Later on, passionate him got him into the development of reddit; he had co-founded an internet prodigy who smacked right into the face of digg. It hit so hard that digg couldn’t get back up and Kevin Rose had to make an escape.

Money was just a little part of his ambitions. He was an internet activist and a politically active citizen. He founded DemandProgress, an online movement against internet censorship. It was majorly because of DemandProgress’s work that SOPA and PIPA got cancelled.

He also helped launch creative commons – probably the most used license on the internet.

Aaron Swartz (credit)

He was a genius. A never-compromising, reckless, hit-hard, keep-going genius. Nothing could satisfy him, he always had an urge to achieve more, better, and at times he got agressive too. So much that he started doing breathtaking stunts.

He released millions of US court records online, got investigated by FBI and almost ended up rest of his life in jail but managed to escape triumphant. But this was just the begining.

Things kept on getting harsh. With his urge to help others, achieve more, make a free & open internet happen, he crossed the limits – as we see them. But for him, sneaking into MIT and stealing millions of JSTOR publications, was no limit. (He was actually stealing or not is still a topic of hot debate.)

His stunts started to screw up his life.

He built a habit of publicly denunciating his friends and mentors, got fired from reddit, developed depression and aggression issues and started to think of death.

The world outside his head, was not ready to accept the reckless Aaron. The feds and advocates of SOPA & PIPA couldn’t see the founder of DemandProgress chilling around in Silicon Alley. He never sold, published or probably not even make use of the stolen documents. But the law works its own way. He got a 35 year sentence and a $1m fine.

He had friends, mentors and caring family members. But his standards were too high. They were there but nobody could touch Aaron’s height, passion and agressiveness.

He decided to give-up. He decided to escape.

The 26 year old genius, Aaron Swartz is no more. He committed suicide in NYC today, as his uncle confirms.

The world has lost a legend. A legend whose legacy will keep the internet from censorship, keep providing the base for millions of internet connected applications and keep inspiring youth.

But before he went away, he told us how to live a life like him.

Apple’s iPhone 5 event invite for September 12

The 5 in the shadow of 12 confirms that event is being held for the announcement of iPhone and that the upcoming iPhone would be called nothing else but ‘iPhone 5′ – did you expect some other name? Me neither. What’s written in invisible words is the fact that there won’t be any iPad mini at the event, nor would be the iTV or any other product. iPhone 5 will come with iOS 6 on board and Apple would also announce the availability of the OS for older iDevices.

Apple is holding the event at Yerba Buana Center of Arts in San Francisco which is the biggest place they rent for their special events.

Like always, the days between the confirmation (today) and the actual event day are going to be the hottest on most legit iPhone 5 leaks. Rest assured, we’ll be covering every bit of them.

[via The Loop]

Discounted refurbished Macbook Airs on Apple Store

[Apple Store]

Apple sued Samsung last year citing 28 of Samsung’s devices and had claimed that Samsung violated 7 of its patents. The trial has been undergoing for a few months now and the jury sat for deliberation three days ago and declared the verdict today. The deliberation time was way less than expected as the jury said they had ‘little difficulty’ finding that Samsung copied Apple. The court found that Samsung violated all of the patents except the one about the shape of the iPad – they couldn’t favor Apple about a rectangle with rounded corners.

Samsung had fired back and claimed that Apple violated 5 of their patents, jury found none of the claims to be true.

This has been a very interesting case for several reasons:

• All of Apple’s claims were found true. None of Samsung’s claims were acknowledged.
• Apple claimed $2.5 billion in damages, was awarded $1.49 billion.
• The damages being paid by Samsung are among the highest in recorded history of corporate trials.
• Apple presented it’s top management in court including Scott Forstall, Phill Schillar as well as a designer to prove what it take to design an icon and how it is to copy one.
• Apple presented internal Samsung documents that Samsung had been using to explain its engineers about making its products more like Apple’s.
• The jury consisted of nine judges and deliberated for less than three days before announcing the verdict. The deliberation time is very short as compared to the complexity of the case and the amount being paid in damages – the panel said they had ‘little difficulty’ finding that Samsung copied Apple.
• During the trial, it was unveiled that Samsung was the biggest supplier of components to Apple.
• The parties argued over everything, so much that the judge Lucy Koh showed a surprised when they agreed on something. It became a joke.

