Tech News: Bit Rot, Vint Cerf, Digital Memory

What is 'bit rot' and is Vint Cerf right to be worried? | Technology | The Guardian: "...What is ‘bit rot’? What Cerf coined as “bit rot” is a process by which the mechanisms for accessing a digital file are lost, rending that file useless junk. A big part of the problem is the use of closed file formats that require specific software to read those files. If, for instance, you have memoirs written over the last decade stored in a Microsoft Office .doc file from Word or a similar program, that file is easily readable today with a multitude of programs - not all of them made by Microsoft. But the .doc file is a proprietary file format made and licensed by Microsoft. Facebook Twitter Pinterest In 1985, not even Bill Gates knew that computers would not feature 5.25 inch floppy disk drives forever. Photograph: Deborah Feingold/Deborah Feingold/Corbis Should Microsoft choose to stop supporting it and prevented other software from using the format, all those documents would be unreadable once the last version of the old software that could read them no longer runs on newer computers...." (read more at link above)

What Obama said in his cybersecurity executive order: "At the Cyber Security Summit at Stanford Friday, President Obama signed an executive order intended to protect computer networks and data. Among the provisions: Information hubs: The order promotes the create of so-called "information sharing and analysis organizations" or ISAOs. These would serve as central points to share information on particular threats and in specific regions. The order also envisions the development of voluntary standards to which these organizations, which could be private companies or community organizations, would comply. Information sharing: The order gives the Department of Homeland Security and the new National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center the authority to share threat data..."

Xiaomi will enter U.S., sort of - MarketWatch: ".... At a San Francisco event Thursday, Xiaomi said it will bring its mi.com e-commerce website to the U.S. to sell accessories like earphones, power banks and fitness bands. But Xiaomi co-founder Bin Lin said the company has no plans to offer its popular handsets in the U.S., citing the difficulty of having such devices certified. The event was Xiaomi’s first in the United States and was intended as a broad overview of the company’s products, its software and the culture it has sought to build around its brand in China. Hugo Barra, the company’s vice president of international, showed off dozens of features Xiaomi has created for its phones...."

Sleuthing Search Engine: Even Better Than Google? - WSJ: "The program, a tool called Memex developed by the U.S. military’s research and development arm, is a search engine on steroids. Rather than endless pages of Web links, it returns sophisticated infographics that represent the relationships between Web pages, including many that a Google search would miss."

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Obama's Plan to Create Agency to Fight Cyber-Attacks (video)

President Barack Obama is creating a new agency to combat cybersecurity threats against the U.S. government and private businesses. CrowdStrike President Shawn Henry and Leidos Executive Vice President Michael Leiter speak on “Bloomberg West” February 10th.

New Cybersecurity Agency to Aid in Battle Against Hackers - US News: "... The effectiveness of the new Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center, however, will depend on assistance from the private sector and overseas law enforcement, Lisa Monaco, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, said Tuesday... The new agency will report to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, like the National Counterterrorism Center after which it is modeled. The NCTC, formed after the attacks of 2001, is an integration and analysis center built to study terrorism-related intelligence. The new cybersecurity center will apply this same focus by reviewing intelligence collected from entities like the National Security Agency, the FBI and foreign law enforcement agencies, Monaco said..."

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Real Virtual Reality, Hyve 3D Real-Life Holodeck, No Oculus Rift Needed (video)

Hyve 3D Real-Life Holodeck: No Oculus Rift Needed: Video - Bloomberg:
(Allow video to load after clicking play or go to link above)
Remember the holodeck on "Star Trek: The Next Generation?" With no Oculus Rift or other headset required, Hyve 3D aims to bring virtual reality into rooms using projectors, motion sensors, and wraparound screens. Sam Grobart reports for Bloomberg's "The Year Ahead: 2015" series. (Source: Bloomberg 11/10)

Obama Calls for Strict Net Neutrality Policy - NYTimes.com: "President Obama on Monday put the full weight of his administration behind an open and free Internet, calling for a strict policy of so-called net neutrality and formally opposing deals in which content providers like Netflix would pay huge sums to broadband companies for faster access to their customers."


CNN
Is it time for a new Google mission statement?
CNN
Back in 1999, Google came up with "ten things we know to be true" that ... Rather than a public service, Google is -- with Apple -- the most successful ...

San Jose Mercury News
Apple Security Bypass Can Turn Good Apps Into Data Thieves, Claims FireEye
Forbes
... iOS defences on non-jailbroken iPhones is the holy grail for anyone wanting to hack iDevices. Today, security ...
Apple iOS bug makes devices vulnerable to attack: experts - Reuters
Apple iOS Bug Makes Most Devices Vulnerable To Attack, Researchers Say - Huffington Post


TechCrunch (blog)
Here's What Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella Thinks Apple And Google Do Best
TechCrunch (blog)
When I think about what Apple does, what Google does and what Microsoft does, therein lies perhaps the simplest answer to why these three ...

The Atlantic
How Numbers on Facebook Change Behavior
The Atlantic
A "like" on Facebook is a treat. You get a little red pop-up on your notifications icon, you see the little box on the lower-left corner of your screen ...

TechCrunch (blog)
Microsoft Office Apps Skyrocket To The Top Of The App Store Following Pricing Changes
TechCrunch (blog)
The apps have shot up to the top of Apple's App Store after last week's ... That gave competitors like Apple and Google room to establish footholds of ...

