A TECH NERD

iPad 3 Teardown Review

2012-03-16T02:16:00.003-07:00

9 Tech Millionaires Under Age 30 [INFOGRAPHIC]

2012-01-16T23:09:00.001-08:00

For those of us who weren’t born with prerequisites for professional sports or rockstardom, entrepreneurship is probably the best bet for becoming fabulously wealthy before hitting our mid-life crises.

Just take a free idea, mix in some free time and possibly free Internet (depending on whether you like coffee), and poof! You’re on you’re way to an astronomical net worth. At least that’s how H&R Block, which created the infographic below, estimates the situation.

The company compiled a list of nine entrepreneurs for whom this recipe has seemed to do the trick. Mark Zuckerberg, who at age 27 has an estimated personal net worth of $17.5 billion, tops the list, followed by Groupon founder Andrew Mason ($1.3 billion) and Firefox founder Blake Ross ($150 million).

Of course, we suspect creating a successful startup might be a bit more complicated than collecting the raw materials. What else do you think these successful young entrepreneurs have in common? Let us know in the comments.

Wikipedia Going Dark to Protest SOPA

2012-01-16T23:03:00.000-08:00

Wikpedia will go offline Wednesday to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), according to Co-Founder Jimmy Wales. Wales made the announcement via a series of tweets.

“This is going to be wow,” reads one tweet. “I hope Wikipedia will melt phone systems in Washington on Wednesday. Tell everyone you know!”

Wales has been mulling the idea of a blackout on his user talk page. Wikipedia joins other major websites, such as Reddit, where a very active anti-SOPA community exists. Wales tweeted that the decision was made by community consensus among Wikipedia users:

According to another tweet by Wales, Wikipedia English receives approximately 25 million visitors every day. Wikipedia’s decision means those millions of visitors will be greeted not with the usual digital tome of knowledge, but with a screen explaining the company’s stance on the bill and information on how to take action against SOPA. The blackout will only effect the English language page.

“Student warning! Do your homework early,” joked Wales in another tweet. “Wikipedia protesting bad law on Wednesday!”

Late last week, the authors of both SOPA and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) announced they would be removing the DNS blocking provisions from both bills. The DNS acts as a kind of “phone book” for the Internet, and many in the tech community warned that interfering with DNS would have catastrophic consequences for the stability and security of the Internet.

However, many – including Wales – have responded with a whole-hearted “that’s not good enough.” An anti-SOPA Twitter, tweeted today that “closing a global business in reaction to single-issue national politics is foolish,” perhaps an indication that Twitter will not be following in the footsteps of Wikipedia and Reddit.

Meanwhile, Rupert Murdoch, CEO of News Corporation, went on a Twitter diatribe lambasting the Obama administration for failing to support SOPA.

Do you think Wikipedia made the right choice? Let us know in the comments below.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, gmutlu

Anonymous Hackers Take Down Syrian Ministry of Defense Website

2011-08-08T06:51:00.001-07:00

Hacktivist group Anonymous has claimed responsibility for taking down the Syrian Ministry of Defense website, posting in its place a message that calls for the removal of President Bashar Al-Assad.

“To the Syrian people: The world stands with you against the brutal regime of Bashar Al-Assad,” the message begins in both English and Arabic. ” … To the Syrian military: You are responsible for protecting the Syrian people, and anyone who orders you to kill women, children, and the elderly deserves to be tried for treason. No outside enemy could do as much damage to Syria as Bashar Al-Assad has done. Defend your country — rise up against the regime!”

This message has since been removed from the still-down Ministry of Defense website, but the AnonymousTwitter account posted a link to a replica.

In April, the Syrian government launched a series of crackdowns on protesters. By the count of some human rights groups, The New York Times reports, more than 2,000 people have been killed since then. Links on the top of the Anonymous message lead to YouTube videos that illustrate the unrest.

Anonymous frequently expresses its opinion through cyberattacks. It is best known for attacks on the websites of the Church of Scientology and those who spoke against or stopped doing business with WikiLeaks. The loosely affiliated group has also claimed responsibility for politically motivated attacks on government websites in Turkey, Egypt and Yemen.

Facebook Use May Lead to Psychological Disorders in Teens [STUDY]

2011-08-08T06:10:00.001-07:00

Increasing research on social media’s effects on human interaction has revealed the development of antisocial behavior, narcissism and a slew of other character flaws and negative by-products.

Overdosing on Facebook may lead to the development of such psychological disorders in teens, according to a recent study conducted by Larry Rosen, a professor of psychology at California State University.

In a presentation entitled “Poke Me: How Social Networks Can Both Help and Harm Our Kids” at the 119th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, Rosen presented his findings based on a number of computer-based surveys distributed to 1,000 urban adolescents and his 15-minute observations of 300 teens in the act of studying.

Some of the negative side effects of Facebook use for teens that Rosen cited include:

Development of narcissism in teens who often use Facebook;
Presence of other psychological disorders, including antisocial behaviors, mania and aggressive tendencies, in teens who have a strong Facebook presence;
Increased absence from school and likelihood of developing stomach aches, sleeping problems, anxiety and depression, in teens who “overdose” in technology on a daily basis, including Facebook and video games;
Lower grades for middle school, high school and college students who checked Facebook at least once during a 15-minute study period;
Lower reading retention rates for students who most frequently had Facebook open on their computers during the 15-minute study period.

Not all findings were negative, however — one of the more interesting points from Rosen’s research was the development of “virtual empathy.”

Generally, we think of empathy as an in-person activity, where hugs, facial expressions and kind words help improve a loved one’s mood. Rosen says that teens are developing the ability to show virtual empathy for distressed Facebook friends and that the empathy is actually well-received by friends, positively influencing their mood.

This virtual empathy, he says, can even spill over into the real world, teaching teens how to empathize with others in everyday life.

Hackers release vast amounts of US police information

2011-08-08T02:39:00.000-07:00

Suspected British computer hacker, Jake Davis, leaves City of Westminster Magistrates' Court after being released on bail. Davis appeared in court on Monday charged with hacking offences, including hacking into the website of the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA). Photo: REUTERS

Members of the anti-security groups Anonymous and LulSez posted a seven-gigabyte file, also containing credit card details, social security numbers and other private data, online on Saturday.

The hackers said they were acting in retaliation for the arrests of several members in Britain and the US last month, as part of an investigation being led by the FBI.

They singled out "Topiary", alleged to be Jake Davis, 18, from the Shetland Islands, for "solidarity". Mr Davis has been charged with five offences relating to alleged computer attacks and illegal online break-ins.

The groups appeared to have taken files from 77 law enforcement offices in states such as Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana and Mississippi. About 100,000 emails from officers' police accounts were released.

One file, titled "Snitch crime tip report", appeared to contain dozens of tip-offs about local incidents from members of the public, some of whose names and addresses were included.

Many of the tipsters had specifically asked for their identities to be kept secret, out of fear of reprisals. One wrote that his uncle, a convicted sexual offender, had been hanging around children.

In a statement attached to the leaked data, the hackers said: "We have no sympathy for any of the officers or informants who may be endangered by the release of their personal information".

They said they were releasing "a massive amount of confidential information that is sure to embarrass, discredit and incriminate police officers across the US."

They added that they hoped the disclosures would "demonstrate the inherently corrupt nature of law enforcement'' and "disrupt and sabotage their ability to communicate and terrorise communities. Dozens of police training documents, including some telling officers when and how they should use their firearms, were also discovered in the vast amount of leaked material.

Tim Mayfield, the police chief in Gassville, Arkansas, said that some of the material taken from the Gassville system and posted online had been sent to him as part of an ongoing investigation.

Many of the regional offices' websites were unavailable following the alleged hack.

Last month officers from the FBI, and British and Dutch police, made 21 arrests of alleged hackers. Many related to attacks on PayPal, the online payment service, which was targeted after refusing to process payments to WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy group that leaked secret government documents.

As part of this weekend's hack, Anonymous publicised the details of five credit card numbers that the group said it had taken from police files.

It said the cards had been used to make "involuntary donations" to organisations including a support group for Bradley Manning, the US soldier accused of passing intelligence files to WikiLeaks.

6 Gadgets to Make Eating Outside Excellent, Even for Pasty Cityfolk

2011-08-08T01:19:00.000-07:00

The weather's great—albeit in the quadruple digits in some places—why are you eating indoors like a schmuck? These six tools will get you out from the kitchen table and around the picnic table. Welcome to summer.

