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Helen Gurley Brown gives Stanford, Columbia $30 million
posted by Technology @ 1:22 PM
Monday, January 30, 2012
The intersection of media and technology just got better funded.
Today the Columbia Journalism School and the Stanford School of Engineering announced a joint $30 million gift from longtime Cosmopolitan magazine editor Helen Gurley Brown to establish the David and Helen Gurley Brown Institute for Media Innovation.
The idea is to get the best media minds on the East Coast to start working with the best technology minds on the West Coast and get innovating!
"David and I have long supported and encouraged bright young people to follow their passions and to create original content," said Helen Gurley Brown in a statement. "Great content needs usable technology….It's time for two great institutions on the East and West Coasts to build a bridge."
If you are thinking this bridge might be a bit arbitrary, it may help to know that Helen Gurley Brown's late husband graduated from Stanford University and the Columbia School of Journalism.
Each school will receive $12 million for "Institute activities"–enough to endow a professorship holder and to support graduate and post-graduate fellowships at both schools. Columbia will receive an additional $6 million for construction of a building that will feature a high-tech newsroom.
"New York City as the major center for the television, music, print media and advertising, is profoundly affected by rapidly evolving digital technology," said Stanford engineering professor Bernd Girod, who will be the institute's founding director, in a statement. "The Brown Institute will bring together creative innovators skilled in production and delivery of news and entertainment with the entrepreneurial researchers at Stanford working in multimedia technology."
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–Deborah Netburn
Photo: David Brown and Helen Gurley Brown in 1979. Credit: Los Angeles Times.
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Two Canadian high school students have successfully launched a Lego man almost 80,000 feet above sea level–high enough to capture video of the plastic toy hovering above the curvature of the Earth.
Now the results of their experiment have gone viral, racking up more than 600,000 views on YouTube in just two daysand inspiring the young engineers to make their small astronaut his own Facebook page–Lego Man in Space.
The Toronto Starreports that the two teens, Matthew Ho and Asad Muhammed, were inspired to do the project about a year and a half ago when Ho saw a YouTube video of MIT students who sent a balloon to near space. Ho wanted to see if he could do it too.
The friends spent four and a half months working on the project, mostly on Saturdays. In a video interview with the Star, they said the hardest part was making the parachute, which they decided to hand-sew, even though neither of them had any sewing experience.
They also constructed a lightweight Styrofoam box to carry three point-and-shoot cameras, a wide-angle video camera and a cellphone with a downloadable GPS app. They purchased a professional weather balloon for $85 online. The helium that would lift it up came from a party supply store. For launch, they put two mitten warmers in the Styrofoam box to keep the cameras working at that altitude. The whole project cost them about $400.
After the balloon was constructed, the two waited until weather conditions would ensure that the Lego man would land in Canada and not somewhere in the U.S. because they didn't want to take their chances with U.S. Homeland Security, the Star reports.
Ho and Muhammed estimate that it took their balloon craft one hour and five minutes to climb 80,000 feet before it finally popped. The descent took a little more than 30 minutes.
Besides online notoriety, the two also received a congratulatory note from Lego.
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Digital painting comes alive in a not so 'Still Life'
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8-foot-tall Lego Man washes up on Florida beach, held in custody
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Thomas Edison, Steve Jobs top young adult list of greatest innovators
posted by Technology @ 2:02 PM
Friday, January 27, 2012
Alexander Graham Bell. Thomas Edison. Marie Curie. Steve Jobs. Which of these people would you consider the greatest innovator of all time?
A few weeks ago the Lemelson-MIT Program put a similar question to 1,000 young adults ages 16 to 25, and stodgy old purists can breathe a sigh of relief. Thomas Edison trumped everyone.
"Though part of the 'Apple Generation,' many young Americans surprisingly chose Thomas Edison (52%), as the greatest innovator of all time, demonstrating that education around the history of invention exists in today's curriculum," the organization wrote in a statement on its annual Lemelson-MIT Invention Index.
Still, nearly a quarter of respondents identified Steve Jobs as their first pick for greatest innovator, beating that old stalwart Alexander Graham Bell, who received just 10% of the votes.
Mark Zuckerberg made the list, although only 3% of respondents identified the Facebook founder as the world's greatest innovator. He tied with Amelia Earhart.
Bill Gates, however, was notably missing.
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Digital painting comes alive in a not so 'Still Life'
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Image credit: From the Lemelson-MIT Program.
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Digital painting comes alive in a not so ‘Still Life’
posted by Technology @ 6:59 PM
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Artist Scott Garner's "Still Life" has all the trappings of a traditional still life painting. The lighting is intriguing, the fruit artfully arranged, a knife resting beneath a blue patterned vase adds a slight menacing edge to the image.
But this still life is not a painting, nor is it still. As the artist writes on his website, it's an "interactive gallery piece that takes traditional still life painting into the fourth dimension with a motion-sensitive frame on a rotating mount."
To put that into plain English: If you tilt this still life to the right or to the left, the vase tips, the fruit rolls, and the knife slides around. It will all settle down eventually, but move the frame again and the upheaval within the picture begins anew.
We've seen this technology in iPad applications–Atomic Antelope's Alice in Wonderland app comes to mind, as does Moonbot's The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, but still, seeing the technology applied to an old school style of art is pretty cool.
For those of you who want more on the tech behind the art, Garner is kind enough to describe how he put the piece together.
"On the hardware side is a custom-framed television connected to a rotating mount from Ergomart, " he writes on his website. "Attached to the back of the television is a spatial sensor from Phidgets, makers of fine USB sensors. On the software side is a simple C application to communicate with the sensor and feed the data to a Unity 3D scene. The scene itself consists of a camera tied to the sensor data with all lights and objects parented to it so they rotate in unison."
Could Caravaggio have done that?
Still Life from Scott Garner on Vimeo.
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Google+ now open to teens, with a few security tweaks too
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–Deborah Netburn
Image: Scott Garner's Still Life. Credit: Courtesy of Scott Garner
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The making of NASA’s super hi-res blue marble Earth image
posted by Technology @ 2:58 PM
Thursday, January 26, 2012
A new image of the Earth has been popping up all over the Internet, dazzling us with its high-def imagery of land masses, oceans and rippled clouds.
Some media outlets have reported that the image is the largest image ever made of our planet, but Norman Kuring, the NASA oceanographer who actually made the image, told The Times that simply is not true.
"I'm surprised that it's gone viral," he said. "I think what's happening in the general public is seeing a larger image than they are used to seeing, but there have been higher sensing instruments around for a number of years."
Kuring explained that this particular image was made using data collected by the Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite, which is on a satellite flying 512 miles above the Earth. VIIRS is not really a camera — rather it has a scanning telescope that measures the difference between the amount of light coming down to the surface of Earth from the sun as compared to the amount of light that is reflected back to the telescope. Kuring made the image above by running code that translates that data into an image.
VIIRS only scans one swatch of Earth at a time, measuring about 1,900 miles across. Kuringer says you can think of it as if you were walking down the street with a broom and sweeping as you go. The images are then pieced together to make a whole.
The satellite it rides on — Suomi NPP, which was launched in October — has been placed in a sun-synchronous orbit so that the satellite is over the equator at the same local ground time in each orbit. This is relevant because it explains why each slice of image is lit the same way even though the entire image of the Earth was taken over a period of several hours.
The data that VIIRS collects is still in the process of being calibrated, but eventually scientists will be able to use it to measure ocean temperatures, tell us the location of fires, and track cloud formations.
As for the above image, Kuringer said he made it as a favor to a NASA scientist who wanted a visual to use in a talk to the American Meteorological Society earlier this week. Kuringer settled on an image taken on Jan. 4 because it was a fairly sunny day, and he decided to focus on North America because the society is based in America.
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Harvard study finds the iPad can be a pain in the neck
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Nokia loses $1.38 billion in Q4, sells 1 million Windows Phones
– Deborah Netburn
Image: A 'blue marble' image of Earth taken with the VIIRS instrument aboard NASA's satellite Suomi NPP. Credit: NASA/NOAA/GSFC/Suomi NPP/VIIRS/Norman Kuring
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Harvard study finds the iPad can be a pain in the neck
posted by Technology @ 6:30 PM
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Apple sold a record breaking 15.43 million iPads in the last three months of 2011, which means a lot of people are starting to use tablet computers. And with last week's news that Apple is planning to bring textbooks to the iPad — well, that's a lot more people who may start to use tablets, too.
But, do they know how to use them safely?
A new study published by researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health, in conjunction with researchers at Microsoft (a long-time Apple rival), is the first of its kind to examine the physical effects on the head, neck and shoulders of spending time staring at a tablet.
The good news is that it is not all bad news. The researchers found that people are more inclined to move around and shift positions when they use a tablet compared with people who are sitting at a desktop computer. That's definitely good. However, tablet users that hold the device almost at their lap, or rest the tablet in a case on their lap, are putting a lot of strain on the neck muscles — much more than someone using a laptop or desktop computer.
"If you think about your position when you are hunched over looking down, your head is hanging out over space, so you are using your neck muscles to support the weight," said Jack Dennerlein, director of the Harvard Occupational Biomechanics Laboratory, and lead author of the paper.
Definitely not good.
In the paper, published earlier this month in the peer reviewed "Work: A Journal of Prevention, Assessment, and Rehabilitation," the researchers identified four ways that people use tablets — the lap-hand (holding the tablet down at your lap), lap-case (resting the tablet in a case on your lap), table-case (resting the tablet in its case on a shallow angle on a table) and table-movie (resting the tablet at a steep angle on a table).
They concluded that the best position is the table-movie position because it is the only position in which the user's posture approached neutral. All the other positions put a lot of strain on the user's neck muscles.
Dennerlein said those who use tablets should make sure to move around as much as possible — "Don't get stuck in one position!" he said. The next most important thing is finding a good case that allows you to prop up your tablet at the most comfortable angle. He added that companies that distribute tablet computers to their employees should make sure to give out cases as well, in order to prevent injuries.
Next up, Dennerlein and his team plan to tackle the effect of tablet computing on the arms and wrist.
One additional note: When we reached out to Apple to see if they had any comment on the ergonomics on using the iPad, a spokesperson pointed us to a large section on ergonomics on Apple's website. The section is impressive, but the suggestions and diagrams are all related to desktop computers, and the site did not have any recommendations on how to most safely use a tablet. We called the rep to see if we had missed anything, but we didn't hear back by press time.
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Apple reports record sales of iPhones, iPads and Macs
New iPad holder aims to make bedtime reading easier
Apple earnings: $97.6 billion in the bank, and other highlights
–Deborah Netburn
Photo: A model looking at her iPad in a position that the Harvard study says is bad for your neck. Credit: Markus Schreiber / Associated Press
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Solar storms may cause cellphones to drop calls
posted by Technology @ 3:06 PM
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
On Sunday, a massive explosion on the sun known as a solar flare sent an ejection of some of the sun's plasma hurtling toward earth at the ungodly speed of 1,000 kilometers…per second!
No need to worry about being hit by flying sun plasma though — that will zoom right past Earth and race toward the edge of the solar system, according to Harlan Spence, principal investigator for the Cosmic Ray Telescope for the Effects of Radiation (CRaTER) instrument onboard NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
It's the ionizing-radiation that was also produced during the flare that hit Earth on Tuesday that is more of a cause for concern.
The radiation won't physically hurt those of us who are earthbound — the Earth's magnetic field and its atmosphere provides an effective shield against that. But astronauts who are working on the International Space Station could be at risk.
"These particles move so fast that they can penetrate the walls of spacecraft, damage electronics and even pass through a spacesuit into a person's body," said Spence. "And when it moves through you, it can do grave damage to your cells and your DNA. That's why astronauts will try to go to a well shielded environment when one of these events occur."
Furthermore, our beloved GPS systems may be affected. The GPS satellites themselves, which are located high above the Earth's atmosphere, are most likely not at risk, but the earth's electromagnetic field will get all stirred up by radiation coming off the sun, and the signals we receive have to pass through that stirred-up area.
"As conditions change, GPS systems may be degraded," said Spence.
Cellphones will generally not be affected, said Douglas Biesecker, a physicist with NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center.
"It can be impacted if it's sunrise or sunset and the cell tower is in the same direction of the sun," he said. "A cellphone signal is very very weak, so anything that comes in at that frequency could overwhelm it. You would just drop the call, but you wouldn't realize why."
And if you are planning a flight that might pass near one of the Earth's poles — from New York to Japan for instance — your plane might be rerouted to keep the flash flood of charged plasma particles from interfering with navigation systems. Delta has already rerouted some of its flights. Others flew at lower altitudes to reduce the risk of radiation exposure.
ALSO:
What if solar storms knocked out the Internet?
Solar storm sends charged particles toward Earth
Viola performance interrupted by Nokia ringtone [video]
– Deborah Netburn
Image: A solar flare captured by the Solar Dynamics Observatory. Credit: NASA / Reuters
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Viola performance interrupted by Nokia ringtone [video]
posted by Technology @ 1:50 PM
Monday, January 23, 2012
Imagine you are violist Lukáš Kmiť, performing a solo viola concert at an ornate synagogue in Presov, Slovakia–filling the room with your music, taking your audience on an emotional journey, when all of a sudden….
Doo dee doo doo, doo dee doo doo, doo deee doo, doo doo.
A Nokia cellphone starts ringing in the middle of the concert. Arghhhh!
What do you do? Stomp off the stage? Put down your instrument and wait for the offending sound to end? Berrate your audience for rudeness, inconsiderateness, and the ruining of a performance they presumably paid to attend?
Well, you could. Or you could simply choose to play the ringtone tune right back at the audience.
Vuhm vuhm vuhm vuhmmm, vuhm vuhm vuhm vuhmmm, vuhm vuhm vuhm vuhm vuhmmm.
Then kind of riff on it.
And that is exactly what Kmiť did. Video of the performance and the interruption is available on YouTube so you can see it for yourself. It's already logged 1.23 million views.
One note: Do not even think about trying this at the next conference you attend to see if the performer will have a similar sense of humor. If you watch the video carefully you can see that while Kmiť did intend the playing of the familiar cellphone tune as a joke, it was a joke born out of frustration and annoyance.
He's not smiling. He's angry.
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–Deborah Netburn
Image: Screen grab from a YouTube video of Lukáš Kmiť playing the Nokia cellphone ring at a concert in Slovakia.
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Origami stroller charges iPhone, has headlights but no airbags
posted by Technology @ 9:00 AM
Saturday, January 21, 2012
A digital stroller? It's happening, people.
A company called 4moms has just released the Origami, a baby stroller packed with features that you never knew you needed.
Power folding with the push of a button? Done.
Daytime running lights and special pathway lights to help you see at night? Yup.
A digital dashboard that displays temperature, speed, miles covered during your current trip, total miles covered, and whether or not a baby is actually in the stroller? It's got that too.
The Origami debuted at CES 2012 and is already available at some fancy baby stores like Giggle and Right Start. A 4moms spokeswoman said it will be available at diapers.com and buybuybaby.com in the next few days, and at target.com in the next few weeks.
The stroller costs a cool $849, which may sound expensive to normal people, but is actually comfortably within the range of higher-end strollers. The standard Bugaboo Chameleon, for example, will set you back $880.
The power for the power-folding feature, the lights and even the cellphone charging is produced by an onboard generator that charges the stroller as you push it. You do have the option to plug the stroller into the wall if you need to, and to fold and unfold the stroller manually if you're desperate, but the company says even a short walk is enough to keep the stroller powered for days.
One drawback is that it is kind of heavy for a stroller — it weighs 32 pounds in toddler mode — but you know, it's got that onboard generator. You can't have everything.
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– Deborah Netburn
Photo: The new Origami stroller by 4moms comes equipped with an online generator that allows parents to charge their cellphones while strolling with their baby. Credit: Courtesy of 4moms.
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If you publish with iBooks Author, does Apple ‘own’ you?
posted by Technology @ 5:46 PM
Friday, January 20, 2012
This week Apple announced a new textbook App called iBooks 2, as well as iBooks Author, a new book publishing app that allows normal people with little to no coding know-how to create impressive ebooks complete with photo galleries, video, 3-D images and other super cool graphic elements.
Nothing too controversial there, right? Wrong. By Thursday afternoon, tech bloggers began to complain about a clause in iBook Author's End User Licence Agreement that restricts how resulting ebooks can be sold, and by Friday the torrent of anger reached a fever pitch.
Here's the offending statement as it appears in the iBooks Author "About" box: "IMPORTANT NOTE: If you charge a fee for any book or other work you generate using this software (a “Work”), you may only sell or distribute such Work through Apple (e.g., through the iBookstore) and such distribution will be subject to a separate agreement with Apple."
In other words, Apple invites you to use its publishing software to do some really cool stuff that most of us could never dream of doing on our own, all for free. Just know that if you decide to sell what you've made, Apple will most likely get a cut of the profits.
Whether this is an unprecedented and gross abuse of power on Apple's part, or simply the company's way of making money off its new software, has been a hot topic of debate in the blogosphere.
In a scathing story headlined "iBooks Author: You Work For Apple Now," PCmag.com's Sascha Segan expressed his outrage over the clause in no uncertain terms.
"With iBooks Author, Apple just made a hideous play to kill authors' rights over their work," he writes. Adding later, "Apple owns the creative process of anyone who uses the tool. If you're looking to create an iBook, you've just given Apple total distribution control over your work. That's as good as partial ownership."
But Paul Carr, writing on the blog PandoDaily.com came to Apple's defense. Sort of. "Apple has released iBooks Author for free with one goal — to get more books into the iBooks store," he writes. "By taking a cut from all of the paid-for books produced in that way, they stand to make more than enough money to justify giving away the tools involved."
