Honor the Fallen this Memorial Day

Facebook app asks that you give up your status to honor a fallen soldier this Memorial Day.

Memorial Day traces its roots back to Decoration Day in 1868, a commemoration of the fallen Union soldiers in the Civil War. Eventually, the day would come to be known as Memorial Day and honor the fallen in the many wars that have been fought and continue to be fought.

On this day, there are undoubtedly many things that you can do. Someone sent us a link to this Memorial Day app on Facebook. You decide what works for you, but we thought it isn't that much of a sacrifice to give up your Facebook status today at 3 pm. The app comes from The White House Commission on Remembrance.

Source: TG Daily

New Kindle Expected This Summer, Touch Possible Later

Amazon could release a new slimmer Kindle in August, Bloomberg News reports, citing “two people familiar with its plans.”

Bloomberg reports that the new Kindle would be thinner than existing models and although the next model would still offer a black and white screen, it would have a sharper and more responsive display.

The Kindle 2 is 0.36 inches thick. The Apple iPad, a rival device, is half an inch thick.

Although Bloomberg said the next Kindle “won’t include a touch screen or color,” a person I’ve spoken with who is familiar with Amazon’s plans but is not authorized to speak publicly said Lab 126, the division of Amazon responsible for the Kindle, is hard at work on multi-touch prototypes for a next-generation e-reader.

As we reported earlier this year, Amazon bought TouchCo, a company in New York that specialized in clear multi-touch overlays for computers and electronic readers.

Rumors that the next iteration of the device will still be black-and-white also might be short-lived. As I reported earlier this year, the Kindle job board had been seeking engineers with an understanding of color LCD displays that could possibly be integrated into the next generation of the Kindle.

In addition, earlier this week, Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s chief executive, told shareholders that a color screen was in the offing. “I’ve seen some stuff in the laboratory, but it’s not quite ready for prime-time production,” Mr. Bezos said.

Competition in the e-reader space has been heating up for the last year and promises to bring even more players fighting for their share. On Thursday Nicholas Negroponte, who started the One Laptop Per Child Project, which hopes to place inexpensive laptops in schools around the world, announced that he was teaming with Marvell, an electronics maker, to create a $75 tablet device that will offer a full computer and e-reading capabilities.

In addition, Google hopes to enter the tablet computing and e-reader market this year, introducing a device that would offer similar capabilities as Apple’s iPad and would most likely run the Android operating system.

It is still unclear if Amazon plans to keep its next-generation Kindle as a device solely for reading, or if it will add computing capabilities to compete with a growing genre of tablet PCs that offer reading, games and full access to the Internet.

Source: The New York Times

Apple TV makeover looming?

Is Apple TV about to move beyond its experimental "hobby" phase?

According to what some anonymous sources have told Engadget, the answer is yes.

On Friday, the gadget blog posted a report of what sounds like a detailed makeover of Apple TV in its current incarnation. The new device will reportedly be based on iPhone OS 4 software, including the homegrown A4 chip; have 16GB of local flash storage; come in a much smaller casing (reportedly the size of an "iPhone without a screen"); have just a few ports; and cost $99.

(Credit: Apple)

It's also supposedly going to stream 1080p video from the cloud directly to the device, instead of buying and storing all content locally.

Apple TV currently uses a stripped-down version of Mac OS X, comes with a 160GB hard drive, and looks like a standard set-top box for the living room. And it currently costs $229. So the new rumored device would be quite a departure from the current hardware and software.

But it would be a good departure. What's described above is basically what people have been asking for. Plus, with the rise of Netflix, customers have gotten far more comfortable with streaming content rather than owning it.

What these sources are saying also lines up with what CNET reported in March: that Apple had approached major film studios about enabling iTunes customers to store their content on its servers.

The plan included being able to access movies and TV content from a variety of Web-connected devices. We also know Apple bought streaming Web music site Lala.com in December because it wanted access to the service's streaming technology.

Again, the report comes from anonymous sources, but it's believable. Especially since rival Google is marshaling its own hardware partners to push into the living room with Google TV.

Source: Cnet

Skype 2.0 for iPhone enables free calls over 3G -- for now

Several months after AT&T relaxed its restrictions on the ability of voice-over-IP apps to make calls over the company’s 3G network, Skype has released version 2.0 of its client software for the iPhone.

The only major feature introduced by the update is support for calling over 3G networks, which the software maker had been promising at least since last February. While many of its competitors have already made the necessary changes to enable 3G calling, Luxembourg-based Skype has taken a more deliberate approach to the process so that it could include support for its SILK codec, which delivers near-CD quality and can compensate for network latency to offer the best call quality possible.

While the news of the app’s availability is likely to be welcome by iPhone users, the fact that it will eventually come at a price may not be. According to the release notes that accompany the update, Skype-to-Skype calling over 3G is currently free, but only until August, when an as yet unspecified “small monthly fee” will kick in.

While the company currently charges customers for calls to the public switched phone network, calls between two Skype users have so far been completely free on both desktop and mobile clients (and will, presumably, remain to do so on the iPhone, too, as long as they occur over Wi-Fi). The new fee could signal that Skype’s new owners, led by investor group Silver Lake, are looking at new ways to monetize the telephony service to improve its performance after it floundered under eBay’s leadership.

Skype 2.0 for iPhone, which also includes a few minor bug fixes and performance improvements, requires iPhone OS 3.0 or later and works on iPod touch, iPhone and iPad in iPhone-compatibility mode.

Source : Macworld

Google Me: Managing Reputation Brings Ad Targeting Opportunities

At one time people called the act of Googling yourself on a search engine a vanity search or ego-surfing. Now it's a matter of self-preservation. The practice has long been a part of managing brand reputation, but individuals have learned the value of keeping track of information being collected and posted online about them, too. A study released this week could give advertisers insight into targeting paid search and display ads through behavior and social graphs.

The Pew Research Center looks at U.S. adults who use search engines to track their online reputations, especially as they learn how to control privacy setting and delete unwanted information about themselves online.

The survey released this week takes into account roughly 2,250 telephone and mobile phone interviews between Aug. 18 and Sept. 14, 2009. Fifty seven percent of adult Internet users admit they had used a search engine to look up their names and see what information was available about them online, up from 47% in 2006. In the latest survey, 70% of Internet users with a college degree had conducted a search for their name compared with just 43% of those with a high school degree or less.

Advertisers should look at the rise of people managing reputation through self-searches and the increase in personalization from search engines as another opportunity to support targeted paid search campaign, something the Pew study does not discuss. The searches also provide a link to target and serve up display ads based on a person's social graph because not only do they conduct self-searches, but searches on the names of others, too.

When self-searchers query their name using a search engine, 63% say they find at least some relevant information connected to their name, compared with 35% who say their queries do not return relevant results. Monitoring the digital footprints of others has also become much more common. Forty six percent of Internet users search online to find information about people from their past, up from 36% in 2006. Similarly, 38% have sought information about friends, up from 26% in 2006. Interestingly, few who conduct self searches make a steady habit of monitoring their presence online.

The study notes "personal information has become a form of currency that is shared and exchanged in the social market¬place," and it points to several major trends spurring growth in activities related to online reputation management.

For starters, recent changes in the default settings associated with Facebook and the launch of Google Buzz have prompted heated public debates on how much information is too much to share. Depending on your age, of course, that opinion differs.

Internet users under age 50 consistently surpass older online adults in their self-searching habits. In 2009, 65% of young adult Internet users ages 18-29 said they had searched for results connected to their name online, up from 49% in 2006. Likewise, 61% of Internet users ages 30-49 said they were self-searchers, up from 54% in 2006.

By comparison, 47% of Internet users ages 50-64 have used a search engine to check up on the results tied to their name, up from 39% in 2006. Forty five percent of those ages 65 and older, use search engines to look up results connected to their names.

Since your online identity reflects your employer, one in four employed adults say the company they work for has policies about how they present themselves online in blogs and Web sites comments. Twenty five percent of employed adults participating in the survey say their company has a policy, up from 20% in December 2006.

