| TRENDING STORIES IN TECH & GADGETS | | | | | | | ALL STORIES IN TECH & GADGETS | | |
| Today's Top Stories: Facebook IPO, Mozilla vs. CISPA | |  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 IPO Set for May 18 Facebook's Initial Public Offering is happening in just two and a half weeks time, the Wall Street Journal reports. Facebook is expected to begin its IPO roadshow on Monday, May 7, with the IPO itself set for May 18. Mozilla on CISPA: It Infringes on Our Privacy Mozilla is one of the first major internet companies to openly criticize the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, which recently passed the House of Representatives. "The bill infringes on our privacy, includes vague definitions of cybersecurity, and grants immunities to companies and government that are too broad around information misuse," claims Mozilla. Apple Rejecting Apps That Use Dropbox SDK; Dropbox Working to Resolve the Issue Developers using the Dropbox SDK have recently been complaining about Apple rejecting their apps due to links to an external purchase option. Dropbox is working with Apple to resolve the issue. "Apple is rejecting apps that use the Dropbox SDK because we allow users to create accounts. We're working with Apple to come up with a solution that still provides an elegant user experience," said Dropbox in a statement to AppleInsider. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, mattjeacock |
| Rimac Concept_One Electric Supercar Can Be Yours for $980,000 | |  Croatian automaker Rimac Automobili has unveiled its electric supercar Concept_One back in September 2011, but now you can actually buy it -- if you can spare $980,000. For that kind of money one would expect some other-wordly specifications, and Concept_One delivers. With a battery capacity of 92 kWh, this supercar delivers 1088 hp which can take you to 62 mph in 2.8 seconds, with a top speed of 190 mph. As far as autonomy goes, Rimac claims the Concept_One can travel a solid 372 miles on a single charge. Rimas has recently showcased the car in Monaco, announcing a limited run of 88 vehicles -- for those who can afford to spend nearly $1 million on a (very, very fast) car. Check out the video below and tell us how you like the Concept_One in the comments. |
| Mars Volcanic Glass May Be Hotspot for Life | |  Glass sand on Mars may point the way to chemically-rich water ideal for hosting life. The newly discovered glass dune fields, spread across almost a third of the planet, likely formed from interactions between magma and ice, or water — interactions that could create the perfect environments for microbial life. The northern lowlands spread across millions of square miles in the Red Planet's northern hemisphere. But dark sediments in the region have puzzled planetary scientists. Briony Horgan and James Bell, both of Arizona State University, used the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter to re-examine light radiated from the Martian plains. They determined that the strange readings were caused by sand composed of glass. "We're actually seeing glass particles, like glass sand," Horgan said. A glassy sea of sand Such landforms are not unique to Mars. Iceland boasts thousands of square miles of desert dominated by glass sand. The Martian dunes don't just make an interesting vacation spot. They also provide tantalizing hints toward their formation. "The only way to create an extensive glassy deposit like that is through explosive volcanism," Horgan said. [Photos: Volcanoes on Mars] "This is the first direct evidence on Mars for explosive volcanism on a planetary scale." When a Martian volcano erupts, the thin atmosphere and difference in pressure should make for some great pyrotechnics. But a fiery eruption alone won't guarantee glass. It takes an interaction with water or ice to manage that. "When lava or magma interacts with ice or water, it is quenched, which means it rapidly cools and solidifies," said Claire Cousins of the University of London. "This rapid cooling prevents any crystals from growing, and so a volcanic glass is produced." Cousins, who was not involved in the new research, has studied volcanic environments in Iceland and Antarctica as Martian analogues, and is investigating subglacial volcanoes on Earth as habitats for life. The glassy plains also show evidence of water-related weathering. As ice melted across the lowlands, it mixed with the strange sand to form an acid. With enough exposure to the iron inside the sand, the chemicals would neutralize, which means that only a constantly renewed water source, like melting ice or snow, could cause the leaching the team saw. Details on the newfound Martian landforms were published online in the journal Geology. A hotspot for life The glassy expanse would not be the best location to search for life. But it could lead to more promising environments. "We definitely know searching for organisms in the northern lowlands is difficult," Horgan said. "I think the better place to go would be those source regions, the ice-magma interactions." Referring