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| 8 Unexpected Moments From SXSW [PICS] | |  South by Southwest can be a stimulus overload. With so much to see and do crammed into such a short period of time, it's easy to forget to stop and take in the smaller details. Some of the most interesting moments happen outside of the panels and official festivities, and are fueled by the creative energy of the thousands of people who flock to Austin, TX. You never know when you'll turn a corner and find yourself in the middle of a flash mob or a dance party. And while these whimsical, serendipitous memories are part of the culture of SXSW, it's also important to find moments of solitude and reflection, if for no other reason than to maintain some degree of sanity. At the very beginning of the 10-day festival, we asked you to show us and our partners at CNN iReport to show us your SXSW experiences. We received lots of great submissions, many of which were displayed at the iReport booth during the SXSW trade show. People sent pictures and videos showing us everything from parties to panels. You showed us quiet moments and flash mobs, the skyline and registration lines. We picked some of our favorites that we thought showed a diverse experience and reflected some of the more unique, off-the-schedule experiences. Check out our picks below, and see all of the submissions over at iReport. |
| 8 Compelling Content Sessions to Expect at Mashable Connect 2012 | | Friday, March 23, 2012 5:26 PM | Jennifer Diamond |
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Our largest conference, Mashable Connect, is returning to Orlando, Fla., from May 3-5, and this year we will explore the future of digital with some of the brightest minds in the industry. An array of digital leaders will be speaking on topics ranging from new digital business models, mobile networking, digital campaigning and social TV. There are still a limited amount of tickets available to the public. They include three nights at the Contemporary Resort, compelling content sessions, unique networking activities, connecting with Mashable team members and special events within Disney Parks.
We're pleased to share a sampling of content sessions delivered by our premier Mashable Connect speakers. Stay tuned for the announcement of a complete agenda in the coming weeks. Predicting the Future: Duane Bray, partner at IDEO, will assess our current digital tools, mobile apps and social networks to get a sense of what the future will really be. He'll explore how the role of collective intelligence, multi-threaded narratives and new literacies will shape the next digital landscape. After SOPA/PIPA: What Winning (One) Means: Lawrence Lessig, Professor of Law and Leadership at Harvard Law School, will share his vision on the future of digital creativity and technology innovation in a post SOPA and PIPA world. The Truth About Online Reputation: Joe Fernandez, Founder and CEO of Klout, will sit down with Mashable to discuss the truth about online reputation. How much influence does your reach online affect you in the offline world? What does your Klout score really mean? There are just a few of the questions that we'll ask Joe Fernandez during our fireside chat. How to Reinvent the Web: Roger McNamee, Managing Director of Elevation Partners, will talk about why the concepts of the "web" and the "Internet" are increasingly obsolete in the face of the new app-centric model. He'll discuss how to reinvent the web to preserve the spirit of openness that has defined the current generation and examine the role of mobile technologies and their influence on how we navigate digital content. Why Sound Will Be Bigger Than Video: What will be the dominate form of media? Alexander Ljung, Founder and CEO of SoundCloud, will explain why sound will be bigger than video. Mobile-first Social Networking: Meghan Peters, Mashable's community manager, will lead a discussion on mobile-first social networking and ask the question: are these the communities of the future? Web 3.0: Curating Big Data is Future of the Web: Burt Herman, co-founder of Storify, will look at how humans and algorithms, along with media and technology, are all coming together to help us make sense of the world in this age of information overload. The Evolution of the Second Screen: Christina Warren, Mashable's entertainment editor, will moderate a panel with Umami, Discovery Digital Media and TVPlus to discuss the evolution of the second screen. This discussion will look at the impact the second screen is having on how content is produced and the huge potential for marketing to this type of engagement. Event Information