Although Apple has won the case, they’d be cashing a handsome check of more than a billion dollars, it’s still a fair trade for Samsung. They are now the biggest smartphone manufacturer in the world – larger than Apple. They bypassed their competitors including HTC and Motorola, they are one of the companies who make Android a more widely used smartphone OS than Apple’s iOS. This gives them a handsome cash of a few dozen billions every year. It is very much clear from court’s decision that this all was achieved by copying iPhone but Samsung’s products were not banned. It’s like a serial bank robber fined for a fraction of what he makes robbing, but not jailed. I’m impressed with Samsung’s formula: Copy Apple, grab market share, cash a few hundred billions, pay a billion in fines, keep cashing!

Mark Zuckerberg and Frank Gehry with a model of Facebook’s new open-floor campus

Facebook is working with world famous architect Frank Gehry to design this campus and Mark Zuckerberg is taking a keen interest in it. The company had bought its current 58-acre campus about one and a half year ago and moved its employees there in December last year. Although the stock price of company’s shares keeps sinking, they have time and resources to put into building new campuses.

Gehry – at his best skill level, is utilizing the roof of the campus to create a green recreational area with a long waling trail, lots of greenary and lots of places to sit. A by-passer will look at the iconic building as a hill in nature.

Top view: Facebook’s new open-floor campus

Illustration: Facebook new open-floor campus

The motives of creating the new campus are good but they won’t sit parallel with health, productivity and privacy standards. Open-floor campuses are supposed to be more noisy and less healthy. The productivity of the employees is decreased by up to 15% in such environments and the level of personal health and wellbeing falls by up to 32% – according to Dr. Craig Knight of The Secret Life of Buildings fame. Germs do also spread more steadily, if one of the employess catches influenza, it’s pretty likely that most of the campus would have it caught quickly. Similarly phone calls, conversational noise and interruptions make employees less productive. Although facebook is making private spaces available, it takes effort to access them. There’s less privacy for everything either you have to itch, take a phone call or want to have a private talk.

Have you ever worked in an open-floor environment? How was your experience there, do you think they are really productive?

Late Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs lived in a peaceful country-style house in Palo Alto, California with his wife – now owner of Jobs’ Apple stake – and kids before he died there in October last year. The house has been burgalized by a theif named Kariem McFarlin who took away Steve Jobs’ wallet, other personal items and Laurene Powell Jobs’ precious jewelry. Police thinks the thief did not know he was burgalizing Steve Jobs house, it was rather a random burgalry attempt which succeeded. McFarlin said, he knew from his previous experience that houses undergoing renovation are an easier target as nobody usually lives there. His doubt came out to be true, and he found himself super fortunate with diamond and white gold jewelry, iPads and Macs – a total worth of much more than $60,000. The thief has been arrested, he is in police custody right now and most of the stolen items have been recovered, others involving precious jewelry were tracked down to be sold to a jeweler.

The matter is being investigated by Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team (REACT) which is a law enforcement operation that handles high-tech crimes, although the crime itself is technically not ‘high-tech’.

About the house

Steve Jobs bought the house back in 1990s when he married Laurene Powell Jobs. It is a country-style home with a lot of greenry in and around it. He lived in the house for almost 20 years which include his years at NeXt and his second tenure at Apple where he brought the company back to profitability and enjoyed the most admired years of his life. The house became a tourist place after Steve Jobs passed away and people left flowers and notes outside the house.

Here’s how it looks like:

How did the burglary happen?