Weber Q220 Grill

You can't have cookout without a grill, otherwise it's just a picnic. And since your full-size grill isn't exactly portable, you'll want to take carry along the Weber Q220. Its 12,000 BTU flame heats 280 sq in of griddle-space (big enough for up to 16 patties) and runs on 16oz LP cylinders. $220

Picnic at Ascot Eco Picnic Cooler for Four

Grilling is fun, setting up and tearing down is a pain in the ass—you've got to make multiple trips to the car, stuff gets lost, chaos ensues. The Eco Picnic Cooler not only has a divided Thermal Shield insulated cooler with separate wine and food sections for your edibles, it also stores your other picnicking essentials; corkscrew, cheese knife, glasses, plates, napkins, and flatware. It's even got a separate drink lid for easy-access sozzling. $110

ThermaCELL Mosquito Repellent Lantern

Like obnoxious, party-crashing vampires, mosquitoes are the bane of evening events. Keep the little buggers in line with the ThermaCELL repelling lantern. It uses allethrin, a synthetic copy of a natural insecticide found in pyrethrum flowers, to protect a 225 sq ft area from the most common biting insects. The lantern runs on 4 AA batteries.$35

Soulra XL

I'm pretty sure there are laws against grilling without putting music on first. The Soulra XLsolar powered sound system bumps with 22W of output and runs for up to eight hours using a massive 72-sq in solar panel. Its water resistant too so you needn't worry about it getting splashed poolside. $250

Margaritaville DM900 Battery-Powered Frozen-Concoction Maker

This is a margarita maker that plugs into your car's lighter socket. You need more of a reason than that? It also runs on an 18-volt Ni-Cd battery pack and blends up to 80 drinks per charge.$300

Portable Beer Pong Table

Just because it's not a part of the 2012 Olympic Games doesn't make it any less legitimate a sport—they've got leagues and official-sized tables and everything. And just because you're going to be outside doesn't mean you can't bring your official-sized Beer Pong table right along with you for some after-dinner entertainment. The 8-foot Pong A Long table collapses down into just a 2-foot square. $100

Create Realistic Corpses In 30 Minutes or Less Without Actually Killing Someone

2011-08-08T00:40:00.001-07:00

Let's go "corpsing," shall we? You know, corpsing? As in let's create a prop corpse for movie, Halloween or maybe even for nefarious pranking purposes? Usually this is expensive, but Propnomicon shows us how to make one on the cheap.

All one needs is some plastic drop cloth, a $30 plastic skeleton and some basic prop tools and stains. Easy! Typically you'd need cheesecloth or latex or other dead body-like materials, but this low-cost DIY version looks pretty disgusting too!

I named mine Harold. [Propnomicon via Boing Boing]

Is constant 'Facebooking' bad for teens?

2011-08-08T00:35:00.001-07:00

Today's teens and college students are what researchers call "digital natives," or the "iGeneration," a generation constantly connected to the Internet and Facebook, texting and instant messaging. Now, a set of new studies reveals the psychological effects of constant Facebooking.

The news is both good and bad, according to Larry Rosen, a social media researcher at California State University, who is presenting his recent work on digital natives at the American Psychological Association meeting in Washington D.C., today (Aug. 6).

While teens who use Facebook more often show more narcissistic tendencies, they also have chances to learn how to socialize, particularly shy teens. And while Facebook can be distracting, negatively impacting teen grades, social networking can also provide tools for teaching in compelling ways that engage young students.

For parents who worry about online risks, Rosen said, "If you feel that you have to use some sort of computer program to surreptitiously monitor your child's social networking, you are wasting your time. Your child will find a workaround in a matter of minutes,” he said. "You have to start talking about appropriate technology use early and often and build trust, so that when there is a problem, whether it is being bullied or seeing a disturbing image, your child will talk to you about it." [ Tips for Parents of the iGeneration ]

The good-book His talk focused on the good and bad effects social networks are having on teens. His findings are based on several computer-based surveys of more than 1,000 urban adolescents. The surveys included questions about computer, Internet and social-network use, use of mobile Internet devices and phone services like texting, as well as factors related to mental health.

He's found that even with all the negative hype, there are some good aspects of the digital lifestyle today's teens were born into.

"It's helping us change in good ways, in ways that help young adults connect," Rosen said. "We may not feel like we are [directly] communicating as much, but we are connecting more."

The online social-networking experience can give shy kids an easier experience building relationships, by speaking through a keyboard instead of in person. Facebook and other social networks promote healthy social relationships, an important step in teenage development, he said.

Social networks can teach teens empathy, or the ability to understand someone else's feelings. Spending time in these digital social networks and connecting with other people teaches young adults digital empathy, which can spill over into the real world, as well, Rosen has found.

Negative networks In addition to the positives, Rosen has found associations between social network use and various mental issues, including traits like narcissism, a lack of empathy, increased aggression and traits associated with mental illnesses like schizophrenia and depression.

Such a survey-based study can't show which trait (the mental issues or the Facebooking) came first. It could be that teens with depression or high levels of narcissism, say, are more likely to use Facebook than others.

After observing 300 teenagers study, Rosen found that online social networking can detract from a teen's learning and grades. He noticed that the kids who most frequently had Facebook open on their computers had the lowest retention of what they read. Another study showed a similar effect of texting.

Rosen suggests teaching kids to take two-minute "tech breaks" to check their messages and notifications after 15 minutes of studying can help them focus for longer and not let social networking have negative effects on academics.

Robot learns from experience

2011-08-08T00:29:00.001-07:00

Tokyo Institute of Technology Intelligent humanoid robot capable of learning and decision-making in a real environment

A robot outfitted with a rudimentary brain-like neural network is able to tackle new tasks by calling on its past experience and knowledge to think and act for itself.

This breakthrough demonstrates the evolving ability of robots to adapt to ever-changing environments, according to Osamu Hasegawa, an associate professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology who is developing the technology.

"So far, robots, including industrial robots, have been able to do specific tasks quickly and accurately. But if their environment changes slightly, robots like that can't change," Hasegawa said in a press release.

In this video, the robot uses its artificial intelligence to pour a glass of "water" (beads, actually, since water and electronics don't mix all that well) and then, mid-task and with its hands full, it's told to make the water cold. What to do? It spies the "ice cube" on a nearby tray and decides to put down the bottle so it can pick up the ice cube and put in the glass.

Hasegawa's robot is similar to the Bakerbot reported on earlier this week that is able to make and bake a cookie almost from scratch, using code that enables it to determine where ingredients are, pour and mix them together, and place them in the oven.

Hasegawa's team has developed an algorithm called a Self Organizing Incremental Neural Network, or SOINN, to do the thinking. The network obtains information from the robot's visual, auditory and tactile sensors. In addition, it does what people do these days: goes online and chats with others (robots in this case).

So, for example, let's say this robot in Japan is asked to make a cup of tea. It doesn't know how, so it goes online and learns from a robot in London how to make a perfect cup of English tea. But, since it's in Japan, the robot knows this isn't quite right.

Based on its past experience and surroundings, Hasegawa said, "we think this robot will become able to transfer that knowledge to its immediate situation, and make green tea using a Japanese teapot."

Future of war: Private robot armies fight it out

2011-08-08T00:15:00.000-07:00

Flickr user davidsmith@snet.net

If robots are simply computers with wings (and missiles), then expect to see future wars fought by the descendants of flash-trading algorithms, with humans as anxious bystanders, one scholar says.

Last month, NATO’s commanders in Libya went with caps-in-hand to the Pentagon to ask for reconnaissance help in the form of more Predator drones. "It’s getting more difficult to find stuff to blow up," a senior NATO officer complained to The Los Angeles Times. The Libyan rebels’ envoy in Washington had already made a similar request. “We can't get rid of (Moammar Gadhafi) by throwing eggs at him,” the envoy told the newspaper.

The Pentagon told both camps it would think about it, citing the need for drones in places like Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan, where Predator strikes have killed dozens this month alone. So why doesn’t NATO or the rebels do what Cote d’Ivoire’s Air Force, Mexican police and college student peacekeepers have done — buy, rent or build drones of their own? The development of deadly hardware and software is leading to a democratization of war tech, which could soon mean that every army — private or national — has battalions of automated soldiers at their command.

"Drones are essentially flying — and sometimes armed — computers," the Brookings Institution noted in a paper published last month. They’re robots that follow the curve of Moore’s Law rather than the Pentagon’s budgets, rapidly evolving in performance since the Predator’s 2002 debut while falling in price to the point where Make magazine recently carried instructions on how to launch your own satellite for $8,000.

"You have high school kids competing in robotics competitions with equipment that 10 years ago would have been considered military-grade," says Peter W. Singer, author of "Wired for War" and a senior fellow at Brookings, who predicts robots on the battlefield will be a paradigm-shifting "revolution in military affairs." First comes the high-tech arms race with China, Israel and all the other nations competing to build their own drones. Then comes the low-cost trickle-down into low-tech wars like Libya’s, where tomorrow’s rag-tag militias fight with DIY drones. Finally, if robots are simply computers with wings (and missiles), then expect to see future wars fought by the descendants of flash-trading algorithms, with humans as anxious bystanders.