He adds that we are of course free to boycott Apple's new software if we don't like the terms of its agreement. "There are a hundred other ways to produce ebooks, and there are a half dozen other platforms on which to sell them. Pick one," he writes. "But we won’t. We’ll pick Apple, and we’ll like it. Because this is Apple, and that’s what we do."
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– Deborah Netburn
Photo: Apple's iBook Author app on an iMac, and an iBook on an iPad. Credit: Apple
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SOPA blackouts inspired protest around the world
posted by Technology @ 2:08 PM
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Millions of Americans responded to the historic SOPA and PIPA blackouts implemented by thousands of websites both large and small Wednesday, but Americans weren't the only ones moved to action.
The whole world was watching, and the whole world chimed in.
On Wednesday, activist website Avaaz, which has a worldwide member base of more than 10 million, asked its members to sign a petition from "concerned global citizens" urging members of Congress to vote against both PIPA and the SOPA.
"The Internet is a crucial tool for people around the world to exchange ideas and work collectively to build the world we all want," the petition read. "We urge you to show true global leadership and do all you can to protect this basic pillar of our democracies worldwide."
PHOTO: Sites gone dark to protest anti-piracy bills
On Thursday, Avaaz reports that 1.8 million from 141 countries around the world signed its petition. The petition did especially well in Brazil, Spain, France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Canada and Mexico, but people in Jamaica, Morocco and Malaysia also lent their voices.
Here's a breakdown of some of the countries with the most signees.
USA: 211,158
Spain: 136,664
Brazil: 131,662
Germany: 128,523
Britain: 121,333
France: 110,968
Mexico: 107,485
Canada: 101,343
Argentina: 88,726
Netherlands: 29,746
South Africa: 17,953
Even those who have not been inspired to sign petitions are still paying close attention to the debate. The BBC reports that the debate over SOPA and PIPA in Congress and on the Web is being carefully observed in Britain by people who fall on both sides of the issue.
Some bloggers in China, where Internet censorship is the norm, had a more humorous take on the day of protest.
The Relevant Organs, an anonymous Twitter account (presumably) pretending to be the voice of the Chinese Communist Party leadership, quipped: "Don't understand the hoopla over Wikipedia blackout in the U.S. today. We blacked it out here years ago. Where are OUR hugs?"
ALSO:
Apple says iBooks 2 app reinvents textbooks
Bloggers in China sound off on SOPA blackout
SOPA and PIPA opponents warn the bills are not dead yet
– Deborah Netburn
Image: Screen shot of JoinDiaspora.com's homepage the day the Internet went on strike.
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Wikipedia: SOPA protest led 8 million to look up reps in Congress
posted by Technology @ 11:42 AM
Thursday, January 19, 2012
On Wednesday, some of the Internet's largest entities blacked out their websites — or their logos or some of their content — in a protest against the SOPA and PIPA anti-piracy bills making their way through Congress.
If you're wondering whether all of this had an effect, the answer is yes. Big time.
Wikipedia, the largest Web player to block access to its pages for a full 24 hours, reports that a whopping 162 million people experienced the blackout on the online encyclopedia's landing page. In addition, 8 million U.S. readers took Wikipedia's suggestion and looked up their congressional reps from the site.
Google reported Wednesday that as of 1:30 PM PST, 4.5 million people had signed its petition asking lawmakers to reject the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House and the Protect Intellectual Property Act in the Senate.
Twitter said 2.4 million SOPA-related tweets were sent in the first 16 hours of the day Wednesday. The top five terms were SOPA, Stop SOPA, PIPA, Tell Congress, #factswithoutwikipedia.
WordPress reports that at least 25,000 WordPress blogs had joined the SOPA and PIPA protest by blacking out their blogs entirely, and an additional 12,500 had posted a "Stop Censorship" ribbon.
“The Wikipedia blackout is over and the public has spoken,” Sue Gardner, executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation, said in a statement. “162 million of you saw our blackout page asking if you could imagine a world without free knowledge. You said no. You shut down the congressional switchboards, and you melted their servers. Your voice was loud and strong.”
RELATED:
Bloggers in China sound off on SOPA blackout
SOPA blackout: Bills lose three co-sponsors amid protests
SOPA blackout: Who’s gone dark to protest anti-piracy bills? [Updated]
– Deborah Netburn
Photo: A laptop in London shows Wikipedia's protest page on Wednesday. Credit: Peter Macdiarmid / Getty Images
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Google says 4.5 million people signed anti-SOPA petition today
posted by Technology @ 5:00 PM
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
When Google speaks, the world listens.
And today, when Google asked its users to sign a petition protesting two anti-piracy laws circulating in Congress, millions responded.
A spokeswoman for Google confirmed that 4.5 million people added their names to the company's anti-SOPA petition today.
Not too shabby.
The petition, which was available via a link from Google's homepage, states that although fighting online piracy is important, the plan of attack described in the SOPA and PIPA bills would be ineffective.
"There’s no need to make American social networks, blogs and search engines censor the Internet or undermine the existing laws that have enabled the Web to thrive, creating millions of U.S. jobs," the petition reads. "Too much is at stake -– please vote NO on PIPA and SOPA."
The search engine frequently delights users by toying with its homepage logo, but on Wednesday it did something it had never done before: it blocked out its logo completely.
A link below the blackout read "Tell Congress: Please don't censor the web!" and lead to a page with the petition.
Of course, Google's anti-SOPA and PIPA petition is not the only one out there on this day of mass online protest. As of this writing 1.458 million people signed a similar petition at the activist website Avaaz.org, and Fight for the Future said that between its two sites, Sopastrike.com and AmericanCensorship.org, at least 350,000 people have sent emails to representatives in the House and Senate.
A graphic put out by Google shows that before today's coordinated protests, 3 million Americans had signed various petitions against the two bills.
In other SOPA number news, a spokeswoman from the popular blogging platform WordPress, said that at last count, 25,000 WordPress blogs had joined the SOPA and PIPA protest by blacking out their blogs entirely, and another 12,500 used the "Stop Censorship" ribbon.
Today, the White House Blog reports that 103,785 people signed petitions through the We The People website asking the president to protect a free and open Internet.
ALSO:
SOPA blackout: How many have joined the fight?
SOPA blackout: Bills lose three co-sponsors amid protests
SOPA blackout: Who’s gone dark to protest anti-piracy bills? [Updated]
– Deborah Netburn
Image: Google's infographic on the fight against SOPA. Credit: Google
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SOPA blackout: How many have joined the fight?
posted by Technology @ 2:50 PM
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
There's something awesome and kind of a folksy feeling about today's first semi-coordinated online protest against anti-piracy bills that have been circulating around Congress.
But how many people have actually been moved to action?
That's where the kind of coordinated-ness of it all gets a little annoying. Almost all of the striking websites suggest visitors take some sort of action against the bill — some recommend you get in touch with your congressional representative to express your opposition to SOPA and PIPA, others ask users to sign a petition expressing their concern over the bills.
But even these petitions are not centralized, so it's difficult to tally how many people have been moved to participate.
Here's what we have been able to gather, as of this writing:
48,882 people have liked the Against the Stop Online Piracy Act page on Facebook.
Google is reporting more than 3 million Americans have signed various petitions opposing SOPA.
51,689 signed a petition on the White House's website We the People, asking the Obama administration to veto SOPA.
1.4 million people worldwide signed a "Save the Internet" petition on the activist website Avaaz.org
BlackoutSOPA.org is reporting that 68,620 people have changed either their Twitter, Google+ or Facebook profile picture to feature an anti-SOPA message.
Fight for the Future, a nonprofit, is reporting that 75,000 sites have signed up to participate in the protest, and that between its two sites Sopastrike.com and AmericanCensorship.org, 350,000 people have sent emails sent to their two senators and their representatives.
We'll keep updating as we learn more.
ALSO:
SOPA blackout: Bills lose three co-sponsors amid protests
SOPA blackout: Who’s gone dark to protest anti-piracy bills?
Wikipedia still accessible during SOPA blackout — with a little effort
– Deborah Netburn
Image: A screen shot of Google's anti-SOPA home page.
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SOPA anti-piracy bill markup to resume next month, lawmaker says
posted by Technology @ 6:23 PM
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
One day before major players in the online community plan to launch a virtual protest against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) making its way through Congress, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) issued a statement saying the committee will delay its markup of the bill until February.
But Smith said the delay is unrelated to Wikipedia's announcement that it would black out its English sites for 24 hours, or to Reddit's decision to black out its site for 12 hours, or to Google's announcement that it will place a link on its homepage to highlight its opposition to the bill.
In a statement released Tuesday afternoon, Smith said the delay was because of Republican and Democratic retreats scheduled for the next few weeks.
Then he reiterated his commitment to sending the bill to the White House.
"To enact legislation that protects consumers, businesses and jobs from foreign thieves who steal America's intellectual property, we will continue to bring together industry representatives and Members to find ways to combat online piracy," Smith said. “I am committed to continuing to work with my colleagues in the House and Senate to send a bipartisan bill to the White House that saves American jobs and protects intellectual property."
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Waterproof smartphones? Yes please!
Internet strike: Wikipedia, Mozilla, Reddit to go dark tonight
– Deborah Netburn
Photo: Reps. John Conyers (D-Mich.), left, and Lamar Smith (R-Texas) are members of the House Judiciary Committee. Credit: Alex Wong AFP/Getty Images
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Internet strike: Wikipedia, Mozilla, Reddit to go dark tonight
posted by Technology @ 1:56 PM
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
What does an Internet strike look like? You're about to find out.
Wikipedia, Reddit, BoingBoing and hundreds of other websites have pledged to go dark Tuesday night to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) — two anti-piracy bills that are currently making their way through Congress.
"This is an extraordinary action for our community to take," said Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales in a statement Monday announcing Wikipedia's decision to go dark. "While we regret having to prevent the world from having access to Wikipedia for even a second, we simply cannot ignore the fact that SOPA and PIPA endanger free speech both in the United States and abroad, and set a frightening precedent of Internet censorship for the world."
Wikipedia — the Web's fifth-most popular property with 470 million monthly users — is the largest Web entity to declare its intent to go dark, but it joins many other websites that have already pledged to shut down for 12 to 24 hours to draw attention to legislation that they say will hasten the end of the free Internet.
Reddit was one of the trailblazers of the blackout movement, declaring its intent to go dark on Jan. 10. Two days later, Ben Huh, chief executive of Cheezburger, which has a network of 50 sites including the seminal ICanHasCheezburger as well as Fail Blog, Know Your Meme and the Daily What, said his sites would be joining the strike.
Blackouts are not the only types of protest you'll find online Wednesday. Google announced Tuesday that, while its search engine will continue to function, the company will place a link on its home page to highlight its opposition to the bills.
“Like many businesses, entrepreneurs and Web users, we oppose these bills because there are smart, targeted ways to shut down foreign rogue websites without asking American companies to censor the Internet,” Samantha Smith, a Google spokeswoman, said in an email Tuesday. “So tomorrow we will be joining many other tech companies to highlight this issue on our U.S. home page.”
And Scribd, which claims to be the world's largest online repository of documents, said visitors to its website would find a pop-up roadblock Wednesday in protest of SOPA and PIPA that will lead to a call to action and an online petition.
Craigslist started its protest early. A starred section at the top of the site urges users to "help put a stop to this madness" and links to a page dedicated to the topic.
ALSO:
Waterproof smartphones up next?
Where's my Wikipedia? SOPA, PIPA blackout coming
– Deborah Netburn
Image: The Wikipedia home page.
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Next generation of smartphones may be waterproof
posted by Technology @ 9:33 PM
Monday, January 16, 2012
Waterproof smartphones are on their way, and we say it's about time.
A smartphone can store thousands of songs, photos and videos — but accidentally spill a glass of water on it, and kaput. You have to buy a new one that will run you anywhere between $200 and $600.
Unacceptable!
Now a company called HzO says it has developed a technology that can change all that. It calls it HzO WaterBlock and says it works by coating the inside of an electronic device with a nano-thin film that has water-repelling properties.
You shouldn't take a phone treated with HzO scuba diving, but if you drop it in the sink while you are washing dishes, or if it accidentally winds up in the washing machine, or if your kid spills a glass of water on it, it should continue to work just fine.
And the best part? Paul Clayson, president of HzO, told The Times that he expects the first consumer electronics treated with HzO WaterBlock to be on the market by this summer.
Hallellujah!
The chemical makeup of WaterBlock is proprietary, but the company says it is a non-hazardous, organic material. It does not alter the look, feel or weight of the phone, and it is applied to the inside of the device — not the outside.
The idea is not to keep water out, but rather to protect the circuit boards and electronics from any water or debris that gets in.
We asked Clayson how long he thinks it will take before waterproof phones become the norm.
"I think it will take a little bit of time to adopt," he said. "I think it will go in the higher end of consumer applications first, but I think two years from now it will be a ubiquitous offering in consumer electronics."
"Once consumers know it can be done, they will demand that it be offered in all devices," he added.
We wholeheartedly agree.
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Does Steve Wozniak really prefer Android to the iPhone?
Steve Jobs doll withdrawn after objections by his family, Apple
Zappos website hacked; credit card database not affected, CEO says
– Deborah Netburn
Image: A smartphone submerged in water at the HzO lab in Salt Lake City. Credit: HzO
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Does Steve Wozniak really prefer Android to the iPhone?
posted by Technology @ 4:37 PM
Monday, January 16, 2012
The Rolling Stones vs. the Beatles
The Yankees vs. the Mets
IPhone vs. Android.
Some debates rage eternal.
Today the iPhone-vs.-Android debate came to the fore when Steve Wozniak — the man who co-founded Apple with Steve Jobs back in 1976 — told the Daily Beast that despite loving the simplicity and beauty of the iPhone, he thinks that in some respects the Android just works better.
Sacrilege!
The Beast made the absolute most of the news by slapping a controversial headline on the story: "Even Woz Thinks the Android Bests the iPhone."
The truth, of course, is a little more nuanced than that.
For starters, keep in mind that this is a man who stood outside an Apple store in Los Gatos for 18 hours just a few months ago in order to be first in line when the iPhone 4S was released.
Wozniak's main issue with the iPhone is Siri, which he said no longer works as well as it once did.
“I used to ask Siri, ‘What are the five biggest lakes in California?’ and it would come back with the answer," he told the Beast. "Now it just misses. It gives me real estate listings. I used to ask, ‘What are the prime numbers greater than 87?’ and it would answer. Now instead of getting prime numbers, I get listings for prime rib, or prime real estate.”
He also said GPS navigation is better on Android phones, and that the battery life on the iPhone is frustrating.
Still, Wozniak said he still thinks most users would prefer the iPhone to the Android because, in the end, it's easier to use.
“The people I recommend the iPhone 4S for are the ones who are already in the Mac world, because it’s so compatible, and people who are just scared of computers altogether and don’t want to use them," he said. "The iPhone is the least frightening thing. For that kind of person who is scared of complexity, well, here’s a phone that is simple to use and does what you need it to do.”
Not so sacrilegious after all.
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Zappos website hacked; credit card database not affected, CEO says
Steve Wozniak first in line as Apple's iPhone 4S goes on sale [Updated]
Apple co-founder Wozniak bashes Nokia, predicts Android outperforming iPhone [Updated]
– Deborah Netburn
Photo: Wozniak demonstrates Siri, the personal assistant app on the iPhone 4S, on a new handset outside an Apple store in Los Gatos on Friday. Credit: John G. Mabanglo / EPA
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China’s iPhone mob tops list of consumers going crazy
posted by Technology @ 2:55 PM
Friday, January 13, 2012
A riot over iPhones? It may sound extreme, but an angry mob pelted a Beijing Apple store with eggs Friday after Apple announced that it would halt the release of its iPhone 4S at retail stores in China.
Apple said shuttering the stores was necessary to protect its employees and customers from the unruly crowds, many of them scalpers, that had started assembling outside the night before the phone's release.
It's a sad fact of human nature that the drive to get our hands on gadgets and gear has the power to make us act completely insane. Remember the Wal-Mart customer who nailed 20 other shoppers with pepper spray on Black Friday 2011?
And some products are more likely to inspire a frenzy than others.
So join us in a trip down memory lane, where we examine the release of three products that, like the iPhone, have displayed the power to make people act crazy.
1. Air Jordans: You sneaker heads and your Air Jordans. Back in the '80s, when the shoes were first released, suburban kids were told not to wear the pricey basketball shoes in certain neighborhoods for fear they would be mugged for a pair of sneakers. Thirty years later, the shoes have lost none of their potency. When Nike released its much-anticipated Nike Air Jordan XI Concord ($180) in late December, there were reports of violence and mayhem all across the country as customers fought with fists, knives and guns to keep a coveted spot in the front of the line.
High-tech specs: A little Bond in your bifocals [Video]
Apple halts iPhone 4S release in China stores after near-riot
Sesame Street Kinect shows promise of TV voice, gesture control [Video]
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What's more you? The breezy Spanish style architecture of Stanford University or the gothic buildings dripping with history at the University of Glasgow?
Now high school seniors can get that all important "feel" for a college campus without having to embark on the traditional time-consuming and expensive multi-stop college tour. On Wednesday, Google announced it has more than tripled the number of university partners that participate in its Street View Program, allowing parents and students to imagine strolling along the Charles River at Boston University or enjoying the sunshine at Wesleyan University's Foss Hill, right on the computer.
The number of colleges and universities that have participated in Google's Street View Program is still fairly limited — Google's updated list includes 27 colleges and universities in the U.S., 40 in Japan, two in Canada, two in Denmark, 10 in Great Britain and 11 in Taiwan.
"As for adding additional campuses to Street View in the future, we hope to continue to make this type of imagery available on an ongoing basis," said a Google spokeswoman. "Since beginning this project, we've gotten a great deal of interest from potential partners."
