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From: Ars Technica - Infinite Loop
Security researcher Charlie Miller has revealed that Apple is working on a patch for a security flaw he identified in the iPhone's SMS implementation. The flaw can actually lead to arbitrary code execution, as he explained to Ars last month. Miller hasn't yet detailed the flaw, citing an agreement with Apple, though he and partner Vincenzo Iozzo plan to detail their discovery later this month at the Black Hat Security Conference in Las Vegas.
During a presentation at the SyScan security conference in Singapore, Miller explained that a vulnerability in the iPhone's handling of SMS messages makes it possible to send code instead of strictly text. Despite SMS's 140 byte size limitation, the iPhone can reassemble larger messages that are broken up to fit the limitation, which allows larger programs to be sent. The iPhone can be instructed to execute SMS data as code instead of text, and when it executes the code it does so with root privileges and without any interaction from the user.
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An iPhone falls to the ground in slow motion and makes its first impact on a corner. You watch as the cracks branch out over the screen like a spiderweb. If it hasn't happened to you, it has happened to someone you know—and now, Apple can fix it on the spot at one of its retail locations.
Jim Dalrymple at The Loop has confirmed that Apple retail stores have begun performing this in-house repair with what amounts to a big suction cup in the back. The machine separates the broken glass from the rest of your precious iPhone, letting the technician install a shiny new one.
This is one of the only in-house repairs being done on iPhones. Not only that, but in the past, owners with broken screens either got a full phone replacement or nothing at all. Still, knowing all the people we know who have shattered their screens, this is certainly welcome news for clumsy and not-so-clumsy iPhone owners alike.
Update: We have been infused with many more details that were not available at the time of writing. The cost of the repairs will be $199 and is not covered under warranty or AppleCare. We are told that the service is not available for original iPhones.
Apple has nearly turned its entire line of computers over to NVIDIA-based GPUs, thanks mainly to the vastly improved graphics performance of its GeForce 9400M chipset over comparable chipsets from Intel. However, rumors suggest that recent negotiations between the two companies over next-gen hardware have soured to the point that Apple may give NVIDIA a complete cold shoulder.
According to SemiAccurate (the irony of the site's name isn't lost on us), Apple is supposedly done with the "arrogance and bluster" that NVIDIA showed in its proposals concerning chipsets for Apple's next-gen hardware, which should include Nehalem-based Intel CPUs. According to the site's sources, the language used in Apple's rebuke was forceful and unfriendly, and amounted to Apple telling NVIDIA to "get lost" for three or four years.
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Apple has added a number of tweaks to its MobileMe Web services this week. Mail, Gallery, iDisk, account settings, push contacts and calenders, and Back to My Mac all got improved, and a new version of the MobileMe Control Panel for Windows enables syncing through a proxy.
In Mail, forwarding or replying to an HTML or rich text message with now retain that format instead of converting to plain text—while a number of people probably prefer this behavior, I can imagine there are some who won't be happy with the change. Unread message counts are displayed next to the inbox as well as each separate folder if you have them set up, just like Mail on Mac OS X. There's a tweak for e-mail aliases that on occasion did not show up properly in Mac OS X Mail, and those using iPhone OS 3.0 can search messages on the MobileMe server as well as those stored locally on the phone.
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Many school districts have initiated programs to put MacBooks in the hands of students to engage them in technology and incorporate it in the learning process. But no program is as big or as inclusive as the state of Maine's—the Maine Learning Technology Initiative has just negotiated a deal with Apple to provide MacBooks to every middle- and high-schooler in the state.
The MLTI program began earlier this decade with a program to supply every 7th and 8th grader in Maine with an iBook. The success of the program prompted the state to expand it to include all Maine high school students as well. That expansion includes a deal with Apple to supply another 64,000 MacBooks to the roughly 37,000 already in circulation—with another 7,000 expected to be ordered within the next few weeks. Apple will include educational software, professional development for educators, and technical support in exchange for approximately $25 million per year for a total of four years.
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If Apple does one thing well, it's to tout features that other companies have had for years and pass them off as life-changing. Since Apple can't tout speed as an improvement on the new iPhone (as the company did that last time around), Apple instead chose to highlight functionality that other products have had for years. Apple has begun airing two new commercials doing exactly that in Copy and Paste and Voice Control.
In Copy and Paste, the narrator introduces copy and paste functionality that allows a user to do some "pretty incredible things." Of course, implementations of copy and paste in other phones are usually somewhat bad and unintuitive. However, the claims made in Apple's commercial would be comical if they weren't so serious.
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If you haven't fired up Software Update yet this week, iLife '09 and MacBook Air owners should take note of the latest updates for iPhoto '09 and the MacBook Air's firmware.
The just-released iPhoto 8.0.4 fixes a "rare" issue that could cause iPhoto 8.0.3 to crash after updating images imported into previous versions of iPhoto '09. Additionally, it corrects some flawed points of interest and location names included as part of the "Places" geotagging features.
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As you may have heard, Apple released an update to the iPhone OS beta to registered developers last night. iPhone OS 3.1 already appears to have a handful of fixes that should please some users, and there are surely more hidden beneath the surface.
According to numerous sources, many items got some love in this beta, including Voice Control now working over Bluetooth (for iPhone 3GS users, that is). The AT&T profile has been updated to 4.2 (enabling MMS to work), the iPhone now vibrates when moving icons around, third-party apps now having APIs to access and edit videos, and the baseband firmware is now version 5.08.01. Additionally, editing video no longer saves over the original by default, allowing you to save a copy and preserve the original for transferring later. Finally, several improvements have been made to OpenGL and Quartz.
As noted by the quickpwn developers, users of the ultrasn0w software unlock should be extra cautious of updating to the 3.1 beta (as in, don't do it at all) unless they like turning their phones into shiny paperweights. This likely doesn't apply to most of you reading this, but we know a number of you are using your US iPhones on T-Mobile, so keep an ear out for when you can update after 3.1 becomes available to the public.
