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Showing posts from March 27, 2011

Nintendo ready to take 3-D gaming to mass market

NEW YORK (AP) -- With the Nintendo 3DS, the Japanese video game company is betting that it can once again nudge mass entertainment in a new direction, just as it did nearly five years ago when it launched the Wii with its innovative motion-based controller. This time, though, the competition from other devices is tougher. The handheld 3DS, which goes on sale in the U.S. on Sunday for $250, lets users play 3-D games without wearing special glasses. It also takes 3-D photos. This summer, the 3DS will play 3-D movies streamed from Netflix on its 3.5-inch screen. Reggie Fils-Aime, the president of Nintendo's U.S. arm, calls it "the first mass-market 3-D device." Nintendo's handheld gaming systems have been wildly popular since the days of the Game Boy, but in recent years people have grown accustomed (and sometimes addicted) to playing games on their smartphones. "Angry Birds," for example, is played by 40 million people a mont

Why Would Google Release an iPhone-Only Group Messaging App?

Were you tired of free, data-based messaging with apps like Beluga or GroupMe? Were you over quick and easy location sharing? In-line mobile image sharing? Push notifications? Then worry not, because Disco has come along to take away all the frills and leave your group messaging experience without any of the perks of a smartphone with a data plan. The punchline here is that Slide - the company acquired by Google last summer - has just released an iPhone-only group messaging app that does nothing offered by all of its competition. Even Google doesn't have much to say on the topic, but maybe that's because the company behind the fastest growing mobile OS has something up its sleeve. A word from our sponsor: The Future of the Web is at MIX11, April 12-14 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. MIX is a gathering of developers, designers, UX experts and business professionals creating the most innovative and profitable consumer sites on the web. Sessions r

Twitter’s Long History With Malware

  Ever since exploding at SXSW Interactive in 2007, Twitter has struggled with malware of all kinds. From clickjacking (see below) to worms to trending topics scams to out-and-out hacks, Twitter has become one of a handful of popular social tools used to spread viruses and other malware around the web. Concern about Twitter’s security was so extensive in 2010 that the FTC conducted an investigation of the service and its anti-malware measures. Facebook typically sees far more security issues than Twitter does — but Twitter, at roughly 200 million accounts, has a fraction of Facebook’s 500 million-strong crowd. As Twitter grows, so will the opportunities for black-hat hackers to exploit the service. Here’s a brief, graphic history of Twitter’s experience with malignant code and bad intentions. Let us know in the comments if you were ever taken in by any of these scams. This infographic comes to us from SecureList , the blog of web security firm Kaspersky Lab .

Mobile By The Numbers

Mobile is a rapidly developing sector. According to some projections, mobile internet usage will overtake desktop usage before 2015. In preparation, companies are developing new mobile commerce platforms, strategies, and marketing efforts. Microsoft Tag recently attempted to sum up this constantly changing space with a single infographic . Here’s the summary: The mobile market is large; local searches, games, and YouTube are all doing well on Mobile; and socializing is the most prominent use of the mobile Internet. See the full infographic below.

Placebook puts your Facebook friends on the map with style

We recently covered  MeMap , an iPhone app that adds a visual layer to Facebook Places by placing your friends on a map. Placebook is site that takes a different approach by presenting broader information about your friends as a set of gorgeous graphs. The site was created by map has been created by two students at a university in the Czech Republic for a Web mapping competition. Logged out, the site displays information about the Facebook population as a whole broken down by country. Collected in August last year, the data’s a little out of date, but when you’re logged in you get data tailored to your own social graph. Your friends are laid out on a zoomable world map. Meanwhile, beautiful infographics displaying your friends’ home countries, how far away they are from you and which of your friends know each other are all available, providing the site can locate you based on your profile information or IP number. How truly useful is it? No

Samsung S3850 Corby II – Review

Samsung adds all the features that are good so that consumers could not abandon the products. So Samsung presents the latest propagation of Corby with a low price . Software Samsung Corby II measures only 109.9 x 60.6 x 11.7 mm and weight only 102g. Samsung Corby II has 3.2″ capacitive TFT touch screen with QVGA. It has internal 26MB storage but memory can be enhanced through microSD card slot. It is capable of displaying 262k colors with 240×320 resolutions. The handset offers standard network connectivity options with GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz and GPRS/EDGE class 12. All smartphones offers Touch screen, Wi-Fi 802.11, multitasking, Bluetooth 3.0 with A2DP profile , standard microUSB port 2.0,app store but no wonder the Corby II has them all on its list of features. Handset has FM radio with RDS; accelerometer sensor; facebook and Twitter integration; DNSe sound enhancement. Samsung S3850 Corby II has bigger screen and better specs aside. The Corby II is for beginners that w

