18127560
submission
N!NJA writes:
Few devices know more personal details about people than the smartphones in their pockets: phone numbers, current location, often the owner's real name — even a unique ID number that can never be changed or turned off. These phones don't keep secrets. They are sharing this personal data widely and regularly, a Wall Street Journal investigation has found. An examination of 101 popular smartphone "apps" — games and other software applications for iPhone and Android phones — showed that 56 transmitted the phone's unique device ID to other companies without users' awareness or consent. Forty-seven apps transmitted the phone's location in some way. Five sent age, gender and other personal details to outsiders. Among the apps tested, the iPhone apps transmitted more data than the apps on phones using Google Inc.'s Android operating system. [...]
"The great thing about mobile is you can't clear a UDID like you can a cookie," says Meghan O'Holleran of Traffic Marketplace, an Internet ad network that is expanding into mobile apps. "That's how we track everything." Ms. O'Holleran says Traffic Marketplace, a unit of Epic Media Group, monitors smartphone users whenever it can. "We watch what apps you download, how frequently you use them, how much time you spend on them, how deep into the app you go," she says. She says the data is aggregated and not linked to an individual. [...]
Some developers feel pressure to release more data about people. Max Binshtok, creator of the DailyHoroscope Android app, says ad-network executives encouraged him to transmit users' locations. Mr. Binshtok says he declined because of privacy concerns. But ads targeted by location bring in two to five times as much money as untargeted ads, Mr. Binshtok says. "We are losing a lot of revenue."
17811082
submission
N!NJA writes:
The movie debuted to Japanese audiences December 1st.
Official site: http://yamato-movie.net/en/
Trailer with English subs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XH9XY8Z7I7c&annotation_id=annotation_353743&feature=iv
Making of: http://io9.com/5702635/activate-wave+motion-gun-new-documentary-takes-you-inside-the-live+action-star-blazers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Blazers
Star Blazers is an American animated television series adaptation of the Japanese anime series, Space Battleship Yamato I, II & III. Star Blazers was first broadcast in the United States in 1979. Significantly, it was the first popular English-translated anime that had an over-arching plot and storyline that required the episodes to be shown in order. It dealt with somewhat more mature themes than other productions aimed at the same target audience at the time. As a result, it paved the way for future arc-based, plot-driven anime translations.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ff20101126a1.html
"Space Battleship Yamato" is accordingly one of the biggest domestic releases this year. Quite often, the pressure of pleasing the various constituencies of a project like this, from fans to corporate sponsors, results in an overblown mess. But Yamazaki, working with scriptwriter Shimako Sato (a director in her own right who also happens to be Yamazaki's wife), has made a film that is good, uncomplicated fun for kids, and with plenty of CG spectacle and thrills (if not in the ever-more common 3-D). At the same time, "Space Battleship Yamato" is not only packed with references to the original "Yamato" series, but also contains various thematic elements, from old-fashioned patriotism to contemporary eco-consciousness, that give older fans more to chew on than the usual kiddy popcorn fare.
http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2010/11/24/space-battleship-yamato-triumph-and-tragedy/
Takashi Yamazaki’s SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO begins on familiar ground for fans a barren Earth surface with planet bombs raining down upon it. Captain Okita, played with the requisite dignity called for in the role by Tsutomu Yamazaki., is locked in a raging battle against the Gamilas that results in the death/disappearance of Mamoru Kodai (Shinichi Tsutsumi). Five years later, the year is 2199 and Earth’s population lives underground, escaping from the radiation released by the deadly planet bombs. Mamoru Kodai’s brother Susumu (Takuya Kimura) has quit the military, leaving his career as a top notch pilot and squadron leader, and becomes a scavenger and junk collector on Earth. When he sees a mysterious capsule fall from space, it leads him on a journey back to the military and eventually the captain’s chair of the mighty Space Battleship Yamato as it leaves Earth in search of the planet Iscandar and its promise of a device that will free the Earth of its deadly radiation and turn the surface habitable again.
12682246
submission
N!NJA writes:
from CNN:
The Microsoft (MSFT) CEO says that Google's (GOOG) mobile OS isn't without a cost in an interview with Jon Fortt.
from me:
too bad he didn't try to sell me on why MS phone was better.
11825782
submission
N!NJA writes:
Warranty firm SquareTrade has just released a research paper analyzing the failure rate for 30,000 laptops comparing brands and hardware categories--and the results might surprise you.
The headline news is that over three years, one out of three laptops will fail, and that Asus and Toshiba laptops have the lowest failure rates, while Acer, Gateway, and HP have higher than average failure rates. Additionally, two-thirds of those problems are hardware malfunctions, while the final third are classified as accidental damage.
11467042
submission
N!NJA writes:
At the Intel Developer Forum, the eponymous chipmaker is showing off Light Peak, its ultra-fast, multi-purpose, optical interconnect. Interestingly, Intel appears to be trying to kill USB 3.0, without actually saying so. There's still no USB 3.0 chipset support from Intel, and not even any published plans.
8883430
submission
N!NJA writes:
Microsoft was aware months ago of a critical security vulnerability well before hackers exploited it to breach Google, Adobe and other large U.S. companies but did not patch the hole until Thursday.
The software giant had intended to release a patch for the flaw in February — more than four months after learning about it — but had to speed up that plan and role it out this week in the wake of news that Google and others had been hacked through the flaw, the world’s largest software maker acknowledged Thursday.
