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Submission + - Apple files patent for digital wallet and virtual currency (venturebeat.com)

Submitted by another random user
another random user writes: Apple has applied for a patent on a combined virtual currency and digital wallet technology that would allow you to store money in the cloud, make payments with your iPhone, and maybe communicate with point-of-sale terminals via NFC.


The patent application, published today by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Organization, details how iPhone users could walk into a store, pay for goods with their phone, and walk out with their merchandise.


Though Apple is late to the virtual wallet game, that doesn't seem to stop them trying to patent the process. There does not appear to be anything in the patent application which describes something that can't already be done.

Comment Re:Good - Walmart and Amazon (Score 1) 407

by TheProspector (#39534911) Attached to: Best Buy Closing 50 Stores
Here's an article on how Walmart is dealing with Amazon: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-wal-mart-is-worried-about-amazon.html "The company has spent more than $300 million acquiring five tech firms since May and hired more than 300 engineers and code writers in the U.S. and India. Wal-Mart is also launching a program to allow the 20 percent of its customers without credit cards or bank accounts to make online purchases. Wal-Mart’s acquisitions include Kosmix, a social-media firm, and iPhone app creator Small Society. The company hopes the newcomers can find a way to stop shoppers from engaging in scan and scram. That’s when would-be customers use their smartphones in stores to scan an item’s bar code and then buy it online from a rival merchant."
Earth

Research Finds Carbon Dating Flawed 625

Posted by samzenpus from the kinda-old dept.
eldavojohn writes "New research funded by the National Science Foundation at the University of Miami is showing that carbon dating (the 13C/12C ratio used to infer age) in the ocean can only be trusted up to 150 million years ago. From the primary researcher, 'This study is a major step in terms of rethinking how geologists interpret variations in the 13C/12C ratio throughout Earth's history. If the approach does not work over the past 10 million years, then why would it work during older time periods? As a consequence of our findings, changes in 13C/12C records need to be reevaluated, conclusions regarding changes in the reservoirs of carbon will have to be reassessed, and some of the widely-held ideas regarding the elevation of CO2 during specific periods of the Earth's geological history will have to be adjusted.' While this research doesn't necessarily throw carbon dating out the window, it should cause people to rethink so many theories about early life that revolved around ages of sediment in the oceans."

Comment Geology (Score 1) 383

by TheProspector (#19246049) Attached to: High Paying Jobs in Math and Science?
Job prospects for people with a B.S. in geology are outstanding right now. Either in the environmental side, or the water resources side (water quality or quantity), or in the mineral exploration side, you'll have many opportunities. A M.S. gives you a leg up, but even undergraduates who haven't completed their degrees are being recruited. Skills in GIS (ArcINFO and the like) are also valuable.

Comment Re:Kinesis keyboard (Score 1) 624

by NemWS (#13030085) Attached to: Back and Forth Between Qwerty and Dvorak?
Ugh - I had one of these. The function keys are too small and programming characters are very difficult to type. I had swiched to it (and got fully used to using my thumbs), but I couldn't program in it comfortably at all. If you are a writer of any sort (journaling, book author, etc.), then the Kinesis is a boon, but it's a no-go for programming, IMO.

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