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Cellphones

Gentlemen Prefer Androids, Ladies iOS 483

Posted by timothy from the gender-bias dept.
Ponca City writes "PC World reports that women are more likely to buy an iPhone for their next smartphone purchase, while men prefer Android devices. According to data collected in October 2010, 31 percent of women wanted to buy an Apple iOS device next, followed by 22.8 percent interested in a Google Android device while among men preferences were reversed with 32.6 percent of men interested in an Android purchase and 28.6 desired an iOS phone. 'So where is the extra appeal of Android to men coming from?' asks Tracey E. Schelmetic. 'More male-targeted commercials that emphasize cool gadgetry versus usability? More techno-macho phone brand names like "Droid"? Extra advertising on the Spike channel by phone makers using the Android platform?'"
Censorship

Graduate Students Being Warned Away From Leaked Cables 685

Posted by timothy from the we're-checking-your-history dept.
IamTheRealMike writes "The US State Department has started to warn potential recruits from universities not to read leaked cables, lest it jeopardize their chances of getting a job. They're also showing warnings to troops who access news websites and the Library of Congress and Department of Education have blocked WikiLeaks on their own networks. Quite what happens when these employees go home is an open question." Update: 12/04 17:48 GMT by T : The friendly warning to students specifically cautioned them not to comment online or otherwise indicate that they'd read any of the leaked information; reading them quietly wasn't specifically named as a deal-breaker.
Google

Google Warns Irish Government Against Tax Increase 542

Posted by timothy from the shame-if-anything-was-to-happen dept.
theodp writes "The Irish government has been given a stark warning from some of the biggest American companies in Ireland on the risk of a mass exodus if the country's controversial low corporate tax rate is raised in return for an IMF/EU bailout to shore up the country's beleaguered banking system. According to The Telegraph, a statement signed by senior execs at Microsoft, HP, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, and Intel points out that although Ireland's tax rate may be low in European terms, it is not when compared with locations such as Singapore, India and China. Separately, the head of Google's 2,000-strong European HQ in Dublin told the Belfast Telegraph, 'anything that impinges on Ireland's competitiveness is going to be a big thing for Google,' adding, 'anything that increases the cost-base of a business is negative for competitiveness.'"

Comment Re:Timeframe (Score 1) 171

by tomhuxley (#34294924) Attached to: The Future of Android — Does It Belong To Bing and Baidu?

Carriers don't "lose money" when they "subsidize" your cellphone. Carriers use their ability to buy large quantities of phones to gain a price advantage that they can then leverage into convincing rubes ... excuse me, customers, into signing multi-year contracts for voice/text/data plans.

Yes, the phone manufacturer gets paid for the phone, often ahead of time, but your contract is worth considerably more than either the cost of the cellphone or the services that the carrier provides.

Carriers have no incentive to keep you happy once you've signed your contract until such time as your contract runs out. Then they wave another "subsidized phone" and perhaps throw in some inconsequential benefit to get you to renew.

You are a small insignificant part of their customer base and if you become too much of a hassle or too expensive, then they will be just as happy to see you go.
Censorship

Oregon Senator Stops Internet Censorship Bill 315

Posted by timothy from the west-coast-style dept.
comforteagle writes "Senator Wyden of Oregon has objected to a bill in committee that if passed would have given the government the ability to censor the Internet. His objection effectively stop its current passing, forcing it to be introduced again if the bill is to continue — which it may not. Oregonians, please send this man pats on the back."
Australia

Aussie Gov't Won't Help Fight Cyber Attacks 101

Posted by Soulskill from the they'd-probably-screw-it-up-anyway dept.
mask.of.sanity writes "Days after the Pentagon's #2 called for a NATO cyber-shield, the Australian government has announced it won't lift a finger to help the country's businesses to defend themselves against cyber attacks unless it presents a high risk to national security. Instead, Australia's security agencies will forge a response based on the 'pathology of the problem,' incorporating the risk the attack poses to government and the community. A senior security official said the government 'struggles to defend its own systems from the current threats,' let alone that of other industries. He went on to rubbish claims that existing military force strategies can be applied to cyber warfare, noting that the demarcation between civil attacks, such as domestic hacking, and those against nation-states, such as espionage, is blurry. Former US counter-terrorism advisor Richard Clarke said the US government has taken a similar line."
Education

How Can an Old-School Coder Regain His Chops? 565

Posted by timothy from the just-eat-the-brain-of-someone-younger dept.
DonLab writes "I was a proficient software engineer in the 1980s, writing hundreds of thousands of lines of ALGOL, FORTRAN, COBOL, and Pascal programs, as well as working in 370 and 8080 assembly language & pre-relational DBMS systems. My hands-on programming career ended when I became a freelance analyst and designer, ultimately retiring young in the early '90s. Now I'd like to reenter the field, but I'm finding that I know nothing about today's post-C languages, programming tools, and computing environments. I wouldn't know where to start learning C++, PHP, Java, HTML5, or PERL, much less how to choose one over the other for a particular application. Can I be the only pre-GUI software designer or hobbyist searching for a way to update his skills for Windows, iOS, or Android?"
Displays

