News Headliners

An Apple TV reboot could be a game-changer

2012-06-08T15:23:00.002+08:00

Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks during an event in March, when Apple introduced the third version of the iPad.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

A major reboot of Apple's TV device could be a game changer
The computer company could take an Xbox Kinect-like approach with Apple TV
Apple could allow devs to create dedicated TV apps, and leverage the AirPlay feature
Apple is expected to make news at its developer's conference Monday

(Wired) -- Even six months ago, Apple TV was the big snoozer in Apple's consumer hardware line-up. The device is a simple set-top media puck — not much more than a passive conduit for piping iTunes, Netflix and iPad content to one's TV.

But, oh, how times have changed.

On the eve of WWDC 2012 -- Apple's annual developers' conference -- speculation swirls around Apple's positioning as a television manufacturer, and how Apple TV might play into a greater television hardware strategy. Indeed, an Apple TV reboot could be a game changer. And it would also be the WWDC highlight for users of the set-top puck, for app developers, and even for the TV entertainment industry at large.

Now, granted, Apple just revamped the Apple TV user interface with the launch of the third-generation iPad. So in some respects, it seems unlikely that Apple would feature the product in another media event just a few months later.

But the streaming TV companion still offers vast untapped potential. And with the attendance of thousands of devoted developers, WWDC is the perfect venue to announce a new Apple TV platform that exposes API support. And we can't forget how Tim Cook recently said the TV space is "an area of intense interest" for Apple.

Apple TV is one of the best set-top devices in a consumer electronics category that, quite frankly, doesn't enjoy mass consumer report. Think about it: How many of your non-techie friends own either a Roku, Boxee Box, Google TV or Apple TV? Nonetheless, Apple TV sales are picking up momentum: The device is on track to sell twice as many units as were sold in 2011.

The upshot: Apple doesn't need to announce its own television set at WWDC to make waves in the living room space. If it can reinvent Apple TV into a truly compelling, mass-market consumer product, it can realize Steve Jobs' dream of finally cracking the television code.

Apple just needs to address a few key areas before Apple TV becomes a really big deal.

Apps, apps, and AirPlay

"What we might see at WWDC is Apple opening up the app economy approach they've had with the iPhone and iPad to the Apple TV," Gartner analyst Michael McGuire told Wired.

Apple has well over 600,000 apps in the iOS App Store, but only eight third-party content choices (e.g., Netflix, MLB.com, Flickr, etc.) on Apple TV. So WWDC offers the perfect opportunity to introduce developers to how they could start expanding Apple TV's repertoire of content choices. Indeed, BGR reported that Apple would be introducing an entirely new OS and API for developers to take advantage of.

There are two possible ways Apple could open up the Apple TV platform to third-party app developers: It could allow devs to create dedicated TV apps, or it could more heavily leverage (and open up) the AirPlay feature already baked into Apple TV to port existing iPad apps to the big screen.

"We've been focused on trying to understand how the app model evolves with the introduction of the TV platform," Jeremy Allaire, CEO of online video platform Brightcove told Wired.

Indeed, Allaire detailed his thoughts on what could be next for Apple TV in an op-ed Monday morning. Allaire believes that instead of requiring developers to code for a third application platform (the TV), AirPlay Mirroring could be used with existing iPad apps.

AirPlay Mirroring "essentially turns your iPad into a powerful TV Apps platform that can render any application on the TV while enabling the user to use their touch-based device to browse, select, navigate, etc.," Allaire wrote in his piece. It makes sense.

iPad apps are already built for a screen with a lot of real estate, and it wouldn't be unnatural to, say, flick through Wired's iPad app with your finger while actually reading the content on the big screen.

"AirPlay functionality is a bit hidden from users and not super easy for developers to implement," Allaire said of the feature in its current state, so there's ample room for improvement.

NPD principal analyst Ross Rubin also believes "a multiscreen component that builds off AirPlay" could be in the stars.

More content

"To get people beyond the hardcore Mac fans, you need a lot of content," McGuire said. For example, average consumers want to see sports — live sports.

So, for the Apple TV to break out of its "hobby" label (a label Tim Cook might wish he had never used), its content offerings will need to drastically expand. But live content is hard to come by without a cable or satellite subscription, and that may remain so.

"History has shown that Apple hasn't shown the same kind of influence with the studios that they had with the [music] labels in the early days of the iPod," Rubin said. However, in light of recent announcements on the Xbox platform, McGuire thinks Apple could be inking deals with the same content providers who've partnered with Microsoft: ESPN, NBA, Univision, and Nickelodeon.

To go mainstream and become a true cable/satellite replacement for cord cutters, Apple TV would need to provide the "equivalent experience of hundreds of programming options at any point in time," McGuire said. Expanded app offerings could certainly help with this, but live streaming content would really seal the deal.

Ditch the remote

"The other area that's getting a lot of rumor traction is opening up the Siri interface, which for both the existing apps on Apple TV, as well as new apps, could be very interesting," McGuire said.

This could be accomplished through a peripheral add-on to Apple TV, as Allaire proposed for a forward-looking Apple TV experience. And, of course, Siri could handshake with the current Apple TV via coordination with the iPhone 4S (and maybe even the third-generation iPad, if it too receives Siri support as rumored.)

Apple could also take an Xbox Kinect-like approach, launching camera devices in its TV products for 3-D gesture recognition. As for relevance to WWDC, this would mean a new gesture-based motion API for developers to manage user interaction and face detection, with an actual hardware accessory to arrive in the more distant future.

But, heck, Apple already has patents on 3-D gesture recognition using the iPad, so perhaps an additional accessory isn't even necessary. "Apple can do a lot with the box they have in terms of disrupting and changing people's expectations of what TV is," McGuire said.

More than half of seniors now use the Web

2012-06-08T15:22:00.002+08:00

More than half of U.S. seniors now use the web, but those who don't are at an increasing disadvantage.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Pew: More than half of U.S. seniors now use the Internet
Still, two-thirds of seniors either don't use Web or don't use it every day
A divide is increasingly significant as more services go digital

Editor's note: Amy Gahran writes about mobile tech for CNN.com. She is a San Francisco Bay Area writer and media consultant whose blog, Contentious.com, explores how people communicate in the online age.

(CNN) -- It's looking like the digital divide may have less gray hair than it used to -- but it's still a big issue for U.S. seniors.

According to new research from the Pew Internet and American Life Project, for the first time more than half (53%) of Americans age 65 or older now use the Internet or e-mail.

Also, most Internet-using seniors have made a daily habit of going online; Pew noted that 70% of them access the Internet on a typical day.

E-mail is especially popular with Internet-using seniors. Nearly half of them use e-mail on a typical day. But social networking sites, which are accessed via the Web or apps, are far less popular: Just 34% of seniors use these at all, and only 18% on a typical day.

Looked at differently, those numbers mean that nearly two-thirds of seniors still either don't go online at all or don't do so on most days.

Seniors also are especially lagging in their adoption of Internet-enabled mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. While cell phone ownership overall has risen sharply among seniors (69% now have a cell phone, up from 57% a year ago), Pew notes that just 10% of U.S. seniors own a smartphone. Also, only 11% own an e-reader, and 8% own a tablet.

Only 39% of seniors have broadband at home. This means a substantial number of seniors access the Internet only from shared or public computers (such as at libraries, Internet cafes or senior centers), or by bringing a laptop to a location with open Wi-Fi. Just under one-third of U.S. seniors own a laptop computer, Pew found.

Meanwhile, the Internet has become a key tool for accessing news, information and services that affect or can benefit seniors' lives daily. And mobile access to online information and services could be particularly helpful to seniors.

For example, transit is a crucial concern for many seniors -- especially those on a limited income, or who have visual or mobility impairments. Obtaining and interpreting current printed schedules and route maps for buses and trains can be a challenge even for young, able-bodied people with good vision. But when seniors have to get to a location that's off their regular transit routes, they can face enormous challenges in simply figuring out whether they can get to that destination via transit.

I live in Oakland, California, which has pretty good transit access compared to many cities and towns. Earlier this year I overheard one of my neighbors (a senior who doesn't drive) complaining that she might have to change doctors because her physician of 20 years moved to a new office in a part of town she rarely visits. What caught my attention was when she said, "I don't even know what buses go there -- and have you tried to read that AC Transit map? What a mess!"

I pulled out my Android phone, brought up Google maps, and asked her where the doctor's new office was. She gave me the address. In less than a minute I found two potential bus routes to that location -- both involving transfers. I wrote down the route and stop information for her, and later she called AC Transit to have the relevant schedules mailed to her.

When the printed schedules arrived, she mentioned it was a struggle for her to read the tiny, complex tables well enough to determine when the transfers might be easiest, so she could figure the best times of day to schedule her appointments. Looking at those schedules, I found I had the same problem. But again, with poking around a bit on Google Maps on my phone, I was quickly able to give her some good options for appointment times.

She said, "You can do all that on your phone? So if you want to visit a friend or see a show you can find out which bus to take, just like that? I had no idea!"

From there stemmed a conversation in which she revealed how over the years she'd limited her outings mainly to places along the transit routes she already knew well, or where a friend could give her a ride. Having a smartphone or tablet could help her find more transit options, but she's not going to get one. She might be able to afford one, but she doesn't think she could learn how to use it. "It's just too different," she said.

Seniors' low adoption rates for e-readers and tablets also curtail their access to news, books and services. These devices are ideal for people with visual impairments; any e-book or website can be viewed with large print. Also, they're light, easy to carry, generally easier to learn than a smartphone or computer and don't require much typing -- considerable benefits to people with arthritic hands or joints.

For instance, my parents are seniors who live in the greater Philadelphia area. Both lifelong news junkies, they subscribe to several print newspapers. Avidly following national and local news is a key part of how they remain engaged and active.

But for several years the company that publishes the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News has been in dire financial straits -- including being sold this year for what Forbes called a "fire-sale price." It's possible these venerable papers might cut back to publishing in print just a few days a week (as the New Orleans Times-Picayune recently decided to do), or go online only (as the Seattle Post-Intelligencer has done), or fold entirely (as Denver's Rocky Mountain News did in 2009).

My parents are very concerned that they might lose their Philly newspapers, which they consider a lifeline. I've been trying to get them interested in tablets -- but so far to no avail. If print papers disappear, they and many seniors like them will be bereft and disadvantaged. Broadcast news is fine, but it doesn't match the depth and range of what they've been getting from newspapers.

Last year Dr. Jeff Cole, director of the Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California, told AARP that "lack of access is no longer the primary reason that older adults aren't online. Today, lack of participation is likely more related to other reasons, like fear of learning, how difficult computers are to use (still!), and just general lack of interest."

Yet mobile devices seem to be marketed primarily toward people who are younger or, at most, middle aged.