Imagine you have a top-of-the-line Mac Pro, NVIDIA's obscenely expensive Quadro FX 4800 workstation GPU, dual 30" Cinema Displays, and you're editing your next masterpiece in Premiere Pro, After Effects, or Final Cut Pro (or maybe all three!). You might be dying for Snow Leopard and OpenCL to unlock the computing potential inside that powerful GPU, but luckily, there are a selection of plug-ins that can take advantage of that power right now.
NVIDIA has a page that lists several video effects plug-ins from Elemental Technologies, BorisFX, and Red Giant Software that are designed to leverage NVIDIA's CUDA GPGPU technology. Premiere Pro CS4 users will definitely want to check out Elemental Accelerator 1.2 for Mac, which effectively halves the time it takes to encode video in H.264/MPEG-4 for either Blu-ray or online use. Leveraging your GPU to do the encoding work can also make your system more responsive while an encoding job is running, meaning you can get more work done faster.
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Apple plans to bring support for its proposed 3D CSS Transforms—already a W3C working draft—to Snow Leopard, but may be leaving Leopard in the dust. Apple already has support for the proposed standard in WebKit, though currently it is only enabled in Mobile Safari, the browser included on Apple's mobile devices.
Earlier this year, we told you about the rather clever CSS-based, three-dimensional perspective transforms that Apple added to WebKit, extending an earlier two-dimensional concept that enables some rudimentary animation when controlled via JavaScript. The transforms include skewing, scaling, rotating, and positioning of 2D objects within three-dimensional space, and take advantage of 3D hardware acceleration. Using CSS as the basis for defining the transforms makes it relatively easy for Web designers and developers to take advantage of the effects without complicated 3D programming.
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From: MacNN | The Macintosh News Network
Trichotomy Media is complaining that its Naughty Loaded Dice iPhone app has, possibly, been quietly rejected by Apple. The app has yet to receive an approval or a rejection after a month, and should therefore still be sitting in Apple's queue. The company notes that although the app does focus on bedroom activity, it still stays clear of any profanity or explicit images....
The iPhone is currently the best-selling smartphone in Japan, at least at retail, according to a recent survey. Gathered by research firm BCN, data from 2,300 stores shows the 8GB iPhone 3G as the most popular smartphone, followed by its 16GB sibling. Ranking third in the survey is the NTT DoCoMo Aquos SH-04A, designed by Sharp; RIM's BlackBerry Bold ranks sixth, and a full four slots in the lis...
A shooting incident at the Clarendon Apple Store in Arlington, Virginia has left one wounded, news networks report. The shot was fired shortly after 10AM local time, and the victim has since been sent to a local hospital. Police have formed a perimeter around the area, hunting for a suspect still at large....
Future iPhones and iPods from Apple could come in "active packaging," a recently-published patent application hints. Apple observes that while standard product packaging serves its essential purpose, it is also subject to limitations, such as an inability to showcase electronics in action without completely draining batteries. Similarly, should firmware updates become available, a store's invent...
imeem is gradually building its own music store that may afford it independence from Apple's iTunes or Amazon MP3, an investigation has found. Normally, those buying permanent copies of music from the site must go through an Amazon or iTunes link and buy it off-site; quietly, however, the company has been adding direct-download MP3 purchases of its own for certain artists, such as Iron and Wine. ...
From: Wired Top Stories
Bugatti's convertible is the pinnacle of internal-combustion car tech -- one that will probably never be surpassed with the auto industry's focus shifting to electric vehicles. Here's what it's like to drive it.
Fly fishers dread the question: "Catch anything today?" Dazzling your interrogators with cool gear might let you dodge the question. No gadget can improve your cast, but tech can surely enhance life on the water.
It's one thing to declare independence, but quite another to preserve the aging document from the ravages of time.
The Tour de France begins Saturday, July 4, in Monaco. Here's how to follow the three-week bike race using streaming audio and video, Twitter, Google Earth and other online tools.
Penguins, famous for the lengths they go to to protect their eggs and rear their young, may not be the most supportive couples around. When one member of a penguin couple is handicapped, the other doesn't step in to pick up the slack.
Delft University is back, ready to take a fifth consecutive title with Nuna 5.
Federal judge throws out Lori Drew's three misdemeanor convictions.
NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has begun producing high-resolution and wide-angle images of the moon's surface.
Sticking a battery and a motor in the Mini makes it a sweet little EV we could live with if it weren't for the stratospheric price tag.
When your brain is overloaded, it will often get stuck on exactly the thing you are trying to avoid thinking about, leading you to blurt out things you never meant to share.
From: MacInTouch
Amazon has the best price on MacBook Air: just $1699. Or save $55-$105 off Apple's latest iMacs, or $150-$380 off the Mac Pro Quad and new Quad-Core models. Amazon discounts iPods and a huge selection of digital cameras and HDTV's, too. Save on AppleCare, ".Mac", "Leopard", iLife, iWork, Aperture 2, VMware, Photoshop Elements 6 and Office 2008, as well. And the Kindle wireless book/reader is now in stock at $359. While you're saving yourself money, you're also providing critical MacInTouch support just by clicking through our links to purchase!
[Updated 14:30] a 10.5.3 problem affects web browsers; other 10.5.3 issues, compatibility notes and more
From: CNET News.com
Never say never, but this may be the first blog ever posted live from the monumental earthwork on the edge of the Great Salt Lake called Spiral Jetty.
The victim, a 26-year-old woman, is in serious but stable condition with a wound to the shoulder. Some media outlets are reporting robbery as the motive, but police say it's too early to tell.
At least two dozen sites experience protracted outage following Thursday night electrical fire at Fisher Plaza data center. Verizon's Seattle-area DSL service also gets temporarily disrupted.
Martin Veitch at CIO.co.uk riffs on how certain football clubs resemble software companies, to good and painful effect.
Hacker who originally unlocked the iPhone has let loose a jailbreaking app for the iPhone 3GS ahead of the iPhone dev team. For now, it's Windows-only, but a Mac version is supposedly on the way.