Meron Sellen, a security researcher at BugSec, an Israeli firm, quietly reported the vulnerability to Microsoft in September, according to security firm Kaspersky.
7070758
submission
N!NJA writes:
from ArsTechnica:
[...] the update to the rather ubiquitous browser plugin will finally synchronize the Flash experience on all platforms with the exception of arguably one of the most successful smartphones: Apple's iPhone. [...] The company announced today that RIM is joining the project and will collaborate with Adobe to bring Flash Player 10.1 to its BlackBerry operating system. Adobe said that betas of Flash Player 10.1 will available for Windows Mobile and Palm's webOS later this year, and expects betas for Google Android and SymbianOS to be ready in early 2010. It will be optimized for netbooks and so-called "smartbooks" in addition to smartphone platforms, and will utilize GPU acceleration whenever possible.
-----------------------
from The Register
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/11/17/flash_mobile_10_point_one_air_2_betas
Today, Adobe made Flash Player 10.1 and AIR 2.0 available for beta, but only for use on familiar old PCs, laptops and notebooks running Windows, Linux, or Mac. [...] Tom Barclay, Adobe Flash platform senior product marketing manager, said a lot of the work done tuning the player for mobile will also benefit developers and users of desktops. [...] A subset of Flash is already on mobile devices, but Flash Player 10.1 will bring the full player to Symbian S60, Google Android, Palm Web OS, and Windows Mobile 6.5. Apple's iPhone browser will not be supported, although developers will be able to build content using Creative Suite 5 and post applications to Apple's AppStore for download. [...] In lieu of mobile-operating support today, Barclay instead called out features in the Flash 10.1 and AIR 2.0 beta built for mobile but suited to PCs, notebooks and nethooks. These included H.264 hardware acceleration for video on chipsets that Barclay said is significant for netbooks, because it delivers smooth-quality video on relatively inexpensive machines without soaking up the battery life or CPU.
---------------------
from Adobe
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flashplayer/articles/fplayer10.1_hardware_acceleration.html
Hardware-accelerated H.264 decoding is supported on some video cards and drivers running on Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. Linux and Mac OS X hardware-accelerated decoding is not supported in this version. See the Flash Player 10.1 public beta release notes (http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashplayer10/releasenotes.pdf) for supported hardware and links to download supported drivers.
5702799
submission
N!NJA writes:
In an amicus curiae brief filed on Aug. 24, Dell asked the judge overseeing the Eastern District Court of Texas to reconsider its order blocking sales of Word, part of the original ruling in favor of Canadian software developer i4i. In the worst case, the brief argued, the injunction should be delayed by 120 days.
"The District Court's injunction of Microsoft Word will have an impact far beyond Microsoft," Dell and HP wrote. "Microsoft Word is ubiquitous among word processing software and is included on [redacted] computers sold by Dell."
"If Microsoft is required to ship a revised version of Word in Dell's computers, a change would need to be made to Dell's images," Dell wrote. "Making such a change would require extensive time- and resource- consuming testing."
An addendum to the brief notes that it was authored in Microsoft Word, part of Office 2003.
5702679
submission
N!NJA writes:
The Obama administration said Thursday it would continue peering into the files of laptop computers and other electronic devices carried by travelers arriving in the U.S., including U.S. citizens. But officials pledged to add more transparency and other reforms to the program, which has been criticized by privacy advocates.
In response, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano pledged to review the program earlier this year. She announced new checks Thursday, but the underlying guidelines for when searches can be conducted remain largely unchanged. She cited concerns about terrorism and child pornography.
Among other changes, Ms. Napolitano promised to more closely track searches and seizures, to conduct annual audits and to return laptops to travelers faster. Border agents now will be limited to holding laptops for five days, while Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, who are charged with investigating potential crimes, will have 30 days to hold devices, barring extenuating circumstances, officials said.
5670493
submission
5276287
submission
N!NJA writes:
According to various Chinese media reports, the worker at Chinese manufacturer Foxconn committed suicide last week after a fourth-generation iPhone prototype for which he was responsible went missing.
"We are saddened by the tragic loss of this young employee, and we are awaiting results of the investigations into his death," Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet told CNET on Tuesday. "We require our suppliers to treat all workers with dignity and respect."
4985239
submission
N!NJA writes:
A tectonic shift has taken place for the digital age: ad rates for popular shows like The Simpsons and CSI are higher online than they are on prime-time TV. If a company wants to run ads alongside an episode of The Simpsons on Hulu or TV.com it will cost the advertiser about $60 per thousand viewers, according to Bloomberg. On prime-time TV that same ad will cost somewhere between $20 and $40 per thousand viewers. Online viewers have to actively seek out the program they want to watch, so advertisers end up with a guaranteed audience for their commercial every time someone clicks play on Hulu or TV.com. Online programs also have an average of 37 seconds of commercials during an episode, while prime-time TV averages nine minutes of ads.
4819505
submission
N!NJA writes:
A Microsoft spokesman said on Wednesday that the world's biggest software maker is testing an early version of the product with its own employees. Microsoft would "soon" make a trial version, or product beta, available via its website, he added, but declined to provide a specific date. [...] Microsoft has said that Morro will offer basic features for fighting a wide range of viruses, which would likely make it comparable to low-end consumer products from Symantec and McAfee that cost about $40 per year. Their top-selling products are security suites that come with features including encryption, firewalls, password protection, parental controls and data backup.