New York Times
Apple releases new fix for lost iMessage texts
USA TODAY
SAN MATEO, Calif. — Apple has a released a new fix to its iMessage app that's supposed to solve a problem that has long irked cellphone users who ...
Apple finally delivers online iMessage tool for resolving SMS routing bugs - Pocketnow
How to deregister your phone number from iMessage and get your texts back - Gigaom


AppAdvice
iPad is Apple's unanswered revolution
The Verge
Google released the unsatisfying Nexus 9, which had posed the biggest threat of dethroning the iPad, and Microsoft made its Office suite of apps ...

New York Times
For Bono and U2, Apple iTunes Partnership Finally Hits a Wrong Note
New York Times
As a mushroom cloud of discontent erupted, Bono engaged in what sounded like contrition in a video posted on the band's Facebook page as part of a ...

Facebook successfully makes over a half-billion people download Messenger app
Over 500 million people have now downloaded the standalone Facebook Messenger app ...

Amazon's Echo Video Gets Drowned Out by Parody
The video for Amazon's Echo speaker gets parodied on YouTube with a ... A slew of hilarious parodies have turned the Siri and Google Now-like ...

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US DOJ sues Sprint for wiretap overcharges!

Editor's note: Sprint didn't get the memo that you only have a blank check with the NSA for "reimbursements" -- not the DOJ! -- of course this begs the question: who at Obama's DOJ approved $21 million in overcharges for payment in the first place? Or was this some kind of political "kickback" that got caught up in an audit? Surely not every US government agency is as sloppy and wasteful as is apparently the DOJ?

US sues Sprint for allegedly overcharging on wiretaps | Mobile - CNET News: "...The government filed a complaint against Sprint in US District Court in San Francisco on Monday. The complaint says that government agencies, like the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration, were allegedly overcharged $21 million for wiretaps by Sprint. "Sprint inflated its charges by approximately 58 percent," the complaint reads. "As a result of Sprint's false claims, the United States paid over $21 million in unallowable costs from January 1, 2007 to July 31, 2010."..."

Nadella Confirms Microsoft Leadership Changes, Hints at Reasons
Windows IT Pro
...Reller's departure—and Mark Penn's ascension to overall strategy chief—is in many ways the bigger story here....Penn is an interesting case. He's infamous for his work on Hillary Rodham Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign, for which he masterminded the 3 a.m. television commercial that questioned Barack Obama's experience. And at Microsoft he created the "Scroogled" ad campaign ... That "Scroogled" is divisive is not open to debate ... some loathe them and believe Microsoft shouldn't stoop to attacking a competitor, no matter how valid the argument... 

Microsoft endorses Penn as chief strategy officer
Politico
Penn, known as a champion of negative ads, was a divisive figure during Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign, and, as a Microsoft executive, he was the mastermind behind the company's “Scroogled” ad campaign against Google. Nadella, who took the ...

Apple shifts gears with CarPlay, its response to Google Now
CNET (blog)
One of the great boons that Google had long-reserved specifically for Android users was access to Google Now, the popular artificial intelligence platform that anticipates a person's actions based on contextual information like location or personal ...

Microsoft to smarten up Office 365 with machine learning and social cues
PCWorld
Microsoft will add new software, developer tools and capabilities to Office 365 in an attempt to make the cloud applications suite a “smarter” product that is better at helping people interact at work. At its SharePoint Conference, which kicks off in ...

Microsoft Dresses Up Enterprise Apps
InformationWeek
Microsoft on Tuesday announced a wave of new Dynamics CRM and ERP applications and enhancements, tying most of the many marketing, social, mobile, and cloud-deployment enhancements to the theme of improving customer experience. The new apps ...

Apple Goes on Hiring Binge in Asia to Speed Product Releases
Wall Street Journal
The hiring push reflects Apple's need for more engineers to work with Asian suppliers on developing components for iPhones and iPads as it plans for faster and more-frequent product releases. Apple also is increasing its number of supply-chain managers ...

Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer to retire after 18 years
Los Angeles Times
"His guidance, leadership and expertise have been instrumental to Apple's success, not only as our CFO but also in many areas beyond finance, as he frequently took on additional activities to assist across the company. His contributions and integrity ...

Update: Microsoft reacts to XP upgrade critics with free file transfer tool
Computerworld
Computerworld - Reacting to criticism from customers that upgrading from Windows XP was "impossible," Microsoft today announced it would give away a limited migration tool to help people move to a newer operating system. The tool, PCmover Express for ...

Apple CEO Tim Cook Is Increasingly Flexing His Muscles
TIME
Tim Cook is getting more comfortable channeling the Steve Jobs's patented self-righteousness. At the company's annual shareholders meeting last week, the Apple CEO chafed at a request that Apple commit to not engaging in environmental initiatives that ...

Apple faces website blacklist in 'misleading' warranty claims
ZDNet
The tech giant appealed and lost. The European Commission is also scrutinizing in-app purchases offered by companies including Apple and Google. Consumer groups in the U.K., Denmark, Italy and Belgium have raised concerns over the language used by ...