Pew's research is encouraging, but there's still a long way to go in helping seniors bridge the digital divide. Until this happens, seniors will grow increasingly disadvantaged in an increasingly digital -- and mobile -- society.

My 5 favorite highlights from E3

2012-06-08T15:21:00.007+08:00

Attendees play new video games at the Sony PlayStation booth this week during the E3 gaming conference.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Game makers showed at E3 they want to appeal to the core gamer this year
Virtual-reality technology left this gamer with an astounding feeling
Frum: "Watch Dogs" was a game that I didn't get to see, but heard a lot about

Los Angeles (CNN) -- If the demonstrations on the E3 show floor this week were any indication, the next 12 months will be a great time to be a gamer.

The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) placed a spotlight on games, not hardware, as developers took the opportunity to strut their stuff. If you asked 15 people at the convention what game they enjoyed the most, you'd probably get 15 different answers. There were so many to choose from.

Without directly talking about next-generation consoles, game makers showed they want to appeal to the core gamer -- and early adopters of next-gen technology -- by producing a slate of exciting and visceral games for release later this year and next.

Rather than try to pick one game that outshone the rest (I just can't do it), I'll instead choose five things that fit very specific categories.

I kept my options to games that I'd never played or seen before in person (sorry, "Borderlands 2").

Biggest surprise

With the announcement of the new Wii U console, Nintendo also revealed 23 games that would be available for the system. One of those titles, "Luigi's Haunted Mansion," turned out to be a lot more fun than I expected from the preview clip.

During a hands-on demonstration, four of my new friends and I took to the mansion to try and defeat a ghost who was sneaking up on us. While the Wii U Game Pad player acted as the ghost, the other four of us had to verbally communicate where we thought the ghost was from vibrations in our Wii controllers.

While the gameplay is simple and the graphics aren't overly done, the excitement generated from the hide-and-seek game was outstanding. By the end, we were all laughing and demanding rematches.

Most amazing experience

During a demonstration of "Doom 3 BFG," I was met with Bethesda Softworks' John Carmack. He proceeded to spin a highly technical story about how 3-D and virtual reality (VR) experiences have not lived up to consumer expectations.

Pinpointing high costs and slow development times as barriers to a good consumer-grade VR experience, Carmack revealed a device called the Oculus Rift, developed by a man named Lucky Palmer. Carmack took Palmer's headset, added some of his own modifications, and created a blockly-looking contraption held together by duct tape.

However, when he placed it on my head and fired up "Doom 3 BFG," the results were astounding. I felt like I was literally standing in the game, with full 360-degree vision and interactivity throughout the scenario. I only had a few minutes inside the game, but the potential and payoff for this VR head mount was truly astounding.

Game I wish I could have seen

There were so many titles to see on the E3 show floor, with a wide variety of genres and appeal for all types of gamers. "Watch Dogs" from Ubisoft was a game that I didn't get to see, but I heard a lot about.

The cyberpunk adventure features high-tech abilities, amazing graphics and fluid gameplay. E3 attendees buzzed about how incredible the demo looked and how smooth the action flowed from moment to moment.

It will definitely be a title worth keeping an eye on.

Game that was the most fun to play

I like comic books, and while I'm not the biggest fighting-game fan, "Injustice: Gods Among Us" is a brand new title from Warner Brothers Interactive that was a blast to play.

Heroes and villains from DC Comics will face off on a field reminiscent of "Mortal Combat" titles. Developers are making some changes to in gameplay to keep it fresh (no block button, no "fatalities"), but the action is crisp and easy while the cinematics are outstanding.

In a match between Superman and the Flash, the Man of Steel gave the speedster an uppercut that literally sent him into orbit before following up with an overhand smash that knocked him back down to Earth. Each character has individual super-moves tied to their comic abilities. This was very cool.

Best "OMG!" moment

In a show filled with titles designed to appeal to core gamers, I saw a lot of explosions, gore and fast action. But one game surprised me by creating a visually intense moment that compelled me to put down the controller and actually say out loud, "Oh my God!"

I was "God of War Ascension" from Sony Santa Monica Studios. This game is the first in the storied franchise to offer multiplayer experiences. While some fans grumbled about a "God of War" game in which they could not play as the iconic Kratos, the action inside the multiplayer demo was as amazing and hardcore as any you'd find in the single-player campaign.

During a match, a cyclops-like monster came to life and attacked us while we were fighting among ourselves. A spear from the Gods fortuitously appeared, allowing me to (turn away if you're squeamish) rip open the monster's face from its nose through its jaw before plunging the weapon into its eye.

If you're an action gamer, you'll understand.

Virgin Mobile to start selling iPhones June 29

2012-06-08T15:21:00.003+08:00

Why is Richard Branson smiling? Because he's got an iPhone, baby!

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The iPhone -- once a closely guarded, exclusive prize for wireless carriers -- is going mass-market.

Virgin Mobile said Thursday that it has become the seventh U.S. wireless company to carry the iPhone. It's the second prepaid carrier in as many weeks to announce plans to sell the iconic smartphone.

That's a stunning turn of events for a device that AT&T (T, Fortune 500) held an exclusive U.S. lock on for nearly four years.

In February 2011, after years of top-level negotiations, Verizon (VZ,Fortune 500) joined the field andbegan selling the device. After that, the floodgates started to open. Sprint (S, Fortune 500) beganselling the iPhone in October, followed by Mississippi regional carrier C Spire in November and Virginia regional carrier nTelos (NTLS) in April.

Last week, Leap Wireless' (LEAP) Cricket brand announced that it would sell the first prepaid iPhone. Now Virgin plans to add the device to its prepaid lineup on June 29.

Virgin will require its customers to pay the iPhone's full retail cost. That's a whopping $649 for the 16 GB iPhone 4S and $549 for the year-old iPhone 4.

On the flip side, it ill offer U.S. customers the cheapest iPhone plan -- $35 per month for 300 voice minutes, and a quasi-unlimited texting and data plan. Virgin defines "unlimited" as 3,000 texts and 2.5 gigabytes of data per month, after which it reserves the right to charge users more for violating its "fair use" policies.

The plan's price tag gets knocked down to $30 per month if customers sign up for online automatic monthly billing. That's $25 per month less than Cricket's prepaid plan and less than half the cost of the cheapest plans offered by the other carriers.

Most carriers subsidize the iPhone's cost, charging customers $200 upfront for the phone and making up the difference -- and then some -- over the life of a two-year contract. Cricket offers a modest subsidy that brings the iPhone 4S's price tag down to $500.

Virgin's plan offers customers the lowest total ownership cost of an iPhone over the course of two years. Including the device, Virgin's charges will total $1,370, compared to $1,720 on Cricket and an average of $2,775 on the other carriers.

Pre-paid is a huge, fast-growing U.S. market that Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) hasn't played in so far. It's a field where smartphone sales are dominated by Google's (GOOG, Fortune 500) lower-cost Android platform.

Apple sold 109 million iPhones over the last four quarters, almost twice the number it sold in the previous 12-month stretch. Sustaining that kind of staggering growth rate requires Apple to keep finding fresh, untapped markets to colonize.

The decision to sell the iPhone is a financially fraught one for most carriers. It's the most popular smartphone with consumers, but it comes with the heftiest upfront subsidy. That money goes directly from the carries' pockets into Apple's -- and it can decimate their bottom line.

But not for Virgin, which will pay Apple no subsidy. That's good news for Sprint, which bought Virgin Mobile in 2009.

Sprint has a four-year commitment with Apple to sell a set number of iPhones. Sprint hasn't disclosed how many phones it's locked into selling, but it's a whopping number: The company previously estimated that it will spend $15.5 billion subsidizing its iPhone sales.

That giant sum will go down a bit if Virgin Mobile's iPhones take off. Sprint noted in a regulatory filing in Thursday that sales of Virgin Mobile iPhones will count towards Sprint's unit sales contract with Apple.

Virgin Group founder Richard Branson said that getting the iPhone is an appropriate way for Virgin Mobile to celebrate its 10-year anniversary this month of doing business in the United States.

"What better way to thank our fans for 10 years of loyalty than by giving them exactly what they want: the perfect plan for the perfect phone," he said in a prepared statement.

Can jumping spiders kill in space? Student's experiment set for orbit

2012-06-08T15:20:00.002+08:00

Egyptian student Amr Mohamed, 19, is one of the global winners of the YouTube Space Lab competition, which asked students to design experiments for space scientists.

HIDE CAPTION

Spiders in space

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Egyptian Amr Mohamed designed an experiment for the YouTube Space Lab competition
His experiment to send jumping spiders into space will be carried out on the International Space Station
His school was closed for several months during last year's revolution

Editor's note: Each month, Inside the Middle East takes you behind the headlines to see a different side of this diverse region.

Alexandria, Egypt (CNN) -- Can jumping spiders still hunt for their prey in space?

It may sound like science fiction or the start of a bad joke, but this is an experiment that will be carried out on the International Space Station later this year, thanks to Egyptian teenager Amr Mohamed.

Mohamed, 19, from Alexandria, came up with one of the two winning entries from around the world for the YouTube Space Lab competition, backed by Professor Stephen Hawking, which asked students to design experiments for space scientists.

The idea behind Mohamed's experiment is to study how the zebra spider, which jumps on its prey rather than building a web, will hunt when it is in zero gravity.

It was conceived through Mohamed's fascination with both science and spiders.

Physics can explain the world with just a handful of equations
Amr Mohamed

"I'm just interested in how things work, and science seems to answer all my questions," said Mohamed. "For example, physics can explain the world with just a handful of equations. And biology tells you how your body works. I'm just interested in that stuff."

Mohamed only heard about the Space Lab competition three days before the deadline, so he designed andmade a YouTube video of his idea in a single day.

He said he was reading about which animals had been in space, and discovered orb weaver spiders among them.

Can spiders hunt in space?

"They were very interesting because they build the knots differently," said Mohamed. "So I say, OK, they can survive, let's make things a little harder. Let's get a kind of spider that can't build webs in space and that actually gravity is a factor in the way it hunts, so that's how the idea came.

"I just started writing a script and turned the camera on and explained my experiment and edited the video and it was online before the day was over."

Mohamed was announced as a regional finalist and after a week of public voting was invited to Washington DC as a regional winner to experience a zero-gravity flight.

Also on Inside the Middle East: The film director who's not allowed to go to the movies

During the trip, Mohamed and a two-girl team from Troy, Michigan, were announced as global winners whose experiments will be taken to the International Space Station.

Mohamed is currently taking a gap year before studying at Stanford University, California, in the fall.

He said: "Before the competition, I was just a kid struggling with my A-levels. Out of the huge ocean of the internet, the tide brought me Space Lab. So right now, I know where I want to be. I know who I want to be."

Mohamed's achievement is particularly impressive as Egypt's math and science education came 125th out of 139 nations in a World Economic Forum survey.

