Since its launch almost exactly a year ago, Foursquare’s website has largely had the same basic design. Tonight, it looks like that’s finally getting updated. While it looks like the update is still in the process of rolling out to all the pages, Foursquare.com now clearly has new system-wide toolbars, a brand new sign-up page, as well as some new settings. You might also notice a new, name-only logo. While it’s been clear for a while that Foursquare has been working on a site redesign, only in the past few days have signs started to show that it was coming. For example, a completely revamped History area showed up a few days ago, one allowing for venues to have categories as well as show which friends you checked-in with at places. The biggest part of the changes currently rolling out is to the sign-up page. The new step-by-step process looks highly influenced by Twitter’s sign-up page (which they too tweaked a few times over the years). The process now allows you to sign up, easily find friends already using Foursquare via Twitter or Facebook Connect, as well as link up to those aforementioned networks. After you do that, there’s a one-page rundown of what you can do with Foursquare (such as download one of the mobile apps, earn badges, and explore cities). These sign-up pages are important for convincing new users to not only sign up, but also showing them what to do. With Foursquare signing mainstream deals left and right, they’re going to need this. Something else that appears to be new: an option in the setting page for letting local businesses see that you have checked-in at their venue. When you click the link to learn more, it says: We allow verified venue owners to see statistics about checkins at their venue. These stats include recent visitors, most frequent visitors and most popular checkin times. You can always opt out if you’d rather not share this data with the venues you visit. Sadly, with the redesign, there is still no way to check-in from the site itself. You have to use one of the app, the mobile web, or text messaging to do that. Speaking of mobile apps, Foursquare is about to launch a completely redesigned iPhone app as well. All of these moves are necessary if Foursquare is going to keep up with its better-designed rival, Gowalla (which also just revamped its website). Something else interesting from tonight: apparently the concept of “checking-in” made its onscreen debut on the popular TV show Gossip Girl. Co-founder Dennis Crowley noted the move and tweeted out a picture of it captured from the show. While there is no specific mention of Foursquare, it seems obvious (at least to Crowley) what they’re paying homage to. And Foursquare actually has paid homage the other way, with its “Gossip Girl” badge. The move towards the mainstream continues — or maybe Elizabeth Fisher was just actually checking-in to that hotel. Hard to know for sure. CrunchBase InformationFoursquareInformation provided by CrunchBase
Every place and object in the world has a secret past: who lived there, who passed by, who touched it. The secret lives of objects are filled with such details. If only you could make them talk. But what if you could give any physical object a story simply by sticking a barcode on it and appending a message to that barcode? The message could be a photo, a text message, a video, or a voice note. All anyone would need to unlock the message is a phone with a special barcode scanning app. Stickybits is that app. Founded by Billy Chasen (the original programmer behind Chartbeat) and Seth Goldstein (chairman and founder of SocialMedia), the startup just closed a $300,000 seed round from Polaris Venture Partners and Mitch Kapor. Officially launching this week at Austin’s SXSW festival, stickybits is a new mobile app for both the iPhone and Android. It lets you scan any barcode and attach a message to that physical object. The barcode in a greeting card , for instance, could trigger a video message from the sender. One on a box of medical supplies could inventory what is inside. A business card with a code on it could link to a resume or LinkedIn profile. Museums and theme parks could use them for audio tours and maps. Local merchants could use the barcodes to track deliveries or place them in their storefront windows to distribute digital coupons and offers to passersby. The possibilities are endless. The app is free, but stickybits sells packs of 20 vinyl barcode stickers for $10. You also can download and print your own barcodes for free, or scan an existing one on a physical product like a can of Coke. (Future business model: charge brands to claim their barcodes and place their own messages first). Each barcode is programmable by the first person who scans it and and leaves a photo, video, audio, or text message. The next time somebody scans that barcode, the previous message will appear on their phone. Anyone can add a new message to the same code, resulting in a stream of messages connected to whatever object or place the barcode is stuck on. Each scan, and related message, is geo-tagged so you can see as an object moves around how its story evolves. The app lets you follow people and see their object stream, or get notified whenever one of your objects is scanned, moved, or new bits are attached to them. You can toggle between stream and map views. It supports Facebook Connect for login and any scan can be broadcast out to Facebook, Twitter, or Foursquare. With Foursquare, it actually gives you the option to check into the place where you are by scanning the barcode. If stickybits sounds like science fiction that may be because they share some attributes with author Bruce Sterling’s concept of “Spimes” (later fleshed out in his book Shaping Things): The most important thing to know about Spimes is that they are precisely located in space and time. They have histories. They are recorded, tracked, inventoried, and always associated with a story. Spimes have identities, they are protagonists of a documented process. They are searchable, like Google. You can think of Spimes as being auto-Googling objects. Sterling predicted Spimes will eventually be designed into all objects, and contain their histories, raw materials, ingredients, ownership history and other data. Perhaps stickybits are first steps in that direction. CrunchBase InformationStickybitsFoursquareInformation provided by CrunchBase
Last October, developer Loren Brichter set the App Store on fire with the sequel to his brilliant iPhone Twitter client, Tweetie. It looks like he’s about to do the same to the Mac. Brichter sent out a series of teasing tweets today indicating that Tweetie Two is coming soon for the Mac. One, from his atebits account, reads: Ready… ready?! News about Tweetie Tw… ROOOOOAAAAR!! NOOOO DON’T EAT M *BLAM BLAM*. *CHOMMMPP* Aaaaararrrrrgghhhhhh. While clearly he’s about to say “News about Tweetie Two,” that in and of itself isn’t very useful. The more useful tweet comes from his personal Twitter account, where he links to a “leaked” screenshot, “Shhh, @atebits doesn’t know I’m leaking screenshots.” To which he replies to himself, “Damn you @lorenb!” Cute. Better is the screenshot itself (below). While it doesn’t show much of anything beyond what seems to be a frame for Tweetie Two (which he humorously calls “Tweetie Too”) — or just an awful-looking joke — the fact that work is far enough along to for him to feel comfortable talking about it at all is a good sign. Brichter released Tweetie for Mac last April, following the success of Tweetie (the first one) for the iPhone. It costs you $20 for the ad-free version, but it is well worth it if you’re addicted to Twitter want want a native, non-AIR app (though Echofon has a nice one as well). So what else do we know about Tweetie Two for the Mac? Brichter actually set up a Formspring.me account where he has answered some questions himself. Notably, the pricing for Tweetie Two will be the same as the first one. Brichter basically spends all his time on the project. And he even designs it himself. Also, “The interface is going to be substantially different,” he writes. Finally, when asked if he plans to develop for the upcoming iPad, Brichter has just two words, “Hell yeah.” Tweetie for iPad, anyone? Update: Brichter emailed us to say that the tweets were “Just having some fun (have been so busy that I haven’t had much time to tweet recently). He also notes that there’s some interesting news involving Tweetie tomorrow at MacHeist. Judging from the page, it looks like Tweetie 2 could be added to the nanoBundle 2, a collection of excellent Mac apps for just $19.95. CrunchBase InformationAtebitsTweetieInformation provided by CrunchBase
It’s a little surprising to see a Twitter application coming out of Fuze Box (formerly CallWave), which creates visual collaboration product. The company has clearly caught the Twitter bug (albeit a little late) and today is launching Tweetshare, an third party Twitter app that allows anyone to immediately publish any type of content to the web, including HD video, presentations, images and more and automatically start Twitter conversation threads around their content. It’s kind of like FriendFeed meets Twitpic or Twitvid. Tweetshare has also rolled out a companion iPhone app that allows mobile users to upload content, tweet and create discussions on the Tweetshare platform. A social alternative to static landing pages, Tweetshare aims to be a Twitterfied-Facebook Fan Page. Twitter users can post relevant content, such as presentations, images, videos and PDFs, and can also Tweet from the platform. Any comments made on a Tweetshare page or similarly, made on Twitter in response to posted content is also threaded on the page. A free application, Tweetshare also provides measurement and analytics tools, including polling functionality and the ability for users to become a fan of a brand’s Tweetshare Fan Page. And similar to YouTube channels and Facebook pages, Tweetshare Fan Pages can be branded and customized. The site is missing Facebook connect, but Fuze Box says this will be rolled out soon. Of course, Mixx offers branded Twitter channels through TweetMixx, which offer some of the functionality of Tweetshare. And Tweetmeme also offers a similar product. Its unclear if there is any monetization that can be made from the Tweetshare, but the application seems that it could be useful. Fuze Box has a pretty unique history as far as startups go. CallWave was founded in 1998 and went public in 2004, trading on NASDAQ under the ticker symbol CALL. After reaching a peak soon thereafter of over $15 per share, the stock dropped steadily, dipping as low as 50 cents early this year. Deciding to cut its losses, the company delisted itself from NASDAQ on Monday after buying back shares from public shareholders at a 44% premium over the current market value and paying out a total of $10 million. Last summer, the company rebranded itself as Fuze Box and launched Fuze Meeting, which it’s pitting as a sleeker, lighter, and cheaper alternative to services like WebEx. Although the company has experienced some tough times over the past few years, it appears to be in a better place now. And the startup is obviously broadening its product base. However, while a little late to the Twitter frenzy, Fuze Box is moving in the right direction. CrunchBase InformationFuze BoxInformation provided by CrunchBase .
