Tech-Ex

Not lovin' it: McDonald's ad campaign becomes huge Twitter Fail Whale

2012-01-29T00:01:00.000-08:00

McDonald's can't be "lovin' it." The fast food giant, like many companies nowadays, tried to use social media for a marketing campaign, only to see it end up with a big Twitter Fail Whale.

McDonald's last week launched a Twitter campaign featuring paid-for Tweets. Those, as you probably know, appear at the top of search results. An initial hashtag campaign using #MeetTheFarmers featured stories about .. well, farmers.

Then, McDonald's made its big mistake. The restaurant chain then sent out two Tweets with the hashtag #McDStories. While #MeetTheFarmers probably didn't resonate with folks in terms of either real-life true horror stories --- or made-up snarky ones --- about the company, #McDStories certainly did.

Whether or not the commentary was true, it certainly was voluminous. An example from the ironically named @healthy_food was "I ate a @McDonalds cheeseburger a few years ago and got food poisoning so bad that I had to get hospitalized. That is my #mcdstories"

An example of a snarky Tweet was @mmemordant: "Eating a Quarter Pounder value meal makes me feel exactly the same as an hour of violent weeping. #McDStories"

At any rate, McDonald's, as do many companies, we would hope and assume, has contingency plans in case things backfire. McDonald's social media director Rick Wion said, "With all social-media campaigns, we include contingency plans should the conversation not go as planned. The ability to change midstream helped this small blip from becoming something larger."

The midstream change was pulling the #McDStories hashtag from the promoted trends list. Wion didn't comment on that, but according to another source within the company, within an hour of doing so, Tweets using the hashtag fell from about 1,600 to a "few dozen."

While not verifiable, McDonald's there said were a total of 72,788 mentions of McDonald's on Twitter on the day of the Twitter campaign, with only 2 percent of the Tweets being negative, which would mean about 1,456 Tweets were negative.

Wion added, "Our customers' positive tweets on that day (and before and after) far outweigh the negative criticism that we get."

That said, one would have to ask, "What was McDonald's thinking?" As Jason Falls of SocialMediaExplorer.com said "Walk up to any random person in the U.S. (or world for that matter) and say, 'Did you know that McDonald's uses farm-fresh meats?' and they would probably laugh at you and call you nuts.

"Whether it's true or not is irrelevant. McDonald's in this case had no idea what their true perception in the marketplace was. They didn't see their brand the way consumers did. So when they tried to portray their brand as something it wasn't, at least from a perception standpoint, they got dinged."

It's true. The overall perception of the quality of McDonald's food is not good, nor is the overall perception of the taste --- or the results of eating a lot of it on your health. The sheer volume of McDonald's restaurant and the price is what makes it popular.

At least this falls short of what is perhaps the most dismal Twitter marketing failure. Last February, during the height of the Cairo uprising, Kenneth Cole stuck Tweet in mouth when he Tweeted, “Millions in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is now available.”

As Facebook IPO nears, NYSE, NASDAQ fight over right to list stock

2012-01-28T07:19:00.000-08:00

Facebook is set to file paperwork for an IPO offering as early as next week, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. That's been a widely anticipated filing, and sources have said for some time that the social networking giant was targeting the IPO for sometime between April and June.

The Facebook IPO could raise as much as $10 billion and value the social network between $75 billion to $100 billion, although $75 billion would be below earlier expectations. The Journal's sources added that Facebook is close to picking Morgan Stanley to lead the deal.

Facebook halted trading in secondary markets for three days earlier this week, which is the strongest signal thus far that an IPO is near. Another signal, however, is Facebook's recent rash of product announcements. Once Facebook file its S-1 paperwork, it will be required to enter a “quiet period,” without public statements or interviews --- including product announcements.

While a Facebook IPO alone is big news, perhaps bigger news is that the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and NASDAQ are fighting for the right to list the stock. NASDAQ is a very tech-heavy stock exchange, so one would think it would have the edge. However, the NYSE of latest has been more aggressive in courting tech companies.

In either case, Facebook is reportedly looking to use FB or some variant as its symbol.

Amazon Appstore's free app of the day, 1/28/2012: Dream Journal Pro

2012-01-28T05:36:00.000-08:00

Amazon.com has promised to make a paid app free every day in the Amazon Appstore, and today's app is Dream Journal Pro.

Dream Journal Pro is priced at $1.99 in the Android Market. It is normally priced at $1.99 in the Amazon Appstore. As we've noted previously, prices sometimes differ between the two marketplaces.

Dream Journal Pro is described as follows:

Dreams are, as Freud said, the "royal road to the unconscious." Now you can map these roads with Dream Journal Pro, a dream journaling app for Android.

The Stuff of Dreams

Dream Journal Pro allows you to record your dreams for convenient reference and analysis. Adding a new dream is as easy as tapping the button and then filling out the Dream Form. Highly detailed, this form prompts you to analyze your dreams guided by Jungian Dream Theory. You'll enter information such as title, date, type (Lucid, Nightmare, Premonitory, Anxiety, Initial, and others), dream text, general notes, setting, age, feelings, and much more. You may gain considerable insight into your dream as you record this information. As time passes, your journal can become a valuable reference tool for interpreting new dreams.

Features and Other Stuff

Dream Journal Pro is packed with useful features. Night Mode darkens the screen to avoid disrupting your sleep but remains active so you can access your Dream Journal as soon as you wake. Backup and restore your dreams from your device's SD card, and backup your dream database through e-mail. Find a particular dream with the convenient search feature and enjoy the security of keeping your dreams private with password protection.

Embark on the adventure of a lifetime. Journey into the landscape of your unconscious with Dream Journal Pro.

Dream Journal Pro has a rating of 4.7 stars in the Android Market and 3.3 stars in the Amazon Appstore.

This time there there are a significant number of Android Market ratings (78) vs. the Amazon Appstore ratings (36) the once again: why the big difference?

Quite a few Amazon Appstore reviewers called it like it is: this app is really little more than a template on top of a text editor, rating it one star. In addition, the overwhelming number of ratings (59 out of 78) were 5 star at the Android Market, while they were spread out at the Appstore, explaining the difference in the scores.

Those who are considering "buying" a Free Amazon Appstore app might want to consider what it means to developers.

Amazon.com opened up the Appstore despite a lawsuit by Apple, which has previously trademarked the term "App Store." Microsoft has filed an appeal against that trademark, saying the term is too generic. Amazon.com has responded to the lawsuit in the same manner.

