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Apple

Submission + - Microsoft's Creepy Retail Experience (lee-phillips.org) 1

Submitted by
lee1
lee1 writes: "The author peers into a Microsoft store and spies a sea of Microsoft employees, vastly outnumbering the few customers. Later, he notices an animated crowd of civilians surrounding a Microsoft display. But it's not the product that they're excited about."
NASA

Submission + - Source of Pioneer space probe deceleration anomaly found. (ieee.org)

Submitted by deathcow
deathcow writes: After forty years, a fresh perspective on old Pioneer data leads to new conclusions as to why the Pioneer probes are decelerating. Many theories to the slowing probes have persisted over the years — was it gravity? some type of unforeseen radiation? dark matter?

Thanks to the data backup preservation efforts of a NASA Ames Research engineer, mountains of old telemetry data were still available for studying this curious anomaly.

Submission + - Khanna Axed Over Copyright Memo (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Bob9113
Bob9113 writes: Ars Technica reports that Derek Khanna is getting axed over his memo detailing the conflict between laissez-faire-oriented free market ideals and the regulatory monopoly that is copyright.
"The Republican Study Committee, a caucus of Republicans in the House of Representatives, has told staffer Derek Khanna that he will be out of a job when Congress re-convenes in January. The incoming chairman of the RSC, Steve Scalise (R-LA) was approached by several Republican members of Congress who were upset about a memo Khanna wrote advocating reform of copyright law. They asked that Khanna not be retained, and Scalise agreed to their request."
EU

Submission + - Facebook Says EU 'Right To Be Forgotten' Would Harm Privacy (techweekeurope.co.uk)

Submitted by
judgecorp
judgecorp writes: "The European Commission has proposed a "right to be forgotten" online, which would allow users to remove personal data they had shared. The idea has had a lot of criticism, and now Facebook claims it would actually harm privacy. Facebook says the proposal would require social media sites to perform extra tracking to remove data which has been copied to other sites — but privacy advocates say Facebook has misunderstood what the proposal is all about"
Businesses

Submission + - A twisted cleantech tale: How A123 wound up in bankruptcy (xconomy.com)

Submitted by
curtwoodward
curtwoodward writes: "Advanced battery maker A123 Systems was supposed to be one of the marquee names of the U.S. cleantech manufacturing scene — it won hundreds of millions in federal grants, had operations around the globe, and supplied the luxury Fisker electric car. In 2009, as the economy sputtered, A123 registered the country's biggest IPO. Today, it's in bankruptcy court, with possible buyers submitting bids for its parts and pieces. How'd A123 fall so far, so fast? As losses mounted, its reliance on just two big customers came back to haunt the company — and a series of screwups at a Michigan plant delivered the final blow."

Submission + - Old technology coexisting with new 1

Submitted by thereitis
thereitis writes: Looking over my home computing setup, I see equipment ranging from 20 years old to several months old. What sorts of old and new equipment have you seen coexisting, and in what type of environment?

Submission + - Startup Company GreenThrottle Turns Your Android Smartphone Into a Game Console (hothardware.com)

Submitted by
MojoKid
MojoKid writes: "Time we spend making calls on smartphones pales in comparison to the other activities we use it for, like surfing the web, logging into Facebook, streaming music and video, and of course playing games. It's that latter functionality that a startup called Green Throttle wants to tap into, and given the horsepower of today's smartphones, it makes a lot of sense. The company envisions harnessing the power of today's well-equipped Android smartphones and tablets in order to play console-like games on your HDTV. Right now the concept is limited to select devices — Google Nexus, Samsung Galaxy S II and S III, HTC One X, Kindle Fire HD, and Asus Transformer — though the company says it's adding to the list quickly. The system is fairly simple. You load Green Throttle's Arena app on your compatible device and start gaming using the company's Bluetooth-enabled Atlas controller, which looks a lot like an Xbox 360 controller, then push your phone's HDMI output to an HDTV."
Desktops (Apple)

Submission + - Apple CEO Tim Cook: We'll Bring Manufacturing to U.S. (slashdot.org)