Doodle Jump for the iPhone is something like a developer’s fairy tale: two brothers set out to make a game using only the talents they’ve got at hand, and end up striking gold. They keep pushing out minor updates, and the game just keeps selling. Tomorrow morning, Lima Sky will be announcing that Doodle Jump has just surpassed 3 million sales — a feat they claim is a first for any Indie development house. If it seems like we were just writing about Doodle Jump surpassing the 1 million download mark, it’s because we were; that last landmark only just came in mid-December of last year. Less than 3 months later, Lima Sky has managed to triple an already impressive haul. Read the rest at MobileCrunch >>
While the world is going gaga over the HTC Legend and Desire pair, the cogs at the Taiwanese HQ haven't stopped turning - and the HTC Supersonic seems next up. A blurry web video has leaked out of the phone, which apparently boasts a 4.3-inch capacitive touchscreen and Android 2.1. The video is pretty basic - all we learn is that it comes in white and has a dual LED flash to go with the unknown megapixeled camera. Snappy power Previous reports have stated that the HTC Supersonic will be packing the same 1GHz Snapdragon processor we've seen in umpteen phones these days - which we like for a phone with this size of screen. After the HTC HD2 was launched, we've been waiting for an Android version to pop up, and this could be it. The only downside - it's apparently going to be using 4G WiMax, which is very much a US-focused feature at the moment. Here's hoping that changes before release and we get out own HTC Supersonic UK release date in the near future. Related Stories Competition: WIN! A Google Nexus One phoneReview: HTC LegendHTC Legend gets UK release dateExclusive: LG Cookie Fresh GS290 gets UK release datePredicted sales for Nexus One reduced by 70%
Dell has explained to TechRadar why its Adamo XPS laptop is increasingly difficult to get hold off, insisting that the 'engineering marvel' should be considered a special edition. According to the company, reports that the XPS had been axed just three months after launch are not entirely accurate, with Dell insisting that the high-end laptop should not have been considered a normal piece of stock, but a limited release. Dell also confirmed that most of the supply of the laptop 'has been accounted for' and people still keen to buy one will need to look hard. Selected stores "In the UK, Adamo XPS will continue to be offered through select John Lewis stores and on johnlewis.com," said Dell's statement. "The Adamo XPS is an engineering marvel and a decisive proof point to Dell's design and engineer capabilities. "As such it is similar to a limited edition product, and most of the supply has been accounted for. "The original Adamo is still available on adamobydell.co.uk with a starting price point of £1,099." The US will also be able to get hold of the Adamo XPS with the statement confirming that it is "still available in the US at select Best Buy Stores and on bestbuy.com." Of course, you can read into this what you will - spin or truth - but XPS lovers had better start raiding their piggy banks to buy one because special or not, this laptop is now a limited edition. Related Stories Microsoft 'humbled' by 90 million Windows 7 salesIn Depth: Intel reveals its plans for the PC of 2020
Google is to give users of Street View the chance to edit the service to make it that little bit more accurate. An 'edit marker' feature has been added, which would allow you to change where businesses are. So, if you look at Street View and find that the marker for a shop or pub nearby you isn't quite right, then you can lift it up and change its location. "Sometimes you may find a place in Google Maps that isn't quite positioned where it should be," says the blog. "Let's say you know that your favourite pizzeria is near the corner but the marker for it appears further down the block. You want all hungry pizza-cravers to be able to find this great spot, so you want to make sure the marker leads them directly to the storefront." Move marker The blog continues: "You could use our map editing feature (the 'move marker' edit) to move it to the right place, but moving the marker to the right location is not always that easy, especially in denser urban areas, if the only reference you have are maps or satellite images because you can only get a view from above. "So now we have added one more very handy reference for making a map marker edit: Street View images. It makes the edit much easier." This wiki approach is something that Google seems to be embracing more for its services like StreetView. Just last week, Google also announced that you could also edit the information given to businesses flagged up on Street View. Related Stories Google: Oscars brought lots of 'cathartic spooning'Google reveals reasons for data centre problemsGoogle reveals reasons for data centre problemsSXSWi 2010: South by South West Interactive 2010: what to look forward toSXSWi 2010: South by South West Interactive 2010: what to look forward to
The 'Interactive' part of the annual South by South West conference in Austin, Texas kicks off this Friday. Known as SXSWi, and running through until Tuesday 16 March, the event brings together web designers, developers, content creators and more, to share ideas, network, announce new products and services, and then hang out in the evenings over barbeque and beer. The conference features around 200 panels and evening events covering subjects such as social media, interface design, real-time web, and much more. The evenings see parties such as the Bigg Digg Shindigg, events hosted by Microsoft, Mozilla and Mashable a tonne of film showings, since the SXSW Film Conference and Festival runs at the same time. TechRadar will be reporting from SXSWi, bringing you the latest news, and in-depth interviews with the web's biggest players. Here are some of the events to get excited about, but there are many more. The full schedule is on the SXSWi site. Friday 12 March The UX of Mobile – 2pmThis panel examines design principles for the creation of apps for iPhone, Android, and mobile websites. Long Distance UX – 3:30pmAlex Cook and Lisa Camm from Google explain how Google works with teams split across multiple locations. Securing Web Behemoths – 5pmSecurity engineers from Microsoft, Facebook and Twitter talk about the challenge of securing web apps. Saturday 13 March Can the real-Time Web be Realised? – 11amA panel including spokespeople from Microsoft, Google, ReadWriteWeb discuss what is needed to make the real-time web achievable. iPad: New Opportunities for Content Creators – 11amExperts in the interactive, book publishing, magazine, and video gaming industries talk about the impact of the iPad in regards to design and distribution of content. Mozilla party - 6pmMozilla is getting some attendee love this year – the Mozilla happy hour, which kicks off at 6pm at Cedar Door, is limited to the first 250 guests, and over 5,000 people have confirmed their attendance on the Facebook group. Bigg Digg Shindigg – 7pmFree to attend (you don't even need a SXSW badge), which means it'll be packed, so get to Stubbs BBQ early and expect to queue. Hosted by Digg and Revision 3. Sun 14 March Trials and Tribulations of the Pirate Bay – 12:30pmThe Pirate Bay's Peter Sunde reflects on the Pirate Bay's recent trial, its $7.8 million acquisition and looks to the future of peer-to-peer. Gmail: Behind the Scenes – 5pmGmail engineers, user experience, and product managers talk about how they work together and how they see online communication evolving. Mashable's MashBash – 10pmMashable, Cliqset and Sony host the second MashBash SXSWi. Mon 15 March Evan Williams Keynote Interview – 2pmHear from Evan Williams, co-founder of Pyra Labs (creator of Blogger) and web 2.0 darlings Twitter. Follow the hashtag #evwilliams if you want to join in remotely. Android: What We've Learned About Mobile in the Last Two Months – 3:30pmIn January 2010, Google launched the Nexus One in the US. This phone marked the first time Google had started selling its own consumer electronics. Senior Product Manager Erick Tseng talks about what Google has learned from the experience. Tues 16 March Is Canvas the End of Flash? – 12:30pmHTML5 Canvas-based graphics, animation, and interaction have some people claiming that it's a Flash killer. But is it really? Panel members include spokespeople from Palm and Adobe. We can pretty much guess what Adobe's response will be… Daniel Ek Keynote Interview – 2pmNow why would 26-year-old CEO and co-founder of online music service Spotify be in the US? Could it be that Spotify is announcing its US launch at this very time? Ek has previously said that a US launch is on the cards: "A Spotify launch in the US is absolutely part of our plans," Ek told TechRadar in February 2009. SXSW Interactive Closing Party – 8pmAfter a busy week, we'll be heading over to The Mohawk for the official closing party. Related Stories Google: Oscars brought lots of 'cathartic spooning'Google reveals reasons for data centre problemsGoogle reveals reasons for data centre problemsSXSWi 2010: South by South West Interactive 2010: what to look forward toGoogle adds wiki-like features to Google Street View