Our annual destination conference, Mashable Connect, brings our community together for three days to connect offline in an intimate setting at the Contemporary Resort at Walt Disney World®. Registration is now open. Held in a unique location away from everyday distractions, Mashable Connect is a rare and valuable opportunity to be surrounded by digital leaders across industries. You'll spend time with Mashable's passionate and influential community, hear from top speakers who will provide insight into the the technologies and trends that are shaping the next era of digital innovation, and get to spend time with the Mashable team. To keep Mashable Connect as intimate as possible, only a limited amount of tickets are available. A Look Back at Last Year's Mashable Connect Supporting Sponsor Sponsorship Opportunities A limited number of sponsor opportunities are available for Mashable Connect. This is an excellent opportunity to get in front of Mashable's passionate and influential audience. Contact sponsorships@mashable.com for opportunities. |
| Microsoft Demonstrates Mind-Blowing 3D Desktop [VIDEO] | | Friday, March 23, 2012 5:13 PM | Sonia Paul |
|  Take on look at the world of mobile devices -- from multitouch smartphones and tablets to virtual assistants ready listen to your questions and give you answers -- and you get the idea that the world of interfaces is changing fast. Desktop interfaces, however, are a different story "Despite advances in 3D sensing and display technologies, our desktop interfaces have not changed much from 2D interactions," MIT PhD candidate Jinha Lee says. Lee, along with a Microsoft research lab, has created a transparent 3D desktop display that puts your hands behind the screen and your desktop's files literally at your fingertips. Users can search and rearrange the files simply by moving their hands. If this futuristic interface sounds like something out of the Minority Report, that's because it is. Unlike much of the technology in tablets and iPhones, this new 3D desktop display is not so much touch-based as it is interaction based. It's one part Samsung OLED technology and one part Microsoft Kinect. To keep the 3D system illusion intact, the desktop display uses cameras to keep track of where your head is. The system is still a work in progress. As Lee explains on his website, it actually began as a research project while he was interning for the Applied Sciences Group at Microsoft. What do you think of this new 3D display? Do you think this is the future of desktop computing? Let us know in the comments. |
| New iPad Battery Indicator Lies, Research Shows | | Friday, March 23, 2012 4:58 PM | Pete Pachal |
|  The battery indicator on the iPad is a liar. Research from a display research company says Apple's new tablet continues to charge for a long time after the onscreen indicator shows it's full. Ray Soneira of DisplayMate-- whose research also showed that the new iPad's retina display drains significantly more power than previous models -- conducted a test that showed the iPad kept drawing power at the full recharging rate of about 10 watts for two hours after it initially reported having a 100% charge. Only at 2:10 did the recharging "fully terminate" with a sudden drop in power. Soneira says he wasn't setting out to test the battery, and that he only looked at the iPad's power usage to see how much is going to the screen. However, when he noticed his equipment told him his iPad was charging even though the screen said "100%," he decided to study the issue further. That's when he discovered the extended charge time. Why would the iPad say it has a full charge when it doesn't? Apple isn't saying (a spokesperson didn't respond to a request for comment), but Soneira has a theory. "The charge indicator on all mobile devices is based on a mathematical model of the charge rates, discharge rates, and recent discharge history of the battery," he told Mashable in an email. "It's actually rather difficult to do because most batteries degrade slowly and then tend to surprise with a precipitous decline near the end. So there is something wrong with the battery charge mathematical model on the iPad." SEE ALSO: Is a Retina Screen on the iPad 3 Overkill? The takeaway for users: If you want a full charge (for, say, your next flight), don't trust the display and be sure to keep your iPad charging for at least two hours after your iPad says it's had enough. Or better yet, simply leave it plugged in overnight when it's time for more juice. This isn't the first time Apple has had problems with display indicators on iOS devices. Back in 2010, amidst the iPhone 4 "antennagate" flare-up, the company re-examined the signal-bar icons on the iPhone, and found them to be inaccurate. Soon after, Apple released a software update that addressed the problem. How important is battery life to your tablet, and do you think this is a serious problem? Sound off in the comments. BONUS: A Tour of the New iPad |