Google's Eric Schmidt talks about power and limits of Internet
San Jose Mercury News
MOUNTAIN VIEW -- As the Internet increasingly connects people in more parts of the world, parents around the globe will find themselves bracing for a difficult talk with their kids,Google's Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen told a Silicon Valley audience ...

Apple Campus 2 Designer Gives Insight Into Planning Process ...
By Juli Clover
Apple's Campus 2 project, which includes the giant "spaceship"-esque building envisioned by Steve Jobs, has been thoroughly outlined in... ... EU Meeting With Apple and Google to Discuss Concerns Over In-App Purchases (43). • Apple to ...
MacRumors: Mac News and Rumors...

Why Facebook Wants to Buy a Drone Company
Fox Business
In an effort to expand Internet access in the developing world, Facebook (FB) may be about to leap into the drone industry. According to TechCrunch, Mark Zuckerberg's company is in talks to acquire startup Titan Aerospace, which makes near-orbital, ...

Black Bears Eating Less Human Food, Going Back to Natural Diet
Headlines & Global News
A new study found that the Yosemite black bears have returned to their natural diet due to the Yosemite National Park's ...

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Why Is Broadband Internet More Expensive in the US?

Basically it comes down to a failure of regulation -- the FCC and Obama Administration have dropped the ball -- and there probably isn't a more important issue for economic progress and infrastructure. Will Washington wake up, or will Obama's carrier-connected, conflicted FCC chair, continue to cater to ISPs?

BBC News - Why is broadband more expensive in the US?: "...The price of basic broadband, TV and phone packages - or bundles as they are known - is much higher in American cities than elsewhere, suggests the New America Foundation think tank, which compared hundreds of available packages worldwide. Looking at some of the cheaper ones available in certain cities, at lower to mid download speeds, San Francisco ($99/£61), New York ($70) and Washington DC ($68) dwarf London ($38), Paris ($35) and Seoul ($15)..."

Why is Netflix streaming slow? Major peering dispute with ISPs | BGR: " . . . What this really boils down to, explains Ars Technica’s Jon Brodkin, is a dispute over peering. Most of the time, ISPs and bandwidth providers such as Cogent Communications have peering agreements to swap traffic with one another without any additional charge. However, ISPs apparently think the rise of video streaming over their networks has upset the balance that peering agreements have traditionally struck which is why they’re trying to change things up. . . ."

Time Warner Cable Raises Rates (Again), Adds 'Broadcast TV' Fee | DSLReports, ISP Information: "As with most rate hikes, the notices are accompanied with the insistence that the hikes are about bringing you added "value," and necessary because of all the great upgrades the companies have been busy with. Except in Time Warner Cable's case those upgrades have been slow in coming, the company considerably slower than Comcast in deploying faster DOCSIS 3.0 speeds or new TV technologies."

Inside Scoop: Samsung S5 and other Mobile World Congress soothsayings Video
CNET
....All eyes are on Barcelona, Spain, ...(Mobile World Congress, February 24-27, Barcelona)

How Will WhatsApp Coexist With a Company Whose Business It Hates?
Businessweek
In recent weeks Facebook has been talking up the strategy it hopes will help keep it from fading into obsolescence during its second decade. In earnings calls and profiles in prestigious business publications, Mark Zuckerberg has talked about the value of ...

YouTube Gets a Makeover With Layout, Playlist Tweaks
PC Magazine
If you browsed over to YouTube this morning, you may have noticed that things look a little bit different. The Google-owned video-sharing site has received a mini-makeover, including changes to the layout and playlists. "The way you watch YouTube keeps ...
What Is WhatsApp? An Explainer | News & Opinion | PCMag.com: " The app also uploads all of a user's contacts and requires them to individually block users with whom they do not want contact. Additionally, even the numbers of those who do not use WhatsApp are stored in the app in perpetuity."

Google's Project Tango Sees All
InformationWeek
Current smartphones can manage limited tracking of position and orientation, but lack the full range of sensors and precision to run the kinds of applications Google envisions. More significantly, they aren't designed to place the device within a 3D ...

Hey Microsoft, where's the next Mac Office?
Computerworld
Historically, Microsoft has hewn to a three-year development cycle for both Office on the Mac and the far-more-popular Office suite for Windows, with a new version of the former following the newest of the latter by several months at a minimum. Office ...

Apple Acting More Like Microsoft Than Facebook
Forbes
Not only has Apple been slow to enter new categories with in-house products, it has also been beaten out for acquisitions by rivals like Facebook and Google Google. Whether or not Apple bid for assets like smart appliance maker Nest Labs, which Google ...

Google Fiber Plans Expansion To 34 New Cities (Including Salt Lake)
Forbes
The race for the Internet gigabit space took another leap forward this week with Google Google Fiber's announcement that it has targeted 34 more cities in 9 metro areas for access to Google internet services at the increasingly popular 1Gps speed. Salt ...

Google Borrows $1 Billion With First Bond Sale in Three Years
Bloomberg
Google Inc. (GOOG) sold bonds for the first time in three years, borrowing funds to refinance $1 billion of maturing debt even after its cash hoard swelled to a record of more than $60 billion. The owner of the world's largest search engine issued 3 ...

Google Fiber may be fast, but it takes time to build
San Jose Mercury News
If you live in one of the five Silicon Valley cities Google may wire for high speed Internet, don't expect it to happen overnight. Based on the experience of Kansas City, whereGoogle is building its first high-speed network, it could take a couple of ...