Flattening the battlespace Since the Predator first appeared above Afghanistan nearly a decade ago, the Pentagon’s inventory of drones has risen from less than 50 devices to more than 7,000. But the gap between the U.S. and its closest competitors may actually be shrinking. China, for example, has pinned its military ambitions on 2,000 missiles guided by target data from some two-dozen models of surveillance drones.

The worldwide drone market is projected by the Teal Group to be worth $94 billion over the next decade, led by the Pentagon, which has asked Congress for $5 billion for next year's expenses alone. One reason for the ballooning arms race between anywhere from 44 to 70 nations (depending on which estimate you believe) is self-interest. So far, the Pentagon has refused to share its toys, instituting tight export controls on drones such as the Predator or Reaper, both of which are made by General Atomics.

Another is purely financial. An F-22 stealth fighter costs $150 million, roughly 15 times a top-of-the-line Predator. The U.S. military’s blank check of a budget — more than the rest of the world’s combined — means little and less when the cost of drones keeps falling.

But the most important factor may be doctrinal. Unlike the U.S., which is still feeling its way forward with robotic warriors while entrenched generals fight for their tanks and aircraft carriers, small nations with shrinking budgets stand to gain the most from embracing robotic warfare.

"There’s no such thing as a first-mover advantage in war," says Singer. "This technology is different than an aircraft carrier. You don’t need a big military infrastructure to use it, or even to build it. This is more akin to the open source movement in software. You’re flattening the battlespace, and the barriers to entry for other actors is falling."

Master Sgt. Steve Horton / Wikipedia

Capt. Richard Koll, left, and Airman 1st Class Mike Eulo perform checks after launching an MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicle Aug. 7 at Balad Air Base, Iraq. Koll, the pilot, and Eulo, the sensor operator, will handle the Predator in a radius of about 25 miles around the base before handing it off to personnel in the United States to continue its mission. Both are assigned to the 46th Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron.

Peak arms In 2004, French troops arrived in Cote d’Ivoire to help police a cease-fire in the country’s simmering civil war. Not expecting trouble, they left their air defenses at home. But on Nov. 4, 2004, a pair of Israeli-made Aerostar drones circled their base, reconnoitering targets for the Russian-made jets that bombed them a few hours later, killing nine soldiers and a U.S. aid worker. The drones belonged to an Israeli private military firm hired by Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo, who claimed (unconvincingly) that the whole thing was an accident.

Hiring drone-bearing mercenaries is easy when you’re a president; what about when you’re a college student? A year later, a trio of Swarthmore students formed the Genocide Intervention Network to help bring attention to Darfur. After raising almost half-a-million dollars in donations, the group solicited a bid from Evergreen International to remotely fly four surveillance drones above Sudan, documenting atrocities. Sadly, the price tag was a cool $22 million a year. (They passed.)

Today, they would toss the project on Kickstarter and build their drone using Arduino modules developed by hobbyist sites such as DIY Drones. In a recent essay, the consultant and futurist Scott Smith noted that both the "maker" movement and the Libyan rebels desperately hacking together weaponry are drawing on the same open source knowledge base. Or for that matter, so are the Mexican drug cartels assembling their own tanks and submarines.

"We’ve come to a point where you put together a parallel system to the U.S. Department of Defense," says Smith. And also to the point where the DoD is soliciting the hobbyists themselves to be the next generation of weapon designers via DARPA’s crowdsourcing effort, UAVForge. "If I were at a major arms contractor, I would be worried about being disrupted," Smith says.

He wonders if the world is headed toward "peak arms," in which open source, distributed, low-cost tools fatally undermine big-ticket weapons sales in all but a few cases (most of them involving the Strait of Taiwan). And that goes double for non-state actors, e.g. roll-your-own NGOs and drug cartels. "The era of large scale, run-and-gun DIY micro-warfare is just around the corner," Smith concludes.

The robot wars The trajectory of drones and warbots is the same as computing in general — smaller, cheaper, more ubiquitous. In February, AeroVironment unveiled the prototype of a hummingbird-sized drone that can perch on a windowsill can peer in. Insect-size is next.

But the shift from a single pair of eyes in the sky to a swarm of bots would create havoc with U.S. military doctrine, which requires having a human operator at all times, or a "man in the loop." This is one reason why the Air Force is training more remote pilots this year (some 350) than bomber and fighter pilots combined. Then again, that’s not nearly enough for 7,000 drones, let alone 7 million, all of which would have the intelligence to fight or fly on their own, with faster-than-human response times.

That’s why the definition of "in the loop" is blurring from direct human control "to a veto power we’re unwilling to use," says Singer. In the case of missile defense systems already in use, "you can turn it on or off," but you can’t pick and choose which bogeys to shoot. "The speed and complexity is such that the human interface has to be minimized to be effective," he adds, which suggests the generals in "WarGames" were right all along.

Or were they? Releasing increasingly autonomous warbots into the wild will demand new algorithms to command them, raising the specter of a "flash crash" on the battlefield as opposing algorithms clash and chase each other’s tails. Or what if hackers were to assemble a botnet for real: an army of machines ready to do their bidding? Perhaps a decade from now, there will be no "cyber war." There will only be war.

REVIEW: Apple MacBook Air - excellent performance and portability

2011-08-07T23:50:00.000-07:00

Apple's latest MacBook Air may look virtually identical to the previous model, but it's under the hood that most of its improvements lie. Faster Intel Core i5 and optional Core i7 processors gives Apple's ultra portable notebook a huge performance boost. The Air is still an expensive proposition on the whole, but the extra grunt combined with a thin and light design, fast, flash-based storage, and excellent battery life make it a worthy option for road warriors.

Apple MacBook Air: Design and display

The Apple MacBook Air is once again a superb piece of industrial design. Like the MacBook Pro, the Air is made from a "precision aluminium unibody enclosure" crafted from a single block of aluminium. The result is a lightweight notebook that feels well constructed despite its tiny footprint. Particularly impressive is the screen, which exhibits minimal flex when twisted, and the sturdy feeling hinge. With the demise of Apple's plastic-clad MacBook, the MacBook Air is now Apple's entry level laptop.

The MacBook Air is just 0.3cm thin at the front edge when closed, and just 1.7cm at the rear. The downside to the ultra-thin design is the lack of ports; the MacBook Air has just two USB ports, a MagSafe power connector, a Thunderbolt jack (more on that later) and a stereo headphone jack. The 13in model we reviewed also has an SD card reader; however the 11in model doesn't get the same treatment due to the lack of space.

The MacBook Air lacks built-in 3G connectivity — a feature that's available on some competing ultra portable notebooks — and there's also no IR sensor for remote control capability, nor an Ethernet port for wired connectivity. The Air also lacks a sleep notification LED, as seen on the MacBook Pro range.

The Apple MacBook Air may lack some ports, but the full sized keyboard and trackpad are both excellent considering the small footprint of this machine. The Air's keyboard and trackpad are almost the same size of the entire MacBook Pro range, with the exception of the top row of F keys, which are slightly smaller. The keyboard is now backlit, which was a huge criticism of the previous model. Tellingly, users won't feel cramped or limited in the slightest while using the MacBook Air despite its small size.

The MacBook Air's screen has a resolution of 1440x900 and is LED backlit, which Apple claims makes it more power efficient than a standard notebook display. Under florescent office lighting the glossy screen can be distracting, and viewing it from off-centre does result in a slight yellow colour shift. We would love to see a matte screen option, which would suit users working outdoors in sunlight, or inside an office with bright fluorescent lighting. We also think that power users, such as those editing photos or videos, would appreciated a higher resolution display. Thankfully, unlike the MacBook Pro's glossy black bezel, the MacBook Air's silver bezel is not reflective at all.

Apple MacBook Air: Internals, performance and battery life

The new MacBook Air's biggest upgrade comes in the form of Intel's Core i5 and Core i7 processors. Apple claims the processor upgrade makes the Air up to 2.5 times faster than the previous model. Both the 11in and 13in models (four in total) all come standard with Core i5 processors, but the top 11-inch and 13-inch models can be built-to-order (BTO) with an optional 1.8GHz Core i7 processor for an extra $100.

Our review model was the top of the range 13in model, which comes with 4GB RAM, an Intel HD Graphics processor with 384MB of memory and a 256GB SSD hard drive. The SSD makes the Air a speedy machine, with Apple's "instant on" feature particularly impressive. While it is not exactly instant, the Air wakes up from sleep in less than three seconds, and boots up from power-off in just over 10, giving it immense appeal as a grab-and-go computing device.

