31 July 2013

What Microsoft doesn't "get" -- PCs and post-PC devices are "different"

Microsoft - nothing like losing your core market (PCs) while foolishly chasing markets (tablets, smartphones) where you can neither be #1 nor #2 (remember what Jack Welch said while at GE--Earthgrains CEO Barry Beracha says companies should have a very good reason before abandoning the No. 1 or 2 strategy. "If you're 3 or lower, you have to have a product niche or be unique or innovative," and Microsoft isn't any of those)--

 Here's why PCs and post-PC devices are different things (and why they need to stay that way) | ZDNet: " . . .The Windows 8 Project, with Windows RT, Windows 8, Metro-style/whatever-style, and Surface highlights this problem by showing what happens if you do try and combine those two worlds together. Even if that combining is done with skill and care, as I'm sure it was.) So we shouldn't combine them. PCs are great at what they do, and lousy at the other stuff. The reverse of that applies to post-PC devices too. This last point is why no one is ever suggesting that people replace PCs at work with smartphones and tablets. That makes no sense. PCs are really, insanely great at the work stuff. Post-PC devices in that context would just get in the way. How post-PC devices help with our work lives is a) complex and b) a story for another day. Keep 'em separate. And a smartphone is not a PC. And neither is your tablet. Your PC is, however, a PC."

 Microsoft Corporation Is Doing Well Where It Counts, Poorly Everywhere Else: "To put it simply, what's good for the Business and Server divisions is good for Microsoft. Windows RT and Phone are unlikely to provide either division with much follow-on business - and that makes them distractions. Windows 8 and Surface are intended to ensure Microsoft's presence in the workplace, where its productivity software is legion - and that makes them important. There may be good reasons to fight over the consumer device market, but Microsoft's future is in the office, where it can offer a combination of mobility and functionality that post-PC devices can't match. So far, enterprise adoption of Windows 8 has been slow - very slow - compared to Windows 7, but we need to keep in mind that it's really competing with iOS and Android. "

GTV Hacker » Blog Archive » Chromecast: Exploiting the Newest Device By Google.: "Is it really ChromeOS?No, it’s not. We had a lot of internal discussion on this, and have concluded that it’s more Android than ChromeOS. To be specific, it’s actually a modified Google TV release, but with all of the Bionic / Dalvik stripped out and replaced with a single binary for Chromecast. Since the Marvell DE3005 SOC running this is a single core variant of the 88DE3100, most of the Google TV code was reused. So, although it’s not going to let you install an APK or anything, its origins: the bootloader, kernel, init scripts, binaries, are all from the Google TV . . . ." (read more at link above)

 Microsoft expands bug info-sharing program to larger crowd
Computerworld
Computerworld - Microsoft today announced an expansion of a program that ... The current Microsoft Active Protections Program (MAPP) will be scrapped, said ...
Computerworld
Computerworld - First, some background: I have often been a very vocal basher of Microsoft. As of a few years ago, I now run Apple stuff because I got sick of ...
VentureBeat
Google isn't doing much with Play game services that developers haven't seen with Apple's Game Center or Microsoft's Xbox Live. Those services feature the ...
Washington Post
LOS ANGELES — Beauty is in the eye of the Google Glass wearer. ... Google is enlisting film students from five colleges to help it explore how its wearable ...

Apple making cheaper iPhones at Chinese factory that mistreats workers, group ...
San Jose Mercury News
CUPERTINO -- A human-rights group recently infiltrated a Chinese factory that is making a new iPhone offering from Apple (AAPL) and found dozens of violations of labor rights, according to a report the group released Monday. "At this moment, in Shanghai, ...
BBC News
The embarrassing request was made on Microsoft's behalf by LeakID, an anti-piracy specialist, according to Torrentfreak.com. Google spotted the mistake and ...
Irish Independent
Rival devices -- mostly based on Google's Android operating system -- have ... The industry figures also showed that Microsoft has increased its share of the ...
Alexis Santos
In this fresh incarnation, Google's lifted a registration requirement that was previously necessary to peruse reviews online. Schmidt and Co.'s redesigned ...Engadget RSS Feed

Google Chromecast vs. Apple TV - Gizmag
Will Shanklin
We know Google's new Chromecast is cheap (US$35), but is it a legit rival to, say, the Apple TV? Gizmag compares the specs (and other features) of the Chrom.Gizmag Emerging Technology Magazine 
Megan Rose Dickey
Working at an Amazon fulfillment center can be quite laborious and monotonous. ... Pictures Taken Undercover In Apple's Chinese iPhone Factories Show Filth. ... Google Chromebooks Aren't Completely Dead: 20 Percent Of IT.Tech 
Dave Cook
Xbox One consoles may come bundled with a headset at some point down the line, following confirmation from a Microsoft exec that the possibility is being ...VG247 
Edgar Cervantes
The Google Babel project didn't stop at unifying Hangouts. It is here to stay and change the way we all handle translations. Can you imagine real-time ...Android Phone Fans 

smedina
Photo: Mark LennihanAssociated Press Apple's newest outlet at Grand Central ... Apple said that the pared-down design, which lacks the ubiquitous glass ...Architizer Blog

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30 July 2013

Apple Abuse Response, Apple Exec Shake-up, Amazon hiring

Apple, Apple, Amazon--

Apple's Response to Latest Supplier Labor Abuse Allegations
Wall Street Journal (blog)
Apple is committed to providing safe and fair working conditions throughout our ... Apple is the first and only technology company to be admitted to the Fair Labor ....

Apple's Bob Mansfield Shifts Work to Special Projects
Bloomberg
Apple Inc. (AAPL)'s Bob Mansfield, whose $85.5 million compensation made him one ... “Bob will no longer be on Apple's executive team, but he will continue to ...

Amazon hiring 7000 workers
CNN
Amazon announced plans Monday to hire 7,000 workers for its U.S. operation, with most jobs offering pay and benefits far above typical retail wages, the ...

Amazon CloudFront and Route 53 add India edge locations
NDTV
Amazon has announced two new India edge locations in Chennai and Mumbai ... Amazon Route 53 is an enterprise-grade DNS service that lets website owners ...

