iPad Geeks: 2013

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Zuckerberg, Milner, Brin and Other Tech Titans Donate Millions to Science

Zuckerberg_millner

When you’re as rich as some of the Silicon Valley elite, most anything is at your fingertips. Jetpacks, yachts, skydiving while wearing augmented reality headgear. Oh, and there’s that whole philanthropy thing, too.

A few are opting for that last option with the launch of the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences Foundation on Wednesday, a non-profit organization drummed up by a handful of tech billionaires.

“I think that our society needs more heroes, more scientists, more researchers, more engineers,” said Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, one of the sponsors of the foundation, at an event in San Francisco on Wednesday. “The things that we can do from the sidelines are build institutions that celebrate your work.”

The prize aims to spur innovation in the field of science research and is backed by tech luminaries including Russian entrepreneur and venture capitalist Yuri Milner, who reached out to Zuckerberg and Google co-founder Sergey Brin months ago to talk about launching the foundation. Art Levinson, Apple chairman and former CEO of Genentech, will act as the chairman of the board for the foundation.

The first round of prize recipients includes 11 scientists from a range of research disciplines, including studies in genetics, cancer research and neural behavior. Each of the 11 prize winners will receive a $3 million award for their work, and Brin, Zuckerberg, Milner and the rest of the sponsors have agreed to a five-year commitment to awarding prizes.

For now, the group’s board intends to remain small. Milner said the design of the five-person board — which also includes Zuckerberg’s wife Priscilla Chan and Brin’s wife Anne Wojcicki (a biology analyst and co-founder of 23 and Me) — is purposely small, targeting research on five specific diseases chosen by the board members. Wojcicki’s donation will go to supporting Parkinson’s research; the other sponsors haven’t named their chosen diseases yet.

At the same time, Zuckerberg said there’s room for expansion. “We specifically said we weren’t going to name the prize after a specific person,” he said, in order to potentially attract more sponsors in the tech industry.

U.S. Unveils New Strategy to Combat Hacking

The White House unveiled a new strategy to exert pressure on China and other countries that engage in corporate espionage against the U.S. as part of a new administration push to counter cyber attacks and commercial spying.

The strategy, released Wednesday in a report that was the subject of a White House meeting, raised the prospect of stepped-up U.S. trade restrictions on products and services derived from stolen trade secrets. Officials also outlined a series of diplomatic actions to reinforce the administration’s commitment to curbing such thefts.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

The Pirate Bay’s advertising program actually works

Anodyne game

A little less than one year ago, The Pirate Bay announced a new campaign where the site’s iconic logo would be replaced by an ad for some form of media — usually music. Dubbed The Promo Bay, the promotional campaign aimed to help artists promote their work — no doubt an effort by The Pirate Bay to show that it isn’t just a platform for piracy. Those of you that have visited the site frequently enough may have wondered how well the promotion platform is working, and luckily for us, the developer of the indie game — Sean Hogan — Anodyne broke down just how much the promotion helped.

The Promo Bay isn’t simply a free promotion, as the catch is that the featured artist must provide a free torrent to the promoted work. Hogan said that the promotion was a success, and fueled sales to far exceed the projected numbers.

Over the three days that Anodyne was promoted on The Pirate Bay, Sean experienced traffic of over 240,000 unique visitors, with the largest referral being from The Pirate Bay. The total cost of the promotion was $7, but that was simply web-hosting costs. The release trailer of the game broke 100,000 views, and the Facebook page gained around 200 to 300 Likes.

To compare to how the game was doing before The Promo Bay, the developers only experienced traffic of around 40,000 unique visitors, which resulted in around 800 to 900 sales at an average of $8 a pop, which results in around $6,400 to $7,200. The sale resulted in around 6,700 purchases of the game, and though the average price paid was much lower than $8 — at around $1.50 to $2.76 depending on game-only or bundle purchases — the developers doubled their revenue from the sale, generating around $12,000.

So, at least for one developer, The Promo Bay actually worked, showing that more sales come with more exposure, even if the product is sitting right there available for free.

Ancient icosahedron: 3D printing ressurrects the world’s oldest die

D20 Die

While it’s unlikely that the ancient Egyptians had anything like Dungeons and Dragons (Sarcophagi and Serpents?), we’ve never been shy about misappropriating the discoveries of pre-Christian Pharaohs. Why start now? A few months ago the internet became aware of a 20-sided die carved in serpentine and dated to the first few centuries BC. Inlaid with ancient Greek symbols, it was almost certainly used for gambling and/or simple games of chance, but it was quickly heralded as the originator of the critical hit. Forget 20s — a true gamer rolls Kappas.

Now, the inevitable: a 3D-printable model of the die makes it attainable by those of us without a professional art thief on retainer. Starting at $17 and ranging to over $300, depending entirely on the materials and finishing used, this die is sure to spice up any friendly dungeon-crawl.

It is also, unfortunately, likely to confuse any such gathering of the nerds, as it features the same Ptolemaic symbols as the original. Unless you’re willing to incorporate yet another chart into your role-playing sessions, this one will likely stay on the shelf as a display.

The confluence of nerd interests, increasingly medieval printing materials, and the simplicity of a die’s design has actually led to quite a number of stylistically ancient dice. It turns out that almost any primary sold can look ruggedly ancient when made out of pitted steel.

The thorn dice have attracted a fair amount of attention, as heavy metal steampunk or caltrops D4; the sheer variety of the die designs out there should threaten the dice-making industry.

Monday, May 6, 2013

How Pornography Addiction Works and Affects Your Life (Update: Or Not!)

For all the jokes, pornography addiction ~~is a real and actual addiction~~. Really. Stop laughing. I'm serious. No, it's— Look. Porn works like any other addictive substance: It re-wires your brain in ways that make you need it, and probably proves harmful to the rest of your life. (See update below)

Basically, the visual images of pornography associate themselves with the dopamine release you receive from pleasure. And in turn, you become less sensitive to sexual images, meaning it can become harder for you to be turned on by reality. You'll also be compelled to seek out porn more and more often, of course. Like any other addiction, you can shake porn addiction through prolonged avoidance of the material, but you're going to go through withdrawal symptoms along the way. It's a pretty har— Tough. It's a tough one to shake. [YouTube]

Update: Sex researcher and friend of Gizmodo Debby Herbenick writes in to tell us that all of this is simply not true, and that "many of the professional who think it can be treated are selling treatment programs for porn/sex addiction." She writes:

Most sex researchers don't recognize "porn addiction" as a true addiction (nor do most of us recognize "sex addiction" as a true addiction). This is a common topic of conversation among scientists in my field. The video is mostly speculation; empirical data to back up the statements in the video are enormously lacking.

If you'd like to discuss with anyone who studies this area, I'd be happy to refer you to colleagues who study related issues. I wouldn't have written if I didn't think it was important to set the record straight, but I've seen far too many people hurt personally or relationally by these unsupported claims.

You should take her opinion over most, for what it's worth.

A Rare Coupon Code to ThinkGeek Is Your Deal of the Day

We're big fans of ThinkGeek here at Gizmodo. They carry some really cool stuff that you can't get anywhere else, but like all superfluous-yet-undeniably-dope toys, the price has got to be right. You can't shout "shut up and take my money" if you've got to check your bank account first.

Right now, ThinkGeek's offering a rare coupon code that takes 20% off everything. Shipping's $6, ~~or free when you spend more than $75~~. The code's BLUERUPEE. Don't know what to use the code on? Well, the impossibly creepy USB tentacle ~~flash drive~~ pictured up at the top is a good start. [ThinkGeek]

Update 3:25: Unfortunately, it looks like free shipping doesn't stack with the 20% off code.