The Apple MacBook Air delivered excellent performance in our tests. It took just 57sec to encode 53min worth of WAV files to 192Kbps MP3s. We also benchmarked the MacBook Air using Geekbench; it scored 5443 — by comparison, the previous 11in model scored just 2045. The MacBook Air has no trouble running multiple applications and felt fast and snappy throughout testing. The lack of serious graphics power means it will never be a gaming machine, but the MacBook Air has enough grunt for serious business or power users.

The biggest disadvantage of the MacBook Air is the fact that it isn't designed to be opened, so users wanting to upgrade RAM or hard drive modules will remain disappointed. The fact that the RAM isn't replaceable in particular is a concern, given that it is relatively cheap to upgrade this component. Technically, the MacBook Air case can be opened, but doing so will void the Apple warranty.

The new MacBook Air now has a Thunderbolt port, Apple's official name for Intel's Light Peak technology. Thunderbolt is an input/output port like USB, but much faster. It's twice the speed of USB 3.0, 20 times faster than USB 2.0, and about 12 times faster than FireWire 800. It employs the connector Apple has been using for its Mini DisplayPort since late 2008.

Thunderbolt is an excellent connection standard — it's fast at up to 10Gbps transmission, supports bus power at up to 10W and has plenty of future potential. However, at the current point in time, there is next to no accessories that make use of it. Though these will come in time, Thunderbolt remains a future proposition rather than a current one, so it is unlikely to add any value to a MacBook Air right now.

Apple claims that the MacBook Air's battery life is "up to seven" hours; it lasted almost six hours in our battery rundown test, where we looped an XviD file in full screen mode. Just like the MacBook Pro, the MacBook Air has a non-removable lithium-polymer battery.

LinkedIn IPO Underwriters Stop Saying ‘Buy’ Following Surge

2011-08-07T23:47:00.000-07:00

Aug. 5 (Bloomberg) -- LinkedIn Corp. has suffered an unusual loss of support from the securities firms that led the professional-networking website’s initial public offering less than three months ago.

Morgan Stanley cut its investment rating on LinkedIn’s shares today, less than three weeks after JPMorgan Chase & Co. took similar action. The firms were the lead managers of the IPO along with Bank of America Corp.

The latest reduction made LinkedIn, based in Mountain View, California, the second U.S. company since 2000 to be downgraded by two lead IPO managers within 90 days after going public, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. TeleNav Inc., a maker of global-positioning software for mobile phones, was the first.

“It’s a high-pressure call,” Philippe Lanier, a former Bank of America analyst who reduced his rating on Western Refining Inc. less than three months after the bank helped lead the company’s 2006 IPO, said in a telephone interview today. “It’s very difficult to give a message to your sales force and have them come out with confidence.”

An investigation almost a decade ago by then-New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission resulted in Wall Street agreeing to strengthen barriers between investment banking and analyst research. Since then, firms have been more worried about the legal repercussions of failing to separate the groups, Paul Meeks, an analyst who covers LinkedIn at Capstone Investments Inc. in Charleston, South Carolina, wrote in a July 26 e-mail.

Approaching Netflix

LinkedIn was reduced to “equal-weight” from “overweight” by Morgan Stanley’s Scott Devitt, based on valuation. He wrote in a report that the stock was trading at about 30 times his estimate of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, a cash-flow gauge, for 2014.

“We’re not as focused on the valuation,” Jeff Weiner, chief executive officer of LinkedIn, said today in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “In the Loop” with Betty Liu and Jon Erlichman. “We’re going to leave that to the market.”

The stock dropped 4.4 percent to $91.36 at 4 p.m. in New York, extending its decline since July 15, when it closed at $109.97, to 17 percent. The company went public at $45.

Devitt followed the example of JPMorgan’s Douglas Anmuth, who cut his rating to “neutral” from “overweight” on July 18. Anmuth wrote that LinkedIn’s market capitalization was approaching that of Netflix Inc., a video-rental company with seven times more revenue and Ebitda.

BofA Stays Bullish

Pen Pendleton, a spokesman for Morgan Stanley, declined to comment on the downgrade. At JPMorgan, spokeswoman Sarah Stipicevic said Anmuth wasn’t available for an interview. Both firms are based in New York.

Bank of America is sticking with a “buy” rating on LinkedIn, which was reiterated after the company’s earnings report yesterday. LinkedIn reported a profit, rather than the loss that most analysts in a Bloomberg survey were anticipating, and beat the average revenue estimate.

While JPMorgan declined to comment on Anmuth’s downgrade, the company said its ratings policy follows SEC regulations. They include a “quiet period” in which no underwriter can begin coverage for 40 days after an IPO.

Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan’s cuts made LinkedIn a standout among about 2,500 U.S. IPOs since 2000, according to Bloomberg’s data. TeleNav, based in Sunnyvale, California, was downgraded by both of its chief underwriters in July 2010.

TeleNav Cut

Deutsche Bank’s Jonathan Goldberg reduced TeleNav to “hold” from “buy” and JPMorgan’s Paul Coster cut the stock to “neutral” from “overweight.” They acted after the company said it would probably receive less money from Sprint Nextel Corp., its biggest customer, in an amended contract.

Analysts at investment banks are more likely to be bullish on stocks than those at independent research firms, Meeks said.

“The former will almost always have higher price targets and will stay at the party too long,” keeping buy ratings as a company’s business worsens, said Meeks, who has a “sell” rating on LinkedIn.

Just 5.1 percent of analyst ratings are “sells,” according to Bloomberg data compiled in May. Out of 1,890 analysts, fewer than 1 percent advised investors to unload a Standard & Poor’s 500 stock that later fell or to buy a stock that rose after their upgrade, the data show. The study tracked S&P 500 companies between January 2009 and April 6, 2011.

Hottest IPO

Morgan Stanley’s Devitt raised his revenue and Ebitda estimates for LinkedIn through next year even as he cut the stock’s rating.

LinkedIn was the hottest IPO in the U.S. since at least 2006, reflecting surging demand for social-media stocks and a comeback in venture capital-backed companies.

The stock rose as high as $122.70 on May 19, its first day of trading, from an initial price of $45. More than 30 million shares changed hands, or 3.8 times the number of shares sold to the public -- the biggest difference between supply and demand in at least five years for an IPO of a U.S.-based company, according to Bloomberg’s data.

LinkedIn’s surge was reminiscent of the rallies in newly public companies during the 1990s Internet-stock bubble. In 2002, Spitzer and the SEC began investigating the research industry in the midst of conflict of interest scandals that erupted after the bubble burst.

Grubman, Blodget

Star analysts such as Jack Grubman, a telecommunications specialist at Citigroup Inc., and Henry Blodget at Merrill Lynch & Co. had recommended stocks to win investment-banking business, according to lawsuits filed by the SEC.

Blodget called InfoSpace Inc. a “piece of junk” in an e- mail in 2000 even as he recommended investors buy the maker of Internet-search software, according to an SEC complaint.

In 2003, the SEC prohibited Grubman and Blodget for life from associating with a broker-dealer or investment adviser. They didn’t admit or deny wrongdoing in their settlements.

Spitzer and the SEC also settled with Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Merrill and eight other major banks. They were permanently barred them from using investment banking revenue to compensate research staffs and fund their work.

The SEC has since prohibited actions such as the linking of analyst compensation to specific deals and providing favorable research to encourage investment-banking business. In July 2006, Wachovia Corp. agreed to pay $25 million in fines to settle allegations by regulators that analysts participated in presentations with potential investment clients.

The role of the analyst is to provide a well-structured opinion and to have strong and convincing evidence for every argument, said Lanier, who now works for EastBanc Inc., a Washington-based real estate firm.

“If you’re consistent with what you saw and you have fundamental research behind it, you should be able to articulate that to the client,” he said.

--With assistance from Michael Beauchemin and Jennifer Berger in Princeton and Daniel Wytock, Carol Chuang, Inyoung Hwang and Jeff Sutherland in New York. Editors: David Wilson, Nick Baker

Google+ May Pass Twitter With One-Fifth of U.S. Adults Online

2011-08-07T23:46:00.001-07:00

(Bloomberg) — Google Inc.’s new social-networking service may grow to claim 22 percent of online U.S. adults in a year, passing Twitter Inc. and LinkedIn Corp. to be the second- most-used social site after Facebook Inc., a survey found.

Google+ has signed up 13 percent of U.S. adults and will add 9 percent over the next year, according to the survey from Bloomberg/YouGov. In the same period, Facebook will lose about 2 percentage points of U.S. adults to keep 69 percent of that population, while Twitter and LinkedIn continue to grow their portion of users.