Amazon Creates More Than 5000 New Full-Time Jobs Across ...
MarketWatch
Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) today announced it is creating more than 5,000 new ... Median pay inside Amazon fulfillment centers is 30 percent higher than that of ...

Apple to Probe Claims of Pegatron Labor Violations
Bloomberg
Apple Inc. (AAPL) will investigate allegations by advocacy group China Labor Watch that factories run by Taiwanese supplier Pegatron Corp. (4938) use underage workers, pay insufficient wages and force employees to work overtime. The New York-based ...

New Gorilla Glass protects touch-screen notebooks
CNET
Corning, the manufacturer of the resilient Gorilla Glass built into smartphones everywhere, has designed a new type of glass made exclusively to better protect notebook touch screens. ...

Microsoft, Intel, Oracle & AT&T come to Apple's defense in looming iPhone 4 ban
Apple Insider
High stakes in an impending iPhone 4 ban by the International Trade Commission have created some unlikely bedfellows, with a trade group representing Microsoft coming to the defense of rival Apple. ITC. Microsoft is part of BSA, which also represents ...

Sony, Panasonic plan 300GB successor to Blu-ray
Fox News
They saw green after going with blue. Sony and Panasonic, who earned gobs of greenbacks after jointly developing the Blu-ray optical disc format, announced an agreement Monday morning to develop a next-generation disc with a far larger capacity.

Use of Amazon's cloud approved for Dutch banks
PCWorld
The Netherlands banking regulator has approved Amazon Web Services (AWS) for use by financial organizations, Amazon said on Monday. This clears AWS cloud services for use across all areas of Dutch financial operations including websites, mobile ...

How prevalent is online abuse?
The Guardian
Rape threats made to feminist campaigner and freelance journalist Caroline Criado-Perez on Twitter have sparked a heated debate about the criminality of online abuse and a company's responsibility to tackle it. The threats, which came after Criado-Perez ...

Google Chromecast Teardown; New Nexus 7 Launches Early; Disney Using 3D ...
PC Magazine
Didn't have time to check out the tech headlines over the weekend? Here's what you missed. The teardown experts at iFixit got their tools on Google's new $35 media-streaming Chromecast dongle. They broke out their special plastic opening tool to prise ...

First images from NASA's Sun-staring IRIS satellite
Ars Technica
Last month we told you about the launch of NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) satellite, which was built to study a poorly understood layer of the Sun's atmosphere. After its successful launch, the satellite settled into its orbit and NASA took ...

Nokia To Microsoft: Can't Sell Phones Without Apps
Intelligent Enterprise (blog)
Microsoft's Windows Phone platform lags its major competitors as far as the number of apps is concerned. Android devices have more than 1 million apps available, and iOS devices have more than 900,000. In comparison, Windows Phone devices have just ...

Microsoft Nukes Rumors of Kinect-Free Xbox One
Tom's Hardware Guide
"We have no plans to introduce an Xbox One without Kinect. We believe in Kinect and the value it brings to both games and entertainment, and believe $499 is a great value for what consumers receive with their Xbox One," a Microsoft representative told ...

Game over? 'World of Warcraft' loses 600000 subscribers
Fox News
World of Warcraft, the massively popular online video game, has seen 600,000 subscribers leave in three months. It means a total of nearly two million players have turned off since the start of the year. Announcing its second quarter results, Activision Blizzard, ...

New headphones make music listening a social experience
USA TODAY
Muzik's new headphones will let you share songs online or add them to a playlist with one button. muzik20726. Muzik's John Cawley, left, and Jason Hardi, who is holding a prototype of their "Social Smartwear" headphones. (Photo: Mike Snider, USA TODAY) ...

The new Nexus 7 teardown – The highs and lows
ZDNet (blog)
Summary: Google's new nexus 7 is out, but how does the new tablet compare against the original? Adrian Kingsley-Hughes. ...

Google Play store inundated with scam apps, Symantec says
Computerworld
Apple closely examines applications submitted for its App Store, which has kept its marketplace relatively free of malware. Google also scans applications in the ...

Microsoft follows Google into South Africa to prove white space ...
GigaOM
This adds to Microsoft's existing “4Afrika” white space trials in Kenya and Tanzania, and Google's similar program in Cape Town, at the other end of South Africa.

Amazon to hire 5000 for warehouse-expansion plan
The Seattle Times
Amazon, which has warehouses in the Seattle area, is the latest tech giant to tout the creation of jobs in the United States. Apple recently announced it would ...

How Apple Gets At-Home Workers To Work | TechCrunch
Ashley Verrill
Apple, for example, permanently employs a massive network of remote customer support agents (dubbed At-Home Apple Advisors), saving them the huge real ...
TechCrunch 
Jordan Golson
Apple Senior Vice President Bob Mansfield has been removed from Apple's Leadership ...completely removed from Apple's website, though it is still visible on Google's cache. .... MicrosoftCEO: 'We Built More Devices Than We Could Sell'.MacRumors: 
Mac News and Rumors - Front Page 
Darren Murph
As of now, his leadership bio is nowhere to be found on Apple's official web presence. If you'll recall, Mansfield has had an interesting couple of years at Apple.
Engadget 
Tom Krazit
Bob Mansfield, who has led hardware development at Apple for years, has finally ... A wild week is summed up in three podcasts: Google takes on the Apple TV ...
GigaOM 
By NICK WINGFIELD
American technology companies like Apple have been criticized for ... chart showing Amazon'sgrowth in employees compared with Microsoft and Google.
NYT Bits 
Beth Callaghan
AllThingsD on TV: Apple and Acer. July 28, 2013 at 2:40 pm PT ... And Arik showed up on CNBC to talk about Apple in the wake of its earnings report this week.
AllThingsD 
Jamie Condliffe
A report from New York-based China Labor Watch has raised concerns over a new wave of worker abuse among Apple suppliers.
Gizmodo 
Mark Gurman
According to an upcoming report from the China Labor Watch, outlined by the Wall Street Journal, Apple's China-based manufacturing partner Pegatron has ...
9to5Mac 
Jon Russell
Apple has confirm that SVP of Technologies Bob Mansfield has left the company's leadership team, but will continue to work on 'special projects.'
The Next Web 
Ernesto
Instead of listing URLs of infringing material, Microsoft asked Google to .... 
In this Sunday comic, our friends Nitrozac and Snaggy at Joy of Tech make it clear that Steve Ballmer isn't setting the best example when it comes to efficiency....