Google Wave Is Now an Apache Project

  It’s official: Google Wave is now Apache Wave. A couple weeks ago, Google made a proposal to the Apache Software Foundation to take the reins on Wave. Wave, which only launched to the public in 2009, saw lackluster adoption; Google officially halted development in August and open-sourced the code in September. In Google’s proposal to Apache, the former company stated its goals were to migrate Wave’s codebase from Google to ASF’s infrastructure, to get Wave back to a state of active development and to bring new committers into the project. The proposal also noted that Wave still had some big-name users, including the U.S. Navy. Apache has now accepted that proposal , and Google is preparing for a few changes. Googler Alex North wrote on the company blog, “We’re spinning up the project infrastructure so that the community can continue to grow in the Apache way.” North also mentioned that several new, non-Google committers are coming to the Wave project; other contributors

12 Laws of the Future

For several decades now I have been contemplating our relationship with the future. Many of my colleagues think of me as that crazy guy who assigns human attributes to this thing we call the future. On occasion you can hear me uttering phrases like, “I know it’s going to be a great day because the future is clearly happy with me today.” Or, “no, that’s not a good idea because the future is probably going to push it off a cliff.” At one point I even tried to convince my wife that the future wanted me to buy a new car, but she wasn’t buying it. So why is it so important to study the future? For starters, we all have a vested interest in it. We will all be living in the future. The Physics of Time Vs the Physics of the Future “As physicists, we believe the separation between past, present, and future is only an illusion, although a convincing one.” – Albert Einstein From everything I’ve studied, past observers have focused on the concept of the future as being a consequence of time

Boxee iPad App To Enable Streaming from iPad to Your TV or PC

  Boxee will soon release an iPad app that will enable wireless video streaming to any device running Boxee software, Pocket-lint has learned. According to Boxee VP of Marketing Andrew Kippen, the app technically will not use Apple’s wireless technology, AirPlay , but the video streaming will work in a similar fashion. Users will be able to stream video not only to a Boxee Box, but also to a Mac or a PC running Boxee’s desktop software. The app, which will be compatible with iPad 1 and 2, is not ready yet, but should become available soon.

How the Web Has Changed Our Perception of Copyright Law

  Kaiser Wahab is a Media, Venture, and Tech Attorney at the NY firm of Wahab & Medenica , who loves to counsel a biz with something to say and thanks his intern, Lauren Mack , for her work on this piece. Read more on his blog or follow him on Twitter @BizMediaLaw . There is no doubt that in 2011, copyright law isn’t what it was in 1976. The web (and mobile) have all forced the aging statute to evolve in ways that were never anticipated in a world of digital everything. Only late last year, the Obama administration began the potential reform process via an inquiry into the government’s stance on copyright on the net, and an end result is still years to come. While legislation stagnates, a new, aggressive approach to enforcing the 34-year-old law against online infringement by private and government interests is pushing the judicial envelope to fill the void. Here’s what it means, and some new tactics used to enforce copyright. 1. Factory Style Suits vs. Thousands of Ja

Writing Popular Science Books Doesn’t Make You a Scientist

  Science writer Simon Winchester (author of Map That Changed the World , Krakatoa , and more) has found himself at the center of widespread criticism from geologists and geophysicists, especially earthquake experts, for an article he penned for Newsweek last week titled The Scariest Earthquake is Yet to Come . The article starts off as an appropriate warning of how dangerous Earth’s processes can be to humanity. Winchester recounts the horror of the massive earthquake and devastating tsunami in Japan. He then mentions the recent Christchurch and Chile earthquakes ending his article with: It is as though the earth becomes like a great brass bell, which when struck by an enormous hammer blow on one side sets to vibrating and ringing from all over. Now there have been catastrophic events at three corners of the Pacific Plate—one in the northwest, on Friday; one in the southwest, last month; one in the

Amazon App Store Requires Security Compromise

Android phones, like this Motorola Defy, can install apps from sources other than Google's official Android Market. But doing so poses security risks. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com Amazon’s new app store offers some killer deals and can make it easier for customers to purchase Android software. However, installing it reduces overall security for Android devices, some security experts say. The root of the issue is the requirement to allow installations from “unknown sources,” in order to put Amazon’s Appstore app on an Android phone. Amazon instructs customers that this option must be enabled to install apps sold through the Amazon Appstore . Selecting that option immediately puts Android customers at risk to malware that could come from sources that go unchecked by Google and the general Android community, said Charlie Miller, a security researcher well known for finding exploits on mobile devices. “As soon as you flip that switch and go away from the Android Market, whi

Google Says Microsoft’s Latest Android Lawsuit Threatens Innovation

  Over the last six months, Microsoft has targeted several of Google’s Android partners with patent infringement lawsuits, but has yet to go after Google itself. The latest example is Microsoft’s campaign against Barnes & Noble, which it says violates Microsoft patents in its Nook e-book reader that runs Android. The company has also sued Foxconn and Inventec, hardware manufacturers that build components for the Nook. The latest lawsuit follows last October’s Microsoft attack on Motorola , another key Google Android partner. Taken together, these developments suggest that Microsoft is waging a proxy battle against Google by targeting its partners, while holding fire on Google itself, perhaps wary of a full-on Battle Royale with the web-search juggernaut. But that’s not the case, a Microsoft spokesperson told Wired.com. “Microsoft has taken these actions against Barnes & Noble, Foxconn and Invente

