Technology Effect

email share   Two weeks after the U.S. launch, the iPad 2 will become available in 25 additional countries on Friday, March 25, Apple has announced. The countries are Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the U.K. Apple’s suggested price for the iPad 2 is the same as the U.S. price. It starts at $499 for the Wi-Fi-only, 16 GB model, and costs $829 for the 64 GB model with Wi-Fi and 3G. However, in reality, the prices in most of the above countries will be somewhat higher than in the U.S. Apple has also announced that the iPad 2 will be available in Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore and additional countries in April.

  After waiting for nearly 10 years, Google finally won a patent on its “Google Doodles” on Tuesday. The patent , titled “Systems and methods for enticing users to access a web site [sic],” protects Google’s system of changing a company logo to correspond with a special event or story line as well as its practice of associating a link or search results with said special event logo. Google co-founder Sergey Brin is credited as the inventor of the system. Considering this is the company that created a car that can drive itself, a patent on doodles might seem a bit frivolous. But remember, this is also the company that successfully patented its nearly blank homepage design in 2009. Do you think Doodles deserve a patent? Let us know in the comments.

  Today is World Water Day, and the term is already trending pretty hard on Twitter . And for good reason too. World Water Day is aimed at raising awareness around water sanitation issues, which are rather prevalent on a planet where people are more likely to have cellphones than toilets. While it may not be the most talked about issue, Water.org estimates that diarrhea kills more young children than AIDS, malaria and measles combined. World Water Day hopes to raise awareness, as well as raise some funds for issues ranging from clean drinking water, to digging new wells, to basic sanitation and hygiene. If you’re looking to get involved and show your support for water sanitation issues world-wide, we’ve collected some ways that you can join in. How You Can Help The United Nations : The U.N. has created a social media outreach aimed at gathering opinion, thought and support around water issues. Check out its Twitter , Facebook , and Flickr pages dedicated to World Wat...

  AOL is planning to shutter about 30 of its online media brands, according to multiple reports. The news comes as little surprise after the struggling tech giant laid off about 900 employees earlier this month, shortly following its $315 million acquisition of The Huffington Post . The staff of some publications were wiped completely. Many of AOL’s existing sites will be rolled into existing Huffington Post verticals, such as Politics Daily (to be folded into HuffPost Politics ), Walletpop (now a part of Daily Finance ), Urlesque (folded into HuffPost Comedy ), PopEater (folded into HuffPo Entertainment ), Luxist (folded into StyleList ), ShelterPop (also folded into StyleList ) and TV Squad (folded into AOL TV ), according to Forbes and All Things D . AOL blogs Lemondrop and Asylum have already ceased publication. We have reached out to AOL for confirmation of these changes and will update this post with any further information.

The Mobile App Trends Series is sponsored by Sourcebits , a leading product developer for mobile platforms. Sourcebits offers design and development services for iOS, Android, Mobile and Web platforms. Follow Sourcebits on Twitter for recent news and updates. The mobile application world continues to expand at a breakneck pace. If 2010 was all about push notifications and “real-time alerts,” 2011 is about localized content, better photo and video support and cloud-based storage. We want to highlight some of the trends that are already taking hold of the mobile app market or that we expect to take off in the near future. 1. Localized Search and Deal Updates The explosion of location-based technology was revolutionary in the app world. Now we’re using that location information to deliver personalized and relevant updates and alerts. The number of apps and services that support hyper-local experiences is on the small side, but this is an area that is ripe for growth. Locatio...

  Think you’re pretty smart, figuring out a way to get around that 20-article limit The New York Times will begin imposing in the U.S. next Monday (3/28)? Not so fast. In the new paywall scheme, if you get to a Times article by following a link, it doesn’t count against the 20 articles you can read for free before you have to pay a monthly subscription fee. That’s where Twitter feed @FreeNYTimes could come in handy, linking to every single New York Times article so people can use Twitter as a free jumping-off spot. But the Gray Lady is having none of that. Today it asked Twitter to disable @FreeNYTimes because “it is a violation of our trademark,” according to a spokesperson for the Times . A Forbes reporter asked her about other ways to get around the paywall. For example, a simple browser app called NYTClean gives you admittance to any article with a single click. The Times said that’s to be expected. They will continue to monitor the situation and plan no changes, t...

  When 20-year-old Nitesh Bhakta wrote “HELP, ROBBERS, NO PHONE.” as her Facebook status, many of his 700 friends thought he was joking. Thankfully, Nitesh’s best friend took it seriously and alerted the police in Bartow County, Georgia. The action prevented the robbers that were keeping his grandmother and younger sister hostage to complete the robbery. As soon as they heard the sirens, they ran off. The officers were able to catch one of the alleged robbers, according to The Atlanta Journal Constitution . It all happened last Wednesday night, when University of Georgia sophomore Nitesh was in his room at home. He heard his grandmother scream, and as soon as he opened the door, he saw three masked guys with guns. He quickly locked the door and went to the attic to hide, not before taking his own essential weapon: his laptop. From there, he was smart enough to think that posting something about it on Facebook might get him help. “I...