Steve Jobs’ house in Palo Alto has been undergoing renovation for more than a month. McFarlin was driving by when he noticed the renovation was going on. He decided to try his luck, hooped over the 6 feet high fence after the construction workers had left in the evening, and with a little attempt he found a spare key lying in an open workshop. He used the key to enter the house which wasn’t protected at all. No gaurds, no habitants, no alarms and no lights. Although he didn’t know at first, once inside, he found a letter adressed to Steve Jobs and realized he was at Steve Jobs’ house.

When did it happen?

It is actually being reported too late. The event took place around a month ago on July 17th, soon after the renovation was reported by Forbes.

What items were actually stolen?

The thief took away pretty much of anything precious he found there including computers, tablets, jewelry, personal items and cash. According to the reports, the following items were taken away:

Tech Gadgets

1. 2 iMacs
2. 3 iPads
3. 2 iPhones
4. 3 iPods
5. 1 Apple TV
6. 1 Mac mini – under use by Steve Jobs
7. A small ‘demo-sized’ Macbook
8. Monster Beats by Dr. Dre headphones
9. 1 SanDisk flash drive

Jewelry

1. 1 diamond necklace
2. 1 platinum and aquamarine-bead necklace. Value: $33,000
3. 1 platinum necklace with 247 round brilliant diamonds weighing 5 carats each and nine carved aquamarine drops. Value: $28,500
4. 1 pair of earrings. Value: $2,950

Steve Jobs’ personal items

1. Steve Jobs wallet with the following contents:
   1. Only a single dollar note
   2. Steve Jobs’ driving licence
   3. Apple corporate American Express card
   4. Titanium American Express Black card
   5. Bank of America Visa credit card
   6. A key to Steve Jobs’ Mercedes-Bez – not the car itself

Household items

1. 1 Ninja Blender
2. 1 Sodastream soda maker
3. 1 Louis Roederer Cristal Champagne

What happened to the stolen items?

According to the documents filed in the court by REACT, some of the items have been recovered, others were sold. Here’s the status of each item:

1. iMacs: recovered
2. iPads: Gave one to his daughter and the other to his friend. Both have now been returned.
3. Jewelry: Sold. A Pennsylvania jewelry broker has accepted the sale. McFarlin told him he inherited these items and shipped them to the broker.
4. Steve Jobs’ wallet has been recovered, it was found in McFarlin’s storage locker.

How was the thief caught?

Police tracked down to McFarlin’s home with the help of Apple investigators who found that an iPad stolen from Steve Jobs’ house connected to Apple servers when the accused was restoring it, probably in an attempt to remove the evidence.

Tell me more about the thief

McFarlin is a 35 year old guy who has admitted previous burglaries in addition to Steve Jobs’ home. He was on facebook but his account appears deleted at the moment. He was arrested on August 2nd and is being held at Santa Clara County jail right now with the bail amount set at $500,000. He would appear in court on August 20th and if convicted, would remain in jail for 8 years. Professionally, he worked as a Surgical Product Specialist at Msn Medical since 2001, he left the company earlier this year to join a medical sales firm which he left after a few months. His boss says his attitude wasn’t good enough and he wasn’t particularly interested. He was a football player at San Jose State University where he studied Kinesiology and graduated in 2002.
McFarlin is described as a nerd and a ‘good guy’ by his college friends. After arrest, he has confessed his crime and has written an apology letter to Jobs’ widow. He told police, he was down on his luck and has been sleeping in his car the night before the event.

Here’s how he looks like:

Congratualtions, Mr. McFarlin, you got famous by accident. Are you up on your luck now or still down?

Nexus 7

As expected, the Nexus 7 tablet will retail for for $199 and $249 for the 8GB and 16GB models, respectively.

Other specs include the following:

• 7″ 1280×800 back-lit IPS display
• Corning Gorilla Glass
• Front-facing 1.2MP camera
• 1GB RAM
• 8 or 16 GB storage
• 4325mAh battery
• WiFi and bluetooth connections
• Micro USB
• Android 4.1 Jelly Bean

Aside from the tablet, Google is also releasing a media player called the Nexus Q.