Sprint Teams Up With Google Voice

Google Voice is getting a lot easier for Sprint mobile phone customers to use starting Monday. The two companies are making it possible for customers to integrate their Sprint and Google Voice numbers, regardless of whether their phones are smart or dumb. Sprint customers who don’t have Google Voice can now choose to use their existing Sprint number as their Google Voice number, without having to go through the hassle of porting it over to Google. The move gives Sprint a marketing tool to win new customers — something Sprint will need if AT&T gets clearance to buy T-Mobile . The partnership also offloads some of the work in building new voicemail and phone features to Google, while the search and advertising giant finds a way to tie even more users to its web of software products. It also marks the first time that a mobile carrier has partnered with Google Voice — which many had seen as a way for Goog

Apple Way Ahead of Tablet Competition, Expected To Hold 80 Percent Share

The latest analysis from market research firm IDC shows that Apple snagged nearly three-quarters of the tablet market during the fourth quarter of 2010. Though Samsung’s 7-inch Galaxy Tab offered some competition, Apple captured 83 percent of the market for 2010, and most analysts believe that with the iPad 2, Apple can maintain about 80 percent share for 2011 as well. IDC’s research also showed that Amazon’s Kindle continues to be a market leader, grabbing almost half of the e-reader market in fourth quarter 2010. With Amazon representing the closest competition to Apple with respect to available content and e-commerce infrastructure, Forrester researcher Sarah Rotman believes Amazon is best poised to give Apple the most credible threat to its dominating market position, assuming it could assemble a more general-purpose tablet with a color screen. Data: IDC The overall tablet market grew 124 percent consecutively from third quarter

Yahoo Debuts ‘Future of Search’

Yahoo is looking to one-up Google and its own search partner Bing, offering a new search experience it describes as the “fastest thing you have ever seen.” The new product called Search Direct combines instant search — showing results as you type — with instant answers, so that typing in “amzn” instantly shows a full box with stock quotes about Amazon.com. For searches it has no answer to, it shows search links immediately in an easy-to-navigate box above a typical search-results page. Yahoo, which looked to have abandoned the search game when it outsourced its search backend to Microsoft, says Search Direct — and its emphasis on user experience — is the future of search. “I want you to remember three words: ‘answers, not links,’” Shashi Seth, Yahoo’s vice president for search told a room of tech reporters in San Francisco as he demo’d the product. Search Direct is live on search.yahoo.com and other U.S. Yahoo search properties, but not the homepage yet. The same experi

Say ‘Moshi Moshi’ to a Sleek Handset With Multiple Personalities * Native Union Moshi Moshi 04

The first thing you’ll notice about the Moshi Moshi 04 is its 1960s-inspired Eero Saarinen styling. So cool-looking is the brushed aluminum and high-impact plastic hunk of eye candy, it almost makes the handset’s impressive functionality seem secondary. But as seductive as the design is, the Moshi Moshi 04 knows too many tricks to be considered just a pretty curio. In fact, it does triple duty on your desktop — it’s a handset you can use to make phone calls, a speaker phone for conference calls and a set of portable stereo speakers. British manufacturer Native Union has produced several iterations of these mobile-phone handsets. They take their name from the idiomatic greeting the Japanese say when answering their phones. (It means hello, sort of.) Most of the Moshi Moshis are designed by Frenchman David Turpin, but this one has been dreamed up by renowned British designer Michael Young . It comes in two colors — gold and silver. The handset talks to

Amazon's Third-Generation Kindle Keeps e-Reader Fire Burning

Though Amazon.com won’t say how many units it has sold, its Kindle e-reader has been a tremendous success for the e-commerce giant. Some analysts estimate Amazon sold 3 million before this year, and will double that total in 2010. Despite some predictions that the iPad and other Web-oriented tablets would start the Kindle doom clock ticking, its continued popularity bodes well for the future of single-purpose long-form reading devices. The new third-generation Kindle only makes that future brighter. All its basic virtues—instant downloading from an abundantly stocked store, light weight, ability to read in sunlight—are still there, with significant improvements in text readability, physical design, and battery life. And the Kindle’s march towards an inevitable double-digit price point continues, with a new, Wi-Fi only version priced at $139, fifty dollars cheaper than the standard 3G wireless version (which also adds Wi-Fi.) Both versions begin shipping on August 27, but

iPhone Camera is World’s Most Popular Camera

Before introducing the first iPhone to the world, Steve Jobs said, “Every once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything”. Actually he was right. Now iPhone became the most popular phone in the world within 4 years of its launch. Well, Another interesting thing is that the camera of iPhone is the most popular camera of the world. An infographic has been posted at geekaphone which shows how the iPhone became world’s most popular camera. You can see this infographic posted below.