Started in late June, Google+ is growing faster than Facebook and MySpace Inc. did in their early days. The service, which lets people connect with and manage groups of friends on a website, gained about 25 million users worldwide in less than a month, estimates market researcher ComScore Inc. Facebook has more than 750 million active users.

“Google+ is tracing a path similar to Facebook’s initial growth — building excitement in a core group of early adopters,” said Michael Nardis, head of YouGov investment products, in a statement about the survey.

Bloomberg and London-based market researcher YouGov Plc polled 1,003 online U.S. residents 18 and older from July 29 to Aug. 2 for the survey.

The results showed Twitter will add almost 3 percentage points of U.S. adults online over the next year to claim 20 percent of the population. LinkedIn will also have signed up 20 percent of those people, after gaining almost 2 percentage points within the year, the survey found.

NETWORKING EVERY DAY

Among survey respondents who had signed up for Google+, 45 percent said they read content on the site every day, compared with Facebook’s 62 percent of users. Twitter has 42 percent of its users return daily, while LinkedIn has 8 percent.

Google+ usage is likely to take away from the time people spend on Facebook, the survey found. Some 30 percent of people who use both services said they plan to reduce the amount of time they spend on Facebook.

Some 31 percent of Google+ users polled said they have already abandoned their accounts or not written any posts yet on the site.

Devices Top Networks When Going Mobile

2011-08-07T23:38:00.001-07:00

Looking earlier today at the continued loss of customers at T-Mobile (DTE:GR), I pointed out that things might be different if the carrier had aniPhone (AAPL) to offer. Sascha Segan, an excellent writer who covers the mobile sector at PC Magazine, quickly tweeted that he thought I was placing too much emphasis on the iPhone as a "magic silver bullet" device.

Sascha raises a good point, rightly suggesting that Verizongrew without an iPhone.

The answer to the question "what drives carrier sales" is clearly: both the network and the devices on offer. If an operator can offer the "complete package" of stellar devices and a superb network (along with marketing to plug them and solid support, as needed), we have a winner. Devices do vary by carrier and there are occasional exclusives by which a device is available to only one carrier for at least a limited period.

Network needs change, based on where people work, play, and travel—as opposed to where mobile coverage is available. Network speeds, pricing, and usage all vary as well, so consumers still pick different networks, depending on their needs and budgets.

HIERARCHY OF MARKETABLE MOBILITY

However, I’d generally argue that today’s devices trump network coverage, which in turn trumps network speeds. And while we’d all like unlimited data, promising it isn’t a magic sales tool. Here’s why I believe this to be true:

• Unlimited data is overrated for most. Sprint (S) is the only major U.S. carrier that still offers truly unlimited data, yet the carrier lost 101,000 postpaid customers in the most recent quarter. Net growth in subscribers, a whopping 1.2 million, came from prepaid and wholesale customers. This quarter wasn’t unique. Sprint has generally been growing subscribers through all but postpaid customers for several quarters. We’d all like unlimited data, but do we want it on the devices that Sprint sells? Some are great, but there are too few of them. Even the best don’t get replaced for ages: The HTC (2498:TT) Evo was a top-selling device for nearly a year; the same can be said of its successor, the Evo 4G.

• Early iPhone woes for AT&T didn’t hurt sales. It may be an overstated issue because of bad experiences in a few areas (such as San Francisco and New York) but how many consumers chose to deal with network challenges at AT&T (T) in order to use an iPhone? Without a doubt, the iPhone drove much of AT&T’s growth in subscribers and revenues; consumers had to have the phone. Exclusivity helped, yet out of all the iPhones sold last quarter worldwide (when exclusivity wasn’t a factor), AT&T still accounted for 17.7 percent of the total: Apple sold 20.34 million iPhones and AT&T reported 3.6 million iPhone activations in the most recent quarter. Although AT&T is investing in its network to help meet data demand, the percentage of iPhones sold on a network that has experienced problems is amazing.

• Help from 2G and Wi-Fi. I’m astounded at the more than 1 million iPhone users on T-Mobile’s U.S. network. If correct, this accounts for 10 percent of all T-Mobile’s current 3G/4G smartphone users, which is very telling. These folks are choosing the device and are willing to deal with T-Mobile’s pokey EDGE network at a time where we’re using smartphones far more for Web access and connected apps than we are for voice calls. I’d be especially curious to see how fast iPhone usage grew on T-Mobile’s network vs. official sales of smartphones by the carrier. Across all carriers, Wi-Fi can supplement both gaps in network coverage as well as data caps. Thanks to VoIP apps, it’s becoming easier to use Wi-Fi for voice services, too.

• Fast networks alone aren’t appealing. Sprint was the first to jump into the 4G market (depending on your definition of 4G) with the Clearwire WiMAX service in October 2008. The move hasn’t panned out for either company, though they had first-mover advantage. Among the reasons, a big one is that there are relatively few devices for the WiMAX network, compared with devices for EVDO and HSPA technologies offered by other carriers. Likewise, T-Mobile was slow to the 3G game, but quickly leapfrogged others by upgrading its network with HSPA+, offering theoretical speeds of 21 Mbps at first and now 42 Mbps. Customers don’t seem compelled by the speeds, though: The carrier continues to lose contract customers, even as it boost speeds in expanded areas, whilelowering prices.

• About that Verizon growth. Segan is correct that Verizon grew in 2009 and 2010 without the iPhone. I’d argue it wasn’t the network that caused the growth; it wasn’t until December 2010 that Verizon upgraded its network to LTE/4G service. So what brought that growth? A massive investment in offering Android devices, which really began to improve with the release of Android 2.0 on the Motorola (MMI) Droid asone of the first higher-resolution smartphones available on Verizon. A quick update to Android followed, making the platform even better for devices. Lacking an iPhone, Verizon put its marketing muscle behind those Android devices.

Clearly, customers have different needs and will most value monthly costs, network speeds, and coverage when choosing a carrier and a device. They should. I’ve always suggested people evaluate their requirements and location to choose a carrier first and a device second. That doesn’t mean devices aren’t driving sales for many consumers. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that some are picking the device first. That’s different from a few years ago, partially because of how we’re using devices today.

Before smartphones and mobile apps became mainstream, our phones were simple devices for voice calls. The network was the primary decision factor: Without coverage, the voice phone was a useless brick. Traditional voice calls are slowly going away, however, supplemented by tweeting, instant messaging, video chats, and apps such as Google (GOOG) Voice. The time spent making phone calls on a smartphone is dwindling. For most other activities, such as checking e-mail and weather, the network is surely important. The device comes first to some. Segan even posed a question today to the Twitterverse, asking what keeps customers from T-Mobile. Of many reasons (customer service and coverage were a recurring theme), the instant response was: "No iPhone. I wish I was on T-Mo, but I want iPhone."

I don’t mean to underscore the importance of the network. Choice of device isn’t the sole driver. Yet it has become increasingly important, at least from where I stand. How about you? Have you recently chosen the device first, or made do with a less-than-desirable network because of your hardware choice?

You’ve Got to Hand it to the Japanese…

2011-08-07T18:59:00.000-07:00

Japan definitely makes some weird gadgets and accessories, but this new iPhone 4 case might be the strangest of all though. The Dokkiri is a black case with what appears to be a human hand on the back.

One of the styles is a little kid hand and the other is a ladies hand. The disturbing part is that the lady hand looks like it’s ummm… ready to grip something. The hand on the back appears to be made from some sort of softer plastic material to make it extra creepy.

This reminds me of the old horror film The Hand where the dude loses his hand in an accident, and it comes back to kill people.

The Dokkiri iPhone hand case will ship in early September for about $64 (USD) fromStrapya. That is a lot of money for something that is just downright weird.

[via Dangerous Minds via BoingBoing]

Why iPhone 5 is being delayed by Apple: Are they bogged down by death grip

2011-08-07T05:10:00.000-07:00

People are wondering as to why iPhone 5 is being delayed by Apple? They wonder if they are bogged down by death grip, the same problem that was faced by Apple in iPhone 4?

Every other person, whether iPhone fan or hater is perplexed by Apple’s unexplained behavior. Five months have passed when it should have been made a concrete announcement of iPhone 5 launch or in fact should have launched it. But there is neither any announcement or launch of it.

iPhone fans who have got accustomed to the periodic launch of iPhone variant every year and even in between are a little perplexed. When great Android smart phones are being launched with regular intervals and when Motorola and Samsung are launching different variants of their phones Apple is not even informing its fans as to what it intends to do and whether it will launch iPhone 5 this year or not.

Meanwhile there is a latest update about iPhone 5 proximity sensor. This sensor is not part of the current iPhone and is a latest add on for the forthcoming iPhone 5.

A tech website SW-Box.com has said that it is in possession of iPhone 5 proximity light sensor flex cable.