In order to virtually tour the colleges that have participated in Google's Partner program, you go to maps.google.com and put the name of the college or university in the search bar. Grab the little orange man on the left side of the screen and drag him to the university destination and start exploring.
To see how Google got the imagery in the first place, check out the video below.
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Twitter blasts prominence of Google+ content in search results
Google likely to face FTC complaint over 'Search Plus Your World'
– Deborah Netburn
Image: A screen grab from Google's street view tour of Stanford University.
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Apple to make ‘education announcement,’ churns rumor mill
posted by Technology @ 12:41 PM
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Apple Inc. on Wednesday sent out media invitations to what the company is calling an "education announcement" in New York City on Jan. 19.
The event is scheduled to take place at 10 a.m. EST at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, not far from Central Park.
The invitation looks cool, featuring a line drawing of the New York skyline with an apple in the center. The text is cute too: "Join us for an educational event in the Big Apple."
Clever!
And, in typical Apple fashion, it includes almost no other information.
The lack of hard facts has not stopped mass speculation about just what the "education announcement" might be about. Some might argue that the invitation's cryptic nature encourages it.
The general consensus is that Apple will be announcing an initiative related to iBooks in education — perhaps the textbook-on-iPad plan that Steve Jobs discussed with his biographer, Walter Isaacson.
Or could it be something else? Stay tuned.
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Apple looms large over the Consumer Electronics Show
Vizio's new desktop and laptops aim to disrupt the PC market [Video]
– Deborah Netburn
Image: The invitation to Apple's mysterious "educational event." Credit: Apple Inc.
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Doomsday clock warning of nuclear power danger closer to midnight
posted by Technology @ 2:34 PM
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
The time on the Doomsday clock has moved, and it's in the wrong direction.
On Tuesday, the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announced that the metaphorical doomsday clock is now at five minutes to midnight, putting humanity one figurative minute closer to catastrophic destruction than it was just two years ago.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists was founded in the 1940s by members of the Manhattan Project as a way to educate the public about the dangers of nuclear power. The group debuted the idea of the doomsday clock in 1947, when the time on the clock was set at seven minutes to midnight. They have met every couple of years ever since to discuss the state and fate of the world, and to reset the clock.
This year the board, which includes nuclear and environmental scientists as well as national security experts, cited the failure to act on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty by leaders in the United States, China, Iran, India, Pakistan, Egypt, Israel and North Korea as chief among its reasons for moving the minute hand of the clock closer to doomsday.
"The world still has approximately 19,500 nuclear weapons, enough power to destroy the Earth's inhabitants several times over," the board wrote in a joint statement.
The board also found the disaster in Fukushima, Japan, particularly alarming. "Safer nuclear reactor designs need to be developed and built, and more stringent oversight, training, and attention are needed to prevent future disasters," the members wrote.
And finally, the board expressed grave concern about climate change, writing, "In fact, the global community may be near a point of no return in efforts to prevent catastrophe from changes in Earth's atmosphere."
Not good.
However, it may be heartening to hear that humanity has been closer to doomsday in the past and managed to come back from the brink of self destruction. In 1953 the board declared the time on the doomsday clock to be two minutes to midnight as the United States decided to pursue the hydrogen bomb, but by 1960 the time had moved back to six minutes to midnight as it became clear that both the U.S. and Russia were eager to avoid a nuclear conflict.
ALSO:
Apple iTV: Rounding up the rumors
Google gets personal, searches your world, not just the Web
Vlingo turns your smartphone into a voice-activated TV remote
– Deborah Netburn
Photo: Robert Socolow, a professor at Princeton University, sits alongside the doomsday clock. Credit: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images
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On fifth anniversary of iPhone, a look back at an icon’s debut
posted by Technology @ 9:21 PM
Monday, January 9, 2012
Five years ago, on Jan. 9th 2007, Steve Jobs introduced the world to the iPhone.
He didn't start talking about the phone right away. Instead, he spent the first 20 minutes teasing the crowd with stories about the iPod nano, the success of iTunes and the number of movies and television shows downloaded on Apple TV — building anticipation.
He ragged on Microsoft's recently released Zune, which he joyfully told his audience had only snagged 2% of the market for MP3 players.
Then, as Engadget live blogged at the time, he said "Ahem."
And finally, he gave the people what they wanted.
Jobs described the phone as three products in one — an iPod player, a mobile phone and an Internet communications device.
He gloated about how the new phone eschewed both a keypad and a stylus and took advantage of the "best pointing device in the world — our fingers."
"We have invented a new technology called multi-touch," he said. "It works like magic, you don't need a stylus, far more accurate than any interface ever shipped, it ignores touches, multi-finger gestures, and BOY have we patented it!"
Then he took his enthusiastic audience through the phone's functionality — its compatibility with iTunes, the weather app, the Google maps, the ease of making a phone call right from one's contact list.
Ever the showman, Jobs demonstrated that last bit by making a live call to Phil Schiller on stage.
The iPhone wouldn't be shipped to stores for six more months, but those who were there were smitten.
"They may have created a new category," Tim Bajarin, president of consulting firm Creative Strategies, told the Los Angeles Times the day of the event. "Instead of smartphone, how about 'brilliant' phone? This redefines what a cellphone looks like."
ALSO:
Apple looms large over the Consumer Electronics Show
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– Deborah Netburn
Photo: Steve Jobs introduces the Apple iPhone during his keynote address at MacWorld Conference & Expo in San Francisco on Jan. 9, 2007. Credit: Paul Sakuma / Associated Press
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Wi-Fi-enabled scale lets you post your weight online
posted by Technology @ 5:34 PM
Monday, January 9, 2012
Talk about oversharing on the Internet.
This week Fitbit debuted the Wi-Fi-enabled Aria Smart Scale — a scale that lets users weigh themselves and then digitally send that information to a website where it can be made public for their friends and family and strangers to see.
Some people might consider having a weight audience to be motivating. Others might see it as plain embarrassing.
To be fair, the raison d'etre of the Wi-Fi scale is not to help you broadcast your weight to the world, but rather to send weight readings to Fitbit's website where the company's technology will make fancy charts and graphs to help you understand how you are progressing with your weight-loss goals. And although you are certainly welcome to set this information to be public, it is also possible to keep it private. In fact, private is the default setting.
Fitbit has a history of making electronic tools to help consumers keep track of fitness and weight goals, including the Fitbit Ultra — a pedometer about the length of two quarters that fits in your pocket and tracks how many steps you've taken, how many stairs you've climbed, and how many calories you've burned doing it all.
The Aria Smart Scale, which also measures BMI and fat percentage, will be available for purchase Tuesday and will start shipping in April. It costs $129.95.
Fitbit is not the first company to venture into the weight sharing space.
Back in 2009, the forward-thinking French company Withings introduced a Wi-Fi-enabled scale that had Twitter capabilities — allowing the user to automatically tweet weight and fat info. In a news release, Withings declared the Twitter function would be a great help to users, "further motivating them by sharing their progress with followers."
As you may have noticed from the lack of public weight announcements in your Twitter feed, it never really took off in a big way.
Surprise.
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Tobii technology enables your eyes to control computers
Vizio introduces all-in-one desktop, laptop PC line (Photos)
Image credit: Fitbit
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Hair-raising news: Monday is National Static Electricity Day!
posted by Technology @ 2:11 PM
Monday, January 9, 2012
It's National Static Electricity Day! Go find a Van de Graaff generator to touch!
Each year on Jan. 9th, the country — or at least a bunch of school kids — celebrates the wonders of the old balloon-sticking-to-the-wall trick, the hair-raising that takes place after we take off our winter hats, and the shock of electricity that we get from petting a cat after scooting across a carpeted floor in socks.
And if you think we are making the holiday up, we are not. National Static Electricity Day is listed on the Hallmark Channel's Ultimate Holiday site, which lists at least two holidays per day, so it is all very official.
(Monday is also, apparently, Play God Day. Tuesday brings National Bittersweet Chocolate Day and Peculiar People Day).
In honor of this very important Static Electricity Day, we thought we'd provide you with a little refresher on how exactly static electricity works.
As you may remember from a middle-school science class, all matter is made of atoms, which are in turn made up of positively charged protons, negatively charged electrons and neutrally charged neutrons.
Most of the time the protons and electrons are balanced, but sometimes a surface becomes imbalanced. For example, when you rub a balloon against a wall, the electrons from the wall transfer to the balloon, making the balloon a negatively charged surface while the wall is a positively charged surface. Because opposite charges attract, you can then stick the balloon on the wall.
That static shock that you may remember feeling after petting your dog occurs when your body has excess electrons that you may have gathered from rubbing your stocking feet along a carpet for example. When you pet your dog, the electrons jump from you to your neutrally charged dog, making a crackling noise and giving you a little shock.
As for the hair-raising stuff, we'll let the one and only Bill Nye the Science Guy explain that in the video below. Enjoy!
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— Deborah Netburn
Image: Laura Judson conducts an experiment in static electricity with a Van de Graaff generator in 2000. Credit: Handout
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Organ Trail, a zombie spoof of Oregon Trail, is going mobile
posted by Technology @ 7:35 PM
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Organ Trail, a zombie-filled spoof of the beloved Oregon Trail computer game created in 1971 and played in elementary schools across America, is coming to mobile devices.
The Men Who Wear Many Hats, a group of indie developers that originally released Organ Trail as a free playable Flash game on its website in 2010, have raised more than $7,000 through the website Kickstarter, more than double their original fundraising goal. That gives them enough money to build a version of the game for the iPhone, iPad and Android.
“I often sit in awe, almost every day now, at the outpouring of love and support (and money) that community is giving us,” said Ryan Wiemeyer, a lead member of the group. “We know how to make games. We’re still learning how to put a product out. It’s pretty frightening, but I couldn’t be more excited to be pushing our group to new cool things.”
Organ Trail is based on The Oregon Trail, a computer game designed to teach schoolchildren about the challenges of 19th century American pioneer life — dysentery! Typhoid! Cholera!
In Organ Trail, instead of dealing with the trials faced by pioneers, the player deals with the trials of living in a world populated by bloodthirsty zombies.
“How will you cross the undead hordes?” read the directions to the game. “If you have money you might hire some bandits (if there are bandits). Or you can ford the undead and hope you and your bus aren’t swallowed alive!”
You know, just like The Oregon Trail, but not.
The Men Who Wear Hats released a free version of the game a few days before Halloween 2010 and report that it has since been played by more than 600,000 people.
Wiemeyer said the game might be available for the iPad in early spring, but that could change.
He also said the game was pretty easy to make because it is mostly a series of menus. The hard part was keeping it fun.
“We get to cheat a little because people already love the idea,” he said. “But the trick is to make something compelling enough that when that initial delight at all the puns and nostalgia wears off, we have them engaged in the experience.”
And how will it look? “We decided to stick to the Apple II color palette,” he said, “which is like 15 colors that all look like they came from an Easter-themed coloring book.”
ALSO:
Apple iPad 3 rumors: From feasible to far-fetched
Copying and file sharing recognized as a religion in Sweden
Scientists create living LED screens out of glowing bacteria
– Deborah Netburn
Image: A screen shot from the Organ Trail game. Credit: The Men Who Wear Many Hats
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Copying and file sharing recognized as a religion in Sweden
posted by Technology @ 1:23 PM
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Can the gospel of file sharing really be recognized as a religion? In Sweden it can.
In the midst of a worldwide debate about Internet piracy, Swedish authorities have granted official religious status to the Church of Kopimism, which claims it considers CTRL+C and CTRL+V (shortcuts for copy and paste) to be sacred symbols, and that information is holy and copying is a sacrament.
The church was founded by philosophy student Isak Gerson, who is also the self-appointed spiritual leader of the movement.
In a statement on the church’s website, he says its religious roots stem back to 2010 and that it formalized a community of file sharers that already has been “well spread” for a long time.
“The community of kopimi requires no formal membership,” he writes. “You just have to feel a calling to worship what is the holiest of the holiest, information and copy.”
(For those who are unaware, kopimi is pronounced “copy me.”)
According to the Church of Kopimism website, church services consist of “kopyactings,” whereby the “kopimists” share information with each other through copying and remixing.
Bertil Kallner of Sweden’s Financial and Administrative Services told the Swedish newspaper Gagens Nyheter that a religious community could “basically be anything.”
“What’s important is that it is a community for religious activities,” he said.
Still, it took the Church of Kopimism three tries over the course of a year before members were able to formalize their way of praying or meditation so that they could be recognized as an official religion.
The blog Torrent Freak reports that membership in the church has grown from 1,000 to 3,000 in the last six months, and the founders expect more people to join now that its religious status is making a splash on the Internet.
“Being recognized by the state of Sweden is a large step for Kopimi,” said Gerson. “Hopefully this is one step towards the day when we can live out our faith without fear of persecution.”
Kopi that.
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Scientists create living LED screens out of glowing bacteria
– Deborah Netburn
Photo: Is a file sharing organ in the works? They might model it off this one in the Holy Trinity Church in Kristianstad, on the east coast of Sweden. Credit: Katie Lee Pelon.
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Scientists create living LED screens out of glowing bacteria
posted by Technology @ 7:12 PM
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Here's some cool news for people who love anything that glows in the dark: Scientists at UC San Diego have figured out how to make millions of fluorescent E. coli bacteria flash all at once, creating a sort of living LED screen.
Jeff Hasty, a professor of biology and bioengineering who headed the research team in the university's Division of Biological Sciences and BioCircuits Institute, said it took him and his team about five years and a series of papers to develop what he calls the "biopixels" that make up the living LED screen.
Back in 2008 Hasty and his team published a paper that showed how they built a biological clock inside a single bacterial cell that would tell the bacteria when to produce a flashing, glowing light.
In a second paper published in 2010 they showed they could synchronize thousands of bacteria in the same colony to blink on and off in unison.
The next step was to find out if they could get bacteria in different colonies to blink on and off at the same time.
"We were wondering if we could get the bacteria to communicate over large distances," Hasty said.
A long distance in the bacterial world might be 1 centimeter, he added.
As it turned out, they could communicate over long distances by having the bacterial cells create a vapor that allows the different colonies to communicate with each other almost instantaneously.
And so the living LED screen was born.
It's all on a very micro scale right now. So far, the scientists have made screens — or chips — of two sizes. The larger chip contains about 13,000 colonies, or biopixels, (50 to 60 million bacterial cells) and is about the size of a paper clip. The smaller chip (pictured above) contains about 2.5 million cells — or 500 colonies — and is about a 10th of the size of the larger chip.
Hasty said his team could eventually get the bacteria to communicate over by another order of magnitude.
We wondered if the ability to program bacteria to light up at will might make its way into a living neon signs — no electricity needed.
"There is nothing that would preclude a company from making a beer sign out of these, but I'm not sure how marketable that is given that a bar would have a sign full of living bacteria hanging in its window," Hasty said.
He and his team have other applications for their living LED screen in mind. They have been able to engineer a simple bacterial sensor that can detect low levels of arsenic, and cause the bacteria to flash more quickly if arsenic is found.
"So if you are in Bangladesh and you want to know if there is arsenic in your water, you could use a sensor made out of these chips," Hasty said. "That's more the direction we are headed."
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– Deborah Netburn
Image: The small "living LED screen," or chip, contains about 2.5 million cells — or 500 colonies — of E. coli bacteria that have been engineered to flash in unison. Credit: UC San Diego.
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Wikipedia collects record $20 million in latest fundraiser
posted by Technology @ 12:21 PM
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
There's something kind of heartwarming about the annual Wikipedia fundraiser, which came to a close Jan. 1.
Each year, the world's fifth-most popular Web property asks its monthly 470 million users to pony up some money to keep the gears turning at Wikimedia's San Francisco headquarters, and each year the world responds by sending donations in varying amounts, from $5 to $500,000.
This year the company raised more than $20 million. The money came from more than 1 million donors in almost every country in the world.
It's the most the organization has ever raised since it started the annual fundraiser in 2003.
"Our model is working fantastically well," Sue Gardner, executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation, said in a statement. "Ordinary people use Wikipedia and they like it, so they chip in some cash so it will continue to thrive. That maintains our independence and lets us focus solely on providing a useful public service."
Wikimedia, the nonprofit organization that operates Wikipedia, says it will use the money to pay for new hardware, enhance the site's functionality, provide legal representation for its projects, support the large community of Wikimedia volunteers and expand its mobile services.
The organization said that its 2011-12 operating budget is $28.3 million. The rest of the money will come from grants and additional donations collected year-round.
Wikipedia has 20 million articles in 282 languages and more than 100,000 volunteers worldwide who contribute to and vet Wikipedia content.
The site also has a birthday coming up. According to the release, Jan. 15 marks the 11th anniversary of the online encyclopedia.
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Image: A screen grab of the Wikipedia homepage.
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Researchers in Germany create a virtual sky for office workers
posted by Technology @ 6:46 PM
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Here's a report from the fringes of science: Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering in Germany have created a luminous ceiling that re-creates the fluctuating lighting conditions that occur naturally out of doors on a cloudy day.
It's not cheap. Fraunhofer says installing a virtual sky would probably cost approximately 1,000 euros ($1,300) per square yard. But in a study, the researchers found that 80 percent of workers preferred working under a dynamic virtual sky. And in a release about the project, Fraunhofer reports it has already had inquiries about the new type of lighting, mostly from companies hoping to use it in conference rooms.
The luminous ceiling is made of 20-inch-by-20-inch tiles, each loaded with a board containing 288 light emitting diodes (LEDs). The lights are covered with a matt white diffuser film so the individual points of light meld together. The researchers used a combination of red, blue, green and white LEDs to create the full light spectrum.