Microsoft Stops Hiding Office's Free Online Edition
TIME
PS Apple has iCloud and it's giving Office Online a run for its money and totally blows Google Drive out of the water when it comes to presentations (haven't tried it for anything else)....

Google makes good on threat, flips 'kill switch' on some Chrome add-ons
Computerworld
By forcing add-on developers to publish their work in the Store, Google moved another step closer to a closed market, the kind popularized by Apple's mobile app ecosystem, where it can more easily vet the extensions and then yank them if necessary. On ...

Google deal is no 'gentlemen's agreement', says EU antitrust chief
Chicago Tribune
PARIS (Reuters) - The EU antitrust chief defended a deal with Google over how it displays web search results, following criticism from rival firms and his own colleagues, saying there had been no gentlemen's agreement to close the case. The world's ...

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Obamacare Website Still Not Fixed

The US taxpayers are out more than 500 million dollars for one website -- and the Affordable Care Act's (Obamacare) website healthcare.gov still isn't fixed or anywhere close to being finished -- at this rate Amazon or any other company would either have fired their CEO or be out of business, or both!

Obamacare Website Getting Fixes as Repair Deadline Passes - Bloomberg: "....Karen Ignagni, president and chief executive officer of America’s Health Insurance Plans, an industry group, said Nov. 29 that while the site is improved, “significant issues” remain. “Until the enrollment process is working from end-to-end, many consumers will not be able to enroll in coverage,” Ignagni said in a statement."

.... [even] larger troubles with the law.

“Americans are far less concerned about a website than they are about the availability and affordability of their health care,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a statement.

“The White House has tried to dismiss stories about folks losing insurance by saying they had lousy plans to begin with, and that those Americans should be happy that the government is now forcing them to get a different one,” said McConnell... “But what so many have discovered is that Obamacare is actually worse.”..."

Inside the Race to Rescue a Health Care Site, and Obama - NYTimes.com: "As a small coterie of grim-faced advisers shuffled into the Oval Office on the evening of Oct. 15, President Obama’s chief domestic accomplishment was falling apart 24 miles away, at a bustling high-tech data center in suburban Virginia. HealthCare.gov, the $630 million online insurance marketplace, was a disaster after it went live on Oct. 1..."

Can Amazon Save Christmas?

Daily Beast
You might not expect the e-tailing behemoth to inspire the rest of us to give a little extra at Christmas, but the Smile program could change the contours of ...

Microsoft, bored of bashing Apple, bashes Samsung

CNET
Microsoft, bored of bashing Apple, bashes Samsung. It's been established that Microsoft believes the iPad has many, many flaws. Now Redmond would like you ...

PRPick.com

Amazon vs. retailers

Kankakee Daily Journal
NEW YORK — This holiday shopping season, it's Amazon vs. everyone else. ... Stores are doing things such as matching the lower prices on Amazon.com and ...

Google Privacy Settings Change Breaks Dutch Law, Says Data ...

Latino Post
Last year's change to Google's privacy policy may have gone unnoticed by some Google users, but privacy advocates and watchdog groups took notice. Now ...

Acquisition puts Amazon rivals in awkward spot

Boston Globe
If you opt to do your holiday shopping on Amazon.com, odds are good that the ... at Apple and WebVan, a dot-com-era grocery delivery venture that flopped.

Boston Globe

Google hosting Saxo-Tinkoff presser in London

velonews.competitor.com
MILAN, Italy (VN) — Google this: The U.S.-based internet company may be poised to enter pro cycling. Google will host a press conference Monday in London ...

velonews.competitor.com

SMS Attacks Could Force Google Nexus Devices To Reboot

RedOrbit
Reports have surfaced claiming that attackers could force the most recentGoogle Nexus smartphones to reboot or lose their mobile Internet connection by ...

RedOrbit

Apple's iOS Destroyed Android in Black Friday Mobile Shopping

Patently Apple
According to both IBM and Adobe, Apple's iOS is "destroying Google'sAndroid in mobile shopping on Thanksgiving and Black Friday," reports Business Insider.

Latino Post

Apple iPad Mini 2 Retina Availability Up While 12.9-inch iPad ...

Latino Post
Tech watchers and Apple fans have been watching the build-up to the holiday shopping season closely. This is because burn-in issues, from a portion of the ...

Latino Post

Apple retail stores go (RED) for World AIDS Day on Dec. 1 | 9to5Mac

Jordan Kahn
1, Apple has started to change its iconic Apple logo outside of its retail stores from ... One of those organizations is Product(RED), a charity that that Apple has ... A Festivus Miracle: Google Search 'Festivus' to celebrate with 'the rest of us' · Thumbnail for ... Moto G now available on Amazon, shipsDecember 4 · Thumbnail for ...
9to5Mac

Amazon: Going Exclusive - Seeking Alpha

Vivek Gupta
The companies like Amazon, Netflix (NFLX), Hulu, Google's (GOOG) YouTube, etc. are competing with each other to get a lead in the industry. Netflix is clearly ...
SeekingAlpha.com: Home Page

Is Amazon a Good Portfolio Play? - Wall St. Cheat Shee

(Damien Hoffman)
Amazon stock has been flying higher in recent years and is now trading near all-time high prices....
Wall St. Cheat Sheet

Tell Your Relatives: No, Microsoft Won't Call You About Your ...