This is among the most tangible proofs of iPhone 5 and its development.

There are reports that Apple has delayed the iPhone 5 due to production problems. There are many people who think that Apple has failed to solve the death grip problem in the phone and so is the delay. Death grip problem in iPhone 4 had cost Apple a big amount of money and had to give a cover to all the people who bought the iPhone 4 in the initial several months.

DEF CON trains 8-year-olds in hacking

2011-08-07T05:01:00.000-07:00

Kids as young as eight years old learned about lock picking and computer hacking, but were told to use their newfound knowledge for good

Las Vegas, Nevada (CNN) -- Joseph Horman already had seen the lock-picking videos on YouTube. But it was a different thing entirely for the 13-year-old puzzle-lover to get lessons in lock picking and computer hacking at an event sanctioned by adults.

The world's largest gathering of computer hackers -- DEF CON, which is happening this weekend at the Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas -- held its first-ever hacking classes for kids this year, at an event appropriately called DEF CON Kids.

Sessions in hacking were designed for kiddos ages 8 to 16.

A common parent's reaction to something this might be: They're teaching them what?! But hear these hackers out. Their intentions are good.

Take Horman's uncle, Adam Steed, a computer security professional in Salt Lake City, Utah, who brought his nephew to these training sessions because he already was fascinated with games and coding. (He actually has written his own computer game, called "Blooks," in which players "try to build as many buildings as you can while avoiding enemies," he said.)

"You can watch lock-picking videos on YouTube, but where do you hear the ethical side of this?" said Steed, the uncle. "Not on YouTube."

He added: "I would rather someone learn in a controlled environment. They're going to learn it anyway."

Horman, the video game-writing nephew, sat attentively in the second row of a small classroom on Saturday, fiddling with a Rubik's Cube during sessions with titles like "Secrets Revealed," "Meet the Feds" and "Google Hacking."

That last class title is a bit misleading, since instructor-hacker Johnny Long focused more on non-technical hacking -- looking at people's laptops over their backs in airports; picking locks with toilet paper rolls and pen caps; and digging social security numbers out of corporate trash bins -- instead of actual search-engine hacking.

Long went to great lengths to remind the kids in attendance that the point of the class was to teach them what bad guys might be doing -- and how to avoid breaches in their own security or privacy.

"Don't let me catch you guys stealing toilet paper and breaking locks," he said. "If you do, it's not my fault."

Horman said he would only pick a lock if his family got locked out of their own house or car. That's happened before, he said, so that skill might be handy.

"Our family has had some trouble with locks," he said, smiling. "Let's say the younger ones love playing with the key and slipping them under the door."

In the "Meet the Feds" session, representatives from NASA, the Department of Homeland Security, the National Security Agency and the Navy told the kids they were smart to pick up hacking skills early because the government needs employees who can hack.

Several kids raised their hands to ask about hacking as a career path.

Part of the potential confusion about DEF CON Kids comes from the very term "hacker," which people here use to refer to anyone who has the skills needed to modify computer software and hardware. Some hackers extend the domain further, to locks and such.

Those skills could be used for criminal activity, but quite a few DEF CON attendees are actually computer security professionals -- the "good guys" trying to make the Internet less vulnerable to attacks by computer criminals.

Still, all this talk about malicious hacking made 10-year-old Dennis Mikhaylov a bit nervous.

"I'm getting a locker next year," he said after one of the class sessions. He's about to start middle school. "I thought it was cool, but now I'm afraid someone might open it."

Mikhaylov said he'd deal with this by keeping any valuables, which he defined as anything with his address on it; textbooks; and his Nook e-reader, which he apparently carries around all the time, out of that school locker.

The DEF CON Kids event also included a competition, where kids went around the hacker conference trying to break codes and solve puzzles.

Isabel Holland, 10, made up one-half of a team called "Sonic Death-Monkeys," a name she says is "weird" but went with because the boy who was her partner chose it.

"You have to, like, find people, and it's really hard because they're all over the place," she said of one piece of the challenge which required her to search out hackers.

Her dad, Bo Holland, from Austin, Texas, said it's cool for kids to get a chance to see how the technology and video games they use all the time actually work.

Ultimately, it will make the kids safer, he said, especially in this age of social networking, when the collective memory of the Internet has no expiration date.

"You're building up your reputation and it's not going to go away. If you do bad things, that's going to stick with you," he said.

He added: "You can say, 'Oh, we don't want to hear how this (hacking) stuff works and that's scary ... but it's really important kids know how to protect themselves."

MobileMe to iCloud Transition Gives You 25GB Storage Until June 30th, 2012

2011-08-07T04:55:00.001-07:00

With the MobileMe to iCloud transition service launched for developers tonight, Apple has revealed what it plans on doing with existing MobileMe accounts moving over to iCloud.

While MobileMe and iCloud accounts are quite different there are some overlapping parts. iCloud will continue to house Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Bookmarks, Find My Phone, and Back to My Mac, while dropping support for iWeb Publishing, Gallery and iDisk. Meanwhile, iCloud adds iTunes in the Cloud, Photo Stream, Documents in the Cloud, Automatic downloads of apps and books, and iOS device backup and restore.

During the transition, Apple has promised to keep existing MobileMe accounts active until June 30, 2012. What wasn't entirely clear was how the storage requirements would shift over to iCloud. Current individual MobileMe customers have 20GB of storage included in their yearly plan.

Apple has decided to move this one-to-one over to iCloud and is automatically signing up MobileMe users to the 20GB (+ 5GB free) tier plan in iCloud at no charge. We previouslydetailed the iCloud additional storage pricing which puts 25GB of storage at a normal yearly price of $40 USD per year.

Users are automatically signed up for recurring billing with the next payment date for the plan to be June 30th, 2012 -- the same date that the rest of MobileMe shuts down. You may choose to downgrade before that time, and not get charged.

It's not clear how much an average user will need on iCloud. Apple claims 5GB "goes a long way". With the loss of MobileMe's iDisk, individual storage requirements could easily go down with iCloud, but the addition of iOS backups could easily push you over the free 5GB limits. Apple is expected to launch iCloud in the fall alongside iOS 5.

Apple iOS 5 Beta 5 Release: Speech Recognition Apple 'Assistant' Hidden

2011-08-07T04:52:00.000-07:00

Apple released the fifth version of its iOS 5, the upcoming OS of the company, two weeks since the launch of the iOS 5 Beta 4.

There are no major new feature added in the Beta’s release notes and Apple appears to have used iOS 5 Beta 5 to fix a number of preexisting features and quirks from previous releases.

Although many of the features were announced back at WWDC-2011, BGR reports the new software includes some hidden extra features, like the Nuance-powered speech recognition believed to be called Apple “Assistant".

BGR shares the log change, suggests that users can register multiple iCloud accounts to a single iOS 5 device, while wireless synchronization – which allows you to avoid plugging in via USB and instead sync withiTunes over WiFi – is now enabled to Windows users as well as Mac.

According to MacRumors, Apple attempted to disguise the Assistant codenaming the microphone button “forward delete key” and the new keyboard layout as a Dvorak variant.

Apple is yet to finalize the deal with Nuance, and as such the server-side processing is unlikely to be ready.

With Google, There Will Be Bad Blood

2011-08-07T04:47:00.001-07:00

By MG Siegler

“I have a competition in me. I want no one else to succeed.”

I’m reminded of Daniel Plainview’s admission in There Will Be Blood when thinking about Google (GOOG).

While the company is still largely beloved by the public, sentiment seems to have turned against them amongst their peers, and even amongst many of the startups around Silicon Valley. While these tensions have been building for months — and even years, in some cases — we’re seeing this on display more clearly than ever now thanks to the patent issue(s).

But why? Why is Google now a villain to many in the industry? I don’t believe it’s because they’re evil, I believe it simply relates to the Plainview quote. Increasingly, Google is trying to do everything. And they have the arrogance to think that they can. And it’s pissing people off.

“Microsoft and Apple have always been at each other’s throats, so when they get into bed together you have to start wondering what’s going on,” Google Chief Legal Officer, David Drummond, wrote this week when accusing those two companies of trying to destroy Android. And he’s right. After a decade of being bitter rivals, Apple (AAPL) and Microsoft (MSFT) now seem to have aligned interests. But you don’t have to wonder what’s going on, it’s very apparent: they both hate Google.

The two recently teamed up to screw Google out of the Nortel patents, spending billions to make that happen. And before that, they attempted to do the same with the Novell (NOVL) patents (though the DoJ blunted some of that attack). Next up for the dynamic duo: the InterDigital patents. Apple is definitely exploring acquiring them, and don’t be surprised if Microsoft is right there to help once again, to ensure Google doesn’t get them.