"There's not many Egyptians in the field of science and technology," said Mohamed. "Egypt is not at the front of innovation. When it comes to technology or science, we're always consumers, we're never producers."

Mohamed's education was disrupted during last year's revolution, when his school was closed for several months.

"There was so much stress and nobody knew where this was going," he said. "We had to protect the streets, so we formed committees to protect the streets.

Let's get a kind of spider that can't build webs in space
Amr Mohamed

"I had a curriculum to study, and we didn't know when the revolution was going to end or when this is going to stop, or when the school is going to get back. So we had to go on. I had to study and do the patrolling and and from time to time join the protests."

Also on Inside the Middle East: Mideast women beat men in education

Mohamed hopes one day to help change Egyptian attitudes to science through his passion.

"If I'm going to work in the field of science or technology, I might be able to bring the cultural or regional problems that people of the Middle East have into the field for tackling to solve them," said Mohamed.

Mohamed's mother, Safaa El Badbooly, saw his potential early. "Each person rises in a certain field, but for Amr it was reading all along. He read a lot and in everything. He was reading books at age three," she said.

She, too, hopes that after her son has studied abroad, he will return to Egypt to create a better future. "To benefit his country and maybe start a project like many others who came back and developed Egypt to benefit their own people," she said.

Twitter's bird logo gets a makeover

2012-06-08T15:19:00.002+08:00

As of Wednesday, Twitter is replacing its old bird logo (and lower-case "t") with a sleeker new bird, left.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Twitter on Wednesday updated its little blue bird logo
The change prompted a flurry of jokes ... on Twitter, of course

(CNN) -- Twitter is giving users the bird. A cute, little, upwardly mobile bird.

The social-networking company wants to be universally known by a new streamlined bird logo, replacing the scruffier bird that had symbolized Twitter since ... well, way back in 2010.

"Starting today you'll begin to notice a simplified Twitter bird," Twitter said in a blog post Wednesday. "From now on, this bird will be the universally recognizable symbol of Twitter. (Twitter is the bird, the bird is Twitter.) There's no longer a need for text, bubbled typefaces, or a lowercase "t" to represent Twitter."

Twitter gave no reason for the refreshed bird, which is less chubby, has fewer feathers and is angled more towards the sky than its predecessor. But jokesters in the Twittersphere, where #twitterbird was trending Wednesday, were only too happy to offer some.

Christi Paul explains Twitter

Twitter helps NFL star find wallet

"About time we get a simplified #twitterbird That last one was so not 140 characters!" wrote MeetZoe.

"Twitter is too young to be changing its logo. Although, now the bird is soaring," added Andrew Mager.

"The new #twitterbird is the Situation of social media icons. He's all "Gym, Tweet, Laundry. What, Facebook?! Want some?!" said Sam Killermann.

Last year's short-lived Twitter darling, the Bronx Zoo's Cobra, offered this: "Twitter changed its little blue bird logo! He still looks delicious...nice, I mean nice."

And Adam McCombs may have spoken for many users when he tweeted, "Maybe @twitter should spend more time working on performance instead of playing with their logo."

In its post, Twitter says the new bird is "crafted purely from three sets of overlapping circles — similar to how your networks, interests and ideas connect and intersect with peers and friends." In rather flowery rhetoric, the post goes on to say, "Whether soaring high above the Earth to take in a broad view, or flocking with other birds to achieve a common purpose, a bird in flight is the ultimate representation of freedom, hope and limitless possibility."

The company on Wednesday was urging developers to switch to the new logo -- although the Twitter icon in Apple's App Store was still showing the old bird.

How Xbox SmartGlass will work

2012-06-08T15:18:00.007+08:00

Xbox SmartGlass aims to link devices

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Xbox SmartGlass aims to make the console a key entertainment component
App will tie TV and console with tablets and smartphones
It uses Windows 8, but Apple and Android mobile devices also will work
SmartGlass app will be free and available this fall

(CNN) -- Perhaps the biggest splash in the early going of this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles was made by Microsoft with its unveiling of Xbox SmartGlass.

And while there's a video-gaming aspect to it, the feature promises a lot more (which, to be honest, is the sort of thing that plays bigger in the rest of the world than it does at E3, where the crowd is heavily made up of hard-core gamers who were probably more excited about the preview of "Halo 4").

Less than a day after SmartGlass was introduced, details are still emerging about how it will work.

But what's clear is that the application, which will work hand in hand with the upcoming Windows 8 operating system, is Microsoft's play to make the Xbox 360 an indispensable tool for all kinds of entertainment.

First of all ...

Trey Parker takes swipe at SmartGlass

Microsoft to fight for your living room

SmartGlass is not a kind of glass.

Maybe it's the buzz about the Gorilla Glass featured on the new Samsung Galaxy S III smartphone. Or the fact that touchscreens are a key part of the feature. Or -- you know -- the fact that they called it SmartGlass. But some folks have been confused on that score.

The feature is actually an app.

It will work with the Windows 8 operating system, which runs on both PCs and mobile devices, to link up tablets and smartphones with the Xbox console and, by extension, a user's TV.

So I need a Windows phone or tablet?

No, you don't.

Obviously, Microsoft would prefer you buy something such as theNokia Lumia 900 or one of the many tablets expected to be released once a final version of Windows 8 is up and running later this year.

But SmartGlass will also work with Apple devices, such as the iPhone and iPad, or mobile devices running Google's Android operating system.

As long as you have an Xbox 360 and either a PC running Windows 8, mobile devices running Windows 8 or an iOS or Android device, you're good to go.

How is this different?

There are other products that do similar things -- from Apple's AirPlay, which streams content from an iPhone or iPad to your TV, to apps such as HBO Go that provide bonus content to enhance TV shows and movies.

But, at least as Microsoft describes it, SmartGlass will pull lots of those features together into one app as well as take them further.

Yes, you can start watching a show on your tablet or phone, then send it to your TV or vice versa. But they say the app also will recognize TV shows or movies you were watching through an Xbox device and automatically serve up that content without you having to look for it.

During a demo at Microsoft's media event Monday, as the speaker watched a scene from HBO's "Game of Thrones," a map of the show's expansive world popped up.

Then, there's the gaming aspect. Much as Nintendo's promised Wii U incorporates a handheld device with gameplay on a traditional console, players will be able to enhance gameplay on their mobile devices as well. During the demo, a tablet was used to call a football play in "Madden '12."

Add to that the voice and motion-control abilities already available with the Xbox Kinect system, and you can see Microsoft's vision for making the console a centerpiece for all electronic entertainment.

If the Xbox is the brains, SmartGlass "gives users the limbs needed for a full functional, self-sufficient media beast," Gizmodo wrote.

When? And how much?

The app is free. So, as long as you have the right hardware, there presumably will be no extra cost. Microsoft says SmartGlass will be available this fall, which is about the same time a final version of Windows 8 has been promised.

The Internet now has 340 trillion trillion trillion addresses

2012-06-08T15:18:00.003+08:00

The IPv6 launch has expanded the number of Internet addresses to 340 undecillion.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- One of the crucial mechanisms powering the Internet got a giant, years-in-the-making overhaul on Wednesday.

When we say "giant," we're not kidding. Silly-sounding huge number alert: The Internet's address book grew from "just" 4.3 billion unique addresses to 340 undecillion (that's 340 trillion trillion trillion). That's a growth factor of 79 octillion (billion billion billion).

If it all goes right, you won't notice a thing. And that's the point.

The Internet is running out of addresses, and if nothing were done, you certainly would notice. New devices simply wouldn't be able to connect.

To prevent that from happening, the Internet Society, a global standards-setting organization with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland; and Reston, Va., has been working for years to launch a new Internet Protocol (IP) standard called IPv6.

IP is a global communications standard used for linking connected devices together. Every networked device -- your PC, smartphone, laptop, tablet and other gizmos -- needs a unique IP address.

With IPv6, there are now enough IP combinations for everyone in the world to have a billion billion IP addresses for every second of their life.

That sounds unimaginably vast, but it's necessary, because the number of connected devices is exploding. By 2016, Cisco (CSCO, Fortune 500) predicts there will be three networked devices per person on earth. We're not just talking about your smartphone and tablet; your washing machine, wristwatch and car will be connected too. Each of those connected things needs an IP address.

Then there's all the items that won't necessarily connect to the Internet themselves, but will be communicating with other wired gadgets. Developers are putting chips into eyeglasses, clothes and pill bottles. Each one of those items needs an IP address as well.

The current IP standard, IPv4, was structured like this: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx, with each "xxx" able to go from 0 to 255. IPv6 expands that so each "x" can be a 0 through 9 or "a" through "f," and it's structured like this: xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx. (Yes, there was an IPv5, but it was a streaming multimedia standard developed in the late 1970s that never really caught on).

The changeover is akin to when the U.S. telephone system handled soaring growth by increasing the digits in each telephone number -- except for one crucial difference. While the entire telephone system was upgraded in the 1990s, the Internet will be upgraded gradually.

IPv4 will continue to exist alongside IPv6 for quite some time, just as digital and analog TV were broadcast side-by-side for years.

Though most of the major Internet players will be IPv6 compliant going forward, many routers, devices and operating systems won't be. For instance, Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) Windows XP, the world's most-used PC operating system, is not IPv6-compliant.

Just 1% of end users are expected to now be reaching websites using the IPv6 standard. The Internet Society expects that to gradually grow as users update their software and hardware.

Most of the major websites and networks are already participating. More than 2,000 websites, including Google (GOOG, Fortune 500), Facebook (FB), Bing, Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500), AOL (AOL) and Netflix (NFLX), as well as a number of network operators such as AT&T (T, Fortune 500), Verizon (VZ, Fortune 500), Comcast (CMCSA) and Time Warner Cable (TWC, Fortune 500), have begun enabling IPv6.

But they'll all need to continue to support IPv4 until the entire world upgrades. That will take years.

There have been some grumblings about cyberattackers getting ready to pounce on Wednesday, taking advantage of potential holes in a new technology. But a year ago, on June 8, 2011, all those participating networks and sites turned on IPv6 for a day-long test run without a hitch.

They reverted to IPv4 the next day. This time, the change is permanent. It'll be a slow transition, but it's a crucial one that will support the Internet's current rate of expansion far into the future.

After LinkedIn: How to protect your password from hacks

2012-06-08T15:17:00.002+08:00

More than 6 million passwords, largely from LinkedIn, were published this week by Russian hackers.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Hackers breach LinkedIn, eHarmony sites, stealing millions of passwords
Security experts say tricky passwords can still help thwart thieves
Avoid "phishing" attacks in e-mails disguised to look official
Free tools let you store multiple passwords for multiple sites

(CNN) -- The constant battle for Internet security saw another brazen attack this week as Russian hackers published millions of passwords they collected after hacking the professional-networking site LinkedIn.