Kindle Fire, Nook snag 40 percent of Android tablet sales: analyst

2012-01-28T00:04:00.000-08:00

Whether or not the Kindle Fire has seriously affected iPad sales, the device has at least severely impacted Android tablet sales. According to Strategy Analytics, which released the earlier report indicating Android tablets are now approaching 40 percent market share, of that number, the Kindle Fire and B&N's Nook have about 40 percent, themselves.

This is just a guesstimate, by S.A.'s report author Peter King. Strategy Analytics hasn’t released its Q4 tablet sales estimates with a breakdown for region and vendor but is expected to do so in about a week.

So if the Kindle Fire and Nook have about 40 percent of the report's 39.1 percent that Android tablets hold, that would be about 15.6 percent. Not bad for devices that launched late last year.

Also not bad for devices that don't use "official" versions of Android. They are forked versions, highly customized, and the tablets don't even have access to the Android Market because of that (though it's doubtful either vendor really cares).

So how is the Kindle Fire, for one, doing this? Flurry Analytics has a great analysis that echoes what we've said before: just watch an Android commercial and you'll see it focus on the power of the device and specs.

Watch an iPad commercial and you'll see the company focus instead on the "experience" and content.

That's what Amazon.com is doing: what can you do with the device, not what IS the device. Flurry notes that Amazon.com's Kindle Fire gets 2.5x as many paid downloads as does the first Android tablet, the Samsung Galaxy Tab.

It's as we said earlier, and why Amazon.com is content with losing money on the hardware of the K8indle Fire. It's taken the approach that printer manufacturers take: the money is made on the consumables (paper, ink / toner), not the printer itself.

It's true, though, that a company like Samsung doesn't have a giant Internet retail store to use, like Amazon.com does.

Kim Kardashian has a Google Alert on herself set up ... or does she?

2012-01-28T00:01:00.000-08:00

Some people are guilty of Googling themselves, but this goes beyond that: reality TV star Kim Kardashian has set up a Google Alert on herself.

If you don't know what that means, you can go to news.google.com, search for something, and at the bottom of the page you'll see a link to create an email alert for that subject --- a Google Alert. You can modify how often you get the alert, if it's just for news or other things, etc. etc.

In this case, Kim Kardashian was seen on Tuesday Kim in Santa Monica, with her BlackBerry (ugh) as she received a Google Alert on herself.

Aside from the fact that she still using an ancient BlackBerry, its funny that Kim would do this for herself, as last September she scoffed at sister Kourtney, who does the same thing.

Durng an interview with xoJane last September, after Kourtney got a Google Alert on her phone, Kim laughed and said, "You have your own Google alerts? We have that on record: Kourtney has her own Google Alerts and checks them."

Perhaps Kim later decided it wasn't such a bad idea after all.

Notably, however, the message shown in the original photo does have one key point: the RE: string in front of the "Google Alert: Kim Kardashian" text. That means it's not an actual Alert at all, but something someone sent to her. It's possible it's sent on from her publicist, but you'd expect to see FWD:, not RE:.

That said, we wouldn't be surprised if she DID have a Google Alert set up on herself.

Cocaine bonus delivered with Amazon.com book order

2012-01-27T16:36:00.000-08:00

This is something that could never happen with Apple's new e-textbook initiative. Whether or not that's good or bad might depend on your point of view.

Sophia Stockton, who is a junior at Mid-America Nazarene University in Olathe, Kansas, recently ordered a textbook from an third-party reseller on Amazon.com's site. While Amazon.com itself does the majority of selling on its site, it also acts as a storefront for others.

The book was needed for a spring course on terrorism and is called "Understanding Terrorism: Challenges, Perspectives and Issues." From the cover on the book that Stockton received, she ordered a used copy of the 2009 version, not the current 2012 version.

That is, of course, where the fun comes in. Anyone who's bought a used book before, whether from Amazon.com or your local bookstore, knows that sometimes you find interesting things inside. In Stockton's case, she flipped through to book only to see a bag of white powder fall to the ground. Fearing it might be anthrax, Stockton took it to the local police department the next day.

Here's what she was told:

“I told them white powder was in my terrorism textbook and so I put it on the table and they’re like, ‘oh, okay,’ And so he went back and tested it. He comes back and says, ‘you didn’t happen to order some cocaine with your textbook, did you?’ And I was like, no!”

While Stockton's textbook was purchased from the Amazon.com storefront of Warehouse Deals. Their page on Amazon.com says they offer "deep discounts on open-box, like-new, refurbished, or used products that are in good condition but do not meet Amazon.com's rigorous standards as 'new.' Prior to offering an item for sale on Warehouse Deals, we verify its physical and functional condition."

Apparently, the verification process for this item didn't include a drug-sniffing dog. Still, to be clear, Warehouse Deals has a 4.8 star rating (out of 5) over the past twelve months.

Apple CEO Tim Cook responds to NYT expose on harsh conditions in supply chain

2012-01-27T10:13:00.000-08:00

Apple CEO Tim Cook has responded to a New York Times expose that explained in great detail the harsh conditions faced by workers at Foxconn, one of Apple's key manufacturers. In response, Cook sent out a long email to Apple employees refuting that report.

The email, obtained by 9to5Mac, flatly denies --- in the opening paragraph --- the assertions made in the New York Times article. Cook said:

"As a company and as individuals, we are defined by our values. Unfortunately some people are questioning Apple's values today, and I'd like to address this with you directly. We care about every worker in our worldwide supply chain. Any accident is deeply troubling, and any issue with working conditions is cause for concern. Any suggestion that we don't care is patently false and offensive to us. As you know better than anyone, accusations like these are contrary to our values. It's not who we are."

We're not Apple fanboys, but we're not fans, in general, of corporations, period. These sound like good words, but does anyone --- anyone with common sense --- doubt that corporations, which want to make a lot of money for their shareholders and executives, cut corners as much as they can get away with?

Particularly troubling were the words from a former Apple executive, who said,

“We’re trying really hard to make things better. But most people would still be really disturbed if they saw where their iPhone comes from.”

Casting at least part of the blame on consumers who want the newest device at the cheapest price was a current --- not former -- Apple executive, who said,

"You can either manufacture in comfortable, worker-friendly factories, or you can reinvent the product every year, and make it better and faster and cheaper, which requires factories that seem harsh by American standards. And right now, customers care more about a new iPhone than working conditions in China."

Cook seemed to set the email up as something that "should" or "would" be leaked to the press. He concluded with a paragraph that points to Apple's Supplier Responsibility Report. He said,

"We will continue to dig deeper, and we will undoubtedly find more issues. What we will not do – and never have done – is stand still or turn a blind eye to problems in our supply chain. On this you have my word. You can follow our progress at apple.com/supplierresponsibility."