Three just-published patent applications hint at the company's future plans. But it could be a while before we see any of the functionality built into iPhones or other Apple devices.
q&a From puzzles and chess to ciphers and antivirus software, Zulfikar Ramzan talks about how he got into the computer security business and where it's headed.
Mozilla's latest version plays catch-up with the browser competition. Also: the latest in Windows 7 news, and a Yahoo data center in a new shade of green.
At the U.S. Army's Dugway Proving Grounds facility in the Utah desert, researchers look for ways to protect soldiers against "bugs" that could easily kill or sideline them.
Open source has a role to play in cloud computing, but it's likely not to be the vanquisher of old, proprietary dominance.
Firefox 3.5 introduces a new embeddable font feature that can make Web typography much more visually appealing. But type foundries have to play along.
If you've been wronged or you're just not happy with the way you were treated, there are some sites on the Web that will help you get your voice heard.
From: Ars Technica - Gear & Gadgets
Security researcher Charlie Miller has revealed that Apple is working on a patch for a security flaw he identified in the iPhone's SMS implementation. The flaw can actually lead to arbitrary code execution, as he explained to Ars last month. Miller hasn't yet detailed the flaw, citing an agreement with Apple, though he and partner Vincenzo Iozzo plan to detail their discovery later this month at the Black Hat Security Conference in Las Vegas.
During a presentation at the SyScan security conference in Singapore, Miller explained that a vulnerability in the iPhone's handling of SMS messages makes it possible to send code instead of strictly text. Despite SMS's 140 byte size limitation, the iPhone can reassemble larger messages that are broken up to fit the limitation, which allows larger programs to be sent. The iPhone can be instructed to execute SMS data as code instead of text, and when it executes the code it does so with root privileges and without any interaction from the user.
Click here to read the rest of this article
Companies who want to take the Microsoft Surface development tools out for a spin now can easily do so as the company has opened up resources to Microsoft Partners. The Microsoft Surface QuickStart Program has an entry level titled "Microsoft Surface Community Members" which provides access to the SDK and simulator, as well as training and other resources, without any commitment required. This is actually a Workstation Version of the SDK, meaning it is for developing applications on a PC using a simulator. Benefits also include marketing campaigns, Web presence, events, press releases, and so on. The other two levels, Microsoft Surface Partners and Strategic Partners, get even more benefits.
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Make fun of Apple's Newton MessagePad all you want, but the proto-PDA introduced by Apple in the early 90s managed to gather some rather tenacious followers. Current users of the then-revolutionary, now-exceedingly-bulky personal digital assistants were afraid that a date handling bug would render the devices useless beginning early next year. However, fear no more: a developer has come to the rescue with a patch for the Newton's OS that lets the device handle dates in 2010 and beyond.
The problem is similar to the dreaded Y2K problem that many computers faced in the late 90s (we'll take this chance to gloat that Macs never had this problem). Dates were essentially encoded using only the last two digits of the year, so computers would start reporting the year as 1900 instead of 2000 after New Year's Eve, 1999. While the impending implosion of life as we knew it never happened, lots of time and money went in to fixing the problem so that our increasingly computer-controlled life would continue without fail.
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The European Commission announced today that 10 mobile phone producers, which represent some 90 percent of the mobile phone market in the European Union, have signed a voluntary agreement to use standardized chargers for mobile phones using a micro-USB connector. The agreement addresses the EC's concern that mobile phone chargers create needless electronic waste.
European Commission Vice-President Günter Verheugen said during a press conference today that the mobile phone market in Europe alone is responsible for thousands of tons of waste each year as phones are upgraded and old ones are discarded on a short life cycle.
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All the Windows 7 news has inundated an interesting Zune HD rumor that deserves a little coverage. The information reportedly comes from a Software Engineer at Microsoft that has provided good information in the past, according to Neowin. The biggest detail noted is that the base 16GB model will be priced anywhere between $249 and $280 (no details on the 32GB model), and that Microsoft is also apparently considering releasing a 64GB model sometime after the first two arrive. This price range is a good one if you consider that the 16GB iPod Touch, which the Zune HD will likely be competing against, currently goes for $299. Apple still has time to do a price cut or capacity upgrade, however: the source agrees that the Zune HD is coming in early September, a rumor that sprang up last month.
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Google's open source Android operating system is maturing and beginning to attract a more diverse audience of third-party developers. To accommodate the growing need for more power and flexibility, Google is opening up the platform to additional programming languages and new kinds of development.
The Android userspace is largely dominated by Java technologies that run on top of Google's custom Dalvik Java virtual machine. At launch, Java was the only officially supported programming language for building distributable third-party Android software. That's starting to change as Google introduces new options. On Thursday, the company announced the availability of the Android Native Development Kit (NDK) which will allow developers to build Android software components with C and C++.
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Apple released the major iPhone OS 3.0 update just last Wednesday. Since then there have been conflicting reports of how quickly users are upgrading to the new OS, which offers a number of benefits to users of all of Apple's mobile devices.
Apple reported on Monday that over 6 million users had downloaded the 3.0 update so far. Given the approximate figure of about 40 million iPhones and iPod touches out there that can use the software, that represents about 15 percent adoption. If you count in the over 1 million iPhone 3GSs sold with 3.0 already installed, that works out to about 17 percent. We're inclined to believe that number is increasing daily, but Apple did not have a more recently updated figure to give us.
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As netbook sales continue to escalate out of sight, models and
manufacturers proliferate, and new platforms battle for supremacy in
the marketplace and in the minds of consumers and OEMs, analysts
continue to debate the suitability of netbook hardware to consumer
needs. NPD's most recent report on netbooks purports
to show, using direct user surveys, that consumers are highly confused
about netbooks, frustrated with their low performance, and typically
underuse their superb mobility. There are reasons for skepticism about
these results.
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SSDs are everyone's favorite inevitability, but due to rising NAND cost and other factors, SSDs won't achieve deep penetration in the notebook or low-cost markets in 2009 or 2010, NAND vendors expect. In 2010 and 2011, decreasing costs, increasing performance differentials, and Windows 7 will provide the push that makes SSDs a mainstream part of the PC storage portfolio.