| Hacktivists Responsible for 58% of Data Theft in 2011 | | Friday, March 23, 2012 4:46 PM | The Daily Dot |
|  Hacktivists now dominate the world of data theft. That’s according to the latest annual report by the Verizon Risk team, which coordinates data from government online security agencies to paint a comprehensive picture of who’s hacking and where. The most striking finding is the sudden rise of hacktivists—skilled hackers whose motives are political, rather than for material gain. Culling data from the Australian Federal Police, Dutch National High Tech Crime Unit, Irish Reporting & Information Security Service, U.K.’s Police Central e-Crime Unit, and the U.S. Secret Service, the Risk team found more attacks from activists in 2011 than in the past seven years combined. The report drew a clear line between hacktivists and organized criminals who steal information for profit. The latter were responsible for most other hacking and scored the majority of data breaches, with 83%. Because criminals usually look to steal information that they can turn into cash, they often attack smaller targets. As a result, they only nabbed about a third (35%) of total information stolen in 2011. Hacktivists, on the other hand, have inversely proportionate figures. Groups such Anonymous were responsible for only 2% of the Internet’s security breaches, but nevertheless stole a staggering 58% of the world’s data— a total of over 100 million records. One commonality between the two kinds of hackers is their method of attack: they’re hacking from home into companies they have no direct connection with. Only 4% of the world’s hacks implicated internal employees in any way. Hackers of all stripes are increasingly coming from all over the world, too. A year ago, Verizon reported a then-record 22 countries that originated attacks. This year, that number jumped to 36 countries, including Brazil, Bulgaria, India, Kuwait, South Africa, and Turkey. Organized data thieves clearly follow a pattern of looking for easy security breaches. Nearly 80% of victims were found to be targets of opportunity, meaning “they were found to possess an exploitable weakness rather than because they were pre-identified for an attack,” the report said. Moreover, 96% of attacks were classified as “not very difficult,” meaning they would have been avoided with simple countermeasures. The report continued: &ldquoney-driven crooks continue to focus more on opportunistic attacks against weaker targets. This may be at least partly because a good number of their brethren are enjoying jail time. Instead of major (and risky) heists, they pilfer smaller hauls of data from a multitude of smaller organizations that present a lower risk to the attacker.” One fascinating anecdote revealed the workweek of a particular small group of organized criminal hackers in Eastern Europe: “Analysis of the data showed the attackers not only had no routine work week, but they only worked an average of three days a week . During one particular three-day work week, they punched the clock on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. They compromised 22 organizations across nine countries; Monday was the most productive, with 15 confirmed breaches registered that day. We would joke about ‘nice work if you can get it’ but the jail time these guys are facing doesn’t make for very nice work at all.” Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Muhla1 |
| 20% of March Madness Traffic Comes From Smartphones, Tablets [STUDY] | | Friday, March 23, 2012 2:11 PM | Todd Wasserman |
|  In what it's dubbing "March multi-screen madness," comScore is reporting that more than 20% of online viewings of the NCAA basketball tourney have occurred via a smartphone or tablet thus far. That figure is about double the share of views of non-sports content via non-PC devices, comScore reports. Although the first 32 games of the tournament likely prompted more tune-ins, the study found about the same percentage of views occurred on the three Thursdays and Fridays before the event started. During the first day of the games on Thursday, March 15, total sports-related traffic jumped 79% compared to the average of the three previous Thursdays. Total traffic to all other web content fell 2%. "The NCAA Tournament, like the Super Bowl or the Olympics, is one of those events where sports fans don't want to miss a beat of the action - especially if they can't be in front of a TV," said Debbie Bradley, senior director of comScore, in a statement. "Over the past several years we've seen fans become more reliant on the web for NCAA tournament coverage, especially while they're tied to their desks at work during the first round matchups. As media formats continue to evolve, we're rapidly seeing America's national college basketball obsession increasingly bleed over to other screens like smartphones and tablets." comScore's figures came from its Device Essentials unit, which measures traffic via smarphones and tablets as well as PCs. Since the division was only introduced in June of 2011, there are no comparable figures from last year's March Madness. comScore's measurement is based on viewings via mobile browsers and doesn't take into account views from apps. Thumbnail image courtesy of iStockphoto, adamkaz |
