18965982
submission
Strudelkugel writes:
Apple is further tightening its control of the App Store.
Some application developers, including Sony, say Apple has told them they can no longer sell e-books within their apps unless the transactions go through Apple’s system. Apple rejected Sony’s iPhone application, which would have let people buy and read e-books from the Sony Reader Store.
Apple said on Tuesday that it was still allowing customers to read e-books they bought elsewhere within apps. For example, a Sony app could still access books the customer bought earlier from Sony’s store.
But Steve Haber, president of Sony’s digital reading division, said on Monday that Apple had told his company that from now on, all in-app purchases would have to go through Apple.
“It’s the opposite of what we wanted to bring to the market,” Mr. Haber said. “We always wanted to bring the content to as many devices as possible, not one device to one store.”
14746618
submission
Strudelkugel writes:
Edwin Perello discovered that Bing, the Microsoft search engine, could find addresses in his rural Indiana town when Google could not. Laura Michelson, an administrative assistant in San Francisco, was lured by Bing’s flight fare tracker. Paul Callan, a photography buff in Chicago, fell for Bing’s vivid background images. When Microsoft introduced it last year, Bing made a splash with its vivid background images. In June, Google presented searchers the option of a colorful background rather than the stark, white page.Like most Americans, they still use Google as their main search tool. But more often, they find themselves navigating to Microsoft’s year-old Bing for certain tasks, and sometimes they stay a while.
14619148
submission
Strudelkugel writes:
The Beast reports unhappiness with Steve Ballmer as CEO of Microsoft: Sources say the talk around Microsoft's Redmond, Washington, headquarters—which has grown increasingly louder ever since Apple surpassed Microsoft in market capitalization—-is that the company's stock suffers from a "Ballmer discount," and that the CEO is on the clock to significantly move the needle on its share price over the next two or three quarters or face a potential move to oust him. "Ballmer is on the list of mega-executives under pressure," says a banker who has negotiated deals for Microsoft. "If he was asked to leave the building, I suspect there would be more happy than unhappy people."
12768732
submission
Strudelkugel writes:
The New York Times reports that Apple's valuation now exceeds the market cap of Microsoft for the first time: In intraday trading shortly after 2:30 p.m., Apple shares rose 1.8 percent, which gave the company a value of $227.1 billion. Shares of Microsoft declined about 1 percent, giving the company a market capitalization of $226.3 billion.The only American company valued higher is Exxon Mobil, with a market capitalization of $282 billion.This changing of the guard caps one of the most stunning turnarounds in business history, as Apple had been given up for dead only a decade earlier. But the rapidly rising value attached to Apple by investors also heralds a cultural shift: Consumer tastes have overtaken the needs of business as the leading force shaping technology.
12123186
submission
Strudelkugel writes:
CNN has a report about a new dating site for people who love all things Apple. Is this the zenith for Apple coolness? Will it become unhip to have an iPod on your hip and an iPad in your bag? And here I am just about to buy a new Betamax^H^H^H^H Macbook Pro... From the article: Do you spend your nights debating the merits of iPhone multitasking? Do you have a poster of Steve Jobs on your bedroom ceiling? And are you looking for a partner who has plenty of free wall sockets, so you can charge up your iPod, iPad, iBook and iPhone — all at once?!? Well, maybe Cupidtino is the website for you. The new dating site, designed exclusively to set-up fans of Apple gadgets, says it will launch in June.
10759658
submission
Strudelkugel writes:
Business Insider is reporting that Google Is Hiring Bond Traders. Google is hiring traders for its new bond trading platform, according to published advertisements on its job site. Currently, roles include trader of foreign government bonds, portfolio analyst for Google's U.S. government bond portfolio, and a portfolio analyst for agency mortgage-backed securities. A source who interviewed for one of the positions said that this was a means for Google to make use of its large cash reserves. Google has long discussed using its access to massive amounts of data to build a hedge fund.
9273314
submission
Strudelkugel writes:
Dick Brass, a former VP of Microsoft, wonders if the company has a future, given the lack of innovation compared to Apple, Google, Amazon and other competitors: AS they marvel at Apple’s new iPad tablet computer, the technorati seem to be focusing on where this leaves Amazon’s popular e-book business. But the much more important question is why Microsoft, America’s most famous and prosperous technology company, no longer brings us the future, whether it’s tablet computers like the iPad, e-books like Amazon’s Kindle, smartphones like the BlackBerry and iPhone, search engines like Google, digital music systems like iPod and iTunes or popular Web services like Facebook and Twitter.
8829850
submission
Strudelkugel writes:
Businessweek reports a possible Apple/Microsoft search deal in the making: "In 2003, when Apple said its iTunes music software would work on PCs using the Windows software of its age-old rival, Microsoft, Apple made up posters that read "Hell Froze Over." Hell may be getting frosty again. Apple is in talks with Microsoft to replace Google as the default search engine on its iPhone, according to two people familiar with the matter. The talks have been under way for weeks, say the people, who asked not to be named because the details have not been made public." What's next, the CLR running on the iPhone?
7202772
submission
Strudelkugel writes:
The NY Time reports an insurance agent looked at the Facebook page of a woman receiving benefits for depression and determined she was no longer entitled to them based on her Facebook pictures. "She said her insurance agent described several pictures Blanchard posted on Facebook, including ones showing her having a good time at a Chippendales bar show, at her birthday party and on a sun holiday."