Sorry, iPad Mini Fans--Reviewers Say Google Has The Better Tablet ...
As a result, Google is posing a challenge to Apple that no one else, even Amazon with its credible but somewhat limited Kindle Fire, has done in quite a while....

Amazon.com looks to fill 7,000 jobs in 13 states - CNBC.com
Amazon is adding 7000 jobs in 13 states, beefing up staff at the warehouses and in its customer service division. ... Google $35 Chromecast bites Apple.

AllThingsD On TV: Apple and Acer - Beth Callaghan - News ...
And Arik showed up on CNBC to talk about Apple in the wake of its earnings ... Bonnie Cha in Product Reviews. Electronic Arts' Top Retail Partner? Apple....

Worker Group Alleges Abuses at Apple Supplier in China - WSJ.com
Such breaches would violate both Chinese law and Apple's supplier policy, and ... Apple said it confirmed that some labor brokers were withholding worker ID ...

My Places - Google Maps
Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

Google Voice SMS
Features. One number. Send SMS text messages from your Google Voice number. Integration.Google Voice integrates with your phone's native address book ...

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29 July 2013

Nexus 7 is pretty much Apple's next mini iPad

Whenever the new iPad mini does come out, it will be deja vu all over again--so why wait?--

 Nexus 7 finds Apple napping | Mobile - CNET News: "Google has beat Apple at its own Retina-display-thumping game. Meet the Nexus 7, the eye-popping 323-pixels-per-inch wonder. It is, in a way, the (rumored) iPad Mini Retina wrapped in Android 4.3. . . . "

 Amazon book prices may be on the rise
Christian Science Monitor
For those more interested in eBooks, price wars are still very much at play; with Apple vying for part of the digital book economy, Amazon's eBook prices remain ...

 Microsoft introduces child abuse pop-up warnings
Telegraph.co.uk
Microsoft announced that anyone using its search engine to look for material that ... A Googlespokesman said: "Child abuse imagery is illegal and we have a ...

 Microsoft to offer Java as a service
HispanicBusiness.com
Microsoft will offer the Java Standard Edition (Java SE) by the end of the year both ... For the Java runtime, Microsoft has commissioned Azul Systems to develop ...

 Apple restores key parts of dev site after attack
Computerworld
Computerworld - Apple on Friday restored key sections of its developer ... Apple took the developer website down on July 18, but did not reveal the cause until ..

 Bank of Apple: What cash hoard means for investors
USA TODAY
Apple's latest quarterly report showed savvy investors two things clearly. ... The vault of that bank is now wide open, and Cook is sharing Apple's massive and ...

 Google, Yahoo, Microsoft told to label ads better in search results
Denver Post
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission said Tuesday it had sent letters to 24 Internet search companies, including giants Google, Microsoft and Yahoo, updating its ...

 Will Google's bet on Motorola pay off this week?
Crain's Chicago Business
1 had better generate some much-needed buzz and sales if Google Inc. CEO ... Although volume leader Samsung and innovator Apple Inc. dominate sales, with ...

 Why Microsoft Should Be Out of Touch
CIO Today
It seemed Microsoft was on a "touch-first" ride that fell off the tracks. ... decade and in beauty and design Apple captured the touchscreen throne with the iPhone.

 Google blasted for persisting online drug ads
Denver Post
Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood says Google (GOOG) is still selling Internet ... The Democrat demanded Thursday that Google CEO Larry Page attend a ...

 Google, Microsoft and Apple Represent the Evolutionary Nature of ...
Guardian Express
Surely, its been said, but deserves repeating; Google, Microsoft and of course, Apple Inc. represent the evolutionary nature of contemporary reality...

New technology to be tested at Minnesota electoral polls
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Instead, five cities will feature laptops, tablets and license-swiping readers at their municipal elections this fall as a test of new voting technology...

Technology - Pogue's Posts Blog - NYTimes.com: "Now, I generally don’t review printers. The reason is simple: I’m a one-man operation, and there are hundreds of printer models to review. I’d lose that war fast. The one I actually bought, though, deserves a special mention. It’s the Hewlett-Packard Pro P1606dn ($150 online). Fortunately, whoever names these things doesn’t design them. This is one rockin’ printer. First, it’s shiny, black and tiny: 15 inches wide, 11 deep, 9.5 inches tall. We keep it on a bookshelf, believe it or not. It weighs 15 pounds, which is very light. (My old SilentWriter, by contrast, was roughly the size and weight of a Volkswagen Beetle.) . . ."

 Technology? You wear it well
Telegraph.co.uk
This week Motorola Mobility (aka Google) announced that it would be hiring a Director for WearableTechnology, following the company's announcement earlier ...

 Uses technology to track input, output
The Spokesman Review
But he's also a fan of technology – which he found offered useful information and invaluable perspective as he dropped between 60 and 70 pounds from his ...

 New technology buries dry manure in soil
Columbus Dispatch
Officials with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which developed the technology, say injections might increase production because nutrients usually lost during ...

 Innovative Use of Technology Boosts Small Business
CIO Today
Digital technology and the marketing possibilities of web sites and social media are making small businesses both bigger and better known. Social media can ...

 BBC News - How technology is changing Ramadan
The holy month of Ramadan is a tradition which dates back hundreds of years but technology is starting to change the behaviour of those taking part. . . .

 IBM | Smart Marketing - Technology For Marketing – Australia ...
Give your customers what they what - through the power & science of the CMO & CIO working together. Find out about smarter marketing solutions online....

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28 July 2013

Doctors inept at tech?