Then, hours later, dating site eHarmony announced that a "small fraction" of its users -- others were saying 1.5 million -- were compromised by a similar attack. Security professionals suspect the same hackers may have done it.

"That's what we think," said Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant with Sophos Security. "It was shared in the same places. The content is very similar. And the timing. All of these factors just make it seem like too much to be a coincidence."

It's enough to make some Web users throw up their hands. If the sites we use on a daily basis can't keep our password data secure, how are we supposed to keep ourselves safe?

But security experts say there are still plenty of steps we can take (even if too many people aren't following them).

How to check if your password was stolen

Password-management firm LastPass has released a secure tool to see if your password was among the more than 6 million stolen from LinkedIn. LastPass created a similar tool for people worried about the security of their eHarmony accounts.

Your password still matters

Even in cases such as the LinkedIn breach, when it's a website, not a personal account, that's being hacked, the strength of your password can still help keep you safe.

On sites such as LinkedIn, stored passwords are "hashed," meaning the site uses an algorithm to encode them. So, even if hackers get the data, they still have to unravel them before they're useful.

"Don't give up. Don't think this is all futile," Cluley said. "Choose a long, hard-to-crack, unique password. Not dictionary words. Not a sequence of numbers -- use something that basically looks like gobbledygook. Those will be tougher for the bad guys to crack."

In the case of LinkedIn, there are reports that as many as 60% of the encrypted passwords stolen have been decoded, raising questions about the strength of its security system.

Be careful of post-hack e-mails

When there's a well-publicized security incident on a well-known website, online crooks are more than happy to pile on.

In the wake of the LinkedIn hack, security professionals were already reporting incidents of users receiving "phishing" attempts -- e-mails that look like official communications from LinkedIn. Instead, these messages try to get users to reveal personal data that identity thieves could be use. Or they include links that, when clicked on, can install malware on an unsuspecting user's computer.

"We are investigating the exact details but in the meantime please DO NOT CLICK on links in email to change or verify account information, at LinkedIn.com or on any other membership site," Cameron Camp of ESET Smart Security wrote on the company's blog. "Instead, navigate to the site directly by typing in the address bar in your browser."

Use different passwords for different sites

Cluley notes that the hackers who attacked LinkedIn and eHarmony may not have even been interested in information from those sites.

In many cases, they'll be trying to use the passwords they find on other sites and accounts. Many banks require additional information to log in. But accounts such as Amazon, eBay and PayPal, for example, could be compromised if the user has one password across multiple sites.

"If you get hacked in one place, you get hacked everywhere," he said.

Lots of folks complain about how hard it is to remember multiple passwords. But there are free online tools that will store and use them for you. Cluley mentioned several, including KeePass,1password and LastPass.

Cluley recommends those tools over letting your Web browser store passwords for you, because there have been cases of security flaws in some browsers, which hackers have exploited to access user data.

Google to offer more 3-D, offline maps

2012-06-08T15:16:00.003+08:00

Google 3D maps coming soon

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Google to offer Android users use of Google maps with no Internet connection
Google to do more 3-D mapping of cities, Street View imaging of wilderness areas

San Francisco (CNN) -- Google unveiled some upgrades to its mapping software on Wednesday ahead of Apple's expected announcement that it will ditch Google Maps on iPhones and iPads in favor of its own technology.

At a news conference at its San Francisco office, Google previewed a handful of upcoming features, including the ability to use Google maps without an Internet connection. Android users will be able to take maps offline from more than 100 countries and access them when they're out of Wi-Fi range or on the subway, for example.

"No longer will you need paper maps," said Rita Chen, a product manager for Google.

The offline mode is expected to become available for Android devices within a few weeks. There was no word on whether that feature will extend to other devices, such as the iPhone. Apple, however, is expected to announce at its developers conference next week that it's dropping Google's mapping app for its own version.

Other new features will include more detailed 3-D mapping of urban areas. Google said it will begin to add 3-D images of buildings to its Google Earth app for mobile devices. This will require chartered airplanes equipped with Google cameras flying over cities to capture the imagery.

"We're trying to create the illusion that you are flying over the city, almost as if you were in your own personal helicopter," said Peter Birch, another product manager.

Google also showed off a new backpack unit, nicknamed Trekker, that will allow for more images of remote, off-road places best reached on foot. The backpacks are rigged with cameras that technicians can use to snap Street View images of hiking trails and other wilderness locations, such as national parks.

A touchscreen with keys that rise and disappear

2012-06-08T15:16:00.000+08:00

If you've ever followed up a garbled text with "Damn You, Autocorrect," some high-tech help might be on the way.

A California company says it's created technology that could make keyboard keys rise out of the touchscreen on a smartphone, tablet or other device, then disappear when you were done with them.

Tactus Technology this week demoed Tactile Layer, a product that useshaptics, or a touch-based interface, to make patterns or shapes rise and recede on a regular touchscreen.

The company says its panel, which it displayed on a prototype Android tablet at this week's Society for Information Display showcase in Boston, is "the world's first deformable tactile surface."

"The origin of Tactus goes back to 2007," said CEO Craig Ciesla in a video. "Looking at the iPhone and all the elegance of that user interface, I also realized that I like my BlackBerry with the buttons ... . As human beings, we really want to be able to feel things; we really want that tactility."

The layer is flat and transparent and wouldn't add any thickness to a gadget since it would replace a layer that already exists, Tactus says.

For tech consumers, devices that could benefit from the system include smartphones, tablets, e-readers, gaming devices and remote controls, the company says. But it also has potential in automobiles, medical devices and personal navigation systems, they say.

Tactus has partnered with Touch Revolution, a touchscreen manufacturer. The first Tactus products will be available by mid-2013, Ciesla said.

Our hands-on demo with the Wii U

2012-06-08T15:15:00.003+08:00

The Wii U handheld game pad is used to display a game during a presentation by developers Ubisoft.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

The Wii U will bring a fresh new element to Nintendo gaming
Nintendo still hasn't announced a specific launch date or a price for the system
CNN demoed the device after Nintendo's E3 event Tuesday

(CNN) -- Will Nintendo's forthcoming Wii U breathe new life into its aging Wii concept?

Hard to say at this point, but it will bring a fresh element to Nintendo gaming.

I got my hands on the redesigned system, which was first previewed a year ago, after Nintendo's Electronic Entertainment Expo event in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

Here are my first impressions:

First, the Wii U Game Pad. It is smaller than a tablet, but larger than your mobile phone. It doesn't feel heavy in the hands, and you will really have to try hard to snap it in two (not recommended). The Wii U Game Pad is part controller and part handheld console, and new games are expected to take advantage of both abilities.

Xbox SmartGlass aims to link devices

Halo 4 demo makes E3 appearance

I tried out the Wii U on two games, each featuring a different use for the device. "Luigi's Haunted Mansion" takes advantage of what Nintendo calls asymmetric gameplay. This allows the Wii U to have unique goals and abilities in the game when played simultaneously with other people holding regular Wii controllers.

In this game, the player with the Wii U is a ghost trying to track down and capture the four players using Wii controllers. The ghost player uses the Wii U built-in screen to see everything on the map while the four other players must watch the TV screen to capture a ghost they can't usually see.

The Wii U screen is large enough to make small shapes easy enough to distinguish. The two joystick controllers feel natural and sturdy, and comparable to other console joysticks. There are also two sets of shoulder buttons which are appropriately placed and don't feel uncomfortable to use.

In the second game, "Donkey Kong's Crash Course," those buttons are used to manipulate a course you navigate by tilting the Wii U in the appropriate directions. The shoulder buttons raise and lower bridges and elevators while the joysticks are used to turn cranks.

It was a little difficult to rotate joysticks while also trying to tilt the Wii U. But with practice, I was able to get the right amount of touch without dying.

Players can watch the overall action on their TVs or get an up-close view through the Wii U screen. I can't envision players using the big screen for games when the small one is in their hands.

Nintendo plans to release a wide range of games, from kid titles like "Pikmin 3" to offerings for hardcore gamers like "ZombiU" and "Mass Effect 3." The promise of additional gameplay features for the Wii U make it an intriguing option.

Overall, the Wii U is a solid hybrid of a souped-up Wii system and a handheld gaming device. It's larger than a traditional console controller, but not so heavy that it would cause fatigue problems.

Despite no announcement of a specific launch date or a price, the Wii U will only be as good as the games made for it. Nintendo's focus on games during Tuesday's event is a sign the gaming company may have its eye on the right target.

Is Airtime (a clothed version of Chatroulette) destined to fail?

2012-06-08T15:14:00.000+08:00

Sean Parker explains how 'Airtime' works

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Napster co-founders Sean Parker, Shawn Fanning launch social video venture called Airtime
The network is built on top of Facebook
It allows users to chat with friends or people with shared interests
It's unclear, however, if people want to video chat with strangers

(CNN) -- It sounds like a name-dropping marketer's dream:

Sean Parker -- the Napster co-creator who was played by Justin Timberlake in "The Social Network" -- creates a Facebook-connected app and gets celebrities like actress Olivia Munn, the rapper Snoop Dogg (they've got to be Facebook friends, right?) and Joel McHale, the guy from "Community," to video chat on it.

That was the scene in New York on Tuesday as Parker and Napster co-founder Shawn Fanning announced their new venture, a live video-chatting platform called Airtime.

The problem? In the middle of this rich-rapper-plus-rich-Internet-tycoon gabfest, Airtime crashed. A lot.

"Glitch after glitch marred Airtime's first public showing, leaving the event's collection of celebrities riffing and improvising onstage while engineers tried to fix the bugs and revive dropped connections,"CNNMoney's Laurie Segall wrote from the event.

"Airtime demo = Snoop, Jim Carrey, Ed Helms, Julia Louis Dreyfus, Joel McHale, Alicia Keys, Olivia Munn + a million tech problems,"tweeted Abby Gardner, from Marie Claire.

"The Airtime has been about 80% fail, but, hey, Jim Carrey is here. So it's all good," wrote Mashable's editor-in-chief, Lance Ulanoff.

CNET was harsher: "To launch his new start-up, Sean Parker should have spent less of his billions on celebrity guests and more of it on fixing his technology," wrote Greg Sandoval.

A botched demonstration, of course, doesn't mean that Airtime is doomed. But, based on reviews from tech writers, descriptions of the product and a quick test, there's something more troubling that could be bad news for Airtime's shelf life:

No one seems to know why people would use it.

How Airtime works

Essentially, Airtime is a Facebook-connected, video-chatting platform on crack. When you log on at Airtime.com you see two video-chat windows, a list of your friends you might want to talk with and a list of topics you might want to talk about.