Thirty two percent of college grads say they work for companies that have rules about how they present themselves on the Internet, compared with just 18% of high school grads. Similarly, 29% of employed adults living in households earning $75,000 or more per year work for companies with such policies, compared with just 18% of those living in households earning less than $30,000 per year.

Source: Mediapost Blogs

Guinness Goes Digital on the iPad

One of the world’s best-selling copyrighted books, which has bucked the downward trend in the publishing industry in recent years, has gone digital on the iPad after avoiding other e-readers.

Guinness World Records

Julia Gnuse, the world’s most tattooed woman

Guinness World Records, formerly known as the Guinness Book of World Records, was showcased as an iPad app this week at Book Expo America and is currently available for download, with an iPhone app expected to be approved shortly.

The free app features a full array of color photos and literally eye-popping videos of the world’s record holders – including the world’s longest dog tongue, the world’s hairiest family, and the woman with the most popped-out eye.

The lack of color ink on e-readers is one of key reasons that Guinness World Records held off on publishing a digital edition previously, according to Sam Fay, the company’s senior vice president of sales and marketing.

“We met with Amazon two years ago,” says Ms. Fay, “but the black and white format just wouldn’t work for us. So we thought we’d wait until a device with color capabilities came out.”

The Guinness Book of World Records was first published in 1955 and was composed mainly of text, with only 10 photos. In the 1970s, the book evolved into a full color picture book, granting readers more visuals of the world’s most tattooed man, the world’s longest fingernails, and countless other categories of world record holders.

Last year, 3.5 million hard copies of the book were sold world-wide, a slight increase from the 3.4 million sold in 2008.

“In a recession, people hark back to nostalgic things, like going to the cinema, or making crafts at home,” Ms. Fay says. “We think the book’s historical perennial content is what’s appealing to people.”

The Guinness World Record iPad app is somewhat limited in its coverage of the world’s record holders, and is only meant to offer a taste of the content offered in the hard copy. The app has only eight categories, including tallest, fastest, most expensive, and strangest. The last category is a virtual version of the Guinness World Records Gamers Edition, which was first released as a hard copy last year. The Gamers Edition offers lists of the top selling games in hardcore video gaming, mobile gaming, and online gaming.

Guinness World Records plans to introduce paid versions of the app this November that offer more gaming and interactivity, and say the price point will likely stay below $1.99. Users will even be able to compete for world record titles within the app.

“Right now, you can compete for the world record for the fastest Mr. Potato Head builder. We’d like to take that kind of concept and offer it in the digital format,” says Ms. Fay.

Source: The Wall street Journal

Holiday Inn to test smartphone as hotel-room key; some guests prefer to skip front desk

InterContinental Hotels Group next month will begin testing new technology at two Holiday Inns that lets guests use their smartphones to unlock their hotel-room door, Hotel Check-In has learned. IHG figures that many guests today already carry smartphones and some would enjoy the freedom to avoid the front desk.

"The holy grail item for us is to simplify the room-key hand-off moment at the hotel," IHG exec Bryson Koehler told me Friday. IHG thinks that the smartphone just might be the answer.

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"The proliferation of smartphones is growing in such a way that we have to look at what people are already bringing with them to make their stay more enjoyable," he said. "We don't need to burden people with additional items; it just clutters up their lives. The beauty of the smart phone is that they've already got it."

Starwood is taking a different path. At its Aloft Hotel in Lexington, Mass., where the company tests various new technologies, Starwood earlier this year gave participating travelers an Aloft-branded card that contains radio frequency identification, or RFID technology, to unlock doors. (Read more here.)

IHG's looking at RFID technology as well, but Koehler said that a this point he favors the smartphone technology - created by a company called Open Ways - because it's more convenient. The technology will work with most phones including the iPhone, Blackberry and Android phone.

Which IHG hotels will let me try out this technology?

IHG's getting ready to launch the test at the Holiday Inn Chicago O' Hare Rosemont and the Holiday Inn Express Houston Downtown Convention Center.

It will run a minimum of 60-90 days, but Koehler isn't promising when it will end. It could last through December. "We're staying very flexible on purpose as we see what the feedback is," he said.

Before the June launch, IHG still must finish building a special website where participating guests will go to register so they can receive confirmation emails. To join IHG's trial, participants will first need to download an Open Ways app on to their phone. Guests ultimately will call up the confirmation email on their smartphone and hold it up to a sensor on the door to unlock it.

If it works, the Open Ways app can work at any hotel, Koehler said. If rolled out more broadly among Holiday Inn hotels, only about 20% of a hotel's rooms would be equipped with special keyless door locks because it would be a choice for guests that would cost the hotel owner money, he said.

"We see this as an option: 'Do you want an Open Ways-enabled room?' If so, click the box," he said. "That way we can span the Baby Boomer who doesn't have the enabled phone to the Millenial who just wants to walk in and not talk to anybody."

Source: HOTELCheck-In

Sprint HTC EVO

The new Sprint HTC EVO sports some of the nicest hardware you can find on any mobile device on the market and boasts some of the burliest specs we've ever seen in a phone (4G finally!). What's more, it's just drop-dead gorgeous; the kind of thing that compels others to ask about it when you take it out of your pocket.

So the EVO's greatest draw is its 4G WiMax compatibility. How did it work? Uh ... we don't know. We tested the phone in San Francisco, which is not currently wired for 4G. If you're considering the EVO for its data-processing chops, take a look at where 4G is currently deployed.

However, it did do far better with 3G than our iPhone. We took the phone to three different locations in San Francisco where AT&T has coverage holes, and in every case, had a 3G data connection (sometimes slow) while our iPhone wouldn't even make calls. While this may be less of an issue in areas where AT&T delivers the coverage it advertises, those who suffer its inadequate network will be happy to know there's a robust alternative.

On the hardware front, the giant 4.3-inch display makes the iPhone and Nexus One feel dinky in comparison, yet it remains small and light enough to slip easily into a pocket. It flaunts an 8-megapixel camera (with flash) on the back, along with a 1.3-megapixel sensor adorning the front. This dual-screen action allows you to preview pics in order to take well-framed self portraits of yourself and your pals.

The camera also shoots 720p video — it won't replace your HD camcorder, but it's a fantastic shooter to have in your pocket. A kickstand in the back lets you stand it up like a television, while an HDMI port lets you connect it to a TV. The 1-GHZ Snapdragon processor feels faster than the Indy 500 while the phone seemingly has more antennas than your average police car, with 3G, 4G (WiMax), Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, FM and GPS connectivity.

All those antennas are put to good use. The navigation system is on par with or better than most standalone GPS units. Moreover, the phone feels designed for the internet from the get-go. On launch, it walks you through setting up your Google, Facebook, Twitter and other social media accounts. It imported our Facebook and Google contacts into the phone in seconds, and thanks to Google Voice integration, we were able to use an existing number. We also loved the ability to tether the phone. In just three clicks, you can set up a Wi-Fi connection to send internet to your computer.

Our only real hardware complaint is that the OLED display could bit brighter and crisper — it looks slightly fuzzy next to an iPhone — and we noticed some odd cyclical dimming effects when reading long blocks of text on web pages.

The overall interface is excellent, easily one of the most user-friendly of all the Android phones we've laid hands on. When we handed the phone off to a user who had never before tried Android, she was immersed in seconds and able to do e-mail, surf the internet and tweet without instruction. It's worth noting that the phone does not ship with the newly announced Froyo (2.2) version of Android, however HTC has announced that it intends to update phones released in 2010 with that version of the OS.

Our major quibble is that the battery on the EVO is shorter-lived than a plotline in a Seth McFarland show. A typical use situation gave us about 6 hours of battery life. After driving around town to test the GPS and 3G signals we ran out of juice in just over 4 hours. The situation was even worse when we flipped on the 4G antenna. In short, it won't make it through the day without a recharge. While the battery on the EVO is replaceable, so you can carry a spare, we look forward to a day when smartphone battery life is reasonably matched to power consumption.