@kifleswing Holy deal explosion, Batman! Just a note on our 20% off coupon: free shipping at $75 doesn't stack. :\

— thinkgeek (@thinkgeek) February 20, 2013

Here are some more suggestions to get you started:

A Rare Coupon Code to ThinkGeek Is Your Deal of the Day

A Few Lego Pieces Transform This Studded Mug Into Whatever You Can Imagine

[$15 from Thinkgeek]

A Rare Coupon Code to ThinkGeek Is Your Deal of the Day

Fastest Bottle Opener in the Galaxy Opens Bottles in Less Than Twelve Parsecs

[$16 from Thinkgeek]

A Rare Coupon Code to ThinkGeek Is Your Deal of the Day

French Press Mug Brews a Perfect Single Serving of Coffee

[$20 from Thinkgeek]

A few notes: In Zelda, the blue rupee is worth 5 rupees. Shouldn't the coupon be something like "redrupee"? Also, if you want more shopping inspiration, here's the list of ThinkGeek products that Gizmodo's written about. And if you've had your eye on something for a while, let us know in the comments (after you cop one for yourself.)

The Internet was made for window shopping. Dealzmodo does it the best. Follow @dealzmodo

Top Deals

Eric Limer used Republic Wireless' unique $19-a-month smartphone plan for a whole year, all in the spirit of saving money. Here's what he learned.

A Friendly Reminder Not To Trust List Prices

One hundred thirty thousand dollars off? What a steal! No, but seriously, this is a pretty cool deal: Gorilla Tape kicks ass, and usually a roll costs around $6. [Amazon]

Accessories

1.5 TB WD My Passport ($100) | Amazon via Storageaholic | Originally $130

Miscellaneous

Apple

Hey — this official Apple 30-pin-to-Lightning adapter is $20 instead of $30. Of course, it's refurbished. [All4Celluar]

Hey, so a refurb iPhone 5 is down to $100 with 2-yr AT&T contract fave.co/W3KJzo

— dealzmodo (@dealzmodo) February 20, 2013

Audio

A Rare Coupon Code to ThinkGeek Is Your Deal of the Day

A year ago, Curtis Jackson promoted these headphones so hard that he spoke with Gizmodo's own Sam Biddle. Here's the video. Now, the blue model is on sale for $100, which is significantly less than the $250 MSRP. Is it because these are pretty hideous "fashion" headphones? It is because Fiddy isn't the marketing master that Dr. Dre is? Or is it because these are actually cheap, generic headphones with a whole bunch of expensive marketing, and now they're finally coming down to their true price? We don't know, but it is a bit sad. [Amazon]

Gaming

Dead Space 3 ($40) | Amazon via James Campbell | Originally $60
Assassin's Creed III ($40) | Amazon via Reddit | Originally $60

Huzzah! A new Humble Bundle is out, but for upcoming games humblebundle.com

— dealzmodo (@dealzmodo) February 20, 2013

Physical Media

"Well, out here we call them pirates." Criterion Collection DVD for $7. amazon.com/dp/B0007UC8Y4/... | My favorite scene: youtube.com/watch?v=jhex7q...

— dealzmodo (@dealzmodo) February 20, 2013

Warner Brothers Sale | Warner Bros via Hard Forum | Harry Potter, DC Comics, etc, plus free shipping
Patton on Blu-ray ($10) | Amazon via Logicbuy | Originally $18

Digital Media

Nah.

Clothing

Fjallraven Classic Backpack ($90) | Urban Outfitters via Reddit | Originally $140
Supergas Sale | Gilt via Put This On

Dumb TV Smart TV

Refurb Sony Blu-ray Player with WiFi ($60) | Best Buy via Reddit | Originally $90

Laptops

Desktops

Tablets

10.1" ASUS Transformer Pad Infinity ($430) | Amazon | Originally $500

Screens

Does This Verizon Galaxy S3 Deal Mean The GS4 Is Around the Corner?

A Rare Coupon Code to ThinkGeek Is Your Deal of the Day

For the past two weeks we've been seeing a lot of cheap Galaxy S3 handsets with Sprint contract. But this one is for Verizon service, and unlike the Sprint deals, current customers can take advantage of it. It's a $20 GS3 with two-year contract.

Of course, the Galaxy S4 could be just around the corner — there's starting to be a little bit of rumor chatter, and Mobile World Congress starts next week. Plus, it simply makes sense that the GS4 would come out a year after the GS3. So you've got to decide whether it's worth it to wait. [Newegg via Dealnews]

Portables

Hey, so a refurb iPhone 5 is down to $100 with 2-yr AT&T contract fave.co/W3KJzo

— dealzmodo (@dealzmodo) February 20, 2013

Camera

Bare Drives

You guys see anything out there? Yesterday's sick OCZ Vertex 3 deal was spotted by a commenter.

Apps

Ed. Note: We post sale apps when we see them, and we don't repost links if the app stays on sale for a while. If you're on an app-buying kick, you should check out old Dealzmodo posts for more cheap apps.

iOS

Need For Speed Most Wanted ($0) | IGN via Reddit | Originally $5

Android

If you've already bought Swiftkey, you get a free upgrade to version 4. If you buy it today, it's half off. play.google.com/store/apps/det...

— dealzmodo (@dealzmodo) February 20, 2013

Hobomodo

No freebies for you.

A note on Dealzmodo: We're professional shoppers. We wade through virtual mall after cyber storefront to figure out what's actually a bargain. Yes, we make money if you end up buying. That's capitalism, but we're absolutely looking out for your best interest. Read this if you want to know more.

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Nestlé finds horsemeat in pasta meals

World's biggest food company withdraws products in Italy, Spain and France, saying they contained more than 1% horse

Nestl , the world's biggest food company, has removed beef pasta products from sale in Italy, Spain and France after finding traces of horse DNA.

The Swiss-based company, which last week said its products were unaffected by the scandal, said its tests had found more than 1% horse DNA in two products.

"We have informed the authorities accordingly," Nestl said in a statement on Monday. "There is no food safety issue."

Nestl withdrew two chilled pasta products, Buitoni Beef Ravioli and Beef Tortellini, in Italy and Spain. Lasagnes la Bolognaise Gourmandes, a frozen product for catering businesses produced in France, will also be withdrawn.

Nestl was suspending deliveries of all products made using beef from a German subcontractor to one of its suppliers, the company said.

The discovery of horsemeat in products labelled as beef has spread from the UK across Europe since last month, prompting product withdrawals, consumer anger and government investigations into the continent's complex food-processing chains.

Governments across Europe have stressed that horsemeat poses little or no health risk, although some carcasses have been found to be tainted with a painkiller banned for human consumption.

But the scandal has damaged the confidence of consumers in supermarkets and fast food chains since horsemeat was first identified in Irish burgers.

The retailer Lidl said on Monday it had withdrawn products from its stores in Finland and Sweden after finding traces of the meat.

Chinese military unit behind 'prolific and sustained hacking'

Security firm says Unit 61398 has stolen hundreds of terabytes of data from at least 141 organisations in US, UK and Canada

A secretive Chinese military unit is believed to be behind a prolific series of hacking attacks, a US computer security company has said, contradicting claims in Beijing that the government is not involved in such operations.

The report, by Mandiant, identified the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) Shanghai-based Unit 61398 as the most likely perpetrators of the hacking. The company said it believed the unit had carried out "sustained" attacks on a wide range of industries.

"The nature of Unit 61398's work is considered by China to be a state secret; however, we believe it engages in harmful computer network operations," Mandiant said. "It is time to acknowledge the threat that is originating in China, and we wanted to do our part to arm and prepare security professionals to combat that threat effectively."

China has dismissed the allegations as "groundless", saying it strictly outlaws the practice, and says it has also been a victim of such crimes.

Questioned on the report, the foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said he doubted the evidence would withstand scrutiny. He said: "To make groundless accusations based on some rough material is neither responsible nor professional."

Unit 61398 is based in the Pudong district, China's financial and banking hub, and is staffed by perhaps thousands of people proficient in English as well as computer programming and network operations, the report said.

It said the unit had "stolen hundreds of terabytes of data from at least 141 organisations across a diverse set of industries beginning as early as 2006". Most of the victims were located in the US, with smaller numbers in Canada and Britain. The information stolen included details on mergers and acquisitions and the emails of senior employees, the report said.