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In an effort to stay competitive in the netbook segment, Hewlett Packard has announced a new netbook, the Mini 5101, which is to replace the Mini 2140 and will join the Mini 1101 in HP's offerings to business buyers.
The Mini 5101 offers several small improvements over the 2140, which was released only six months ago.The Mini 5101 will have a brighter LED screen and a spill-resistant keyboard that is 95 percent of full size, slightly larger than the 2140's 92 percent. The keys will be flat and similar in style to the Apple MacBook's "chiclet" keyboard. The 5101 is also getting a speed bump with the newest version of Intel's Atom processor, the N280, to 1.66GHz, a tiny bit faster than the 2140's 1.6GHz. The 5101 will retain the 2140's anodized aluminum casing, but will also have a magnesium metal bottom.
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From: Wired Top Stories
Bugatti's convertible is the pinnacle of internal-combustion car tech -- one that will probably never be surpassed with the auto industry's focus shifting to electric vehicles. Here's what it's like to drive it.
Fly fishers dread the question: "Catch anything today?" Dazzling your interrogators with cool gear might let you dodge the question. No gadget can improve your cast, but tech can surely enhance life on the water.
It's one thing to declare independence, but quite another to preserve the aging document from the ravages of time.
The Tour de France begins Saturday, July 4, in Monaco. Here's how to follow the three-week bike race using streaming audio and video, Twitter, Google Earth and other online tools.
Penguins, famous for the lengths they go to to protect their eggs and rear their young, may not be the most supportive couples around. When one member of a penguin couple is handicapped, the other doesn't step in to pick up the slack.
Delft University is back, ready to take a fifth consecutive title with Nuna 5.
Federal judge throws out Lori Drew's three misdemeanor convictions.
NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has begun producing high-resolution and wide-angle images of the moon's surface.
Sticking a battery and a motor in the Mini makes it a sweet little EV we could live with if it weren't for the stratospheric price tag.
When your brain is overloaded, it will often get stuck on exactly the thing you are trying to avoid thinking about, leading you to blurt out things you never meant to share.
From: Gizmodo
Warning: We haven't tested this because we're playing with fireworks. [Make It Rain via BBG]
Philippe Kahn describes the weather before the race.I took a serious look at the weather. What a mess! In 11 crossings I have never seen such messy weather patterns in the usually very predictable Pacific.
July 1st, 2009
The weather chart says it all. Instead of one beautiful strong, stable high pressure centered somewhere 800 nautical miles from San Francisco, there are now 10 different weather systems playing with each other. Yes, climate is changing! This makes it all the more interesting for the Transpac. We start Sunday the 5th at 1 PM out of Long Beach, California. I'd love to celebrate the 14th of July or Bastille Day in Honolulu watching the sunset by Diamond Head. But a lot has to happen before that!
The Pacific has been highly unusual over the last 30 days. In particular, sea level pressure has averaged below normal off the California coast and much below normal over the central Pacific, northwest of Hawaii. This pattern has resulted in a weak Pacific high, ridged in a north-south orientation.
That means that the wind has been a right-shifter along the California coast and weakened the strong North Westerlies that are typical of the first two days of Transpac. But, things may be changing fast.
My bet is that by the end of the week we will see consolidation of the high given the trends on the 500mb chart and as a consequence a more typical, fairly windy race. But it could go either way!
The Boat will make it to Long Beach this evening. The delivery team is making good progress.
Our goal for this race is the double-handed Transpac record. Last year we established a new double handed record from San Francisco to Hawaii. This year we start from Los Angeles.
Just two of us: Mark Christensen, VP of Engineering and myself, Chief tinkerer at Fullpower and 2250 nautical miles of open ocean between the start and Diamond Head!
Sailing Team:
Philippe Kahn
Mark "Crusty" Christensen
Boat Project management:
David Giles, Zan Drejes, Bruce Mahoney,
Onshore Pegasus Racing team:
Zan Dredjes, David Gilles, Bruce Mahoney, Mark Golsh, Jana Madrigali, Seth Larkin
Online Presence:
Caleb Dolister, Peter Spaulding, Arthur Kinsolving, Joe Dolister
Sailor's food:
Bonnie Willis
July 2nd,2009
Now we are running routes and the different forecasting models are very different as you can see from the chart. Wildly different. In fact I don't believe any of them. The great news is that the weather on the Pacific is settling. The upper level blockages are dissipating and we may be in for a more classic July North-East Pacific weather pattern.
I have to confess that I have been arguing with myself as to the playlists for the soundtrack during the next 8 days. Lots of deBussy, ravel, Faure and of course Iz!
The boat will make it to Long Beach today and I will post some pictures soon.
Philippe Kahn founded Borland, invented the Camphone, and decodes human motion. He's also a fellow outdoorsman, splitting time skiing Tahoe and sailing in Santa Cruz. He'll share his Transpac 2009 sailing race with us live from the Pegasus Open 50.
[Pegasus on Gizmodo, Pegasus]
Here's another clip from the Consumer Product Safety Commission that proves, once and for all, that it is not okay to point fireworks at family members. Happy July 4th everybody! [CPSC]
The Pentagon's wacky sci-fi department DARPA has been working on robotic hummingbird-based drones to serve as miniature spies. They're not nearly as agile or adorable as real hummingbirds, but DARPA is well on their way to achieving that dream.
Program manager Todd Hylton is aiming for "an approximately 10-gram aircraft that can hover for extended periods, can fly at forward speeds up to 10 meters per second, can withstand 2.5-meter-per-second wind gusts." Right now, though, the teeny robobird can only fly for about 20 seconds at a time. But with some hard work, some day we will produce a robotic hummingbird that will strike fear into the hearts of our enemies. Wait, is fear the right word? [Wired]
The official Gizmodo raceboat, the Pegasus Open 50, was originally rigged for reliability for global cruising. Going from CA to HI in a race requires more power. Here's a tour of the tech in the rigging, hull material and sails.