Overall, we loved this phone. The hardware is smart and well-appointed, the interface is pleasant and straightforward, and it just plain worked. In short, it felt like a call from the future; one not dropped by AT&T.

WIRED Fantastic camera. Blazing fast internet. More connection options than Grand Central Station. Slick user interface easy for novices, yet allows power users to get their nerd on. Dead-simple tethering. Touchscreen keyboard offers ample space, even for fat-fingered types. Seamless connection with social networks gives it an old-friend feel right out of box.

TIRED 4G coverage spottier than an oil-stained Louisiana beach. Odd dimness issues with display. Android cut/copy/paste so poor you'd do better rekeying. Battery life shorter than Verne Troyer.

Source : WIRED

Human Computer Viruses, Yikes!

Human Computer Viruses: Mark Gasson, a British scientist, was wondering what would happen if the computer chips in surgically implanted prosthetics got computer viruses — so, he infected himself with a computer virus to see. Sound funny? No one is going to thinks it’s funny when computer virus on a wireless network can kill you. It may sound like science fiction, trust me, it isn’t.

Flexible Video Screens: Sony unveiled a new flexible organic video screen that you can roll around a pencil and unroll when you need it. Commercial products are a few years away, but start thinking about sheets of paper that play video.

Warner Bros Piracy Twist: From the “are you kidding” department, Warner Bros, and other film companies, may have pirated the technology they use to help identify pirated media. A Swiss technology company is suing them for unauthorized use of their anti-piracy code. Warner Bros had no comment. Wow, you really can’t make this stuff up.

This news is from ShellyPalmer

Amazon and Penguin reach book price agreement

On Wednesday, a settlement was reached between retailer Amazon.com and book publisher Penguin regarding electronic book prices. Under the agreement, Penguin will again make its books available through Amazon in the e-book format. Penguin CEO David Shanks affirmed that, "Our differences have been resolved, and a full selection of Penguin books will be available on the Kindle.”

Penguin stopped selling new e-books in April, a move which affected about 150 titles. At the time, Amazon responded by pricing various Penguin hardcover books at a low $9.99. Publishers complained about the effect of the low price on the mindset of book consumers. Companies were concerned that they would be forced to lower their wholesale prices as a result. In January, Amazon removed Macmillan books from its website after the latter attempted to set higher prices for the e-books than the $9.99 price set by Amazon.

A new model for e-book pricing was introduced with the launch of the iPad in April. Under the “agency model,” the e-book seller receives 30 percent of the digital price and the publisher receives 70 percent. The model allowed e-books to be sold through Apple’s iBookstore at prices such as $12.99 and $14.99. Penguin is owned by the London-based company, Pearson. Following the announcement on Wednesday, shares of Pearson rose 6 cents to $13.51, while shares of Amazon dropped 77 cents to $124.09.

This news is from Technology Digital

Bartz: Yahoo has pride, but still needs work

Yahoo once again has pride in its company, said CEO Carol Bartz Wednesday, just after outlining the dozens of ways in which the company needs to improve.

Investors and their Wall Street representatives are gathered in Sunnyvale, Calif., Wednesday for an investor day that was closed to the press, but available via Webcast. Yahoo's stock has gone on quite the roller-coaster ride over the past 12 months but as of Wednesday, it's almost exactly where it was a year ago. So how is Yahoo going to fix that issue?

Will games like Farmville help Yahoo improve the amount of time users spend on its site?

(Credit: Zynga)

By modernizing its technology and improving the amount of time that its users spend on its site, Bartz said, in a performance that would have disappointed George Carlin. That will involve serving up better content across its media properties, adding social-networking features into Yahoo Mail, and overhauling its back-end ad serving systems to make sure its customers can serve the "right ad at the right time" to its users, she said.

Yahoo made a splash right off the bat by announcing a partnership with Zynga, makers of social games like Farmville and Mafia Wars on Facebook. Users will be able to play those games on Yahoo's pages while still being able to share updates "across multiple social experiences," according to the press release, in a coy way of referring to Facebook.

Bartz was less shy about acknowledging the rapid growth of Facebook, which recently surpassed Yahoo in terms of the number of ads it serves (although Yahoo's display-ad revenue is still higher).

"There's really three big guys" on the Web right now: Google, Yahoo, and Facebook, Bartz said. Google is search, Yahoo is content, and Facebook is social, in the way Bartz sees the world. And "there's a place for all of us on the Web."

So while the Zynga partnership will give Yahoo a better social experience, improving its content is what really drives engagement across Yahoo's site. Yahoo is doing that through more ways to personalize the Yahoo experience and offering up more content choices through its acquisition of Associated Content last week, Bartz said.

None of it matters without quality ads, however. Yahoo is in the process of updating its ad-serving technology in hopes of matching ads and advertisers with users in a faster and more comprehensive way, which should lead to better returns for those advertisers and eventually, higher prices.

All of this has been part of Yahoo's standard pitch for several months, after Bartz settled into her role and cleaned house, and investors may not be excited to keep hearing the same promises over and over. But there's one key difference between now and last year, Bartz said.

"Yahoo has its focus, it is excited about its future, and it has its pride back. I think you'll see that by the end of the year," she said. Executives will spend much of the day reviewing Yahoo's businesses, focusing on ads, the search deal with Microsoft, and the first official appearance of new product guru Blake Irving.

This news is from cnet

Facebook unveils Simpler Privacy Setting

After facing criticism for introducing the 'Instant Personalization' feature that altered Facebook users' privacy settings, Facebook started tightening up the security on its site and has announced new, simpler Privacy Setting features. Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, in a blog post on the official Facebook blog, noted that the new changes will make privacy controls a lot simpler. These changes would be introduced in the coming weeks.

Facebook had tightened security after facing heat from users and critiques. Zuckerberg, in the blog post, states that the new privacy settings focus on three things: single control for user's content, more powerful control of user's basic information and easy control for turning off applications. Firstly, users would get a simpler control pane wherein they'd be able to choose who can view the content posted.

Bear in mind that these new privacy settings will be directly applicable on the future 'products' that Facebook plans to introduce. The major highlights of these new control options would be:

Simpler controls for assigning viewing permissions for everything user publishes in Facebook and would be applicable to future postings.

Easy way to determine who can find you on Facebook and which details would be visible to them.

Settings to opt out sharing Friend Lists and Pages the user likes.

Easy way to turn off Facebook Platform and features like Instant Personalization and offering information to third-party sites.

These new controls would surely make it simple for users to set their privacy as per their choice but looks like Instant Personalization would stay set as 'On' by default. For better and detailed explanation on how these new privacy settings would work, visit the Privacy Settings Explanation page on Facebook.

This news is from techtree

Green Day: Rock Band Demo, available on Xbox Live & PSN today!

While Rock Band (and games of that ilk) are without a doubt not as popular as they were just a couple of years ago, many gamers are still anticipating the release of Green Day: Rock Band, due out next month for the Xbox 360, Ps3, and Wii.

Well, as of today, your wait for this games release just got a little easier, as Harmonix and MTV Games made a demo of Green Day: Rock Band, available for download on both Xbox Live, and Sony’s Playstation Network Store.

The free demo features full, playable versions of “Welcome To Paradise” and “Boulevard of Broken Dreams”.

Green Day: Rock Band, features full integration of motion capture band performances and the three-part harmony technology first introduced in last year’s award-winning The Beatles: Rock Band.

This news is from Blast Magazine

Google offers option to block analytics

Google is endorsing a browser plug-in which blocks the company's own analytics tool.

The search giant said that users looking to protect their data from the Google analytics engine should download and install the company's 'opt-out' browser add-on.

The add-on, which is compatible with the Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome browsers, will prevent the Google Analytics Javascript tool from harvesting data about systems that visit a website equipped with the tool.

Additionally, the company is offering a tool to developers that anonymises the IP addresses of users who visit the site, preventing user data from being logged by the Analytics tool.