to hydrothermal systems and subglacial lakes, she said, "Those have been identified as places where biosignatures could have been preserved." Cousins agreed. "Regions of volcano-ice interactions on Earth provide a wide range of hydrothermal environments that can be exploited by microbial life," she said. If a volcano erupts beneath a glacier, the heat could form huge subglacial lakes. "It's the perfect place for microbes," Horgan said. "A nice, warm, safe place for microbes to hang out, with lots of chemicals around to munch on." Locating the lakes Finding such water sources could prove to be a challenge. After a volcanic explosion, the newly-created sand could fall from the sky. But although scientists have modeled a number of possibilities, they haven't quite been able to make the sand spread across the lowlands. "There's only a couple of ways to move this stuff around," Horgan said. Sand-sized ash is too heavy to travel far from the vents. The northern highlands are hundreds to thousands of miles from known volcanoes, however, which has left scientists puzzled. The glass sand could provide a valuable clue. Because it requires ice or water to form, the subglacial lakes they suggest could solve part of the distribution problem. Though the water would initially be contained - and ripe for life - eventually it could break free of the walls containing it, creating enormous floods across the lowlands. "This would be similar to some of the catastrophic floods people have talked about for Mars." The presence of glass sand, and their requirement of water to form, bring a clearer understanding to the geology of the Red Planet, and a more concrete suggestion on where to look for life. "It's the first time we've really seen evidence for ice-related alterations on Mars," Horgan said. "It's something we're really excited to look into." This story was provided by Astrobiology Magazine, a web-based publication sponsored by the NASA astrobiology program. |
| Access Your Thumb Drive Using Your Voice [VIDEO] | |  USB thumb drives are so convenient because of their tiny, portable size -- also making them easier to lose. A new voice recognition thumb drive keeps your data safe, even if it makes its way into someone else's hands. Made by Hammacher-Schlemmer, the 8GB thumb drive uses a built-in microphone and voice-activation software that "detects the specific frequencies and nuances of its owner's voice" notes the product description, to access your sensitive data. What if you have a cold, you ask? Simply enter a secret passcode to bypass the voice recognition part. The USB drive has a lifetime guarantee. Would you buy this? Why or why not? Sound off in the comments. |
| With BlackBerry 10, RIM Is Fighting the Wrong War | | Tuesday, May 01, 2012 9:32 PM | Pete Pachal |
|  ORLANDO -- So far at BlackBerry World, there hasn't been much talk about the "enterprise refocus" that Research In Motion CEO Thorsten Heins made headlines with at the company's last earnings call. At all the meetings, panels and keynotes I've attended so far, it's been clear the siren call of the consumer market still commands a large portion of RIM's attention. Take one example: The way-cool time-shifting camera functions in BlackBerry 10 that Heins showed off in his keynote. Although other hardware companies are doing impressive stuff with camera phones (notably HTC), RIM's approach is novel and innovative. Still, it's difficult to see the feature being spectacularly useful in a corporate boardroom, or even a factory floor. The hypothetical situation Heins gave was when someone -- specifically a family member -- closes their eyes during a shot. Sounds pretty consumer to me. You can hardly blame RIM for these continued consumer overtures. After all, companies its size don't turn on a dime. BlackBerry 10 has been in the works for almost three years, and Heins has only been CEO for a couple of months. And many mobile features have crossover appeal between business customers and the consumer on the street. However, the downside to operating with consumer-focused strategies means RIM inevitably plays the role of underdog. Just look at what it's doing on the developer front: RIM is showering developers with love here at BlackBerry World, doing its best to elevate its software tools by giving app designers access to core device functions they might not get on, say, iOS. They also make it super simple to create apps, throwing lots of weight behind the platform-agnostic standard of HTML5. But wait, there's more! At Tuesday's BlackBerry 10 Jam developer keynote, RIM said it would guarantee that anyone who makes an app for BlackBerry 10 (and it's approved) would make $10,000 minimum. If the app falls short of making that much, RIM will write a check for the difference. SEE ALSO: RIM's Secret Weapon for Reviving BlackBerry: HTML5 This why it's so clear RIM is still fighting the war of consumer platforms with Apple and Google. Writing $10,000 checks to developers is one way to boost its relatively miniscule App World selection so it can compete with the big