Are the New Kindles Tablets-In-Training? 134

Posted by timothy from the one-can-hope dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "TechNewsWorld reports that Amazon's new, slimmed-down Kindle devices are notable for several things, including upgrades to their experimental WebKit browser that makes it faster and easier to navigate, and the new 'article mode' feature extracts the main text-based content from Web pages for easier reading (as Safari does), suggesting the possibility that the Kindle may grow up to be a real tablet computer someday. Eventually, the tablet and e-reader categories 'are going to slam together,' says Rob Enderle, adding that they are 'held apart, largely because we don't yet have an affordable display that will do both tasks well.' One current problem 'is that TFT displays like the iPad uses suck for reading because they aren't outdoor viewable and are very power hungry. Display technologies like the Qualcomm Mirasol stuff will change this over the next 18 months, and by the end of next year — likely before — we'll begin to see converged devices.' Mirasol uses tiny mirrors, known as microelectronic machines, to create its display, which has the low power characteristics of E-Ink displays and the video-playing and color abilities of LCDs."
Apple

iPad Owners Are 'Selfish Elites' 780

Posted by CmdrTaco from the sounds-about-right dept.
An anonymous reader writes "It's not exactly official, but should also surprise no one: According to a new study the psychological profile of iPad owners can be summed up as 'selfish elites' while have-not critics are 'independent geeks.' Consumer research firm MyType conducted the study, in which opinions of 20,000 people were analyzed between March and May. The firm's conclusion was that iPad owners tend to be wealthy, sophisticated, highly educated and disproportionately interested in business and finance, while they scored terribly in the areas of altruism and kindness. In other words, 'selfish elites.'"
Microsoft

Microsoft Shows Off 'Milo' Virtual Human 270

Posted by samzenpus from the patch-often dept.
adeelarshad82 writes "At TED Global in Oxford, Microsoft released a video showing off its 'virtual human' technology, named Milo, designed for the company's hands-free Xbox 360 motion controller called Kinect. Milo is built to react to people's emotions, body movements, and voice, allowing players to interact with the virtual character. It was built using artificial intelligence developed by Lionhead studios, along with undisclosed technology from Microsoft. According to games designer Peter Molyneux, the game exploits psychological techniques to make a person feel that Milo is real. Each Milo character will be unique because every player's interaction with the virtual character will sculpt the type of virtual person Milo will evolve to become."
Canada

Might Shatner Boldly Lead Canada As Governor? 318

Posted by CmdrTaco from the universal-healthcare-and-captain-kirk dept.
just fiddling around writes "Now that Michaëlle Jean is approaching the end of her customary five-year post as Governor General of Canada, the rumor mill has started on who Prime Minister Steven Harper will propose to the Queen in her stead. According to the CBC, the short list includes Captain Kirk, actor William Shatner. It seems that acting can lead to the highest offices in places other than California."
Medicine

X Prize Foundation Wants AI Physician On Every Smartphone 245

Posted by Soulskill from the universal-health-care dept.
kkleiner writes "One of the exciting ideas being tossed around recently at the X Prize Foundation is the creation of an Artificial Intelligence physician that you could access from your smartphone. Want to know if that rash on your leg is poison ivy or smallpox? Take a photo of it with your phone and ask the AI. The possibilities are enormous, especially for the billion plus people around the world who live more than a few hours' walk or drive from the nearest doctor." This is one of four X Prizes in planning for the future. The other three are for an AI automobile driver, organ generation through stem cell use, and a deep sea submersible capable of exploring the sea floor.

Comment Re:Tiobe also explains how it determines it rankin (Score 1) 351

by tomhuxley (#32446536) Attached to: Objective-C Enters Top Ten In Language Popularity

It would probably be because most of the other Top 10 languages have been at (or near) the Top 10 for years, while Objective C has jumped up from #39 a year ago.

Here you can see the change in Tiobe's ratings for Objective C over time:
http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/paperinfo/tpci/Objective-C.html

Compared to other languages like Java:
http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/paperinfo/tpci/Java.html

Perl:
http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/paperinfo/tpci/Perl.html

or PHP:

http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/paperinfo/tpci/PHP.html

That is a significant change.

Now Tiobe's methodology may be crap overall, but it is measuring a big sea-change ... not a change you'll probably like, but eventually you'll realize that the world rarely goes out of its way to please you.

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