"We’ve worked hard to make Google Analytics both a robust and reliable web analytics platform while also ensuring the trust and privacy of visitors of these websites," said Google analytics product management director Amy Chang in a blog posting.

"We’re committed to Google Analytics as an industry-leading web analytics platform that also provides users with transparency and choice when it comes to privacy."

This news is from v3.co.uk

Facebook unveils simpler privacy controls to spur sharing

Facebook simplified privacy settings on Wednesday in response to sustained criticism over previous changes that has reached a crescendo in recent weeks.

The changes introduce a one-click control for content. Users can choose to share content on Facebook with friends, friends of friends, or everyone. The social network has retained granular controls for those who want to customise these settings, with controls moved over onto a single page.

Users can now restrict access to their personal connections (friends and pages, which are replacing lists of interests, universities attended etc.) on Facebook to a circle of friends, if they desire. A person's name and picture will always be available to everyone, as before, to aid searching. The social network also promised to carry over users presets when it introduces new products, something it conspicuously failed to do with the privacy roll-back it applied last December, the last time the social network made major privacy changes.

In response to criticism, Facebook has made it much simpler to turn off features that allow the sharing of data with third-party websites. Screenshots illustrating the new controls can be found here. All this seems well and good but the devil may well lie in the details.

Some security commentators have already criticised the opt-out approach to changes once again adopted by Facebook. Others have described the revised policy as seemingly impressive but low on actual protection, something Ed Felten describes as "privacy theatre".

A seemingly nervous Facebook chief exec Mark Zuckerberg announced the changes at a press conference on Wednesday. "We're simplifying controls and putting them all in one place," he explained.

The complexity of Facebook's privacy controls, previously featuring 50 privacy settings and 170 privacy options, as well as the gradual erosion of privacy safeguards on Facebook over the last years have featuring prominent in criticisms of the site by privacy activists, regulators, and in the media in recent weeks. Zuckerberg admitted there were far too many controls, arguing that this made people uncomfortable in sharing information with contacts. "When people have control over what they share, they want to share more," he said.

The escalating row over the privacy roll-back last December that witnessed previously shielded information becoming open by default was joined by a fresh barney over Facebook's plans to share user information automatically with "pre-approved" websites in recent weeks.

Zuckerberg restated his previous admission that errors were made with previous privacy changes. He repeatedly said that he wanted to encourage people to share more information but said this wasn't because it suited Facebook's commercial interests.

The line was that advertisers may target ads to people according to certain demographics, but they receive only anonymous data reports (except on the small number of occasions when things go wrong).

"It doesn't matter who you share information with it doesn't affect ads," Zuckerberg said. "In fact, by pushing data portability, we're doing the complete opposite and helping other websites to sell ads."

Zuckerberg concluded that the latest privacy overhaul would be the last for a long (unspecified) time.

Facebook has a long history of making changes to the site that irk the privacy sensitive, including its Beacon advertising system in 2007 and its earlier Newsfeed feature, which critics initially described as a gift for stalkers.

During a question and answer session with journalists, Zuckerberg said the uproar created by Newsfeed involved numerically fewer aggrieved parties but more aggressive opposition, featuring demonstrations outside Facebook's headquarters, than the latest protests.

Significantly, despite all the buzz in the blogsphere about quitting Facebook in protest at its privacy-eroding ways, Zuckerburg maintained the growth of the site had been unaffected by the latest protests.

Facebook's new privacy guide can be found here. The changes will be rolled out to to Facebook's 400 millions users starting on Wednesday in a process that is likely to take a few weeks.

This news is from The Register

Nokia shows off a new ad hoc smartphone Wi-Fi network solution that enables instant sharing and chat

A few months ago, Apple filed a patent for "iGroups for iPhone", a new social app / service that the company is currently developing. The idea is to allow groups of friends or colleagues attending such events as a concert, a tradeshow, business meeting, wedding or rally to stay in communication with each other as a group to share information or reactions to live events as they're occurring.

Nokia has now put together a demonstration of a new platform that aims to accomplish something similar by for instance utilizing smartphones' Wi-Fi connectivity. With Nokia Instant Community, users will in the future for instance be able to create an ad hoc smartphone Wi-Fi network that enables instant sharing and chatting.

It doesn't look like Instant Community will initially take it as far as iGroups, which will likely go far in competing with various Web services, but for instant sharing and chatting, all you should need is people around you, and their Wi-Fi enabled smartphones.

That said, given Instant Community is an open platform, Nokia aims to let third-party developers take this platform to new levels. This basically means that we should see a lot of innovative solutions based on the Instant Community platform down the road. Here's a video demonstration of the early stages of Nokia Instant Community.

This news is from Infosync

Has the 8GB iPhone 3G been discontinued?

As of Tuesday morning, the 8GB iPhone 3G is no longer for sale on Apple's Web site.

To be clear, that's the 2-year-old iPhone 3G, not the year-old iPhone 3GS. But Apple has been offering a steep discount on the 3G since last year and now it appears customers no longer have the option to buy it online at all. Apple hasn't responded to a request for comment about it.

But this isn't very surprising. Apple is widely expected to introduce a new iPhone at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference on June 7, an event that's now just a few weeks away. It's very likely that once the new iPhone hits stores, the iPhone 3GS will take the 3G's place as the discount model phone.

The clues that a new phone is imminent have begun to pile up: Wal-Mart announced it is cutting the price on the 16GB iPhone 3GS to $97, an indication that the retailer is trying to blow out its stock of the device to make room for new products. Earlier Tuesday there were reports that Apple was casting for a new iPhone commercial. And last week came a report that one of Apple's contract manufacturers was in the process of fulfilling a huge order for iPhones.

Of course there was also the photo evidence from the lost iPhone episode. Last month, Gizmodo purchased and published photos of what is thought to be a prototype of the next iPhone from a man who found it in a bar after it was left behind by an Apple engineer.

This news is from CNET

When It Comes to PR, Facebook Does Know What a Real ‘Friend’ Is

Facebook will be rolling out its promised “simplified” privacy controls to its users starting Wednesday, Facebook vice president Chris Cox announced Tuesday.

Cox made the announcement from the stage at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in New York City.

The venue is hardly surprising and in keeping with Facebook’s recent reliance on sympathetic media outlets to combat the backlash against its overweening ambitions and abysmal privacy practices. TechCrunch’s founder and head Michael Arrington recently came to the company’s defense, chastising the media for being too hard on Mark Zuckerberg.

On Monday, the Washington Post gave the company free space on its Op-Ed page to write a nearly content-free post on how it was listening to users. In fact, the company is promising little to its users and seems set to continue its new practice of turning over user data to third parties without getting prior permission.

Coincidentally, Washington Post publisher Donald Graham is on Facebook’s board and is a mentor to Zuckerberg. As Ryan Tate at Valleywag puts it: “An opinion piece in one of the nation’s most prestigious newspapers carries more moral authority than a blog post on Facebook.com,” and that Graham has been a sort of “press consigliere for the startup founder.”

The closest the company has come to apologizing came the day before in a Sunday e-mail from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to the corporate-blogger-for-hire Robert Scoble. In it, Zuckerberg admitted to “making many mistakes.” Scoble is notorious for trying to gain as many followers as he can on any social network — and his main complaint about Facebook is that he thinks it should have no privacy at all.

In fact, after getting the e-mail, Scoble put a hand-wringing post entitled When Do You Throw a CEO’s Privacy Under the Bus,” worrying that publishing the e-mail from his “friend” would ruin his future relationship with Zuckerberg.

Meanwhile, over the weekend, NPR ran two different segments on Facebook’s woes (On the Media and All Things Considered) — both of which this reporter participated in — and the company declined to participate. Perhaps that’s because when Facebook officials get put on the spot — as the company’s public policy head Tim Sparapani was on a radio show last week, the company’s arrogance shines through.

For instance, Sparapani called the company’s new initiatives an “extraordinary gift to the public,” a statement that tech blogger Danny Sullivan called an “extraordinary rewriting of history.”