About one-fourth of operating room errors are caused by technology and equipment problems, but a preoperative surgical checklist could halve the error rate, a new study says (source infra)--

Technology Mishaps Behind 1 in 4 Operating Room Errors: Study ...
Surgical equipment checklist could cut errors in half, researchers say. WebMD Health News Center - The latest breaking health news and alerts....(read more at link above)

Technology news from around the world
Washington Post
... as the computing market, historically dominated by Intel, shifts to handheld devices, where Qualcomm's technology has become the industry standard.

Google is shutting down Google+ Local for iOS
Computerworld
IDG News Service - Google is shutting down the Google+ Local places and discovery ... The app already appears to have been pulled from Apple's App Store ...
Bloomberg
Google Inc. (GOOG) lost a bid to delay proceedings in a London antitrust case until ... of ICOMP, a Brussels-based industry coalition that includes Microsoft Corp.
Boston.com
Online retailing behemoth Amazon.com Inc. will take up 129,125 square feet across six floors in a Kendall Square office building located at 101 Main Street, ... 
TechCrunch
Google likes to create things that gather data, which can be used to determine ... Hugo Barra,Google's VP of Android Product Management, told The Times that ...
Baltimore Sun
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc shares hit a record on Friday after quarterly ...Amazon is trying to turn itself from an online retailer into a broader ...
Forbes
Keeping you in the loop on some of the things happening around Apple this week. .... It didn't take long after Google announced the $35 Chromecast, a little ...

Google thinks balloons may solve problem of Internet access in ...San Jose Mercury News
DOS PALOS -- Only half-filled with helium, and already more than 12 feet wide, the giant plastic envelope shimmered and shook in the breeze like some ...
Computerworld (blog)
One of Google's biggest changes to the Android platform is actually ... Simple: Google made the code a part of Google Play Services, a standalone utility that's ...
ZDNet (blog)
Summary: Microsoft says it can reduce access costs by a factor of ten for poor ... Microsoft South Africa is to fund a new trial for delivering internet connectivity ...
San Francisco Chronicle
Apple's damages in the ebook price fixing scandal — in which a federal judge ... to ebooks for more customers at a price that was above Amazon's $9.99 setting. ... Google Just Dumped A Lot Of Pressure On Apple To Put A Better Screen On ...

Today's Scuttlebot: Sizing Up Google - NYTimes.com
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
Friday's selections feature a pair of Google product reviews and a theory about why ... tracksAmazon's growth in employees compared with Microsoft's and Google's. ... The Verge | ComparingGoogle's new Chromecast HDMI stick with Apple's ...
NYT Bits 

Mario Aguilar
The only thing harder than math is math about real life. These Microsoft Word problems from our friends at McSweeney's are impossible:
Gizmodo 
Darren Murph
While most of you are fixing to shut things down for the weekend, Apple's developer ... Google'sstill working on a Glass development kit, suggests devs use ...
Engadget RSS Feed 
Jordan Golson
Apple has formed an academic advisory board for its Supplier Responsibility program to assist with the company's goals to provide "safe and...
MacRumors: Mac News and Rumors - Mac Blog
Colin Lecher
By playing with the Google Maps API, Kim Asendorf put together....
Popular Science - New Technology, Science News, The Future Now 

Apple's Developer Center is back after over a week offline | 9to5Mac
Seth Weintraub
After being offline for more than a week, Apple's Developer Center is back. Access to the portal was removed by Apple after it was discovered that a breach into ...
9to5Mac 
Jay Yarow
Bad news for Samsung and Apple. ... The 20 Toughest Job Interview Questions Heard At Apple,Google, Amazon. ..... Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer Admits He Made A Huge Mistake. 1. 6 Powerful Ways To Embrace Change - ...
Business Insider

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27 July 2013

How Google Chromecast Compares

Really too early to tell, but orders have been "overwhelming"--

Google Chromecast: What is it and how does it compare?
Washington Post (blog)
That lower price ($35), McQuivey said, draws a sharp line between Google and competitors such as Apple and Microsoft and shows that the company has a different ...

Businessweek
For years, some top Windows executives at Microsoft (MSFT) wouldn't even say the word “Apple” in interviews, although one used the phrase “the fruit company.
Voice of America
The Internet giant Google is testing its newest gadget, Google Glass, which the company describes as a wearable computer that may revolutionize how we ...
Fortune
FORTUNE -- On-demand ride service Uber is in advanced talks to raise at least $150 million in a new round of funding from some unusual sources, Fortune has ...
HispanicBusiness.com
NetCom Learning announces they are offering new training packages for information professionals pursuing the MDCTS certification in Microsoft Dynamics GP ...
Bloomberg
Apple Inc. (AAPL)'s share of the global smartphone market fell to its lowest in three years ...Apple's 20 percent increase during the quarter was less than half the ...
ABC News
Google Inc. has announced new versions of its Nexus 7 tablet computers. ... Staples, Office Max, Office Depot, Amazon, Home Shopping Network, Radio Shack, ... Pros: Unmatched access to third-party applications, high-quality Apple software ...
Forbes
An interesting little point made in passing at The Verge is this about Google ... It might still be true that Google will attract buyers as a result of the assembly in the ...
NASDAQ
And interestingly enough, America's other tech superpower, Google ( GOOG ), won ... Apple sold 31.2 million iPhones, smashing analysts' expectations, which were ... sets in -- Microsoft ( MSFT ) in the PC heydays and Google ( GOOG ) now.
Boston.com
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google says that it paid $966 million to buy online mapping service Waze, six weeks after closing the deal. The Internet search leader ...
In what is a solid example of the best sort of problem to have, Google's ... Update: Amazon updated their product page to say they'll honor the deal for anyone ... Touch: Where Microsoft Went Wrong ... Download the TechCrunch App for iPad in the Apple App Store · Download the TechCrunch App for Android in Google Play ...TechCrunch 
John Paczkowski
In the computer category, Apple bested Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Sony; in the tablet category, it surpassed Amazon, Google and Samsung; and in the mobile ...AllThingsD 
Jamie Condliffe
If Chromecast isn't enough, the Wall Street Journal is now reporting that Google has also been working on another living room device: a set-top box with a heavy ...Gizmodo 

Jay Yarow
Google Has Already Ended Its Great Netflix Deal For The Chrome Dongle ... Google Announced A Brand New Apple TV-Killer, The Chromecast, A Tiny Little ...
Business Insider 

Hacker Barnaby Jack dies in San Francisco
Reuters
By Jim Finkle. BOSTON | Fri Jul 26, 2013 10:10am EDT. BOSTON (Reuters) - Well-known hacker Barnaby Jack has died in San Francisco, a week before he was due to show off techniques for attacking implanted heart devices that he said could kill a man ...