If you select a topic -- like TV's "Mad Men" or other items you may have "liked" on Facebook -- you will get set up with a video chat with someone else who also likes that show.

The same goes for location: You can have Airtime start a random conversation with someone who is on Facebook and who lives in your geographic area.

It's like Skype, but you can watch YouTube clips with someone while you're engaged in a video chat together. Which makes it like Google+, except it's attached to a social network that has 900 million active users, giving it potentially more reach.

If you're plugged into the tech world, you may recall a website called Chatroulette, which hooked people up with strangers online for quick, random video chats. That site got lots of buzz on this website and others, but it ultimately flopped because people stopped using it for cross-cultural "We Are the World" exchanges, and started getting naked.

Because Airtime also lets people chat with strangers, it's been called the logical, safer successor to Chatroulette -- one with more clothes. Parker's chat program is tied to Facebook, so it knows your real identity and can ban you in a hurry if you show up for a video discussion sans pants. According to this Forbes report, the site will snap photos of users periodically to ensure that people have their clothes on.

So that's how it works. But the question remains: Do Internet users really want to chat with strangers? And if not, is Airtime different enough from Skype -- a video-chat program that's already integrated into Facebook -- to stand out?

Serendipity, or sleaze?

Writing at the blog All Things D, Liz Gannes explains why the Napster alums think people will want to engage in video chats with people they don't know:

"Parker and Fanning argue that they are helping bring serendipity into a world where people's online social graphs are set. Airtime is a 'social discovery' application for helping people make new friends online, not necessarily for the purpose of dating."

But, she writes, it's not certain if that's how people will use the network.

"It's unclear if Airtime will work -- will people want to use it?" she asks. "Will it fill up with spammers and skeezy dudes? Is it technically sound? But what is clear is that there are high expectations for Parker and Fanning's next act."

Sandoval, from CNET, was more direct: "Cool technology or not, the demand for this kind of service has yet to emerge," he wrote.

Others are more upbeat about the future of random video chats.

"The excitement of meeting new people with whom you have no 'friends' in common, only interests, geography or kinks, are probably enough (to propel the product)," Anthony Wing Kosner wrote at Forbes.com. "Parker told (Forbes writer Steven) Bertoni in an interview Sunday, 'Fun crazy things should happen online.' OK. Let the wild rumpus begin! (Once the technical glitches are worked out...)"

Wired, meanwhile, also sees potential in random video conferencesbetween strangers, particularly because Airtime works to set you up with people who have common interests:

"When a chat with a stranger is initiated, the service lists both users' shared interests. So, for example, if both users are huge 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' fans, they could both dive right into discussing the pros and cons of William Riker's beard. Interests can be added and removed from within the video chat window. This is perfect if your love of 'Twin Peaks' has connected you with people who are probably a little too obsessed with the death of Laura Palmer."

The blog TechCrunch goes so far as to say the program will "re-humanize the Internet."

"One minute into using Airtime I was laughing with someone I'd never met," writes Josh Constine. "That's something special when despite all the asynchronous connection, the Internet threatens to make us feel lonely."

My time with Airtime

In my quick test of the network, I had a different experience. Whereas Chatroulette in its early, non-pornographic days felt fun and random, Airtime felt more stilted.

It was almost intimidating to enter into chats on Airtime with strangers who were assumed to have something in common with you.

That said, I did have a couple of good interactions. I talked to one guy about the E3 video-gaming conference going on this week. He seemed impressed with Airtime and said it is way better than Chatroulette.

But I also chatted with someone who was supposed to be in my geographic area and wasn't. We didn't have much to talk about, so I started playing that mash-up YouTube video of Barack Obama singing "Call Me Maybe." The point, I'd hoped, was that this might give us something to talk about -- or at least we could sway together.

Not so much. My 30-second friend hung up on me.

If you go to Airtime.com and sign up, let us know what you think in the comments.

Is Twitter slowing down?

2012-06-04T16:00:00.002+08:00

twitter

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Pew survey finds 8% of American Internet users go on Twitter daily
Forbes writer says Twitter "might be in a bit of a lull"

(CNN) -- With all the Facebook news lately -- the flat IPO, theregulatory interest, the Chan-Zuckerberg wedding -- it's highly possibly you've forgotten all about Twitter.

If so, you'd be like most Americans.

Only 8% of online Americans check their Twitter feeds on an average day, according to survey results released Thursday by the Pew Center for Internet & American Life.

That's up from 2% in November 2010 and 5% in August, the group says, but it's nowhere near the numbers Pew tallies when it asks about online social networks in general. In February, the group asked Americans if they "use social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn or Google Plus." Sixty-six percent said yes.

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Bullied teen fights back on Twitter

Key moments in Twitter's history

That's not an apples-to-apples comparison, since the questions were asked in different ways and since Pew didn't ask about just Facebook specifically. But it's fair to assume the vast majority of those respondents use Facebook, or Facebook in combination with some other social networks, said Aaron Smith, a senior research specialist at Pew.

That means Facebook appears to be reaching a much broader chunk of the population.

Perhaps confusingly, Twitter continues to make news for other reasons than popularity. The service was recently the basis for live question-answer-sessions with the U.S. president; it played a role in coordinating protests during the Arab Spring; and a Pakistani man inadvertently alerted the world to last year's raid that killed Osama bin Laden when he live tweeted it. It's also given consumers,including famous people such as director Kevin Smith, a way to complain about poor customer service. And it can create conversations between wildly different groups of people: Witness this exchange between Canadian rapper Drake and the billionaire oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens.

A Forbes writer described the dichotomy -- that Twitter seems essential to some forms of communication but, apparently, isn't all that mainstream -- in this way:

"Twitter is growing in all sorts of ways: in the number of tweets sent per day, in the ad revenue it's taking in, in the number of celebrities and brands using it in ways they quickly come to regret. But in terms of the overall proportion of the population engaging with the social messaging service, it might be in a bit of a lull."

User numbers also tell the story of Facebook's rise and Twitter's relative stagnation.

Facebook says it has 901 million active users at this point, and the site is widely expected to cross the 1 billion mark this year. Twitter, meanwhile, says it has 140 million monthly active users. The site went through meteoric growth in its early years. But it's been six years since Twitter launched, and by some metrics that growth appears to have slowed.

Unsurprisingly, a Twitter spokesperson saw things differently.

"Growth is extremely strong. We announced that we have more than 140 million active users in March. The previous number we shared was 100 million active users just last September," Carolyn Penner told CNN in an e-mail.

"To add to that, it took us 3 years, 2 months and 1 day to reach 1 billion Tweets. Now, we see more than 1 billion Tweets every 3 days."

In its survey, conducted in two chunks between January and April, Pew found that the percentage of online Americans who use Twitter has leveled off. Only 15% of online adults in February said they used Twitter -- and that's "similar to" the 13% who said they used the micro-blogging platform in May 2011, according to Pew's report.

While the overall popularity of Twitter may be about the same, the subset of people who use Twitter frequently appears to be growing, according to the report.

"The proportion of online adults who use Twitter on a typical day has doubled since May 2011 and has quadrupled since late 2010," Pew writes.

So it would appear that Twitter does matter quite a lot for some people. Smith, the Pew researcher, said in a phone interview that much of the growth in Twitter is driven by younger people who use the mobile Web or apps to access Twitter's services.

It's part of the trend of "constant access" to data, which "really pulls people more deeply into the (technological) tools they use," he said.

And maybe that's the trend to underscore, rather than pitting social networks at each other. Some tech pundits argue Facebook and Twitter serve very different purposes -- with Twitter becoming more of a news feed and Facebook becoming an online hub for friendships.

What do you think? Is Twitter falling behind? Or, at a time when the network is democratizing the spread of information, at least for some people, does Twitter still have an important role to play on the Internet?

If you're part of the elite, Twitter-addicted 8%, we'll await your responses on Twitter. And if not, CNN Tech also has a Facebook page.

What Tim Cook's comments reveal about Apple's future

2012-06-04T15:59:00.006+08:00

CEO Tim Cook is typically tight-lipped about Apple's future plans, so observers parse his words for clues.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

During a rare interview Tuesday, CEO Tim Cook teased a few interesting tidbits about where Apple may be headed
Clearly, Apple wants to evolve voice-assistant Siri, and lift its current "beta" status
Apple's mobile operating system could yield greater Facebook integration like it does with Twitter
Cook basically announced that an iTV is all but inevitable

(Wired) -- When Apple CEO Tim Cook took the stage at the All Things Digital Conference Tuesday night, he wasn't just answering questions from Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher — he was also dropping hints about the future of Apple's product roadmap.

Sure, a lot of his answers just regurgitated the same pat, familiar themes we've heard from Cook and other Apple executives: The iPad is taking the world by storm. The iPhone's doing great. The iPod has been the gateway drug for a new generation of Apple and Mac users.

But even Tim Cook can't completely stick to the script. During his interview, he teased a few interesting tidbits — which we present here along with analysis on what his words actually mean.

Siri should improve in the near future

Last week a former Apple employee reportedly said that former Apple CEO Steve Jobs would have "lost his mind" over Siri, and that employees are embarrassed by the virtual assistant. But luckily for Apple, any embarrassment should soon abate.

IBM bans 'Siri' over security concerns

Rare look inside Foxconn factory campus

"There's more that [Siri] can do, and we have a lot of people working on this," Cook said. "And I think you will be really pleased with some of the things you'll see over the coming months on this. We have some cool ideas about what Siri can do. We have a lot going on on this."

Clearly, Apple wants to evolve Siri, and lift its current "beta" status. A recent study may have found that 66 percent of iPhone 4S users are either "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with Siri, but Apple has still been hit with a class-action suit from users who feel Siri was deceptively advertised.

In a final, non-beta version of Siri, Apple's virtual assistant would be better equipped to parse the nuances of human dialog. We should be able to talk to Siri as if she were an actual assistant. If a query needs clarification, she should be able to ask you much more specific questions to determine exactly what you need.

Romney iPhone app misspells 'America' to Web's delight

Siri's capabilities should also expand via new database partnerships. Yelp and Wolfram|Alpha are great wealths of information, but Siri needs even more sources of human intelligence. In the original Siri iOS app, you could make OpenTable restaurant reservations using Siri. I would expect this and similar functionality to return.

You should also be able to use Siri to post tweets, and eventually Facebook status updates as well (other virtual assistant appsalready do this). I would imagine that Apple will eventually open up Siri to third-party developers, so they could incorporate her voice recognition, dictation, and search features within their own apps, making Siri useful and ubiquitous system-wide.

IBM worries iPhone's Siri has loose lips

Apple's leaving wearables to third parties

Don't expect Apple to debut a headset or wrist-worn iDevice any time soon. Apple hasn't bought into the wearable fad, illustrated most notably by the Nike Fuel Band and Pebble Smartwatch. On the topic of wearables, Cook said:

"I have on a Nike Fuel Band. I think there are some cool things that can be done. I think it is an interesting area. The question is, Can it change somebody's behavior? The book hasn't been written on that yet."