Wired.com asked Facebook to comment on its choice of outlets by e-mail, but the company did not respond.

This news is from EPICENTER

6 million to flee AT&T for Verizon iPhone?

AT&T (T) could lose 40% -- or 6 million of its estimated 15 million iPhone customers -- when and if Apple (AAPL) makes a model of its smartphone that runs on Verizon's (VZ) cellular network, according to a note to clients issued Tuesday by Davenport & Company' Drake Johnstone.

But several factors mitigate against a wholesale migration:

Sticky plans. AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega told an audience at a J.P. Morgan event last week that 80% of his customers are on family-talk or business-discount plans, which are notoriously hard to unravel.

Termination fees. Starting June 1, AT&T is raising its iPhone ETF (early termination fee) from $175 to $325 -- a penalty that is reduced $10 every month of a two-year contract. That's lower than Verizon's $350 ETF, but it still means you pay $95 if you leave AT&T even just one month before the end of your contract.

Improved service. Those dropped calls and sluggish downloads aren't quite as bad as they were 12 months ago since AT&T has scrambled to beef up its wireless network in major U.S. cities. But the carrier is running out of time. Johnstone -- like many analysts -- believes Verizon will get the iPhone in 2011. There are rumors that it could happen a lot sooner than that.

This news is from Fortune

Nokia and Yahoo forge maps and e-mail deal

Starting in the second half of this year, Yahoo will host Nokia's Ovi email on phones exclusively and Nokia in turn will provide maps and navigation for Yahoo.

At a news conference in New York on Monday, the companies highlighted the importance of expanding services for users in emerging markets, for whom the phone is increasingly the primary device for using the Web.

Nokia is the leading handset vendor in many emerging markets, but it has struggled to grow in North America. Nokia Chief Executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said working more closely with Yahoo would help it compete in the United States.

"Location, maps and navigation will get more mind-share, will get more attention in the U.S. and many more users in the North American market," said Kallasvuo. "This is one step we're taking in making our position stronger in the U.S."

The role of mobile services and software has become much more important since Apple and Google entered the phone market, forcing traditional handset vendors like Nokia and Samsung to hurry to build up their offerings.

Nokia has splashed more than $10 billion in just a few years to build a new business by offering Internet services ranging from music downloads to e-mail, but these have so far won few paying customers.

Similarly, Yahoo has far less market cachet than Google, whose Android mobile operating system is used by many cellphone vendors from Motorola Inc to HTC Corp.

"One could always say the partnering of losers doesn't make a winner," said Pierre Ferragu, analyst at Bernstein Research.

"It is often true, but for Nokia, the right future that could lead to an interesting investment case is more about stabilizing its existing position and being successful in the mobile platform game, riding on the back of Apple and Google coattails only."

Neil Mawston, of the technology analysis firm Strategy Analytics, said in emailed comments to Reuters that the deal might help both Yahoo and Nokia to deliver some of their mobile services more efficiently and save on costs.

The deal could also be a first step toward closer cooperation between the two companies in mobile advertising further down the line, Mawston said.

Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz said the company had not invested sufficiently in its maps offering and hoped the partnership with Nokia would help it leap forward. "Yahoo lost its focus on maps a couple of years ago," she said.

Bartz said that while the Nokia deal was not an advertising partnership, the offer of improved location and navigation technology would help drive Yahoo's bid to build local advertising and marketing services for consumers.

"The ability to do local performance advertising is really on our radar screen," she said. "Having location combined with great local content is what our users are looking for."

The companies also said they would start to cooperate on access to services, beginning by making it easy for people to use Nokia's Ovi user credentials across select Yahoo services.

Last month, Yahoo also struck a deal with Samsung to put its services and software more prominently on cellphones of the world's second-largest cellphone company.

Shares in Nokia finished Monday's regular trading session down 0.5 percent, or 5 cents, at $10.02, while Yahoo's stock closed up 0.4 percent, or 6 cents at $15.54.

This news is from Reuters

Google: Android fragmentation isn't fragmentation

Google I/O Google Android project leader Andy Rubin isn't concerned about the fragmentation of the Android handset market. In fact, he doesn't even call it fragmentation.

Google's primary aim to ship new and improved Android devices as quickly as possible, and a natural by-product of this, Rubin says, is that the market will span myriad versions of the company's open source OS.

"Some of the press has called it fragmentation, but that's probably the wrong word for it," he told reporters last week at Google I/O, the company annual developer conference. "The better word for it is 'legacy.' With these phones and devices, the iteration cycle is incredibly fast. It used to be that every 18 months, a new device would reach the market. But we're seeing it happen every three or four months. The software obviously has to keep up and I don't think anyone is harmed by it.

"I think everybody wants this rapid iteration."

Google's Android setup does mean that some applications won't run on devices released just a few months before, Rubin says, but the Android marketplace will hide incompatible apps from the end user. "The marketplace — the store by which applications are distributed — does a really good job of pairing up the device capabilities that the user has with what's available for the device, so it's not like they'll see multiple versions of an application for the device."

In other words, they won't see what they're missing.

This may be slightly frustrating for someone who feels like they only just bought their phone, but it's a bigger issue for third party developers working to reach as large an audience as possible. As Google open source guru Chris DiBona put it after the launch of the company's Nexus One Android phone in January, life can be "a little hard" for Android developers. "Sometimes, they have to adapt," he said.

And developers will adapt, he added, so long as Android grabs a hefty market share. "This is going to sound really cynical, but the only thing that really matters is how many of these we ship — how many Android phones. There is a linear relationship between the number of phones you ship and the number of developers."

For Android developers, life is hard not just because there are so many versions of the OS to support, but because there's so little time to prepare for the latest version. Typically, a new version of Android hits the web just days before it turns up on commercial devices, and its SDK arrives no earlier.

Developers might have two weeks with the SDK before commercial devices arrive, and in the meantime, users are already loading the new version onto existing phones. This is the case, well, right now. Last week, Google released Android 2.2, codenamed Froyo. It's due on commercial devices in early June (i.e. next week), but users are already loading the new OS onto other phones, including the Nexus One, and Google is already slipping pre-loaded phones to VIPs. The company passed out around 5,000 Froyo phones at last week's conference.

Developers have complained about applications suddenly breaking in the wake of a new Android announcement, and when we asked the company if there were a way to get an SDK to developers sooner, Rubin said, well, it's a balancing act.

"It is generally our policy to make things available to developers first," Rubin said. "Developers would want a lot of time between it being made available to them and phones shipping and not just little of time, and we're trying to find that happy medium."

Again, Google is working to get new devices into the market as quickly as possible, and from where the company is sitting, the strategy is paying off. Mountain View now claims that 100,000 Android devices are sold and activated every day, and according to one outside research firm, stateside Androids outsold the iPhone in the first quarter.

This news is from The Register

Chrome 5 released, browser exits beta for Mac and Linux

Google announced today the official release of Chrome 5 for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. It arrives less than a month after Google made the new version available through its beta channel. This release reflects Chrome's rapid pace of evolution and Google's strong commitment to advancing Web technology and performance.

Chrome 5 brings significant performance improvements, including a major increase in JavaScript execution speed. It also brings support for important HTML5 features, including Web Sockets and drag-and-drop. The JavaScript acceleration and robust compatibility with emerging standards are important capabilities that will enable developers to write richer and more sophisticated Web applications.

Google has enhanced the browser's cloud synchronization framework, extending it to support browser preferences and themes in addition to bookmarks. Chrome 5 ships with the Flash plugin included by default, an addition that was made possible by Google's recent partnership with Adobe.

This release marks a significant milestone for the browser, because it is the first official stable release of Chrome for Mac and Linux. Chrome was previously only distributed for those platforms in the form of beta and developer builds.

"Since last December, we've been chipping away at bugs and building in new features to get the Mac and Linux versions caught up with the Windows version, and now we can finally announce that the Mac and Linux versions are ready for prime time," Google said in a statement on its official blog.