The premise of Wikipedia is laudable. A knowledge depository written and edited by the people, for the people. The glue that keeps the site together is an evolving set of policies and guidelines, but, these guidelines are open to much interpretation and debate. Here are 10 of Wikipedia's daftest discussions. 1. What's in a name? Some of Wikipedia's denizens don't like the way academic researcher and well-known blogger danah boyd (legally) spells her name - without caps. "Why is it OK for her to impose her nonstandard styling and the costs that come with it on the rest of us?" said R27182818 on the subject's discussion page. The argument continues to this day, and the Wikipedia article on danah boyd is still titled "Danah Boyd". 2. Though shalt not edit thy own biography Even danah's own intervention couldn't sway the most hardline opposers, because Wikipedia has a rule that discourages living subjects from editing their own entries. Carl Hewitt, an associate professor at MIT was rather notoriously banned in 2007 - according to The Guardian - for editing his own biography and promoting his works. Wikipedians said his activities were "disruptive". Professor Hewitt countered that his page "significantly misrepresents both me and my work". He was inspired by the incident to write a paper entitled The Corruption of Wikipedia on Google's rival user-edited encyclopaedia, Knol. 3. Goodbye, Larry While Carl Hewitt got the boot, Jimmy Wales, the guy who founded - sorry, co-founded Wikipedia - got away with editing his own entry with little more than a war of words. He stood accused of removing references to his former partner Larry Sanger. Amusingly, the whole episode is now detailed on Wales's own Wikipedia page. SELF-EDITING: Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales deleted former partner Larry Sanger from his entry. The ensuing edit war spread through Wikipedia like a forest fire 4. RIP Swells Wikipedians love arguing about whether entries deserve to be on Wikipedia. Why was there an argument about the notability of Steven Wells, journeyman music journalist and famous broadcaster when he passed away last year though? Cultural ignorance we suspect. In this case, one Wikipedia editor voted to delete the entry, 24 hours after Wells died. The argument that ensued was brief and one-sided, but definitely whacky. 5. Fictionally famous The question of notability grows feathered wings of insanity when the subject in question is fictional. This was such a contentious issue that the folks editing the actual guideline have had had several meltdowns over wording. First mooted in 2006, four years later the Notability (Fiction) guideline is stalled at "proposal" stage. Referred to in Wikipedia itself as "the mother of all notability disputes", the archived discussion currently runs for 56 pages - most of them tetchy. 6. Happy Birthday, Jimmy Wales Another guideline that trips up new Wikipedia editors is that all information should be based on "reliable sources". But what's a reliable source? For example, another edit war involving Jimmy Wales sprang up when the Wikipedia co-founder decided to remove his date of birth - saying it was incorrect. Plenty of friendly Wikipedians were happy to "correct" the edit he made citing secondary sources, including Encyclopaedia Brittanica. Mr Wales's entry currently says his birthday is 7 August - with a note at the bottom saying that this is wrong... by one day. 7. Chicken Kyiv One of Wikipedia's Five Pillars is "Wikipedia has a neutral point of view" or NPOV. But is there such a thing? One chap's reasonable belief is another's fundamentalism. For evidence see slanging matches like the ongoing battle about Ukraine's capital city. The Ukrainian name is "Kyiv", but the article uses the Russian name "Kiev". Proponents of the latter spelling say that it's more common, while champions of Kyiv say it's a hangover of Soviet rule. THE RULES: Wikipedia's Five Pillars include "Wikipedia does not have firm rules" and "Wikipedians should act in a respectful and civil manner". Really 8. Hummus Tasty chickpea dip or battleground for Middle Eastern politicking? On Wikipedia, it's both. Contributors couldn't make up their minds whether the dish was Israeli, Turkish or Lebanese in origin. Last time we looked at the discussion section, another six countries were laying claim to the garlicky entrée. 9. Big G Religion and politics are perennial flamebait - but few arguments are as silly or circular as one in the discussion section of Wikipedia's Derren Brown entry. It's not about the beardy mind fiddler - it is, rather, about whether the article should refer to God or god. Big G is, of course, the Christian God, Jehovah. In the context it was used, a TV special where Brown temporarily converted atheists into believers, there was an argument that the illusionist meant a generic god or gods. Small g. The argument raged for a good nine months. Just thinking about it makes our brains go "ouch". 10. Young Earth Think that's whacky? You should have a gander at the discussion section of The Age of the Earth, where a battle between creationists and rationalists includes argumental gems like: "After reading the first paragraph, I nearly threw up. Since when were Creationist views on the age of the earth un-scientific?". All in all there's plenty here to prove there are two sides to every internet argument, and both are usually wrong... Related Stories In Depth: The bluffer's guide to the 12 browser ballot rivals
The Facebook page “Betty White to Host SNL (please?)!” is giving new credence to the lyrics “Thank you for being a friend” today, as People has confirmed that the Golden Girls star will be appearing on Saturday Night Live in the near future. When asked at Elton John’s Oscar-viewing party last night whether she would be appearing on Saturday Night Live, the actress answered in the affirmative. We’re not sure in what capacity the comedienne will be taking the SNL stage — whether as host or as part of the “Women of Comedy” special we reported on a few weeks ago, but we’re certain that her nearly 500,000 fans will be pleased to hear the good news. The page was started by ardent fan David Mathews back on December 30, 2009, and has since garnered its share of media attention. White was launched back into the public eye after appearing in a popular Super Bowl Snickers commercial and in the romantic comedy The Proposal, also starring Oscar-winner Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. Twilight star Robert Pattinson even called her sexy – breaking the hearts of thousands of teen girls across the nation. It certainly has been a banner year for White so far. So what’s next Mathews? “Betty White to Host the Oscars (please?)!” Why not? If you can dream it, you can do it, manReviews: twilight Tags: betty white, facebook, saturday night live, television, trending
Foursquare is battling for your SXSW checkins with a musical scavenger hunt. Rival Gowalla is going to go after them with free gadgets — specifically free Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus devices as part of a promotion the location-based social networking service is unveiling in conjunction with their just-launched app for webOS. The app should hit the Palm App Catalog on Tuesday, and like the company’s applications for other platforms (including its recently launched Android app) it detects your location to show you nearby venues, lets you know where your friends are located, and has a gaming element called “stamps” that can be accrued as you check in to various places. The SXSW connection is part of a push by Gowalla into virtual goods. Users will be able to discover virtual Palm Pre and Pixi devices as they use the application (essentially, the more you use it, the better your chances –- it’s random), and then be able to redeem those at specific parties at the festival to get the actual device. Another partner –- Lomography –- has inserted virtual cameras into Gowalla, that once found can also be redeemed for free gear. This is one way Gowalla hopes to differentiate itself from the competition, and, truth be told, it’s not a bad one. No one wants to leave an event like SXSW empty-handed, and by teaming up with brands to offer free gadgets to users at an event that will be loaded with tech enthusiasts could encourage some splitting (or at least doubling up) of the checkins across services. Now that Gowalla’s starting to catch up in terms of platform support, much of the battle might come down to marketing — where Foursquare has also recently invested heavily by forming partnerships with a host of media companies. In any event, here’s a look at some of the features of the webOS app: Which service will you be using to check in at SXSW? Let us know in the comments!Reviews: Foursquare, Gowalla Tags: gowalla, palm, webOS
Google has just launched Google Public Data Explorer. The new Google Labs tool offers a visual way to look at and analyze large public data sets on a variety of popular search topics. The tool is specifically designed for avid data crunchers like students, journalists, policy makers, and could be seen as Google’s prettified approach to a user-driven computational search engine (think Wolfram Alpha). Public Data Explorer is its own dedicated utility that expands and improves upon existing functionality added to the search experience last year. Interested parties can visually dissect — in time-lapsed animation fashion and in an array of chart types — things like fertility rate by country, employment rates, and the flux of mortality rates in the U.S. Data is provided by the World Bank, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. Census Bureau, the California Department of Education and four other public agencies. The visual animation technology comes from Trendalyzer, a service that Google purchased back in 2007. Google Public Data Explorer covers 80 different topics in the public data sector, focusing on the most popular topics as determined by search queries on Google.com. Users can explore ready-made charts or toy with data and reshape the visualizations into line graphs, bar graphs, maps and bubble charts. Charts can also be shared by direct URL or embed. While most of us won’t need this sophisticated of a tool on frequent occasions, it’s easy to see how this data could be extremely useful to researchers and those looking to understand the important trends that happen over time. Reviews: Google Tags: Google, public data, visualization