Chris Hoffman
“Hi, I'm from Microsoft and we've noticed your computer has a lot of viruses. ... For example, below we have a variety of errors in that state Apple's Bonjour ...
How-To Geek

China launches 'Jade Rabbit' rover on its first moon-landing mission
NBCNews.com
A Long March 3B rocket lifts off from China's Xichang Satellite Launch Center early Monday Beijing time, carrying the Chang'e 3 spacecraft on the first leg of its journey to the moon. China launched a powerful rocket on Sunday to send the country's first lunar ...

Black Hole Discovered Which Emits Brilliant Light
Guardian Express
When a recently-discovered black hole was discovered which emits brilliant light, scientists were baffled, and scrambled to explain how a black hole could shine with such brilliance. According to a new study, the black-hole system called ULX-1 in the nearby ...

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Is Obama's NSA Intentionally Trying to Destroy US Tech?

Or is that just an "unintended consequence"  of the NSA's misguided practices?

“We have long been concerned about the possibility of this kind of snooping, which is why we have continued to extend encryption across more and more Google services and links, especially the links in the slide. We do not provide any government, including the U.S. government, with access to our systems. We are outraged at the lengths to which the (US) government seems to have gone to intercept data from our private fiber networks, and it underscores the need for urgent reform.”--Google’s chief legal officer, David Drummond (in response to NSA infiltration, infra)

NSA Fallout Hits AT&T's Ambitions In Europe
Wall Street Journal
AT&T Inc.'s ambitions to expand in Europe have run into unexpected hurdles amid the growing outcry across the region over surveillance by the National Security Agency. German and other European officials said any attempt by AT&T to acquire a major ...

NSA infiltrates links to Yahoo, Google data centers worldwide ...
Washington Post
The National Security Agency has secretly broken into the main communications links that connect Yahoo and Google data centers around the world, according ...

Washington Post

NSA Said to Tap Google and Yahoo Abroad
New York Times
WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency and its British counterpart have apparently tapped the fiber-optic cables connecting Google's and Yahoo's overseas servers and are copying vast amounts of email and other information, according to accounts ...

Android Tablets Gain On iPad
InformationWeek
No new iPads throughout most of 2013 means Apple's share of the tablet market has dipped below 30% -- its lowest ever. Start The Discussion. Tweet; Mail Mail; Print Print · Eric Zeman | October 31, 2013 10:34 AM. 13 Favorite iOS, Android Apps. (click image ...

Astronomers Find Earthlike Planet, but It's Infernally Hot
New York Times
Kepler 78b, a planet some 400 light-years away, is like hell on earth. Enlarge This Image. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. An artist's rendering of the surface of Kepler-78b. The planet is similar in size to earth, but its close proximity to its own ...

Company plans to turn Hyperloop dream into hypercool reality
Fox News
It sounds insane: Take an enormous hamster tube, suck most of the air from it, insert a hovercraft full of humans and accelerate it to 800 miles per hour. But according to Patricia Galloway, that wild concept is no dream -- it's very much real. “The feasibility is ...

Wearing Google Glass While Driving Could Earn You a Ticket
ABC News
There have been claims that Google Glass is a risk to people's privacy, but is it also ... Cecilia Abadie, one of Google Glass' early adopters, was recently issued a ...

ABC News

Google has a long list of Android app updates waiting, but why?
CNET
When commenting on a Google+ thread earlier today about the timing of the impending release of Google Hangouts for Android, I clicked in the direction of this ...

Pentagon Post

Will Apple enjoy an 'iPad Christmas?'
San Jose Mercury News
NEW YORK -- Apple (AAPL) CEO Tim Cook believes Santa's sleigh will be ... often cheaper-- alternatives that run Google's (GOOG) Android operating system. ... But Amazon.com's Kindle Fire HDX, which like the Samsung tablet runs on the ... Meanwhile, Microsoft has put a big marketing push behind its Surface 2 and ...

Wall Street Journal (blog)

Google to give Rs 21 cr funding to 10 Indian NGOs
The Hindu
Internet search giant Google will give a funding of Rs 21 crore to 10 Indian non-profit organisations to help them in their efforts to make a positive impact on India ...

Microsoft won't turn on Windows Defender for unprotected PCs
PCWorld (blog)
Microsoft representatives said Wednesday that the company will not turn on Windows Defender for unprotected PCs, contrary to what executives said earlier in ...


ZDNet

Amazon's Grocery Business Faces Higher Costs Than The ...
Forbes
This is a good spot by Megan McArdle of a basic difference between Amazon's competition against the Big Box stores and the same company's competition in ...

Apple's research & development costs ballooned 32% in 2013 to ..
Apple Insider
Apple's investments in research and development continue to grow, surging another 32 percent in fiscal 2013 to reach $4.5 billion — its highest-ever sum spent ...

Apple Insider

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Apple Wins at the White House

A friend in need is a friend indeed!--Obama as Apple fanboy?--

Samsung Loses $1 Billion in Market Value After U.S. Veto on Apple ...
By Richard Padilla
After the Obama administration vetoed a partial ban on the import and sale of some Apple products, Samsung announced that it has been granted a hearing in a US appeals court next year against the original ruling, as reported by the ...
MacRumors: Mac News and Rumors...