China has consistently denied being involved in such activities, but experts have dismissed the denials. "The PLA plays a key role in China's multifaceted security strategy, so it makes sense that its resources would be used to facilitate economic cyber-espionage that helps the Chinese economy," said Dmitri Alperovitch, chief technology officer and co-founder of CrowdStrike, a web security firm.

Saturday, May 4, 2013

Add More Humidity

If you work in a decent sized building odds are that your air is recycled like crazy. Every try jogging up the stairs of an office building or tall hotel? After about 10 floors you feel a burn in your lungs attributed to the lack of humidity in stairwells. Imagine what the nasty air does to your system! Not to mention static. Yuck. Solutions.com has a couple options that will help you try to make the air more natural and breathable - one for the techno type and one for the artistic type.

If you enjoy using your computer power try out the USB-powered Personal Humidifier for $24.98. A full, 4 ounce tank will get you 4 hours of humidity. So you won't worry about saturating your laptop with mist. If you forget to unplug it or have a meeting run late

don't worry it will shut itself off after 2 hours or when the tank is empty. Traveler alert! It is small enough to stash in a suitcase or computer bag too. Finally! A cure for dry hotel rooms.

For those of you that prefer a more artistic approach to generating humidity try the Decora Room Humidifiers. The porous ball inside the reservoir bowl gently and naturally release humidity via evaporation. You simply get to look at an artistic addition to your room, office, cubicle or wherever. A set of two run $24.98. Whether you want the technical & portable route or the more natural process don't let your humidity levels drop thanks to heating and poor air quality.
[ Add More Humidity copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

The Hulk case for iPad Mini / iPad Mini case hard cases / iPad Mini Design and made to order / custom case

Handmade iPad Mini Design and made to order.
Material: 100% Plastic. It is compatible to iPad Mini Only.
Case Color: White
We provied customize picture and add text or name with our design please let us know we are happy to customize for you.
Take time about 2 – 4 weeks to arrived.

The Hulk case for iPad Mini / iPad Mini case hard cases / iPad Mini Design and made to order / custom case.
Case Color: White.

Friday, May 3, 2013

Physicist suggests you can reach any internet page with 19 clicks or less

Gallery Photo: Logitech Touch Mouse M660 hands-on photos

Albert-L szl Barab si believes that, regardless of what you're doing on the internet at any given moment, you can reach virtually any web page in 19 or fewer clicks. The Hungarian physicist put together a simulated model of the world wide web — currently estimated to exceed 14 billion unique pages — hoping to strengthen his understanding of the relationship between all that data. Barab si describes the web as an information network where documents (over one trillion, according to the professor's estimate) serve as "nodes." "Other well-known network structures include the Internet, a physical network where the nodes are routers and the links are physical connections, and organizations, where the nodes are people and the links...

Apple releases Java update to eliminate malware threat

Apple Retina MacBook Pro Stock

Apple has released a new version of Java meant to plug a vulnerability that can be exploited to install malware on user's computers. The company made an unprecedented announcement this morning, admitting that hackers had effectively infected a "small number" of its computers after employees visited a website for software developers that contained the malicious code. Apple says it isolated those computers from its network, and promised that it would release a support tool today to patch the vulnerability. The update uninstalls Apple's Java applet plugin from all browsers, as well as the Java Preferences application, which it says is no longer needed to configure the applet's settings.

Users can obtain the Java update through Apple's...

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Apple Airs New Ads With Beating Hearts, Sharks and All That Jazz

Here are two ads — called “Alive” and “Together” — that Apple just released to tout its iPad and iPad mini. They’re a clear departure from Apple’s previous TV spots.

With jazzy music and quick word-association, they are much more hyperactively catchy than the usual doink-doink, thinking-nerd style of many others, and they feature a range of very active and visually arresting apps.

Here they are:

Viral Video: Cure "Downton Abbey" Depression With a Dose of Dowager

maggie-smith-article

Without giving away the tragic end to the third season finale of popular PBS Masterpiece Classics television series “Downton Abbey,” it might be a good idea to take a big dose of Dame Maggie Smith as the Dowager Countess to feel better.

Here’s a compilation of some of her most withering asides from the first season — take 10 and see me in the morning — and also an interview of Smith that aired last night on “60 Minutes”:

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Gemini JoyTAB Duo 7 Low Cost Android Tablets Arrive In The UK For £80

UK residents looking for a low cost Android tablet might be interested in the two new tablets launched this week by Gemini, in the form of the Gemini JoyTAB Duo 7 and Gemini JoyTAB Duo 7 3G.

The Gemini JoyTAB Duo 7 Android tablet is powered by a dual-core Cortex A9 1.6 GHz processor supported by 1GB of RAM and is fitted with a 7 inch touchscreen.

Gemini-JoyTAB-Duo-7

iOS 6.1.2 Coming This Week To Fix Passcode Bug (Rumor)

Last week we heard that Apple had acknowledged the passcode bug in iOS 6.1, which would let someone have access to your iPhone after a sequence was pressed on your iPhone, Apple said a fix was in the works but did not give a timescale.

Now it would appear that Apple will release iOS 6.1.2 this week to fix the passcode bug, this has yet to be confirmed by Apple, but the update is rumored to land either some time today or tomorrow.

iOS 6.1.2

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Report: The Galaxy S IV Is Definitely Being Announced on March 14th

It should come as no surprise the Samsung Galaxy IV is coming. The only question was whether or not it would rear its head at the upcoming Mobile World Congress alongside competitors like the HTC one. Apparently not. According to The Verge, sources say it is definitely coming on March 14th at a Samsung event.

The rumors started with a vague-but-not-too-vague tweet by mobile-review's Eldar Murtazin that implied something was going down on the 14th and that it would negatively affect sales of the upcoming HTC One. Unnamed sources have now confirmed to The Verge that there is such an event, and that it's a Samsung shindig in New York City where the successor to the Samsung throne, the Galaxy S IV will be revealed.

The announcement is said to focus heavily on features over pure specs, apparently the jump from the S III to the S IV will be "larger" than that of the II to the III. So far we've only manage to see a crappy photo, allegedly of the new Samsung handset, and nothing else. Expect to learn a whole lot more come March 14th. [The Verge]

"Twitter" Has Changed a Lot Since the 1700s

Nowadays, we use words like "twitter" all the time to talk about our everyday social meda-ing. In the 1800s, they said "twitter" too, but it meant something a little different. So did "pin." The times, they have a-changed.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, which tracks trends like this over time, "twitter" wasn't quite the same word it is today, but the relation is pretty obvious.

twitter
-One who twits; dial. a tale-bearer.
1854: "Don't tell him anything, he's a twitter."

-A condition of twittering or tremulous excitement (from eager desire, fear, etc.); a state of agitation; a flutter, a tremble. Now chiefly dial.
1869: "[She] was in a twitter, partly of expectation, and partly..of fear."

-A suppressed laugh, a titter; a fit of laughter. dial.
1736: "He is in a mighty twitter."

-An act or the action of twittering, as a bird; light tremulous chirping. Also transf. a sound resembling this.
1871: "A mere swallow-twitter of inarticulate jargon."

"Pin" on the other hand, as explained by John Camden Hotten's 1874 The Slang Dictionary, meant something completely different. At least as slang.

"to put in the pin," to refrain from drinking. From the ancient peg tankard, which was furnished with a row of pins, or pegs, to regulate the amount which each person was to drink. Drunken people are often requested to "put in the pin," from some remote connexion between their unsteadiness and that of a carriage wheel which has lost its linch-pin. The popular cry, "put in the pin," can have no connexion with the drinking pin or peg now, whatever it may originally have had. A merry pin, a roysterer

Of course, plenty of other words have changed as well, with many just picking up verb functionality, like "friend" and "favorite." Still others, like "search," mean the same basic thing, in a completely different context. Who knows what words might get bastardized by social media next, but with any luck someday you'll be able regale your grandchildren with tales of when "sexts" were something exciting. [h/t Boing Boing]

Image by Mariusz Szczygiel/Shutterstock

Monday, April 29, 2013

Facebook’s Never Had A Big User Data Breach, But May Never Recover When It Does

It’s not if, but when. Between crooks, hackers and foreign governments, Facebook probably can’t avoid a serious user data breach forever. When it happens, Facebook may never be able to quiet fears that “personal data isn’t safe there.” That could cause a chilling effect on sharing, jeopardize its future in commerce, and cut short its lifetime.