Submitted by
Nerval's Lobster
Nerval's Lobster writes: "In a new interview with Bloomberg Businessweek, Apple CEO Tim Cook offered some perspective on his first year in the commander’s seat. While typically reluctant to share many details of the company’s future plans, he did drop one interesting detail: Apple is bringing more of its manufacturing back to the United States. “Next year we are going to bring some production to the U.S. on the Mac,” Cook told the magazine. “We’ve been working on this for a long time, and we were getting closer to it. It will happen in 2013. We’re really proud of it. We could have quickly maybe done just assembly, but it’s broader because we wanted to do something more substantial.” He also had comments about Android and current litigation against Samsung and others."
Microsoft

Submission + - Windows 8: A 'Christmas gift for someone you hate' (bgr.com) 1

Submitted by zacharye
zacharye writes: Microsoft is no stranger to criticism these days, and the company’s new Windows 8 platform is once again the target of a scathing review from a high-profile user. Well-known Internet entrepreneur and MIT professor Philip Greenspun handed Windows 8 one of its most damning reviews yet earlier this week, calling the new operating system a “Christmas gift for someone you hate.” Greenspun panned almost every aspect of Microsoft’s new software, noting that Microsoft had four years to study Android and more than five to examine iOS, but still couldn’t build a usable tablet experience...
Science

Submission + - Researchers Find Way to Suppress Certain Types of Memories (gizmag.com)

Submitted by Zothecula
Zothecula writes: We’re all carrying around some cringe-inducing memories that we’d rather forget. But for those suffering Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), recalling certain memories can provoke fearful, emotional experiences. By the same token, some memories can remind those battling drug addiction of the rewarding effects of the drug and trigger a relapse. Researchers at Canada’s Western University have found a way to effectively block these types of memories that could lead to better treatments for both conditions.

Submission + - Thorium Fuel has Proliferation Risk (phys.org)

Submitted by Capt.Albatross
Capt.Albatross writes: Thorium has attracted interest as a potentially safer fuel for nuclear power generation. In part, this has been because of the absence of a route to nuclear weapons, but a group of British scientists have identified a path that leads to uranium-233 via protactinium-233 from irradiated thorium. The protactinium separation could possibly be done with standard lab equipment, which would allow it to be done covertly, and deliver the minimum of U233 required for a weapon in less than a year.

The full article is in Nature, paywalled.
Android

Submission + - Which Web Browser Should You Run On Your Android Device? (tomshardware.com) 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: This site regularly does performance shootouts of the top desktop Web browsers, and they've finally tested the options available on Android. Due to Apple's anti-3rd-party browser stance, and Windows RT's IE-only advantage on the "Desktop", Android is the only mobile platform where browser competition is thriving. The results are pretty surprising, with the long-time mobile browsers like Dolphin, Maxthon, Sleipnir, and the stock Android browser coming out ahead of desktop favorites like Firefox, Opera, and even Chrome. Dolphin, thanks to its new Jetpack HTML5 engine, soars ahead of the competition.
Graphics

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Best Laptop With Decent Linux Graphics Support? 4

Submitted by jcreus
jcreus writes: After struggling for some years with Nvidia cards (the laptop from which I am writing this has two graphic cards, an Intel one and Nvidia one, and is a holy mess [I still haven't been able to use the Nvidia card]) and, encouraged by Torvalds' middle finger speech, I've decided to ditch Nvidia for something better. I am expecting to buy another laptop and, this time, I'd like to get it right from the start. It would be interesting if it had decent graphics support and, in general, were Linux friendly. While I know Dell has released a Ubuntu laptop, it's way off-budget. My plan is to install Ubuntu, Kubuntu (or even Debian), with dual boot unfortunately required. Thanks in advance, Slashdot!
Earth

Submission + - The Moons local gravity mapped (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by Dupple
Dupple writes: "If you look at how highly cratered the Moon is — the Earth used to look like that; parts of Mars still do look like that," explained Prof Maria Zuber, Grail's principal investigator from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US.

"This period of time when all these impacts where occurring — this was the time when the first microbes were developing.

"We had some idea from the chemistry [of ancient rocks] that Earth was a violent place early on, but now we now know it was an extremely difficult place energetically as well, and it shows just how tenacious life had to be to hang on," she told BBC News.