Veto of Apple Ruling Likely to Upend Big Patent Battles - Ian Sherr ...
By Ian Sherr and Brent Kendall
The Obama administration's decision to overturn an international trade ruling against Apple Inc. — the first such veto in more than 25 years — promises to upend long-running battles over intellectual property in the smartphone market and change the strategies some of the world's biggest technology ... How Google Enlisted Bloggers to Spread the Word About Moto X ... Allan Friedman, Fellow and Research Director at the Center for Technology Innovation at Brookings, in The Atlantic.
AllThingsD

Microsoft Surface Pro Price Drops $100
InformationWeek
Microsoft confirmed to the Verge website that the discount will run until August 29. The price cut arrives in time to take advantage of the back-to-school rush, which is traditionally a heavy period for device sales. It could also persuade on-the-fence ...

Android One-Click Google Apps Access Cracked
InformationWeek
Android smartphone and tablet users: Beware attackers who come gunning for a Google-issued authentication token that allows your device to automatically log into Google Apps, Gmail, Google Drive, or any other Google service. That warning comes by way ...

Apple to shrink some iCloud accounts by 20GB
Computerworld
Of the major players -- Apple, Google and Microsoft -- the latter's SkyDrive is the least expensive across the board. ... Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow ...

Where's Google's Android star Andy Rubin? Robots
USA TODAY
SAN FRANCISCO -- Former Android chief Andy Rubin -- who officially works on mysterious projects at search giant Google -- left Silicon Valley with a perplexing case of "Where's Andy?" when he stepped ... Before he started Android, Rubin co-founded ...

Google Co-Founder: The Man Behind the $300K Test-Tube Burger
ABC News
If you are going to spend thousands of dollars on a burger made not out of meat but of bovine stem cells, you've got to have a huge passion for science and innovation. You've also got to have a lot of money. The 39-year-old co-founder of Google fits ...

Apple losing innovative core?
Boston Herald
Instant iCloud: Microsoft helped pioneer the idea of instant cloud backup for consumers. When you save a document in Office 365, it's backed up automatically to the so-called SkyDrive cloud service. Apple should rip off this idea, as we know it's had ...

Google finds streaming gold
Boston Herald
Google, which has tried to carve out market-share in the living room for years, finally may have found a winner in its sleek streaming stick, Chromecast. For a paltry $35, the tiny device just a bit bigger than a USB drive plugs into the back of your ...

Apple's iPad lineup slipped to 32% of tablets shipped in Q2 2013
Apple Insider
However, by the fourth quarter we expect new products from Apple, Amazon, and others to drive impressive growth in the market." IDC. While Apple's shipments slid 14.1 percent year over year, competing tablet makers who use Google's Android mobile ...

Google Play versions of Galaxy S4, HTC One to get Android 4.3
ZDNet (blog)
The roughly one-week turnaround means Google has delivered on the promise of faster updates on the Google Play editions, which have only been released in the US and run a vanilla version of Android without the tweaks vendors lay over the OS. The new ...

Daily Report: Amazon Runs Up Against Germany's Labor Culture ...
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
German labor unions say Amazon has imported American-style business practices — in particular, an antipathy to organized labor — that stand at odds with European norms. Read more… ...
NYT Bits

Lync, Azure, Office 365 And The Shifting Center Of Microsoft's Gravity
By Alex Wilhelm
The reason for the mild coverage of Lync and its performance is in fact a non-puzzle: One billion dollars in revenue stacked next to Microsoft total fiscal 2013 top line of $77.8 billion isn't much, and enterprise-facing products from incumbent firms aren't sexy, thus often getting lost in the press .... Won The SEO Wars, Google Has.
TechCrunch

Technology blog | Technology | The Guardian
As part of the triumvirate that runs the tech giant, Brin developed Google Glass ... Boot up: Microsoft's challenge, Google's aims, Apple's (screen) independence, ...
www.theguardian.com/technology/blog

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Glenn Greenwald asks the Question that Obama fears

Glenn Greenwald asks the question no one in the Obama administration wants asked, much less answered:

On the Espionage Act charges against Edward Snowden | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk: "Who is actually bringing 'injury to America': those who are secretly building a massive surveillance system or those who inform citizens that it's being done?"(read more at link supra)

Sony Releasing Fix for Bricked PS3 Consoles Thursday
PC Magazine
Good news and bad news for PlayStation 3 owners. We'll start with the bad: If your system was the unfortunate victim of the less-than-ideal firmware update Sony released this past Tuesday, then you have a bit of time to wait before you're going to be able to ...

Meet one of NASA's newest astronauts now (before she heads to Mars)
Fox News
Ever dreamed of being an astronaut? It wouldn't hurt, but you don't even have to be a rocket scientist to make that dream come true. Just ask Jessica Meir. NASA just announced its new 2013 Astronaut Candidate Class, selecting eight candidates from the ...

Lenovo Expands Windows 8 Device Lineup
CRN
With interest growing around hybrid and touchscreen devices, Lenovo is expanding its range of Windows 8 touch-enabled tablets and laptops. Lenovo Thursday unveiled the Miix tablet. Running on Windows 8, the Miix comes with an Intel Atom dual-core ...