Zynga folds hand on US real-money gambling
USA TODAY
Zynga outperformed analysts' expectations, but its announcement that it isn't planning on getting a license for real-money gaming in the U.S. sent its shares plummeting in after-hours trading. zynga0725. Zynga CEO Don Mattrick, right, and founding CEO Mark ...

NASA Van Allen probes discover PARTICLE HURRICANES
Register
Space boffins having a poke around in the Van Allen Radiation Belts - two concentric rings encircling the Earth in which large numbers of high-energy charged particles are dashing around - have confirmed a theory about how the particles are accelerated to ...

Android 4.3 hidden feature lets you tap into app permissions
CNET
A hidden feature called App Ops in Google's latest OS update allows you to turn off certain permissions for your apps, says Android Police. Permission Manager.

Chipping Away at the Smartphone Leaders
New York Times (blog)
TOKYO — In smartphones, it's not all about Apple and Samsung anymore. 6 Smartphones to Rival Apple in China. Related. Samsung's Profit Rises, but So Does the Competition (July 26, 2013).

Nexus 7 a bargain, even with higher price
Fox News
NEW YORK – When it comes to technology, we've been trained to expect more for less. Devices get more powerful each year, as prices stay the same or drop. With the new Nexus 7 tablet, Google hopes we're willing to pay more for more. The new tablet ...

Creating False Memories in Mice
Discovery News
A mouse associated the negative experience from one box with the positive environment of another. iStockPhoto. Related Links. Video: Mouse Cloned from Drop of Blood · Two Rats Communicate Brain To Brain · Brain Scan Knows Who You're Thinking ...

New NASA telescope scours sun
USA TODAY
NASA is getting an unprecedented close-up look at the sun, thanks to a new telescope. NASA's IRIS spacecraft, launched just a month ago, already is providing ...

Best Buy, Amazon, and Walmart selling the new Nexus 7 four days early
The Verge
Having already launched its pre-orders ahead of the official Nexus 7 announcement, Best Buy is keeping up the habit of preempting Google by making the new Android slate available early. Announced for a July 30th launch in the US, the 2013 Nexus 7 is ...

The Mystery of the Centaurs Revealed: Enigmatic Space Objects are Comets ...
Nature World News
New observations from NASA's NEOWISE project reveal the hidden nature of centaurs, objects in our solar system that have confounded astronomers for resembling both asteroids and comets. The centaurs, which orbit between Jupiter and Neptune, were ...
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26 July 2013

"Overwhelming Demand" for Chromecast

If you didn't order yours already, no promotion may be available--but it is still only $35!

Google ends Chromecast-Netflix promotion 'due to overwhelming demand' - latimes.com: "Citing overwhelming demand, Google on Thursday said it has ended a Netflix promotion tied to its new Chromecast TV dongle. The promotion gave users, new and existing, three free months of Netflix's video streaming service, valued at about $24, when they bought Chromecast, a $35 gadget that was announced Wednesday."

Google Chromecast: What is it and how does it compare?
Washington Post (blog)
Google is taking another swing at commanding the television with its new Chromecast, a low-cost accessory that plugs into a TV and allows users to stream video, share tabs from the Google Chrome browser, or play music from their smartphones, tablet or ...

Google reveals Chromecast, Nexus 7
Washington Post
Google unveiled two new hardware products Wednesday, the Nexus 7 tablet and the Chromecast, a small attachment that wirelessly connects a television to other devices. The Nexus 7 is thinner, more expensive and more powerful than previous versions:.

Google Tests Wearable Computer
Voice of America
"Google Glass is a tiny computer that sits in a lightweight frame, just like this, and rests neatly above your eye and it makes exploring and sharing the world around you a lot easier," explained Chris Dale, Senior Manager of Communications for Google ...

Google offers to fund wireless hotspots in San Francisco
Reuters
Google has previously funded public wireless projects in its home city of Mountain View, California, in New York Chelsea's neighborhood and around Boston's South Station. The search giant is based 30 miles away from San Francisco but employs hundreds ...

Google boosts handwriting feature in Google Translate
CNET
The Web giant announced Wednesday that it was bringing its handwriting tool to theGoogle Translate homepage. This means that when users see a word or character they don't understand they can simply go to Google Translate, draw it on their smartphone ...

Technology Is The Fastest Way For 20-Year-Olds To Get Rich
Forbes
For starters, females need to start rethinking their field of study, and Engineering and Technology should be front and center because STEM can provide better ...

Journal and Courier
Theoretically, Lafayette School Corp. Superintendent Les Huddle is all for a recommendation to equip new vehicles with wireless communication technology to ...
International Business Times
Google Glass and rumors of an Apple iWatch have captured imaginations and propelled the idea of “wearable technology” into mainstream consciousness, but ...
Times of India
LONDON: Former ICC elite panel umpire, Simon Taufel has warned that decision-making in modern-day cricket has become tougher than last two decades, ...
Sacramento Bee
GREENVILLE, S.C., July 25, 2013 -- /PRNewswire/ -- Net3 Technology, Inc., a leading provider of cloud-based managed services and data center platforms, ...
Consumer Electronics Net
07/24/13 -- The Austin Technology Council announced today they are hosting the Battle of the Bands on Monday, October 7, ...