Launching in beta today, Go Tribal tackles the other side of the equation from formal event services like Meetup or Plancast by helping members organize informal group plans. By identifying when users are free and available to hang out, Go Tribal hopes to eliminate some of the hassle involved in coordinating friends for spontaneous group activities. Targeted primarily towards women, Go Tribal’s goal is to facilitate meaningful offline interaction via simple technology that lets users see which of their friends is “down to hang out” at any given time. Members can set status indicators for upcoming dates, allowing peer groups to identify the best times to arrange informal get-togethers. Once a group has agreed upon a physical meetup, members can coordinate on the specifics of time and place, plus use existing social networks like Facebook and Twitter to further socialize the event and send out more invites. We spoke with Founder and CEO Shruti Challa about the service, which will be open to the first 10,000 signups in the U.S. for now. She said the inspiration for Go Tribal arose naturally out of the young founding team (which also includes Chris Baclig, Eric Ma and Amara Humphry), who upon recent graduation from Stanford discovered a lack of tools for maintaining existing friendships in the physical world. “Technology seemed to be getting further away from creating and sustaining relationships in real life. Facebook and Twitter seemed distant, and we wanted to use technology to help create a physical connection,” Challa said of the new startup. Future plans for Go Tribal include integrating more contextual local search and information tools to help members decide where to spend their group time once they settle on a date and time to get together. The startup also plans to eventually work more closely with businesses to help groups influence decisions when they’re actually being made — imagine a coalesced social group with some bargaining power to “shop around” for potential deals and experiences that clubs or venues might be willing to offer in exchange for securing business from a large group. With an interesting twist on local and informal group event organization and a smart road map ahead, Go Tribal is a social service to watch. If you have a chance to check out the service, let us know what you think. What features would you want to see in a service facilitating informal meetups?Reviews: Facebook, Twitter Tags: Events, facebook, go tribal, informal plans, meetup, social media, startups, twitter
MashBash SXSWi 2010, Mashable’s annual event at the SXSW festival in Austin, is less than 1 week away! Here’s a checklist for those wishing to attend: 1. RSVP on Eventbrite and the Facebook event page so your friends know you’re coming. 2. Add yourself to Austin Realtime, our growing directory of attendees and their social networking updates. 3. Check out our new SXSWi channel for SXSW updates! Some extra notes for attendees: – Important: MashBash SXSWi is an official SXSWi event open to all SXSWi attendees 21+. You must bring your badge and an ID. – Our Hashtag for the event will be “#MashBash”. Short and Simple – The Sony bloggie camera contest is now over. Congrats to the final winners: Heather Herr and Josh Holden! Congrats!About MashBash 2010 More than 7,000 people have RSVPed for MashBash 2010 in Austin, taking place on Sunday, March 14, at Buffalo Billiards in Austin, Texas. Join Mashable’s Pete Cashmore, Adam Ostrow, Josh Catone, Barb Dybwad, Jennifer Van Grove, Brett Petersel and myself, along with our sponsors Cliqset and Sony Electronics and SXSWi attendees for a night of networking and music from DJ Chicken George. In addition, there will be a two-hour open bar, strong Wi-Fi, a game room and plenty of surprises!MashBash RSVP Details Date: Sunday, March 14, 2010Time: 10:00 p.m. – 2:00 a.mLocation: Buffalo Billiards, 201 6th Street, Austin, TXAdmission: Open to SXSWi attendeesRSVP for Chance to Win VIP Access to MashBash 2010: sxswi.eventbrite.comSocialize: FacebookMany thanks to our sponsors: “Sony Electronics has created high-quality, innovative and stylish products for over 40 years. Thanks to Mashable, Sony’s new MP4 bloggie™ camera will make its SXSWi debut. Capturing everyday moments in 1080p HD MP4 video and 5-megapixel photos, the compact device has advanced features like Face Detection and SteadyShot™, a large LCD screen, a built-in USB for uploading and charging, integrated software for easy Web sharing, and allows for expandable storage with Memory Stick PRO Duo™ or SD media cards. The bloggie camera is one of many products just launched under Sony’s new global brand message – make.believe. Believe that anything you can imagine, you can make real. For more information go to www.sony.com/bloggie.” “Cliqset makes it easy for people to share, discover, and discuss content from everywhere on the Web. Cliqset helps you filter through the activity, like status updates, reviews, blog posts, videos, articles, music and pretty much everything that’s online, and consume the social stream the way you want to. To connect with Cliqset, visit us at www.cliqset.com.”Reviews: Facebook, Mashable Tags: MashBash, mashbash sxswi, sxsw, sxswi
Mozilla's high-performance TraceMonkey JavaScript engine, which was first introduced in 2008, has lost a lot of its luster as competing browser vendors have stepped up their game to deliver superior performance. Firefox now lags behind Safari, Chrome, and Opera in common JavaScript benchmarks. In an effort to bring Firefox back to the front of the pack, Mozilla is building a new JavaScript engine called JägerMonkey. The secret sauce that will drive Mozilla's new JavaScript engine engine into the fast lane is some code borrowed from Apple's WebKit project. Mozilla intends to bring together the powerful optimization techniques of TraceMonkey and the extremely efficient native code generator of Apple's JSCore engine. The mashup will likely deliver a significant boost in Firefox's JavaScript execution speed, making Mozilla's browser a formidable contender in the ongoing JavaScript speed race. Read the comments on this post
Amazon has pulled the plug on its affiliate program in Colorado thanks to a new state regulation on sales tax collection. The company sent a notice to its Colorado-based affiliates Monday morning to let them know about the decision, urging residents who depend on the affiliate program to contact their lawmakers if they want the program back. Most states only require retailers to collect sales tax if they have a sufficient enough brick-and-mortar presence thanks to a 1992 Supreme Court decision on Quill Corp. v. North Dakota. Despite this, a handful of states have tried to pass laws in recent years (often dubbed the "Amazon Tax") that would force Amazon to start collecting sales tax if their affiliates—that is, those who use Amazon's affiliate links on their own sites or blogs in order to earn a return on referrals—are based in those states. Read the comments on this post
China is now the largest emitter of CO2 on the planet, as it powers a large industrial base primarily through the use of coal-fired power plants. However, many of those goods are immediately shipped overseas, often to the US and EU, which generate and use power far more efficiently. A new paper, which will be published in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science, now takes a look at the impact of outsourcing these carbon emissions by tracking CO2 based on a product's point of use. For some Western European economies, the result is enormous: anywhere from 20 to 50 percent of their emissions come in the form of imported goods. The calculation was performed by Stanford's Steven Davis and Ken Caldeira, who built a database of national energy production and tracked international trade of both raw materials (including fossil fuels) and finished goods. The most recent year for which all that data was available was 2004, which means the figures don't cover some of the changes that have accompanied the recent economic downturn. The basic calculation involves taking the CO2 emissions for various nations and regions, subtracting those associated with exported goods, and then adding back emissions associated with imports. The result, termed consumption emissions, was then analyzed on a per-capita and per-GDP basis. Read the comments on this post
Kratos wants to do one thing: kill Zeus. It's the only goal that the "Ghost of Sparta" has in the entirety of God of War 3, and everything from the epic beginning moments to the final credits serves to make that happen. If you haven't played the first two games and you have a PlayStation 3, it's worth your time to pick them upand get up to speed on how our "hero" became what he is today. Also, don't skip on the PSP adventure Chains of Olympus. You can't respect how something ends before you know how it began. God of War 3 is the first game in the series built from the ground up for the PlayStation 3, and the team behind the title spared no detail; the game feels like it has been painted on your screen. Even the flashback sequences, using more traditional animation and a hyper-stylized look, add much to the game. It's a clever way of showing what came before without dealing with the graphics of the past. This is one of the most anticipated titles in the history of the PlayStation 3. We've beaten it, and have had some time to think it over. Does the game live up to the hype? Read the comments on this post
In an announcement published last week, Nokia's Valtteri Halla revealed that Intel and Nokia are planning to launch the public MeeGo source code repository by the end of the month. The MeeGo project began to take shape last month when Intel and Nokia announced plans to merge their respective Linux-based mobile computing platforms into a single open source software project. The unified software platform, which consists of technology from Maemo and Moblin, will be designed for use on a wide range of device form factors and will support both ARM and x86 architectures. Read the comments on this post
Is it too early in the morning for senseless violence? If you’re American, it’s never too early for violence, senseless or otherwise! Anyhow, some dude, presumably named Michael Barnes, put together a legitimately good machinima of No Russian, that stupid level from Modern Warfare 2 I can’t embed it, so you’ll have to actually go to YouTube to see it. Ah, this brings back memories of last fall, when everyone was freaking out over the level. I eventually concluded that it was barbaric and plain ol’ not fun, but feel free to disagree. Fair warning: the video is quite violent, as you might expect.
We’ve shown you the new Tron trailer 48 hours ago in bootleg quality, but you can forget that one now and rather watch this high-quality version. Judging from these 2.30 minutes, we’re in for something cool. The new Tron movie is scheduled for release in the US on December 21 this year. The cast is pretty good, including Jeff Bridges, John Hurt and Michael Sheen. Here’s the official website. And here’s the new trailer:
Here’s something old, but definitely cool and worth showing you. Livejournal user Igor113 posted some pictures from his trip to… somewhere in Russia. He loves to travel and take pictures, and these are some extremely cool photographs of some rusted and cool equipment. Igor did apologize for the quality of his camera though, and requests that you don’t kick his legs. The submarine pictures aren’t the only cool things on Igor’s site, he’s apparently traveled all over the EU and taken many many pictures of defunct Russian military vehicles and aircraft. I’d definitely recommend checking out some of his other posts as well.