Could Climate Change Worsen Southeast Asia's Forest Fires?
Wall Street Journal (blog)
Southeast Asia could have to brace for more forest fires and clouds of smoke if climate change takes hold, a World Bank expert suggests. As temperatures climb, some parts of Southeast Asia will likely flood with rising sea levels while others face drought and ...

Google-Waze Deal Under FTC Antitrust Review
Mashable
Google's acquisition of the popular social traffic app Waze is under review by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which wants to make sure the deal doesn't go against U.S. antitrust regulations. Google confirmed the FTC antitrust review on Sunday, ...

Christie's Will Auction The Original Apple Computer From 1977 And It's Expected ...
San Francisco Chronicle
Christie's auction house will start accepting bids on the Apple 1, the original Apple computer made by the company's co-founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in 1977, on June 24. The auction is online only and Christie's says it expects the final bid to be ...

Halo No Longer A Trilogy, Now A 'Saga'
Forbes
Last week, before Microsoft pulled a 180 on their DRM and internet policies, I remarked that because the Xbox One was in a rather rough spot, it was going to have to rely on Halo as a system seller now more than ever. The playing field has been leveled a bit ...

Get ready to howl: Supermoon to rise this weekend
USA TODAY
Skies over the Desert Southwest and the lower Ohio Valley into the mid-Atlantic and southern New England will offer the clearest views of the supermoon. full moon new york. A full moon rises behind the Empire State Building in New York in April 2012.

Moon, Earth Rendezvous in Close Encounter of a Lunar Kind
Bloomberg
The moon, in movie parlance, is ready for its close-up this weekend as its orbit brings the satellite nearer to Earth than at any time this year, making it bigger and brighter than normal on the celestial screen. The moon and Earth will be about 221,824 miles ...

Too much #hashtag! Time to wise up about the pound sign
NBCNews.com (blog)
We're officially in the era of too many hashtags. Nearly three-quarters of social media users stick them in posts, according to a March 2013 study from RadiumOne. But quickly scan Twitter, Instagram, Google+, Tumblr — and now Facebook — and even that ...

Oracle set for major Microsoft, Salesforce, Netsuite partnerships
Register
Oracle is embarking on a spree of partnerships to assure the success of its much-ballyhooed 12c database among cloud companies. The red giant's chief, Larry Ellison, announced during Oracle's disappointing fourth quarter earnings call yesterday that ...

Groom's regrets on his $11m wedding
New Zealand Herald
Napster co-founder and former Facebook president Sean Parker and his wife Alexandra Lenas. Photo / AP. It should have been the best day of his life - but the internet mogul who spent a reported US$9million ($11.6million) on his wedding continues to have ...

Facebook Security Bug Exposed Personal Account Information, Emails And ...
TechCrunch
A Facebook security bug exposed users' personal contact information (email or phone number) to other users who were connected to them; the bug has affected 6 million accounts. “When people upload their contact lists or address books to Facebook, we try ...

Google Makes Google News In Germany Opt-In Only To Avoid Paying Fees ...
TechCrunch
Google News in Germany will soon change. Starting August 1, it will only index sources that have decided to explicitly opt-in to being shown on the search giant's news-aggregation service. Google News remains an opt-out service in the other 60 countries ...

Ruins of hidden Maya city, Chactun, discovered in Mexico
Los Angeles Times
Deep in the jungles of Mexico, scientists have discovered a Maya city, complete with signs of pyramids, remnants of palace buildings and ball courts. This hidden archeological gem, named Chactún (which means “red stone” or “great stone”) was described by ...

Rumor: Google may help you get rid of your junk with its new service
Ars Technica
. . . the search giant is preparing to launch a new service, integrated into Google Plus, that will help you get rid of your stuff. It’s called Google Mine, and it will purportedly help users share their actual, tangible belongings with friends and keep track of what those friends are sharing, too. ...

How Samsung can save Windows 8 tablets
PCWorld
Windows 8 tablets aren't in good shape: Microsoft's OS gets plenty of hate for its desktop functionality, and many people aren't willing to pay premium prices for the ability to run Office—and not much else—on what amounts to be keyboard-less PCs. Indeed ...

Tiny Tiny RSS
PC Magazine
Gives full control over look and feel of RSS reader. New features like daily digests. Can create multiple users. Android app available. Cons Really slow. Setup and maintenance is intensive and can be intimidating. Updates aren't automatic. No iOS app.

Batteries on the Head of a Pin
Wall Street Journal
People take batteries for granted, but they shouldn't. All kinds of technological advances hinge on developing smaller and more powerful mobile energy sources. Researchers at Harvard University and the University of Illinois are reporting just such a creation, ...

Fake AV and ransomware: Coming soon to an Android device near you
PCWorld
A message on your smartphone or tablet warning that your device is infected with malware is cause for concern. If you've never installed the type of antimalware app that would produce that type of warning in the first place, it should be an even bigger red flag.

Nissan Unveils $100/Month EV Battery Replacement Program
PC Magazine
The Nissan Leaf hit the electric vehicle scene three years ago, providing an alternative to gasoline-powered cars with its lithium-ion rechargeable battery pack. But like any other device, constant use over time tends to zap all the juice. In response, the ...