Amazon Appstore's Free App of the Day, 1/27/2012: Router

2012-01-27T06:04:00.000-08:00

Amazon.com has promised to make a paid app free every day in the Amazon Appstore, and today's app is Router.

Router is priced at $1.59 in the Android Market. It is normally priced at $0.99 in the Amazon Appstore. As we've noted previously, prices sometimes differ between the two marketplaces.

Router is described as follows:

Test your mental might with Router, a circuit puzzle game that's fun for the whole family. Your goal is to connect identically colored points with continuous lines without any of the lines overlapping each other. Game controls are easy to master, but some of the puzzles will have you quite perplexed until you find the right solution to connect the dots. With multiple challenging chapters to solve and engaging game-play features, Router is a winner for puzzle lovers.

Nine Challenging Chapters

Router features nine different chapters, each full of more than a dozen puzzles that increase in difficulty as you progress. In each puzzle, you will connect the similarly colored dots with continuous lines by tracing your finger on the screen. More advanced levels will present you with more dots in new and unique positions. You will earn more points for making shorter connections. An undo button is provided if you make a mistake.

As you would expect, Chapter 1 starts off easy enough, but the difficulty soon picks up. Each subsequent chapter will require increased intellectual dexterity. Once you hit Chapter 3, you will be required to earn enough points in prior chapters to unlock more.

Earn Bonus Points; Get Hints

If your mental acuity is up to the task, you'll be able to solve each puzzle with a perfect five-star score. For your efforts, you will be rewarded with a Star Point, which you can spend to gain Hints if you find yourself stuck in subsequent puzzles. With a worldwide leaderboard, you can see how your scores stack up with other players from around the globe.

Electrifying Graphics and Smooth Controls

Router brings you hours of brain-teasing fun along with smooth touch controls, which makes for a completely satisfying puzzling experience. Depending on your device, you can adjust the quality of the graphics as well as the sound volume and other game settings to ensure it suits your preferences.

What are you waiting for? Get puzzling!

Router has a rating of 4.7 stars in the Android Market and 4.0 stars in the Amazon Appstore.

It's not often that the Amazon Appstore ratings outnumber the Android Market ratings, but that's the case in this example. The Amazon Appstore rating is almost always lower, so based on history it would seem that 4+ is a valid rating for this game, which translates into "buy" this game while it is free.

Android tablets rise to 39.1 percent market share on the back of the Kindle Fire

2012-01-27T00:07:00.000-08:00

Is it coming to tablets, meaning Android's inexorable reach? Market research firm Strategy Analytics on Thursday morning said that Android is making an impact in tablets, grabbing a record 39 percent tablet OS market share in Q4 2011.

Apple -- and its iPad --- maintains the top position with 57.6 percent market share in Q4 2011. However, that is down from 68.2 percent in Q4 of 2010.

However, the report from Strategy Analytics research director Peter King said that these were "sell-in" not "sell-through" numbers, an important difference, as that represents the number of devices sold into the channel, not reaching the hot little hands of consumers.

Still, sell-in reached a record high of 26.8 million Android tablet units in Q4 2011, which was a 150 percent rise from 10.7 million in Q4 2010. Android market share jumped from 29 percent to 39.1 percent.

It should be noted that S.A.'s report includes a tablet that isn't running a tablet-optimized version of Android, and in fact is running a highly customized version, the Kindle Fire. It's also true that Android is taking the same approach it did on smartphones: a huge number of differing devices across multiple form factors, vs. Apple's single model approach with the iPad (although when the iPad 3 is released, it's believed the iPad 2 will continue to be sold).

Strategy analytics executive director Neil Mawston said, in a statement,

"Dozens of Android models distributed across multiple countries by numerous brands such as Amazon, Samsung, Asus and others have been driving volumes. Android is so far proving relatively popular with tablet manufacturers despite nagging concerns about fragmentation of Android's operating system, user-interface and app store ecosystem."

As far as Microsoft goes, the firm had a dismal 1.5 percent market share in Q4 2011, but that's a positive when compared with its 0.0 percent share in Q4 2010. S.A. said,

“The upcoming release of Windows 8 this year cannot come quickly enough for Microsoft, so its hardware partners can start competing more effectively in the tablet space."

Apple adds new employee perks: $250 off iPads, $500 off Macs

2012-01-27T00:04:00.000-08:00

Employee discounts aren't a new thing around Silicon Valley --- and elsewhere --- but at Wednesday's Apple Town Hall meeting the company unveiled a couple of nice new ones.

The Town Hall was set up to discuss Apple's boffo fiscal Q1 2012 (calendar year Q4 2011) with employees, along with its new education initiative. CEO Tim Cook announced that Apple employees will soon be able to get $250 discounts on the purchase of a new iPad (basically half the price of the lowest tier) and $500 discounts on new Mac (except the Mac mini, which is nearly at that price point anyway, starting at $599).

The new discount program will kick-off roughly in June of 2012.

Don't expect any friends you have at Apple to be able to help you out with discounted hardware, though.

The new discount program will officially kickoff at some point during June 2012. Apple employees may only use this discount only once every three years, and must have been working for Apple for at least 90 days.

Apple employees currently have a 25 percent discount on Macs.

The cost of that iPhone is more human than money

2012-01-27T00:01:00.000-08:00

We've said it before: while one reason that goods from China --- and other countries --- are manufactured so cheaply is low wages, also included is the lack of humane worker treatment, lack of worker rights, and lack of environmental and safety standard (or at least enforcement). On Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012, the New York Times might have set itself up for a Pulitzer Prize with the story "In China, Human Costs Are Built Into an iPad."

It was only a few weeks ago that Hon Hai(Foxconn parent company) chair Terry Guo said:

"Hon Hai has a workforce of over one million worldwide and as human beings are also animals, to manage one million animals gives me a headache."

While some said he was kidding when he said that, it's true that Guo invited Chin Shih-chien, who is the director of Taipei Zoo, to his company to teach his own managers exactly how animals should be "managed."

That is just the tip of the iceberg. As the Times notes, before the blast that tore through Foxconn's Chengdu plant in 2011, the Hong Kong-based watchdog group Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (SACOM) issued a report detailing safety concerns and more at Foxconn plants --- including Chengdu.

Prior to that, of course, were the 2010 employee suicides occurring at Foxconn. Apple noted the suicides in its 2011 Supplier Responsibility Report, which covered 2010, but if you were to ask the question "are things improving," the answer would be no. A look at Apple's 2012 Supplier Responsibility Report shows that Apple puts up a good front, but things are not getting better.