Yandex chief technology officer Ilya Segalovich succumbs to cancer ...David Meyer
Segalovich, who oversaw impressive work in the field of search technology, died unexpectedly on Wednesday night.
GigaOM

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25 July 2013

Google disintermediates TV industry with $35 Chromecast

Who needs cable TV? Who needs Roku? Just get a $35 Chromecast!
http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/chromecast/#netflix
http://developers.google.com/cast/

Chromecast Is Google's Miracle Device | Gadget Lab | Wired.com: "At an event where everyone was expecting a new Android tablet ( and got one) Google announced something far more interesting and important: The Chromecast, a small stick that jacks into the back of your television via HDMI and allows you to sling content via Wi-Fi from your phone, tablet or computer to the big screen. It costs $35, and comes with three months of free Netflix (even for existing subscribers), which means it effectively costs $11 plus shipping. On paper at least, it’s the best device Google has ever announced. Chromecast is delightfully cross-platform. It works with Android and iOS phones and tablets, Chromebooks, and the Chrome browser for Mac and Windows. The original device controls playback–so if you want to turn up the volume on your TV, simply turn up the volume on your phone. Any program that uses the Googlecast SDK can send content–Google specifically mentioned Netflix and YouTube, and says Pandora is on the way. The Chrome browser itself can also sling content via “Chrome tab projection.”. . . ."

 Tech spec showdown: the new Nexus 7 vs. iPad mini
ZDNet (blog)
If you haven't heard, Google today announced a revamp of its Nexus 7 tablet computer, which is manufactured by Asus and was first introduced at this time last year, during the company's I/O developer conference. The upgrade strengthens its hardware ...

 more on the new Nexus 7: http://www.google.com/nexus/7/

Google Nexus devices are first to get Android ...
CNET (blog)
Google executive Huga Barra said that Google's Nexus family of devices will be the first to get the new version of Jellybean Android 4.3, but the Google Play Edition phones will have to wait a little while. ...

Forget the high margins, Apple -- cut iPad Mini prices
Computerworld
Computerworld - Apple sold 14% fewer iPads in the quarter that ended June 30 than during the same stretch in 2012, while the revenue it earned from those sales plummeted by 27%. Analysts tied the decline in revenue to the iPad Mini, Apple's smaller, ...

Arctic methane 'time bomb' could have huge economic costs
BBC News
Scientists say that the release of large amounts of methane from thawing permafrost in the Arctic could have huge economic impacts for the world. The researchers estimate that the climate effects of the release of this gas could cost $60 trillion (£39 trillion), ...

AT&T Q2 Sales: Where are the iPhone Numbers?
The Mac Observer
AT&T didn't break out iPhone sales this quarter. So that's new. While Apple was busy touting record iPhone sales during its third fiscal quarter earnings report on Tuesday, AT&T announced its own Q2 smartphone sales numbers. The cell service provider said ...

UK team designs human mission to Mars
BBC News
Scientists at Imperial College London have designed a concept mission to land astronauts on Mars. The plan envisages a three-person crew journeying to Mars aboard a small two-part craft. The craft would rotate to generate artificial gravity and use a heat ...

Here are some real problems for Google to solve while it's tinkering with Gmail
VentureBeat
Google's new tabbed Gmail layout has been rolling out for a while now. I was finally subjected to it. I hate hate hate it. (Disclosure: I own Google stock.) The goal of the new Gmail tabs is admirable: To make it easier to filter through the emails that we get and ...

EA's biggest retail partner last quarter was Apple
Gamasutra
Electronic Arts' first fiscal quarter reflected strong sales -- a good start to the publisher's year. But it wasn't EA's partnership with GameStop or Walmart that drove those sales. "Our quarter was notable for the high percentage of revenue attributable to digital ...

Tech lobbying reports barely scratch NSA issue
Politico
Tech companies have publicly petitioned Washington for the ability to disclose more about their work with the National Security Agency — but lobbying reports don't show the industry's giants making a play for sweeping changes to U.S. law. Google ...

Tech Tips: New Phone Upgrade Plans Akin to Renting
ABC News
Over the past few weeks, three major U.S. wireless providers unveiled plans to combat phone envy: Let's say you just bought a phone, and then one with better features comes out a month later. You no longer have to wait a full two years to get it ...

more technology news below



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24 July 2013

iPad sales fall; eBay Now expands 1-hour delivery coverage

eBay is expanding its 1-hour delivery service, eBay Now, to new locations in the San Francisco area, New York area, Chicago, and Dallas-- 

 eBay Now expands coverage area for 1-hour delivery | Internet & Media - CNET News: "The need for choice applies to devices as well. eBay found that a good portion of its customers who spend the most money on the site use multiple devices. Twenty-one percent of visitors who use both mobile devices and a desktop PC make up 44 percent of the total volume eBay sells, according to Glasgow. The most popular purchases using this service are electronics and home and garden supplies, but one customer, who found himself with blown bike tires during a ride, ordered replacement parts sent to him on the spot, Glasgow said."

Apple earnings beat with $35.3 billion in sales, 31.2M iPhones | Apple - CNET News: "Company's third quarter results come in slightly stronger than expected, fueled by the iPhone. iPad and iPod sales were far below what Wall Street expected."

Apple - Press Info - Apple Reports Third Quarter Results: "The Company sold 31.2 million iPhones, a record for the June quarter, compared to 26 million in the year-ago quarter. Apple also sold 14.6 million iPads during the quarter, compared to 17 million in the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 3.8 million Macs, compared to 4 million in the year-ago quarter. "
 Google to open digital innovation centre in Dublin docklands - Technology Industry News | Market & Trends | The Irish Times: "“We will essentially act as digital consultants for these companies. It is more or less a digital teaching facility and it is the first time we will have tried to do anything like this here,” said Herlihy. The centre has more than 70 conference bookings pencilled in for this year, following its September opening. Google said there were 5,000 overseas visitors due to attend these events, in addition to attendees from Irish-based business owners and staff."

30 Petabytes Later, Bitcasa Takes Infinite
TechCrunch
TechCrunch Disrupt alumni Bitcasa has spent the last five months or so growing out of its beta launch, picking up new users and listening to feedback. Today, however, the waiting ends as Bitcasa is launching version 2.0 of its desktop, iOS and Android apps.