All of this is even more interesting when you consider that it was onceApple and Google who were closely aligned. And it was a common vision that brought them together as well — appropriately, the end of the Microsoft-dominated computing world.

The two got so close, that Google then-CEO Eric Schmidt even joined Apple’s board of directors. And Google was instrumental in helping create some of the early applications for the iPhone (Maps, YouTube, etc). It seemed like the two would team up to take down the carriers next.

Then things got very complicated when it became clear that Android and the iPhone would soon become very direct competitors. The rest has been history.

But while Apple and Microsoft have been the two highest profile Google combatants in recent months, they’re far from the only ones.

At least just as big of a Google antagonist (and perhaps even more so) is Oracle (ORCL). While the Apple and Microsoft lawsuits against Android threaten to disrupt the platform and/or make it more expensive, Oracle’s lawsuit threatens to destroy it. Oracle is suing Google over the unlicensed use of Java in Android — its core.

If one of two damning emails are allowed to be used as evidence, it sure looks like Google could be in some serious trouble. Those emails appear to extend the idea of Google’s arrogance. As Android chief Andy Rubin wrote in a 2005 email, “If Sun doesn’t want to work with us, we have two options: 1) Abandon our work and adopt MSFT CLR VM and C# language – or – 2) Do Java anyway and defend our decision, perhaps making enemies along the way.”

They obviously chose the latter. And while Sun is no more, Oracle now controls the rights to Java. A very big enemy has been made along the way.

The list continues from there.

Facebook and Google have long been at odds with one another. Now, with Google+ giving Google a significant presence in Facebook’s social game for the first time, tensions are higher than they’ve ever been. While the two sides have been fighting publicly, behind the scenes, it’s worse. This is true even though many of Facebook’s employees are former Google employees. Facebook’s alliances with Microsoft can’t help matters either.

For a long time, Yahoo (YHOO) was Google’s most direct rival. You might think that after Google quickly dominated them in search, there would be peace now. Nope. Yahoo also has no love for Google still to this day. When Microsoft was attempting to buy Yahoo a few years ago, Google was seen as one potential savior. And they almost were, until the DoJ began looking into a potential Yahoo/Google search partnership and Google had to back out. Instead, Yahoo was forced to tie up with Microsoft.

These days, you’ll hear Yahoos complain behind the scenes that Google often just takes ideas they implemented first but never caught on because Google is the dominant player in the space.

Amazon (AMZN) and Google are also increasingly at odds with one another. Amazon is about to enter the tablet space in a big way later this year — and they’ll be doing so with their own flavor of Android. They also have a competing Android app store. And while this may seem like Amazon entering Google’s space, remember that Google went after Amazon first. While Google hasn’t really be able to compete in the cloud storage and services businesses so far, it hasn’t been for a lack of trying.

Out of any of the larger entities in the space these days, is seems like Twitter and Google should have interests that align the most. Like Facebook, many of Twitter’s employees are ex-Google. And while a search deal a couple years ago seemed to pull the two close together, that deal has since expired, and there is no sign it’s going to ever be renewed.

Google has tried to buy Twitter a few times, and Twitter has backed away each time, most recently leaving billions on the table. And while both sides say fairly complimentary things about each other in public still, behind the scenes, again, it’s not good. Many Twitter employees flat out don’t trust Google. And Google+ has exacerbated that situation.

Speaking of failed Google acquisitions, after Google tried and failed to buy Yelp and Groupon (GRPN), they moved forward on products that competed directly with them. In the process, Yelp felt Google wasactively screwing them in search results. Bad blood galore now.

On the smaller startup side of things, both Color and Path turned down massive acquisition offers from Google. Part of it was because the startups wanted to remain independent, but a large part was also that neither groups of employees wanted to work for Google. Naturally, Google has since been working on products that compete with both — not only Google+, but also mobile apps created through Google’s Slide division.

The list goes on and on. At this point, it would be easier to list tech companies that are completely friendly with Google — because there aren’t many. Again, most won’t speak out publicly about this — partially because Google is still one of the largest acquirers out there and not everyone is Twitter, Color, Path, Groupon, or Yelp, that will turn down hundreds of millions or billions — but if you talk to individuals that work at other companies, it becomes very clear very quickly that there is not a lot of love for Google out there anymore.

In my view, this stems from Google’s desire to do everything — which could threaten the company for other reasons. Once just a search company, they now actively compete with Apple, Microsoft, Oracle, Facebook, Amazon, Twitter, Yelp, Groupon, Color, Path — again, just to rattle off a few.

Obviously, it’s Google’s right to do what they think is best for the company. And certainly they have the money to take on all of these different projects. But the alienation of other companies — many of which were former allies — isn’t helping them. And if any of these Android lawsuits — bullshit or not — go through, or if they fail to eventually obtain the patents necessary to protect themselves, Google could find themselves in serious trouble. And if that happens, will anyone be around to lend them a hand?

At this point, I think there will be more companies waiting to kick them when they’re down.

Increasingly, this is the reality bubbling just under the surface: others in the space look at Google and see nothing worth liking. They see an enemy. As Plainview says to his own son at one point, “this makes you my… competitor.”

Original post

iPhone 5: Why Apple is Delaying Launch of New Smartphone

2011-08-07T04:44:00.000-07:00

According to research firm IDC, the smartphone market has recently crowned a new leader, and its name is Apple.

"Ever since the first iPhone launched in 2007, Apple has made market-setting strides in hardware, software, and channel development to grab mindshare and market share. Demand has been so strong that even models that have been out for one or two years are still being sought out. With an expected refresh later this year, volumes are set to reach higher levels," said Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst with IDC's Mobile Phone Technology and Trends team.

Without having to release a new smartphone model in the past 13 months, Apple Inc. overtook Nokia Oyj and new force Samsung to be the top smartphone seller in the second quarter.

Beyond the "world's number one" in shipments award, Apple's financial statements showed that Apple delivered its best quarter ever, recording a 125 percent increase in profits to $7.31 billion.

But amid a roll-out of the Mac OS X Lion operating system for its personal computers, the new MacBook Air laptops, the Mac mini in the past month, Apple CEO Steve Jobs surprised everyone by not unveiling the new device at the developers' conference in June. Though many have been asking why the iPhone 5 is still not available in the Apple Store, the question that matters to Jobs is: Do they really need to release the iPhone 5 at this time?

Production Problems

Sources have indicated that Apple has delayed the iPhone 5 due to production problems. However, note that reports (or rumors) lean towards Apple releasing an iPhone 5 that closely resembles the previous model -- not a new smartphone with a teardrop or radical new design. But if Apple is only releasing a fancy iPhone 4 with an 8-megapixel camera (upgraded from the 5 megapixels) and an A5 processor (which is already on the iPad 2), why would it have production problems? Since 2007, demand -- and thus production -- of iPhones has recorded double-digit growth year after year. Surely suppliers wouldn't put Apple orders at the end of their pipeline, given that Apple has been a good and guaranteed source of revenue.

Another issue could be the iOS 5, which is expected to be the platform for the iPhone 5. However, the iOS 5 is not expected to make leaps and bounds from the iOS 4, unlike the Mac OS X Lion, which had major improvements from its predecessor. Apple has already announced the features of iOS 5 to its developers: the iCloud service, upgrades to the Camera app, Reminders, Newsstand, and iMessage. If there are additional apps being considered for iOS 5, they have likely already been tested, as Mac OS X Lion was already released last month. Mac OS X Lion, which borrows the interface provided by Apple's iOS-run tablet, has a host of new features and built-in apps. Thus, it would be unlikely that iOS 5 is delaying the iPhone 5. And it is possible that the iOS 5 could be released ahead of the new iPhone model.

Soaring Demand for the iPhone 4

Why fix if it ain't broken? Although the iPhone 5 delay has disappointed some people, Apple still sold 20.34 million iPhones in the quarter ended June 25, 2011. With the additional help of the iPad 2 and Macs, Apple posted record revenue of $28.57 billion and record net profit of $7.31 billion, or $7.79 per diluted share, during the quarter.

Its nearest rival, Samsung jumped from having a 5.6 percent market share in the second quarter of 2010 to a 16.2 percent market share (17.3 million units sold) in the second quarter of this year. Key to its continued success was the global popularity of its flagship Galaxy S smartphones. But take a look at Samsung's best seller: the Korean electronics giant sold five million units of the Galaxy S II within 85 days of its release. Assuming an optimistic trend, Samsung within 12 months will likely sell 20 million units of the Android-based Galaxy SII, which is still a fourth to the 69.3 million units of the iPhone (most of the iPhone 4) delivered by Apple for the 12 months ended June 25, 2011.

As for other rivals, Research in Motion, the creator of the BlackBerry, has lost market share, and Nokia is still in production mode for a new smartphone line. Nokia ceded the number one position for the first time in the history of IDC's Mobile Phone Tracker.