boys. Alas, it's not going to work. RIM is trying to date developers that are already married to iOS and Android. Sure, they might hang out with BlackBerry a little -- if you're a developer, why not be on as many platforms as possible? But there's no way they're turning their back on their sugar daddies. Apple and Google's stores are where the big money is -- enough potential cash to dwarf that $10,000 guarantee. That's why it's perplexing to hear RIM backtrack on the enterprise angle. Being the mobile choice for business is the BlackBerry brand's clear differentiator, but it appears to be taking a lot of its enterprise relationships for granted. It shouldn't, for many reasons -- one being Windows Phone. While RIM has been focusing on fighting Apple and Google, Micorosoft has been making headlines with its Windows Phone hardware, such as the Nokia Lumia 900. Around the same time BlackBerry 10 launches this fall, so will Windows 8, along with (presumably) Windows Phone 8. If Microsoft follows its present course, Windows 8 will finally unify Windows as a platform, with all devices -- PCs, tablets and phones -- running the same software. And that's going to present a huge opportunity for Windows Phone as a go-to mobile platform for business. After all, if you're already using Microsoft products on the PC side of your workflow, why wouldn't you integrate them in mobile as well? That strategy take a while to get going, since Microsoft still hasn't put all the pieces in place. Once it does, businesses tend to upgrade to the next version of Windows at a snail's pace. Still, it represents a long-term challenge for RIM on the business side, one that Microsoft has been readying for years. That's the war RIM needs to start prepping for -- not just with Microsoft, but with Apple and Google encroaching on its territory via the "consumerization of IT" phenomenon. RIM still has a shot with BlackBerry 10, but it needs to stop playing by others' rules (such as the app count of your store). It also needs this reminder: trying to compete for every single mobile customer is exactly what got the company into trouble in the first place. BONUS: BlackBerry 10's Best Features |
| Gmail Now Translates Emails Written in Different Languages [VIDEO] | | Tuesday, May 01, 2012 8:47 PM | Emily Price |
|  Gmail's automated message translation is no longer an experiment. Now Google's popular email platform can automatically translate emails from one language to another. So, for example, you can get an email in Japanese and have it translated instantly into English, or communicate with a friend in French without ever knowing the language. Automatic Message translation was originally introduced in Gmail Labs in May 2009, where it became a hit with a variety of different Gmail users -- particularly business users who work with people around the globe. "Some people just wanted to easily read newsletters from abroad. Another person wrote in telling us how he set up his mom's Gmail to translate everything into her native language, thus saving countless explanatory phone calls (he thanked us profusely)," Jeff Chin, Product Manager for Google Translate wrote in a blog post. "Since message translation was one of the most popular labs, we decided it was time to graduate from Gmail Labs and move into the real world." The service will be gradually rolled out to Gmail users over the next few days. When you receive an email in a language that is not your own, clicking the "Translate message" button on the header of the email will translate it instantly for you. Bilingual users have the the option to turn off the feature, and those who regularly receive messages that need translation can opt to have Gmail always translate messages they receive. Are you already using automatic message translation? What do you think about the service being added to Gmail? Let us know your thoughts in the comments. |
| HTC One X May Be The Best Android Phone Ever [REVIEW] | | Tuesday, May 01, 2012 7:01 PM | Emily Price |
|  The HTC One X rests at the top of HTC's lineup of Android smartphones. Set to come to AT&T's LTE network on May 6, the handset comes rocking a 1.5 GHz dual-core processor, and is the first HTC phone on AT&T running both Ice Cream Sandwich and HTC's proprietary software layer Sense 4.0. The One X's design stands out from the crowd, and the phone's spec-sheet screams high-end before you even pick it up. So does the HTC One X live up to the hype? Is it worth $199 with a new year contract? Could it be the best Android phone ever? Design While the One X has a fairly large footprint -- 5.3 x 2.75 - the phone is a mere .36" thick and weighs just 4.6 ounces, making it very easily pocketable. The phone has a polycarbonate finish reminiscent of Nokia Lumia 900, giving it a slick feel without making you feel like it might slip out of your hands. Rounded edges help you grip the handset without having sharp corners cut into your hand when you do. I've been attached at the hip to the white version of the phone for the past week. While white is certainly eye-catching and