When Chrome was first launched in 2008, it was only available for the Windows operating system. Mac and Linux versions emerged the following year and quickly advanced towards parity with the Windows version.

Although building Chrome for Linux posed some early challenges, the developers were able to deliver an impressive port with native theming and a complete feature set. Chrome development now appears to be largely in sync across all three of the major operating systems. It seems likely that we can expect to see simultaneous cross-platform releases for subsequent versions.

Chrome and the open source Chromium variant are rapidly gaining traction on Linux and Mac OS X. Statistics from popular Linux websites such as OMG!Ubuntu show that Chrome and Chromium are collectively approaching almost 40 percent market share among Linux enthusiasts.

Chrome was a hot topic at the recent Ubuntu Developer Summit, which I attended earlier this month. The Ubuntu developer community elected to include Chromium as the default browser in the next major version of the Ubuntu Netbook Edition. The browser's excellent performance and highly responsive user interface make it an obvious choice for netbooks, but it won't displace Firefox yet as the default browser in the conventional desktop version of Ubuntu. One of Google's Chrome engineers attended the event and participated in the discussions.

Google intends to use Chrome as the centerpiece of its own Linux-based mobile operating system, which could potentially start appearing on devices later this year. The idea of a browser-centric Chrome OS seemed a bit far-fetched when it was first announced last year, but it's starting to look a lot more attractive as said browser matures.

This news is from ars technica

Dell's Streak readies for battle with iPad

The five-inch tablet will debut in Britain next month through mobile carrier O2, a unit of Spain's Telefonica, and Carphone Warehouse. Dell has yet to announce pricing for the Streak, which it said will appear in the United States sometime during the summer.

The company formally unveiled the Streak on Tuesday, after Chief Executive Michael Dell gave the tech world a glimpse of the tablet at a conference two weeks ago in San Francisco.

Dell will become the first major electronics maker to take on the 9.7-inch iPad with a device that runs on Google Inc's Android operating system, more commonly found on smartphones.

"It's portable and mobile. You can put it in your pocket," said IDC analyst Will Stofega, who has tried out the device. "It is interesting and infinitely usable."

Android is gaining ground on the iPhone in the smartphone market, but it is not yet clear whether Google and Dell will be able to take on Apple in the tablet market.

"Can Dell sell millions of these? That's a tall order. There is certainly the potential. If it is priced right and if the thing sort of does what it's supposed to," Stofega said.

The Streak, which will have a slot for external memory cards, is part of Dell's plan to expand sales of mobile devices to help boost revenue after it has slipped from being the world's largest PC maker to No. 3 by volume.

Forrester analyst Charles Golvin said he was skeptical that Dell could catch up with the iPad in one key area.

"Dell's entry into the phone/tablet market is marked by some nice hardware, but Dell still lacks the one element that will matter most in differentiating itself in the flood of Android devices, and that's skill in software," he said.

More than 200,000 software applications work with both the iPhone and the iPad, which was launched in the U.S. in April and goes on sale internationally on Friday.

Stephen Felice, who runs Dell's consumer, small and medium business divisions, told the Reuters Global Technology Summit in San Francisco, last week that the Streak would be aimed at consumers but that the PC maker's goal is to eventually build tablets for large corporations.

This news is from Reuters

Cut-price iPhones at Walmart: Not Cool!

Hipsters in mass suicide pact upon realization that Apple products will be used by people wearing sweats and shopping at, uhm, Walmart.

This is funny because it is true. For those of us who find ourselves laughing hysterically at anyone, and I mean anyone, who thinks that having a certain mobile phone makes them cool, the news that Walmart is going to sell 16GB iPhone 3GS phones for $97 is priceless joy.

Suck it, hipsters. This is your granny's iPhone, and she is going to be getting it with a pair of baggy jeans that button up just below the nipple line.

Walmart, people! Nothing cool or good has ever come out of Walmart. It is the place you go to buy stuff cheap. This swimming pool is cheap. This person never shops at Walmart.

Ergo, ipso facto, the iPhone is, henceforth, just another phone. QED.

Of course, there are mitigating circumstances. First, Apple is clearing the decks for its new iPhone 4G, or whatever the heck it is going to be called. Secondly, you still need a two year contract with AT&T which, much like any Faustian bargain, will end up not turning out well.

I actually feel sorry for the guy who still ponies up three dollars short of $300 for the 32GB iPhone 3GS. Dude, you is pwned.

This news is from TG Daily

Facebook to simplify privacy settings Wednesday

One day after Facebook's CEO admitted that the company had made mistakes with users' privacy, the social networking site confirmed it will roll out new, simplified privacy controls on Wednesday.

Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes said today that the new privacy tools are designed to make it easier for users to specify who can see their information, as well as whether Facebook can share the information with other Web sites.

Noyes wouldn't give any specifics on the tools being unveiled.

In a column published Monday in the Washington Post, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company has made mistakes in its continuing push to further enable social connections, and that Facebook hoped to soon introduce new, easier-to-use privacy settings to help users make sure their personal information isn't shared with third-party Web sites.

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"Our intention was to give you lots of granular controls; but that may not have been what many of you wanted," Zuckerberg wrote. "We just missed the mark. In the coming weeks, we will add privacy controls that are much simpler to use. We will also give you an easy way to turn off all third-party services. We are working hard to make these changes available as soon as possible."

In the past month, there has been growing user unrest and anger that Facebook is playing too fast and loose with information about its users. Users also have been frustrated over what they call complicated and confusing privacy controls that they need to navigate to protect their personal data.

In April, Facebook unveiled a bevy of tools aimed at extending its reach by letting user information be shared with other Web sites.

That move caused an uprising among users and prompted U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) to write an open letter urging the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to set up privacy guidelines for all social networking sites, including Facebook and rivals Twitter and MySpace.

That led to a meeting between Facebook executives and members of Schumer's staff.

This news is from Computerworld.

Microsoft’s Bach Leaves as Head of Games, Mobile (Update2)

Microsoft Corp. said Robbie Bach will retire as head of the division that runs the company’s Xbox game and mobile-devices businesses.

J Allard, senior vice president of design and development in the division, is also leaving, Microsoft, the world’s largest software company, said today in a statement. Senior Vice President Don Mattrick will continue to run the Xbox business and Senior Vice President Andy Lees will head the mobile unit.

The entertainment and devices business accounted for about 13 percent of Microsoft’s $58.4 billion in fiscal 2009 revenue. Xbox 360’s global sales of 40 million units rank second to Nintendo Co.’s Wii, while the company has trailed Apple Inc. and Google Inc. in mobile market share. Mattrick and Lees will report to Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive officer.

“The mobile situation has not been good,” said Matt Rosoff, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft. The unit “has been a big area of investment” for Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft as it tries to expand beyond the core Windows and Office products.

Bach, 48, said in the statement he wanted to dedicate more time to his family and nonprofit work including the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. A successor wasn’t named. Sales in the division fell 4.8 percent last year as video-game industry revenue declined.

Microsoft’s share of mobile operating systems fell to 7.9 percent of the worldwide market in the fourth quarter from 12.5 percent a year earlier, according to ABI Research, based in Oyster Bay, New York. The company has also struggled to gain market share for the Zune music player against Apple’s market- leading iPod.

New Game Products

Bach’s departure comes ahead of this year’s release of a new motion-activated game device called Natal and the Windows Phone 7 operating system for mobile devices.

Bobby Kotick, chief executive officer of Activision Blizzard Inc., the world’s biggest game publisher, credited Bach with being “willing to take on business challenges and go after opportunities that are risky.”

“It would have been very easy to say, ‘I’m not going to do Zune. I’m not taking on Steve Jobs and the iPod,’” Kotick said in an interview last week.

Natal will let game players control action by moving their arms and legs rather than holding a controller. Further details of the product, scheduled to be introduced this year, will be given at the annual E3 game conference in June in Los Angeles.