Prof Zuber was speaking in San Francisco at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting, the world's largest annual gathering for Earth and planetary scientists..
Power

Submission + - Australian researchers develop promising new approach to hydrogen storage (gizmag.com)

Submitted by cylonlover
cylonlover writes: Scientists at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Australia, are developing a novel way to store hydrogen that could help turn it into a viable portable fuel source. The research centers on using synthesized nanoparticles of the compound sodium borohydride (NaBH4 for those who love chemistry), which when encased inside nickel shells exhibits surprising and practical storage properties including the ability to reabsorb hydrogen and release it at much lower temperatures than previously observed, making it an attractive proposition for transport applications.
Transportation

Submission + - London Black Cabs Maker Fights Bankruptcy

Submitted by
jones_supa
jones_supa writes: "London’s black cabs, built to the same design for 54 years, are heading towards extinction as their manufacturer fights bankruptcy. Manganese Bronze Holdings PLC, which has made taxis in Coventry, England, since 1948, entered administration last month after a Chinese tie-up failed to yield savings, and 400 of its cabs, the TX4 model, were recalled with steering faults. Ready to take over the market are the Mercedes-Benz Vito and Nissan Motor Co’s NV200, which are based on commercial vans. London has almost 23,000 licensed taxis — those that can legally be hailed in the street. About 1,400 new ones are registered each year, according to Manganese Bronze, a market worth about £50M annually. The company says it has supplied more than 100,000 taxis over the past five decades."
Businesses

Submission + - Apple Stock Plummets and Nobody is Sure Why 4

Submitted by
Hugh Pickens writes
Hugh Pickens writes writes: "Jeremy Owens writes in the Mercury News that Apple stock took its biggest one-day slide in the four years since the Great Recession was in its heyday dropping 6.4 percent to lop off nearly $35 billion from its world-leading market capitalization but the most interesting aspect of Wednesday's dive is all the different theories analysts are providing for the sudden drop. Theory No 1 is that large tech companies such as Oracle and Cisco are handing out their dividends for next year early to avoid possible tax hikes on the cash as a result of the "fiscal cliff" changes that could take effect at the end of the year. Apple declined to do so, so investors may be taking their profits now to avoid larger tax bills in 2013. Theory No. 2 is that there are rumors out of Asia that Apple has cut back on its orders for components, suggesting that the company is slowing production in the first quarter of 2013, which could damage Apple's earnings for that quarter. Theory No. 3 is that Apple's growth is slowing, its product refresh isn't innovative, the competition is growing, Apple's latest product refresh is underwhelming, and there has been a drop in Apple's tablet market share. This theory has been growing for months, and can be summed up with the phrase "Steve Jobs isn't walking through that door." Any or all of those theories may have played into Wednesday's fall, or it could just be the vagaries of the marketplace, where Apple shot to the highest market cap on record earlier this year, then dove into "bear market" territory just months later. "Apple stock is significantly more volatile than its earnings and innovation stream," says analyst Daniel Ernst. "It makes no sense. There are lines around the block for their products all around the world. No other company has that.""

Submission + - Dotcom drags NZ spook agency into court (stuff.co.nz)

Submitted by d18c7db
d18c7db writes: Internet tycoon Kim Dotcom has won another court victory, today given the right to drag the secretive GCSB into the spotlight of a courtroom. Forcing the GCSB to be tied to the court action opens it up to court ordered ''discovery'' — meaning Dotcom's lawyers can go fishing for documents as they continue to fight extradition to the US to face copyright charges. But the GCSB claimed any disclosure of what [was] intercepted would prejudice New Zealand's national security interests "as it will tend to reveal intelligence gathering and sharing methods". Dotcom and his fellow Mega Upload accused asked Chief High Court Judge Helen Winkelmann for the right to have the GCSB become part of the proceedings, amend their statement of claim, and for additional discovery.
In a judgment issued today she gave that permission.
The Internet

Submission + - US House Votes 397-0 To Oppose UN Control of the Internet (thehill.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The U.S. House of Representatives voted 397-0 today on a resolution to oppose UN control of the internet. 'The 397-0 vote is meant to send a signal to countries meeting at a U.N. conference on telecommunications this week. Participants are meeting to update an international telecom treaty, but critics warn that many countries’ proposals could allow U.N. regulation of the Internet.' The European Parliament passed a similar resolution a couple weeks ago, and the U.N. telecom chief has gone on record saying that freedom on the internet won't be curbed. However, that wasn't enough for U.S. lawmakers, who we quite proud of themselves for actually getting bipartisan support for a resolution (PDF). Rep Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) said, 'We need to send a strong message to the world that the Internet has thrived under a decentralized, bottom-up, multi-stakeholder governance model.'

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