HTC's 2012 Was So Bad That Execs Had Their Pay Cut In Half
Business Insider
In 2011, top HTC executives earned a combined NT$1.36 billion (about $50 million), according to its annual report released in Taiwan on Friday and cited by Dou. In 2012, they were paid NT$660.5 million (about $22 million) including salary, retirement pay, ...

Beaming Internet to the Boondocks, Via Balloon
WLRN
This is SCIENCE FRIDAY, I'm Ira Flatow. If you have a smartphone, you might take the Internet for granted, right? It's always there. But around the world, some four and a half billion people still are not connected. Google, being in the Internet business, has a ...

Instagram's new video service might train us all to be artists
Washington Post
Instagram announced this week that it would add a mobile video component to its photo-sharing service. Some industry watchers noted that the new app's 15-second limit is also a typical advertisement length, and wondered whether the whole plot was just a ...

Tesla unveils battery-swapping tech for fast car charging
Register
Even as Tesla Motors labors to build out its North American network of "Supercharger" recharging stations, the electric carmaker has unveiled an additional system that promises to get its vehicles juiced up and ready to run in less time than it takes to fill a ...

Vegetables Respond to a Daily Clock, Even After Harvest
Boise State Public Radio
You open the door of your fridge and the light goes on, right? What if the light in your fridge could stay on and be programmed to help your veggies taste better or be more nutritious? Why? Well, it turns out that that ...

World wide amateur radio Field Day (VIDEO)
Broken Arrow Ledger
UP AND AWAY — Members of the Broken Arrow Amateur Radio Club erect a 60 foot support tower that will accommodate a directional antenna. Part of the annual World Wide Field Day for ham radio operators, the club will contact other radio enthusiasts ...

NASA Hops on BepiColombo Mission with Europe and Japan to Explore Mercury
Latinos Post
NASA Mariner 10 orthographic photomosaic of the southern hemisphere of Mercury. This mosaic is composed of images from the second encounter, covering the equator to the south pole. (Photo : NASA). NASA announced that it will be participating in the ...

Twitter Search: Website Will Target You With Geolocated Ads
Design & Trend
Twitter is developing geographically-promoted tweets to assist retailers in targeting costumers ...

Virgin Mobile USA to carry iPhone 5 for $550
Computerworld
Computerworld - Virgin Mobile USA will begin selling the iPhone 5 next Friday, June 28. A 16 GB version will cost $549.99. For $35 a month, as part Virgin's Beyond Talk plan, the pre-paid carrier will provide unlimited 3G and 4G LTE data, and unlimited ...

Apple's long-lived MacBook Air goes on and on
Chicago Daily Herald
When it comes to consumer electronics, the discussion usually revolves around faster, sleeker, smaller, cheaper. In an increasingly mobile world, though, the most important characteristic may be longer — as in, how long the battery lasts between charges.

Trade-In your iPhone 4, 4S for Free iPhone 5 at Best Buy for Next Nine Days
USFinancePost
Trade-In your iPhone 4 4S for Free iPhone 5 at Best Buy Best Buy presented an offer that lasted just for a day on the 1st of June: to exchange your iPhone 4 or even iPhone 4s for a new and shining iPhone 5. This deal was so booming, that the vendors ...

Suborbital rocket sends experiments — and ashes — into space and back
NBCNews.com
. . . suborbital sounding rocket launched seven space-technology experiments — plus some unusual commercial payloads — from New Mexico's Spaceport America on Friday. The 20-foot-tall ...

Obama takes heat over 'transparent' FISA court
USA TODAY
The critics are having a field day with President Obama's comment this week that the court that oversees the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is "transparent." The FISA court conducts its business in secret (though some documents have been leaked in ...

Google could face court action after more personal data from Street View cars ...
Metro
Google faces possible court action from the UK's information watchdog after further personal data was found to have been collected by its Street View cars. The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has demanded the internet search giant destroy four discs ...

Windows Phone 8 variant of HTC One coming soon?
Unwired View
Almost everyone is praising HTC's One for being an excellent Android smartphone, and that's mainly because the Taiwanese company has managed to find a near flawless combination of design, specs, and software capabilities. So it should come as no ...

NOAA Satellite Vegetation Images Show Just How Green Earth Is [Viral Video]
Social News Daily
How green is our planet? An NOAA video is going viral for showing the planet's vegetation via satellite images to give the viewer an idea of just how green Earth is. The video is the result of a collaboration between NASA and NOAA, who teamed up to map all ...

New York City launches free phone-charge kiosks
Toronto Star
No sooner did New York City and AT&T start installing free solar-powered mobile charging kiosks than the first Brooklynite pulled up a lawn chair to sunbathe and power up at the same time. Then singer-songwriter Chris Conly tweeted his relief: ...

Hubble Space Telescope Captures a Pair of Galaxies
TopNews United States
The Hubble Space Telescope has captured pictures of two interacting galaxies. The pair of galaxies is known as Arp 142. The galaxies are exchanging material from each other, changing their original structure. The researchers said that in some cases two ...

Pirate Bay founder sentenced to 2 years for hacking
Times of India
STOCKHOLM: A co-founder of file-sharing website Pirate Bay was sentenced to two years in jail on Thursday for hacking into computers at a company that manages data for Swedish authorities and making illegal online money transfers, a court said.

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