V HAV IT FREE

Nazis Filmed the 1936 Olympics in 3D

2011-05-19T08:45:00.000-07:00

It seems Nazis were using 3D cameras even before anyone came up with the theory. According to various sources, Nazis had developed a 'sophisticated stereoscopic camera' to record athletes as they crossed the finish line in the 1936 Olympics.
Philippe Mora, a filmmaker who has previously found evidence of Nazi using 3D in propaganda movies, believes Nazis used a twin-camera Zeiss Ikon system to film all Olympic track events. This camera was triggered by the starting gun. The amazing fact is that by this method 3D footage could were developed within 7 minutes for the referee to review.
Its just strange that Nazis watched Jesse Owens beat them over and over again. According to our sources, Jesse Owens was determined winner in an event by using this method.

Intel Will Get Inside Smartphones By Early 2012

2011-05-19T07:11:00.000-07:00

The world’s largest chipmaker Intel will make its way to smartphones early next year, the company’s CEO Paul Otellini revealed today to investors.

He also rejected the idea that the company would adopt rival manufacturer ARM’s technology for the mobile chipsets. He was sharing his vision at Intel’s annual investor event in Santa Clara, Reuters reports.

Getting to mobile devices is a big deal for Intel. The company is the dominant desktop and notebook chip manufacturer with 80 percent market share — but other players like Qualcomm and Nvidia dominate the fast-growing smartphone market.

According to Otellini, licensing ARM technology would just lower the company’s overall profits. Intel has invested heavily in mobile technology and is currently working with several smartphone manufacturers. Intel’s latest chip in the Atom family, called Medfield, will be power efficient and powerful enough to compete in the fast-growing smartphone market.

Google Testing New Search Results Page

2011-05-12T06:05:00.001-07:00

Congrats! Or maybe-congrats: You might be a part of the test group of users that Google's using as digital guinea pigs for a redesign of its search results page. Unfortunately, there's no way to self-select to receive the adjusted results page, nor is there indication as to how (or why) Google's grouped its users the way it has.

For those unlucky ones that aren't getting the special Google treatment, here's what the new search results pages looks like. Starting off, it's a lot more spacious: Specifically, Google's adjusted the spacing between the results it delivers to increase the total white space (and page length) of the search results page itself.

Gone are the familiar "cached" and "similar" links—tools that allowed a user to pull up related pages and "snapshots" of pages that have been saved by Google in the event that the actual link was down for any reason. Also gone is the old, familiar underline under each page title: Google likely assumes that its users know how to work a search results page by now, and page titles are now just rendered in a larger blue font overtop the page's one-to-two-line description.

Microsoft Buys Skype For $8.5bn

2011-05-12T06:05:00.000-07:00

Microsoft's acquisition of Skype, its biggest ever, is an $8.5bn (£5bn) gamble to try to catch up with Apple and Google.
The software company, once so dominant, has been left behind by its more fleet-footed competitors as the pace of technological change – especially in mobile telecoms – has outstripped its ability to innovate.
Analysts saw the deal, which edges out the $6bn it paid for online advertising company aQuantive in 2007, as a sign of Microsoft's ambition to become a bigger force in the consumer and smartphone market. They also interpreted it as a sign that Microsoft intends to broaden its appeal to businesses by using Skype to offer cheaper services than existing phone companies.
Skype, which has 663m people across the world registered to use its Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP) communications, is available on personal computers and mobile phones – though not yet on Microsoft's new Windows Phone operating system. That is expected to be remedied soon.
The deal will see it established as a separate business inside Microsoft, dubbed Microsoft Skype. Tony Bates, the Skype chief executive, will become president of Microsoft Skype and report directly to Microsoft's chief executive, Steve Ballmer.

HBO launching new mobile app this week

2011-05-03T18:44:00.000-07:00

HBO is launching its HBO Go mobile product this week in hopes that letting subscribers watch its movies and original TV shows on the go will help reverse the 1.6 million-subscriber decline at the network and its corporate cousin Cinemax last year.

The new service offers 1,400 HBO titles available through Apple's iPhones and iPads as well as devices running Google's Android operating system. However, the service is only open to consumers with an HBO subscription.

The launch is the latest skirmish between established media and Web players led by Netflix to exploit consumers' appetite for streaming movies and TV. Netflix, launched as a service that delivered DVDs ordered online through the U.S. mail, has ridden the popularity of its newer streaming service to nearly 23 million U.S. subscribers, up from 5 million in mid-2006.

That rise has vexed movie studios, cable system owners and proprietors of premium cable channels like HBO -- and has especially exercised Time Warner Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bewkes, whose company owns Warner Bros. studios and HBO and used to control Time Warner Cable.

What Facebook is really worth (is still clear as mud)

2011-05-03T18:42:00.000-07:00

Thanks to anonymous sources and the reporters who love them, we have a better picture this week of Silicon Valley's favorite guessing game: What is Facebook really worth?

TheWall Street Journal reported the social-networking giant is on track to make $2 billion this year in profit before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. Using published estimates from market-research firm eMarketer, the paper said Facebook is likely to rack up $4.05 billion in ad revenue this year, more than double 2010's take of $1.86 billion.

Whenever Facebook does go public, it would be subject to the basic laws of valuation -- once people know your real numbers, they value your company like they value other, similar companies. If you know how many times earnings -- the multiple -- the market pays for a few comparable companies we've featured below, it's not hard to do the rest.

Trouble is, the numbers for six selected companies point all over the place, implying Facebook valuations anywhere from less than $20 billion to $107 billion. But all of the comparables point to a lower number than the expert the Journal quoted on Facebook's value.

The bottom line: Of these six, only Salesforce.com makes a convincing case for the kinds of public trading price Facebook's fans think are reasonable. And there may be good reason for published reports that existing Facebook holders had trouble trying recently to sell shares at a $70 billion valuation.

US Army plans app store for troops

2011-04-28T21:10:00.000-07:00

The Army Marketplace, which is due to launch in August, will launch with a selection of applications, including training manuals and productivity tools. Future applications are expected to help map out terrain, locate friendly forces and translate foreign languages.

“The current process of [army] software creation is a very long and arduous process. That’s how we do things. But app development needs to be done quickly,” Lt Col Gregory Motes, chief of the US Army’s mobile applications branch, told Wired magazine.

The magazine reports that the Army Marketplace will be hosted on a US defence department server, accessible only to members of the defence department community.

The Army Marketplace will host 17 for Android phones and 16 for iPhones, though the US government has not yet certified any mobile device as secure enough to access its networks. The US National Institute of Standards and Technology has begun certifying the iPhone but is still months away from finishing. No Android handsets have even begun the process yet.

Soldiers will also be able to use the Marketplace to ask for apps that haven’t been built yet. A forum within the store will let soldiers specify the app they need and allow fellow soldiers and designers to discuss how it might be built.

Though British Army is yet to announce its own app store, soldiers with the Royal Artillery have been using specially-developed iPad apps as part of their training. The Fire Control Orders training is enhanced by an app that gives soldiers scores based on their success in training and allows them to compete against one another.

Sony to challenge Apple with two tablet computers

2011-04-28T21:08:00.000-07:00

Kunimasa Suzuki, Sony’s deputy president, said the company’s new tablets, codenamed S1 and S2, would use Google’s Android operating system and will go on sale this autumn.

The S1 is a 9.4-inch tablet computer with a tapered design that is thick on one end and thin on the other. The S2 is a clamshell style tablet that opens to reveal two 5.5-inch touchscreens. Sony said the two tablets might not launch at the same time.

Both tablets will have WiFi connectivity and 3G mobile internet, as well as 4G where it is available.

Mr Suzuki said: “We’ve tried to expand the possibilities of a tablet.”

The tablet market is currently dominated by Apple, whose iPad 2 was released earlier this year. However, Sony will hope that it can add features that will make its own tablets a tempting alternative, such as the ability to play PlayStation games and read e-books from the Sony Reader store. The company also has a music and film streaming service, called Qriocity, that could be added to its tablet computers.

Last year Sony said its aim was to be second to Apple in the tablet market by 2012. That will mean overtaking rivals including Samsung, whose first Galaxy Tab went on sale last year, Motorola and RIM, manufacturers of the BlackBerry PlayBook.

Analysts Gartner say that tablet sales will quadruple to about 294 million by 2015.

Sony PlayStation hack: a glimpse into the world of online crime

2011-04-28T21:05:00.000-07:00

When, last Wednesday, Sony shut down its PlayStation Network without warning or explanation, there was much grumbling from players across the world who were suddenly denied access to their accounts. As the days dragged on, the irritation grew – curdling into full-grown, flabbergasted outrage when, on Tuesday night, the Japanese technology giant admitted to its 77 million users that every detail of their accounts, from passwords to addresses to credit card details, could be in the hands of criminals.

As PR disasters go, it is one for the ages: Sony, a firm that defines itself by being on the cutting-edge, has been exposed as having humiliatingly inadequate security procedures. Indeed, the news follows a succession of embarrassing breaches: in recent months, both Sony’s Blu-Ray DVD system and its PlayStation 3 games console – billed as the most powerful and sophisticated on the planet – have been severely compromised.

There were, it seems, unique circumstances. The network, claimed Alan Paller, an American cyber-security expert, may have been constructed in haste, to be ready for the associated console’s launch. But the episode also illustrates the extent to which online data loss is an increasingly severe problem for corporations, governments and individuals alike. There is, of course, an outside chance that the Sony hack was a freelance operation, perhaps carried out by fringe members of

“Anonymous”, the anarchic online collective that was involved in the earlier security breaches. But the affair has all the hallmarks of the criminal gangs who are turning computer hacking into one of the most profitable illegal enterprises on the planet.

For Sony is not alone. Every time we make a purchase, visit a website, carry out an online banking transaction, we are exposing ourselves to risk. Within recent days, we have discovered that every iPhone is leaving a trail of digital breadcrumbs, listing where they have been; that Oak Ridge National Laboratory, one of America’s premier scientific institutions, has been penetrated by hackers for the second time in four years; and that, according to Sophos, a leading security vendor, Facebook’s Apps service is “riddled with rogue applications and viral scams”.

White iPhone finally goes on sale

2011-04-28T08:32:00.000-07:00

The long-awaited white model of the iPhone 4 is finally available, nearly a year behind schedule.

Apple said Wednesday that white iPhone 4s can be bought through Apple's online store starting Thursday or at Apple stores and authorized retailers.

Apple planned to begin selling the white iPhone along with the black model in June of last year but its release was repeatedly delayed by manufacturing challenges in a rare setback for the California gadget-maker.

"The white iPhone 4 has finally arrived and it's beautiful," Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing Philip Schiller said Wednesday.

"We appreciate everyone who has waited patiently while we've worked to get every detail right," Schiller said in a statement.

Apple said the white iPhone 4 will be available on Thursday in Austria, Australia, Belgium, Britain, Canada, China, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Macau, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand and the United States.

Apple sold 18.65 million iPhones last quarter, up 113 percent over a year ago.

Hundreds queue as iPad 2 hits Japan

2011-04-28T08:30:00.000-07:00

Hundreds of Apple fans in Japan queued to snap up the iPad 2 Thursday as the latest version of the popular tablet finally went on sale after a month-long delay caused by the March 11 quake and tsunami.

Customers in Tokyo waited patiently from early morning outside Apple's main stores in downtown Ginza and the shopping district of Shibuya, many killing time by playing on or reading from their previous-generation devices.

"I was determined to get the new model as it is thinner and lighter" than the original model, Masahiko Asakura, 40, said as he came out of the Ginza store, adding that he would now give his old iPad to his parents.

"The launch was a long time coming for me," said a 22-year-old physics student who only gave her surname as Kobayashi. "I thought the first model was a bit heavy, but the new one seems the right size for me."

As the spring sun heated the pavement, Apple distributed bottled water and black parasols with the Apple logo to many of those queueing up to spend 44,800-60,800 yen ($548-$743) on the latest gadget.

The iPad 2, which hit stores in the United States on March 11, had been scheduled to go on sale in Japan on March 25.

But the launch was pushed back as the country dealt with its worst disaster since World War II, which has left more than 26,000 people dead or missing and sparked a nuclear crisis at the tsunami-hit Fukushima atomic plant.

With many consumers in a jittery or glum mood since the calamity, data released Thursday showed household spending plunged by 8.5 percent in March from a year earlier, the biggest drop since records began in 1964.

Asakura said the disaster was no reason to stop spending, adding that "feelings will become bottled up in society unless we have fun like this."

Apple sold more than 15 million iPads last year worldwide and 4.69 million during the last quarter.

The success of the iPad has forced rival electronics makers to begin rolling out their own touchscreen tablet computers, and Japan's Sony this week unveiled its first tablet models, codenamed S1 and S2.

The larger S1 has a single screen while the pocketable S2 has twin screens, company officials told a news conference. Both devices use Google's Android operating system and are equipped with Wi-Fi for Internet access.

Competitors have rushed to cash in on soaring demand for tablets since the iPad was released in April last year, but Sony's devices are not due to go on sale globally until the northern hemisphere autumn, well behind its rivals.

Samsung's Galaxy Tab is the best-selling rival to the Apple gadget, and Research in Motion became the latest to join the fray, with the release last week of its Blackberry PlayBook.

The iPad 2 will be launched as planned on Friday in Hong Kong, India, Israel, Macau, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

Origin EON17-S gaming laptop overclocked to 4.5GHz, up for ord

2011-04-27T19:46:00.000-07:00

Now this $3000 baby is going to put some dent in your wallet for some time, but i say it is definitely worth it. That's the starting price for this gaming laptop, with a 2.5GHz Intel Core i7-2920XM Quad-Core processor factory overclocked to 4.5GHz, and maxing the system out with 32GB of RAM, dual 480GB SSD's, and a 2GB NVidia GeForce GTX 485M GPU will send the price tag north of $10,000. For LAN play geeks this is the perfect system right? Then this best, brightest and heaviest (at 8.6 pounds) computing monster sitting on your lap is just what you need, then look for yours on this come May 17th.

EON17-S Features and Technology:

* 17.3 Full HD Widescreen, LED Backlit, 16.9, 1920 x 1080 (1080p)
* Customizable ORIGIN top cover
* 2nd Generation Intel Core i5 or i7 Processors
* Overclocking up to 4.5GHz with Turbo Boost on Core i7 Extreme Edition processors
* NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M 1.5GB or GTX485M 2GB
* FOUR Memory Slots for up to 32GB Dual Channel DDR3 1333Mhz or 16GB Dual Channel DDR3 1600MHz
* Bluray burner & reader, Hybrid and SSD drive with RAID options
* Full size keyboard with numeric pad
* HDMI Out; Optical Digital Out, up to 7.1 HD Audio with THX TruStudio support
* Built-In 802.11n & Bluetooth Support
* Bluetooth 3.0 & Wireless Video options
* Built-In TVtuner support
* Built-in USB 3.0 & E-SATA ports
* (W)16.22″ x (D)10.87″ x (H)1.65″ – 1.79"
* 8.6 lbs with the battery

Google TV: The Future of Interactive Television?

2011-04-26T07:44:00.000-07:00

Inside a top-secret lab in Silicon Valley, programmers are putting the finishing touches on a new product called Google TV. The company says this new device will take all the best features of watching television, surfing the web, playing online games, and connecting with friends on Twitter and Facebook, and combine them into a single experience.

It is “a new way to think about television,” said Google Senior Product Manager Rishi Chandra. “Basically what we’re trying to do here is take all that content that you already watch today on television, and add all that other content that you get on the web today, that you normally can’t get on your TV.”
With Google TV, users can channel-surf between traditional TV shows, websites, online video, social media, and eventually programs recorded on a DVR, all with just a few clicks of the remote. (The DVR function has not yet been worked out with all major cable and satellite providers.)
“You can bookmark all your favorite applications, all your favorite websites, and all your favorite channels in this one single interface,” Chandra explained.
Google is betting that it will transform TV the same way smartphones transformed the telephone.
The device is expected to hit store shelves later this month. It will be marketed as a stand-alone unit that can be attached to an existing TV, and also as a built-in feature in Sony TVs and Blu-Ray DVD players.
Google TV already has competition from Apple, which markets a system called Apple TV. Apple’s device – a sleek little black box – provides access to TV shows, movie downloads, online music, photos and more. Amazon and Netflix are also looking at new ways to provide immediate content for viewers to turn watching TV into a more interactive experience.
All of these systems use new technology to bring an old idea back to life – the idea of the whole family gathering around the television to share hours of entertainment together. While mobile use has vastly increased in recent years, making it easy to watch a movie solo on a laptop or smart-phone, the average American still spends five hours a day in front of the TV. Google sees that as a big opportunity.

Facebook’s Earliest Rival, Why It Failed

2011-04-26T07:40:00.000-07:00

In a parallel universe, there is a blockbuster movie coming out this weekend about a Web site that changed the world. It’s called The Social Network. It stars Jesse Eisenberg as the site’s wunderkind creator. It features wealth and drama and Ivy League shenanigans. But it’s not about Facebook. It’s about another site, Campus Network, and its founder, Adam Goldberg, a guy who came within arm’s reach of a multibillion-dollar idea that ultimately slipped his grasp.

As The Social Network dramatizes, Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook after allegedly backing out of a commitment to work on another networking site, Harvard Connection. Lawsuits ensued, and Zuckerberg ended up shelling out tens of millions of dollars in a settlement with his one-time partners. What the film doesn’t mention are all the other college social networks that Facebook shoved aside as it expanded across the country. Of those sites, perhaps the greatest threat to Facebook’s dominance was Campus Network, then called CU Community after Columbia University, where it was founded.

“If you talk to Mark, he’ll be the first to tell you he thought CU Community was the biggest competition that Facebook ever had,” says Goldberg, now 26 years old and living in New York City. While I was unable to confirm that Zuckerberg agrees with this statement—the Facebook CEO and the company’s PR reps didn’t respond to requests for an interview—it is true that Facebook and CU Community were running neck and neck for a brief moment in Internet history. Facebook had Harvard, CU Community had Columbia, and both were mulling plans for expansion. Only one site would survive. It wasn’t Adam Goldberg’s.

Goldberg got the idea for Campus Network in 2003, during his freshman year at Columbia’s school of engineering. As president of his class, he heard a lot of complaints about the university’s lack of community spirit. Over the summer, he wrote a simple script for a social network for engineering students. The site let users share personal information, post photos, write journal entries, and comment on one another’s posts. In just a few weeks, Goldberg says, three-quarters of engineering students had profiles. Over winter break, he rebranded the site CU Community and opened the site to all undergraduates in January. Goldberg says that most Columbia students signed up in just over a month.

On Feb. 4, Facebook launched. “At first I was like, Oh my God, they copied my Web site,” says Goldberg. Unlike Zuckerberg’s Harvard Connection adversaries, however, the CU Community founder quickly changed his mind. “I saw it was totally different. It had an emphasis on directory functionality, less emphasis on sharing. I didn’t think there was that much competition.”

As of early 2004, Goldberg’s social network was a lot more advanced than Mark Zuckerberg’s. The first incarnation of Facebook— known as The Facebook back then—let users post a photo and basic biographical information. It let them “friend” and “poke” each other. But that was about it. Fancier tools like photo sharing and Groups and the Wall didn’t come till later. Meanwhile, CU Community already had blogging and cross-profile commenting. Facebook’s simplicity and the fact that it was available only to Harvard students made it easy for Goldberg to dismiss. “We were the Columbia community, they were Harvard,” he says.

The illusion of safety crumbled a month later when Facebook opened its doors to students at Stanford, Yale, and Columbia. While Facebook grew exponentially at Harvard and Stanford, growth was slower at Columbia—in part, says Goldberg, because CU Community was already so entrenched. Some Columbia students launched a campaign to “Google bomb” Facebook by linking the search term “cucommunity ripoff” to TheFacebook.com and “worthless safety school” to Harvard.edu. The Columbia Spectator called the effort “marginally successful.” (I wrote for the Spectator at the time.) Despite this online agitprop, Facebook continued to grow. That summer, it overtook CU Community as the most popular social network on campus.

Sony to release Google Android tablet

2011-04-26T02:52:00.001-07:00

Sony chairman and chief executive Sir Howard Stringer has confirmed that the company will release a tablet computer based on Google’s Android Honeycomb operating system.

Speaking to Japan’s Nikkei, he said that the device would appear by the end of the summer, but did not give further details. Sony has previously indicated that it was working on both a PlayStation-accredited “S1” tablet and a folding “S2” version.

Apple’s iPad has taken the vast majority of the tablet market, with some analysts suggesting they account for more than 90 per cent of all sales. Google’s Android operating system has, however, begun to apply pressure to the iPhone-maker with the launch of Honeycomb, a version of Android designed specifically for tablets.

In America, the Motorola Xoom has already launched, and it is expected in the UK imminently. Asus, too, has announced that it will introduce a Honeycomb tablet very soon. Although Sony has already worked with Android for the PlayStation-accredited Xperia Play mobile phone, it has not yet produced a tablet PC using the platform.

Demand for Apple’s new iPad 2 has, however, outstripped supply, while Samsung has admitted that its original Galaxy Tab 7” model has been hard for retailers to sell. A new version, in 9” and 10” formats, is due later in the summer.

Minn. man accused of hacking Facebook accounts

2011-04-24T04:06:00.000-07:00

A Minnesota man has been charged with identity theft for allegedly hacking into Facebook accounts and stealing photos of women to post on adult websites.

Prosecutors allege Timothy Peter Noirjean would contact the women online and dupe them into providing him with personal information.

Prosecutors say Noirjean would then reset Facebook passwords and pretend to be the account holder, contacting the person's friends to get more information.

He allegedly stole photographs of eight women. And authorities said Wednesday there's nothing they can do to get those photos taken down from sexually explicit websites.

Prosecutors have charged the 26-year-old Woodbury man with 13 counts of identity theft.

It was not immediately clear whether Noirjean had an attorney. A phone message left at his home was not returned

Sony "rebuilding" PlayStation Network After Attack

2011-04-24T04:01:00.000-07:00

The outage of Sony's PlayStation Network and Qriocity service, now in its fourth day, looks set to continue after the company said on Sunday that it is "rebuilding" its system to better guard against attacks.

Sony said on Saturday that the outage was caused by an "external intrusion" into the network, but has yet to detail the problem.

The PlayStation Network is used for PlayStation 3 online gaming and sales of software to consoles and the PlayStation Portable. The Qriocity service runs on the same network infrastructure and provides audio and video to Sony consumer electronics products.

The latest update, while not explaining the intrusion, pointed towards it being relatively sophisticated.

"Our efforts to resolve this matter involve rebuilding our system to further strengthen our network infrastructure," the company said in a statement. "Though this task is time-consuming, we decided it was worth the time necessary to provide the system with additional security."

Sony said it is "working around the clock to bring them both back online," but didn't say when they might return. Phone calls to the company's Tokyo headquarters went unanswered on Sunday.

"We thank you for your patience to date and ask for a little more while we move towards completion of this project," the statement said.

The outage has left PlayStation 3 owners unable to play online games. Networked gaming, in which gamers collaborate with others in real-time battles, challenges and quests, is very popular and typically enjoyed by millions, especially over the weekend.

Report: Apple, Google collecting location data on users

2011-04-23T03:42:00.000-07:00

As Apple faces scrutiny over the collection of location data from users of its iPhones and iPads, the Wall Street Journal reports that Android smartphones snag the same data and send it to Google.

Citing research from security analyst Samy Kamkar, using an HTC Android phone, the report says the device grabbed location info and sent data to Google multiple times an hour. It also "transmitted the name, location and signal strength of any nearby Wi-Fi networks, as well as a unique phone identifier," the report reads.

Google did not comment on the Journal report.

Meanwhile, as the Associated Press spells out, privacy watchdogs and congressman have reached out to Apple following a report from tech researchers that says iPhones and iPads secretly gather location data.

"Apple needs to safeguard the personal location information of its users to ensure that an iPhone doesn't become an iTrack," says Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., in a statement to the AP.

Why Are Tech Founders Such Assholes?

2011-04-21T04:03:00.000-07:00

Now I m not telling this to just to say it. Just look out there. All those tech founders are turning already in all kinds of villanary. In the past couple of weeks, the co-founders of Microsoft and Twitter have been attached to the same kinds of unsavory stories that have long dogged the people behind Facebook, Apple, Zynga and other top tech firms.
Lately founders of various high end tech institutions are involved in a lot of ethics-related scandals. Paul Allen says that fellow Microsoft founder Bill Gates twice watered down Allen's stake in Microsoft, with his consent that is. Allen also says that Bill discussed with the current CEO Steve Ballmer ways to dilute him further after Allen took a leave of absence for cancer treatment. The "head" behind twitter and the man who coined the company's name feels betrayed that he was fired by eventual Twitter CEO Ev Williams after Williams took a stronger interest in the microblogging service that Glass had been instrumental in developing and had championed from the beginning. Williams did not leave the best trail of employees in blogger.com, the company he co-founded and later sold to Google.
The thing is that these guys are not lifelong assholes. For instances, Bill Gates has given $28 billion to charity. And also angry co-workers are not the best source of info about their bosses. But judging from the preponderance of stories circulating out there, it sure looks like tech founders collectively tend to act like jerks as they build their fortunes.
And then there was the time, which is now part of Silicon Valley legend, when Steve Jobsmisled his Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak about the size of a bonus the pair received from Atari, giving him only $350 and keeping $5,000 for himself.

2011-04-21T03:20:00.000-07:00

i dont exactly know whats happening here. Check out this cool video. This is way cooler than just formatting a cd..........

Apple sues Samsung for 'copying' smartphones, tablets

2011-04-19T08:27:00.000-07:00

Apple has filed a lawsuit against Samsung, alleging that the consumer electronics giant has violated Apple's intellectual property in the design of its mobile devices.

The suit, which was filed last week and picked up on by The Wall Street Journal, takes aim specifically at the Galaxy series of smartphones and tablets, as well as other Samsung smartphones, for "copying" Apple's user interface and design features. In it, Apple--the maker of the trend-setting iPhone and iPad--claims Samsung is infringing on its patents and is practicing unfair competition.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment, though an Apple representative told AllThingsD: "It's no coincidence that Samsung's latest products look a lot like the iPhone and iPad, from the shape of the hardware to the user interface and even the packaging," adding that "this kind of blatant copying is wrong, and we need to protect Apple's intellectual property when companies steal our ideas."

In a statement e-mailed to CNET, a Samsung representative said this: "Samsung's development of core technologies and strengthening our intellectual property portfolio are keys to our continued success. Samsung will respond actively to this legal action taken against us through appropriate legal measures to protect our intellectual property."

The lawsuit is of special interest given the relationship between the two companies. Samsung is the supplier of components in a handful of Apple devices, including part of Apple's A4 and A5 processors, which can be found in the company's iOS devices as well on the Apple TV product. Findings by AnandTech from earlier this morning also suggest that Apple has moved away from Toshiba to Samsung as the provider for solid-state storage in its MacBook Air notebooks.

Apple invested $100 million in Samsung back in 1999 to help boost the company's production of flat-panel displays. Even so, the two companies have traded blows at one another publicly. In 2005 Samsung promised to knock Apple from its top spot with the iPod, launching a massive ad campaign the following year. More recently, during Apple's iPad 2 unveiling, Apple CEO Steve Jobs knocked Samsung's tablet efforts, misquoting Samsung vice president Lee Young-hee as saying that sales of the company's 7-inch Galaxy Tab tablet had been "small."

Apple has been a large customer of Samsung's over the years, working with the company to buying up large orders of flash memory for use in devices like the iPhone. In February the two companies were said to be working on a contract agreement with one another worth $7.8 billion, yielding parts like processors, flash memory, and LCD panels for future devices.

Microsoft Unveils 'Mango' -- Next Windows Phone Version

2011-04-16T18:19:00.001-07:00

Microsoft's MIX11 Day 2 is perhaps more important than the first. Today, Joe Belfiore took the keynote stage to discuss the next Windows Phone update, codename "Mango," which will be "available to all current users of Windows Phone" and on new handsets, he said. Developer tools are coming next month.

Microsoft plans to release Mango in autumn, adding support for 16 additional languages. The number of countries where Windows Phone apps can be submitted will increase from 30 to 36. Applications will be available to download or buy in more countries -- 25 up from 16.

Belfiore also highlighted changes specific to developers that "get more value out of your apps." User-specific enhancements will be announced later.

Among the new features is what Belfiore called a "jump list for apps," essentially the ability to use typographic keys to scan for documents. The feature could be a boon for end users with lots of apps and ensuring that developers' applications don't get lost in the mix. Search is improved, and Microsoft presents more information about apps in the Windows Phone Marketplace. Another new feature attaches apps as "Extras" to searches. Belfiore used example of Binging movie "Source Code," then watching the movie trailer from the IMDB app presented in "Extras."

Apple Sued Over In-App Purchasing

2011-04-16T18:18:00.000-07:00

Apple's decision to require passwords for every in-app purchase transaction isn't enough to stave off litigation.

Attorneys representing Phoenixville, Pa., resident Garen Meguerian filed a lawsuit against Apple on Monday claiming that the company allowed minors to purchase virtual goods through iOS games without the authorization of their parents.

Meguerian let his 9-year-old daughter download several free games from the iTunes App Store, including "Zombie Cafe," "Treasure Story," and "City Story," the complaint said. Several weeks later, Meguerian discovered his daughter had purchased approximately $200 of virtual currency called "Zombie Toxin," "Gems," and "City Cash."

"These games are highly addictive, designed deliberately so, and tend to compel children playing them to purchase large quantities of Game Currency, amounting to as much as $100 per purchase or more," the complaint said.

Google Buys Mobile Music Service PushLife For $25 Million

2011-04-15T20:57:00.000-07:00

Google has acquired mobile entertainment publisher PushLife for a reported $25 million, according to Startup North.

Founded in 2008, Canada-based PushLife operates a mobile music streaming service that lets users sync songs stored on their computers with their smartphones.

The PushLife team will be joining Google's engineering team in Canada, according to a note on the company's website.

Google is expected to launch a digital music offering some time in the near future, and reportedly has already been testing the service internally among employees.

Steve Jobs Participates In Revealing Life Story

2011-04-15T20:55:00.000-07:00

Apple CEO Steve Jobs will participate in a book about his extraordinary life, marking the first time the man behind the iPod, iPhone and iPad has opened up and put his imprimatur on his life story.

The first official biography of the 56 year-old innovator is titled "iSteve: The Book of Jobs," and has been reportedly in the works since 2009, when author Walter Issacson began interviewing Jobs, his family, his colleagues at Apple and his competitors. It is due to be released in early 2012.

"This is the perfect match of subject and author, and it is certain to be a landmark book about one of the world's greatest innovators," said publisher Simon & Schuster's Jonathan Karp. "Walter Issacson is telling a unique story of revolutionary genius."

Never before has a chief executive been so closely associate with the phenomenal success of a company. In fact, Jobs' leadership is so highly regarded that his recent health problems put investors on edge and led to call for a succession plan should he have to leave the company. It's this public image, along with the high public profile fueled through Apple's famously theatrical product launches, that will likely stoke interest in the book.