The trick to simulating outdoor light is to simulate the dynamic changes in the light in such a way that is not obvious to the naked eye. The researchers did not want to distract people from their work, but found that gentle fluctuations improved concentration and heightened alertness.
Sounds good to us! Here's what else sounds good: The researchers at Fraunhofer say they are optimistic that the price of their virtual sky will come down eventually. "The more units are produced, the more cost-effective each luminous ceiling will be," they said.
ALSO:
Steve Jobs action figure is advertised; will Apple respond?
CES preview: LG's OLED TV is super thin, has minimal bezel
RIM cuts all BlackBerry PlayBook tablets to $299 for limited time
– Deborah Netburn
Image: The dynamic luminous ceiling, created by researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering in Germany, in action. Credit: Fraunhofer IAO
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Steve Jobs action figure is advertised; will Apple respond?
posted by Technology @ 1:52 PM
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
A Steve Jobs action figure? Just what you’ve always wanted!
Just three months after the death of Apple Inc. founder Steve Jobs, a company called In Icons has put images of a prototype Steve Jobs action figure on its website and the Internet is going crazy.
No one is surprised that the company thinks it can sell a 12-inch-high collectible action figure of Jobs for the proposed price of $99.
That’s inevitable.
Rather, it’s the borderline disturbing level of detail that the company has put in the figure that is freaking everyone out. The prototype includes the pores on Jobs’ forehead, the subtle wrinkles under his eyes, even the veins on his hand.
The prototype also includes two extra pair of hands in case you lose the first pair, which is kind of freaky in a different way.
The Steve Jobs set also comes with two pairs of glasses, one black turtleneck, one pair of blue jeans, one black leather belt, two apples (one with a bite out) and one hard backdrop reading “ONE MORE THING.”
In Icons did not return a request for comment. Its website says it will start shipping the product worldwide in February.
However, many media watchers are skeptical that the figure actually will ship.
Back in 2010, Apple blocked a company called M.I.C. Gadget from selling a Steve Jobs action figure on Ebay, saying that the action figure was a violation of its copyrights and trademarks.
ALSO:
Orangutans go ape for iPads, gorillas not so much
Apple design master Jonathan Ive awarded British knighthood
– Deborah Netburn
Image: Screen grab of the Steve Jobs action figure pictured on InIcons.com. Credit: InIcons.com.
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From fake Apple stores to WireDoo: 2011′s craziest tech stories
posted by Technology @ 7:00 AM
Saturday, December 31, 2011
2011 was a big year for tech news–Steve Jobs died, Facebook and Twitter revolutionized the revolutionary experience in the Middle East, a new iPad came out, a new iPhone came out, and the world got to meet SIRI, Google+ and the Kindle Fire.
It was also a hilarious year, as tech reporters and savvy Facebook sharers and Tweeters found a steady stream of crazy tech stories to keep them entertained.
From the spate of fake Apple Stores in China to the news that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was building a 10,000-year clock, here is a list of 11 great stories from 2011 that made us grateful to be alive and paying attention in this completely insane age of the Internet.
1. Fake Apple stores popping up in China: We'd heard of people knocking off purses and shoes and wallets, but a whole store? That was new. So when a young American living in China blogged about a spate of fake Apple stores that had opened in her adopted city of Kunming, the Internet went crazy. The best part were the photos she had on her blog that showed the familiar pale wood surfaces, the glowing white Apple logo, and even workers dressed in those distinctive blue shirts.
2. The IE IQ hoax: For one brief, glorious moment, tech reporters thought it just might be possible that people who used the Internet Explorer browser were actually dumber than those who used other browsers. A company called Aptiquant put out a study that seemed to prove it. The story spread like wildfire, until it was revealed to be a hoax. When the truth came out, the guy behind it all had this to say: "It was just a joke, and I didn’t really mean to insult anybody."
3. Jeff Bezos spends millions on a 10,000-year clock: This year we learned that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has invested $42 million in a clock that will keep ticking for 10,000 years. Brian Eno (of all people) dubbed the project, which broke ground earlier this year, "the long now." "If you think something is important, and you think nobody else is going to do it, then it's a useful thing to do," Bezos told Wired.
4. MC Hammer's search engine: Remember this little gem? In October former rapper and ordained minister MC Hammer (AKA Stanley Kirk Burrel), announced WireDoo, a new search engine that he hoped would put Google and Bing out of business. Four months later the search engine is still in pre-beta, but you are invited to sign up for a test drive when it's ready.
5. Wife of Rovio executive dons Angry Birds dress: This was just a blip, but it was such a fun blip. While attending a formal event at the Finnish Palace, Teija Vesterbacka donned the most tasteful version of an Angry Birds dress we could possibly imagine. It was also an unexpected show of support for her husband, Peter Vesterbacka, chief marketing officer of Rovio, the company that makes the wildly popular Angry Birds game–he's usually dressed in an Angry Birds sweatshirt of some sort, but was wearing tails that night.
6. The rise of Rebecca Black: It feels like Rebecca Black's song "Friday" is a part of our shared past–like the kids from "Saved by the Bell" or the Spice Girls. But YouTube sensation Black is a totally 2011 phenomenon. The video for "Friday" went up on the video-sharing site in mid-February of this year. It spent about four weeks in obscurity before achieving world domination.
7. Nathan Myhrvold puts out a cookbook: What does a cookbook conceived by Nathan Myhrvold, former chief technology officer of Microsoft and holder of hundreds of patents, look like? Well, it's 2,400 pages collected into six volumes, and costs $625. It's called "Modernist Cuisine," it came out in March of this year and it focuses on the science and technology (of course) of cooking. Unexpected, and reportedly brilliant.
8. Patent wars come to emoticons: If you've been following tech this year you are aware that there has been a huge patent war raging between Apple Inc. and its smartphone rival Samsung Electronics. A particularly low note in the battle? This year, Samsung went after Apple for the way it uses emoticons. It all sounds silly to us, but believe it or not, Samsung does indeed own a patent on smartphone use of emoticons. : \
9. HP's TouchPad mania: First no one wanted it. HP dropped the price. Still, no one wanted it. And so HP dropped the price again. And again. Then the company announced it would no longer make the product and dropped the price for a final time to $99. Then it sold out.
10. Charlie Sheen looks for an intern on Twitter: Charlie Sheen's crazy call for a marketing intern went out on Twitter in early March, just days after he was fired from "Three and a Half Men." The listing read: "Do you have #TigerBlood? Are you all about #Winning? Can you #PlanBetter than anyone else? If so, we want you on #TeamSheen as our social media #TigerBloodIntern!" The whole thing was basically a marketing ploy for Internships.com, which paid Sheen to post the ad, but it worked. After about an hour, his Twitter message had resulted in more than 127,000 clicks through to Internships.com via the Bit.ly shortened link in the tweet.
11. Alec Baldwin's American Airlines Twitter rant: The ultimate technology story of 2011 weaves together a tale of bad celebrity behavior, some furious and impulsive Twitter rants, the mobile Scrabble-like game Words With Friends and corporate explanations via Facebook pages. You can read all about it here.
ALSO:
MC Hammer's WireDoo: Can it take on Google and Bing?
Wife of Rovio chief dons Angry Birds gown at Finnish Palace
Alec Baldwin kicked off plane: A tale of our technological times
–Deborah Netburn
Images clockwise from top left: A fake Apple store in Kunming, China, photographed by BirdAbroad; Charlie Sheen arriving at his Comedy Central Roast, photographed by Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times; emoticon face made by Deborah Netburn; Alec Baldwin as Pan Am head Juan Trippe in Martin Scorsese's movie "The Aviator," photographed by Andrew Cooper/ Miramax Films.
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Meet AGNES, the suit that makes you feel 75 years old
posted by Technology @ 1:58 PM
Friday, December 30, 2011
You've heard of the fat suit and the pregnancy suit; now meet AGNES — the old person suit.
AGNES stands for "Age Gain Now Empathy System" and was designed by researchers at MIT's AgeLab to emulate what it feels like — physically — to be 75 years old with arthritis and diabetes.
"The business of old age demands new tools," said Joseph Coughlin, director of the AgeLab. "While focus groups and observations and surveys can help you understand what the older consumer needs and wants, young marketers never get that 'Ah ha!' moment of having difficulty opening a jar, or getting in and out of a car. That's what AGNES provides."
Coughlin and his team carefully calibrated the suit to make the wearer just as uncomfortable as an old person who has spent a lifetime eating poorly and not doing much exercise.
Special shoes provide a feeling of imbalance, while braces on the knees and elbows limit joint mobility. Gloves give the illusion of decreased strength and mobility in the hands and wrists, and earplugs make it difficult to hear high-pitched sounds and soft tones. A helmet with straps attached to it compresses the spine, and more straps attached to the shoes decrease hamstring flexibility, and shortens the wearer's gait.
It's not a pretty picture of aging.
"The three words we associate with wearing AGNES are fatigue, friction and frustration," said Coughlin.
AGNES has been used most recently by a group of students working on a design for an updated walker. By wearing the suit they could see for themselves what design and materials would make the most sense for a physically limited older person. Coughlin said the suit has also been used by clothing companies, car companies and retail goods companies to help them understand the limitations of an older consumer.
If all this is making you terrified of getting older, Coughlin does offer a slight reassurance.
"AGNES is not the destiny of everybody," he said. "She is a badly behaved lady who didn't eat and exercise very well. A secondary benefit we've found with AGNES is that it has become a powerful tool to get younger people to invest in their long-term health."
ALSO:
Orangutans go ape for iPads, gorillas not so much
You've upgraded: Inventive ways to ditch your old electronics
Large Hadron Collider made with Legos, and other geeky creations
–Deborah Netburn
Image: AGNES goes for a stroll. Credit: Katie Godfrey / MIT AgeLab.
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Orangutans go ape for iPads, gorillas not so much
posted by Technology @ 2:05 PM
Thursday, December 29, 2011
For the last six months, three orangutans at the Milwaukee County Zoo have had the pleasure of playing with a donated iPad a couple times a week, and guess what: They love it.
"We show them the iPad, and read them stories or let them have different apps," said Jan Rafert, curator of primates and small mammals at the zoo. "We don't let them hold them, but they can do some of the paint apps by sticking their fingers through the mesh."
The orangutan iPad program, known as Apps for Apes, was started after the gorilla keeper at the zoo mentioned on her Facebook page that she'd like to get some iPads for her gorillas to play with, Rafert explained. It was kind of a joke, but a zoo volunteer took it seriously and donated a used iPad to the zoo. It turned out that the gorillas didn't really enjoy the iPad — "they are more stoic," said Rafert — but the orangutans went wild.
Now the orangutans' keeper, Trish Khan, lets the orangutans play with the iPad about twice a week. The orangutans are not allowed to hold it because they are so strong that they would probably wind up cracking it in half. Khan holds it up to their cages and allows them to interact with it.
The orangutan conservation group Orangutan Outreach is now involved with the project and is hoping to get Apps for Apes started at other zoos. Richard Zimmerman, executive director of the group, said Zoo Atlanta, the Toronto Zoo and the Phoenix Zoo are just waiting to get iPads for their orangutans to play with. The Houston Zoo already has an iPad, but has not yet introduced it to the orangutans.
Once the other zoos are on board, Zimmerman said zookeepers will arrange primate playdates — where orangutans from different zoos can see each other via the iPad.
Nobody has done research on how orangutans interact with iPads, but Zimmerman said that may be coming soon. For now, the Apps for Apes program has two main goals: providing stimulation for orangutans who are easily bored when in captivity, and raising awareness for orangutan conservation in Malaysia and Indonesia where the animals are suffering declining numbers and loss of habitat.
"Seeing the animals with the iPad has had an effect on the zoo visitors," he said. "They have this recognition that these are amazing, cognitive, curious creatures, which gets back to our message, that these are animals that need to be saved."
If you have an old iPad you'd like to donate to the orangutans, you can contact Zimmerman at rich@redapes.org.
ALSO:
Bratty tweets about Christmas gifts disturb parents
You've upgraded: Inventive ways to ditch your old electronics
Large Hadron Collider made with Legos, and other geeky creations
– Deborah Netburn
Image and video: An orangutan at the Milwaukee County Zoo enjoys some iPad time. Credit: Orangutan Outreach
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Bratty tweets about Christmas gifts disturb parents
posted by Technology @ 7:01 PM
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
It's not easy being a kid today. Everywhere you turn it seems like adults are out to make you look like a spoiled, entitled brat.
The most recent example is comedian Jon Hendren's list of real tweets from kids who were angry that they didn't get an iPhone, or iPad, or a car for Christmas. Hendren assembled the tweets on Christmas Day and published them on his own Twitter feed.
Here is a G-rated sampling:
"No Iphone. I hate my dad."
"Just cried for like 2 hrs straight cause i didn't get a car."
"Seems like I'm the only one who didn't get an Iphone for christmas."
"If you got an iphone i hate you."
Yikes!
Hendren's list of bratty re-tweets quickly made its way around the Internet, showing up in blogs and other Twitter feeds where adults expressed dismay at the entitlement of the youth today.
"This guy @fart is retweeting all the spoiled brats that didn't get what they wanted. The entitled dregs of society. Nice work, parents." Jason Clarke tweeted.
"Twitter reveals the worst Christmas gift getters ever," Leslie Horn of PC Mag wrote.
The list even became the inspiration for a song by the singer Jonathan Mann. A YouTube video of the song featuring profanity-filled tweets went up Tuesday and got more than 117,000 views in less than 24 hours.
We agree that the tweets are super obnoxious, but we can't help but wonder whether kids today actually feel more entitled than ever before, or is it that thanks to sites like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, adults are just aware of how entitled kids have always been, and more likely to exploit that entitlement, which could just be called "childhood" and "adolescence."
Consider the popular YouTube challenges that late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel occasionally issues to parents to essentially prank their kids and record their reactions.
Kimmel's Christmas challenge – in which he asked parents to give their kids terrible Christmas presents and then keep the camera rolling while the kids cry or patiently explain that they didn't want an onion for a present — has had 14.25 million views on YouTube.
Kimmel's Halloween challenge, in which he asked parents to pretend to have eaten all their kid's Halloween candy, has been viewed a whopping 25.8 million times.
Yeah, it's funny ha-ha, but it's also kind of mean.
ALSO:
Five ways to get started with your new iPhone
Nearly 7 million Apple, Android devices light up on Christmas Day
Large Hadron Collider made with Legos, and other geeky creations
– Deborah Netburn
Video: Jimmy Kimmel's YouTube challenge: I gave my kid a terrible present. Credit: YouTube.
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You’ve upgraded: Inventive ways to get rid of your old electronics
posted by Technology @ 4:55 PM
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
If this holiday season was all about upgrading for you — upgrading to a better computer, phone or camera — then it's time to think about what to do with your old gadgets.
The good news is, you have options. The bad news is, you may have too many options. There are many ways to dispose of your old gadgets responsibly, and navigating it all can be difficult and frustrating.
To help you out, we've put together a step-by-step guide to getting rid of your old electronics now that you have new electronics.
1. The hand-me-down: The best and easiest way to recycle your old electronics is to hand them off to someone you know who can still use them. Do you have a 4-year-old niece who won't know the difference between a 4-megapixel camera or a 12-megapixel camera? She might like your old point-and-shoot. Your frustratingly slow former laptop may work perfectly for a middle-school-age cousin who only needs it for Web surfing.
2. Donate it: So, you don't know anyone who wants your old computer, but if it's still functional there may be someone you don't know who could make use of it. EBay's Rethink Initiative has put together an easy-to-navigate list of organizations that know how to put your old electronics to work.
3. Sell it: You can always sell your old electronics on EBay or Craigslist, but this may be more work than you bargained for. Alternatively, you can check out NextWorth.com, an e-recycling company that will pay you for your working electronics. You can get an instant quote on the company's website and even trade in your electronics at 1,450 Target stores nationwide.
4. Recycle: Unfortunately recycling your old electronics is not as simple as throwing them in with your old newspapers and soda cans. You'll need to find an e-recycling center that knows how to responsibly recycle your gadget. GreenerGadgets.org has a list of e-recycling centers and also has a list of e-recycling centers by ZIP Code. (Look to the bottom right of the screen). Goodwill Industries International Inc. will take e-waste. So will Best Buy.
And if you think this all sounds annoying and hard, we don't totally blame you. But if you take the extra time to recycle your old gadgets, the planet will thank you.
ALSO:
Five ways to get started with your new iPhone
LG to debut 'world's largest' Organic-LED and 3D LED TVs at CES
Nearly 7 million Apple, Android devices light up on Christmas Day
– Deborah Netburn
Image: If you've been lugging around this 1998 iMac personal computer, it's time to let it go. Credit: Associated Press.
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Large Hadron Collider made with Legos, and other geeky creations
posted by Technology @ 12:58 PM
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Why make the Large Hadron Collider's ATLAS detector out of Legos? Well … why not?
Sascha Mehlhase, a physicist based in Copenhagen, has built a 1:50 scale replica of the ATLAS detector, which is part of the Large Hadron Collider, the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator.
Physicists hope the LHC will help them discover the Higgs boson, also known as the "God particle," which is responsible for mass of all the fundamental particles in our universe. "We hope to learn the nature of dark matter, which is most of the mass of our universe," said physicist Michael Barnett, one of the ATLAS coordinators of education and outreach. "We may even get lucky and discover that there are extra dimensions of space beyond those three we know."
As for the Lego version of the ATLAS detector, well, that just looks neat.
"It is an interesting concept because the ATLAS detector itself was quite a feat, with tens of thousands of pieces having been built in 38 countries and assembled by 3,000 physicists at the LHC in Geneva," Barnett said.
The real ATLAS detector is 75 feet tall and wide, and about 150 feet long.