Another great DIY project: making your own bottle slide out of an old wine bottle. Bottle slides, if you weren’t aware, are those great things bluesmen use to get the high lonesome sound out of a lap steel guitar. There are obvious ways to make these things including a glass cutter or a cutting disc, but here’s the method Rober Johnson used at the crossroads. This is just one of many ways to make a slide, another great one is the “Burning Twine” method. Legend says this is how a lot of the old bluesmen made their slides. Follow step one above “drink the contents” then find some old hemp twine, soak it in kerosene, wrap it around the bottleneck and light it on fire. Then after it goes out, plunge it into a bucket of ice water, and, it the theory is correct, it will break off cleanly and presto, you have a great authentic bottleneck slide. SlidePlayer has more info for your reading pleasure.via Craft
So you’re hopping on a flight and you sit next to a sexy member of the opposite sex. You’ve got to get some work done so you whip out your nasty laptop, a fat and ugly IT department-supplied monstrosity (probably from Dell or HP). Your seatmate looks over, idly contemplating your potential as a lifemate, and sees your junk laptop and starts reading the Skymall catalog. After all, laptop makers for years have been saying that a persons value as a genetic donor is wrapped up in the look and feel of their hardware. That’s right: if you don’t buy something from the Dell Vostro 3000-series, you will die alone. These laptops come in two sizes, 13- and 14-inch, and run up to a Core i7 processor (in the 3700). They start at $649 and are available now on Dell’s website. How great will your life be when you buy these laptops? Dell SVP Alex Gruzen has the answer: “These entrepreneurs want technology that makes them more productive and helps them compete, and the Vostro 3000 delivers in a package they will be proud to show off in the airport or the boardroom.” Proud, Alex? Not pride. Satisfaction. Satisfaction in knowing that 80% of Dockers-wearing businessman progeny will be spawned, it seems, from the loins of Mother Dell herself. It’s Vostro’s world. We just live in it. Dell Celebrates Entrepreneurial Spirit with New Vostro Laptops Vostro 3000 Series Offers World-Class Security, Services and Reliability to Help Small Businesses Succeed Date : 3/9/2010 Round Rock, Texas Following the successful launch of the ultrathin and light Vostro™ V13, Dell is offering business customers even more choice with the stylish Vostro 3000 series – a range of new thin, lightweight and durable laptop computers. Featuring powerful processors, high-end graphics and built-in security, the Vostro 3000 series is designed for small businesses that require robust mobile computing solutions. Today’s SMBs and entrepreneurs want notebooks that are powerful and attractive, and the new Vostro 3000 series was designed to meet and exceed both those needs. For the most demanding tasks, the Vostro 3000 series sports the latest powerful Intel® Core™ processor technology, including, the optional, Core i7 Quad Core processor available on the Vostro 3700. For those that demand portability and productivity, the Vostro 3300 is one of the industry’s thinnest commercial 13” laptop with an integrated optical drive. For those that can’t afford to be chained to their desks, the 14” Vostro 3400 offers a full day of mobile productivity with up to 8 hours of battery life with an optional 9-cell battery. “To succeed, small businesses need simple, reliable and affordable technology solutions,” said Alex Gruzen, SVP, Consumer, Small and Medium Business, Dell, Inc. “These entrepreneurs want technology that makes them more productive and helps them compete, and the Vostro 3000 delivers in a package they will be proud to show off in the airport or the boardroom.” “Dell continues to sharpen its focus on SMB customers with the new Vostro 3000 series,” said Ray Boggs, VP of SMB Research at IDC. “Small and mid-sized firms are returning to the PC market after a year in the recessionary wilderness, and they are ready for the kinds of capabilities, including Microsoft Windows 7, that will get them to the next level of productivity.” “As the first PC brand designed exclusively for small businesses, over the last year, Dell has introduced several new Vostro laptops and desktops to serve their distinctive needs. Ranging from our recently announced, super dependable Vostro 230 or future-proof and powerful Vostro 430 desktops, or the ultra-thin Vostro V13 laptop, Vostro products are designed for small businesses helping them stretch their budget and protect their data, and come with dedicated small business services and support to keep a small businesses moving,” added Gruzen. Worry-Free Business IT All of the Vostro 3000 laptops have embedded webcam and microphone for collaboration through videoconferencing, while the Vostro 3500 and 3700 offer the option of high definition WLED screens and the 3700 offers the option of up to 1GB of NVIDIA® GeForce® discrete graphics to help ensure one of the best visual experiences. With the built-in HDMI port, users can even make high definition presentations to clients when required. These new Vostro notebooks are also backed by a dedicated and specially trained small-business sales and support team of experts, which is a key pain point for small businesses that typically have little or no IT support. Inclusion in Dell’s FastTrack program enables select configurations of the Vostro 3000 series to ship within 48 hours of ordering , further removing worry from buying a new laptop. Durability is another feature more customers are demanding from their laptops. The Vostro 3000 series laptops sport durable hinges and are encased in aluminum for extra protection while away from the office. Shipped with a 30-day return policy , the Vostro 3000 notebooks also feature a suite of customizable service and support solutions to keep business data protected and business moving at an affordable price. Vostro 3000 Series: At a Glance Stay in Touch: With the integrated webcam and microphone , users can make Internet calls, conduct video conferences and remotely exchange files to help increase productivity. Always Be Connected: Users can go wireless with a full range of connectivity options: 802.11g/n wireless LAN, Bluetooth, and WWAN mobile broadband. Memory to Spare: Run Windows® 7 effortlessly while performing everyday tasks quickly with support for up to 6GB of DDR3 SDRAM memory. Protect Your Work: Keep your critical data under lock and key with optional finger print reader and full-data-encrypted hard drives. “Set & Forget” Online Data Protection: Easy, secure and automated Dell DataSafe online backup protects and helps recover business-critical data. Coverage Now and Later: Users can extend their basic Limited Hardware Warranty from 1-3 years to stay covered into the future. Remote On-Call Support: Small businesses can get help when they need it with DellConnect, which allows tech-support agents to troubleshoot and help resolve system issues remotely. ProSupport to Simplify IT: Businesses can choose their own level of 24 IT support with optional Dell ProSupport™ services. Available in the US and parts of Asia starting from today and available in Europe and Latin America and other geographies from March 16. Visit www.dell.com/vostro for additional information.
Japanese-Swedish mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson has so far unveiled a number of three devices powered by Google's Android operating system, including the Xperia X10 and the Xperia X10 mini and mini pro. All three devices are set to land on the market with the Android 1.6 platform on board, yet it seems that the company plans on upgrading the... (read more)
Windows 7 customers that are configuring their accounts for automatic login will find that the operating system resents the Taskbar (Superbar) to the default configuration, Microsoft said. The same problem also affects users of Windows Server 2008 R2, according to the Redmond company, but customers that are running eithe... (read more)
While AMD is saying that NVIDIA likes to bribe game developers, the Santa Clara GPU maker is appearing on TV and answering questions concerning the ongoing litigations with Intel over NVIDIA's rights to manufacture chipsets. Recently, NVIDIA Chief Executive Officer Jen-Hsun Huang agreed to an interview with Fortune magazine and took advantage of t... (read more)
Companies, have been going out of their way researching, developing, creating and showcasing storage devices that have more and more advanced technologies built into them, such as security features, backup functions or even boot-up capabilities, for months now. Unlike all such HDDs, SSDs and flash drives, however, the upcoming device from... (read more)
In the Victorian epoch, a large number of aristocrats in the United Kingdom purchased Japanese knotweed from the Far East, in a bid to decorate their homes and gardens with more exotic plants. The plan soon backfired, as the knotweed soon moved out of gardens, and into the wild. Since then, they have been spreading across the country at very high sp... (read more)
Given how simple we've made timekeeping over the years, it was inevitable that luxury watches would have to move into more esoteric lands in order to exude the appropriate sense of wonder when witnessed by those who can't afford them. You might call that the Xperia Pureness effect. Ergo, quite aside from its platinum or 18-carat gold construction options, the 4N watch tries to grab the spotlight with its quirky disc-based mechanism, which rotates numbers (four numbers, hence 4N) into position to display a digital readout of the time. The fact that all three discs -- built out of aluminum or a titanium alloy -- and the MVT01 movement are exposed to the eye earns geek cred from us, while the limited run of only 16 units should ensure the desired exclusivity for the watches' future owners. As the old saying about price goes, if you have to ask, you can't afford one. 4N wristwatch delivers digital time in a mechanical fashion originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 04:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink aBlogtoRead | 4N |Email this|Comments
Those lowly Core 2 Duo chips already feel like a long forgotten memory, and frankly, that's a-okay with us. MSI is helping its seductive X-Slim line get a taste of Intel's Core 2010 lineup with a Core i5-520UM processor, which sits alongside up to 4GB of DDR3 RAM, a 250GB / 320GB / 500GB hard drive, integrated graphics, a 13-inch (1,366 x 768 resolution) panel, HDMI / VGA outputs, a pair of USB 2.0 sockets, 4- or 8-cell battery and an SD / MMC card reader. There's also built-in WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, a 1.3 megapixel webcam, twin speakers and a chassis that measures under 1-inch thick. Per usual, MSI is in no hurry to out pricing and release details, but we'll be sure to keep an eye (or two) out for both. MSI serves up Core i5 within 13-inch X-Slim X360 ultraportable originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 05:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink Hot Hardware | MSI |Email this|Comments
The super-high-end 17-inch M6500 is all well and good for giant people, but we're glad Dell's finally giving us regular-sizers a shot with the new Precision M4500. Naturally, compromises have been made, but only just barely. The new 15.6-inch laptop rocks a 16:9, 1920 x 1080 display, backed up by NVIDIA Quadro FX 1800M or 880M graphics (the 6500 supports the 3800M, 2800M and ATI M7740) and your choice of Core i5 or Core i7 processors, on up to the Core i7-920XM Quad Core Extreme Edition. This being Dell, there are plenty of tweaks and perks on offer, like a HD+ sRGB LED screen with 100 percent color gamut, a 64GB SSD mini card for dual drive configs without losing the optical drive, a 3 megapixel camera, backlit keyboard, multitouch trackpad, Precision ON, and a multi-carrier-friendly Gobi 2.0 wireless chip. Perhaps most excitingly for us on-the-go regular-sizers, you can supposedly squeeze out 7 hours and 40 minutes of battery with the 9 cell option, and there's a 12 cell battery slice option less than half an inch thick that should send it over the moon. On its own the laptop is 1.1-inches thick and weighs 6 pounds, and while exact pricing hasn't been ironed out yet, it should start at less than $1,700. Start counting out those regular-sized green dollars of yours, the laptop should be out in the "coming weeks." That not enough for you? Dell's also upgrading its Precision T7500, T5500 and T5300 workstations to Intel Xeon 5600 Westmere EP processors for you desk slaves within a similar timeframe. PR and another M4500 press shot are after the break. Continue reading Dell brings next-gen Precision performance to M4500 15.6-incher Dell brings next-gen Precision performance to M4500 15.6-incher originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 08:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | |Email this|Comments