Nexus Q Media Player

The Nexus Q is designed to stream audio and video from a connected Android device to any other device in the home. Here’s the video on how it works:

The Nexus Q is available in the Play Store for $299.

Shortly after his death, the official biography of his life was released, penned by famed biographer Walter Isaacson. It quickly became one of the biggest sellers, and also spurred movie studios to fight over the rights to the film version. At least two movies are now in production, one of the official biography, the other an independent film that will star Ashton Kutcher as a young Jobs. The films won’t be out for some time, however, so if you’re looking to get your fix for Jobs videos, an online archive has sprung up that may pique your interest. The archive, built by Art Masak, contains about 250 videos. The videos are listed in biographical order, so that they can be viewed almost as a companion to the biography. The rather monumental undertaking can be found at stevejobsarchive.net. We’ve posted just a couple of the many, many videos that you’ll find in the archive. If you’re a Jobs fanatic, or just want to see how he conducted himself in public, it’s well worth a look.

http://youtu.be/WEJB6mHAydI

They have mostly focused in the developer/manufacturer related features of Windows 8 and refrained from announcing any cunsumer related features – may be there aren’t many except the ones which affect developers too. Joe Belfiore actually said this on stage:

“What we’re not doing today is disclosing all the end user features.”

We’d see when they announce the end user features.

Windows Phone 8 brings with it a new home screen with resizeable tiles; any tile on the home screen can take the size of a double-wide, normal and small and they update live. It shares its core with Microsoft Windows 8 which may be good in many aspects but it may fall as a performance as well as power consumption overhead as the kernel, the drivers support, multimedia, and networking stuff would be shared among the two platforms. They had previously failed at this attempt terribly with Windows CE so we suspect how well would this work out this time. We’d have a detailed run down on this in a later post but for now this should be enough that this stupid idea comes as an attempt to make Microsoft Windows (Desktop) apps available on mobile phone too.

Microsoft Windows Phone 8

Starting from the day one of release, Windows Phone 8 will have support for dual core CPUs and quad-or more-core CPUs in the future. It would ridiculously run fine on a 64-core machine too. Got it?

In addition to that Windows Phone 8 now supports removable microSD cards for data and multimedia as well as the ability to install apps.

Windows Phone 8 will have Internet Explorer 10 built-in. This is not yet clear if they’ve ported the desktop version or built it ground up for the smartphones; what is clear is that it uses the same HTML rendering engine. DirectX is now supported by the Windows Phone 8 too and the development environment is the same as the desktop; developers would actually be able to port their games to Windows Phone 8 without having to write much of the code again – they think this is a good thing. NFC is also supported now and Windows 8 would come with a mobile wallet app – a direct hit at Apple – which support ‘Tap to pay’ in addition to the ability of storing credit cards, loyalty cards and memberships.

Microsoft has put Nokia Maps inside Window Phone 8 and they’d be standard on any Windows Phone 8 phone along with turn by turn directions and offline maps.

And the biggest part of Windows Phone 8 is that it is not available for existing Windows Phone 7 users; it’d only debut on new phones and won’t be provided as an update. Microsoft has won many hearts with this.

We’d be taking an in-depth look at Windows 8 announcement today, don’t forget to keep an eye on gggadgets.com home page.

In case you missed yesterday’s event, the video is hosted below for your enjoyment, as is the first video spot for Surface. Thanks to SlashGear for the embed.

Microsoft has finally picked a direction for their own tablets. It will be called Surface, which is also the name of the very expensive and unsuccessful table-top computer that MS put out in 2005.

Fortunately, it doesn’t carry over the mistakes of that device, and instead is aimed at going head-to-head with the iPad, Android, and the conventional laptop. The Surface PC is industrially designed. You won’t find any of the smooth edges and curves that we’ve seen in the current crop of tablets. Instead, Microsoft has gone the other direction, creating a form factor that is very square and blocky.