Mehlhase's model is about 1 1/2 feet high and a bit over 3 feet long. In an email to The Times, he said he spent about 48 hours creating a digital 3-D model of the ATLAS using Lego's Digital Designer software. Assembling the detector took an additional 33 hours, he said, but he spread that out over weekends and after hours and got some help from his wife. In total, he used about 9,500 Lego pieces, he said.
Mehlhase said the whole project cost about 2,000 euros ($2,614), but because the model will be used for outreach, the Niels Bohr Institute, where he works, picked up the tab. (The labor, however, was free).
Those interested in building their own ATLAS detectors are in luck: Mehlhase said he is working on a construction manual that should be available soon, and Barnett said the ATLAS team is working with Mehlase to help create a slightly less difficult version of the project.
Mehlhase's ATLAS model may be the geekiest thing ever made out of Legos, but it is hardly the only one.
Here are six of our favorites:
1. The Lego iMac: Lego building superstar Chris McVeigh has made a lot of iThings in Legos, including an original Lego iPod in gray hues, and a Lego iPad with raised icons. His sleek Lego iMac is spot on and includes a Lego keyboard and Lego mouse.
2. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 trailer in Legos: In November, Kooberz Studios (Alex Kobbs) made a shot-for-shot re-creation of the trailer for the video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, using Legos and stop animation. In the video, cotton balls form smoke and clouds, and guns fire hand-drawn explosions.
3. The Lego stair car: Television comedy geeks will love Matt De Lenoy's stair car, a replica of the absurd vehicle Michael Bluth (Jason Bateman) is forced to drive around in "Arrested Development." On his Flickr page, De Lenoy writes that it took him two nights to build the car, and another night to carefully cut out the Bluth Company stickers.
4. Lego conceptual art: For a Lego artist, Nathan Sawaya is decidedly high-minded. His "Infinity" looks kind of like an M.C. Escher drawing, except that it's made of Legos.
5. Lego Zanzibar: Another piece by Alex Kobbs of Kooberz Studios. This is a scale replica of the Halo 2 Zanzibar map.
6.Lego portable cassette Recorder, circa 1987: Angus MacLane is an avid lego builder and an animator for Pixar. His Flickr page is full of super-cool Lego creations, including a robotic fighting chicken and a robotic praying mantis, but we're partial to his portable cassette recorder featuring an old-school portable cassette recorder and a Lego cassette tape.
ALSO:
Google+ may reach 400 million users by end of 2012
LG to debut "world's largest" Organic-LED and 3D LED TVs at CES
Nearly 7 million Apple, Android devices light up on Christmas Day
Photo: The Large Hadron Collider's ATLAS Detector, in Legos. Credit: Sascha Mehlhase
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Five ways to get started with your new iPad
posted by Technology @ 7:00 AM
Sunday, December 25, 2011
So, you got a new iPad for Christmas? Congratulations! You've totally been wanting one of those. But you also may be feeling overwhelmed. Your new iPad can be a digital recording studio, an alarm clock, and it can help you study for the Bar exam. So where is an iPad novice to begin?
Right here! We've put together a list of some our favorite iPad magazines, games, and books to help you get started with your new super-sleek super computer.
1. Get yourself some apps: Apple says it has over 140,000 apps in its store, and its adding more every day. That sounds like a lot to sift through, but do not panic. Trust in the wisdom of the masses and take a look at Apple's top-10 list of apps across various categories. Start by downloading a few free apps to see what you like. Some basic ones are Netflix, which lets you stream movies and TV shows right on your iPad, and Flipboard, which will arrange your Twitter and Facebook feeds in a magazine-style format.
2. Check out Apple Newsstand: The magazine publishing industry is hoping that tablets like the iPad will breathe new life into its faltering business, which is why major publishers like Conde Nast and Hearst are pouring resources into the iPad versions of their magazines, packing them full of photo galleries, how-to videos and animated spreads. Martha Stewart Living, Wired, Sports Illustrated and The New Yorker are all definitely worth looking into in iPad form. You'll find them all in the Newsstand app that is preloaded on your iPad.
3.Explore iBooks: This is another app that comes preloaded on the iPad. According to Apple, there are 700,000 titles in the store. Again, don't panic. Either search for a book you've been wanting to read or check out the best-seller lists if you don't know where to start. Publisher's Weekly just gave a great review to a poetry book app called Chasing Fireflies: A Haiku Collection. A lot of people love Penguin's Amplified ebook series version of Jack Kerouac's "On the Road." Our three-year-old can't get enough of "The Monster at the End of This Book" and "Miss Spider's Tea Party."
4. Want to play games? You'll find a dizzying number of them in the app store, but here are a few suggestions from the L.A. Times tech desk to get you started: Angry Birds and Cut the Rope. And for those who want a real 3D game experience, tech blogger Nathan Olivarez-Giles says Infinity Blade is the best.
5. Talk to friends: We gave you a few places to start, but the easiest way to find great apps is to talk to people who already have an iPad and can tell you what they enjoy most.
Five ways to get started with your new Android phone
An experimental music app for New York's High Line park
You can make View-Master-style photo reels with Image3D
–Deborah Netburn
Image: A customer tries out the iPad 2 at the Apple store on Fifth Avenue in New York in March. Credit: Emmanuel Dunland / AFP/Getty Images.
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‘Facebook’ tops list of most-searched-for terms of 2011
posted by Technology @ 2:57 PM
Friday, December 23, 2011
"Facebook" was the term most frequently searched for by American Internet users in 2011, according to a report from Experian Hitwise, part of the Experian Marketing Group.
In fact, "facebook" dominated Experian's top ten list, showing up in four different iterations: "Facebook login" was the third most searched for term this year. "Facebook.com" was fifth, and "www.facebook.com" came in eighth.
The full list looks like this:
1. facebook
2. youtube
3. facebook login
4. craigslist
5. facebook.com
6. yahoo
7. ebay
8. www.facebook.com
9. mapquest
10. yahoo.com
This is the third year in a row that "facebook" has topped the list. Searches for that one-word term were up 46% this year from 2010. Multiple-term searches including "facebook" were up 24% from last year.
"Navigational searches dominated the top search results as users typed in terms versus typing in the URL in the browser bar," Simon Bradstock, a general manager of Experian Hitwise, said in a statement.
Single-word searches rose 11% users came to expect that their search engine would fill in the rest of the terms for them.
The most frequently searched-for public figures, Experian, said were Justin Bieber at No. 1 and Casey Anthony at No. 2. (Charlie Sheen was No. 6.)
In the movies category, "Star Wars" — surprisingly — came in at No. 1, followed by "Transformers 3" and the "Breaking Dawn" installment of the "Twilight" series.
ALSO:
Google-Firefox search deal reportedly worth $900 million
Sales of basic digital cameras fall as smartphones fill the niche
FCC approves AT&T's $1.9-billion purchase of Qualcomm spectrum
– Deborah Netburn
Photo: Facebook's logo, displayed at the company's office in New York. Credit: Scott Eells / Bloomberg
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An experimental music app for New York’s High Line park
posted by Technology @ 1:25 PM
Friday, December 23, 2011
If you're heading to New York any time soon, we suggest you pack a warm hat, and also download The Gaits, a new music app that provides a musical accompaniment to a walk along New York's High Line park with the help of four composers and the listener's footsteps.
The app uses the phone's accelerometer to turn each step into the twinkling metallic sounds of electric guitar chords, dulcimer notes, water splashes, car horns and applause. It also uses geolocating technology, so it knows where you are in the park, and when you've stopped for a break on a bench. When you do take a seat, the sounds generated by the app will change to indicate "you are resting now."
The Gaits was developed by four composers and produced by Friends of the High Line and Make Music New York, in association with MATA, a nonprofit that commissions new works from young composers.
In the description of the app on iTunes, the makers suggest you wear small portable speakers while you create and enjoy your personal High Line musical experience. Used this way, the creators suggest that iPhones "become instruments effortlessly played by strolling, sauntering, or sprinting down the High Line."
That's a nice idea, but also kind of weird. However, we'd totally be down to try this with headphones.
Sadly, this app can be used only if you are walking on the High Line, but we look forward to a day when digital composers score all other types of walking experiences. How cool would it be to have an app like this during a hike in the Grand Canyon, or a walk on the Venice boardwalk?
ALSO:
Google-Firefox search deal reportedly worth $900 million
Sales of basic digital cameras fall as smartphones fill the niche
FCC approves AT&T's $1.9-billion purchase of Qualcomm spectrum
–Deborah Netburn
Video: Preview of The Gaits: a High Line Soundwalk, by Lainie Fefferman, Jascha Narveson, Cameron Britt and Daniel Iglesia. Produced by Friends of the High Line for Make Music Winter.Credit: YouTube.
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You can make View-Master-style photo reels with Image3D
posted by Technology @ 7:48 PM
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Big news, lovers of all things retro: Those 3-D View-Masters from your childhood are back, only this time you can see your own photos when you look through the eyepiece.
Click. There's your dog. Click. There's your kid. Click. There are your party pictures.
This personalized nostalgic experience is brought to you by Image3D, a company founded by Rich Dubnow, the lead photographer for View-Master for 20 years. Image3D has been around since 1997, and it started allowing users to create their own individual images a few months ago. It will begin advertising its new service on the wedding website TheKnot.com and in the Sky Mall catalog next year.
A viewfinder and one reel of seven personalized photos costs $24.95. If you were throwing a wedding and wanted to have a viewfinder on each table loaded with the same pictures of the bride and groom, each additional viewfinder and reel would set you back $8 to $15, depending on how many you order.
You create your own reel by loading digital photos onto the company's website, which also provides the option of adding a funky background or text. The text will appear to be floating in front of the image in 3-D.
Unfortunately, your two-dimensional images will still read as two dimensional through the eyepiece, but we still think this is worth it for that satisfying click.
ALSO:
Hasbro sues Asus over use of Transformer Prime name
Sales of basic digital cameras fall as smartphones fill the niche
NFL to stream Super Bowl online and to Verizon phones, tablets
– Deborah Netburn
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Sales of basic digital cameras fall as smartphones fill the niche
posted by Technology @ 5:40 PM
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Film is already passe for snapshots. Are inexpensive point-and-shoot cameras next to go?
According to a survey by NPD Group, 27% of photos and videos taken this year were shot with smartphones — up from 17% last year.
Not surprisingly, sales of the basic digital point-and-shoot cameras suffered. According to NPD, unit sales of those cameras were down 17% in the first 11 months of this year.
But not all types of single-purpose cameras were losing popularity.
For the upper-level point-and-shoots — with optical zooms of 10x or greater and an average price of $247 — unit sales grew 16%, according to NPD’s Retail Tracking Service.
And digital single-lens-reflex cameras — with an average retail price of $863 — were popular enough that some camera shops were out of them the week before Christmas. Unit sales were up 12%, NPD said.
“The smartphone is becoming good enough much of the time,” said Liz Cutting, executive director and senior imaging analyst at NPD. “Consumers who use their mobile phones to take pictures and video were more likely to do so instead of their camera when capturing spontaneous moments.
“But for important events, single-purpose cameras and camcorders are still largely the device of choice.”
ALSO:
A top five of photo apps for the iPhone
iPhone SLR Mount turns a smartphone into a serious camera
NFL to stream Super Bowl online and to Verizon phones, tablets
– Deborah Netburn
Photo: A man uses his cellphone to photograph fireworks during celebrations at Saha Kish Square in Benghazi, Libya, in October. Credit: Francois Mori / Associated Press
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Steve Jobs statue unveiled in Budapest office park
posted by Technology @ 7:00 PM
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
The first Steve Jobs statue was unveiled Wednesday in a tech park in Budapest, just two and a half months after the Apple visionary's death.
The bronze statue is 6 1/2 feet tall. It was commissioned in mid-October, just days after Jobs died, by Gabor Bojar, the founder of Graphisoft, a Hungarian software company that develops software for architects.
The news went out over the PR Newswire and is also displayed prominently on Graphisoft Park's website, but we're choosing to believe that the unveiling of the statue is not solely a publicity stunt for the software company.
It turns out that Graphisoft and Jobs had a long history that began in 1984 when Jobs came across some of Graphisoft's software and was impressed enough to help the company out.
"Apple's support included cash and computers at a time when Graphisoft was a small company with limited resources, working within the economic and political confines of what was, at the time, communist Hungary," Bajor said in a statement. "Apple also introduced Graphisoft to its worldwide distribution network, which we rely upon to this day."
The statue was crafted by Hungarian sculptor Erno Toth. He depicted Steve Jobs in his trademark attire: jeans, turtleneck and little round glasses.
We'll admit that we don't fully understand the meaning of the kind of grotesque hand/claw, but it does give the statue a sort of Rodin-esque gravitas.
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– Deborah Netburn
Photo: Hungarian sculptor Erno Toth with his statue of the late Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple, at Graphisoft Park in Budapest. Credit: AFP / Getty Images.
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Britney Spears first person with 1 million Google+ followers
posted by Technology @ 12:57 PM
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Click me baby one more time.
Britney Spears is the first person to get more than 1 million followers on Google+. As of this writing, she had 1.08 million according to Social Statistics. Google's founder, Larry Page, is the second most popular person on Google+ with 926,161 followers. Snoop Dogg comes in third with 930,292 followers.
Spears, who turned 30 this month, has a pretty robust social media presence — she is the fifth-most followed person on Twitter with 11.9 million following her tweets, and 15.7 million fans "like" her Facebook page.
But that doesn't put her anywhere close to the top of Facebook's most popular list. Currently, Eminem is the most "liked" person there with 38.7 million likes.
So why is Spears the queen of Google+?
Well, if you go to BritneySpears.com you'll find a giant Google+ icon on the bottom right, that takes up nearly one-sixth of the page. By comparison, there appears to be no Google+ icon anywhere on Rihanna's website Rihanna.com.
If you want it, you've got to work for it people!
Wondering what the most successful Google+ user in the world is sharing? Here's a taste:
"OMG. Last night Jason surprised me with the one gift I've been waiting for. Can't wait to show you! SO SO SO excited!!!! Xxo"
And:
"Still glowing! About to jump on a plane to Planet Hollywood in Vegas. Throwing a Bday Party for Jason at Chateau Night Club. So fun. Xxoo"
That last post got 500 comments on Google+. The star (or her team) posted the same thing on Facebook, where more than 1,300 people commented on it.
ALSO:
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Talking Twin Babies, Nyan Cat among YouTube's top videos of 2011
– Deborah Netburn
Image: A screen grab of BritneySpears.com which shows how the site prominently features Google+.
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Talking Twin Babies, Nyan Cat among YouTube’s top videos of 2011
posted by Technology @ 5:29 PM
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Citizens of the Internet: We salute you. Your taste in YouTube videos is, for the most part, awesome.
On Tuesday, YouTube published its annual list of its most watched videos. If you haven't watched them yet, we suggest you carve out 20 minutes of your day today to see the videos the world Facebooked, tweeted, emailed and watched with co-workers this year.
It's a pretty big spread, from a talking dog listening jealously to stories of the meat his owner just ate, to a Volkswagen commercial starring a little Darth Vader, to two kids covering a song by Chris Brown featuring Lil Wayne and Busta Rhymes.
A few other highlights:
56 million people watched in wonderment as two twin babies stood in front of refrigerator door and appeared to have a full-on, hilarious conversation, while using only the words "da da da da da da da da da." (This is a must see!)
The comedy troupe Lonely Island makes two appearances on the top 10 list. As of this writing, 60.5 million people have watched Michael Bolton sing about "Pirates of the Caribbean" and 48.5 million have watched the boys rap about being creepy with the help of Nicki Minaj.
In the weirdest category, 54 million people watched an animal with a cat's head and a pink pop tart body fly through space leaving a rainbow trail in its wake to the tune of a synthesized Japanese pop song that sounds a lot like the singer is saying "meow" over and over. (So weirdly addictive).
Rebecca Black's so bad it's good video for her song "Friday" was the most watched video of the year, according to YouTube's calculations. And in honor of her win, she hosted the video YouTube made of the year's most popular videos.
Here is the complete list via the YouTube blog:
1. Rebecca Black – Friday (OFFICIAL VIDEO)
3. Jack Sparrow (feat. Michael Bolton)
4. Talking Twin Babies – PART 2 – OFFICIAL VIDEO
6. Look At Me Now – Chris Brown ft. Lil Wayne, Busta Rhymes (Cover by @KarminMusic)
7. The Creep (feat. Nicki Minaj & John Waters)
8. Maria Aragon – Born This Way (Cover) by Lady Gaga
9. The Force: Volkswagen Commercial
We can hardly wait for next year!
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– Deborah Netburn
Video: Talking Twin Babies – Part 2 – OFFICIAL VIDEO. Credit: YouTube
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People more likely to lie when texting, study finds
posted by Technology @ 2:16 PM
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
A new paper to be published next year in the Journal of Business Ethics finds that people are more likely to lie via text compared to face-to-face communications, video conferencing or audio chat.
The paper is based on a study of 140 students that were grouped into pairs and asked to engage in a role-playing game. One student took on the role of a stockbroker, the other student played a buyer. Researchers told the "stockbroker" that the stock they had to sell would lose 50% of its value in one week. They also gave the "stockbroker" a financial incentive to sell as much of the bad stock to the "buyer" as possible.
Researchers found that the stockbrokers were most likely to engage in duplicitous behavior — either lying about the quality of the stock, or not mentioning how bad it was — if they conducted the buy/sell conversation via text message.
They were most likely to be honest about the quality of the stock if the conversation happened via video, which beat out both face-to-face communication and audio chat.
Lying via text makes intuitive sense. It's what researchers call "lean media," which means it doesn't effectively transfer the rich emotional cues that might alert someone to duplicitous behavior. You can't stutter over text, or twist your hands nervously, or dart your eyes.