New movie server lets you watch films instantaneously
USA TODAY
Movies get special treatment with the new Kaleidescape Cinema One movie server, which stores up to 100 Blu-ray Disc-quality movies or 600 DVD movies. You can jump to special scenes, bypassing menus. cinemaone0722. The Kaleidescape Cinema One ...

Dolphins 'call each other by name'
BBC News
Research has revealed that the marine mammals use a unique whistle to identify each other. A team from the University of St Andrews in Scotland found that when the animals hear their own call played back to them, they respond. The study is published in ...

Tumblr's Mobile Porn Filter Bans #gay
Forbes
“We promise not to screw it up,” wrote Yahoo Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer following the company's $1.1 billion May purchase of microblogging site Tumblr. Now, it seems to be doing just that by alienating some of Tumblr's core users with adult content filters on ...

Wall Street pegs 4% slide in Mac sales, 6% boost to iPad
Computerworld
Computerworld - Mac sales fell 4% in the quarter that ended June 30, putting Apple into the same leaky boat as the much larger, problem-plagued PC industry, according to a survey of several dozen financial analysts. Apple will disclose its second-quarter ...

Belkin Releases $50 WeMo Light Switch, Adds Android Support
PC Magazine
Your home just got a little smarter, with Belkin's Wi-Fi-enabled WeMo Light Switch, which hit the market today with a $49.99 price tag. For those dark nights, when you've just watched a horror movie and can't find the light switch fast enough, just unlock your ...

VW's Bentley to Make an SUV
Wall Street Journal
Bentley Motors got the green light on Tuesday from its German parent to add a sport-utility vehicle to its range of luxury limousines and coupes, allowing the British marque to enter one of the auto sector's fastest-growing markets. The move pits Bentley against ...

Motorola Mobility unveils three Droids, including a new Ultra, for Verizon
Computerworld
IDG News Service - Google's Motorola Mobility has upgraded its lineup of Droid smartphones, announcing three new models including the flagship Droid Ultra. The new phones will be available through Verizon Wireless. The Droid Ultra has a 5-inch screen ...

Computers sweat for 4554 hours to simulate ...
CNET (blog)
Thousands of computer hours went into figuring out how to make virtual cloth look and behave more like real cloth.  Computer cloth gets a realism boost ...

Nokia reveals budget-friendly, large-screen Lumia 625
ZDNet (blog)
After the 520 proved something of a hit (in Lumia terms, that is), Nokia has announced a new low-end device. What makes the 625, launched on Tuesday, stand out from its predecessors is the size of the screen: a 4.7-incher. It's the biggest Lumia screen to ...

CIA wants to control the weather, climate change
Fox News
The CIA is funding a study examining various ways mankind can geo-engineer the planet -- blocking or limiting the sunlight that reaches the Earth, stripping carbon dioxide from the skies, seeding the clouds and so on. The project, a panel called ...

Ford to develop hybrid trucks solo after Toyota tie-up ends
Reuters
Ford Motor Co (F.N) and Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) ended their partnership to develop hybrid pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles after studying the feasibility of such ...

New OpenGL 4.4, OpenCL 2.0 specs help you get the most from your GPU
Ars Technica
Just under a year after the last OpenGL version bump, the Khronos Group today announced version 4.4 of the 3D graphics API, ushering in a list of minor changes to the venerable specification. The group also announced a provisional specification for ...

News Summary: Former GM executive on Toyota board sees automaker ...
Washington Post
CHANGING LANES: Former GM executive Mark Hogan sees his appointment to the Toyota board as a sign of change at the Japanese automaker and hopes he'll play a role in the company becoming more responsive. His arrival underlines ...

Ancient Global Warming Raised Sea Levels Nearly 70 Feet
National Geographic
About five million years ago, sea levels rose by up to 70 feet (20 meters) as ice sheets in the South Pole began melting during past instances of global warming. Scientists have now concluded that about half of that sea-level rise was due to the thawing of a ...

NASA Seeks Public-Private Product Partnerships
Intelligent Enterprise (blog)
NASA is looking for private firms interested in forming unfunded partnerships to develop commercial space products and services for human space exploration. A synopsis of the partnership program seeks proposals only from U.S. private firms, nonprofits and ...

Donate Idle Computing Power to Science
PC Magazine
Calling all Android users — you can now participate in important scientific research just by charging your phone. Researchers at University of California Berkeley on Monday released a new Android app called BOINC that lets you donate your phone's idle ...

Mussel byssus could lead to new ways to repair bones and tendons
Telegraph.co.uk
Researchers claim to have unravelled the secret behind the strength of the fine filaments, known as byssus threads, which the shellfish use to secure themselves to rocks. The material is made of a protein that is closely related to collegen, which forms skin, ...

Netflix's Earnings Chat Won't Win Any Emmys
Businessweek
Netflix (NFLX) dipped its toe into the experimental waters of streaming a quarterly earnings call live online, with investors' questions posed by one analyst and a financial journalist. The 30-minute chat session streamed Monday on YouTube (GOOG) was ...

Device puffs virtual objects into reality, lets you feel phantom objects floating in air
Fox News
For all the leaps and bounds that motion tracking and virtual reality have made in recent years, haptic stimulation has largely taken a back seat to visual stimulation. However, a new device aims to put a more tangible virtual experience in the driver's seat.

Flipboard launches web version of its popular magazine app
TechSpot
Flipboard is officially coming to the web. After launching in December of 2010, the magazine-formatted application was previously only accessible to mobile users. Although the company still expects the mobile version to garner most of the attention, it doesn't ...

Akamai: Global average, peak Internet connection speeds continue to rise
ZDNet
Summary: But while Internet connection speeds grow, so do DDoS attacks, according to the cloud company's latest industry survey....

Epic NASA Photos of Earth from Saturn & Mercury Give Us Perspective
Space.com
It's not often that some event comes along to really show humanity its true place in the universe, but two NASA spacecraft have just managed just that. I'm talking, of course, about the spectacular NASA photos of Earth as it appeared from Saturn —nearly 900 ...