Of course, Apple does promote the iPod nano as a watch replacement, so it's not like the company is completely ignoring the trend. But, for now, it looks like Apple won't be releasing any trendy wearable gadgets to jump on the bandwagon — and, in fact, there's no need to.

Developing new hardware, especially in the relatively immature wearable space, takes a lot of time, money, and intellectual resources. So Apple has much more to gain by letting other manufacturers make wearable accessories — which inevitably hook into Apple's existing ecosystem via iOS apps. Apple reaps the benefit of increased iDevice purchases and upgrades, and even takes a 30 percent cut of any paid app that a wearable computing manufacturer might sell.

Expect Facebook-Apple collaboration

Historically, Apple and Facebook haven't always seen eye-to-eye — a collaboration between Facebook and Apple reportedly failed prior to the release of Apple's Ping social network, and Facebook has since cozied up with Microsoft on its Windows Phone platform. Nonetheless, it doesn't look like past conflicts are preventing Apple and Facebook from working together in the future.

"I think the relationship is very solid," Cook said of Apple's relationship with Facebook. "We have great respect for them. I think we can do more with them. Just stay tuned on this one."

Just stay tuned? Cook might as well just have told us, "Yes, Facebook and Apple are teaming up right now." iOS already features deep Twitter integration, and significant Facebook integration is a glaring omission.

It's not a stretch to think iOS 6 could yield greater Facebook integration like what the OS already provides for Twitter (indeed, code in an iOS 5 beta hinted at just such a thing). Perhaps we'll find out more during Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in a few weeks' time. Or perhaps we'll have to wait until the next iPhone is announced, likely in October. Whatever the case, we have to assume that Cook wants to see Facebook tools integrated throughout the mobile OS.

Apple is deeply interested in the TV space

Apple is widely rumored to be working on its own TV set, which many consumers are eager to get their hands on. Cook is still playing coy about the subject, but more than ever before it sounds like Apple is actively exploring the TV space.

"This is an area of intense interest for us," Cook said about theApple TV set-top box, the company's current living-room content solution. "We are going to keep pulling the string and see where this takes us."

Could it take Apple to a full-fledged television set? Cook wouldn't directly say. Instead, he commented on Apple's strategy upon entering a new product area: "We would look not just at this area, but other areas, and ask, Can we control the key technology? Can we make a significant contribution far beyond what others have done in this area? Can we make a product that we all want? ... Those are all the things we would ask about any new product category."

Cook didn't answer his own questions, but we can.

Can Apple control the key technology? Yes. Apple already dominates manufacturing in a number of overseas factories. It's a master of supply-chain control. There should be little doubt that Apple can control the key technology, both on the manufacturing side, and the patents-software side.

Can Apple make a significant contribution to the TV space? Yes. Through a dedicated, TV-optimized version of Siri and a smart TV UI based on trademark Apple simplicity and aesthetics, Apple could advance the state of TV usability.

Can Apple make a TV we all want? Yes. As we reported above, consumers are excited by the prospect of an Apple-branded HD television. Come on, Tim! The questions you posed are softballs. You've basically announced that an iTV is all but inevitable.

No more lost iPhones?

"We're going to double down on secrecy on products," Cook said. "But, on other things — supplier responsibility, environmental issues, etc., Apple will be the most transparent company."

In a one-year period, Apple reportedly lost two iPhones: an iPhone 4 prototype in the spring of 2010 that made its way onto Gizmodo, and an iPhone 4S prototype that never made it into the public eye. And just this week, 9to5 Mac scored some images of what could be the next iPhone.

For a company that likes to keep upcoming product information under lock and key, such mishaps are monumental. Perhaps Apple will implement a new or different product testing program — one that doesn't involve its beta testers drinking at bars?

Joking aside, keeping multiple thousands of Foxconn workers from pulling out their own cameras and sending a few shots to the press for a quick buck would be a huge endeavor. Apple's next lines of defense might involve much more sophisticated device tagging, and elaborate sting operations, using deliberate bits of misinformation to smoke out moles who are giving up secrets.

Ping's days are numbered

"We tried Ping and I think the customer voted and said this isn't something that I want to put a lot of energy into," Cook said. "Will we kill it? I don't know, I'll look at it."

The first day Ping came out, we were excited to check it out and join the music-centric social network. Unfortunately, it just didn't stick, and Apple's aware of that. Rather than make a big announcement about its demise, we'd hazard that Apple will likely quietly put it to pasture some time in the next year or two.

For video highlights of Tim Cook's talk Tuesday evening, click here.

Goodbye Google Places, hello more Google Plus

2012-06-04T15:59:00.002+08:00

Google Plus Local is the Web giant's latest effort to incorporate its social site into its other products.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Google Plus Local will replace Google Places for local recommendations
The tool incorporates reviews from Zagat as well as from users' friends
Google is working to incorporate Google+ with its other products

(CNN) -- Google Places is gone, replaced by a new feature that combines its Google Plus social site and renowned restaurant reviewers Zagat.

Announced Wednesday, Google Plus Local is the latest push by Google to incorporate its networking site into more of its other products, with the goal of creating a single, seamless Web experience.

Plus Local is designed to let users discover and share information about local restaurants, shops and other sites.

"Finding the best places to go is an essential part of our lives, as are the people and resources that help us make those decisions," Google product manager Avni Shah wrote on the company's official blog. "In fact, the opinions of friends, family or other trusted sources are often the first we seek when looking for the perfect restaurant for date night or the cafe that makes the best latte ever."

A new "Local" tab on the side of a Google Plus page lets users click and search.

Results will include reviews from Zagat, which Google bought in September, as well as ratings and comments from friends. The results also will appear when Google users search for a local site using Google search or Google Maps.

Companies listed on the less-social Google Places can be converted over to Google Plus. According to the blog Search Engine Land, roughly 80 million businesses' pages already had been converted Wednesday morning.

Google Plus reports being up to about 100 million users since opening to the public in September. That's a far cry from Facebook's roughly 900 million accounts.

Some in the tech world were saying Wednesday that Google Plus Local might be a way to begin catching up.

"What Google still lacks in Google+ is a way of getting different businesses' networks to interact with each other -- meaning, Facebook may have its own Facebook Places, but it also has a range of apps from others, like Gogobot and more, that enhance that experience," wrote Ingrid Lunden of TechCrunch.

"Google is still largely relying on its own data to get the job done. That could make the experience more cohesive, or (the problem Google+ has been having up to now) a little too quiet."

Romney iPhone app misspells 'America' to Web's delight

2012-06-04T15:58:00.004+08:00

A typo on a new mobile app from the Romney campaign was the butt of jokes on social media on Wednesday.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Romney iPhone app goes viral with misspelled "Amercia"
The campaign app lets users take and share photos with pro-Romney slogans
The typo has been the butt of jokes on social media
UPDATE: Campaign issued an updated version of the app Wednesday that fixed problem

(CNN) -- It's probably not the kind of thing voters will use to choose the leader of the free world.

But the Web was taking no shortage of presidential potshots Wednesday over Republican candidate Mitt Romney's new mobile app, which embarrassingly misspelled "America."

Yes, Internet. Welcome to AMERCIA.

"Sorry about the shaking California, that was just the rest of America laughing at Mitt Romney running for Pres. of #Amercia," wrote a person behind a parody President Obama account on Twitter (referencing a minor earthquake late Tuesday).

The gaffe, presumably by some poor developer hired by the campaign, appears on "With Mitt," the campaign's newly released iPhone app. The app invites users to photograph themselves with their choice of 14 pro-Romney slogans such as "I'm a Mom For Mitt," "Obama Isn't Working" and "The America We Love," and then share them on social media.

But one of the slogans reads, "A Better Amercia." Oops. Somebody didn't observe the "I-before-C" rule.

An update to the "With Mitt" app, with the typo corrected, became available at about 1 p.m. on Wednesday. No one with the campaign was speaking on the record about it, but staffers were downplaying its importance in the run-up to November. By Wednesday afternoon, the campaign also had paid for a "promoted tweet" that appears when a Twitter users searches for "Amercia."

Slips of the tongue by political candidates are, of course, not uncommon. In 2008, then-candidate Obama got grief for saying he'd visited "all 57 states." And Vice President Joe Biden's free-speaking nature has gotten him no shortage of headlines.

But the Web's politically minded (many of whom, presumably, don't consider Romney their top choice), were noting that when a mistake appears in writing, it shows a lack of attention to detail.

"If you're applying for a job, and you misspell the name of the company you want to work for, you won't get that job. #Amercia,"wrote a Twitter user.

"#Amercia" was a trending topic (meaning it's one of the most discussed terms) on Twitter late Tuesday and again Wednesday morning.

The typo has already also inspired its own Tumblr blog, "Amercia Is With Mitt."

It features photos created with the app and, as of Wednesday morning, included a group of spelling bee champions, Beaker from "The Muppet Show" and Rich Uncle Moneybags, the Monopoly mascot, among its subjects.

And numerous images were popping up on Instagram -- one highlight being Bart Simpson having to write the correctly spelled "America" during his iconic chalkboard gag from the intro to "The Simpsons."

To be honest, the Romney camp is probably more pleased at winning enough delegates in the Texas primaries Tuesday to make him the unofficial GOP nominee than it is worried about a spelling gaffe.

And it's worth noting that lots of folks who support Romney probably only learned that the app exists because of talk about the typo.

Facebook threatens to 'Zuck up' the human race

2012-06-04T15:58:00.001+08:00

Facebook leading to 'digital narcissism'

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Our self esteem is determined by our updates, tweets and check-ins, Andrew Keen says
Our digital addiction can only be broken by a regime of strict self-censorship, he argues
Our obsession with posting data about our kids - is "destroying our children's privacy."
Let's embrace technology which allows data to degenerate over time, Keen says

Editor's note: Andrew Keen is a British-American entrepreneur and professional skeptic. He is the author of "The Cult of the Amateur," and "Digital Vertigo." This is the latest in a series of commentaries for CNN looking at how internet trends are influencing social culture.

(CNN) -- The news last week was all about Facebook's dodgy IPO.Investors are filing suit against Facebook about withholding "negative" assessment on its business prospects. This IPO not only"Zucked up" Silicon Valley's supposed tech bubble, but it has created the suspicion that Facebook willfully exploited the innocence of the small investor.

But something even dodgier than a potential stock market fraudis going on. The social network is taking something much more important than money from its nearly one billion members. By

sabotaging what it really means to be human, Facebook is stealing the innocence of our inner lives.

Oh, Zuck: Facebook's bumpy start just got a little worse

It may even be Zucking us up as a species.