This isn’t to say Facebook’s not doing everything in its power to prevent this. It has a sizable security team of top talent, infiltrates hacker rings to thwart their schemes, and offers cash bounties to white hats who identify bugs or holes.

Yesterday, though, Facebook announced something very unsettling. A “sophisticated attack” uploaded malware onto the computers of several Facebook engineers when they visited a hacked mobile developer site. Facebook quickly quarantined and scrubbed the devices, called the police, and kicked off an investigation. So far, there’s been no evidence that any user data had been compromised. Perhaps the attackers were after Facebook’s trade secrets or information about partners. Regardless, it was a very close call.

To date, Facebook has managed to keep what is possibly the world’s largest repository of private information from falling into the wrong hands. Its fellow social networks haven’t been as successful. Twitter most recently saw 250,000 accounts accessed by hackers, and last year the passwords for 6.5 million LinkedIn accounts were stolen and published online.

But there’s a huge difference between those social networks getting hacked, and someone getting into your Facebook account. Most data on Twitter and LinkedIn is public by default. Sure there are direct messages, or the few misguided souls who keep their profiles locked down. On Facebook, though, privacy is the default. That means Facebook has a lot more to lose from getting hacked.

The absolute damage of an eventual breach might not be too severe. Perhaps some photos and messages will be stolen, or at worst some credit card information. Facebook would likely respond quickly by quarantining affected accounts until users changed their passwords and reclaimed control.

It’s the psychological damage to Facebook’s brand that will be the real killer. The world’s news outlets would be all over a breach. Though it looks like no user data was accessed, yesterday’s announcement brought swift coverage from the New York Times, BBC, ABC News, The Guardian, and just about every tech news blog.

The world will know, and the fear will sweep across the news feed. Quick to jump to the worst conclusions and re-share sensational stories, Facebook will be filled with people advising friends to cease sharing, pull out all their data, and shut down their accounts. Most won’t go that far, but the looming worry that nothing is safe on Facebook will permeate the world population and slam its stock price.

Facebook already struggles to fight a perception that it creeps on people’s data, and that its privacy controls are so confusing that people accidentally expose their own information. The emergence of vulnerability to outside attack will compound these issues. Together, they could derail Zuckerberg’s Law — the theory that the amount of content we share doubles every year.

Facebook’s business model is a value exchange. It offers a free, powerful, unified communication tool, and to access it, users trade in their data and allow Facebook to monetize it through advertising and other methods. But that exchange requires that we trust Facebook to keep our private data safe. If that trust is shaken, adding your most private thoughts, media, contact info, and financial data becomes more of a conscious decision about risk.

Injecting that hesitation into the sharing process could be the biggest threat to Facebook’s long-term success outside of a rising social network that refuses to be acquired. In other words, no matter how well Facebook plays the security game, the odds are stacked against it, and the stakes have never been higher.

As Patent Drama Continues, 3D Printing Provides A Way Out For Mashup Creators

Editor’s note: Michael Weinberg is vice president at Public Knowledge where he focuses primarily on copyright, issues before the FCC and emerging technologies like 3D printing. Follow him on Twitter @mweinbergPK.

Mashups are one of the great art forms of our time. Easy and accessible digital tools have allowed anyone to remix videos, music and photographs into their own original works: Mashup culture has produced fantastic music, critical video, and delightful cultural artifacts of all kinds.

However, mashups are ultimately limited by the nature of their source material. The types of things that mashups draw from - videos, music, photos - are also the types of things that are protected by copyright, which means mashup creators need to take copyright into account when creating their works. Sometimes, because of rules such as fair use, the creator does not need permission from the person who owns rights to the source material. Other times, mostly because the work falls outside of the scope of fair use, the creator does need permission. The requirement for permission inevitably prevents some mashups from being seen by a wide audience and makes it harder for creators to make money.

Enter 3D Printing

There are plenty of reasons to be excited about 3D printing, but one of them is that it moves beyond the world of things protected by copyright. When you step away from your computer screen and look around, you realize that the physical world - the real world - is full of real, physical things that are not protected by copyright. In fact, the world is full of things that are not protected by any sort of intellectual property right at all. That means that you can take them and do whatever you want with them. And that includes mashing them up.

One of the best examples of this so far is the Free Universal Construction Kit (below). The kit remixes 10 different construction toys into adaptors that make them interoperable. These toys are functional objects so they are outside of the scope of copyright. While some of them were patented when they first came to market, patents only last 20 years. That means that most of the toys are no longer protected. As long as you stick with the toys that are no longer protected by patent, you can remix them to your heart's content.

The Free Universal Construction Kit is just the beginning when it comes to remixing things. Easy-to-use tools like meshmixer allow people to remix things just as easily as they remix songs or videos. And unlike those songs or videos, many of the things will not be protected by copyright.

One of the keys to this next generation of mashups will be a strong understanding of how copyright interacts with physical objects. While copyright will not protect functional objects, it will protect decorative ones. Understanding functional vs. decorative will mean the difference between a mashup encumbered by copyright and a mashup that is in the clear.

Public Knowledge’s latest whitepaper, What's the Deal with 3D Printing and Copyright? should help everyone begin to understand what is protected by copyright and to start thinking about what is not protected by copyright. That second category includes a lot of things just waiting to be remixed and mashed up.

[Image: F.A.T. - Free Art & Technology]

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Automate Enabling/Disabling SBSettings Toggles And Lots More With SBProfiles

When I’m running out of battery life on my iPhone 5, the first thing I tend to do is to turn off Location Services, Bluetooth and kill all the background processes.

Now that I’ve jailbroken it, SBSettings makes it even more easier, as all I need to do is swipe on the status bar and then tap on the SBSettings toggles to disable them.

But I stumbled on a jailbreak app called SBProfiles (not sure how it missed my radar), which makes my job in such situations even easier. And the best part it does a lot more than just that.

SBProfiles as the name suggests allows you to combine SBSettings toggles into a profile, which can be triggered at any time via a quick access menu or even schedule it.

The jailbreak tweak comes with some default Profiles. These default profiles are dummy profiles, you still have to configure which SBSettings toggles you want to combine for each profile or create a new profile.

sbprofiles-1

Under each profile you can enable or disable different SBSettings toggles. You can also set brightness, set system volume, set ringtone volume, respring, reboot or shutdown and even launch an app.

To enable or disable different SBSettings toggles, tap on Toggles and then drop & drop the Settings toggles under Unchanged to “Off” depending on your preference.

sbprofiles-3

After you have configured the profile, you can access it via an Activator method. You can set the Activation method by tapping on the Settings tab at the bottom and then Action Method(s) under Profile Switching.

Using the Activator method, you can access and activate the SBProfiles from anywhere in the iOS including the Lock screen.

sbprofiles-2

You can also schedule the time of the day when you want to enable the profile, which can be useful if you want to disable some features while sleeping etc. Registered users can also trigger the profiles automatically based on the following conditions:

Wi-Fi network or Bluetooth device you’re connecting or disconnecting from
Based on the GPS location
When your iPhone is charging or unplugged
When your iPhone is locked or unlocked

The best part is that the jailbreak tweak is that it is free. You need to be registered user to use the triggering capability. To register, you need to may a donation (can be as little as $2) to the developer who will send the product key. It would have been nice if the developer had integrated directly with Cydia’s payment system.

Since the app depends on SBSettings toggles, you must download SBSettings toggles such as Do Not Disturb, Remove Background, Ringer/Silent, Ring and Silent Vibrate, Backlight Dimmer etc from Cydia.

As you can see, SBProfiles comes with a basic user interface, but it is an awesome app and does the job very well. So download SBProfiles and let me know if you found it useful in the comments.

Apple Looking For Manager to Work On “Next Generation Features” for Apple TV

apple tv

Although Apple calls the Apple TV a “hobby” it is an interesting product to watch, since it is indicative of the company’s future in the living room entertainment market segment. To emerge as a dominant player in this area, Apple’s looking for software engineering managers who are capable enough to lead the development of “next generation” features of the Apple TV.