The BBC World Service has conducted a poll of more than 27,000 adults across 26 countries to answer one primary question: is internet access a fundamental human right? We can skip right past Finland and Estonia who've already made laws to that effect, and take a look at what the other nations thought. Mexico, Korea and Brazil lead the way here with all having greater than 90 percent agreement, while Pakistan, India and Kenya -- countries with a slightly different perception of what fundamental needs are -- offer the least support, though they're all still above 50 percent in agreement. Other interesting stats include the claim by 85 percent of Japanese internet users and 81 percent in Mexico that they would not be able to "cope without the internet," while 55 percent of Brits and most other European nations believe that the internet should be regulated by governments in at least some way. Ghana and Nigeria are most worried about fraud (ha!), while people in the Philippines see explicit content as the web's biggest threat. Hit the source for more such pearls of wisdom and do let us know what you think in the comments below. 79 percent of adults believe web access is a 'fundamental right' originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 06:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink Digg | BBC |Email this|Comments
Energizer's Duo USB battery charger has been around for a couple of years now, but the company has just now fessed up to a fairly significant vulnerability in the software for the device after being informed of the problem by CERT. While the software was intended to simply let you keep watch on the battery charging status, it apparently also opened up a backdoor that allowed commands to be executed remotely, including the ability to list directories, send and receive files, and run programs. That vulnerability is only found in the Windows version of the software, and Energizer has already discontinued the product altogether and removed the download from its website. Anyone that already has the software installed is advised to first uninstall it and then remove the Arucer.dll file from the Windows system32 directory. [Thanks, Michael] Energizer confirms software vulnerability in Duo charging software originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink Bleeping Computer | MarketWatch |Email this|Comments
We recently wrote about how the NY Post was caught taking a blogger's story and rewriting it for itself -- noting the hypocrisy of a News Corp. newspaper copying from someone else, after Rupert Murdoch and his top execs have been going around decrying various news aggregators (and Google especially) for "stealing" from News Corp. newspapers. It's even more ridiculous when you think about it -- because the "stealing" that Rupert is upset about is Google linking to the original story -- a step that his NY Post writer couldn't even be bothered to do. Of course, as a few people pointed out in the comments, this sort of "re-reporting" is quite common in the traditional news business. You see it all the time in newspapers, magazines and broadcast TV. They take a story that was found somewhere else and just "re-report" it, so that they have their own version of it. That this is incredibly inefficient and a total waste of reporters' resources never seems to be considered. But it's a very traditional reporting mindset. But sometimes that leads to trouble. Felix Salmon has an excellent discussion going about how the recent NY Times plagiarism "scandal" really came about because of this mindset. First, he notes that the "reason" that reporter Zachary Kouwe gave for plagiarizing a variety of stories on his NY Times blog, was that he saw the stories elsewhere and wanted to re-report them and "in the essence of speed" clearly cut some corners in his re-reporting. But, as Salmon notes, this is a traditional reporting mindset. An internet blogging mindset would just see this story, and in the "essence of speed" link to it: If there's a minor news story on a trustworthy wire service, and you think you need it on the blog, then link to it. You add no value by rushing -- with "essence of speed", no less -- to get the exact same story yourself. You're a well-paid full-time journalist at the New York Times; there are surely higher and better uses of your valuable time than going back to rewrite a story which already exists elsewhere. The sin that resulted in Kouwe's departure from the NYT was that he rewrote badly, and left large chunks of other people's work unchanged in his own copy. But the true underlying sin was that he spent so much time rewriting in the first place: the beauty of blogs, which exist to link elsewhere, is that he should never have needed to do that at all. Salmon goes on to point out that the big newspapers, like the NY Times and the Wall Street Journal, keep putting traditional reporters in charge of their blogs (not always, but quite frequently), and they blog like reporters, rather than digital natives. That is, they re-report stuff, rather than linking. And that's often because traditional reporters lived by the "scoop" and the idea that they had to be first. Acknowledging that someone else got the story first is seen as an admission of failure. But in the blogging world, it's seen as a sign of respect and of gratitude. But it's difficult for those who've lived in that first world to get their heads wrapped around this. We recently wrote about the important role of curation in journalism -- which includes the ability to link to other stories, and add value to those stories (whether by fact checking or commentary or discussion). But too many traditional newspapers still have no interest in that kind of journalism, even as greater and greater numbers of their readers are actively seeking it out.Permalink | Comments | Email This Story
This post is part of the IT Innovation series, sponsored by Sun & Intel. Read more at ITInnovation.com. Of course, the content of this post consists entirely of the thoughts and opinions of the author.While there's been some talk that students aren't as interested in computer science these days -- and that getting a job with a CS degree is getting increasingly difficult -- CIO magazine seems to be reporting exactly the opposite. More and more students are getting CS degrees, and one of the reasons is that it's one degree that's still in high demand from employers. The article looks at a variety of CS programs and finds strong demand from both students and recruiters, when it comes to CS degrees -- and that there appear to be lots of jobs available -- despite the doom and gloom of folks who claim that computer science and IT jobs are disappearing.Permalink | Comments | Email This Story
Earlier this year, we wrote about a company called Vision Media TV that was suing the operator of 800Notes.com, a site where users had complained about Vision Media. Vision Media, of course, has been criticized in the NY Times and other media publications for cold calling organizations, promising to put them on "public television," but not making it clear that all it seemed to do was send the program it would put together (after the organization paid somewhere around $20,000) to various public television stations, with no promise that it would get on TV. Vision Media has been aggressive in trying to quiet any criticism, but with this latest lawsuit, not only is it getting some pushback, but others may be digging up some additional dirt on the company. Paul Alan Levy, who is representing 800Notes, alerts us to the news that all of this attention has helped dig up other reports about the company, including the fact that similarly questionable pitches have come from other companies with different names (WJMK, United Media, Vision Media and Great America HD)... but the very same address as Vision Media. Rather than Hugh Downs, those other pitches involved media personalities like Walter Cronkite and Mike Douglas -- both of whom ended up suing the company over being misled. This reminds me that we received a similar pitch ourselves a year or so ago, but I have no idea if it was from the same company (and tragically, I can't find that voicemail any more). Of course, none of this would be getting as much attention if the company wasn't trying to silence 800Notes and its users from saying why they felt the pitches were questionable.Permalink | Comments | Email This Story
See update below. Well, well, well. You may recall back in 2008, when EA used annoying DRM on Spore, consumers revolted by giving the game one-star reviews on Amazon. There was some controversy when Amazon deleted some of those reviews -- but it claimed it was just a glitch (the algorithm treated so many rapid one-star reviews as an attack of some kind). However, it's now become quite popular when someone selling books or games does something stupid, for people take to Amazon to express their displeasure in one-star reviews. So what's happening with Assassin's Creed 2 -- the Ubisoft game that is using incredibly annoying DRM and has had trouble keeping its servers up. Well... reader Aaron points out that for the PC version of the game Amazon appears to be showing no reviews at all. Either it deleted them or has proactively blocked the reviews. Of course, the reviews somehow are magically working for the PlayStation3 and Xbox versions of the game... Funny how that works. Update: Some are pointing out that since the PC version isn't officially released until tomorrow, that could explain the lack of reviews on Amazon. They also note that elsewhere, such as in the UK, there are numerous angry one-star reviews...Permalink | Comments | Email This Story
We frequently worry (or point out the negative consequences) of technologically illiterate politicians passing laws that impact technology. It goes beyond just laws, however, into other investigations. Frank Ahrens, at the Washington Post, highlights what happens when you have technologically illiterate politicians trying to investigate the Toyota acceleration problem, highlighting a troubling exchange between Toyota's boss, Akio Toyoda, and Eleanor Holmes Norton, the Congresswoman from DC: Toyoda said that when his company gets a complaint about a mechanical problem, engineers set to work trying to duplicate the problem in their labs to find out what went wrong. Norton said: "Your answer -- we'll wait to see if this is duplicated -- is very troublesome." Norton asked Toyoda why his company waited until a problem recurred to try to diagnose it, which is exactly what he was not saying. Members of Congress are generally lawyers and politicians, not engineers. But they are launching investigations and creating policies that have a direct impact on the designers and builders of incredibly complex vehicles -- there are 20,000 parts in a modern car -- so there are some basics they should understand. Chief among them: The only way to credibly figure out why something fails is to attempt to duplicate the failure under observable conditions. This is the engineering method. But, of course, understanding how engineering and technology works doesn't get you (re-)elected. Grandstanding does.Permalink | Comments | Email This Story
Do you feel that Internet access is a fundamental right? Four in five adults in more than 26 different countries agree with you, according to a new poll sponsored by the BBC World Service. The poll asked more than 27,000 adults about their attitudes towards the Internet, and found that 87 percent of those who regularly use the Internet believe that access should be “the fundamental right of all people.” More than 71 percent of non-Internet users also felt that they should have the right to access the global network. In both South Korea and Mexico, more than 90 percent of those surveyed agreed that access was a fundamental right. The survey found that most web users are positive about the Internet: Close to 80 percent said they felt it had brought them greater freedom, 90 percent said they thought it was a good place to learn, and just over 50 percent said they enjoyed spending their time on social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. However, some expressed concern as well, with almost half saying they did not agree with the statement that “the Internet is a safe place to express my opinions.” Germany (with 72 percent) and South Korea (70 percent) had the highest proportion who felt the Internet was not a safe place. According to the poll, most users believe that the Internet should not be regulated by governments. More than half of the Internet users surveyed said that “the Internet should never be regulated by any level of government anywhere,” including large proportions of the population in South Korea (83 percent), Nigeria (77 percent), and Mexico (72 percent). A large number of those surveyed said that they didn’t think they could cope without the Internet, including 84 percent of those polled in Japan and 81 percent of those in Mexico. Those who were surveyed in the United States were more likely than the average to say the Internet has given them freedom (85 percent compared to 78 percent worldwide). They were also among the most likely to say that they feel able to express this freedom in speech, with 55 percent (compared to 48 percent worldwide) agreeing that the Internet is a safe place to express their opinions. Thumbnail photo courtesy of Flickr user Stefan Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req’d): Is Google’s China Problem a Groundswell of the Closed Internet?