To be clear, it's not just Apple. Other companies use Foxconn as well, and the problems exist not just at Foxconn, but other manufacturers, too. It also affects manufacturers in other market segments; we recall a Dateline expose of a clothing manufacturer possibly a decade ago that was shocking.

None of this is new news. It's been around for years. What's interesting is the following statement from a former Apple executive, who spoke under condition of anonymity:

“We’ve known about labor abuses in some factories for four years, and they’re still going on. Why? Because the system works for us. Suppliers would change everything tomorrow if Apple told them they didn’t have another choice. If half of iPhones were malfunctioning, do you think Apple would let it go on for four years?”

Another former Apple executive said, “We’re trying really hard to make things better. But most people would still be really disturbed if they saw where their iPhone comes from.”

Once again, this shouldn't shock consumers. Apple is a corporation. Its goal is to make money for its shareholders, which it does quite well.

Li Mingqi, who until April worked in management at Foxconn said, “Apple never cared about anything other than increasing product quality and decreasing production cost. Workers’ welfare has nothing to do with their interests." Li is suing Foxconn over his dismissal, and helped manage the Chengdu factory where the 2011 explosion occurred.

As we said, it isn't the first such expose. In December of 2010, the same year as the Foxconn suicides, Jordan Pouille, a French journalist, wrote a report: "Why I don’t want an iPhone for Christmas."

Why then, do consumers not rise up in protest? When these stories emerge, there is a short period of backlash, and then people go back to wanting their cheap iPhones, MacBooks, and HDTVs. Be honest with yourself: you would prefer to not know --- or not think about --- these crimes (and that's what they are) against other human beings.

Admit it. We'll wait, and admit to it ourselves. It's a form of selfishness, to be sure.

A current Apple executive put it succinctly, "You can either manufacture in comfortable, worker-friendly factories, or you can reinvent the product every year, and make it better and faster and cheaper, which requires factories that seem harsh by American standards. And right now, customers care more about a new iPhone than working conditions in China."

The real reason manufacturing won't return to the U.S. is the dirty little "secret" that's not a secret, above.

How a mistyped email address led to a couple's marriage

2012-01-26T18:00:00.000-08:00

Ever send an email to the wrong person because of a typo or because your email program suggested the wrong person? In this case, a typo in an email address ultimately resulted in a couple getting married.

Rachel P. Salazar and Ruben P. Salazar shared the same surname before they even met, and because of some sloppy typing and similar email addresses, in January of 2007, Ruben received an email that had been intended for Rachel.

Ruben politely forwarded that email along to its Rachel, and thus began the tail --- an email chaing that ended up with a marriage proposal, despite the fact that the pair lived 9,000 miles apart.

In the video below, you can hear the couple share their love story. The video is an animated clip, but the voices are theirs. The clip was created by StoryCorps, a non-profit organization with the mission of providing "Americans of all backgrounds and beliefs with the opportunity to record, share, and preserve the stories of our lives."

You might have heard some of the StoryCorps audio on NPR, previously. The StoryCorps website, which since Valentine's Day is fast approaching, is featuring love stories right now.

'Live Long and Prosper,' just not here: divorce forces man out of 'Star Trek' apartment

2012-01-26T16:47:00.000-08:00

Live long and prosper, but not in this house. British nightclub DJ Tony Alleyne is being forced to move out of his apartment, which is bad enough, but far worse is that he's being forced to leave his labor of love behind: the apartment had been rebuilt to resemble a starship from the "Star Trek" universe.

Alleyne, 58, spent a decade making the one-bedroom apartment look like something out of Star Trek. However, the apartment doesn't belong to him, but to his ex-wife, and she wants to sell it.

Reportedly, it would cost Alleyne at least £100,000 or $157,000 to create it all again from scratch.

He said, "To say I'm gutted is an understatement. It is my life's work --- and it looks like it's going into a skip. I admit there were tears."

His ex-wife Georgina, 52, has paid the mortgage since they split in 1994, and said: "I want to sell it as conventional property." Ironically, the couple split the same year that Star Trek: The Next Generation ended. It aired its last first-run episode on May 23, 1994.

MSNBC noted that they first reported on the flat in 2006. At the time, Alleyne was about to file for bankruptcy due to the money spent on renovations, and said he had hoped to start a business transforming homes for other "Star Trek" fans.

You can watch a video below.

Mobile app sales can work, if 'the price is right'

2012-01-26T15:32:00.000-08:00

If you're wondering how much of an effect putting an app on sale has on revenue, the answer is --- in general, but not always --- a pretty positive one.

App store analytics provider Distimo took a look at how price reductions by app developers can --- or can't --- pump up their sales.

Distimo took a look at the results of price reductions on apps that were already among the top 100 grossing apps in the iPhone App Store, the iPad App Store and the Android Market (no jokes about "how did they find 100 apps in the Android Market that anyone paid for").

For iPhone apps, on the first day of the sale, the the average revenue increased by 41 percent. After 15 days, the average revenue was up by 22 percent.

In the iPad App Store, app revenue was up 52 percent on the first day. By Day 15 it was up 19 percent, meaning the increase trailed off for iOS.

However, the Android Market showed a different curve. On day one, revenue was up only 7 percent on average. However, unlike the App Store, where the revenue increase trailed off, by day 15, Android apps were up 29 percent.

Remember, though, these are averages. Some developers lost money in the deal. Distimo said that 44 percent, nearly half, of iPhone apps lost revenue during the sale, and 23 percent saw a revenue drop of more than 20 percent. Distimo didn't drill down into similar details for the iPad or Android.

In general, Distimo said, the tipping point for gain vs. loss occurred when the app's price was cut by 50 percent, or if the app was offered in Tier 1 ($0.99) or Tier 2 ($1.99).

Distimo's conclusion for method one? Putting your app on sale once in a while seems to pay off for the majority of applications and their developers, but it is important to offer a "significant price decrease" to actually earn more revenue.

Amazon Appstore's Free App of the Day, 1/26/2012: Reversi

2012-01-26T06:28:00.000-08:00

Amazon.com has promised to make a paid app free every day in the Amazon Appstore, and today's app is Reversi.

Reversi is priced at $1.59 in the Android Market. It is normally priced at $0.99 in the Amazon Appstore. As we've noted previously, prices sometimes differ between the two marketplaces.