The video work is less than terrible, sorry, but hey, its a sailboat. I'm just trying to help you get your sea legs
Philippe Kahn founded Borland, invented the Camphone, and decodes human motion. He's also a fellow outdoorsman, splitting time skiing Tahoe and sailing in Santa Cruz. He'll share his Transpac 2009 sailing race with us live from the Pegasus Open 50.
[Pegasus on Gizmodo, Pegasus]
From: Wash Post Technology
In the war for wireless supremacy, there is Verizon vs. AT&T, the iPhone vs. the BlackBerry. -- And then there's Gary D. Maynard vs. the 23,000 residents of Maryland's state prisons. -- In his bid to snuff out mobile phones in Maryland's two dozen state lockups, Maynard, the state's public safety...
The Obama administration will proceed with a Bush-era plan to use National Security Agency assistance in screening government computer traffic on private-sector networks, with AT&T as the likely test site, according to three current and former government officials.
LOS ANGELES, July 3 -- A Missouri mother said she never should have been prosecuted for her role in a MySpace hoax directed at a 13-year-old girl who ended up committing suicide.
When you're lobbing radiation grenades and fighting aliens on the steps of the Jefferson Memorial on an otherwise quiet Washington evening, it's hard not to feel a sense of history. After all, this is the same address where the climactic final events of one of last year's best video games, Fallou...
Facebook activism, the trendy process by which we do good by clicking often, was in its full glory last week after the death of Iranian student Neda Agha Soltan, killed by gunfire in the streets of Tehran.
From: Ars Technica
SonyInsider dug up an FCC filing that indicates that the forthcoming PSP Go will have a significantly faster top processor speed than than current PSP models. Specifically, the Go's CPU can clock up to 480MHz, compared to the 333MHz speed of the existing models.
The site ends the post by asking the obvious question: "What will a 480MHz PSP Go bring to the table?" I suspect the answer to this is, "Nothing that hasn't already been announced." Let me explain.
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In an age where your boss, coworkers, parents, and even (*gasp*) grandparents are finally joining social networks, we are all more aware than ever that we had better keep things relatively clean. And if you were someone who joined MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, or a number of other sites years ago, you may have more cleaning up to do than usual—after all, back then, you were probably young(er) and dumb(er), posting silly pics of your drunken escapades or questionable updates regarding your unusual interest in English cucumbers.
If you delete questionable images of yourself, you may be in the clear—or you may not, depending on the social network. As it turns out, some social networks delete your images right away while others hold onto them even after claiming they've been deleted. This was the discovery made by researchers at Cambridge University last month when they found that images deleted from social media sites are often left on the server, ripe for anyone to embed elsewhere or link up.
We put this finding to the test and found that some of the most popular sites on the Internet do, in fact, keep images on their servers after you delete them. On May 21, 2009, we deleted photos from four of the networks most used by the Ars staff and readership and monitored them for six weeks. The four networks we checked were Flickr, Twitter, MySpace, and Facebook.
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There's no denying that gaming publisher Midway has had a rough time in the past year. After an insane saga of strange twists, turns, accusations, and increasingly dire news, most of us weren't entirely certain that the beleaguered publisher would actually survive to see 2010. Despite our doubts, it turns out that Midway is living to see another day, having just been acquired by Time Warner for $33 million.
For those of you new to the situation: after the company's much-hyped Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe earned lukewarm reviews and reasonable (though not amazing) sales numbers, Sumner Redstone sold his controlling interest in Midway for $100,000, and the publisher wound up laying off roughly 25 percent of its workforce and killed many games that were currently in development. It was then revealed that, even though employees weren't getting paid what was owed to them and the publisher was filing for bankruptcy, executives were still raking in a great deal of cash during all this.
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NASA's Mars Phoenix Lander, which spent the summer in Mars' northern polar regions performing a variety of science experiments, caused quite a stir when rumors circulated that it had discovered signs of life on the Red Planet. NASA eventually held a press conference to dispel the rumors, promising that more details would eventually be revealed when scientists got around to publishing papers that would describe the experiments in detail. That day has finally arrived; today's issue of Science contains four papers that describe various findings from the mission. There's no sign of alien life, but the studies do reveal an active water cycle on Mars—including night-time snowfall.
The papers rely on evidence from a variety of the instruments on the lander, and the description of the data provides an impressive catalog of the various ways that Phoenix could prod and query the Martian pole. In the months before Martian winter shut the lander down, it managed to dig a dozen trenches, taking soil samples from each. These samples went into wet and dry chemistry labs, had their conductivity tested, and were even examined using an atomic force microscope. Meanwhile, cameras and a LIDAR system (a laser-based range detector) scanned the surroundings.
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It isn't often that you find AT&T and the Electronic Frontier Foundation in agreement, but consensus has been reached on one matter: ASCAP's demand that wireless companies pay it license fees for ringtones is, well, ridiculous.On Wednesday EFF called the move "outlandish" and "a ploy to squeeze more money out of the mobile phone companies." The advocacy group filed a friend of the court brief with the United States District Court for the Southern District New York this week, which is hearing the dispute between ASCAP, AT&T, and Verizon over whether the telcos have to pay the music licensing body royalties for wireless ringtones. Joining the amicus brief are Public Knowledge and the Center for Democracy and Technology. Meanwhile CTIA - The Wireless Association, to which the big telcos belong, has also filed an amicus brief in the case.
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From: NYT > Technology
From: Autoblog
Filed under: Frankfurt Auto Show, Spy Photos, Sports/GTs, Porsche
With every iteration of the 911, Porsche makes incremental improvements to its iconic sports car and naturally, the next generation will be no exception.
This latest 911 prototype was caught at the Nurburgring sporting 997 sheetmetal, but it's what's on top and out back that deserves note. A double-bubble roof panel has been fitted, while underneath the rear camouflage is a sizeable wing and additional ducting. Look closely and you'll see a small sill at the base of the rear windscreen that's assumed to be feeding the rear-mounted flat-six - likely necessary keep the boxer cool while Porsche engineers figure out how the new contoured roof affects aerodynamics. If previous reports are to be believed, we can expect the next 911 to debut sometime in 2010, but we wouldn't rule out an appearance at the Frankfurt Motor Show this September.
