36206817
submission
tripleevenfall writes:
The Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports that Minneapolis police used automated scanning technology to log location data for over 800,000 license plates in June alone, with 4.9 million scans having taken place this year. The data includes the date, time, and location where the plate was seen.
Worse, it appears this data is compiled and stored for up to a year and is disclosed to anyone who asks for it.
35303963
submission
tripleevenfall writes:
We've seen FOSS projects take on operating systems and other key desktop applications — so where is the major project effort to develop an open source Electronic Medical Record suite? With only a few major corporations like Cerner and Epic controlling the market and delivering spotty quality at times, is it time for a major effort to show what Open Source can do to reduce cost in the health care industry?
34987009
submission
tripleevenfall writes:
Best Buy has cut approximately 650 jobs from its Geek Squad division, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. The cut represents about 4% of Geek Squad's total work force. The former consumer electronics giant said the workers primarily service televisions and appliances in consumers' homes.
Best Buy's performance has struggled to keep up with changes in consumer electronics, as the weight of its big-box format inhibits it from fending off competitive pressure of online retailers.
30685009
submission
tripleevenfall writes:
Worried consumers are flocking to Apple’s forums to offer comments and observations on the new iPad, which reportedly runs hotter than previous models — but temperatures are just fine according to Apple.
"When I set it on my lap — it burned my thighs! I had a red rectangle on my thighs for about 15 minutes!” one angry consumer noted on Apple's support forums.
Dutch website Tweakers.net. ran a thermal analysis on the new iPad and confirmed the temperature was about 10 degrees hotter than the earlier model. Apple’s specifications say that the iPad can run at temperatures up to 95 degrees Farenheit. Tweakers.net found the iPad running as hot as 92.5 degrees — hot, but still within range. The site attributes that warmth to the graphics processor. Other reports point the finger at the LTE wireless chip, which uses more power and runs hotter than other wireless chips.
30486179
submission
tripleevenfall writes:
Boca Raton Regional Hospital in Florida has developed software for controlling heart devices remotely using an iPad. The hospital’s executives say the technology could revolutionize the way physicians reprogram pacemakers.
E. Martin Kloosterman, MD, director of the electrophysiology laboratory at the hospital, published his study in the peer-reviewed Journal of Cardiovascular Electrophysiology. He writes, “This new development provides clinicians the ability to manage cardiac devices, such as pacemakers and defibrillators, remotely in real-time.” The model allows the specialized physicians to have direct access to the information in the patient’s device for adjustment and reprograming in a moment’s notice no matter where they are at any given time.”
29071009
submission
tripleevenfall writes:
The world's greatest snow-capped peaks, which run in a chain from the Himalayas to Tian Shan on the border of China and Kyrgyzstan, have lost no ice over the last decade, new research shows. The discovery has stunned scientists, who had believed that around 50bn tonnes of meltwater were being shed each year and not being replaced by new snowfall.
The study is the first to survey all the world's icecaps and glaciers and was made possible by the use of satellite data. Overall, the contribution of melting ice outside the two largest caps – Greenland and Antarctica – is much less than previously estimated
28682237
submission
tripleevenfall writes:
Fortune blogger JP Mangalindan writes in the shadow of Facebook's IPO about the reasons why he feels a sense of fatigue toward the ubiquitous social network.
"Facebook's charm once lay in the feeling of exclusivity it projected, a closed off virtual playground open only to a smallish group of friends where I could communicate without second thought. .. Ever-increasing Facebook partnerships means I need to be careful about the content I consume. Because I naively clicked on an online Washington Post story a Facebook friend read, all the stories I read from that outlet are automatically broadcast. With other apps like Spotify, Facebook integration is mandatory.
That may be why several current and former users I've spoken with continue to steer clear of Facebook, deactivate their accounts, or ratchet down their usage. The evolving Facebook experience has either turned them off or the social network increasingly drew them away from the real world, breeding a false sense of intimacy where following friends and family on Facebook displaced deeper, quality interactions with them."
28368956
submission
tripleevenfall writes:
Barack Obama nominated former Recording Industry Association of America lawyer Donald Verrilli Jr. on Monday to serve as the nation’s solicitor general. The solicitor general is charged with defending the government before the Supreme Court, and files friend-of-the court briefs in cases in which the government believes there is a significant legal issue. The office also determines which cases it will bring to the Supreme Court for review.