But researchers did find something that surprised them. When they asked buyers how angry they were that the stockbroker had lied to them, the researchers found buyers were more furious if they had been lied to via text than if they had been lied to in a face-to-face conversation.
"That was a big surprise to us," said Ronald Cenfetelli, a professor at the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia, who co-authored the paper.
"What we speculated was going on is there is some instant rapport-building, and some quick trust that happens when you talk to someone face to face, and it acts as a buffer and an inoculation — almost like a vaccine — against negative reactions. People are still angry or upset if they are lied to face to face, but when they are lied to in the leaner communications, they are more angry."
What's the takeaway here? If you are running late and considering texting your dinner date "I'm almost there" when you are actually 20 minutes away, you may want to relay the message in a phone call instead. The person may still be mad, but according to this research, they will at least be less mad.
ALSO:
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Apple supplier factory blast injures dozens, may hurt iPad supply
– Deborah Netburn
Image: A person holding a phone, and texting, while driving. Credit Pat Wellenbach/Associated Press
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IPhone theft is growing problem in New York
posted by Technology @ 6:43 PM
Monday, December 19, 2011
IPhone users in New York, beware: According to recent media reports, the city is in the midst of a crime wave, and police say the problem could get worse.
The Daily News reports that nearly half the 16,000 robberies in the first 10 months of 2011 involved technological devices, and that iPhones account for over 70% of all stolen cellphones on subways and buses.
Oh no!
"Walking around with a cellphone is like walking around with a $500 bill," a police source told the New York Post. "Kids are stealing them and flipping them immediately."
In the age of Yelp, downloadable subway and street maps, and the "I'm-running-20-minutes-late" phone call, it's hard to imagine how one would survive in New York without constant smartphone use, but police are suggesting that New Yorkers and those who visit the city do their best to keep their phones tucked away in their pockets as much as possible.
The police are also going after the people who are stealing the phones and those who are knowingly buying stolen phones.
In a recent sting operation, the NYPD nailed 141 merchants — mostly people who work at bodegas, barber shops and newsstands — for buying what they thought were stolen iPhones and iPads, according to the New York Post.
The police and Sen. Charles E. Schumer of New York have expressed annoyance that cellphone carriers make it possible for stolen phones to be used even after they are stolen. They say they would like to see phone carriers create a single database that would store each device's identification number and has the technology to disable stolen devices. In the current system, carriers may shut off service to a stolen phone, but thieves that have access to different SIM cards can still use the phone.
If your iPhone is stolen, you can attempt to find it through iCloud's "find my iPhone" button. If you click on the button, the location of your iPhone will show up on a map. Of course, that will only work if your iPhone is still on, and most savvy thieves will probably have already turned the iPhone off.
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Photo: The Empire State building and the Manhattan skyline are seen from the 70th floor of Rockefeller Center. Credit: Mary Altaffer / AP.
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Let It Snow! And five other super-fun Google tricks
posted by Technology @ 1:58 PM
Monday, December 19, 2011
Let it snow? Just in time for the holidays, Google has rolled out the latest in a string of neat tricks that you can play with the search engine.
For those who haven't tried it yet, pull Google up on your browser and type in the words "let it snow." Then enjoy a snow flurry right on your computer screen.
To keep the wintery fun going, Google also added a frosty element to the experience: As the snow continues to fall, your computer screen will fog up. Click the "defrost" button to clear it, or use a mouse to draw hearts, or initials or whatever else you want in the fog. You can click defrost at any time to start over again.
A spokewoman from the company sent the following statement about the Let It Snow trick in poem form:
Through the fog, you have to peer
Because it's the most wonderful time of the year
Your page turned into a winter wonderland
When you typed in that search command
You can always defrost the window
Or just let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!
Well, it's not a poetry house, but they do like to have fun.
Google has some other neat tricks up its sleave, and if your work is slow for the holidays, now might be a perfect time to try them.
1. Type in the word "askew" into the search engine. Tilt your head and enjoy.
2. Type in the word "tilt." Hold your head askew and enjoy.
3. Type in the word "recursion." Google will wonder if perhaps you meant to type the word "recursion."
4. Google didn't forget Jews. Type in the word "Hannukah" for some festive non-Christmas holiday screen decor.
5. Type in "anagram." Google will wonder if perhaps you meant "nag a gram."
Unfortunately, some of the Google classic tricks are no longer functioning. It used to be that if you typed in the words "Chuck Norris" you would get a statement that says, " You don't find Chuck Norris, he finds you."
There was also a time when if you typed the word "Gravity" into the search engine you'd watch all the copy on the page plunk to the bottom. It doesn't do that anymore, but you can see what you missed here.
Happy holidays!
ALSO:
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Is Samsung really suing Apple over emoticons? (*^_^*)
– Deborah Netburn
Image: A screen shot of what happens when you type "let it snow" into Google and then write "let it snow" in the fog with your mouse.That blob at the bottom was supposed to be a heart.
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Ten tech items you won’t be needing anymore
posted by Technology @ 9:03 AM
Saturday, December 17, 2011
When researching this list of obsolete technology, we discovered that most of the devices we've deemed no longer necessary are actually very useful items that served us better than the smartphone functions that have come to replace them. They helped us navigate strange cities (GPS for the car), easily take video of our children (Flip Cam), and transport large files between our home and office computers (flash drive).
So why have they become obsolete? Because they did one thing and one thing only, and a person can carry only so many devices in their coat pockets or purses, no matter how small.
And so we suggest that in the coming year you bid a fond farewell to these 10 items, on the off chance that you haven't trashed them already.
1. The Flip cam: We will fondly remember this slim little $100 digital camcorder for its prevalence in newsrooms in the late 2000s, as print reporters morphed into "multi-platform journalists." Then came the smartphones with video capabilities, and the Flip cam became so obsolete that Cisco announced it would stop making it in April of this year.
2. The portable DVD player: That savior on long airplane rides dazzled us with its long battery life and swivel screen. But if you're already traveling with a laptop or one of the increasingly ubiquitous tablets that let you watch downloaded movies, you're probably not going to lug this additional device in your carry on.
3. Flash drives: Not so long ago, the flash drive felt like a symbol of our incredible technological progress — dozens of high-resolution photos or scores of documents stored on a little device you could hang on your key chain. But thanks to the rise of cloud computing and the ease of sending giant files, the 2-inch flash drive has come to seem almost clunky.
4. GPS devices for your car: For those of us with no sense of direction, the Garmin was a game changer. Gone was the anxiety that we missed the exit, even if that exit was still 15 miles away. The interface was simple as could be, the woman's voice only occasionally irritating as she "recalculated." Getting our directions via iPhone is a significantly worse user experience, but we've always got our iPhone on us, and it's always charged.
5. The (small) digital camera: We are not heralding the demise of the digital camera. Actually, we've noticed enormous, professional-grade, safari-ready cameras popping up on playgrounds and at winter concerts with alarming regularity. But that point-and-shoot you bought to throw in your pocket or purse in case a too-good-to-miss photo op arose? You've got your smartphone now.
6. The fax machine: The ability to send printed documents through the phone line probably felt like magic back in the day, but it made that horrible screeching noise, never really worked consistently, and it takes up tons of space. We've long considered the fax machine our arch-enemy and are delighted to see it go.
7. Netbooks: These pint-sized computers seemed all kind of useful circa 2008-09. Smaller, cheaper and lighter than the average laptop, they were the precursor to the tablet. But now we've got tablets and portable keyboards, so — so long!
8. CD player: For those of us who spent the '90s and early part of the 2000s amassing CD collections that we were proud to display in our dorm rooms, the death of the CD player is still a little hard to stomach. But we get it — CDs take up more room than MP3 files, and they don't have the cachet of vinyl. We might be hanging on to our CD player, but you don't have to hang on to yours.
9. Voice recorders: First came the giant cassette recorders that resembled Walkmans from the '80s, then came the slimmer micro-cassette recorder, and then came the even more minimal digital voice recorder. Then came the smartphone with built-in recording technology, and everything else became obsolete.
10. PDA: We have such fond memories of our Palm Pilot. That nice U shape, the little stylus, the weird script you had to learn in order to put information into it. It was tactile and interactive and pleasant to hold in your hand. It makes no sense today, but if you've held on to yours, we tip our hat to you.
And of course, we're sure you'll agree with all our observations.
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– Deborah Netburn
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Just when you thought the Christmas Light show videos on YouTube couldn't "wow" you anymore, along comes this gem from a geeked-out metalhead set to Slayer's "South of Heaven."
The video was made by a guy we only know as lacycute20. (The YouTube channel used belong to the metalhead's daughter, but she handed it over to Dad to showcase his metal light shows.) He's also done light shows to songs by Pantera and Machinehead and some other Slayer songs. But it's the "South of Heaven" show that is currently gaining traction on YouTube, racking up more than 715,000 page views in less than three weeks.
It's not just the unexpected music choice that sets lacycute20's light shows apart — it's also the visuals. He's got a sinister-looking singing snowman, shooting stars, floodlights and two neon hands throwing the sign of the devil flanking the front door of his house.
Even if the metal holiday light show isn't your thing, you've got to respect the dedication of all these guys who create elaborate home light shows and put their videos up on YouTube. Earlier this year the guy behind an extravagant Halloween light show that went viral on YouTube said it takes him 15 hours to program one minute of music.
That's dedication to the holidays, man.
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Russia's Phobos-Ground Mars probe expected to fall to Earth in Jan
Amazon's latest holiday offer: Free 1-day shipping starting Saturday
– Deborah Netburn
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Russia’s Phobos-Ground Mars probe expected to fall to Earth in Jan
posted by Technology @ 4:43 PM
Friday, December 16, 2011
Nobody knows for sure when the unmanned Phobos-Ground spacecraft will plummet to earth, but you can expect it to be sometime around Jan. 9 — give or take five or 10 days. The reentry is expected to be sometime between Jan. 6 and Jan. 19, but the time window should narrow as we get closer to the actual event.
It will be a fiery ending for Russia's troubled spacecraft, which was launched in November and was supposed to be heading on a dust-and-rock-gathering mission to Phobos — one of the two moons that orbits Mars. Instead, the spacecraft's thrusters malfunctioned and the probe got stuck in a low orbit around Earth.
Russia's space agency Roscosmos and the European Space Agency tried to gain contact with the probe, but only had limited success. On Dec. 9, ESA gave up its efforts and Phobos-Ground was all but officially dead in the water.
The BBC reports that Phobos-Ground weighed 13 tons at its launch, but most of that weight was the fuel that would have taken it to Mars. Now that fuel is expected to burn up during reentry. Roscosmos said it expects only about 200 kilograms of the spacecraft to make it down to earth. Because 70% of our planet is water, the likelihood is that whatever pieces do make it down here will plunge into the water, and not hit land at all.
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– Deborah Netburn
Photo: Technicians work on the Phobos-Ground probe. Credit: Associated Press / Russian Roscosmos space agency
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Enjoy a virtual holiday meal hosted by Wieden + Kennedy
posted by Technology @ 5:03 PM
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Instead of sending out a traditional Christmas card, advertising agency Wieden + Kennedy's Amsterdam office has invited its friends, family, clients, and now the public to a super weird virtual holiday meal with humanoid robot dolls.
Here's how it works: You reserve 30 minutes of table time at virtualholidaydinner.com and at the appointed time you and four friends or co-workers or family members, or strangers — all call into the dinner via Skype where your heads will appear on flat screens that sit on top the robot doll bodies. The company, known for its work with Nike, has employed facial tracking software so that if you turn your head at home, your virtual robot doll also turns his or her head. The room that the dolls are sitting in has been elaborately decorated to add to the holiday spirit.
This is the second year that the agency's Amsterdam office has hosted the virtual holiday meal, but this year it added three scripts to the mix — so while you are sitting at the virtual table you can figure out something to say. The lines to the script appear on participants computer screens karaoke style, so you know what to say and when.
Here's a sample from the "Business as Usual" dinner script:
CLIENT TWO: Perhaps, since we are all here, you’d like to try to sell us a digital idea that you know is not possible to make unless we quadruple the budget.
AGENCY MD: That would be incredibly irresponsible of us. Shall we begin?
CLIENT ONE: Before you start let me just say that our ambition for this project is to make a world first idea that connects all living people on the planet in a purposeful way.
AGENCY WRITER: That’s it?
We spoke with someone who had done several of these dinners already and asked if the whole experience was as awkward as it looked like it could be.
"It's totally awkward," she said. "It's funny, but it's also super awkward. First of all you are on a robot doll, so it is kind of weird, but I think once you get started with the script it's hilarious and then once it's over it's super awkward again."
That's kind of exactly how we'd imagine it would be.
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– Deborah Netburn
Image: A picture of the virtual holiday meal in action. Credit: Wieden + Kennedy
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Drum machine shirt gives new meaning to beating your chest
posted by Technology @ 5:52 PM
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
See that picture? That is not just an image of a drum machine on a shirt. That is an actual drum machine on a shirt.
A functioning drum machine.
A drum machine that contains a real working looper and 9 different kits with seven professional-grade drum sounds each.
A drum machine that allows you to record loops that last up to three minutes.
A drum machine that comes with a working mini-amp that you can clip to your belt.
Yow!
The drum machine T-shirt is just the latest in Think Geek's extensive line of interactive apparel that, as Wikipedia says, is "heavily related to and sometimes only understood within the Internet culture." Other items in the line include the electronic music synthesizer shirt, the electronic rock guitar shirt, and the electronic drum kit shirt. And if all this isn't dorky enough, there's also a Wi-Fi detector hat. It looks like a baseball hat but has bars on it that glow when a good Wi-Fi connection is nearby.
Now that's geeky.
But back to the drum machine shirt — a spokeswoman for Think Geek said that despite the shirt's unusual functionality, it is not heavy to wear. It does require four AA batteries. The shirt is washable, but you'll have to take the drum pads and the electronics out first. Think Geek says it's not as hard as it sounds.
The shirt costs $29.99 and is available on Think Geek's website. To see the shirt in all its absurd action, check out the video below.
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A tech geek's guide to the 2011 Geminid meteor shower
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– Deborah Netburn
Image: Drum machine shirt. Credit: Courtesy of Think Geek
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A tech geek’s guide to the 2011 Geminid meteor shower
posted by Technology @ 3:15 PM
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
If you forgot to check the skies Tuesday night for the Geminid meteor shower, do not panic. Meteor experts say the show will continue Wednesday night as well.
That's right, stargazers: You still have a fighting chance to see some shooting stars before the end of 2011.
You'll be most likely to see meteors from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. no matter where you are in the country. Unfortunately, the moon will be quite bright for most of that time, but we've seen reports that some of the meteors streaking across the sky have been as bright as Venus, and the moonlight won't be able to block that out.
According to a statement from NASA, stargazers can expect to see about 40 meteors an hour.
For those who want to do more than just watch shooting stars, NASA has developed a Meteor Counter app for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch that allows star watchers of all experience levels to record the number of meteors they've seen, and report that information, as well as the time, location and brightness of the meteors, to NASA. You can even record an accompanying audio track with comments on a meteor's trajectory, for instance.
NASA said it will use the information collected by amateur scientists to discover new meteor showers, pinpoint come-debris streams and map the distribution of asteroids around the Earth's orbit. Perhaps more importantly, it will encourage people to take meteor watching seriously. The app will also include a news feed about the night sky and will alert users to upcoming meteor showers.
Another option for enjoying the meteor shower: Listening to it. Space Weather Radio has a neat function that allows listeners to hear a ghostly "ping" whenever a meteor passes overhead. The sound is a side product of the Air Force Space Surveillance Radar that transmits a 216.98 MHz signal into the heavens 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Objects passing overhead — satellites, spacecraft, meteors — reflect the signal back to Earth. That's what you're hearing.
And if none of this appeals to you, check out this amazing video of the Geminid meteor shower, shot in Joshua Tree this week.
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Facebook users can report suicidal behavior with new online tool
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– Deborah Netburn
Video: Sciencecasts: Tracking Meteors
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Facebook users can report suicidal behavior with new online tool
posted by Technology @ 6:34 PM
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Facebook has a new service that will enable users of the social network to report friends who have expressed suicidal thoughts and make sure they get an offer of help from the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.
Friends will be able to report suicidal behavior by clicking a report option next to any content on the site and choosing suicidal content under the harmful behavior option, Facebook spokesman Frederic Wolens told Reuters.
Facebook will then send the suicidal person an email that will encourage them to call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (phone number included). The email will also include a link that will enable those who would prefer not to talk on the phone to begin a confidential online chat session with a crisis worker.
Facebook and Lifeline have been working together since 2006 to provide help to at-risk users of the social networking site, but this is the first time Facebook is making online chat sessions available to its users as an option for suicide prevention.
"Although the Lifeline on average handles 70,000 calls per month, we have heard from our Facebook fans and others that there are many people in crisis who don't feel comfortable picking up the phone," John Draper, Lifeline's project director, said in a statement. "This new service provides a way for them to get the help they need in the way they want it."
Lifeline said they will make sure that crisis center workers will be available 24 hours a day seven days a week to respond to Facebook users who prefer to use a chat session.
Surgeon General Regina M. Benjamin commended Facebook and Lifeline for addressing suicide — which she described as one of America's most tragic public health programs. In a statement she said that nearly 100 Americans die by suicide every day.
"We have effective treatments to help suicidal individuals regain hope and a desire to live and we know how powerful personal connections and support can be," she said. "Therefore we as a nation must do everything we can to reach out and provide them with the help and hope needed to survive and return to productive lives with their family, friends and communities."
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Photo: Heather Rosenbaum works her regular volunteer shift at a suicide prevention hotline on Christmas Day 2001. Credit: Clarene Williams / Los Angeles Times
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Band’s video of life-size Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja goes viral
posted by Technology @ 4:18 PM
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
What do popular iPhone games have to do with a little-known indie pop band that hails from Brisbane, Australia?