Spy Shots: Next-gen Porsche 911 sporting double-bubble roof originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 03 Jul 2009 19:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: Aftermarket, SUVs, Mercedes-Benz
What is it lately that people don't seem to understand about hardcore off-roaders? They're not supposed to be aerodynamic, and they're not supposed to be pretty. And yet here we are yet again - after the modified Hummer recently spotted on eBay - looking at one of the world's most serious rock-climbing workhorses that's been smoothed out in controversial fashion, and in metallic Barney purple, no less.
What we have on one hand is the Mercedes Geländewagen, the same essential truck that Magna Steyr has been building for the Three-Pointed Star for some thirty years now. It's got the aerodynamic profile of a barn. Attached to a parachute. On the other, we have the E-Class, one of the most aerodynamically slippery cars on the market. Part of the same company's line-up, but just about as different as can be. And yet, thanks to what looks to be a not inconsequential amount of elbow grease, the two have come together to breed this remarkable concoction, which, we gather, was recently put up for sale on eBay. While we can't locate the auction itself, one has to figure that the owner is going to have a hard time selling a vehicle that's been so extensively "personalized."
[Source: Autogespot]
Behold: The one-of-a-kind Mercedes G/E-Class originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 03 Jul 2009 18:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: Car Buying, Ford, Earnings/Financials, Canada
Given the state of the market, the Ford Motor Company is on a bit of a roll right now. The Blue Oval posted an 11% decline in volume for June versus the same month in 2008; a far better number than nearly every competitor from Japan or Detroit. Ford also flat-out dominated the market in the Great White North, as the Dearborn, MI-based automaker ranked number one in sales volume for the first time in 50 years.
Ford outpaced perennial market leader General Motors by a substantial (for Canada) 5,000 units. Ford posted 27,408 sales for the month; a 24.6% increase over June 2008. Toyota and Honda also were in the rear view mirror, as the Japanese stalwarts managed sales declines of 17%. Chrysler was a distant fifth place, as bankruptcy and an outdated product lineup conspired to sink sales by 58% verses June 2008. Overall sales in Canada were down 13% on the month.
Ford's increase in sales was due in part to a surprising 41% increase in CUV and SUV sales. The F-150 also posted a healthy 59% increase, with Ford's Edge was up 23%.
[Source: London Free Press]
Ford reportedly tops sales charts in Canada for first time in 50 years originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 03 Jul 2009 18:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: Time Warp, Auction Action, Lifestyle, Motorcycles, Celebrities
Where does Batman get those wonderful toys? We may finally have an answer for the Joker: Batman shops on eBay, just like the rest of us, and he apparently also sells off his unwanted bits and pieces after they've served their purpose. Such is the case with the classic 1966 Batcycle, which was ably replaced a few years back by the far more menacing Batpod.The Caped Crusader must have finally decided the Batcycle would be better served fighting crime in the hands of a new hero than collecting dust in a remote corner of the Batcave, as it's just been sold on eBay with a final winning bid of $29,500. It seems that Batman had put just 8,245 miles on his Batcycle before retiring it for more advanced machinery.
According to the auction, the bike itself was designed and assembled by Kustomotive for the original 1966 Batman feature film and made subsequent appearances in the television series from the '60s. The seller notes that this Batcycle was based on a 250cc Yamaha Catalina with a custom sidecar featuring a removable go kart for Robin that was powered by its own 50cc engine. While it's clear that the Batcycle wasn't exactly a barnburner, it sure makes up for its lack of power with style.
[Source: eBay via Tilted Horizons]
eBay Find of the Day: 1966 Batcycle with sidecar originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 03 Jul 2009 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: Car Buying, Trends, China, Plants/Manufacturing
We've been hearing Chinese officials say for quite some time now that there are far too many automakers in the country for a healthy market in the long-term, but we didn't realize until today just how out-of-hand it may be. According to state-run Chinese news agency Xinhua, China has seen an unprecedented 89 new automobile launches so far this year.
That's surely a big number, but it doesn't really hit home until you consider that 89 vehicles in the first half of 2009 averages out to a new or heavily revised vehicle appearing in China once every two days. Of those new designs, 73 were cars, nine were SUVs, six were MPVs and - in contrast to typical American vehicle launches over the same period - only one was a crossover.
As you're surely aware, 2009 is only half over, and there are reportedly some 50 new vehicles still slated for introduction before the end of the year, equaling about 140 new models introduced in 2009. The good news, at least as far the bottom line goes, is that the new releases have translated into sales. The 4.96 million vehicles sold between January and May of this year represent a 14.29-percent increase over the same period in 2008. Still, considering the glut of new models hitting the market, one has to figure that a goodly number of those vehicles will go begging.
[Source: Gasgoo]
REPORT: China rolls out 89 new models in six months - that's one every two days originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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From: WSJ.com: Today's Free Features
If McCain wins the election, it may be thanks to Michigan -- a prize the Republicans think they can claim for the first time in nearly 20 years.
Millions of voters have moved out of the political party system. The decline of loyalty has made politics less stable and predictable -- and has resulted in close elections, writes Alan Brinkley.
A group of young economists are using statistical techniques to examine how television affects society, and their research shows it's not all bad.
The biggest project that Palin undertook as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, was an indoor sports complex. But what was to be her legacy has turned into a financial mess that continues to plague Wasilla.
A graphical look at how different investments, from REIT shares to crude oil, fared last week.
Indian dazzler "Slumdog Millionaire" and French film "I Loved You So Long" were highlights at this year's Telluride Film Festival.
Researchers have found tantalizing hints that our voting practices can be traced to a political psyche shaped by genetic traits.
For the past two years, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has run the most powerful sports league in the world. As new season opens, he discusses discipline issues, labor strife, overseas expansion and boosting revenue.