Here’s what the job description reads:

The Apple TV team is looking for an experienced engineering manager to help deliver the next generation features for Apple TV. Bring your creative energy and engineering discipline, and help us bring the Apple experience to the Living Room.

[...]

- Lead a team of engineers working on exciting new features and functionality
- Drive releases from initial concept to completion
- Work closely with cross functional teams, representing Apple TV across Apple
- Develop the engineering plan for upcoming projects
- Communicate status to key stakeholders and senior management

The most obvious “next generation” feature that comes to mind is of course an official SDK for third party apps that could unleash the true potential of the Apple TV in the same way the iOS SDK did for the iPhone. It could spawn a whole new category of games tailored for large displays, which could possibly “kill” existing gaming consoles like the Xbox and the PS3 and Valve.

Rumors point to an Apple TV related event happening this fall, and we’ll be looking forward to it. Any guesses as to what could be announced? The long rumored Apple Television, a new version of the Apple TV or a major software update that adds support for third-party apps?

Via: 9to5Mac

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D Hitting Nintendo 3DS This Summer

Donkry Kong fans will want to put some money aside to buy the latest in the series. Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D is coming to the Nintendo 3DS this summer.

dk country

Moveo lightweight electric scooter folds up

What if you could drive your scooter to work, then instead of parking it somewhere, just fold it up and carry it like a suitcase that rolls on wheels. Well, now you can my scooter loving friend.

moveo

Friday, April 26, 2013

The Weirdest Thing on the Internet Tonight: Ablaze

Originally presented without comment, this mysterious short film by Takahiro Suzuki poses many difficult questions while providing precious few details—who are these people, what are they agog over, and does anyone else smell smoke? Your guess is as good as any.

Porn Star Internet Memes: Naked Harlem Shake (NSFW)

Because every single person on the Internet decided to force induce viralness by not really doing the Harlem Shake while making those ridiculous Harlem Shake videos, it's time to kill this meme with a "Harlem Shake" video that no one can ever top: Porn Stars doing a naked "Harlem Shake". Yep, naked.

It was part of Woodrocket's Memes I'd Like to F*ck series and if you want to see the uncensored NSFW version, it's right here. The video stars Karmen Karma, Brandi Belle, Nina Dove, Peru, Alex Chance, Cameron Canada, Staci Silverstone, Ashli Orion, and WoodRocket's own Seth's Beard as the Pizza Delivery Guy.

Okay, Internet. No more Harlem Shake videos. It's done. No one can top this. You'd be a fool to try. [Woodrocket via Animal NY]

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Mercury's 'dynamic and complex world' revealed by Nasa's Messenger

First time planet has high-resolution maps after Nasa spacecraft orbited planet over course of a year

Mercury is the smallest of the solar system's eight planets and, for decades, also its most neglected by humans. While Mars, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn have been probed and photographed in exquisite detail during the space age, the closest planet to the Sun has had to make do with a few flybys from the Mariner 10 spacecraft in the early 1970s.

Now Mercury has its own high-resolution maps, down to the scale of kilometres, made from thousands of images taken by Nasa's Messenger spacecraft as it orbited the planet over the course of a year.

"Messenger has revealed Mercury to be a fascinating, dynamic and complex world," said David Blewett at the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University and a scientist for the Messenger mission. Part of the reason, he said, that it had taken more than 30 years to revisit the planet since the Mariner 10 flybys was that most people thought Mercury was probably like the moon and largely inert and boring.

"We know now that it is an oddball planet," said Blewett, speaking ahead of a briefing on Friday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Boston. "It's the smallest of the eight planets but has the highest density. The interior structure is different than the other planets. The geologic surface is different to the moon and Mars. The surface composition is enigmatic because ... it consists of rock types that we don't have much experience with. It has a global, Earth-like magnetic field, Venus and Mars do not."

The new global colour map is an enhanced image that shows the different compositions of rocks on the surface of Mercury. The more orange areas are volcanic plains while the make-up of the rocks in the deep blue areas is unknown. Though Messenger was able to detect the abundance of individual elements on Mercury's surface - including iron, titanium, sulphur and potassium - without rock samples to study, scientists cannot determine the exact compounds or minerals in which those elements are arranged.

Mercury orbits the sun in an eccentric orbit that gets as close as 46m kilometres and never goes further than 70m kilometres from our star (earth, for comparison, stays about 150m kilometres away). This means the surface of the planet can reach more than 400C.

Nasa's Messenger spacecraft made its first flyby of the planet in 2008 and began to orbit in early 2011, since when it has been mapping and measuring the surface of the planet. In November 2012, Nasa announced there was water ice and tar-like organic molecules at Mercury's poles. Because the planet's axis of rotation around the sun barely tilts from the vertical, the deepest parts of craters at the polar regions never get sunlight and the temperatures there are about -200C. The presence of ice and organic compounds lends weight to the idea that the planet was pummeled by icy comets during the early years of the solar system.

The biggest surprise for researchers is that, on the surface, the abundance of relatively volatile elements such as potassium and sulphur is so high. Most of the models for the formation of Mercury predict that these elements should have evaporated away during the planet's formation.

"The big problem in making Mercury is how do you get a planet that has such a huge iron core and such a small proportion of rock? One of the ideas was that maybe there was a giant impact that stripped off much of the rocky outer layers and left you with unusually high proportion of iron in the core," said Blewett. But Messenger's data, he said, meant planetary scientists would have to come up with new ideas.

One alternative candidate is that the chemical conditions in the inner part of the nebula where Mercury was forming were different than scientists had expected, and this probably allowed iron to condense first, while the rockier parts of the planet were swept away. "That model seems to predict the correct sulphur and potassium abundance for the surface and that's probably the leading contender right now," said Blewett.

Syria crisis: opposition rules out talks with Assad - Friday 15 February 2013

Follow how the day unfolded as Syria's opposition tried to clarify its approach to negotiations with the government as they faced criticism from Russia

Matthew Weaver

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Lenovo Notebook Stand (57Y6484)

Durable strong materials
Anti-slip features prevent unwanted movement on any surface
Helps protect finish of your computer and desk and Increases air flow around your system

Notebook stand for laptop computers up to 17.3 inches in size (black)

Car Mount Air Vents Holder Kit for Dashboard and Windshield + Rapid Auto Vehicle Plug in Power Charger Adapter + OEM USB 2.0 Data Sync Cable for HTC Desire Z – HTC Gratia – Sprint HTC EVO 4G – US Cellular HTC Merge – HTC 7 Pro – T-Mobile myTouch 4G Slide – T-Mobile HTC Wildfire S Marvel Cell Phone

1x Car Kit , Dash Board and Windshield Suction Mount Holder. Phone Not Included!
1x Car Charger – Highest quality Non-OEM Rapid Car / Auto / CLA / Plug in / Power Adapter charger -I/C Chip technology prevents your phone and battery against overcharging.
Start charging & syncing your phone with a PC today through this premium quality data cable. Connect your cell phone to your PC/Laptop to access and synchronize your phone book contacts, e-mails, and appointments, change ring tones and background pictures, take advantage of other useful applications!
Note 2: Phone and software features are limited to the phone’s capability and the service provider’s default settings. Please consult with your phone’s user manual and your service provider for the availability of these features
Compatible with: HTC Desire Z – HTC Gratia – Sprint HTC EVO 4G – NEW

Car Mount Holder allows mounting your cell phone, PDA, MP3 player, GPS navigation unit or pretty much anything in your car, SUV or truck while you’re driving. Conveniently mounts to windshield via suction cup. - Car Kit Auto Cigarette Lighter 12V Plug in Vehicle Adapter for your Cell Phone – Durable coil cord for extendable reach and use – Provides power to your phone while simultaneously charging your phone’s battery. – Small and lightweight for convenience, portability and storage – Origin

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Forget about next-gen video game consoles from Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft – Apple is going to dominate them all

“What I'm about to say is undoubtedly going to piss some of you off,” MG Siegler writes for TechCrunch. “And that's fine. Because in a few years, I'll be right and you'll look silly.”