pretty to look at, over the week I was toting it around it also picked up quite a bit of dirt and grime and started to look pretty dingy on the back. AT&T is also offering the One X in grey, and if you're someone who tends to throw your phone in a purse or lay it down on what might not be the cleanest of surfaces, you may want to opt for the grey model over the white. The camera on the back of the phone -- much like the One S -- sticks out from the device, so when you sit your phone down you are literally sitting it down on the camera. There's a small ring around the camera to prevent it from getting scratched or dirty. The phone has a unibody design which looks great, but also means you can't remove or replace the battery. Non-removable batteries certainly aren't anything new, but both LTE and the phone's display are going to be huge sucks on your battery life and may having you wishing for a replacement option. Display The One X has a 4.7" 720 x 1280 Super LCD screen which is easily one of the nicest screens I've ever seen on a smartphone. The screen displays colors perfectly, and the screen is easy to read from any angle. The screen is a welcome upgrade from the One S, which has a 4.3-inch qHD AMOLED 960 x 540. Put these two phones side by side, and you'll definitely notice a difference. See Also: HTC One S Is Lightweight, Takes Dazzling Photos Camera The camera is one of the places the HTC One X really shines. Much like its T-Mobile sibling the One S, the One X has a rapid-fire 8-megapixel camera with a dual-LED flash. Rapid-fire means you can snap a shot as soon as you press the shutter button, and you can hold that button down to take several pictures in succession. The One X also has a number of built-in Instagram-like effects that you can use to give the pictures you take a unique look. Built-in filters include Distortion, Vignette, Depth of Field, Dots, Mono, Country, Vintage, Vintage Warm, Vintage, Cold, Grayscale, Sepia, Negative, Solarize, Posterize, and Aqua. The One X can capture 1080p video at 60fps as well, and allows you to snap shots simultaneously while you're recording that video. Operating System The One X is running the latest version of Android -- Ice Cream Sandwich -- as well as the latest version of HTC's software, HTC Sense. The One X is the second phone from HTC to hit the market in the U.S. running ICS and Sense 4.0. If you're not familiar, Sense is a special HTC-specific software -- commonly called a skin --that the company puts over Android. Each cellphone manufacturer has its own skin it uses. For those who are familiar with previous HTC phones, Sense 4.0 is a refreshing update that eliminates some of the things that bogged it down. If you're new to HTC or new to Android in general, Sense can help make your phone experience more intuitive and pleasant. Worth the cash? The HTC One X is one of the best Android smartphones to date. The handset has a fantastic camera, amazing display, and a brilliant design that sets it apart from the competition. The phone is not only one of the best Android handsets in AT&T's lineup, but rests at the top-of-the-line for Android smartphones as whole. The HTC One X will be available at AT&T on May 6 for $199.99. You can pre-order the handset now in white and grey. |
| 5 Things That Are Actually Pretty Cool About BlackBerry 10 | | Tuesday, May 01, 2012 3:34 PM | Pete Pachal |
|  ORLANDO -- Research In Motion CEO Thorsten Heins gave the world a peek at what the upcoming BlackBerry 10 smartphones will offer customers. The new system, announced Tuesday at BlackBerry World in Orlando, has some novel features. It emphasizes what Heins calls "flow" between applications, as well as social integration and multitasking. We've collected the best new aspects in the gallery above. One of the key differentiators of BlackBerry 10: how applications interact with each other. Heins said the new OS would let users transition between various activities without having to return to a home screen and completely switch apps. Instead, users will be able to "glance" at apps that are running in the background by swiping windows and menus from the side. "No one has time to pop in and out of applications every time they want to change an application," Heins said. "We want to use a paradigm that is easy and fast. It's all about the flow." Heins also showed off how the camera on BlackBerry 10 devices would work. When a user takes a photo, they'll be able to "go back in time" (presumably via an image buffer) to select the best shot, even if it happened before the shutter was pressed. SEE ALSO: Meet the First Round of BlackBerry 10 Apps The functionality isn't completely new, but RIM showed off a novel variation -- you can limit the temporal shift to a specific area. So if you have the perfect shot, except your drunken aunt had her eyes closed at one moment, you can apply the effect just to her. With the disaster that was the BlackBerry Storm a distant memory, Heins showed what RIM has in store for onscreen keyboards in BlackBerry 10. While typing, BB10 devices will predict the next word you want to type, presenting it above the letter key it starts with. To type that word, just swipe up. Although RIM gave out prototype devices to every developer in attendance here at BlackBerry World in Orlando, the features Heins showed will only be available on consumer devices, which are due in the fall. The video below gives an impression of the consumer experience RIM hopes for What do you think of BlackBerry 10's abilities? Does RIM have a shot at getting back in the smartphone game with them, or is it too little, too late? Have your say in the comments. |