The chronic disease epidemic is upon us. The biggest challenge in primary-care medicine is dealing with the complications of obesity, diabetes and hypertension.
From: WSJ.com: What's News US
The Dow industrials climbed 40 points to close above the 8000 level despite grim economic data, capping the best four-week winning streak since 1933.
Ticketmaster said it was subpoenaed by government agencies investigating its activities in reselling concert tickets.
Banks that loaned Chrysler $6.8 billion are resisting government pressure to swap $5 billion of that debt for stock, hindering Chrysler's effort to restructure.
From: WSJ.com: What's News Technology
A federal appeals court ruled that Google will have to defend itself against a trademark lawsuit over certain search-related advertisements.
An open-Internet advocacy group is asking the FCC to investigate the treatment by Apple and AT&T of the low-cost Skype voice service on the iPhone.
Patriarch Partners, a private-equity firm, bested other bidders in a court auction to buy Polaroid's assets out of bankruptcy.
From: WSJ.com: Personal Technology
Western Digital's My Book World Edition is a new networkable hard disk that is simple for anyone with modern operating systems to use.
Walt answers readers' question on if it's worth switching networks just to buy an iPhone, how to forward an email in Gmail, and more.
Laptops tend to run hot, making them uncomfortable and sometimes painful to use on your lap. New trays and pads are designed to cool hot laptops and, in turn, cool laps.
From:
From: National Geographic News
 | Filipino inmates dance to "Thriller," a girl rests 1,400 feet in the air, and an elderly ape has a baby in this week's best news photos. |
 | Ice crystals drifting from Martian clouds resemble the glittering precipitation that falls in Earth's Arctic regions during winter, new data show. |
 | Rare "night shining" clouds linked to the 1908 Russian event and plumes from shuttle launches suggest that the blast was caused by an icy comet, a new study says. |
 | From artillery shows to hot dog eating, learn how Americans have celebrated the Fourth of July over the centuries. |
 | The Tower of Hercules, a sacred mountain, and royal tombs are among the sites recognized for their universal value to humanity during a 2009 World Heritage Committee session. |
From: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition
The US space agency's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft sends back its first images since reaching the Moon.
Hopes are dashed that some of the few remaining hirola antelope have managed to colonise new, safer territory.
Three new dinosaur species are found in Queensland, Australia, and named after the Outback song Waltzing Matilda.
Climate change is causing a breed of wild sheep in Scotland to shrink, according to research in the journal Science.
Europe's Planck telescope reaches its operating temperature, making it the coldest object in space.
From: New Scientist - Latest Headlines
While other uncrewed planes fly high to stay safe, this autonomous chopper can plan its way around obstacles close to the ground
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Researchers have used evolution to create immune cells able to destroy HIV far more effectively than the regular cells our body produces
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Lots of expecting mums now say they avoid even light drinking, but the latest study indicates that this may be an unnecessary precaution (full text available to subscribers)
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Racial barriers have toppled as two anonymous men have become the first non-white, non-celebrities to have their full genomes sequenced
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The amount of land available for future animal and plant sanctuaries may be less than thought because the scale of existing models is too large
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From: New Scientist - Online News
Software that can tell our emotional state is on the way, but will we like machines that can sense how we feel?
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Two independent studies show that the pandemic H1N1 flu virus binds deeper into the lungs than ordinary flu, which could explain why it is sometimes fatal
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Rice that has been genetically modified to produce pollen proteins and then release them in the gut during digestion is ready for human trials, say its creators
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Seagrass meadows, an important habitat for shrimps, crabs and juvenile fish, are disappearing fast
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Our top articles ranked by reader popularity.
- Laser light switch could leave transistors in the shade
- Treat killing like a disease to slash shootings
- Dinosaur mummy gives up organic material
- X-rays are smoking gun for middleweight black holes
- Sea level rise: It's worse than we thought
- Satellite creates best topographic map of the Earth
- Taxibot could save airlines billions
- Laser weapon dazzles but doesn't blind
- Trendy science findings more likely to be wrong
- Triple-engined car could smash land-speed record
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From: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel
"Green" fireworks produce less smoke and use fewer toxic metals than other pyrotechnics.
Why do blind faults shake harder when they break? Scientists find the answer.
Vegans have 5 percent lower bone mass density than non-vegans, research finds.
A nine-mile-high inflatable tower could offer cheap access to outer space.
Should NASA return to the moon or aim straight for Mars? Vote here.
From: SPACE.com
New image of a gaseous space nebula reveals tens of thousands of giant comet-like knots raining down.
NASA shifted the orbit of its Mars satellite Odyssey to make better use of its infrared camera for mapping the surface.
The power of computer processing could one day solve the riddle of life's origin.
The Air Force Space Command is "circling the wagons" to close some loopholes in the dissemination of potentially sensitive information.
There will be no fireworks in space, or even visible out the window, for American astronaut Michael Barratt.
From: Wired: Culture
Materials engineer Edgar Burchard has been watching packing materials fail for his entire career. In 1964, when he was a recent hire at BASF, the conglomerate narrowly escaped a public scandal. It had been crowing about the quality of its foam shells—brand-new tech at the time—so the PR guys dreamed up a brilliant publicity stunt: They would ship Michelangelo's La Pietà from the Vatican to the World's Fair in New York. Packed, of course, in their product.
But when expo workers in Queens pried open the wooden crate, they found the massive marble masterpiece listing dangerously to one side, just a bump away from catastrophe. Vatican staff chalked up the barely averted disaster to their excellent relations with God. But Burchard knew that divine intervention would never have been necessary if BASF's product were better designed.
Fast forward 30 years, to 1995. While Burchard was experimenting with refrigerator insulation, he came up with a novel way of molding low-density foam. The foam wasn't a very good insulator (in other words, not useful to him at the time), but he was impressed by how light and strong it was. He realized that he could use it to improve upon the packing peanut. Burchard shaped the new material into rough- textured lightning bolts of foam that locked together to stay put under the weight of heavy, priceless objects. He christened his creation Expans O Fill and in 1998 sent it to Michigan State University's School of Packaging for independent testing. It trounced all seven competitive products, transmitting up to 90 percent less shock and cushioning four times better than the packing peanut. Five years later, 3M bought the design, renamed it the Packing Noodle, and rolled it out in 2004.