“While everyone is focused on the next generation video game consoles from Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft - the latter two of which should be coming later this year - Apple is going to dominate them all,” Siegler writes. “And it won't even be that difficult.”

“Anyone who has been following the smartphone space for the past few years knows that Apple has sort of backed into video game dominance by way of their iOS devices. Apple has sold over 500 million of them. These devices have yielded over 40 billion downloads of the over 800,000 apps. And a large portion of those apps are games,” Siegler writes. “Even if you lump together the Xbox 360, the Playstation 3, the Wii, and the Nintendo DS, Apple has still sold about 100 million more iOS devices than all of those systems combined... [and] in a much shorter span.”

Siegler writes, “The rumor that Apple would unveil some sort of Apple TV SDK at an event next month turned out to be bogus (as most things analysts say about Apple prove to be). But that doesn't mean it's not coming. In fact, I'd bet on it sooner rather than later.”

Read more in the full article here.

How Tony ‘Father of the iPod’ Fadell reinvented the thermostat with Nest – and what’s coming next

“In 2007, Tony Fadell believed he could see the future. He was an Apple executive who had created the iPod and was a leading figure on the team that had worked on the iPhone, which the company was about to launch,” Tom Simonite reports for MIT Technology Review. “He knew people would soon form attachments to the Internet-connected computers they carried in their pockets, and he kept thinking about that as he started another major project: building an energy-efficient dream home near Lake Tahoe.”

“‘I said, ‘How do I design this home when the primary interface to my world is the thing in my pocket?” says Fadell. He baffled architects with demands that the home's every feature, from the TV to the electricity supply, be ready for a world in which the Internet and mobile apps made many services more responsive,” Simonite reports. “When it came to choosing a programmable thermostat for his expensive eco-friendly heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system, Fadell blew a gasket: ‘They were 500 bucks a pop, and they were horrible and doing nothing and brain-dead. And I was like, ‘Wait a second, I'll design my own.””

Advertisement: Nest – Learning Thermostat 2nd Generation – Stainless-Steel

Simonite reports, “Fadell's instincts turned out to be correct. Nest's first model, a striking stainless-steel-ringed disc with a circular display, went on sale in October 2011 to widespread acclaim. The HVAC industry, a sector as unexciting as the thermostats it sold, was astonished by the fresh ideas behind the device, which learned from its owners' behavior and could be controlled with a polished mobile app. The company released a second, more advanced thermostat in October 2012, and says sales of the two models have been brisk... Now the company is preparing to release another product. Details are scarce, but it seems that Fadell's thermostat epiphany has launched a technological campaign that will make every part of your home more intelligent.”

Much more in the full article here.

Monday, April 22, 2013

Lies, Damn Lies, And Robots

While it gives me little pleasure to call out New York Times writer John Broder for his clearly weird Tesla S test-drive, I do appreciate the way Elon and the team at Tesla called him to task for seemingly falsifying his experience in the car. I’d like to give Broder the benefit of the doubt – range anxiety is a real and frightening thing – Tesla’s Nate Silver-esque retort is quite illuminating and could change the reviewer dynamic.

Full disclosure: I write for the Times every few months and they’re nice guys, mostly.

I won’t bore you with more detail on the case (Darrell did that here) but I will note the value of the data provided by Tesla essentially destroys Broder’s punditry.

Broder is a car guy, and an opinionated one. He once wrote “yet the state of the electric car is dismal, the victim of hyped expectations, technological flops, high costs and a hostile political climate," a line that Musk quotes in his blog post as proof-positive that Broder is biased. While his argument in that piece is far more nuanced, that’s what sticks out. A look at his other stories hows a skeptical eye towards electric cars. He also claims that his side of the story is far simpler than Musk describes: . He writes:

Virtually everyone says that I should have plugged in the car overnight in Connecticut, particularly given the cold temperature. But the test that Tesla offered was of the Supercharger, not of the Model S, which we already know is a much-praised car. This evaluation was intended to demonstrate its practicality as a "normal use," no-compromise car, as Tesla markets it. Now that Tesla is striving to be a mass-market automaker, it cannot realistically expect all 20,000 buyers a year (the Model S sales goal) to be electric-car acolytes who will plug in at every Walmart stop.

Perhaps his experience was just as he described it – a muddle of confusion, fear, and poor planning. But Musk fights back with actual numbers and the outcome isn’t pretty. In fact, Musk claims that Broder drove the car around in tight circles for a little while just to get it down to zero range. Broder came at his test from the standpoint of a dude who likes to hop in a nice sedan and expects to drive a few hundred miles on a tank of gas. That’s not how you drive the Tesla… yet.

To be clear, Musk seems a little testy. Tesla has been burned once by Top Gear and getting a negative “review” by the NYT is a bad feeling (even if this wasn’t quite a review). But the most important aspect, and an aspect that may soon change the way we review almost everything electronic, was the ability for Tesla to pull logs right from the vehicle.

The Tesla S is a big computer. It’s also an experiment and, like any good experiment, produces data that is later assessed by experts. In the past, Broder could have driven a “dumb car” 100 miles an hour through the desert, run over a cactus, filled the car up with kerosene, and then slashed the tires. He could have then written a story about how the vehicle was sub par and the manufacturer would have little to say on the matter. Now, in an era where punditry rules the data will out.

No matter what Broder says in his defense, he can be proven wrong by the data. This should give tech reviewers pause. In a world when an objective review from one of the big boys can make or break a product, it is in the manufacturer’s best interests to spy on the reviewer. While I’m not saying this is right or particularly tasteful, I’m almost positive it will happen again.

We live in an era where almost everything we own is overpowered. There are plenty of extra cycles left on any common laptop, tablet, or other device to store a running log of performance and activity, a log that manufacturers should and will use to ding us. That this hasn’t happened more often in the electronics world suggests that marketing managers just didn’t think of it first. You can say that a product sucks, but you can’t argue with a robot when your review process is faulty.

I don’t feel bad for Broder. If what Musk showed is true, he elided quite a bit in this assessment and he got called out. I also don’t feel bad for Musk. He and his cars need to take their lumps. You can claim “big gas conspiracy” or “bias journalisms” all you want, but anything new is frightening and it’s the journalist’s job to warn us of potential danger. Proving that a journalist drives donuts in a parking lot for fun could be relevant to the value of his coverage, but what would have happened if Musk had handed him a thumb drive with all of the data on it after the test was over? Had Tesla explained all of the data to the journalist as a matter of course, Broder would probably singing a different tune. He would also be far more careful about his drive, just like a real Tesla owner would.

I understand the impetus to “get back” at a journalist. Using the robot to play gotcha is satisfying but it’s no better than a reviewer who fakes a review and gets away with it. A middle ground can, and must, be found.

NJ Accelerator TechLaunch Is Looking For Its Next Batch Of Great Garden State Startups

New Jersey's nascent startup scene is wedged between more established communities in Philadelphia and New York, but that hasn't stopped some ambitious teams like those at Princeton's TigerLabs and TechLaunch from trying to give the state a kick in the entrepreneurial pants. After putting on quite a show last November, TechLaunch is now looking for another 10-12 early-stage ventures to mentor and fund in a bid to put New Jersey on the startup map.

Participants in the incubator's 16-week LaunchPad program will get co-working space at Montclair State University, infusions of legal and accounting know-how and (perhaps most importantly) up to $25,000 in seed funding to get the project off the ground. Interested Garden State startups can apply to the program through February 22, though you'd best be prepared to stay in New Jersey for a while if you plan to throw your hat in the ring - TechLaunch is looking for startups that will stick around for awhile and help boost the state's economy (though the team won't resort to any Soprano-esque tactics if you eventually move out).