Reversi is described as follows:

A Classic Game of Wits

AI Factory's Reversi brings the classic board game to your Android phone. Reversi sports a clean and intuitive interface, features 10 levels of difficulty, and provides an Undo button if you want to make a different move. Play against the AI or a human opponent.

Reversi is played on an 8x8 grid. The game begins with four tokens: two light tokens for the first opponent and two dark tokens for the second opponent. The tokens are placed next to each other at the center of the board.

Reverse Psychology

You must place your token so that two of your tokens are on two sides of your opponent's single token or line of tokens. The tokens between your two tokens are then flipped over to your color. Conversely, your opponent flips your tokens to his color in the same manner.

The object of the game, of course, is to end up with more tokens by the time game board is filled up. Reversi, much like chess and go, is a duel of cunning strategy and cold logic. The corners and edges of the board are crucial to the game. You should do your best not to give up these positions.

Full of Options

This Reversi app comes loaded with options. Choose from two different boards and tokens, and toggle the sound, screen transitions, and legal moves. Get suggestions from the AI on your next move, and keep track of your games against the AI at all 10 levels. Reversi also comes with the full rules.

Reversi has a rating of 4.6 stars in the Android Market and 4.1 stars in the Amazon Appstore.

There is also a free version by the same developer with 4.5 stars. It seems like 4+ is a valid rating for this game, which translates to "buy" this app while it is free.

Blizzard cancels Blizzcon 2012; too busy churning out games

2012-01-26T00:07:00.000-08:00

Blizzard has announced that it is cancelling Blizzcon 2012. Don't expect that you can hang onto the money you had allocated for that event, though: the reason appears to be that Blizzard is skipping holding Blizzcon 2012 because it's too busy with trying to complete games.

The company's statement:

"We’re excited to be showcasing Blizzard eSports on a truly global stage this year. We're also heavily focused on getting Diablo III, Mists of Pandaria, and (Starcraft 2) Heart of the Swarm into players’ hands as soon as possible. In light of our jam-packed schedule, we’ve decided to hold the next BlizzCon in 2013."

Since, at least for the last few years, Blizzcon has been held late in the year, we hope this doesn't mean that Diablo III is being pushed past its Q1 "date." Just last weekend, Diablo III senior producer Steve Parker left the company, which was taken by most as a bad signal.

BlizzCon will, the company said, return in 2013.

At the same time Blizzard announced the 2012 Battle.net World Championship, which is scheduled to take place in Asia "toward the end of 2012" and with this year's StarCraft II and World of Warcraft Arena World Championship tournaments. Specific dates and locations were not announced, but will be detailed in the coming months.

The EFF asks for your help to keep rooting and jailbreaking legal

2012-01-26T00:04:00.000-08:00

In July of 2010 the U.S. Copyright Office and the Library of Congress ruled that jailbreaking (and rooting) was legal, issuing a DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) exemption for the process, which allows iOS and Android users to install software and access functionality not otherwise allowed. You might think that was the end of the discussion, but it's not.

That exemption only lasts two years. Every two years the U.S. Copyright Office and the Library of Congress go through this process, looking at possible DMCA exemptions. Thus, here we are again: jailbreaking and rooting could again be ruled illegal.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation , which was instrumental in getting the first exemption passed, is looking for help from end users to keep the exemption in place.

In addition, the EFF is looking to expand the exemption. It currently only covers phones, and the EFF wants to expand the exemption to both tablets and video game consoles (you will probably remember the legal issues that arose between geohot and Sony over the PS3).

The organization is asking folks to submit "comments" directly to the U.S. Copyright Office. This is part of the process of obtaining a DMCA exemption.

Among the items that the EFF recommends respondents address in their comments are:

Which jailbreaking exemption are you supporting—smartphones/tablets, video game consoles, or both?
What's your background (i.e., are you a developer, hobbyist, academic, independent researcher, user, etc.)?
What device do you want to ensure you have the legal authority to jailbreak?
Please explain why you want to jailbreak this device. What limitations do you face if you aren't able to jailbreak it? Is there software you couldn't run, computing capabilities you wouldn't have, cool things you couldn’t do, etc.?
If you’re a developer, did an online application store or console manufacturer reject your app or game? If so, what reasons did they give?
Is there anything else you want to tell the Copyright Office?

If you want jailbreaking to continue to be legal, and you want to put in your two cents, you need to do it soon. Comments are due in by no later than 5:00 p.m. EST on February 10, 2012.

Apple was dealt a serious blow when jailbreaking was ruled legal. The company has always tried to maintain an iron fist on iOS, and although jailbreaking was deemed legal, the company was quick to remind people, immediately after the decision, that jailbreaking voids your warranty. That is, of course, assuming Apple catches you.

Microsoft's next-gen Xbox 720 coming in the fall of 2013, with 6x the power: report

2012-01-26T00:01:00.000-08:00

New details are emerging about Microsoft's next-generation video games console, which will be called the XBox 720. Don't let the number fool you: the 720's processor will be six times, not twice, as fast as the one in the Xbox 360.

Sources told IGN that production of the Xbox 360's GPU will begin by the end of this year. Delivery of the system itself is scheduled for the fall of 2013. No pricing has been projected yet.

Microsoft released the Xbox 360 in late 2005, so for many, a refresh of its aging console is long overdue. It has been a massive success: as of January 9, 2012, 66 million Xbox 360 consoles have been sold worldwide. The Xbox 360 gave Microsoft some headaches, however, with reliability issues such as "The Red Ring of Death."

The Xbox 720 processor will be based on AMD's 6000 series GPU, rather than its 7000 series GPU, as had been rumored earlier. The 6000 series was introduced last year.

It will be similar to AMD's Radeon HD 6670, with multidisplay output as well as DirectX 11, 3D, and 1080p HD support. The HD 6670 runs at a market price of $79.99 and up, currently.

That much power will give the Xbox 720 six times the current graphics processing power of the Xbox 360, as well as an estimated 20 percent higher performance than Nintendo's forthcoming console, the Wii U. The Wii U is currently expected to arrive in 2H 2012, which should mean close to a year in terms of a Nintendo on-shelf advantage.

Lumia 900 to launch March 18 for $99.99: leaked roadmap

2012-01-25T19:59:00.000-08:00

We've said before that Nokia and Microsoft will struggle to get adoption of Windows Phone, what with the miniscule and declining market share of Microsoft smartphone platforms, and what with the huge lead that iPhone and Android have over WP. However, smart pricing and a compelling product might make an impact.

Microsoft's wallet for marketing and advertising certainly won't hurt.