Even though the Noodle was a vast improvement over the peanut, "they didn't sell well," says Carter Swift, a brand manager at 3M. "They were just too different." The Noodles came fitted together in compact, shrink-wrapped blocks. Retailers loved them because they took up such little shelf space. But consumers didn't understand that the blocks broke apart into hundreds of Noodles. In June, Burchard's brilliant idea was discontinued, and once again we're left with only God (and a few lesser earthly products) to protect our precious cargo.
Tech luminaries Ray Kurzweil (The Singularity Is Near) and Peter Diamandis (X Prize) recently opened Singularity University, which offers an interdisciplinary "graduate studies program" combining genetics, artificial intelligence, and engineering. It's nine weeks of deep thought with eminent theorists and business leaders. Just getting accepted would be... something.
If you?re a Star Trek fan, you?ve surely considered the differences between the captains in the various series, even if you don?t have a favorite. And, while Sisko, Janeway, and even Archer have their fans, the quintessential Star Trek debate has been, since TNG premiered nearly 22 years ago, who?s the better captain: Kirk or Picard?
Forget the notion of a reverent nature photographer tiptoeing through the woods, camera slung over one shoulder, patiently looking for perfect light. Robert Buelteman works indoors in total darkness, forsaking cameras, lenses, and computers for jumper cables, fiber optics, and 80,000 volts of electricity. This bizarre union of Dr. Frankenstein and Georgia O'Keeffe spawns photos that seem to portray the life force of his subjects as the very process destroys them.
Golden Columbine
Photo: Robert Buelteman
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Buelteman's technique is an elaborate extension of Kirlian photography (a high-voltage photogram process popular in the late 1930s) and is considered so dangerous and laborious that no one else will attempt it—even if they could get through all the steps.
Buelteman begins by painstakingly whittling down flowers, leaves, sprigs, and twigs with a scalpel until they're translucent. He then lays each specimen on color transparency film and, for a more detailed effect, covers it with a diffusion screen. This assemblage is placed on his "easel"—a piece of sheet metal sandwiched between Plexiglas, floating in liquid silicone. Buelteman hits everything with an electric pulse and the electrons do a dance as they leap from the sheet metal, through the silicone and the plant (and hopefully not through him), while heading back out the jumper cables. In that moment, the gas surrounding the subject is ionized, leaving behind ethereal coronas. He then hand-paints the result with white light shining through an optical fiber the width of a human hair, a process so tricky each image can take up to 150 attempts.
Because there's no lens to distort the colors, Buelteman's work replicates natural hues far better than traditional photographs. "I'm calling into question what we see every day," Buelteman says. "Is that really a flower? Have I been blind my entire life?" You can see for yourself in his recently published book, Signs of Life.
Alstroemeria, sp.
Photo: Robert Buelteman
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Cannabis sativa
Photo: Robert Buelteman
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Cortaderia selloana
Photo: Robert Buelteman
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Eucalyptus polyanthemos
Photo: Robert Buelteman
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Galisteo Roses
Photo: Robert Buelteman
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Helianthus annuus
Photo: Robert Buelteman
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White Clematis
Photo: Robert Buelteman
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You may think that ?Little House on The Prairie? is pretty much just about Laura Ingalls running through the tall grass in a calico dress. But there?s a lot more D.I.Y. than dresses: This is life before Home Depot.
From: Reuters: Top News
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - Sarah Palin, the brash, deeply conservative governor of Alaska who crashed onto the U.S. national political scene last year as the Republican candidate for U.S. vice president, announced abruptly on Friday she was resigning as governor.
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea fired five ballistic missiles on Saturday, South Korea's defense ministry said, in an act of defiance toward the United States that further stoked regional tensions already high due to its nuclear test in May.
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Friday rejected U.S. President Barack Obama's charge that he was mired in Cold War thinking, setting the scene for a stormy first meeting at a Moscow summit next week.
NEW YORK/VIENNA (Reuters) - Austrian fund manager Sonja Kohn did not receive any kickbacks from Bernard Madoff to steer Bank Medici customer funds to the swindler's investment business, a Medici lawyer said on Friday.
TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - The Organization of American States prepared to suspend Honduras on Saturday after a caretaker government refused to restore ousted President Manuel Zelaya and defiantly renounced the OAS charter in an apparent preemptive move.
From: SCI FI Wire
Because of the Fourth of July holiday, SCI FI Wire will not be updated again until Monday.
A new trailer has gone live for the upcoming animated sci-fi family comedy Planet 51, which you can view after the jump.
The long July 4th holiday weekend kicks off tomorrow, which for many of us means trips to the beach, burgers on the grill and fireworks (only where legal, of course). But it should also mean some time spent remembering those patriots who defended our liberty—both the real ones who fought for our freedoms and those fictional ones who on television and at the movies reminded us what that liberty was all about.
With that in mind, let's take a look back at our 10 favorite sci-fi examples of patriotic film and TV.
A two-minute film, "House of Imagination," has gone live to reflect SCI FI's brand evolution to Syfy on Tuesday, celebrating Syfy's unique spin on imagination.
The new film features stars from Warehouse 13, Eureka, Ghost Hunters, Caprica, Sanctuary, Stargate Universe, Destination Truth and ECW.
The Hollywood Reporter says that Universal has won a four-studio bidding war to pick up the film rights to the classic Atari video game Asteroids, for which Matthew Lopez will write the script; the game, initially released in 1979, lets a player control a triangular spaceship to shoot and destroy hulking masses of rock and the occasional flying saucer while avoiding smashing into both.
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ABC has picked up the 13-episode sci-fi series Defying Gravity, starring Ron Livingston, which is slated to air this summer, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The show stars Laura Harris, Christina Cox, Malik Yoba and Florentine Lahme and is set in the near future and revolves around a mysterious six-year mission through the solar system.
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