I really didn't know what to expect when I drove to Montclair State for the accelerator's first Demo Day, but the strength and polish of some of these early-stage ventures was a bit surprising, especially considering that co-founder and investor Mario Casabona is still fairly new to the startup scene. Some of them have already started picking up some traction to boot - Echolocation announced in mid-January that it locked up another $200K in seed funding in its bid to create a super-local version of Twitter to help locals communicate with each other, and CodeSquare's dead-simple mobile-reward redemption scheme has attracted over 600 local clients and attention from chains like Dunkin' Donuts.

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Tesla's Elon Musk posts data from disastrous New York Times test drive

Angry at what he called the paper's 'fake' review, Tesla founder supplies charts that appear to contradict reviewer's account

The world of electric cars is usually seen as one of mildly eccentric do-gooders striving to solve the world's all-too real addiction to fossil fuels by developing vehicles that can be recharged with a plug.

But a New York Times test drive of a new model of Tesla electric sports car has instead now descended into a bitter war of words, allegations of lying and fraud and a rapidly ballooning media and technology scandal.

Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla as well as private space firm Space X, has now released detailed computer logs that he says are from the onboard computer of a car that New York Times reporter John Broder took for a disastrous test drive that ended with the vehicle being towed away.

According to Musk, the records reveal that Broder's account of his experience with the brand new Model S car differs in key areas from what the computer logs say happened. On a Tesla blog Musk stated: "Our Model S never had a chance with John Broder ... he simply did not accurately capture what happened and worked very hard to force our car to stop running."

Broder's initial report of his test drive in the newspaper certainly made painful reading. On a trip attempting to travel between Washington and Boston - to explore the creation of new recharging stations on the east coast - Broder detailed a nightmare journey. His Tesla, he said, repeatedly logged miles below what he expected and what the car told him the range was, leaving him limping along at slow speeds to conserve energy.

Eventually the car ran out of juice and had to be towed away. The headline on the piece read: "Stalled Out On Tesla's Electronic Highway".

Not surprisingly Tesla were offended. On Twitter and television, Musk called the story "a fake". Broder then in turn robustly defended his journalism as did the New York Times itself. In a Times motoring blog called Wheels, Broder wrote: "My account was not a fake. It happened just the way I described it." He then went on to tackle various assertions made by Musk and defended his writing.

Tesla's outrage and sensitivity might have been explained by a previous experience with the BBC's motoring show Top Gear. In December 2008, a review of the Tesla Roadster showed the car being pushed by the presenters into a hangar at the test track after apparently running out of charge. Tesla claimed the car had not actually run out of charge and sued for libel. The case was dismissed last year in a British court.

But one result of the spat with Top Gear was that Tesla then made sure that it always logged data from media test drives. Now Musk has published what he says is the data from Broder's trip and detailed how he says it directly contradicts key aspects of the Times' account.

He says the logs show that the car never fully run out of charge, even when a tow truck was called. Musk also says that - contrary to Broder's account - he never set the car in cruise control at 54 mph and never drove at a constant speed of 45 mph in order to conserve the charge.

It also addresses Broder's claims that he had to turn down the car's heating system to save energy on what was a freezing day. "At the point in time that he claims to have turned the temperature down, he in fact turned the temperature up to 74 F," Musk said in a blog post filled with graphs and data.

But, perhaps most damagingly of all, Musk claimed the reporter at one point appeared to have driven in circles around a car park to run down the charge. "After taking an unplanned detour through downtown Manhattan to give his brother a ride, the display said "0 miles remaining". Instead of plugging in the car, he drove in circles for over half a mile in a tiny, 100-space parking lot. When the Model S valiantly refused to die, he eventually plugged it in," Musk said.

Such serious allegations are unlikely to go unanswered by the New York Times and Broder. On his Twitter account, Broder promised a further response and posted a link to his initial defence of the piece. "Stay tuned," Broder said. Meanwhile, the New York Times public editor Margaret Sullivan announced that she would be investigating the issue. "On Tesla I'm on it, as they say. May take some time. Meanwhile, look for a point-by-point response on Wheels blog soon," she said.

Sullivan later wrote a note on her blog on the Times' website in which she revealed that Musk had not yet returned a phone call and that she would be interviewing Broder later on Thursday. "I will keep reporting on this, and, for now, am simply telling readers what I know so far," she wrote.

She revealed that she intended to ask Tesla to fully release all its data so that others could examine it and acknowledged that the allegations made by Musk were devastating if shown to be accurate. "Mr Musk's contentions are devastating ones for any journalist," she said.

Elite Iranian general assassinated near Syria-Lebanon border

Syrian rebels claim responsibility for killing of General Hassan Shateri, a senior figure in the Revolutionary Guards

A senior commander of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards has been killed while travelling from Syria to Lebanon, according to Iranian authorities.

A man identified as General Hassan Shateri was reportedly assassinated by what Iranian officials described as "the agents and supporters of the Zionist regime" while travelling from Damascus to Beirut.

It was not immediately clear in which of the two countries Shateri was killed but a Syrian rebel commander said an Iranian official was killed in an attack carried out by Syrian rebels in Zabadani in southwestern Syria, close to the Lebanese border.

"General Hassan Shateri was martyred by the agents and supporters of the Zionist regime on his way to Beirut from Damascus," the semi-official Mehr news agency quoted the Revolutionary Guards' spokesman, Ramezan Sharif, as saying on Thursday.

Iran's state English-language television, Press TV, reported that Shateri was killed on Tuesday and described him as the man who "led the Iranian-financed reconstruction projects in the south of Lebanon". By pointing the finger at "Israeli agents", Sharif was probably referring to Syrian rebels whom Iranian officials portray as terrorist armed groups backed by Tel Aviv.

Iran is a staunch supporter of the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, providing both with military and financial support. Syria gives Iran physical access to Lebanon and Hezbollah, which is strategically important for Tehran's leaders because of the group's geographical position in respect to Israel. Iran does not recognise Israel as a country and usually refers to it as "the Zionist regime".

After the 2006 war between the Israeli military and Hezbollah, Iran's elite forces bolstered their presence in southern Lebanon, saying they were willing to revamp the region's war-stricken infrastructure. This became a contentious issue for Tel Aviv but boosted the popularity of Iran among Hezbollah supporters.

Mehr said Shateri was a veteran of the eight-year Iran-Iraq war who in recent years "had devoted his time to the reconstruction of damaged areas after the 33-day Israeli war on Lebanon".

Iran's embassy in Lebanon, meanwhile, identified the dead man as Hessam Khoshnevis, leading to confusion that there might be a second death. But the circumstances given about Khoshnevis's death and his job title were similar to those of Shateri.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told AFP that Shateri was killed when a rebel group ambushed his vehicle while he was returning to Lebanon from Syria.

On Thursday Iran held a funeral ceremony for Shateri in Tehran that was attended by the foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, and the commander of the Revolutionary Guards, Mohammad Ali Jafari. Ghasem Suleimani, the man who heads the external arm of the Revolutionary Guards, known as the Quds force, members of which usually shun public ceremonies, also attended the funeral.

In May 2012, a senior Quds force commander conceded for the first time that Iranian forces were operating in Syria in support of the Assad regime.

"If the Islamic republic was not present in Syria, the massacre of people would have happened on a much larger scale," Ismail Gha'ani, the deputy head of the Quds force, said at the time.

In February 2012, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, went public to say that the Icountry has provided assistance to Hezbollah and Palestinian group Hamas.

"We have intervened in anti-Israel matters, and it brought victory in the 33-day war by Hezbollah against Israel in 2006, and in the 22-day war [in Gaza Strip]" he said at the time.

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Facebook now lets you pay to promote content posted by friends

Facebook cross promote

In case promoting your own Facebook posts hasn't been sucking enough money out of your wallet, the social network is now giving you the chance to highlight content posted by friends. You won't even need permission from your Facebook pals if you want to pay a small chunk of change and give their status update or uploaded photo prominent news feed placement. However, Facebook is no stranger to privacy concerns, so the company is placing some firm limits on who will be seeing the highlighted material. "You can only promote posts to the people that your friend originally shared with," says a company spokesperson. "If you have mutual friends, they’ll see that you shared it and promoted it." Additionally, only users with less than 5,000...