| Surveillance System Can Recognize a Face From 36 Million Others in One Second [VIDEO] | | Friday, March 23, 2012 1:20 PM | Pete Pachal |
|  Face-recognition technology is rapidly evolving as evidenced by this new surveillance camera system. It can not only recognize specific faces, but is able to compare a single face to 36 million others in just one second. The system, made by Hitachi Kokusai Electric and reported by DigInfo TV, was shown at a security trade show recently. It's able to achieve its blazing speed by not wasting time on image processing -- it takes visual data directly from the camera to compare the face in real time. The software also groups faces with similar features, so it's able to narrow down the field very quickly. When the system finds candidates that could be a match to the person being scanned, it immediately displays their thumbnails. The user can then review the archived footage and see if the person is, say, a repeat customer if it's being used in a business. And the usefulness to law enforcement is pretty obvious. SEE ALSO: Facebook Turns On Facial Recognition For Tagging By Default As with any technology, there are limits. The software assumes people are looking right into the camera or facing no more than 30 degrees off center. And they'd better be close, too -- if the face takes up anything smaller than a 40 x 40-pixel square, there's just not enough face there to go on. It's impressive nonetheless, but it's also a bit chilling to think that as soon as you look at a camera, whoever's watching probably knows exactly who you are. What do you think of advancing surveillance technology? Share your thoughts in the comments. |
| Want to Heat Your Coffee With Your iPad? There's an App for That | | Friday, March 23, 2012 11:36 AM | Stan Schroeder |
|  Imagine this scenario: your coffee has gone cold, and you're simply too lazy to get up from your desk, go to the microwave and reheat it. If you have the new iPad, however, there may be a solution for this problem: the HotPad. HotPad is a simple web app that "overclocks" your iPad's CPU, and displays virtual heat coils on its screen, where you can place your coffee and keep it warm for hours. Of course, it's all a joke, and we definitely don't recommend you placing any hot beverage on your iPad (or any other gadget, for that matter). The app is a clever take on the recent iPad heat controversy - Heatgate, if you will - in which a slew of reports claim that the new iPad is heating up considerably more than the iPad 2. SEE ALSO: Is the iPad's Retina Display to Blame for the Overheating Issue? The app was concocted by the pranksters at Primary Coffee Company, which claims that the "app" won't hurt your iPad, but placing coffee on it might. As far as Heatgate goes, we're not sure all the controversy we've seen out there is warranted. After all, pretty much all the gadgets you use - your PC, laptop and phone - get a little hot sometimes. |
| Today's Top Stories: Facebook Buying IBM Patents, iPad Charging Woes | | Friday, March 23, 2012 10:15 AM | Stan Schroeder |
|  Welcome to this morning's edition of "First To Know," a series in which we keep you in the know on what's happening in the digital world. Today, we're looking at three particularly interesting stories. Facebook to Buy 750 Patents From IBM Facebook has bought 750 patents from IBM in a pre-emptive strike for future copyright litigation, Bloomberg reports. Such a move would significantly boost Facebook's intellectual property portfolio, which currently consists of 56 patents and 503 filed patent applications. New iPad Keeps Charging Even After Battery Indicator Hits 100% New iPad's battery indicator may be having some accuracy problems, according to a report from iLounge. It seems that the iPad continues charging long - in some cases as long as a full hour - after the indicator hits 100%. Apple Patents Reveal Possible Future of the iPhone Two interesting Apple patents have recently surfaced, both outlining possible futures of the iPhone and other handheld devices from Apple. One seeks to turn an iPhone or iPad into a universal TV remote, while the other envisions a handheld device encased entirely in glass. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, mattjeacock |
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