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Businesses

How Tim Cook Is Filling Steve Jobs's Shoes 209

The New York Times, in an article about Apple CEO Tim Cook, focuses in large part on the ways in which Cook is not Jobs. He's less volatile, for one thing, whether you think that means he's less passionate or just more circumspect. A small slice: Lower-level employees praise Mr. Cook’s approachability and intellect. But some say he is less hands-on in developing products than his predecessor. They point to the development of the so-called iWatch — the “smartwatch” that Apple observers are eagerly awaiting as the next world-beating gadget. Mr. Cook is less involved in the minutiae of product engineering for the watch, and has instead delegated those duties to members of his executive cabinet, including Mr. Ive, according to people involved in the project, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to press. Apple declined to comment on the watch project. ... Mr. Cook has also looked outside of Apple for experienced talent. He has hired executives from multiple industries, including Angela Ahrendts, the former head of Burberry, to oversee the physical and online stores, and Paul Deneve, the former Yves Saint Laurent chief executive, to take on special projects. He also hired Kevin Lynch, the former chief technology officer of Adobe, and Michael O’Reilly, former medical officer of the Masimo Corporation, which makes health monitoring devices. Not to mention the music men of Beats.

Submission + - Sacked Google Worker Awarded $150,000 for Unfair Dismissal

theodp writes: When it comes to evaluating employee performance, perhaps Google isn't really that different from Microsoft after all. While Microsoft used stack ranking to kill employee morale, Google turned to bell curves that were "fine-tuned" by management to do their dirty HR work, according to Irish court documents. "Google, like other enlightened corporations," explains Valleywag, "makes its workers routinely rank each other and forces the scores to match a bell curve. The employees who are placed at the wrong end of the bell curve risk termination. That's stressful enough-now imagine your CEO personally meddling." The Irish Times reports former Google manager Rachel Berthold, who just won her suit against the company for unfair dismissal in 2011 and will receive around $150,000 in a court-mandated settlement, told her counsel that she was present when the ranking of a staff member was reduced electronically by Google Chairman Eric Schmidt. "It came from him," she said. "I saw it with my own eyes." She said Mr Schmidt could not have known anything about the employee. So, ask not for whom the fudged bell curve tolls, Googlers, it tolls for thee!

Feed Google News Sci Tech: MIT Researchers Endeavoring to Develop 3D Printed Self Assembling Robots - News (google.com)


News Tonight Africa

MIT Researchers Endeavoring to Develop 3D Printed Self Assembling Robots
News Tonight Africa
Researchers at IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation have come up with new idea of bakable robots. They shared their views to develop printable robotic components that automaticaly turns into prescribed three dimensional...
New printable robots to self-assemble when heatedBusiness Standard
3D printed robots can now self-assemble: reportDeccan Chronicle
How To Cook Your Own Homemade RobotForbes
The Utah People's Post
all 47 news articles

Submission + - Comcast CEO Brian Roberts opens his mouth and inserts his foot

lpress writes: At a recent conference, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts rationalized charging Netflix to deliver content by comparing Comcast to the Post Office, saying that Netflix pays to mail DVDs to its customers but now expects to be able to deliver the same content over the internet for free. He forgot to mention that the Post Office does not charge recipients for those DVDs. The underlying issue in this debate is who will invest in the Internet infrastructure that we badly need? Comcast has a disincentive to invest because, if things bog down, people will blame content providers like Netflix and the ISP will be able to charge the content provider for adequate service. If ISPs have insufficient incentive to invest in infrastructure, who will? Google? Telephone companies? Government (at all levels)? Premises owners?
Technology

Report: Apple To Unveil "Smart Home" System 174

An anonymous reader writes "According to a report Apple will be unveiling a new smart home system at the upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference. The system will allow users to control security systems, appliances and lighting with their iPhones. A "select number" of device makers will be certified to offer products that work with Apple's upcoming system, according to the report, which didn't name any of the manufacturers."

Feed Google News Sci Tech: Amazon Plans To Launch Smartphone In June: WSJ - NASDAQ (google.com)


Firstpost

Amazon Plans To Launch Smartphone In June: WSJ
NASDAQ
(RTTNews.com) - Amazon.com Inc. ( AMZN ) is preparing to release a smartphone in the second half of this year, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people briefed on the company's plans, as part of a broad push into hardware that would pit it against...
Report: Amazon smartphone to debut in second half of yearUSA TODAY
Amazon smartphone will be reportedly ready in time for US holiday seasonFirstpost
Amazon's Hard Sell: Gaining Developers for Its Coming SmartphonesRe/code
The Mac Observer-The FA Daily-PCWorld
all 111 news articles

Submission + - UK finally legalises ripping CDs and DVDs (gizmorati.com)

An anonymous reader writes: In June the UK is set to finally legalise the ripping of your own personal CDs and DVDs Yay?