But the information that was leaked on Wednesday about the AT&T Nokia Lumia 900, which will be an exclusive for the U.S No. 2 carrier, said that the Lumia 900 would launch on March 18. That's not a surprise, as it was expected to be released around that time. What is surprising, however, is the pricing.

The info, via a leaked roadmap, says that the Nokia Lumia 900 will sell for $99.99 on contract.

Given the specs, that is very aggressive pricing.

The Nokia Lumia 900 will come in cyan or black, have a curved, 4.3-inch ClearBlack AMOLED display with an 800 x 480 resolution, support LTE, carry an 8MP rear-facing camera with a Carl Zeiss lens and a 1.3MP front-facing camera. It will also have a 1.4GHz single-core (which is unusual these days of dual-core in everything) Qualcomm processor, 512MB of RAM, and 16GB of storage.

It's agressive pricing, but as we've said before, every app downloaded to a smartphone is one more reason to stay with that platform. The relative lack of apps vs. Android and iOS is a big negative.

It will be interesting to see if this low price point will attract any of the crowd of folks moving from feature phones to smartphones. It's still hard to see how it can attract people AWAY from Android or iOS.

Amazon.com to start standalone video streaming service: both rumor --- and Netflix

2012-01-25T17:47:00.000-08:00

Amazon.com is aiming to expanding its streaming video service, Amazon Instant Video, and may even make it into a standalone subscription service, according to a report in the New York Post. Lending credence to the rumor: even Netflix believes such as service is coming.

Amazon launched Instant Video last February. It can be used a la carte, to rent videos and stream them to your PC, but it is also part of the Amazon Prime service. That $79 a year service offers free two-day shipping, but also allows members access to many (not all) Amazon Instant videos for free, and if the member is a Kindle owner, also gives them access to the Kindle Owners' Lending Library.

Industry sources told the Post that Amazon.com would beef up its Instant Video service. At the same time, Netflix on Wednesday issued it's Q4 2011 results, and although the numbers there were important, so was the company's comments.

Netflix had earnings of $40.7 million, or $0.73 per share and revenue of $876 million. Wall Street analysts had been expecting $0.54 a share and $857 million in revenue.

Also of note were their subscriber numbers, which showed Q4 Domestic streaming subscribers at 22 million, Q4 Domestic DVD at 11.17 million, and Q4 International at 1.86 million. That's right, now that streaming and DVD have been split, Netflix has twice as many streaming subscribers as DVD subscribers.

Meanwhile, this important comment from the company:

“We expect Amazon to continue to offer their video service as a free extra with Prime domestically but also to brand their video subscription offering as a standalone service at a price less than ours.”

Interesting that they believe the Amazon.com offering will be cheaper than their own, but at least as important as price will be content, meaning how much content Amazon.com has compared to Netflix.

Despite that, investors liked what they saw. Netflix stock (NFLX) was up to $110.12‎, +$15.08‎ or +15.87 percent in after-hours trading.

Apple's next-gen iPhone 5 heading for a summer launch: source

2012-01-25T14:55:00.000-08:00

Apple got off schedule in terms of an annual summer refresh cycle with the iPhone 4S, which launched instead in October, but the Cupertino-based company could be back on track this year, if the latest rumors pan out.

The information comes from "a reliable source" to 9to5Mac. Credence in the matter is given by the fact that the Apple-focused blog states that the source is the same one who told them late last summer that there would be no 2011 iPhone 5, but instead an iPhone 4S.

According to the source, several sample devices are already "on display," all varying slightly from one another such that the final design is not discernible. What seems clear is that the teardrop design rumored leading up to the iPhone 4S introduction is nowhere to be seen.

If the rumors are true, Apple will be moving to at least a 4-inch display, possibly made by LG. the 4-inch screen rumor has been around since last year.

The return to a summer refresh comes by extrapolation. In 2011, iPhone 4S production did not ramp up until late spring. Using an estimated five month lead time, Apple could return to a June / July launch for the iPhone 5.

We'd bet there will be some customers who feel cheated if that is so, though, if they had rushed into the iPhone 4S with an A5 processor, 8MP camera, and Siri, and little else different between it and the iPhone 4.

Amazon Appstore's Free App of the Day, 1/25/2012: Twist n'Catch

2012-01-25T06:20:00.000-08:00

Amazon.com has promised to make a paid app free every day in the Amazon Appstore, and today's app is Twist n'Catch.

Twist n'Catch is priced at $1.06 in the Android Market. It is normally priced at $1.06 in the Amazon Appstore. As we've noted previously, prices sometimes differ between the two marketplaces.

Twist n'Catch is described as follows:

Test your adventuring skills in Twist n'Catch, an action-packed game of puzzles and dexterity for your Android device. You're the intrepid explorer Emmet Black, and your gig is treasure hunting. Travel the world over, discover exotic places, and bring back riches galore!

Accompanied by your faithful companion, Sergeant Cookie, you drop yourself into dangerous realms in search of diamonds and sapphires. Held in mid-air by nothing but a rope and your own self-confidence, your task is to find a way to collect gems while avoiding innumerable obstacles and traps.

To the Victor (and Sergeant Cookie) Go the Spoils

There's no shortage of fun in this test of skill and prowess. Solve more than 120 levels as you explore three full universes of adventure.

You'll swashbuckle your way through Aztec temples, ancient Egyptian tombs, deadly pirates' lairs, and much more, marveling at the exotic sights and steeling yourself against unknown terrors you have yet to face.

Do you have the courage to forge ahead where other adventurers have turned back? Will your rope twist at just the wrong moment? Will Sergeant Cookie toss his cookies? There's only one way to find out. Good luck!

Twist n'Catch has a rating of 4.7 stars in the Android Market and 3.8 stars in the Amazon Appstore.

There is also a Lite version in the Android market that has a 4.0 star rating. Among the complaints were unresponsiveness to touch on some devices (Android fragmentation strikes again). Of note is that one person said it was unplayable on the Kindle Fire while another said it was great on the Kindle Fire.

Crowd-sourced 'Star Wars Uncut' video reaches 1 million YouTube views

2012-01-25T00:07:00.000-08:00

Wondering if someone would sit and watch an over-two-hour YouTube video? They will if it's "Star Wars Uncut: the Director's Cut," which was uploaded on January 18. The crowd-sourced fan-created version of "Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope" has to be viewed to be believed.

The website starwarsuncut.com began with the originators of the idea slicing the original film up into 15 second intervals, and asking for fan-made scenes, back in 2009. Scenes were submitted to Starwarsuncut.com, voted upon, and the most popular were selected for the compilation.