Netflix used subscriber data to make 'House of Cards' a hit

House of Cards - Netflix - Spacey

Netflix recently said its original drama "House of Cards" is the streaming video service's most watched program "right now," but it didn't get that way by accident, as a new profile of the company by Salon's Andrew Leonard reveals. Netflix closely tracks subscriber viewing habits across all programs, monitoring how many times viewers replay sex scenes, for example. The company's tracking showed that viewers who enjoyed the original BBC series "House of Cards," also tended to like movies featuring Kevin Spacey, the lead character of the Netflix US remake. Such tracking could guide the development of TV shows going forward, not necessarily for the better, as Leonard argues.

Friday, April 19, 2013

Apple relaxes 3-device limitation for employee friends and family purchases

Whether you take this as a sign that Apple inventory levels are now in better balance, or simply that Apple is feeling a little more generous with their employees, it looks like the previous 3-device limit on friends and family purchases has been relaxed. Now, before you start looking for pop-up sales next to your local lemonade stand, reasonable limits on EPP 15% discount program purchases are still in place. What's reasonable? According to people at Apple who noticed the policy change:

Use your discretion when determining "reasonable quantities" purchases for friends and family. There isn't a specific number limit -- it's a judgment call. For example, buying iPod devices as gifts for your nieces and nephews at a 15 percent discount is fine. However, advertising a 15 percent discount on Apple products for all of your Facebook friends is not. If you have questions about what is considered reasonable, contact your HR representative.

Looks like a nice way to help employees and their loved ones save a little cash, while returning some of it right back to Apple as well. Don't everyone with a friend or family member at Apple start pestering them all at once.

MacBreak Weekly 337: Put Another Book on the Fire

Leo Laporte, Andy Ihnatko, Don McAllister and I talk iWatch rumors, a lawsuit from Apple shareholders, the reason Tim Cook isn't building a car, and more.

Subscribe or download: TWiT.tv

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Crashlytics Makes Enterprise Features Free for All

Crashlytics, the mobile crash-reporting and analysis platform that was acquired by Twitter last month, said today that it will make its enterprise-level features available for free. In a company blog post, the company’s co-founder, Wayne Chang, said, “The features and usage we used to charge for based on limits are now unlimited across the board.”

Movie Tickets, Real Estate and a New Widget for Google Now

The Android app Google Now — with its promise to provide personalized, highly relevant, in-the-moment information — is one of the more interesting projects in consumer tech these days. But at this stage, its developments are incremental. Today, Google is releasing a trio of updates to the product that help users get stuff done quickly.

FandangoCards

The first is a richer Google Now “card” for movies that incorporates movie reviews from Rotten Tomatoes and ticket purchasing from Fandango.

So, a scenario where this might come in handy:

Google detects a pattern of searching for movies, perhaps on a certain day of the week
around that day, it starts showing a card with movie reviews and a way to directly purchase tickets
a user buys a ticket
that user arrives at the theater location at the time of the movie, and Google Now automatically pulls up a mobile ticket so she can walk directly in.

What’s odd about Google Now — but also, key to the philosophy of the product — is that this all happens in the background. There’s no real way to go to Google Now and explicitly request it to do something for you. Instead, you have to trust the great Googley Moogley machine to automatically detect what might be useful and do it for you.

“If we don’t have anything for you, we shouldn’t notify you and risk being annoying,” explained Google Now product manager Baris Gultekin today. “We like to be as relevant as possible.”

Next, Google Now has also built a real estate card through a partnership with Zillow. So if Google Now detects that a user is in the market for a new home via repeat real estate searches, it will trigger a card with nearby listings in the area. And when a user with that card walks into an open house, Google Now will detect the location and show information about the house.

What’s next for the Google Now product roadmap is not some giant leap forward, according to Gultekin. Rather, it’s more of these incremental improvements.

“There are so many different situations when our users need help,” Gultekin explained. “My goal is to anticipate all your needs and anticipate the right thing when you need it. It’s a huge undertaking. We are basically trying to focus on trying to get you information you need when you need it before you ask.”

But the Google Now team — which originated as a 20 percent project in Google Maps but now is part of Android — is making one more change today to be a little less subtle than it has been.

Since it was debuted at the Google I/O developer conference last summer, Google Now has been available on certain Android devices when the user swipes upward. That’s cool, and something no other Android app has access to, but if you don’t know to swipe up, you might never see it.

So, also in today’s update, there’s going to now be a Google Now widget for users’ home screens that automatically updates to show a glance at the top-most card.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Logitech C930e Web Camera Unveiled For Business

Logitech has this week unveiled a new Logitech C930e Web camera which they have specifically designed for use by businesses. The new Logitech Webcam C930e builds on technology used in previous models such as the Logitech C920-C.

The Logitech C930e camera is equipped with a 90-degree field of view, and is fitted with a Carl Zeiss-certified lens is that has been created to eliminate fish-eye distortion.

Logitech C930e Web Camera

HTC Starts Counting Down To HTC One (HTC M7) Launch Event

HTC its Mobile World Congress press event next week on the 19th of February, the company is expected to announce their flagship Android smartphone, the HTC One or HTC M7, and now they have posted a countdown timer on their website.

HTC is rumored to be introducing some new camera technology will the launch of the HTC One or HTC M7, the handset is rumored to feature a 13 megapixel camera, which is made up of three 4.3 megapixel sensors.

HTC M7 Launch

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Apple Becomes Top-Selling Phone Manufacturer in Japan After Six-Year Battle [iOS Blog]

The iPhone was the best-selling phone in Japan throughout the whole of the last year, the first time the title has ever been taken from a Japanese firm, according to Counterpoint Research's Country Market Share Report (via The Next Web). The number one slot had been held by local firm Sharp for the previous six years.

japan

Apple grabbed 15% of the market, just ahead of local firms Sharp and Fujitsu, at 14% each. Apple had previously taken the number one slot for single quarters as new product launches hit, seen with the 4S launch in 2011, but has never before held its position for an entire year.

Samsung, LG and Huawei all increased their shares, with non-Japanese companies now owning over half the market for the first time. Japan has always been a difficult market for overseas manufacturers, with non-standard networks and an early lead in sophisticated web-enabled feature phones limiting demand for smartphones. Electronista suggests that the shift is in large part due to a carrier battle as Softbank and KDDI challenged market leader NTT Docomo.

Both saw having the iPhone as a strategic advantage over the island nation's largest carrier, NTT Docomo, and promoted the iPhone heavily. Docomo responded with campaigns that emphasized foreign-made Android phones, the first time it had aggressively marketed foreign brands. As a result, the Japanese market had more than 50 percent of the available share split between foreign-owned companies (primarily Apple, Samsung and LG) for the first time.

Counterpoint Research says that the shift in popularity from advanced feature phones to smartphones is likely to be a permanent one.

Japan was once considered to be like a Galapagos Island, an isolated terrain, in terms of mobile technology. It had its own unique digital cellular technology. It was far more advanced than any market in the world and it seemed nearly impossible for any foreign technology company to penetrate the market. Motorola had failed and Nokia had failed. The wave of smartphones has changed the situation now and it looks like the Japanese market is a market that can be transformed after all for better or worse.

Shares of Television Set Maker Loewe Jump as Apple Acquisition Rumors Resurface

Reuters reports that shares of German television set maker Loewe jumped 43% today as rumors of a possible acquisition by Apple resurfaced. A trader was quoted as saying that Apple is looking to bid 4 euros per share for Loewe, but a company spokesman claimed that Loewe was not aware of any such offer.

Rumors of an Apple acquisition of Loewe first emerged in May of last year, dying when Loewe said there was "absolutely nothing to it". It is not known what has led to the renewed speculation today.

loewereference52-6l

While Loewe's luxury TV designs are very much in line with what might be expected from the long-anticipated Apple television set, given that design is one of Apple's core strengths it is not immediately clear what unique contributions Loewe might bring to the table. The German manufacturer is 28% owned by Sharp, 13% by the company's management, 11% by storage company Lacie, and the rest freely traded.

As of the time of writing, Loewe shares were up 33% to 3.63 euros ($4.89), valuing the company at 53 million euros.