Well … nothing. But that didn't stop the band Hey Geronimo from conceiving, and then actually making, a music video for their single "Why Don't We Do Something?" that incorporates real-life versions of Plants vs. Zombies, Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja, Cut the Rope and Flight Control.
It's neat. It's funny. Cats are involved, and so are dogs in costumes. And it's gotten the band worldwide attention on YouTube ,where their goof-ball video has received more than 650,000 views in just two weeks.
Of course, just because a video is goofy, doesn't mean it was easy to make.
Pete Kilroy, lead singer of Hey Geronimo and the producer of the video, said the band spent six months working on and off to make the video. "Making films with no money = hard yakka!" he wrote in an email.
He also said he thought the Plants Vs. Zombies part was the most fun to make, "Until one of the sunflowers fainted… (It was 100 degrees!)"
The best parts to watch, in our opinion, are the all too brief Angry Birds scenes in which members of the band, dressed in full Angry Bird costumes, jump on a trampoline and then hurl themselves into a life-size replica of the elaborate structures in the game.
Kilroy said he and his crew built the set out of "Lots and lots of polystyrene," and added that he is "on a first-name basis with Dorris and Meryl down at the box factory now."
ALSO:
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– Deborah Netburn
Photo: The Brisbane, Australia-based band Hey Geronimo has made a music video that riffs off of popular iPhone games. Credit: Hey Geronimo
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Google’s Street View shows Japan before and after tsunami
posted by Technology @ 2:00 PM
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Laptop explorers, prepare to take a sobering visit to Japan.
Google has digitally archived the areas of northeastern Japan that were hit hardest by the massive earthquake and devastating tsunami that struck the region in March.
The images are available through Street View in Google Maps, but they are more easily accessed via Google's Memories for the Future website, which easily allows you to toggle between before and after images of the same area.
Sometimes the difference is minimal. But sometimes, as shown in the before and after image above, the difference is striking.
Confession: We toggled back and forth at least 10 times to make sure that something wasn't wrong with Google's data. It's so hard to imagine–all those structures, just gone.
Google says it drove more than 44,000 kilometers through effected areas of Japan in order to take 360 degree panoramic imagery of the areas that were hardest hit. In a write up about the project on the company's Lat Long Blog, Google says that if you start inland and venture out toward the coast, you'll see the countryside change dramatically "becoming cluttered with mountains of debris as you get closer to the ocean."
The best way to explore the before and after of the tsunami is to grab the little orange man from the left hand of the screen and drag him to the different areas marked in blue on the map. That will take you directly to the street view and then you can toggle back and forth to see what was once there, and what the earthquake and tsunami destroyed.
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–Deborah Netburn
Images: Top image: A view of a street in Japan photographed in July 2008, before the March 11 tsunami and earthquake. Bottom image: The same street photographed July 2011, after the March 11 tsunami and earthquake. Courtesy of Google Street View.
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Watch Saturday’s total lunar eclipse on your computer
posted by Technology @ 7:36 PM
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Bright and early Saturday morning, people in Asia and Australia and on the western coast of America will be treated to a total eclipse of the moon—the last one until 2014.
You'll have to wake up early to see it—NASA says a red shadow will start to fall across the moon at 4:45 a.m. PST. By 6:05 a.m. PST, the moon will be totally engulfed in red light.
Red?
Yes, red.
As Dr. Tony Phillips explains in a NASA release, the lunar eclipse will appear red, not black, because a delicate layer of dusty air surrounding our planet will redirect the light of the sun, filling the darkness behind Earth with a sunset-red glow.
Whether the moon will appear bright orange or blood red or somewhere in between is still up for debate. However, atmospheric scientist Richard Keen of the University of Colorado has hazarded a guess: "I expect this eclipse to be bright orange, or even copper-colored, with a possible hint of turquoise at the edge," he told NASA.
It all sounds pretty spectacular, but unfortunately, the totality of this eclipse will not be fully visible all over the world. In fact, it will only be visible in its entirety from Australia, Asia and the extreme northwest portion of North America.
But no need to despair—the Internet has come to the rescue.
Slooh, the online Space Camera, plans to broadcast a free, real-time feed of the eclipse from telescopes in Australia, Asia and Hawaii. You can access the feed via Slooh's homepage, or by downloading the Android app at the Android Market store.
If you watch the lunar eclipse on Slooh, you'll get the benefit of live narration of the event from astronomer and Slooh editor Bob Berman, who will be joined by guests such as solar researcher Dr. Lucie Green and documentary maker Duncan Copp.
Of course, if you can go outside and see it yourself, you'll get the benefit of fresh air.
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iNuke Boom, world's loudest iPod dock, weighs 700 lbs.
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—Deborah Netburn
Image: In this Thursday, June 16, 2011, file photo, the moon exhibits a deep orange glow as the Earth casts its shadow in a total lunar eclipse as seen in Manila, Philippines, before dawn. Credit: Bullet Marquez /Associated Press.
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iNuke Boom, world’s loudest iPod dock, weighs 700 lbs.
posted by Technology @ 5:23 PM
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Can you find the iPod in this picture?
It's sitting atop the appropriately named iNuke Boom, an 8-foot wide, 4-foot-tall, 700-pound iPod and iPhone dock that pumps out 10,000 watts of power.
And if that wasn't outrageous enough — the price tag is $29,999.
"Everyone is making something small," said Mark Wilder, vice president of marketing and communications for Behringer, the audio and music equipment company behind the iNuke Boom. "We said, 'Let's make something loud.'"
Wilder assures us that it is not a joke, and that an iNuke Boom has not only been produced but will be seen — and heard — at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show coming up in January.
"I'm not sure our neighbors are going to like us that much," he said.
Wilder admitted that the iNuke Boom is essentially a publicity stunt and marketing tool to promote the company's new line of home audio equipment.
"We made this one as a prototype, but we will make them and sell them if we take orders for them," he said.
So who is this person who would pay $30,000 for an iPhone docking station? "The buyer who has everything," said Wilder. "Probably someone with a sizable amount of property and wants to throw a party and wants something more elegant than a normal speaker system."
Elegance, we suppose, is in the eye of the very rich iPod owner.
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— Deborah Netburn
Image: One very big iNuke Boom. One very small iPhone. Credit: Behringer.
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Evernote launches a ‘preserve and relive’ app for foodies
posted by Technology @ 7:46 PM
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Let's all agree that amateur food photography has gotten a bit – out of control.
Go out to eat with someone younger than 30 and you can assume that at some point during the meal a phone will come out and a photo of something on the table will be taken. Those photos — sometimes tantalizing, sometimes not — will inevitably wind up on Facebook with a caption like, "Ramen with Deborah. So YUM!"
Amateur food images were always easy to share but not necessarily easy to find again. Would you really look through all your old Facebook photos in order to answer the question, "What's good here?"
And that's where Evernote's new — and free — Evernote Food app comes in. The company describes the app as a way to "preserve and relive memorable food experiences."
The app allows the user to chronicle an entire meal experience like "Dim Sum at Ocean Star" or "Anniversary Dinner at Hatfield's." You can punch in captions as you take photos — "The yellowtail ceviche is INSANE!" — and, of course, you can include photos of the people who share your meal as well. After all, it's not just the food that makes a meal special.
The app will automatically sync with your Evernote account (if you have one), and more importantly, it is also compatible with Twitter and Facebook. If you are going to obsessively chronicle a meal, you'll probably still want the world to see it.
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– Deborah Netburn
Video: Courtesy of Evernote.
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Alec Baldwin kicked off plane: A tale of our technological times
posted by Technology @ 5:13 PM
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Everything about the viral story of the day — Alec Baldwin being kicked off an American Airlines flight — feels very technologically of the moment.
It's a story fueled not only by the distinctly modern ability of a celebrity (or anyone for that matter) to instantaneously air a grievance to a worldwide audience, but the ability of that audience to turn that grievance viral.
Twitter is a major player in this saga, so is Facebook, and so is our culture's obsession with mobile games — especially those made by Zynga.
As best we've been able to piece together from Twitter reports, Facebook wall posts and an old-fashioned telephone statement from Baldwin's PR rep — the whole Alec Baldwin vs. American Airlines fiasco began Tuesday afternoon with the celebrity sitting on an airplane, using a mobile device to play Words With Friends.
The cabin doors closed, and the passengers were asked to turn off all electronic devices. Baldwin refused, and a disagreement ensued.
We have American Airlines report of the incident via the company's Facebook page:
"The passenger ultimately stood up (with the seat belt light still on for departure) and took his phone into the plane's lavatory. He slammed the lavaotry door so hard, the cockpit crew heard it and became alarmed, even with the cockpit door closed and locked….The passenger was extremely rude to the crew, calling them inappropriate names and using offensive language. Given the facts above, the passenger was removed from the flight and denied boarding."
Baldwin's version of events was delivered with more spontaneous verbal flair immediately after the event.
Using the Twitter account @Alecbaldwin to get his message across he wrote, "Flight attendant on American reamed me out 4 playing WORDS W FRIENDS while we sat at the gate, not moving. #nowonderamericaairisbankrupt.”
Zynga, the company that makes Words With Friends, knew just how to handle what it saw would become a viral story. The company quickly launched its own viral campaign "Let Alec Play" and included the following update on its own Facebook site:
"Word of the day: ALEC (adj.) Typically associated with "smart" as its prefix to refer to wise guy, or smarty. Worth at least 8 points! this one goes to the smart ALECs out there — playing our game at the risk of getting in trouble!"
In the meantime, Baldwin has exploited the fleeting nature of all our digital communications. On Tuesday night he asked all his followers to unfollow him so he could crash his account and start again.
By Wednesday morning his account was listed as deactivated.
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California leads venture funding for electric vehicle technology
Facebook fixes security glitch after leak of Mark Zuckerberg photos
– Deborah Netburn
Image: Actor Alec Baldwin at the 30th anniversary of the People for the American Way Foundation celebration in Beverly Hills. Credit: Reuters.
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Alec Baldwin’s alleged air rage boosts Words With Friends
posted by Technology @ 2:27 PM
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
What happens when a celebrity such as Alec Baldwin gets kicked off an American Airlines flight for refusing to stop playing the Scrabble-like game Words With Friends — even after flight attendants have asked passengers to turn off all electronic equipment?
A flood of people rush to play the game on Facebook, and Zynga, the company that makes the popular word game, releases an image of a Words With Friends board that reads "Let Alec Play."
A spokeswoman for AppData, a company that measures app use on Facebook, said Words With Friends has increased its daily active user count by 100,000 since Tuesday morning, from 5.4 million players to 5.5 million players.
As for how Zynga is responding to the deluge of publicity, a spokeswoman for the company said it had no comment. However, if you go to Zynga's Facebook page, you'll find that company officials are clearly delighted.
This is Zynga's latest update:
"Word of the day: ALEC (adj.) Typically associated with "smart" as its prefix to refer to wise guy, or smarty. Worth at least 8 points! this one goes to the smart ALECs out there — playing our game at the risk of getting in trouble!"
Everyone is laughing it seems, except American Airlines.
The airline company, which tried, and failed to get in touch with Baldwin via Twitter on Tuesday, released the following statement on its Facebook page:
"Since an extremely vocal customer has publicly identified himself as being removed from an American Airlines flight on Tuesday, Dec. 6, we have elected to provide the actual facts of the matter as well as the FAA regulations which American, and all airlines, must enforce."
The statement goes on to explain that "the passenger" declined to turn off his cellphone when asked to do so by a flight attendant at the appropriate time, and ultimately stood up — with the seat belt light still on for departure — and took his phone into the plane's lavatory. He then proceeded to slam the lavatory door so hard that the cockpit crew was able to hear it — even though the door to the flight deck was closed and locked.
According to the airline, "the passenger was extremely rude to the crew, calling them inappropriate names and using offensive language."
American Airlines concludes that its employees had no choice but to remove him from the flight.
Of course, the world at large might never have realized that Baldwin's tantrum was inspired by having his Words With Friends game interrupted if he hadn't named the game in a Twitter post he wrote about the incident.
"Flight attendant on American reamed me out 4 playing WORDS W FRIENDS while we sat at the gate, not moving. #nowonderamericaairisbankrupt.”,” he tweeted on Tuesday.
Baldwin's Twitter account has since been deactivated.
It was also a publicity bonanza for Zynga that Baldwin's spokesman, Matthew Hilitzik, released a statement explaining that his client "loves 'Words with Friends' so much that he was willing to leave a plane for it."
Zynga seized on the incident, launching a viral campaign, "Let Alec Play," which made the rounds across social networks minutes following Baldwin's tweets.
The move raised eyebrows in Hollywood, where even grizzled seen-it-all entertainment publicists were impressed.
"That was the most brilliant PR move I've seen this year," said John Vlautin, who runs SpinLab in Los Angeles.
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Wife of Rovio chief dons Angry Birds gown at Finnish Palace
Alec Baldwin "extremely rude," called crew names, airline says
– Deborah Netburn
Left photo: A Zynga statement on the Alec Baldwin matter: a Words With Friends board spelling out "Let Alec Play." Credit: Zynga
Right photo: Alec Baldwin in "The Aviator." Credit: Andrew Cooper / Miramax Films
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Wife of Rovio chief dons Angry Birds gown at Finnish Palace
posted by Technology @ 9:36 PM
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
This post has been corrected. See the note at the bottom for details.
The Angry Birds logo has graced sweatshirts, playable birthday cakes and even a Finnair airplane. Now it has been reinterpreted as an elegant one-shouldered evening gown.
Awesome? Insane? Glamorous? Ridiculous?
You decide.
The gown in question was worn by Teija Vesterbacka, the wife of Peter Vesterbacka, Chief Marketing Officer of Rovio, the company that makes the wildly popular Angry Birds game app. According to media reports, Mrs. Vesterbacka wore the gown at a formal event at the Finnish Palace on Tuesday evening. The event was in celebration of the country's independence.
Her husband, who tends to favor a red Angry Birds hooded sweatshirt, was dressed in white tie and black tails.
Reaction to the dress on the Internet has been mixed. The word "hideous" has been mentioned, but that seems a little mean-spirited. If you are determined to wear a dress that incorporates Angry Birds imagery in it this one seems to be almost…tasteful.
She could have gone in the Bjork swan direction after all. This at least looks like a dress.
And here's an interesting note: In a recent news release Rovio said it is about to open the world's first official Angry Birds retail shop in Helsinki, Finland.
One would assume the retail shop might have Angry Bird pens and mugs and plush toys and maybe a sweatshirt or slippers, but perhaps formal wear will be available as well.
For the record, 1:45 p.m. Dec. 12, 2011: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified Peter Vesterbacka as head of Rovio. His correct title is chief marketing officer.
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Amazon giving shoppers up to $15 for using its Price Check app
– Deborah Netburn
Image: Teija Vesterbacka wearing an Angry Birds formal gown. Credit: Matti Matikainen
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SETI telescopes get new life listening for signs of alien life
posted by Technology @ 4:22 PM
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Alien enthusiasts, get psyched.
Thanks to the help of 2,700 independent supporters and a new deal with the U.S. Air Force, the SETI Institute's Allen Telescope Array is back online as of Monday. SETI stands for Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.
For the first time since April, the group of 42 giant radiotelescopes, built to monitor the universe full time for radio waves that might be sent out by life forms on other planets, is listening once again.
And the timing couldn't be better.
On Monday, NASA announced that its Kepler Mission had confirmed the existence of a planet in a "habitable zone," meaning it is close enough (and far away enough) from its sun that water could exist on its surface. The planet, called Kepler-22b, is located 600 light-years away.
And in the last 18 months the mission has discovered 2,236 planets that might also be in a similar "habitual region."
The SETI Institute plans to spend the next two years pointing its telescopes at the top 1,000 habitable planets that Kepler finds.
“This is a superb opportunity for SETI observations,” Jill Tarter, director of the Center for SETI Research at the SETI Institute, said in a statement. “For the first time, we can point our telescopes at stars, and know that those stars actually host planetary systems — including at least one that begins to approximate an Earth analogue in the habitable zone around its host star. That’s the type of world that might be home to a civilization capable of building radio transmitters.”
But Tarter isn't convinced these are the only places that might be home to alien life.
“In SETI, as with all research, preconceived notions such as habitable zones could be barriers to discovery,” she said. “So, with sufficient future funding from our donors, it’s our intention to examine all of the planetary systems found by Kepler."
The Allen Telescope Array has monitored the universe consistently since 2008, but in April, SETI and its partner, the Radio Astronomy Lab of UC Berkeley, ran out of money and put the ATA into hibernation mode. The SETI Institute raised $232,155 from private citizens to help put the array back online, but the bulk of the funding came from a partnership with the U.S. Air Force to help with its space situational awareness mission.
In a statement Tarter added that SETI's website would soon allow people to see for themselves what is happening with the telescopes while they work, but a spokeswoman for the institute said she could not yet elaborate on what that would look like.
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Theaters set aside tweet seats for Twitter users
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– Deborah Netburn
Image: SETI's Allen Telescope Array. Credit: Los Angeles Times
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Theaters set aside tweet seats for Twitter users
posted by Technology @ 8:15 AM
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Perhaps the most unexpected thing about "tweet seats" is that they exist. Perhaps the second-most-unexpected thing about them is that they appear to be a growing trend.
A tweet seat is a seat in a theater that has been approved by the theater for use by someone who would like to tweet a performance. Whip out your cellphone and start tweeting at a rock show and nobody will notice — the rest of audience is probably shooting cellphone pictures anyway. But try that at the opera and you'll be glared at, unless you are in a tweet seat.