| Spam Texts: 4.5 Billion Messages a Year and Counting [VIDEO] | | Tuesday, May 01, 2012 3:15 PM | Kate Freeman |
|  Text message spam promising free iPads or cash rewards may be obnoxious and unwanted, but they also carry a greater danger: clicking on texts can install malware that collects personal data from your phone. They're also booming faster than any other sector of the tech industry. Spam text messages in the U.S. increased 45% in 2011 to an incredible 4.5 billion messages, Richi Jennings, an industry analyst and expert in spam, told Bloomberg. Bloomberg highlighted the story of on 31-year-old Washington, D.C. woman who gave the spammers a taste of their own medicine by calling the sender 20 times. She didn't receive fewer spam texts, but it felt good to retaliate, she said. But replying to messages can add significant charges to your mobile bill. And it's not as if the spammer will be affected. Often, spam texts are sent from prepaid mobile devices using an automated text program. For about $20 a month, spam texts can be sent to millions of people. Both mobile carriers and customers end up paying for these spam messages. If you have a pay-per-text plan, you will end up footing the bill. And each complaining call to customer service will cost a carrier somewhere in the region of $5 to $50. Meanwhile, Twitter and Facebook have both cracked down on spammers. In early April, Twitter filed a suit against five web tools that make it easier to spam people on Twitter. Late last year, Facebook began investigating reports of porn spam popping up in users' news feeds. Is text message spam a big problem for you? Have you done anything to combat it? Tell us in the comments. ?Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, ymgerman? |
| Satirical iPad Magazine Makes Amazing Use of HTML5 | | Tuesday, May 01, 2012 2:45 PM | Christine Erickson |
|  What can a tablet magazine do that a real magazine can't? One new publication launched on the iPad Tuesday is one of the best examples yet -- and its staff of hilarious, talented writers is just the icing on the cake. The magazine, Blackline, is an extension of a comedy podcast, co-founded by Christian Ugbode, Lerone D. Wilson and Robert Pinderhuze. Blackline, says the trio, is for "everyone and anyone who doesn't take themselves too seriously." Considering they also claim their staff are monkeys who get paid in bananas and nutella, we'll take their word on that. Blackline's articles contain a lot of sharp wit and satirical humor, focusing on politics, entertainment, technology and pop culture. Some of the first issue's features include an interview with the President's dog, Bo Obama, the story behind Al Sharpton's "soul shag," and Steve Jobs making fun of people who can't afford iPads. One of the most time-consuming pieces in the first issue: a feature called "Maya Angelou's Icebox." This allows the reader to move words around the poet's refrigerator door -- an interactive piece that helps show off Blackline's impressive back-end. Though the content may not take itself too seriously, the craftmanship that's holding the magazine together is another story. Ugobode admits that including an article that pokes fun at Steve Jobs and Apple was a risk that might have cost them getting through the App Store. In fact, it's one of the reasons they chose to build the application on HTML5. Because this level of markup language is still not a standard in mobile development, Ugbode says the technology behind the app was the biggest challenge. SEE ALSO: 5 Things Publishers Need to Know About HTML5 "A day or a week from now our lives could be made much easier, or much worse, when different device makers decide to change how their tablet's operating system interacts with their web browsers," says Ugbode, who notes that the web browsers could also interact differently with various HTML5 and Javascript features and calls. The magazine, which has also been optimized for the new iPad's retina display, looks highly polished for something that's required a lot of hacking parts together. There are many major publications who still haven't optimized for the new display, so these three young, creative individuals have made a stellar first impression. If HTML5 is the future of mobile development, publishers have the potential to bring their magazines to life. What do you think about Blackline's usage of it? Let us know in the comments. |
| |  |  | | | TOP STORIES TODAY TOP TOPICS | |
ليست هناك تعليقات:
إرسال تعليق