Would Sony retire the PlayStation 3 if it's still outselling the Wii and the Xbox? Likely, no. Apple has continued to generate massive success with its present portfolio. According to IDC, Apple's success can be directly attributed to its distribution (more than 200 carriers in more than 200 countries), increased manufacturing capacity, and solid demand within emerging and developed markets from both consumers and business users.

The timing is important for Apple because it has been betting on a single horse each year. While rivals like Nokia and Samsung are usually releasing multiple smartphone models every year, Apple offers only one. Hence, it would be impractical for Apple to retire the iPhone 4 when it is beating its rivals.

Rivals Still Holding Their Aces

Aside from Samsung, Apple's competitors have yet to come up with a phone that could beat the iPhone 4: Nokia and BlackBerry have not released new major smartphone models this year.

Research in Motion, whose QWERTY phones have struggled to maintain their relevance, just days ago unveiled five new BlackBerry smartphones based on the BlackBerry 7 Operating System. However, the outcome of RIM's "largest roll-out ever" has yet to pan out. RIM is offering the keyboard + touch display, and "thinnest ever" BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930, the slide-out BlackBerry Torch 9810, and the BlackBerry Torch 9850 and 9860, with the largest displays. Having fired 11 percent of its employees due to struggling sales, RIM is in make-or-break mode this time. Whether the new BlackBerry 7 OS-based phones push RIM back to relevance -- and have U.S. presidential candidates flaunting their BlackBerries -- remains to be seen. BlackBerry still has something up its sleeve: it's expected to release superphones --- based on the QNX-based operating system, which is running RIM's PlayBook tablet computer -- next year.

Nokia, like RIM, has lost ground to rivals this year. Even as the company released new smartphones running on Symbian^3, demand for its products running on the aged Symbian platform has shifted to other devices, according to IDC. Nokia's has already unveiled a major offering for the third quarter: the Nokia N9. The Nokia N9 is touted as one of Nokia's finest works to date, based on design. The Nokia N9 is a button-less touch screen smartphone with a curved design and a 3.9-inch AMOLED display, and runs on a new mobile operating system, the Meego. But wait, Meego? Nokia was supposedly going to replace the Symbian with Meego. But this year, Nokia changed course and announced that it will be releasing smartphones based on the Microsoft Windows operating system. Thus the N9 could be the first and last Nokia model running on Meego. The more relevant offering then would be the Windows 7 or 8-based phones. Nokia has not released or unveiled its new Windows based phones (except some prototype released on YouTube). The first Windows-based phones are due in the fourth quarter of this year. Nokia, the perennial number one vendor in the past 10 years, already has established sales channels and a distribution network, as well as partnerships with carriers worldwide. If Nokia barrages the market later this year, and establishes a new fad with its Windows phone, Apple would have nothing to put up against Nokia if it releases the iPhone 5 at this time.

The circumstances rivals are facing -- and their failure to provide major offerings -- provide credibility to reports that Apple instead will release the iPhone 4S, just an upgrade to the present iPhone 4. WIth the iPhone 4 still soaring in sales, Apple would likely let rivals take the jump first with their new phones. In this way, Apple can further make improvements to the new iPhone 5 and add more features that would outclass the rivals' new "superphones."

With Nokia and RIM still groping for form and Samsung cutting only into Nokia's market, Apple has been the prom queen this year.

iPhone 5 release date rumor: can Apple comprehend the enormity of the delay

2011-08-07T04:42:00.001-07:00

We are faced with another iPhone 5 release date rumor. But to be true can Apple comprehend the enormity of the delay?

Tech geeks are in huge anticipation for Apple’s next generation iPhone, most possibly an iPhone 5. The device is largely expected to come out of furnace this fall with several new features.

Apple has not rolled out a new smartphone in last 13 months. After its iPhone 4’s launch in June 2010, the Cupertino-based technology firm is now only rumored to uncover its iPhone 5 late this year.

However, Apple continues to be a strong player in world mobile market. The company surpassed the troubling Nokia and emerging Samsung in the second quarter to become the top seller of smartphones in the world. The company’s Q2 earning has also marked a significant gain with more than 100 percent rise thanks to iPhone 4’s huge sales.

It should be remembered that Apple attained the achievement with a single smartphone, i.e. iPhone 4, which was unveiled more than a year back. Samsung, Nokia and most other companies launched and marketed several devices during the period, but still were unable to surpass Apple.

The International Data Corporation (IDC) has specially mentioned Apple’s domination of the smartphone market with a single product in one of its recent studies. Of course, this is what makes Apple different from other technology makers. In place of several smartphones, Apple just needs a single product to attain domination in the global markets.

“Demand has been so strong that even models that have been out for one or two years are still being sought out. With an expected refresh later this year, volumes are set to reach higher levels,” said Ramon Llamas of IDC.

The new iPhone 5 is much delayed, however. The company used to bring out a new version of iPhone in June, exactly speaking at its Worldwide Developer Conference.

But this time Apple never mentioned about iPhone 5 at the WWDC 2011. But rumormongers have predicted a new iPhone to come out this fall with even more amazing features.

IOS 5 BETA 5 RELEASED: GETTING CLOSE TO IPHONE 5 RELEASE DATE

2011-08-07T04:41:00.000-07:00

You might be asking what the relationship between iPhone 5 and iOS 5 release date is, but I’m thinking they’ll release this Fall close to each other (if not on the same day). Last night, Apple surprisingly uploaded beta 5 to developers.

Per Macrumors: ” Alongside the iOS 5 beta 5 release is Xcode 4.2 Developer Preview 5, iTunes 10.5 Beta 5 and Apple TV Software beta 4. ”

As for what’s new, check out the video above first. It seems like this beta is all about Apple testing the waters with voice integration features. It’s rumored that voice integration features will be heavy in iOS 5 as Apple finally puts SIRI acquisition into use. Are you looking forward to iOS 5?

New Report Claims Pegatron to Ship iPhone 5 Handsets to Apple in September

2011-08-07T03:31:00.001-07:00

According to a new report released Wednesday by DigiTimes, Pegatron will start shipping the new iPhone 5 handset to Apple in September. According to industry sources quoted in the report, Pegatron will move up to become the secondary original design manufacturer (or ‘ODM’) for the iPhone, with orders totaling 10 million units of Apple’s fifth-generation handset.

Other sources quoted in the report stated that Pegatron is moving to try to earn more work from Apple. Since Pegatron’s margins on iPhone handsets are “relatively small”, the company has retooled factories and trained up staff to try to earn some of Apple’s iPad and MacBook manufacturing business. The report indicates that Foxconn has worked with Apple to ensure that their relationship is strong and that the orders for Apple’s wildly selling iPhone and iPad models continue to come to Foxconn as the primary manufacturer.

Just a few weeks ago, DigiTimes released a report claiming that Pegatron had received an order from Apple for up to 15 million units of the iPhone 5. The most recent report reduced that number from 15 to 10 million handsets, which some may recall was the figure claimed by reports back in late January. As Pegatron is a very experienced manufacturing partner and has worked with major volumes in the past, hitting this 10 million mark likely won’t present too much of a challenge.

As we move closer to the expected launch and release dates for Apple’s next-generation iPhone handset, rumors and speculation abound about when the handset will actually end up in the hands of consumers. This week saw Canadian carrier Telus report that the iPhone 5 will launch in early October, a report backed up by All Things D; this news contradicts reports by China Times and many others that have indicated that Apple intends to release the next iPhone as early as September 6^th. A September launch window was also proposed by Mike Abramsky, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets, with Abramsky stating that build data information that he had obtained from some of Apple’s suppliers has indicated a September launch.

One thing is clear – the launch of the next iPhone is getting close. Another report earlier this week stated that Apple had begun shipping the device to its many carrier partners for final testing. The handsets were shipped to the carriers locked and secured to ensure that no one got so much as a glimpse of what the next iPhone has in store for the many millions of consumers waiting on its release.

According to Shaw Wu, analyst with Sterne Agee, those waiting for the iPhone 5 could end up getting a “bigger upgrade than expected”. Wu claims that the next iPhone will ship with a thinner, lighter design, a larger screen, and the dual-core A5 processor that’s currently found powering the iPad 2. Wu continued that users should expect the iPhone 5 to have the same general form factor as the iPhone 4, but with a thinner bezel and most certainly a fix to the antenna issues that plagued the older handset. An upgraded rear camera is likely as well, taking the camera to 8 megapixels in resolution. What’s not expected is a ‘4G’ LTE radio, which likely won’t be found in an iPhone until the next models are released sometime in 2012.

As expected, Apple did not comment on any of this week’s news.