Although the clips had been previously available online previously, that was separately. This is the first time they have been put together into a feature-length film.

The full-length version of the film (embedded below) quickly became a YouTube hit. The @starwarsuncut account Tweeted "1M views in 72hrs! Thanks everyone for all the wonderful feedback." The film now up to 1,035, 612 viewings on YouTube, and is also available on Vimeo, where it has been viewed nearly 300,000 times.

As noted in our prior coverage, the new film is a labor of Star Wars fan love. As each segment is 15 seconds in length, the "vision" of the different "directors" makes for a mish-mash of really cool ideas.

Whether or not there is a "Empire Strikes Back Uncut" is still up in the air ... and not being held up by "The Force," mind you.

Droid RAZR MAXX, with 3,300mAh of juice, coming your way on Jan. 26

2012-01-25T00:04:00.000-08:00

Verizon Wireless has announced just when the Droid RAZR MAXX will be available, and we also know how much --- juice that new battery will carry, that is.

When Verizon and Motorola announced the Droid RAZR MAXX at CES we know it would be 8.99mm thick, about 2mm more than the RAZR, and that it would cost $299.99 (on contract), including 16GB internal memory and a 16GB microSD card preinstalled.

Wait, that was the same price as the 32GB version of the RAZR? Well, that version vanished a few days ago. Instead you can buy the 16GB version, which is really just the 32GB version minus a 16GB microSD card. Seriously, that's OK. You can get a much better deal on a 16GB microSD card anyway. Be sure to get at least a Class 4 card, however.

Hopefully, very few opted for the 32GB version, as they would be royally annoyed (to put it mildly).

Motorola claims that the gigantic 3300mAh battery (compare that with the original RAZR's 1780mAH battery) will last all day long, with 21.5 hours of talk time, 15 hours of video playback (from local storage), 6 hours of HD video streaming over Verizon’s 4G LTE network, and 10 hours of continuous GPS navigation (you'd have to be seriously lost to use that).

It's good that they've done this, because LTE devices suck power like it's going out of style --- and the RAZR did not have a user-replaceable battery. The upcoming LTE Droid 4 also has a fixed battery, with a 1785mAh battery standard, so we have to ask if there be a Droid 4 MAXX.

Over one-third of recent iPhone buyers defected from other platforms: survey

2012-01-25T00:01:00.000-08:00

Thirty-six percent of recent iPhone customers moved from another smartphone platform, such as Android, Palm, or Blackberry, according to a report released by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) on Monday.

In addition, more than one-fifth, or 21 percent of iPhone 4S buyers felt they needed more storage, and went for the new higher storage tier, of 64GB. Those figures are pretty much in agreement to a poll conducted by investment firm Piper Jaffray on the first day of iPhone 4S availability, which said that 19 percent chose the 64GB model on that day.

An earlier CIRP report said that 18 percent of iPhone buyers at the iPhone 4S launch were switching from other platforms, but the company said that the number doubled as the year ended, with 36 percent of new users coming from competing platforms.

CIRP said the data came from a survey of 365 "qualified" customers that purchased an iPhone in October, November and December of 2011 (the initial group had a total of 6,316 respondents).

Bad news for T-Mobile in the survey: while --- respectively --- Verizon, AT&T and Sprint maintained their market shares among iPhone owners, the three largest wireless carriers in the U.S. took customers from other iPhone-less carriers, which includes the fourth largest carrier, T-Mobile.

AT&T recently abandoned its bid to buy T-Mobile USA from parent company Deutsche Telekom.

geohot, iPhone and PS3 hacker extraordinaire, has left Facebook

2012-01-24T18:29:00.000-08:00

Hacker George Hotz, AKA geohot, famous for hacking the iPhone and PS3, went legit last summer with a job with Facebook. It doesn't seem like he took well to corporate life, even with a company that hasn't gone public yet: he's already left that gig.

BI caught up with him at the Backplane Hackathon. While not working at Facebook any longer, he seemed to continue to have an interest in the social networking giant: his app was Facebook-centric.

It was an app that allows you to see where your Facebook "friends" are on a map. The app didn't win, though. According to BI, the winners were a group of high school students.

Hotz was the first person to jailbreak the original iPhone. He also created the Black Ra1n jailbreak for iOS 3.1.2, which became one of the most popular jailbreaks for the iPhone and that release of iOS.

He also hacked the PS3, and published the PlayStation 3's root keys, which brought him a lot of legal trouble. Eventually, though, Hotz and Sony settled out of court.

Watch the hacking, below.

Apple sets records for almost i-Everything with fiscal Q1 2012 results

2012-01-24T15:11:00.000-08:00

Apple has posted its fiscal Q1 earnings for 2012, which are for the quarter ended December 31, 2011. Unlike fiscal Q4 2011, which saw Apple have a rare miss of analysts' estimates, Apple had a record quarter, with record sales of iPhones, iPads and Macs.

The company's revenue was a record $46.33 billion, up 73 percent year-over-year. Apple also posted a record profit, of $13.06 billion (or $13.87 per share), up 118 percent over fiscal Q1 2011.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected sales of $38.91 billion. It was a welcome change from last quarter, fiscal Q4 2011, when for the first time in 32 quarters, Apple failed to meet analysts' estimates.

In terms of iDevices, it was a solid quarter, with one exception. Apple sold 37.04 million iPhones in the quarter, up 128 percent year-over-year. The company sold 15.43 million iPads during the quarter, which was a 111 percent unit increase over fiscal Q1 2011. It also sold 5.2 million Macs during the quarter, a 26 percent unit increase year-over-year.

The lone poor performer were iPods, which dropped 21 percent year-over-year, to 15.4 million units sold. That, however, is a continuing --- and expected --- decrease, as more end users gravitate away from stand-along music players.

International sales accounted for 58 percent of the quarter's revenue.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said, "We’re thrilled with our outstanding results and record-breaking sales of iPhones, iPads and Macs. Apple’s momentum is incredibly strong, and we have some amazing new products in the pipeline."

Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO added "We are very happy to have generated over $17.5 billion in cash flow from operations during the December quarter. Looking ahead to the second fiscal quarter of 2012, which will span 13 weeks, we expect revenue of about $32.5 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share of about $8.50."

Apple stock was down $7.00 to $420.41 or 1.64 percent in Tuesday trading. The stock has leaped to $453.80, up $33.49 or 7.97 percent in after-hours trading, at the time of this writing.