Rather than a single device, though, Microsoft has opted for two variation, which will include vastly different hardware, and are tooled for completely different things. The first detail to note is that Microsoft will not just be licensing Windows 8 to other manufacturers to make tablets with. Instead, they will control the entire process, both hardware and software, much as Apple does with iDevices. This allows them to manufacture devices that are specifically designed with Windows in mind. We’ve all seen that Microsoft is at their best with this strategy, as is apparent when looking at the X-Box. There will also be some similarities between the two devices, as noted below from Microsoft’s press release.

• Software takes center stage: Surface sports a full-sized USB port and a 16:9 aspect ratio – the industry standard for HD. It has edges angled at 22 degrees, a natural position for the PC at rest or in active use, letting the hardware fade into the background and the software stand out.
• VaporMg: The casing of Surface is created using a unique approach called VaporMg (pronounced Vapor-Mag), a combination of material selection and process to mold metal and deposit particles that creates a finish akin to a luxury watch. Starting with magnesium, parts can be molded as thin as .65 mm, thinner than the typical credit card, to create a product that is thin, light and rigid/strong.
• Integrated Kickstand: The unique VaporMg approach also enables a built-in kickstand that lets you transition Surface from active use to passive consumption – watching a movie or even using the HD front- or rear-facing video cameras. The kickstand is there when needed, and disappears when not in use, with no extra weight or thickness.
• Touch Cover: The 3 mm Touch Cover represents a step forward in human-computer interface. Using a unique pressure-sensitive technology, Touch Cover senses keystrokes as gestures, enabling you to touch type significantly faster than with an on-screen keyboard. It will be available in a selection of vibrant colors. Touch Cover clicks into Surface via a built-in magnetic connector, forming a natural spine like you find on a book, and works as a protective cover. You can also click in a 5 mm-thin Type Cover that adds moving keys for a more traditional typing feel.

But there, the similarities end. Let’s take a closer look at each device and what they offer.

Surface for Windows RT:

The Surface for Windows RT device will feature an ARM-based processor from NVIDIA. ARM chips are the low-power consumption chips found in the majority of today’s smartphones and tablets. This device will not run standard Windows programs, but rather apps similar to what’s available in the Windows Phone store. It is expected to be “competitively priced,” though there was no number thrown out, and will be aimed at consumers that buy iPads and Android tablets. It will also include the following specs:

• OS: Windows RT
• Light(1): 676 g
• Thin(2): 9.3 mm
• Clear: 10.6” ClearType HD Display
• Energized: 31.5 W-h
• Connected: microSD, USB 2.0, Micro HD Video, 2×2 MIMO antennae
• Productive: Office ‘15’ Apps, Touch Cover, Type Cover
• Practical: VaporMg Case & Stand
• Configurable: 32 GB, 64 GB

Surface for Windows 8 Pro:

The Pro version of the tablet will feature Intel’s Core i3 processor, and will run x86-based software. The Pro version will launch 90 days after the RT tablet. This device is set to take on the laptop/ultrabook market, and will feature a real desktop operating system that can run all your favorite home programs. Expect this option to be significantly more expensive. Additional specs include:

• OS: Windows 8 Pro
• Light(1): 903 g
• Thin(2): 13.5 mm
• Clear: 10.6” ClearType Full HD Display
• Energized: 42 W-h
• Connected: microSDXC, USB 3.0, Mini DisplayPort Video, 2×2 MIMO antennae
• Productive: Touch Cover, Type Cover, Pen with Palm Block
• Practical: VaporMg Case & Stand
• Configurable: 64 GB, 128 GB

Whether or not Microsoft’s plans can take any real share of the mobile market from Google and Apple remains to be seen. The devices do have some features that will be able to make them strong competitors, but only if they can be marketed and priced right.