So as the UK tries to bring itself back into the 21st century and take a break from trying to censor everything or spying on people we get a common sense result, though there are some rules you have to follow of course.

Space

Big Bang's Smoking Gun Found 269

astroengine writes "For the first time, scientists have found direct evidence of the expansion of the universe, a previously theoretical event that took place a fraction of a second after the Big Bang explosion nearly 14 billion years ago. The clue is encoded in the primordial cosmic microwave background radiation that continues to spread through space to this day. Scientists found and measured a key polarization, or orientation, of the microwaves caused by gravitational waves, which are miniature ripples in the fabric of space. Gravitational waves, proposed by Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity nearly 100 years ago but never before proven, are believed to have originated in the Big Bang explosion and then been amplified by the universe's inflation. 'Detecting this signal is one of the most important goals in cosmology today,' lead researcher John Kovac, with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said in a statement."

Submission + - "Little Foot" Fossil Could be Human Ancestor (sciencemag.org)

sciencehabit writes: He may be called Little Foot, but for human evolution researchers he’s a big deal: His is the most complete skeleton known of an early member of the human lineage. Ever since the skeleton was discovered in a South African cave in the 1990s and named for its relatively small foot bones, researchers have been fiercely debating how old it is, with estimates ranging from about 2 million years to more than 3 million. A new geological study of the cave concludes that Little Foot is at least 3 million years old. If correct, that would mean he is old enough to be a direct ancestor of today’s humans, and could shift South Africa to the forefront of human evolution.

Submission + - A Closer Look at Problems in GnuTLS (huffingtonpost.com)

hyc writes: On HuffPost Code, a look at the obvious problems with GnuTLS from a software design and development process perspective; GnuTLS is still just a pile of vulnerabilities waiting to happen.

Submission + - Microsoft Tries To Woo Users Off Windows XP With Deals For A New PC

An anonymous reader writes: With the Windows XP end of support date now less than a month away, Microsoft is trying to woo users off the ancient 12-year-old operating system. The latest comes in the form of a Microsoft Store deal that offers a $50 gift card, 90-days of free support, and free data transfer with the purchase of a new PC. As always with such offers, however, there are some details worth noting. The $50 digital gift card can only be used towards future purchases at the online Microsoft Store in the US. Free support is hardly anything new for Microsoft Store purchases, though it does cover both phone and chat options. Lastly, the free data transfer option is available to everyone, thanks to a Microsoft partnership with Laplink.

Submission + - EU Votes for Universal Phone Charger

SmartAboutThings writes: The European Union has voted in favor of a draft legislation which lists among the “essential requirements” of electrical devices approved by the EU a compatibility with “universal” chargers . According to a German MEP, this move will eliminate 51,000 tonnes of electronic waste. The draft law was approved by an overwhelming majority of 550 votes to 12 . At the moment, according to estimates, there are around 30 different types of charger on the market, but manufacturers have two years at their disposal to get ready for the new restriction.

Submission + - Judge says prosecutors should follow the law. Prosecutors revolt. (washingtonpost.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Late last year, South Carolina State Supreme Court Justice Donald Beatty joined Kozinski. At a state solicitors’ convention in Myrtle Beach, Beatty cautioned that prosecutors in the state have been “getting away with too much for too long.” He added, “The court will no longer overlook unethical conduct, such as witness tampering, selective and retaliatory prosecutions, perjury and suppression of evidence. You better follow the rules or we are coming after you and will make an example. The pendulum has been swinging in the wrong direction for too long and now it’s going in the other direction. Your bar licenses will be in jeopardy. We will take your license.”

You’d think that there’s little here with which a conscientious prosecutor could quarrel. At most, a prosecutor might argue that Beatty exaggerated the extent of misconduct in South Carolina. (I don’t know if that’s true, only that that’s a conceivable response.) But that prosecutors shouldn’t suborn perjury, shouldn’t retaliate against political opponents, shouldn’t suppress evidence, and that those who do should be disciplined — these don’t seem like controversial things to say. If most prosecutors are following the rules, you’d think they’d have little to fear, and in fact would want their rogue colleagues identified and sanctioned.

The state’s prosecutors didn’t see that way. . . . The most plausible explanation for all of these stories is that a significant number of prosecutors just don’t want to be held accountable to anyone but themselves. I suppose a lot of us would like to have that sort of protection when it comes to what we do for a living. But few of us do. And the rest of us don’t hold positions that give us the power to to ruin someone’s life with criminal charges, to convince a jury to put someone in prison or to ask the state to put someone to death.

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