Ohio has Defense Dept's most powerful computer
Houston Chronicle
DAYTON, Ohio (AP) — The U.S. Air Force says a supercomputer up and running at an Ohio base is the most powerful in the entire Department of Defense. Officials at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base introduced the computer Monday inside a new complex.

Loopy? No, it's Hyperloopy
Discovery News
Elon Musk calls his Hyperloop concept a cross between a Concorde, a railgun and an air hockey table. STEPHEN LAM/Reuters/Corbis. Related Links. All Aboard the Subsonic Crazy Train · Elon Musk: SpaceX Dragon 'Back on Track' · Tesla Shows Off ...

Messaging app Line passes 200 million users
CNET
The 2-year-old mobile messaging and sticker app, immensely popular in Asian countries, is now trying to take over the rest of the world. . . .

Tango Messaging App Targeted by Syrian Electronic Army
PC Magazine
The Tango messaging service is the latest victim of the Syrian Electronic Army (SEA), which breached the company's databases last week and accessed user information. "The Syrian Electronic Army hacked the Tango app (video/text messages service) ...

Hands-on: LittleSnapper becomes Ember, with powerful collection features
Macworld
The word “scrapbooking” may conjure visions of arts-and-crafts sessions for children with paper, scissors, and glue. But if you've ever done research for a project that required you to save data like images, videos, and webpages from different sources, you're ...

Canary soars past Indiegogo goal in hours for 'smart' home security device
VentureBeat
Canary is a device the size of a soda can that can keep your home secure. The company launched an Indiegogo campaign today and is already close to doubling its $100,000 goal. Canary is sleek piece of hardware ...

Ford offers technology to help protect police officers at night
DailyTech
Ford has announced that it has new surveillance mode technology integrated into its Ford Police Interceptor that is designed to warn police officers of unexpected approaches from the back of their vehicle. The new protection technology uses existing driver ...

New microchips mimic the human brain in real time
Science Recorder
New microchips mimic the human brain in real time. The researchers demonstrated for the first time how a real-time hardware neural-processing system where the user controls the behavior is a feasible endeavor. New microchips mimic the human brain in ...

Smell Ya Later: Corpse Flower in its Death Throes
LiveScience.com
WASHINGTON — A corpse flower in its death throes doesn't smell like a corpse at all. A titan arum (or "corpse flower") housed here at the U.S. Botanic Garden Conservatory has been smelling up its exhibition hall to the delight of thousands of visitors since ...

Neutrinos caught in evasive behavior
Science News
Neutrinos have been caught switching identities. The indisputable detection is a first, physicists announced July 19 at the European Physical Society meeting in Stockholm. Neutrinos, wispy neutral particles that barely interact with anything, come in three ...

UK Prime Minister Blocks Access to Pornography
ABC News
In a fight to combat children's access to pornography and the existence of child pornography on the Internet, British Prime Minister David Cameron has announced a series of new steps, including having Internet providers in the country automatically block ...

Windows isn't dying, it's just becoming irrelevant
ZDNet (blog)
Summary: Just as the stone ax gave way to one made of bronze, the Windows-powered PC must now give way to better, more customized, more refined tools....

Alaska's boreal forests burning more with climate change
Los Angeles Times
The largest U.S. wildfires in the last decade of record-breaking blazes have been in the wilds of Alaska, where fires have blackened more than a half-million acres at a time. A new study predicts more of the same for North America's boreal forests, the Far ...

The Military Will Give Up Wireless Spectrum To Telcos. But When?
Wall Street Journal (blog)
Philip Cusick, an analyst at JP Morgan, thinks it could be years before carriers are actually using the spectrum. The earliest, he thinks, is 2016 or 2017. Other analysts also are wary. “The process ahead is unlikely to be a walk in the park,” said Jeffrey S. Silva, ...

Robots Gain Glow Skin
Inventorspot
Human skin dosen't light up when you touch it. Though you can get one heck of a reaction out of people if you touch them when they have a sun burn, but if you want real light up skin you are going to have try a robot. A team of researchers at the University of ...

SanDisk announces two wireless flash-based storage devices
TechSpot
SanDisk on Monday announced two flash-based multimedia Wi-Fi drives, the Connect Wireless Media Drive and the Connect Wireless Flash Drive. Both devices are battery powered and function as a portable storage device as well as a mobile multimedia ...

IBM gooses 'business class' mainframes with z12 engines
Register
IBM's System z mainframe business has recovered somewhat after stalling and not meeting expectations in the first quarter, and Big Blue is going to try to build some momentum by shipping a new line of midrange-class mainframes that sport lower prices than ...

Verizon leapfrogs Comcast with new 500 Mbps tier
Communications, Engineering & Design Magazine
Verizon Communications has boosted its fastest data tier to 500 Mbps on the downstream and 100 upstream, which tops Comcast's fastest tier of 305/65. The new 500 Mbps tier, which is available to residential and business customers in some areas of ...

Climate change could mean extinction for Iberian lynx in 50 years
Los Angeles Times
The world's most endangered feline species may become extinct in the wild within 50 years, researchers say, a victim of climate change. A new report projects that Iberian lynx could become the first cat species in at least 2,000 years to become extinct, ...

Bay Area Divers in Close Encounter with Humpback Whales
NBC Bay Area
It's not something many of us will ever experience: almost being swallowed by a whale. But that's exactly what happened to a couple guys not far from the Bay Area. Marla Tellez reports. Bay Area Divers in Close Encounter...

Leap motion controller now shipping, coming to Best Buy on July 28
TechSpot
The Leap Motion 3D gesture controller is now shipping following an unexpected delay. It was initially scheduled to ship on May 13, but CEO Michael Buckwald said back in April they simply needed more time to test the device before deploying it in the wild.

Intel Corporation (INTC) Ups Effort In Low Power Server Markets
ValueWalk
Stifel released a research note on Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), based on an event hosted by the chipmaker “Reimagine the Data Center” event. According to Stifel, Intel provided more information on its low-power server roadmap for 2013 and 2014.
more technology news below



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