The FCC will deliver its National Broadband Plan to Congress a day earlier than originally scheduled — on March 16. Also on that day, the five FCC commissioners will vote on a “mission statement” intended to represent the spirit of the submitted documents. The plan, which Congress called for as part of the stimulus package passed last year, will recommend ways to provide universal broadband access as well as encourage Congress and industry to use broadband in health care, education and energy efficiency programs. So far we have been relatively unimpressed with the aspects of the plan that have been pre-announced, as have other economists and analysts. It tends to favor the existing broadband duopoly while offering little in the way of innovative ideas for expanding access. While the complete document isn’t out yet, many of the big-picture items in the plan have been previewed within the last two weeks. So with the caveat that it may all change by March 16, here is a rundown of its main components and a few beneficiaries that we believe our readers are most likely to care about. Wired Broadband: The plan’s most far-reaching goal is to deliver 100 Mbps to 100 million households by 2020. But as we’ve already pointed out, such a goal isn’t really that ambitious given that 65 percent of homes in America will have broadband that could deliver 100 Mbps speed by the end of this year and 90 percent will have it by 2013. Also as part of improving wired broadband the plan will tackle the issue of universal service reform, a snore-inducing topic but one that nevertheless will be a primary means of funding rural broadband access. Currently USF is an $8 billion program aimed at phone-based technologies rather than broadband and IP services. On Friday the FCC suggested a decade-long transition that will gradually shift that spending from voice to IP-based services. The long transition should ease the pain for rural phone companies — such as CenturyLink or Windstream — that have benefited from the program. Aside from USF reform, when it comes to higher speeds, it’s the carriers using fiber-to-the-node strategies that are likely to lose. Despite assurances from chip vendors such as Ikanos that 100 Mbps over copper is feasible, Qwest, AT&T (T) and other providers relying on DSL and copper for any part of the last mile will struggle to reach 100 Mbps unless they make huge investments. Wireless Broadband: This is where things get a bit more interesting. FCC Chairman Julius Genchowski is a big proponent of mobile broadband — he almost always seems to steer the conversation from wired broadband to mobile — perhaps because he’s acknowledged that the lack of competition in the U.S. is a problem he doesn’t know how to solve. As such, he has dedicated many FCC resources to a variety of cellular issues, from calling out carriers on early termination fees to finding more spectrum assets. The National Broadband Plan asks the government to free up 500 MHz of spectrum — less than the wireless industry asked for, but still a nice chunk. However the government won’t demand that spectrum from broadcasters, as had been originally floated by the FCC. Instead the FCC is asking broadcast television spectrum holders to voluntarily give up their spectrum in exchange for compensation. Such an offer won’t go far in freeing up much-needed spectrum available in urban areas, but will be a boon to spectrum holders and broadcasters in rural areas, which will get payouts for something they aren’t using. The plan also tackles the almost decade-old problem of the lack of a nationwide, wireless public safety network by saying it will enable some type of private-public partnership with consumer-grade equipment that could be cheaper for the feds to buy — a plan that could cost up to $16 billion. This might hurt Motorola, which provides a lot of specialty public safety gear — unless the government gets Android handsets. Wireless broadband will also have a role to play in connecting the roughly 5 percent of the population that will be too expensive to connect with wired broadband, some of which will come from wireless phone service and some of which will be satellite. The key will be ensuring that satellite providers and wireless broadband providers that serve as the sole means of broadband don’t cripple the service with low caps and wretched speeds. Adoption: Once the infrastructure is in place, there’s still a key hurdle to adoption — namely the cost of broadband and convincing people they need it. The FCC recently found that 94 million people don’t have broadband, choosing to forgo fat pipes because they couldn’t afford it or just don’t value it. Providing access for the poor through some sort of government lifeline program will likely be part of the plan; what’s unclear is whether or not the government would pay the high retail rates for those lines or cheaper, wholesale ones. The ISPs benefit either way, although they would love to get the higher prices. But using additional programs modeled after that of cable’s A-Plus project to boost access for the poor by subsidizing the cost of broadband may result in slower speeds for those receiving the subsidized service — and as such, won’t help convince people broadband is worth paying for! In the meantime, it’s unclear if the plan will tackle special access issues whereby ISPs in rural areas pay far more than ISPs in urban areas because the number of providers selling the rural ISPs with an on-ramp to the Internet backbone are so few. Attempting to solving that problem by investigating the abuse of a monopoly and regulating prices in those areas would lower broadband costs for ISPs, which could then afford to provide faster speeds without building new infrastructure in rural areas. National Purposes: This aims to solve the chicken-and-egg problem plaguing broadband adoption, smoothing the path for services such as health care, education, smarter energy management systems and even government programs to be delivered via broadband. Demand for such services will not only spur investment from infrastructure companies, but will also give folks a reason to adopt broadband in their homes. The National Broadband Plan will likely contain several miscellaneous items as well, such as a section on opening up set-top boxes and making room for unlicensed wireless spectrum, but at its core it’s still a recommendation. To bring many of the recommendations to fruition will require legislative action on the part of Congress as well as the enactment of formal rule-making procedures from the FCC, especially when it comes to things like USF reform and special access reform. Other federal agencies will also get involved, such as the Food and Drug Administration, which is already working with the FCC on ways the agencies can regulate wireless medical devices. Given the sclerotic pace of the bureaucracy and the amount of lobbying the communications firms will continue to bring to bear, expect the actual implementation of many aspects of this plan to take years to become reality. Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req’d): Everybody Hertz: The Looming Spectrum Crisis
Six months ago, it looked like mergers and acquisitions were heating up again. Om thought it was good news for startups, while I fretted about companies being pressured to make deals that didn’t make strategic sense. I needn’t have worried. After the usual end-of-year lull, deals are starting to be made again. And no sector is riper for deal-making than tech, especially those companies active on the web. Not only has the economy been stable for nearly a year, but web companies that survived have emerged with leaner operations and more cash on hand. Perhaps more importantly, the web has evolved to a point where mergers are starting to make strategic sense. Here’s why: Over the past several years, web content has developed something of a split personality. Part of it is driven by information, navigated by search and static in nature. The other part is driven by conversation, accessed through discovery and protean in essence. This distinction has been around for some time, and discussed at length on this site, but it’s becoming more and more of an acute reality, especially when it comes to big web companies. The dichotomy is becoming clearer in data as well, as evidenced by a report from Hitwise this week comparing the downstream news traffic of two sites, Google News and Facebook. The 10 sites that Google News drives traffic to have next to no overlap with the sites to which Facebook members are linking. Only CNN.com is on both lists. And while print media dominates Google News’s list, People is the only print-oriented publication on the Facebook list. It’s also clear that the conversational web isn’t going to make the informational web irrelevant. Rather, they complete each other in a Jerry Maguire kind of way. So marrying the informational web to the conversational web is appealing to companies. It means greater mindshare among their users — and therefore more opportunities to serve them ads or coax them into premium subscriptions. It means higher profits if they can combine the two without a corresponding increase in operating costs. And it means a more integrated, seamless experience of the web — instead of its fragmented nature today, with people jumping from site to site. But the catch is, people like the web fragmented. They get nervous when a single company promises them that unified, seamless experience. That’s why Google has launched social network (Orkut, FriendConnect) after social network (Wave, Buzz) without gaining solid traction. Buzz won terrific reviews on its launch, but there’s just something troubling about letting Google – or any one company – stalk all of our online behaviors. And that leaves Google with little choice but to buy its way into that Maguire-ish state of completion that it so craves. Of course, many companies crave such a state. To that end, speculation that Microsoft might make a play for Twitter has been around for some time, though the issue was inflamed by comments made by Steve Ballmer this week. Just ask Yahoo how hard it is to say no to Ballmer. All it will take is one big deal to start a wave of web mergers. It might not even come from Google or Microsoft. Facebook understands the need to extend its reach into the informational web – a key reason for its Facebook Connect alliances with companies like Yahoo. A merger with Yahoo would present its own share of problems for Facebook, but it would turn the company — overnight — into a formidable web giant. Not to mention the fact that it would an alternative to the IPO that the company seems to be dreading. Image courtesy of Mykl Roventine on Flickr.