Game Experience

Allard, 41, will remain an adviser to Ballmer, the company said. Lees has led the mobile communications business since 2008, Microsoft said.

Mattrick, 46, was an executive at Electronic Arts Inc. before joining Microsoft in 2007 and has helped Bach develop Xbox Live, the online game portal with more than 23 million members. Xbox Live, which lets gamers play with one another, has helped differentiate Xbox from other systems, said Kotick.

Microsoft retreated 54 cents to $25.73 at 2:23 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The shares had fallen 14 percent before today.

--With assistance from Peter Burrows in San Francisco. Editors: Rob Golum, Cécile Daurat

To contact the reporter on this story: Adam Satariano in San Francisco at asatariano1@bloomberg.net;

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Anthony Palazzo at apalazzo@bloomberg.net.

This news is from Bloomberg

GPS getting an upgrade - for $8 billion

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is almost everywhere these days, not just as navigational aids in vehicles and mobile phones but in many everyday industrial and commercial applications. GPS enables courier companies to track their shipments, for example, and it enables ATMs and financial institutions to time-stamp transactions. It is used in emergency hospital paging systems, and helps firefighters to find fires. Colonel David B. Goldstein, chief engineer for the upgrade said they know the world relies on GPS, but the ever increasing number of devices using GPS also increases the strain on the system.

GPS uses a “constellation” of 24 satellites orbiting approximately 11,000 miles above the surface of the Earth, and the orbits are arranged so that at any time there are always at least a half dozen or so satellites above. GPS receivers pinpoint their location by working out exactly how far they are away from at least three or four of the GPS satellites by analyzing the radio-frequency signals transmitted continuously by the satellites. They receive extremely accurate information on the time from atomic clocks in the satellites.

As part of the $8 billion upgrade the satellites will be replaced one by one to minimize the chance of disruption. Boeing Co’s Space and Intelligence Systems and Lockheed Martin are constructing 30 new satellites between them, which will allow for six spare satellites to be available if needed. The new satellites will eventually triple the signals available for commercial use. The equipment on the satellites will include even more accurate atomic clocks able to keep time to a fraction of a billionth of a second.

The upgraded system will significantly increase the accuracy, allowing a location to be pinpointed to within just a couple of feet instead of the current +/-20 feet margin of error. It will also make the system faster, and there will be provision to prevent disruptions such as accidental jamming of GPS, which in the recent past have caused disruption to emergency services and mobile phone services, as well as causing power outages.

GPS was originally developed by the Pentagon over 30 years ago at the Los Angeles Air Force base in El Segundo. Until GPS was developed vessels such as nuclear submarines, submerged for months at a time, had no precise way of knowing exactly where they were, and this meant the accuracy of any missiles fired would have been diminished. When the system was proposed by Air Force Colonel Bradford W. Parkinson three decades ago he was told it would be useless, and it had no future.

An El Segundo team of scientists and engineers is among those working on the upgrade, which is expected to take around a decade. Senior space analyst for research company Teal Group, Marco Caceres, said the upgraded system will be able to deliver capabilities we have not seen before.

The satellites used globally for GPS are controlled by the Pentagon in the U.S., but the European Union, China and Russia are all attempting to build their own GPS to reduce their reliance on U.S. military technology.

This news is from PHYSORG

Google Pac-Man Costs the World $120 Million

Man, no wonder this economy seems to be in a permanent slump. The U.S. workforce has the collective attention span of a five-year-old at a toy factory.

When Google’s 30th anniversary playable Pac-Man logo just happened to land on a Friday, we knew it was costing the world money. Hundreds of dollars? A few thousand perhaps? No, not even close. According to a breakdown by The RescueTime Blog, Google Pac-Man cost nearly $120,500,000 in lost work time.

You’ll have to read the full post for the ins and outs of the numbers, but the gist is that Googlers spent 36 seconds more on average last Friday than on previous Fridays. That doesn’t sound like much on its own, but when you multiply it out by hundreds of millions of users, the tally came to nearly 5 million hours down the drain, which the blog multiplied out by $25/hour and came to the $120.5 million figure.

Pac-Man was pretty hungry, and we’ll see if anyone keeps an eye on his appetite now that Google has made him a permanent resident.

This news is from Gadgetcrave

Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii)

I like games with rich, branching narrative paths, and opportunities for character growth and change. Games that give you an open world to explore, or have a single driving narrative. Super Mario Galaxy 2 does none of those things. It's a game that makes no assumptions about being anything other than a colorful romp through surreal worlds with bright, nonsensical characters. And this sequel to Super Mario Galaxy takes everything its predecessor did and maintains that urgent sense of wonder and discovery, creating a world that copies its past self, yet keeps the freshness that made it so exciting when the first game debuted two years ago.

Most sequels, especially those that follow their source material with so little time in between (we usually only get one new, major Mario game per Nintendo console) fall into the trap of either adding too much new material, or not providing enough of what made the original a hit. But Galaxy 2 strikes a rare balance: the additions (Yoshi, Cloud Mario, Rock Mario) expand the devious obstacles you must overcome to collect level-unlocking stars, but the underlying design is just as solid as anything from Super Mario World or Super Mario 64. You won't have these additions in every level (though I'd argue that at least giving you the ability to start any stage with Yoshi or a power-up you previously collected would make things even more fun). In fact, you spend more stages without any special abilities whatsoever. But that just shows the strength of Nintendo's design: they don't rely on these abilities as a crutch. Your new powers are an occasional tool to let you marvel at your own ability to traverse the world, but your primary powers are no more than simple jumps and your own hand-eye coordination.

Galaxy 2's world map is much more streamlined this time around as well. Though it lacks the exploratory openness of the first Galaxy, it makes actually getting between levels a bit more quick and efficient. More akin to the progression in New Super Mario Bros. Wii, you're forced to fully explore almost every level you come across in order to collect enough Stars and Star Bits to move forward. Challenge seekers who thrive on the next-to-impossible haven't been forgotten, though; each level has a Comet stage that forces you to finish a task under a painfully short time limit or some other equally stringent requirement.

You have the same throwaway story that you've gotten since the first Mario Bros.: Fight Bowser, rescue the princess. The characters you meet and their dialogue are completely unnecessary. But, the beauty is that it doesn't matter. You're drawn along just as inexorably as by a narrative-heavy drama thanks to the sheer inventiveness of the level design, the desire to seek out more of this surprisingly beautiful world, and the addictiveness of capturing more stars. Even the co-op multiplayer features (relegated to mostly ineffectual waggling in the first game) have expanded into more dynamic interactions. Not only can a second player hop in and grab simple Star Bits, they can reel in 1up mushrooms and life-restoring coins, and they can grab, shake, and destroy weaker enemies. It's a simple, drop-in-drop-out mechanic that doesn't make or break the game, but provides even more incentive to get a friend invested in the action with you.

Even so, Galaxy 2's a lengthy adventure that's still over all too quickly. Are there moments of hair-pulling frustration? Yes. In some stages you'll die in maddeningly rapid succession over and over again. But if you get too agitated, you can always let the game play for you. You don't get the same, golden star (instead a bronze, less lustrous one means you couldn't make it through on your own), but like any Mario game, persistence pays off. No matter what, you'll be able to get to the end. Though, if you're anything like me, when the game extends its hand and asks if you need help, that's just incentive to try harder.

If you loved the first Mario Galaxy, but you're wary that this follow-up is a mere shade of its predecessor, than rest assured that this fan-service laden sequel feels just as new as the first Mario Galaxy. Everything from the sweeping orchestral score (which even includes new arrangements of classic tunes thrown in simply to tickle the nostalgia of long-time fans) to the ingenious layout of traps, puzzles and platforming speaks to a level of craftsmanship that only comes from years of refinement and reinvention. And if you've yet to try out Mario on the Wii (or only played New Super Mario Bros. Wii), than Galaxy 2 proves how good design can make even the seemingly complicated, gravity-defying acrobatics of Mario's world feel completely effortless.