Tweet seats first started surfacing at the end of the '00s. In 2009, the Lyric Opera in Kansas reserved 100 tweet seats for its final performance of Gilbert and Sullivan's "HMS Pinafore." In those seats (and only those seats) audience members could use their phones to look at tweeted content sent by the theater's artistic director about the production, the scenery and whatever was happening on stage. Audience members were also encouraged to tweet questions in real time.
According to a recent article about tweet seats in USA Today, twitter-friendly seats have since been adopted by others, including the Carolina Ballet in Raleigh, N.C., the Dayton Opera in Dayton, Ohio, and the historical Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, Conn.
And soon tweet seats may be coming to Broadway. Jennifer Tepper, the director of promotions for "Godspell" on Broadway, told USA Today that the production definitely intends to use them.
"While we haven't done tweet seats, they are certainly in our plan for the future at 'Godspell,'" she said.
If you find the idea of tweet seats hard to swallow, don't despair. The next time you go to the symphony, the orchestra will almost certainly not be accompanied by your neighbor desperately tapping at her phone.
Tweet seats are generally reserved on one side of an auditorium to keep the cellphone glare from interfering with non-tweeting audience members' enjoyment of a performance. At the Dayton Opera, tweet seats are only available on certain nights of a show's run.
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Facebook picks up team behind location-sharing service Gowalla
– Deborah Netburn
Image: Empty seats at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles. But are they tweet seats? Credit: Ken Hively / Los Angeles Times
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Apple Store in New York’s Grand Central Terminal to open Friday
posted by Technology @ 6:37 PM
Monday, December 5, 2011
If you are 17 years old and live in a suburb of New York accessible by Metro North, your life is about to get a bit more awesome.
On Friday, a new Apple Store will open in Grand Central Terminal, on the balcony above the stairwell that leads down to tracks 100-117.
Missed your train and have an hour to kill until the next one comes? No more slumping dejectedly against the wall glaring at the clock while texting your mom an apology. Soon you can pass the time by messing around with the latest iPad.
Apple has not released the exact square footage of what will be its fifth retail space in New York, but media reports have put the number at about 23,000 square feet. That would make it one of the world's largest Apple outlets.
In a story about the new store, the Wall Street Journal posted some renderings of how the store will look: open to the station and its ceiling dotted with constellations, the pale wood of the tables holding the Apple products matching the pale marble interior of the iconic building.
The location is also pretty cool for Apple. Roughly 750,000 people pass through Grand Central every day, and more than 1 million during the holidays, according to the terminal's official website. It also says that half the terminal's commuters have household incomes of more than $100,000.
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– Deborah Netburn
Photo: An exterior view of the Apple Store location under construction in Grand Central Terminal in November. Credit: Jason Kempin / Getty Images
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Tech company wants to end ‘email pollution’ by 2013
posted by Technology @ 4:53 PM
Monday, December 5, 2011
How many work emails do you get a day? 80? 200? 500? More than 1,000?
If you are one of the many people who feel overwhelmed by the daily deluge of unnecessary emails in your inbox, consider applying for a job at Atos. The French IT services company is hoping to become a zero email company by 2013.
"We are producing data on a massive scale that is fast polluting our working environments and also encroaching on our personal lives," said Thierry Breton, Atos' chairman and chief executive, in a statement. "At Atos Origin we are taking action now to reverse this trend, just as organizations took measures to reduce environmental pollution after the industrial revolution."
Email pollution? That's one way to look at it.
While the idea of an email-free existence makes the prospect of coming back from a vacation more palatable, it's hard to imagine how a company of Atos' size — 74,000 employees spread out over 42 international offices — can function without emailing.
In an interview with ABC News, a spokeswoman for Atos said the company was still evaluating different solutions, but that the end result will probably be a mix of collaborative social media tools like the Atos Wiki that enables employees to communicate by contributing or modifying online content, and also the company's online chat system that also enables video conferencing and file sharing.
She added that the company has already reduced internal email by 20% since it started working towards the zero email goal six months ago.
For a bit of context on Atos' unusual goal, we called Clifford Nass, director of the Communication between Humans and Interactive Media (CHIMe) Lab at Stanford University and author of the book "The Man Who Lied to His Laptop."
"There is no question that the amount of information that is being pressed upon people is more than they can handle," he said, but he's not convinced Atos has found a good solution to the problem.
"The increase of chat is almost certainly a bad thing," he said. "There is a lot of evidence that it is more of a hindrance than a help."
Chat, he said, is simultaneously more distracting than email — if someone wants to chat, they want to chat NOW — and generally less valuable than email since people tend to type out whatever first comes to mind.
As for the idea of a central document that everyone keeps updating, he said that only works if everyone also remembers to check it frequently.
"The real core of this is how often people know what they need to know," he said. "The more people know what they need to know, the more you can have systems with centralized documents and then people know where they can go to find out what they need to know. But when you don't know you need to know something on the document, how will you know to check?"
The issue, he said, is finding the balance between making sure people get information they need to know and are not bogged down with information they don't need to know.
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Photo: Thierry Breton, chief executive of Atos, speaks at the Euro Finance Week conference in Frankfurt, Germany, in November. He has said he hasn't sent or received in an email in three years. Credit: Hannelore Foerster / Bloomberg.
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Feature film shot on a smartphone to get theatrical release
posted by Technology @ 5:46 PM
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Hooman Khalili first got the idea to make a feature film shot entirely on a smartphone in January 2010. A little less than two years later, his film "Olive," shot on a Nokia N8, is going to be shown in a Los Angeles theater for a week.
That's not bad considering how hard it is for indie films to get a theatrical release these days.
But if you're thinking, "Maybe I should shoot a movie on my smartphone too," be forewarned: It's not as simple as it sounds. At least not yet.
"There was a lot of things making this nearly impossible for us," said Khalili.
The Nokia N8 shoots in high resolution, but before Khalili and his crew could start filming, they had to hack the phone to turn off the auto focus and the auto zoom.
"The camera thinks it knows what you want to focus on, but it doesn't know," he said.
They tried to pay professional camera makers to build a 35-millimeter camera that would work with the phone, but they were turned down everywhere.
Eventually Khalili and his team built what they needed from scratch, dismantling a 1940s-era movie camera to figure out how it should be done. And when it came time to attach the camera to the phone, the best they could come up with was double-sided tape.
The one overhead shot in the movie was made by putting the phone in a remote-control helicopter and hoping for the best.
Still, Khalili and his crew tried to keep the shoot as professional as possible. There were makeup artists and location scouts. Actress Gena Rowlands was involved. Khalili said the film cost less than $500,000 to make. He was hoping to get funding from Nokia but got turned down. Instead he got the cash from Chris Kelly, former chief privacy officer of Facebook.
Pre-production on "Olive" started in April of this year, and the actual shoot lasted five weeks. In order to make the deadline to submit the film to Sundance, the filmmakers edited it in nine days.
"We didn't leave room even for an accidental sick day," Khalili said. "If anything had gone wrong it would have thrown everything off."
Khalili, who is trying to raise $300,000 on Kickstarter to promote the film, is hoping to submit it for Oscar consideration. In order to do that he needed to get the film into theaters before the end of the year. On Thursday he persuaded Laemmle's Fallbrook 7 in West Hills to screen the movie for one week, beginning Dec. 16.
As for the film itself — Khalili has made the first five minutes available online. It's billed as a film about a little girl who "transforms the lives of three people without speaking one word."
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– Deborah Netburn
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HIV: a deadly virus that kills an estimated 5,000 people a day.
Spam: annoying emails that infiltrate your inbox and try to get you to shell out for erectile dysfunction drugs, credit cards and international scams purportedly involving Nigerian princes.
Could these two things possibly have anything in common? According to Microsoft researcher David Heckerman, the answer is yes.
Heckerman is the inventor of Microsoft's spam filter that protects Hotmail, Outlook and Exchange clients from deluges of unwanted email, but for the last seven years he's been working on designing a vaccine for HIV.
He said it's not so strange that he shifted his attention from protecting email systems to protecting body systems. He is a doctor, and besides, fighting spam and fighting HIV are not as different as you might think.
"We have an adversarial situation going on between spam filters trying to block the spam and the spammers changing and mutating," he said in an interview with The Times. "And in the case of HIV, we have the immune system fighting the virus and HIV mutating to try to get through."
Heckerman said the key to fighting spam and HIV is the same: Find the part that absolutely can't mutate — what he calls the Achilles' heel — and attack there.
"In the case of spammers, they want to extract money from you. That's what they can't avoid. So our spam filters, at least in part, focus on that," he said.
Now he and his team are trying to find the Achilles' heel of the virus that causes AIDS.
"It mutates a lot, but it can't mutate to where it stops functioning," he said. "If it does do that, we win."
The work now is to find the places where if the virus mutates there, it dies out. To find it, Herckerman and his team are using the needle-in-a-haystack approach — crunching enormous amounts of data with the help of thousands of computers in order to find clues to what might work.
"I think it is a solvable problem, but we have a lot of work left to do," said Heckerman. "But I'm working on this every day, and I'm hopeful."
Want more information? Microsoft Research has put together this video.
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– Deborah Netburn
Image: A computer model of the human immunodeficiency virus. Efforts to find a vaccine to prevent its spread have failed. Cedit: Corbis 20080512.
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MIT says algorithm can predict red light runners
posted by Technology @ 5:55 PM
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Can math tell you who is a bad driver? Researchers at MIT say it can.
In a paper that will appear in the journal IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, Jonathan How, professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT, and three of his colleagues say they have come up with an algorithm that can predict whether an oncoming car is about to run a red light one or two seconds before a possible collision.
That might not sound like a lot of time, but it could be enough to save a life.
The complex algorithm can quickly compute — down to milliseconds — the likelihood of a vehicle running a red light based on its rate of deceleration as it is approaching the intersection.
How and his team applied the algorithm to more than 15,000 vehicles at a busy intersection in Christianburg, Va., that was already outfitted with instruments that monitor vehicle speed and location as well as when the lights turned red. They found that they were able to correctly predict who would run a red light 85% of the time.
That accuracy is the highest that's been tallied so far.
The next step is getting the information about who is going to run a red light to other drivers on the road so that they know not to drive into that intersection.
According to How, that might be possible in "smart" cars of the future.
"If you had some type of heads-up display for the driver, it might be something where the algorithms are analyzing and saying, 'We're concerned,'" he said in a release put out by MIT. "Even though your light might be green, it may recommend you not go, because there are people behaving badly that you may not be aware of."
However, How said your car would only know that the driver of another car is about to run a red light if your cars were already "talking" to each other — wirelessly trading information like speed and position data.
The technical term for this type of communication is vehicle-to-vehicle or V2V, and apparently it's on its way. Both the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Ford Motor Company are currently exploring V2V technologies.
Our question is will this technology, even realized in its fullest, be more effective than the doomed red-light camera pictures that L.A. was taking?
Only time will tell.
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Seriously ridiculous iPhone cases
Can hackers really set fire to your printer? HP says no way
Google Maps 6.0 includes indoor mapping of Macy's, IKEA, airports
– Deborah Netburn
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We have a saying in the media business: Find three examples of anything and you've got yourself a trend. And so, we feel confident in officially declaring that iPhone cases are most definitely getting more insane.
See below for the definitive proof.
1. Opena: When an iPhone case is also a bottle opener (pictured above).
How to explain the thinking behind Opena, the iPhone case that can be used to both protect one's iPhone, and…open bottles! The company's tag line is: "The world's first iPhone 4 case with a slide out bottle opener included in the back." Superfluous? Yes. But there is logic behind the madness. As the Australian founders of the company say on its website: "If you're anything like us you like to travel light. The one thing we always have on us is our phones. The one thing we always seem to be looking for is a bottle opener." And apparently people on the Internet agreed with them. The company reached 188% of its initial funding goal on the website kickstarter.com in less than a month.
Price tag: $39.95.
2. Talk about an earful!
What's not to love about this impractical, totally ridiculous, way-too-embarrassing-to-even-contemplate-using iPhone case? The name of the product — Through the Ears – is almost as cumbersome as the product itself. It's available for purchase at Urban Outfitters' website, where a sage and balanced reviewer who received it as a birthday present said that it was an instant and hilarious hit with friends and family, while also acknowledging that when it came time to actually use the phone, "those who were on the other end of my calls often could not hear me and I would end up removing the ear in order to speak to them, leaving my phone temporarily unprotected and eliminating the effect and purpose of the ear."
Price tag: $16.
3. The iPhone as teether case.
A Fisher-Price iPhone case for baby? You know it! Search the Fisher-Price website and you'll find the "Laugh & Learn Apptivity Case" under baby items. According to the company the case is dribble- and drool-proof, and compatible with iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, and the second, third and fourth generations of the iPod Touch. Fisher-Price also makes apps for baby.
Price tag: $15.
Looking for something slightly more practical? See more iPhone cases in the gallery below.
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Can hackers really set fire to your printer? HP says no way
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– Deborah Netburn
Images from top to bottom: Opena, the iPhone case that is also a bottle opener, with image courtesy of Opena; Through the Ears giant ear iPhone case, with image courtesy of Through the Ears; and Fisher-Price's Laugh & Learn Apptivity Case, with image courtesy of Fisher-Price.
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Can hackers really set fire to your printer? HP says no way
posted by Technology @ 5:44 PM
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Talk about a hot story: On Tuesday an article on MSNBC.com suggested the possibility of hackers from across the world hacking into a printer and giving it instructions so crazed that the printer would overheat and catch fire.
Kapow!
The piece was based on interviews with Salvatore Stolfo, of the Computer Science Department of Columbia University’s School of Engineering and Applied Science and his team of researchers who had spent months investigating the hackability of Hewlett Packard printers with the help of various research and security grants.
“The research on this is crystal clear," Stolfo told MSNBC. "The impact of this is very large. These devices are completely open and available to be exploited.”
Stolfo and his team illuminated many ways that hackers could exploit the printers they hacked — using them to steal personal information, or attack otherwise secure networks, for example. But the piece of the story that suggested flaming printers is the part that quickly caught fire on the Internet.
By the middle of the day, however, HP had issued a lengthy refutation that its printers can catch fire.
"Today there has been sensational and inaccurate reporting regarding a potential security vulnerability with some HP LaserJet printers," the company said in a news release. "Speculation regarding potential for devices to catch fire due to a firmware change is false."
The company concedes that there is a potential security vulnerability with some of its LaserJet printers, but says no customer has ever reported unauthorized access.
As for the fire potential, the company had this to say: "HP LaserJet printers have a hardware element called a 'thermal breaker' that is designed to prevent the fuser from overheating causing a fire. It cannot be overcome by a firmware change or this proposed vulnerability."
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– Deborah Netburn
Image: An HP LaserJet 1022. Credit: Hewlett-Packard
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Google Maps 6.0 includes indoor mapping of Macy’s, IKEA, airports
posted by Technology @ 1:42 PM
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Google is bringing its mapping technology to the great indoors.
With the launch of Google Maps 6.0 on Tuesday, users of mobile devices running Android OS 2.1 and up will have the ability to use Google Maps not just to get directions to an IKEA, Macy's or one of several airports, but to use the mapping functionality to figure out how to find housewares, ATMs, and your flight gate once you are inside.
Google's inside mapping will work similarly to its outside mapping. A little blue dot will move along with you to show you where you are, and the technology is even able to know what floor you are on — what Steve Lee, director of product management for Google, called "the third dimension of mapping."
It's exciting news, but there are a few caveats. The release is pretty limited. Although Google's launch partners include 18 U.S. airports — notably some of the biggies, such as Chicago O'Hare International Airport, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and San Francisco International Airport (obviously) — LAX and JFK are still not available.
Some of the big-box stores such as IKEA, Macy's, Bloomingdales and Home Depot have already been mapped, but not Target. Not Wal-Mart. And not nearly as many malls as you'd like to see, especially in this holiday season.
"While we are super proud of this launch, it is still a small slice of indoor public spaces in the world," Lee said. "The goal is to get to where we can deliver detailed maps for all indoor spaces."
One additional bummer: Google Maps 6.0 is currently only available for Android, which means: iPhone owners, this is not yet for you. A Google spokeswoman said there is still no specific timing for when indoor maps will be available for non-Android platforms.
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– Deborah Netburn
Image: The Google Map 6.0 view of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Credit: Google
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The latest advance in smartphone technology — a corded handset?
posted by Technology @ 5:38 PM
Monday, November 28, 2011
What might prompt one to buy a large, anti-sleek, hardly cool retro-style handset for a smartphone?
Well, consider your options. Those white ear buds are so tell-tale, and those Bluetooth ear clips have "obnoxious business guy" written all over them.
On the other hand, the retro handset provides a nice weighty, I'm-talking-on-the-phone feel, and that satisfying curly rubber cord reminds one, comfortingly, of what phones are supposed to be like.
And here's another bonus: These larger-than-your-cellphone cellphone attachments apparently protect you from 96% to 99% of the cellphone radiation that the World Health Organization has declared "possibly carcinogenic to humans."
It may not be discreet. It's not exactly cool. But it's safe!
A company called Yubz started making retro-style handsets in 2000, mostly as a gag gift for those early adapters who abandoned the land line for their cellphone about five years before the rest of us did. After fears of the dangers of cellphone radiation began circulating, the company changed its marketing to include a giant "reduce 96% of radiation" note on the product's packaging materials.
For the aesthetically inclined the quirky design store A + R sells a version by French designer David Turpi in pop colors like yellow and magenta. "Super cool! Super cute!" says the description on the site where it sells for $30.
The budget minded may choose to check out the latest addition to the market, the handset pictured above that is made by a company called IMobifone, which is selling the phone for $25.
The company's website includes images of Jamie Lee Curtis walking on the street with an old-fashioned handset clutched to her ear.
If Jamie Lee is using one, you know it's hot!
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Image: Courtesy of IMobifone.
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