaboration platform helping their work projects, Microsoft's software products ...

eWeek

How to watch HBO Go on your Apple TV, sort of
CNET
Apple TV doesn't directly support the channel, and the app version doesn't allow video out. But where there's a will (and a Comcast account), there's a way. by Rick Broida March 28, 2012 11:09 AM PDT Follow @cheapskateblog "Flight of the Conchords" ...

Challenger Deep as a tourist site? Modern-day Jules Verneses say 'yes.'
Christian Science Monitor
There's not much to see in the blackness seven miles below the surface of the Pacific Ocean. But enthusiasts can envision the day when citizen adventurers would descend to Challenger Deep and other deep-sea destinations.

Christian Science Monitor

Potential Mac-bound Intel Ivy Bridge chips to launch at end of April
Apple Insider
By Sam Oliver A slew of mobile and desktop CPUs from Intel's forthcoming Ivy Bridge lineup are set to launch on April 29, potentially signaling when Apple could refresh some of its Mac lineup. The new Ivy Bridge chips are due to be announced the fourth ...

Samsung Surprises Experts by Shipping 5 Million Galaxy Notes
PCWorld
By Mikael Ricknäs, IDG News Samsung Electronics has shipped 5 million units of its "smart notepad", the Galaxy Note, surpassing most expectations, according to analysts. When the Note was launched last year it was seen by many as a bit of an ugly ...

Astronomers say that there are billions of potentially habitable planets in ...
Christian Science Monitor
A team of European astronomers say that about 40 percent of red dwarf stars - the most common type of star in the Milky Way - have at least one planet whose temperatures would allow liquid water on the surface. By Ben Hirschler, Reuters / March 28, ...

Christian Science Monitor

LG Lucid Hands-on and Unboxing
SlashGear
This week LG and Verizon have announced a cute little addition to their 4G LTE lineup with the “Lucid by LG”, complete with a lovely 4-inch IPS LCD display and dual-core processor inside. This device fits rather nicely in the hand, is made to be a big ...

Cisco snarfs ClearAccess for remote broadband apps
Register
By Timothy Prickett Morgan • Get more from this author Networking giant Cisco Systems has added another arrow to its quiver and is aiming at the service provider market with the acquisition of ClearAccess, a maker of what is called TR-069 software.

EU takes summer bite out of mobile phone roaming charges
The Guardian
Cuts in mobile phone roaming charges are on the way this summer – the latest move by the European commission towards reducing the gap between domestic and foreign call rates almost to zero by 2015, with the rates protected until June 2017.

The Guardian

Big air: 'Sand Flea' robot jumps 30 feet high
msnbc.com
A four-wheeled robot that looks like a kid's geeky remote controlled car is making some impressive leaps that should make the military's top brass giddy with childlike joy. It can leap some 30 feet in the air, high enough to jump onto roofs and over ...

msnbc.com

Google's New Account Activity Feature Shows Your Shocking Addiction To Google ...
TechCrunch
Google is launching a new feature today called Account Activity that will help users gain more insight into their usage of Google services. Available to those who opt in, the utility will offer monthly reports detailing your account activity, ...

Amazon Releases Kindle Touch 3G in 175 Countries
ABC News
Amazon.com Inc. said Wednesday that it is releasing its Kindle Touch 3G e-reader in more countries and more languages worldwide. The touch-screen e-reader has been available in the US since last fall. The gadget is available for pre-orders and will be ...

Apple CEO Tim Cook meets with next Chinese leader
Los Angeles Times
By Salvador Rodriguez Li, who's expected to become China's next leader, and Cook discussed intellectual-property issues and greater cooperation between the country and the tech giant, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.

Apple's Siri might have been called something else
CNET
According to one of Siri's creators, late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was not initially enamored with the name. by Josh Lowensohn March 28, 2012 9:51 AM PDT Follow @Josh Apple's Siri. Sass comes at no extra charge. What's in a name?

CNET

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's reticence to meet with investors could hurt IPO ...
SiliconValley.com
By Alistair Barr and Alexei Oreskovic Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his girlfriend, Priscilla Chan, walk near Fuxing Road in Shanghai March 27, 2012. Zuckerberg and his girlfriend were visiting Shanghai, according to local media reports.

NTIA report identifies prime spectrum, advocates sharing
Communications, Engineering & Design Magazine
NTIA, along with various federal agencies, evaluated the potential of the 1755-1850 MHz band to accommodate commercial wireless broadband service. While the wireless industry has had its eye on the spectrum band for a long time, more than 20 federal ...

Is It Snowing Microbes on Enceladus?
Popular Science
By Rebecca Boyle Posted 03.28.2012 at 2:30 pm 0 Comments Enceladus Jets Dramatic plumes spray water ice from many locations near the south pole of Saturn's moon Enceladus. More than 30 individual jets of different sizes can be seen in this image ...

Popular Science

Newly Discovered Hammerhead Shark's 'Twin' Sparks Concern
LiveScience.com
Scientists recently confirmed that endangered scalloped hammerhead sharks have a fishy twin — a newfound species, still unnamed, that is distinct, yet very closely resembles the threatened sharks. The case of mistaken identity indicates that scalloped...

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