Verrilli is best known for leading the recording industry’s legal charge against music- and movie-sharing site Grokster, which ultimately led to Grokster’s demise. Until recently, Verrilli also was leading Viacom’s ongoing and flailing $1 billion copyright-infringement fight against YouTube.
28313906
submission
tripleevenfall writes:
AT&T on Wednesday announced new data plans and rate charges that will become effective on January 22nd. Customers currently under contract will be grandfathered in, but new customers will have to the select a data plan from the new options.
Smartphone users will have three new plans available: $20 per month for 300MB, $30 per month for 3GB, and $50 per month for 5GB. The $50 plan includes mobile hotspot/tethering. Tablet users will choose between $30 per month for 3GB or $50 per month for 5GB.
28311380
submission
tripleevenfall writes:
DisplayBlog details the reasons why Android phones tend to have larger displays than the iPhone:
"When the 960×640 3.5-inch Retina Display was introduced with the iPhone 4, the rest of the smartphone industry had to do something about it. At the time most of the competition was at 800×480 on displays much larger. With the Retina Display Apple shifted the focus of attention on a smartphone display to resolution, specifically to a resolution threshold of about 300 ppi on a smartphone that’s used at a distance of about 12 inches.
Android OEMs and Google responded to the 3.5-inch 960×640 Retina display by improving the pixel format to 1280×720. But because Android renders text and graphics like desktop OSes (e.g. Windows, OS X) increasing resolution above 320 ppi means smaller UI elements. The display had to grow in size to compensate for shrinking UI elements. iOS renders the Retina display not by shrinking UI elements by one fourth but by doubling clarity and sharpness. Unless Google adds an additional “DPI level” beyond XHDPI, Android smartphones that match or beat the iPhone 4/4S in resolution will always be bigger, much bigger."
28307566
submission
tripleevenfall writes:
Microsoft will be able to throw a "kill switch" to disable or even remove an app from users' Windows 8 devices, the company revealed in documentation released earlier this week for its upcoming Windows Store.
"In cases where your security is at risk, or where we're required to do so for legal reasons, you may not be able to run apps or access content that you previously acquired or purchased a license for," said Microsoft in the Windows Store terms."If the Windows Store, an app, or any content is changed or discontinued, your data could be deleted or you may not be able to retrieve data you have stored," Microsoft said.
Both Apple and Google can flip such a switch for apps distributed by the iOS App Store and Android Market, respectively.
28039488
submission
tripleevenfall writes:
Freedom of speech might allow journalists to get away with a lot in America, but the Department of Homeland Security is on the ready to make sure that the government is keeping dibs on who is saying what.
Under the National Operations Center (NOC)’s Media Monitoring Initiative that came out of DHS headquarters in November, Washington has the written permission to retain data on users of social media and online networking platforms.
The development comes at the same time a U.S. Judge denied pleas from supporters of WikiLeaks who had tried to prevent account information pertaining to their Twitter accounts from being provided to federal prosecutors.
27894980
submission
tripleevenfall writes:
The Consumer Electronics Association expects as many as 50 "Ultrabooks" to be launched at CES in Las Vegas next week.
"Ultrabook" is an Intel-trademarked term that refers to devices that must boot quickly, offer more than 5 hours of general use on battery power, be less than .8 inches thick, weigh less than 3.1 pounds, use Flash-based storage, and cost around $1000.
27851148
submission
tripleevenfall writes:
Starting with Android 4.0, support for the "Holo" theme will be mandatory for phones and tablets that have the Android Market installed. Holo is the stock Android theme, known for its sharp angles, thin lines and blue hue. Third-party developers can now create apps and widgets using the default Android aesthetic, knowing that's how it'll look on every major Ice Cream Sandwich device that has the Android Market.
A blog post by Google's Tim Bray announcing the changes illustrates the trouble Google faces in fighting fragmentation. As in this case, Google can use Android Market access as a bargaining chip with device makers and wireless carriers, but Google also has to keep these parties happy by letting them futz with the stock Android experience. As we've seen with Android phones that use Bing instead of Google search, phone makers and wireless carriers have bargaining chips of their own.
27080628
submission
tripleevenfall writes:
Andy Lees, head of Microsoft's Windows Phone division for more than three years, has been moved by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer into a new "time-critical" role that somehow combines Windows Phone and Windows 8. Leaked Windows 8 builds hint that it might also run on the Xbox; Windows 8's ARM and system-on-chip support would enable it to run on smartphone-class hardware; and Windows Phone's restrictive development model that denies developers the ability to access the operating system directly hints that Microsoft might want to replace that operating system.