5581189
submission
Strudelkugel writes:
ZDNet is reporting that Toshiba has licensed HD DVD to companies in China, and it is outselling Blu-ray 3 to 1. Just when Blu-ray thought it had clear sailing, a tempest has risen in the East: China Blue Hi-definition Disk (CBHD). Toshiba has licensed its HD DVD to them and it will be the unit world leader in HD optical technology in just 12 months. Why? The Times Online reports that the CBHD players are outselling Blu-ray in China by 3-1 and the CBHD disks cost a quarter of Blu-ray. Conceived by Sony at a time when few thought upscaling would succeed, the idea was that HDTVs would require HD content on optical media. Reliving the glory days of DVD adoption they forecast tens of billions in revenue from players and disks, enormous licensing fees and consumer-proof DRM. China has good reasons to support a home-grown HD format. First, the exorbitant Blu-ray royalties hurts Chinese manufacturers ability to compete on price. An equally important, but unspoken, issue is the econoclypse. The Chinese government has made a deal with the Chinese people: leave us in control and we'll deliver rising living standards. The current slow down has hit China hard: millions have been laid off and economic growth is anemic. CBHD is a double win for the Chinese government: billions saved in royalties; and a much cheaper, locally manufactured, luxury item for the restless masses. Blu-ray is simply collateral damage.
5331251
submission
Strudelkugel writes:
John Dvorak suggests Microsoft is not investing enough in its core technologies and lists a number of failed Microsoft projects in his commentary on the MarketWatch site. " Everyone knew the day would come when the fortunes of Microsoft Corp. would reverse. The company might now be in actual decline. If it's true, it brought it on itself by ignoring its core competencies, because it exhibits signs of what can only be described as Corporate Attention Deficit Disorder — CADD. Try to remember all the crazy directions Microsoft has gone in over the past few years. Note the dizzy remarks by Chief Executive Steve Ballmer, who recently insisted that online advertising would soon account for the majority of Microsoft's income. This is a software company making these comments." He offers this thought about Ballmer: "Maybe Microsoft cannot come to grips with the reason for its success. After all, Ballmer is not a computer programmer, and has never been too interested in software or computers and seems to want to run a media company." So is it Microsoft CADD, or Ballmer ADD?
5326269
submission
Strudelkugel writes:
The NY Times has an article about a conference during which the potential dangers of machine intelligence were discussed. " Impressed and alarmed by advances in artificial intelligence, a group of computer scientists is debating whether there should be limits on research that might lead to loss of human control over computer-based systems that carry a growing share of society's workload, from waging war to chatting with customers on the phone. Their concern is that further advances could create profound social disruptions and even have dangerous consequences. " The money quote: "Something new has taken place in the past five to eight years," Dr. Horvitz said. "Technologists are replacing religion, and their ideas are resonating in some ways with the same idea of the Rapture."
5021501
submission
Strudelkugel writes:
Thomas Thwaites is attempting to build a toaster from raw materials, meaning ore. His page describes the materials he will need, attempts to smelt iron ore, and some comments on the significance of the huge industrial complex that gives us things like toasters. It's an ongoing project, so stay tuned! From his page: "After some research I have determined that I will need the following materials to make a toaster. Copper, to make the pins of the electric plug, the cord, and internal wires. Iron to make the steel grilling apparatus, and the spring to pop up the toast. Nickel to make the heating element. Mica (a mineral a bit like slate) around which the heating element is wound, and of course plastic for the plug and cord insulation, and for the all important sleek looking casing. The first four of these materials are dug out of the ground, and plastic is derived from oil, which is generally sucked up through a hole.
Part of the project consists of finding the places where it's possible to dig up these raw materials. Mining no longer happens in the UK, but the country is dotted with abandoned mines, some having been worked since before the 'UK' existed, but all currently uneconomical.
Finding ways to process the raw materials on a domestic scale is also an issue. For example, my first attempt to extract metal involved a chimney pot, some hair-dryers, a leaf blower, and a methodology from the 15th century — this is about the level of technology we can manage when we're acting alone. I failed to get pure enough iron in this way, though if I'd tried a few more times and refined my technique and knowledge of the process I probably would've managed in the end. Instead I found a 2001 patent about industrial smelting of Iron ores using microwave energy. "
4526427
submission
Strudelkugel writes:
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Massachusetts directed employees earlier this month not to log onto the Drudge Report website with government-issued computers due to potential viruses on the site. In an e-mail message sent May 4, Paul Harvey, an information-technology official for the Boston office, wrote that security specialists with the U.S. Attorney's Office at the Department of Justice asked them "to reformat/reimage two computers because the user visited the drudgereport.com site." "Please avoid the Drudgereport website from the [United States Attorney's Office] computers," Harvey wrote. Harvey said that if employees had a "work-related reason to visit the site," access could be provided off the government network.
4039125
submission
Strudelkugel writes:
On occasion I will write an email to my state senator about a policy issue. It might go something like this: "Honorable Senator Blutarsky, I know you are much in favor of making the blancmange the official state desert, and have sponsored legislation to do so. It is my opinion that the blancmange is a very bad choice. The shortcake would be a much better official state desert for the following reasons..." I will eventually get a response similar to: "Thank you so much for voicing your opinion regarding this important topic. As you know, the state desert is important to all of the residents of our fine state and to the nation as a whole. That's why I co-sponsored S.1234, which you will be happy to know supports the choice of the blancmange as our official state desert." Does anyone know what sort of technology is scanning and summarizing the emails constituents send to their elected representatives? My experience indicates that if certain keywords are present, the elected official will send a response that contains the same keywords, but has almost nothing to do with the intent of a constituent message. Why else would I get canned response that clearly indicates my letter was "read", but not comprehended, as the response does not demonstrate any relation to the original email, besides the presence of common keywords. This makes me wonder if elected officials are being deceived by the technology used to facilitate communication with their constituents.