This news is from 1up

Yahoo and Nokia announce global alliance to provide services

Yahoo and Nokia announced an alliance that will have the Finnish phone giant providing map services to Yahoo customers on both PCs and mobile devices, while the Sunnyvale Internet company provides mail and chat services for Nokia customers around the world.

The deal, announced Monday in New York by Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz and Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, would seek to leverage the strengths of both companies to compensate for the weaknesses of each. Nokia, the world's leading mobile-phone manufacturer, would gain access to Yahoo's world-leading base of e-mail subscribers, boosting Nokia's presence in the U.S., where the Finnish company is struggling to compete with fast-growing smartphone platforms such as Apple's iPhone and Google's Android.

"We are clearly the leader in our industry, yet we do not lead in the biggest market in the world — the U.S.," Kallasvuo told reporters in New York. "This is one step we are taking to change that."

Yahoo, meanwhile, would benefit by accessing Nokia's Navteq map services, which the Finnish cell phone company paid $8.1 billion to acquire in 2007. Bartz acknowledged that developing map services, which are crucial to attracting smartphone users, has not been a focus for Yahoo in recent years.

"By using Nokia's map and Navteq services, it will be a much richer experience for our users," Bartz said. She said the alliance would help Yahoo build its audience in developing countries such as Indonesia,

India and Thailand where the primary way many people access the Internet is through their phones.

Given the competitive pressure that both Nokia and Yahoo face from Apple and Google, analysts cheered the alliance — but cautioned that given the rapid pace of change in smartphone technology, the new partners will need to move quickly if they are to gain traction in the fast-changing mobile market.

Yahoo and Nokia "are two companies that clearly need each other," said Scott Ellison, who analyzes the mobile consumer digital marketplace for the research firm IDC.

He suggested in an industry newsletter Monday that the alliance could be a "test run" for an even more involved alliance whose "logical conclusion is potentially a merger," but, he said, the alliance might not be easy to execute well, given the cultural difference between a European handset manufacturer and a Silicon Valley digital media and advertising company.

Ellison said he thinks Nokia and Yahoo have about a year to show progress. "It's a very positive step for both companies," he said, "but it's one where they're going to need to go further quickly."

Nokia and Research In Motion remain the world's leading mobile-phone manufacturers. Nearly 60 percent of smartphones sold around the world in the last quarter of 2009 carried their brands, according to market research firm iSuppli.

But figures compiled by the Gartner research firm show the share of phones sold with Nokia's Symbian operating system is decreasing, while Apple's iPhone OS and Google's Android are both increasing their share of the market. Google said last week that activations of Android smartphones now top 100,000 a day, up from about 30,000 at the end of 2009.

Under the deal, Nokia will be the exclusive provider of maps and navigation services to Yahoo customers around the world, under the brand, "powered by Ovi," Nokia's Internet service brand. Yahoo, meanwhile will become the exclusive provider of e-mail and chat services for Nokia customers, which will be branded as "Ovi Mail" or "Ovi Chat powered by Yahoo."

Financial terms of the deal were not released. The companies also said they would work to provide an integrated logon system for each other's online services. Some selected services are expected to become available in the second half of this year, with global availability expected in 2011.

Next-Gen iPhone, OS 4.0 Talk Intensifies

Details leaked by people familiar with Apple’s plans, including part suppliers, are beginning to paint a pretty good picture of what Apple’s new iPhone model will look like. If, indeed, Apple plans to roll out a new version of its revolutionary smartphone this year, the device is expected to boast better video/picture-taking capabilities, multitasking, and more.

Next-gen device may be substantially different from current models, from a hardware point of view

Ars Technica looks at several rumors picked up by the likes of AppleInsider and The iPhone Blog, which say that not only will iPhone 4 boast a five-megapixel camera, but that it will actually include a flash LED (for better lighting), a better graphics chip, a less power-hungry processor, and finally, multitasking.

Citing people familiar with Apple's initiative, AppleInsider reveals that, “The electronics maker is seeking allotments of LED camera flash components in the tens of millions for delivery during the 2010 calendar year, meaning future iPhones -- and possibly the iPod touch -- are the most likely recipients of those parts, due to their sales volume.” According to the same people, Philips' Lumileds Lighting sector seems to be “the front-runner for Apple's business.” The company is believed to have been already tapped by Apple for part orders.

Back to the Ars Technica report, Imagination Technologies is known to have introduced an improved SGX545 graphics processor core. The company that develops the PowerVR graphics processors employed by the iPhone has revealed that its new graphics solution is compatible with OpenGL ES 2.0 3D graphics API, as well as OpenGL 3.2 and even OpenCL. Designed to be used in multi-core applications, Ars believes it would only appear as a single core in iPhone applications, in order to limit the impact on the battery.

Adding that the technolody is already “licensed by a lead partner,” according to Imagination, with Apple being one of the big investors, new-gen iPhones are likely to benefit from these advancements.

Another key find believed to be tied to Apple’s next-gen iPhone is dished out in a report by The iPhone Blog, which suggests Apple is planning to add multitasking to the next version of the iPhone (admittedly, in a limited form). Although Apple has denied its customers multitasking in favor of battery life, the Mac maker is believed to finally justify the acquisition of chip designer PA Semi by introducing a new, low-power ARM Cortex A9 processor in the next version of the iPhone, and finally answer demand for this functionality.

Speaking of which....

Fans want big changes in iPhone 4.0.

A CultOfMac report published last week says that Apple’s January 27 product announcement will not only see the introduction of the much-rumored tablet, but also an iPhone OS 4.0 and an associated Software Development Kit (SDK) for programmers. Citing French site Mac4Ever, 9to5Mac also includes a relevant (translated) excerpt from the report in question. Get the full scoop here.

In a move akin to Softpedia’s latest efforts of finding out what iPhone customers want in future iPhone software updates, TUAW has compiled a few requests from readers and owners of an Apple iPhone regarding changes they’d want to see on an OS-level. Saving hardware- and application-specific requests for a later post, TUAW reveals that a high percentage of those requesting changes in iPhone OS 4.0 want the following enhancements:

· a new lock screen showing all the stuff you’ve missed since the phone was last used;

· a new home screen (while they’re at it), which includes location-aware features that kick in as the user changes their location; a Genius Location feature is also suggested by iPhone fans, TUAW points out;

· a screen that acts like a feeds service for apps that get constantly updated (Mail, IM, Twitter, Facebook, etc.) by swiping upwards regardless of the home screen page you’re in;

· overhauled app navigation, including the ability to see all the home pages on one screen;

· multitasking and 3rd party background apps, but not at the cost of battery life;

· Flash support ;

· the ability to toggle use / ignore orientation (accelerometer);

· the ability to remember where the user was before clicking on a link that takes them to Safari;

· the ability to remove Apple-brandd apps, the Stocks app being accounted as the most useless with solutions like Yahoo! Finance clearly beating it;

· a universal documents folder;

· better support for codecs and add-ons;

· the ability to connect the iPhone as a storage device.

All this being said, it’s your turn to speak your mind. How do you see Apple’s next-gen iPhone? As an existing iPhone / iPod touch user, what are your expectations from iPhone OS 4.0?

This news is from Softpedia

Your office photocopier could help steal your identity

While we've seen just how to have a Sharp miracle in your office, it now seems that Sharp copiers (along with Xerox and a smorgasbord of others) could become a miraculous find for identify thieves. Given that many all-in-one "bizhubs" of today feature some sort of internal storage device to capture copies, scans, and faxes in case you need to resend the file a week or two later, it's not too surprising to think how such a convenience could be exploited by ill-willed individuals to extract personal information about you and your office mates. Pointing at tax time in particular, it has been suggested that many Americans photocopy sensitive documents that contain all the information needed to jack your ID without even realizing how vulnerable they've made themselves. Both Sharp and Xerox, however, have both released security kits that encrypt the internal data stored on its machines, but if you're using some off-the-wall copier and have noticed something peculiar about that fellow across the hall, stay sharp.

This news is from engadget