Andrew Keen

Sherry Turkle, Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, tells us there's a "shift" from an analog world in which our identities are generated from within, to a digital world in which our sense of self is intimately tied to our social media presence.

But this shift to a Facebook world of incessant "friending," Professor Turkle correctly warns us, is a "seductive fantasy" which is weakening us both as individuals and as a society. The problem, she explains, is that a "capacity for solitude is what nurtures great relationships." But in today's always-on social media world, our solitude has been replaced by incessant online updates, which both weaken our sense of self and our ability to create genuine friendships.

I call this shift from the private to the public self "digital narcissism." Behind the communitarian veil of social media, we have fallen in love with ourselves. But this is a super sad love story. Because the more we self-broadcast, the emptier we become; and the emptier we become, the more we need to self-broadcast.

Opinion: We expect more from technology and less from each other

The more we self-broadcast, the emptier we become; and the emptier we become, the more we need to self-broadcast

Facebook isn't alone, of course, in offering this seductive fantasy of a radically transparent digital society in which our self esteem is determined by our updates, tweets and check-ins. And yet with its almost billion members and nearly $100 billion public market valuation, Facebook is shaping the digital narcissism of early 21st century culture more than any other social media company.

Most of all, Facebook is destroying our privacy as discrete individuals. And it's not just our kids who are revealing everything about themselves to their thousands of "friends" on Facebook. As Aisha Sultan and Jon Miller note in a chilling piece, "Facebook parenting" -- our obsession with posting data about our kids - is "destroying our children's privacy."

Sultan, a parenting columnist at the St Louis Post-Dispatch, and Miller, a researcher at the University of Michigan, whose article was based on interviews with 4,000 children, argue that we've created what they call a sense of "normality" about a world where "what's private is public." Kids are growing up, they explain, assuming that it's perfectly normal to reveal everything about ourselves online.

"And our children will never have known a world without this sort of exposure. What does a worldview lacking an expectation of privacy mean for the rest of society?" Sultan and Miller conclude with the eeriest of questions.

What it means, of course, is that we are creating a world in which our sense of identity, of who we actually are, is defined by what others think of us. Social media's ubiquity means that we are losing that most precious of human things -- our sense of self . Our devices are always on; our "Timeline" (Facebook's product which greedily attempts to capture our entire life narrative) is there for everyone to see; we are living in public on a radically transparent global network that, by 2020, will be fed by 50 billion intelligent devices carried by the majority of people on the planet.

But the situation is actually more dismal than even Sultan and Miller acknowledge. The distinguished psychologists Philip Zimbardo and Nikita Duncan have written about an entire generation of young men who, they say, have been "desensitized to reality" by online gaming and pornography. But what Zimbardo and Duncan forget to add is that much social media is no less addictive that gaming or porn.

Yes, digital narcissism is a narcotic. But unlike online gaming or pornography, it is desensitizing all of us -- young and old, men and women alike -- to reality. Imprisoned in our delusional social media bubbles, our Facebook saturated world has become a self-referential stream of real-time updates about what we just ate for breakfast.

Don't worry about whether the Facebook IPO is creating an economic bubble. The real bubble are the billions of delusional social media bubbles which are distorting our real sense of self and weakening genuine social interaction.

So what to do?

The less we publicly announce about ourselves, the more mysterious and thus the more interesting our private selves become.
Andrew Keen

It's time to wake up to the truth about social media.Networks like Facebook have turned us into products in which their only economic value is our personal data. Like any other addiction, we need recognize its destructive reality. Facebook is free because it sells our most intimate data to advertisers. Forget about last week's dodgy IPO. The fraud is on anyone who has ever used Facebook.

Last year, I quit Facebook. It's a growing movement. I hope you'll consider joining me as a Facebook resistor.

But the solution goes beyond leaving Facebook. Our addiction to digital narcissism can only be broken by a new regime of strict self-censorship. For many of us, perpetually high on the narcotic of self-broadcast, this won't be any easier than quitting smoking or kicking that online porn or gaming habit. But remember, the less we publicly announce about ourselves, the more mysterious and thus the more interesting our private selves become.

There are political solutions too. We need to support governments in both the E.U. and the U.S. to protect online privacy through "do not track" legislation; force companies like Google to be more transparent with their use of our data and even enshrine, as the EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding is bravely championing, a "law of forgetting" on the Internet.

The market can also play a role. Let's embrace new technology which allows data to degenerate over time so our online data, like real world trash, eventually decomposes.

Let's support Internet start-ups like the strictly private social networkEveryMe and the defiantly private search engine DuckDuckGo. And let's recognize, once and for all, that "free" is never really free and that we are much better off paying for apps and services that absolutely guarantee the protection of our private personal data.

At the dawn of our brave new networked 21st century world, we are faced with two options. Either, we succumb to the narcotic of digital narcissism, turn ourselves inside out and let our kids inherit a world in which the quiet mystery of the disciplined private self becomes a historical artifact. Or we fight our growing addiction to social media so that we are no longer enslaved to the personal update, the tweet or the check-in.

Privacy or publicness? It's not a hard choice. Zuck-up or save the species. I trust you'll know which one to make.

How MIT could help you pour ketchup

2012-06-04T15:57:00.002+08:00

Is era of slapping ketchup bottle over?

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

MIT professor and his students invent nonstick coating that makes ketchup slide out of the bottle
LiquiGlide is made from edible, nontoxic materials that can be sprayed into food containers
A YouTube video of the ketchup bottle in action has been viewed more than 125,000 times

(CNN) -- The video is as short as it is surprising. A hand tilts a glass bottle containing a red glob of ketchup, which -- instead of oozing out in slow motion or getting stuck -- slides out easily, leaving the bottle nearly spotless.

Posted last week, the 20-second clip has been viewed more than 125,000 times on YouTube, prompting dozens of news stories and brightening the spirits of impatient ketchup lovers everywhere.

But it's not exactly what Kripa Varanasi had in mind when he and his students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology set out to develop a new kind of slippery coating that would help de-ice planes, or keep water droplets from sticking to steam turbines in power plants.

"I never thought a ketchup bottle would make us this famous," said Varanasi, a professor of mechanical engineering at MIT. "We were all focused on [solving] the big problems, like water and energy."

But one of the goals of Varanasi's MIT lab is to develop potential commercial products, not just publish research in academic journals. The coating, which he and his graduate students call LiquiGlide, seemed more immediately viable as a food-packaging product, he said.

LiquiGlide is made from a secret cocktail of edible, nontoxic materials that can be sprayed into bottles or other food containers. Videos on the LiquiGlide site show it working its slippery magic on plastic bottles of jelly and mustard, too.

"You could literally scratch it off and eat it," Varanasi told CNN in an interview. "It's that safe."

LiquiGlide first gained attention earlier this month at MIT's $100K Entrepreneurship Competition, an annual forum for launching academic projects into the commercial marketplace, where it won an Audience Award. Now Varanasi and his students are fielding interview requests, talking to bottling companies, filing for patents and planning to launch a startup this summer. An MIT grad student, Dave Smith, will serve as CEO, Varanasi said.

As Varanasi sees it, LiquiGlide offers several benefits: It's more convenient for consumers, and it makes recycling easier because the bottles are clean. It also wastes less food, because people won't be tossing out bottles coated with mustard that they can't squeeze out.

He also believes LiquiGlide has practical applications beyond condiments, such as high-end cosmetics. Who wants to waste precious drops of $50 hand lotion because they can't get the stuff out of the bottle?

"It works on everything we've tried so far," Smith told CNN.

Varanasi and his students hope to have their product on supermarket shelves within two years. Right now they have momentum on their side, thanks to a deceptively simple idea, a niche nobody realized needed filling -- and a little video.

"It just went viral," Varanasi said. "The video sold it."

UK butterflies continue to decline

2012-06-04T15:56:00.003+08:00

The population of the once-common small tortoiseshell fell by 25% in three years

The British butterfly population is continuing a marked downward trend.

This is according to a national survey which revealed that numbers of the insects fell by more than 20% between 2010 and 2011.

The results, announced by the charity Butterfly Conservation, appear to contrast with a recent study revealing a boom in numbers of rare UK species.

But while rare species may thrive in Britain's "pollinator hot spots", the more general outlook appears bleak.

Top five butterflies

The meadow brown was the most widespread species, found in more than 80% of the areas surveyed in 2011
The small white was the second most commonly seen species; in just over 75% of the squares. This is fewer than 2010, however, when it was observed in 80% of survey areas
The green-veined white (above) increased in occurrence, appearing in 73% of sampled areas, compared to 69% in 2010
The large white was also found in 73% of survey squares, but its range contracted slightly between 2010 and 2011
The distribution of gatekeeper butterflies seemed to be stable. It was spotted across 70% of the countryside in 2010 and 2011

According to its co-ordinator, Dr Zoe Randle, the Wider Countryside Butterfly Survey (WCBS), gives a "scientifically robust" picture of the butterfly population throughout the country.

"It's carried out in randomly-generated one-kilometre squares," she told BBC Nature. "Because it's random, you can get a better idea of what's happening throughout the countryside."

In July and August 2011, more than 500 volunteers counted butterflies on these patches of countryside. Each person counted an average of 47 butterflies and saw seven different species.

This is a reduction of more than 20% in the number of butterflies per survey compared to 2010. It is also a 40% reduction compared with 2009, when each recorder saw an average of 80 butterflies and eight different species.

Butterfly Conservation has blamed the decline on "last year's record-breaking cold summer", but also said there was a long-term and "ongoing deterioration of suitable butterfly habitat across the countryside".

The once ubiquitous small tortoiseshell was one of the species badly-affected, with less than one seen per kilometre walked, on average.

Butterfly Conservation says that, less than a decade ago, this species was "likely to be seen in almost every garden and flowery place through the summer months".

Dr Randle explained that butterfly habitat throughout the UK was being lost and destroyed.

"The spread in modern agricultural practices, like use of pesticides and herbicides, makes it very difficult for butterflies," she explained.

The common blue was found in only a third of squares compared with more than half in 2010

"And it doesn't help that many people are ripping up lawns and putting out decking; butterflies can't live without a nectar source."

But the conservationist insisted it "wasn't all doom and gloom".

"Targeted agri-environment schemes can really benefit species," she said.

She also encouraged the public to plant "caterpillar food plants, and butterfly nectar plants, and added that it was a good idea to "leave a patch of your garden long with lots of flowers."

"We want to halt butterfly declines by 2020," Dr Randle said.

"And I think with the right targeted habitat management, we can do it."

Butterfly Conservation run this survey with the British Trust for Ornithology, and the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology.

Study finds merest interaction with men makes woman glow

2012-06-04T15:55:00.004+08:00

A woman's facial temperature rose when she interacted with the opposite sex

The merest interaction with a member of the opposite sex can bring a glow to a woman's face, according to a new study.