One in four Facebook users now come from Asia or the Middle East, according to O’Reilly Media research analyst and blogger Ben Lorica, who’s been tracking the statistics behind various demographic and geographic groups on the social networking site. Given that Facebook now claims a total of some 400 million users, that translates into about 100 million people. And the number of users from Asia in particular is growing much faster than any other major geographic region (while the share held by North American users has been declining rapidly). In the past three months alone, the O’Reilly researcher notes that Facebook has added an additional 2.3 million users from South Asia. Lorica also notes in his post that, with a market penetration of just 1.7 percent in Asia and Africa, Facebook “has barely scratched the surface in both regions.” In a similar post last fall, the O’Reilly researcher said that in the prior three months, Asia had added more than 17 million users. Meanwhile, the share of users from the Middle East/North Africa region remains stable at just over 8 percent, he says, and had “the second fastest-growth rate over the past 12 weeks,” according to his research data. Lorica also says that the number of users who are in the 18-25 age group is higher outside the U.S., particularly in Asia, the Middle East/North Africa, Africa and South America. Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req’d): Why NewNet Companies Must Shoulder More Responsibility Post photos courtesy of O’Reilly Media, thumbnail photo courtesy of Flickr user Betta Design
Updated: Men are more positively inclined towards social media activities and use social networking sites more than women, according to what Liberty Mutual called a “comprehensive national survey” of online behavior it released yesterday. This is somewhat surprising, since it’s the exact opposite of what other surveys have found, including a recent one from Royal Pingdom that looked at user profile data from some of the major social networks. Among the findings in Liberty’s survey, which was done as part of the Responsibility Project: Men (57 percent) are more likely than women (50 percent) to have more than one social networking account. With the exception of Facebook, men are generally more likely than women to use social media accounts at least a few times per week, particularly Twitter. For MySpace, the breakdown is 35 percent of men vs. 26 percent of women; LinkedIn is 25 percent of men vs. 16 percent of women, and Twitter is 53 percent of men vs. 38 percent of women. Dads are more likely than moms to have a MySpace account or a Twitter account, at 43 percent vs. 29 percent and 50 percent vs. 32 percent, respectively. The Royal Pingdom survey, meanwhile, found that of 19 social networking sites studied — including Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and Bebo — the majority (84 percent) had more female than male users. The exceptions to that rule were social news sites such as Digg, Reddit and Slashdot (the latter had 82 percent male users). Twitter and Facebook, meanwhile, were found to have the same proportion of male and female users — 59 percent and 57 percent respectively. The most female-dominated site was Bebo, with 66 percent female users, closely followed by MySpace and Classmates.com with 64 percent each. Royal Pingdom said the average ratio of all 19 sites was 47 percent male and 53 percent female. Royal Pingdom’s numbers are very similar to those produced by others who have studied the issue, including Brian Solis, who put together some numbers on male-female ratios at different social networks and concluded that “In the World of Social Media, Women Rule.” So what explains the discrepancies between Liberty Mutual’s survey and the others? It could be as simple as the difference between what people say they do and what they actually do — since Liberty asked people how many networks they belonged to, whereas Royal Pingdom and others used actual data from people’s profiles. Liberty Mutual’s survey was also based on a relatively small sample size of just 1,000 people. I’ve emailed the company to ask for a comment, and will update if and when I get one. More on Social Networks Asia, Middle East Users Now 25% ofFacebook Tech Insider Zynga Gets Unfairly Slammed Over HaitiDonations Tech Insider Wikia Dell Spat Highlights Divide Between Corporate and WebComputing Tech Insider Twitter Staffer Stops Blogging AfterBacklash Tech Insider Update: A spokesperson for Liberty Mutual responded via email and said that the survey went out to a random sample of the population that was reflected the gender breakdown of the U.S. — 52 percent women, 48 percent men. Respondents were also screened to ensure that they had at least one social media account. “We did not focus on the findings of how many women versus men on each network, but rather looked at data AMONG women on each network compared to data AMONG men on each network. And that is the analysis where we found men to be more active (with the exception of Facebook) – that is, more likely to say they use each network at least a few times a week, not necessarily more likely to have those accounts.” Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req’d): Why NewNet Companies Must Shoulder More Responsibility Post and thumbnail photos courtesy of Flickr user Wili Hybrid.
NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter has completed 11 overflights, listening for the Phoenix Mars Lander on Jan. 19 and 20, without hearing anything from the lander.
An example of a rampart crater is the ridge in this image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
NASA will begin transmitting commands to its Mars exploration rover Spirit on Monday as part of an escape plan to free the venerable robot from its Martian sand trap.
Students in fourth through seventh grade will work to create the ultimate baseball experience 'on Mars,' even designing the rules for how to play a game on the Red Planet.
A never-before-seen view of the turbulent heart of our Milky Way galaxy is being unveiled by NASA today. This event will commemorate the 400 years since Galileo first turned his telescope to the heavens in 1609.
The upcoming sequel to the highly successful and wildly techtastic “Iron Man” movie series is slated for a May 7 release and, from viewing the second trailer just released, it looks like it will do double the damage. That’s because there will be two robotic heroes–Iron Man and War Machine versus Whiplash, who uses, well, electric whips. Here’s the new trailer video, as well as the first, released late last year.
If you own a Kindle, you also own a mobile Web browser. But chances are you never use it. That’s because it’s a lousy experience, and one Amazon does its best to keep away from its users (hint: look in the gadget’s “experimental” menu). But maybe Amazon is ready to rethink the Web. Michael Calore notes a job opening at Lab126, Amazon’s consumer products unit that built the Kindle, for an engineer to help build “an innovative embedded web browser.” It’s possible that Amazon (AMZN) is thinking about something other than the Kindle here. But a decent Web browser for the e-book reader is long overdue. I understand why Amazon didn’t push the browser when it rolled out its first device in 2007–it had other priorities–but at this point having a wireless device that only grudgingly accesses the Web makes no sense. And it certainly won’t fly once Apple’s (AAPL) iPad ships next month. That said, if Amazon does add a full-fledged browser to the Kindle, the ripple effects are pretty significant. I assume, for instance, that adding a real browser requires a conversation with AT&T (T), which is currently providing “free” wireless coverage for the device. That doesn’t tax the carrier’s system that much right now, since Kindle users only really need to go online to download a new book. But if they could actually use the Web, that equation changes. And a real Web browser means publishers who are selling subscriptions to their titles via the Kindle will have to rethink that strategy, too. I don’t get the point of paying $13.99 a month for a subscription to the New York Times (NYT) on a Kindle to begin with. But if you can get a decent version of the paper for free–and updated in real time–via the Web on the same machine, then there’s no point at all. The Times is already working on a Web pay wall, of course. But adding a real browser to the Kindle may push other publishers to think even harder about walling off their stuff, too.
Is unfettered Internet access a fundamental human right? Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton believes it is and said as much during a speech on Internet censorship earlier this year. It appears this belief is widely held. The BBC put the question to more than 27,000 adults in 26 countries and got a yes from four out of five, which is nice to hear. Less pleasant were respondents’ answers to questions about free speech on the Internet. Asked whether they agreed or disagreed with the statement, “the Internet is a safe place to express my opinions,” the survey group was almost evenly split: 48 percent agreed, 49 percent did not. The countries in which respondents were wariest of expressing their opinions online: Germany (72 percent), South Korea (70 percent), France (69 percent), Japan (65 percent) and China (55 percent). Interesting list, isn’t it? Certainly, you’d expect to see China, Japan and South Korea on this list, but Germany and France? Seems odd–to me, anyway.
When Apple first filed its lawsuit against HTC, I speculated that one reason Cupertino might have chosen the company as a target–beyond the sheer number of Android and Windows Mobile devices it manufactures–is that as a contract manufacturer, HTC may lack the strong patent portfolio needed to defend itself. It seems this is indeed the case. A Deutsche Bank analysis of yearly patent filings by Apple (AAPL), HTC and Google (GOOG) reveals that Apple is by far the leader and HTC the laggard. Over the past few years, Apple has amassed some 3,000 patents, HTC just 58. “HTC has had comparatively few patent filings leading up to the introduction of the original iPhone in June 2007,” Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitmore explained in a note to clients this past weekend. “Specifically, HTC filed zero patents with the US Patent office between 2004 and 2007 while Apple filed 507 and Google filed 67 over the same period.” Now, Deutsche Bank’s analysis doesn’t categorize any of these patents, so it’s impossible to say which apply to Apple’s suit against HTC. But the paucity of patents held by the latter certainly suggests it could find itself at a severe disadvantage in this battle. UPDATE: Here’s a bit of additional perspective on this from Engadget’s resident patent expert Nilay Patel: Hey, just caught your piece on HTC’s patent portfolio. It’s interesting, and I agree with your reasoning on why Apple chose HTC over, say, Motorola, which has 1000s of patents, but remember that Apple’s entire portfolio doesn’t really matter here–it only picked 20 to litigate, and it only has to win one claim. Similarly, HTC only has to find one of its 58 patents that the iPhone infringes, which isn’t necessarily impossible since HTC’s portfolio is probably entirely mobile-oriented. I’m sure HTC will countersue here–it’s basically standard practice in this type of suit. I’d also expect Google to be named sooner rather than later–there’s no way HTC’s contract with Google doesn’t have a rock-solid indemnification clause. Further Reading: Apple Sues Nexus One Maker HTC Over iPhone Patents Apple Sues HTC [Complete Court Filings] Apple vs. Google: Game On
Well, I did call myself a “sparkly vampire” recently, due to my late-night blogging hours, but now it’s in a cartoon. I am not quite sure what to make of the comic by Newsvetter’s Andrew Fowler, who also created Guhmshoo cartoons, but it is definitely worth checking out. So, here is “All Things Digiphobic,” which you can click on to make larger: