Silicon Valley Blog

Caltech researchers create AI network from DNA strand

noreply@blogger.com (iGriot) — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 03:32:12 PDT

Researchers at the California Institute of Technology have created an artificial DNA neural network that demonstrates the ability to recall memories.

Lulu Qian, a postdoctoral scholar at Caltech, is the lead author of a paper describing the work in the July 21 issue of the journal Nature. A Caltech announcement says the researchers "have now taken a major step toward creating artificial intelligence ... in a test tube."

Google+ adds new feature section

noreply@blogger.com (iGriot) — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 02:10:40 PDT

Google has added a "What's new in Google+" section to its fledgling social network. The update section has a collection of YouTube videos explaining new Google+ features.

Mobile gaming on the rise [infographic]

noreply@blogger.com (iGriot) — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 17:22:57 PDT

Revenue from the growing mobile gaming market surged to $33 billion last year. The burgeoning market has been fueled by the ease of creating apps for the iPhone and Android devices, the growth of free games and the rise of female gamers, according to a Geekaphone blog post.

Geekaphone's

NASA prepares rover for trip to Mars

noreply@blogger.com (iGriot) — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 16:13:11 PDT

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory, a land rover nicknamed Curiosity, is scheduled to launch late this year and land on the red planet next fall.

The Mars Exploration Program plans to land the rover at the foot of a mountain in the planet's Gale Crater, reports the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Jon Stewart pokes fun at Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (iGriot) — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 02:36:40 PDT

Jon Stewart had some fun with Twitter on The Daily Show.

An infographic history of programming languages

noreply@blogger.com (iGriot) — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 02:14:07 PDT

Rackspace recently published an infographic on the history of computer languages. The timeline notes that Fortran, developed by IBM in 1957 at their San Jose, California campus for scientific and engineering applications, is the oldest programming language still in use today.

Gmail wants users to convert friends

noreply@blogger.com (iGriot) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 19:55:32 PDT

Gmail is challenging Yahoo Mail and Microsoft Hotmail by launching a campaign calling the older, more popular email competitors old-fashioned. Gmail wants its users to send invention letters to "save your friends from outdated email."

Facebook for Business woos small merchants

noreply@blogger.com (iGriot) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 18:42:20 PDT

Facebook has introduced a new online guide showing small businesses how to effectively use the resources available on the social network. The Facebook for Business Web page encourages merchants to "grow your business with Facebook's powerful marketing tools."

Stanford researchers develop transparent lithium-ion battery

noreply@blogger.com (iGriot) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 03:30:28 PDT

Stanford University grad student Yuan Yang has invented a clear lithium-ion battery than is also very flexible, reports Stanford News.

Apple ad trumpets new iPad era

noreply@blogger.com (iGriot) — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 21:01:53 PDT

Apple's new "We Always" iPad commercial shows some of the many ways the popular tablet is becoming ubiquitous.

About Losing Amy Winehouse

noreply@blogger.com (iGriot) — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 19:22:59 PDT

Amy Winehouse had the tragic imagination to see long ago the "losing hand" that troubled her and touched us all.

Love Is a Losing Game right now is the track that I play over and over again when I'm in a melancholy mood. The song was part of the 2008 Grammy Award winning album Back to Black, which also included her hit song Rehab.

RIP Amy

1-click 'Apply With LinkedIn' Web button debuts

noreply@blogger.com (iGriot) — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 00:46:18 PDT

LinkedIn today introduced a feature that allows job applicants to easily apply for a new position by clicking on a Web button.

"We are going to make it easy to submit your profile for any job application on the Web with one simple click," Jonathan Seitel, the San Francisco company's product manager, said in a blog post.

Some 89% of U.S. companies will use social networks for recruiting, according to a new report and infographic by Jobvite.

Video highlights of Fortune Brainstorm Tech

noreply@blogger.com (iGriot) — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 03:31:33 PDT

One of the highlights of the recently concluded Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference in Aspen, Colorado came when the former president of Harvard, Larry Summers, was asked to reminisce about his meeting with the twin brothers who accused Mark Zuckerberg of stealing their idea for Facebook.

The meeting with Summers, who also served as Treasury secretary under Bill Clinton and was President Obama's top economic advisor, and students Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss was dramatized in the movie The Social Network.

"Rarely have I encountered such swagger and I tried to respond in kind," recalled Summers, who further noted:

"One of the things you learn as a college president is if an undergraduate is wearing a tie and a jacket on Thursday afternoon at three o'clock, there are two possibilities. One is that they're looking for a job and have an interview; the other is that they are an asshole. This was the later case."

Below is the Summers video.

Silicon Valley investment banker Frank Quattrone talked about the possibility of another tech bubble. He called LinkedIn the Netscape of this era. Here's the video and transcript.

Skype CEO Tom Bates discussed his company's acquisition by Microsoft.

The CEO of streaming music startup Spotify was also a noteworthy speaker. Here's transcript and video.

Google+ expands circle of friends by 20 million

noreply@blogger.com (iGriot) — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 03:00:10 PDT

The Google+ social network has grown rapidly since it was launched three weeks ago.

"I've never seen anything grow this quickly," said Andrew Lipsman, an executive at comScore, which tracks Web traffic. Google+ has had 20 million unique visitors since its introduction, according to a comScore report released yesterday. Twitter was the fastest growing site when it quickly gained some 20 million visitors when it went public in 2009. "But that happened over several months," notes Lipsman.

The skyrocketing growth of Google+ is especially impressive since, at the present time, you can only join the social network by securing an invitation from a current member.

Harry Potter series to debut on Google eBookstore

noreply@blogger.com (iGriot) — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 02:22:54 PDT

J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books will be available on the Google eBookstore this fall.

Books purchased from the Google eBookstore are also available on many ereaders. The seven-book series will be offered on Google's iOS and Android apps.

Google demos Search by Image

noreply@blogger.com (iGriot) — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 01:17:59 PDT

Google posted a video yesterday demonstrating its Search by Image feature. Learn more about Search by Image at www.google.com/insidesearch/searchbyimage.html.

Google Doodle honors father of genetics

noreply@blogger.com (iGriot) — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 00:46:20 PDT

"We celebrate Gregor Mendel, Austrian botanist & father of genetics, born July 20, 1822, Google tweeted Wednesday.

The Austrian friar's seminal 1865 paper, Experiments in Plant Hybridization, established the genetic laws of heredity. You can find out more about the father of genetics at the Masaryk University Mendel Museum.

Showtime airs "The Franchise: A Season With the SF Giants" on YouTube

noreply@blogger.com (iGriot) — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 05:28:55 PDT

Showtime posted the first episode of its TV series "The Franchise" about the defending baseball World Series champion San Francisco Giants on YouTube. The show first aired on July 13.

The eclectic Giants star relief pitcher Brian Wilson at the 2011 ESPY awards in LA last week.

Showtime released some zany promotions clips showing interviews with several of the World Series champions.

Giants legend Willie Mays congratulated President Obama on his 2008 election victory. Mays flew with the Obama to the 2009 Major League Baseball All-Star game in St. Louis, where the president threw out the first pitch.

SoundHound demos LiveLyrics iPhone app

noreply@blogger.com (iGriot) — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 17:44:48 PDT

Silicon Valley startup SoundHound today introduced LiveLyrics, a new version of its iPhone app that lets users see lyrics scroll in time with the music they are listening to.

Earlier versions of the app included a music voice search feature and let users identify songs they listen to on iOS devices.

Google eyes PayPal payment turf

noreply@blogger.com (iGriot) — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 23:25:57 PDT

Google today opened its In-App Payment platform to all e-commerce application developers.

The API allows Web sites to collect payments for digital and virtual goods in a few short steps without leaving the app. PayPal offers a similar online service.

Obama calls space shuttle crew

noreply@blogger.com (iGriot) — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 03:09:14 PDT

President Barack Obama called the crew of of NASA's final space shuttle mission today to say that he was "personally proud" of the astronauts and the space program's accomplishments.

President Obama talks with astronauts from Oval Office.

Obama spoke with the combined crew of the space shuttle Atlantis and the International Space Station. The Atlantis will return from its 14-day mission to deliver supplies to the International Space Station next Thursday. The mission marks the end of the 30-year NASA space shuttle program.

The Paul McCartney and Beatles hit "Good Morning Sunshine" greeted the Atlantis crew of Chris Ferguson, Doug Hurley, Sandy Magnus and Rex Walheim on the eighth day of their space mission.

Private companies will takeover orbital flights and missions to the space station in the future. NASA is developing plans to put an astronaut on Mars.

A 2-second, July 14 ignition test of the next-generation J-2X rocket engine. Click image to enlarge.

NASA yesterday conducted a 1.9-second ignition test of the J-2X rocket engine that it hopes will eventually carry humans into deep space. The J-2X engine, which is being developed for NASA's Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, is being tested at the John C. Stennis Space Center.

Spotify's streaming music service debuts in U.S.

noreply@blogger.com (iGriot) — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 20:20:10 PDT

Spotify, the streaming music service popular in Europe, debuted today in the U.S. The Swedish startup recently signed deals with America's top four music labels.

Robot trained to help quadriplegic

noreply@blogger.com (iGriot) — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 18:57:30 PDT

A debilitating stroke suffered when he was 40-years-old left Henry Evan a mute quadriplegic. Henry regained the ability to move his head and use a finger, which allows him to use a computer.

A collaboration between Silicon Valley robotic startup Willow Garage and the Healthcare Robotics Lab at Georgia Tech is training a personal robot to help Henry with independent living.

Nuance unveils iPhone voice search app

noreply@blogger.com (iGriot) — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 22:10:09 PDT

The proliferation of mobile communications has spurred the development of speech recognition technology. Nuance, a voice recognition pioneer, will release an iPhone voice search app tomorrow.

Last month, Google made a voice search feature available for desktop computers. Voice recognition is also an important feature of Microsoft's popular Kinect for Xbox 360.

PayPal demos new smartphone payment feature

noreply@blogger.com (iGriot) — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 20:41:38 PDT

PayPal today demonstrated a new payment feature that lets users tap two mobile phones together to transfer money.

The new widget, which is currently only available on Samsung's Android Nexus S phones, uses near-field communications technology. PayPal plans to bring "NFC payments to life on the Android platform," said Laura Chambers, senior director of mobile operations, in a PayPal blog post.

Chambers showed off the new feature at today's MobileBeat conference in San Francisco.