Researchers at the University of St Andrews found even non-sexual contact with men caused a noticeable rise in the temperature of a woman's face.

The team used thermal imaging to detect changes in heterosexual women during their meetings with other people.

They found that even without noticing, a woman's face would heat up in the company of the opposite sex.

The team behind the discovery said the findings could be used in the development of thermal imaging to monitor levels of stress and emotion in future, for example in lie detection tests.

'National security'

Lead author of the study, Amanda Hahn, said researchers measured skin temperature on a woman's hand, arm, face and chest when they interacted with men.

They found the most dramatic increase occurred in a woman's face, where temperatures rose by an entire degree in some cases.

She said: "This thermal change was in response to simple social interaction, without any experimental change to emotion or arousal. Indeed our participants did not report feeling embarrassment or discomfort during the interaction."

The study, published later this month in Biology Letters, shows that gender alone influenced the reaction of women, who showed very little response to interaction with other women.

Prof David Perrett, who was also part of the research team, added, "We are only just beginning to understand the potential uses of thermal imaging in medicine and it can be very useful in areas of national security, where changes in skin temperature can be gauged as part of lie detection tests."

The research team's next goal is to work out whether or not these physiological changes are detected by others and whether they affect social interactions.

MPs criticise 'green' EU farm-subsidy conditions

2012-06-04T15:54:00.005+08:00

MPs backed the aims of the Commission, but argued against its methods

EU plans for "green" farm-subsidy rules will reduce European food production and are likely to harm the environment, a Commons committee has warned.

Environment, food and rural affairs committee chair Anne McIntosh said the plans would "hurt UK farmers, consumers and our countryside".

The forthcoming changes to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) must be more flexible, the Conservative MP argued.

The European Commission said MPs were overstating the impact of its plans.

The Commission wants 30% of farm subsidies to be conditional on whether recipient farms have met certain environmental standards, a policy it has branded "greening" the CAP.

Under the proposals, farmers will need to grow at least three different crops, leave 7% of their land fallow and ensure that permanent pasture is maintained on their land.

Grassland removal

The committee supports the Commission's environmental aims, but argues that member states should be allowed to find their own ways of achieving them, tailored to local circumstances.

Ms McIntosh said: "It is a nonsense to think that farmers from Finland to Sicily should be tied to the same narrow prescriptive rules. One-size-fits all regulation cannot work across the range of environments found in Europe."

The proposal to leave 7% of eligible land fallow, in areas to be named "ecological focus areas" (EFAs), had "the greatest potential to deliver significant environmental benefits", the committee's report says.

But it questions how the figure of 7% was reached, and argues that the Commission has provided insufficient detail for MPs to judge whether the benefits would materialise.

If large areas of arable land were to become EFAs, food production in the EU will decline, the report points out, lamenting that the Commission "appears not to have considered food security" as it devised the policy.

Perversely, the new rules could damage the environment by introducing an "incentive to remove environmentally important semi-natural grassland", the report contends.

'No impact'

Ms McIntosh also underlined the successes already being achieved by UK farmers in voluntary environmental schemes under the current regulatory regime.

Commission spokesman for agriculture and rural development Roger Waite accepted that "some farms in the UK are leading the rest of the EU" on such schemes.

"We do not want to penalise the champions," he told the BBC.

The greening policy would not prove to be as rigid as MPs were claiming, he argued, since existing environmental schemes would be taken into account when deciding whether farmers had met the standards.

Further, the EFAs would have "no impact or in some cases a limited impact" on food production, Mr Waite said, because "hedges, ditches, field margins and other landscape features" could go towards the 7% target.

The Commission's aim was to ensure that "all farmers across the whole of the EU do more for the environment - not just some farmers in some parts of the UK", he concluded.

Friends of the Earth said the committee was right to highlight the benefits of crop rotation but said "MPs mustn't use concerns about a one-size-fits-all approach to agricultural reforms as a smokescreen for weakening efforts for a more planet-friendly approach to farming".

"There's no reason why EU farming plans can't contain strong, legally-binding environmental measures that take regional circumstances into account," the campaign group added.

Chemist is new MoD science chief

2012-06-04T15:54:00.001+08:00

The defence science and technology budget has been falling over the last decade

A professor of chemistry at Imperial College London has been formally appointed as the new chief scientific adviser to the UK Ministry of Defence.

Prof Vernon Gibson will replace the MoD's outgoing science chief Prof Sir Mark Welland, who will return to an academic post at Cambridge University.

Prof Gibson will oversee the military's science and technology programme.

Among the many challenges he will face is working with a science budget that has halved in a decade.

The visiting professor at Imperial will join the department on 2 July, following a distinguished career in academia and a period in the commercial sector as BP's chief chemist. He will aim to ensure the UK military is supplied with the best possible equipment and scientific support for operations.

He said he was honoured to be joining the MoD, adding: "I'm looking forward to addressing the science and technology challenges that will help shape the capability of our armed forces in the 21st Century."

The outgoing science chief Mark Welland described the post as "extraordinarily attractive and extremely influential, both within the [MoD] and beyond."

But the MoD's science and technology budget has roughly halved from £800m to £400m over the last 10 years. In April, the head of the body which represents the defence industry warned of a serious skills drain if the trend was not arrested.

"We should be concerned about that as a nation, because the effects of such a reduction are not going to be felt in the next two or three years," said Rees Ward, chief executive officer for the Aerospace, Defence and Security Trade Organisation (ADS).

"They are going to be felt in five years and 10 years, when the brains, the skills, the knowledge, the understanding will have disappeared because that budget has reduced."

In February this year, a government White Paper, recognising the decline, introduced a 1.2% floor on science and technology spending as part of the total annual budget. However, many defence scientists are concerned that this should not represent a ceiling rather than a floor.

Prof Sir John Beddington, the government's chief scientific adviser, welcomed the appointment: "As former chief scientist at BP [Prof Gibson's] distinguished academic career alongside extensive industry experience will be invaluable to the Ministry of Defence itself, as well as further strengthening the network of chief scientific advisers across government.

"Expert scientific advice is critical to good policy-making and I am delighted to welcome someone with Vernon's expertise to the fold."

The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) is also about to issue a new call for research proposals from academia and industry for innovative ideas with potential defence and security applications. The MoD will begin accepting applications for the call following a launch event in Cambridge on 12 June.

The MoD wants new rapid methods for manufacturing, electronics embedded in skin-thin layers of material, clothing that changes colour to alert the wearer to chemical agents and ways of harnessing advances in computing power.

The call, managed by the Centre for Defence Enterprise (CDE), will remain open until 17 July.

Prof Welland will re-join Cambridge as director of its Nanoscience Centre.

Chilean power firm Colbun puts project on ice

2012-06-04T15:53:00.001+08:00

The Patagonia region in South America is famous for its natural beauty

One of the two firms planning to build the giant HidroAysen dam in Chilean Patagonia has frozen the project, citing lack of government backing.

Colbun said there was no point continuing with the planning stage for the project's transmission line unless Chile's government came up with an energy strategy that had wide support.

Protestors argue that the scheme will destroy a valuable natural environment.

The dams are intended to provide a third of Chile's electricity.

The HidroAysen project involves flooding 6,000 hectares (15,000 acres) of land in order to build five dams on two rivers in a remote part of Patagonia, in the far south of Chile.

It is by far the biggest energy project in the country's history, and if built would provide about a third of all Chile's electricity.

Environmentalists object to what they say is the destruction of a region famous for glaciers, ice-fields, mountains and fjords.

They say that as well as damaging the Laguna San Rafael National Park, the project also threatens the habitat of the Huemul, an endangered Andean species of the deer family.

Colbun says it is still committed to using Patagonian rivers to produce electricity and could in theory reverse its decision.

However, the government has responded by saying it already has an energy policy. The BBC's correspondent in Chile says this suggests the HidroAysen project could be delayed for years and might never see the light of day.

Colbun's partner in the scheme, Spain's giant utility company Endesa, said it would consider its move, but that development of the project was continuing.

Splashdown for SpaceX Dragon spacecraft

2012-06-04T15:52:00.002+08:00

Dragon dropped very close to the planned splashdown point

The American SpaceX company's Dragon cargo capsule has splashed down in the ocean off the California coast.

The return to Earth completes a historic first mission to the International Space Station (ISS) by a privately operated vehicle.

Impact with the water was confirmed at 08:42 Pacific Daylight Time (15:42 GMT; 16:42 BST).

Fast boats positioned in the splashdown zone were despatched to recover the unmanned capsule.

Dragon came down right on top of its targeted location about 900km (560 miles) from the Baja Peninsula.

"It's a fantastic day," said Elon Musk, SpaceX CEO and chief designer. "I'm just overwhelmed with joy."

The mission was intended as a demonstration of the freight service SpaceX plans to run to the platform.

It took half a tonne of food and supplies up to the ISS astronauts, and brought down about two-thirds of a tonne of completed experiments and redundant equipment.

A successful recovery of the capsule and its contents will trigger a $1.6bn (£1bn; 1.3bn-euro) contract with the US space agency (Nasa) for 12 further re-supply trips.

"I don't think it's going to take us very long to make the determination that this was an extremely successful mission, and they should be well on their way to starting services," commented Alan Lindenmoyer, who leads Nasa's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (Cots) programme.

Dragon's fall to Earth was overseen by controllers at SpaceX's headquarters in Hawthorne, California, and at Nasa's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

The journey home began early on Thursday when the vessel was unberthed from the ISS by the station's 17.5m (58ft) robotic arm.

Astronaut Don Pettit, at the controls of the Canadarm2, then released the cargo ship to fly free at 09:49 GMT, just as the station was moving over the Southern Ocean.

Dragon fired its thrusters three times to take itself down and away from the platform. A final 10-minute burn some five hours later committed the capsule to a plunge into the atmosphere.

A range of ships and planes had been organised to track the return, which was slowed in the final minutes by three parachutes.

A distant camera catches sight of Dragon descending to the Pacific Ocean

Once recovered, Dragon will be returned to port, and then transferred to Texas for inspection and for its cargo to be unloaded.

Nasa has engaged SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies Corporation) and another company, Orbital Sciences Corporation of Virginia, to fulfil logistics roles at the ISS.

The agency hopes the contracting out of freight duties will save it money that can then be re-invested in more daring activities beyond the station, at destinations such as asteroids and Mars.

The commercial cargo approach will be followed later this decade by crew transport services.

SpaceX wants this business as well, and is developing the safety and life-support equipment that would allow Dragon to double up as an astronaut taxi.

"We want to make sure the vehicle is proven many times over before we put people onboard," explained Mr Musk. "And we want also to add things like escape thrusters to get away from the launch vehicle in a worst case scenario."

"Dragon is free from the International Space Station"