MegaUpload chief loses global 'Call of Duty: MW3' title as no Xbox 360s allowed in jail

2012-01-24T13:55:00.000-08:00

It is really, really hard to play "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3" when you are in jail. Thus, we have the tale of Kim Schmitz, also known as Kim Dotcom, the recently arrested chief of MegaUpload.com.

Schmitz was, up until a few days ago, the top ranked player in "Call of Duty: Modern Warefare 3;" that's right, globally, at least among Xbox 360 players. As Megaracer, he has accumulated more than 185,000 in-game kills.

In a video posted on the Internet (embedded below) he plays for over seven hours straight, at the end of which he held the top spot on the Modern Warfare 3 (MW3) leaderboard.

Ah, but sadly, he was not allowed to take his Xbox 360 with him to jail. Thus, he has been surpassed by one Arazos, who currently has 9.09 million points on the MW3 leader boards, compared to Megaracer's 9.05 million.

Even without that, it seems that Arazos has been "more efficient" than Megaracer. Arazos has 181,000 kills and 63,418 deaths, for a kill/death ratio of 2.87, which is much better than Megaracer's 180,980 kills and 86,241 deaths, which is a kill/death ratio of 2.10.

We don't expect Megaracer to be playing anytime soon, so Arazos should be able to put more distance between himself and Dotcom.

First untethered jailbreak for iPhone 4S, iPad 2 already installed 1 million times

2012-01-24T13:04:00.000-08:00

Last Friday, pod2G and the Chronic Dev team released Absinthe A5, the first untethered jailbreak for the iPhone 4S and iPad 2. If you're wondering if there was pent-up jailbreaking demand for those devices, the answer would be yes: more than 1 million people downloaded the jailbreak in less than three days.

An untethered jailbreak means you no longer need to cable and re-jailbreak a device every time it boots. The Absinthe A5 jailbreak was first released to Mac OS X only, but now has Windows and Linux flavors, as well.

The A5 portion of the name comes from the A5 processors in both the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S.

Those wanting to jailbreak their devices need to make sure they are on iOS 5.0.1 first. Typical of any jailbreak, users are warned NOT to upgrade their devices if Apple releases a new iOS version, until an "all-clear" is given from the hacking teams indicating that either Absinthe A5 continues to work on the new version, or that a new jailbreak was created.

A tutorial for jailbreaking with Absinthe A5 is embedded below.

Amazon Appstore's Free App of the Day, 1/24/2012: Connect the Dots & Color

2012-01-24T06:42:00.000-08:00

Amazon.com has promised to make a paid app free every day in the Amazon Appstore, and today's app is Connect the Dots & Color.

Connect the Dots & Color is priced at $1.99 in the Android Market. It is normally priced at $1.99 in the Amazon Appstore. As we've noted previously, prices sometimes differ between the two marketplaces.

Connect the Dots & Color is described as follows:

Connect the Dots & Color introduces letters and numbers to children while encouraging artistic creativity. Get ready to have some fun while learning, connecting the dots, and coloring.

Finger Tapping and Finger Painting Fun

To begin playing, first choose from three options: uppercase ABCs, lowercase ABCs, and numbers (1 to 10). After a selection is made, the app presents a letter or number, pronouncing it as it appears on the screen.

A connect-the-dots puzzle is presented next, with the number of each dot pronounced as it appears. Tap each dot to create the outline of an image and then finger paint the picture with vibrant colors. Kids will have fun painting a zebra, a butterfly, a snail, and much more. You can also access a Tutorial section.

Connect the Dots & Color introduces numbers (1 to 10) as well as uppercase (A to Z) and lowercase (a to b) letters both visually and aurally. It also strengthens fine motor skills through the magical experience of creating something beautiful.

Connect the Dots & Color has a rating of 4.2 stars in the Android Market and 2.2 stars in the Amazon Appstore.

That is a huge difference between the two marketplace, with the Amazon Appstore rating being about half that of the Android Market. Notably, the Android Market has only five ratings, total. The Appstore has 34 ratings at the time of this writing. There is also a Lite version that has 38 ratings in the Android Market and a 3.8 star rating.

Many of the criticisms in the Appstore are because the app seems to not match letters against the images shown. An example, given in the comments: D for airplane, E for firetruck, F for schoolbus.

Japanese carrier pushes ads to Android's notification bar

2012-01-24T00:11:00.000-08:00

It's already a truism that it seems impossible to "escape advertising," with commercial invading more and more portions of our lives. Now ads are invading Android notification bars.

Japan's second largest cellphone carrier, KDDI, is being raked over the coals by end users for displaying advertising on Android's notification bar.

The Japanese carrier bundles the alternative Android marketplace "au one Market" on many of its Android handsets. A recent update to the third party app gives it the ability to send ads to users as push notifications.

Naturally, it's part of the ROM, and can't be uninstalled. We wonder, however, if the ability of Ice Cream Sandwich to disable system apps could be the solution to this horrible development.

Let's hope this sort of tomfoolery never comes to a U.S. carrier.

'Stay hungry, stay foolish': Virgin America names airliner after Steve Jobs

2012-01-24T00:07:00.000-08:00

Virgin America has named one of its airline fleet after Apple co-founder, the late Steve Jobs. In addition, the company added a popular Jobs quote, "Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish" on the side of the plane, an Airbus A320.

"Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish" was mentioned by Jobs during his famous 2005 commencement address at Stanford University noting that it was originally used on the final issue of The Whole Earth Catalog in the 1970's. Jobs said:

"It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: 'Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.' It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you."

A Virgin America spokesperson explained that the name was chosen as part of an internal plane naming competition.

Virgin America is the sole San Francisco Bay Area-based airline. It ha 2,200 employees, and is based in Burlingame. The plane, with identification number N845VA, first flew last fall, and has reportedly been seen on the Orlando to SFO route.

Supreme Court rules warrantless GPS tracking to be unconstitutional

2012-01-24T00:04:00.000-08:00

The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that the installation of and tracking with a GPS device requires a search warrant. It was a unanimous decision.

The entire panel of nine justices agreed that GPS monitoring without a search warrant violates the U.S. Constitution's Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable search and seizure.

With that, the Supreme Court threw out the death sentence of a District of Columbia drug dealer, Antoine Jones, who was the subject of 28 day of warrantless GPS surveillance.

The court had agreed to take up the case due to numerous conflicting federal and appeals court decisions, including one from August of 2010 , in which dissenting judge Alex Kozinski said that "1984 may have come a bit later than predicted, but it's here at last."

There was some nuance to the decision. Five justices said physically attaching a GPS device to the underside of a car amounted to trespassing and was a search requiring a warrant. However, four justices said the prolonged length of time in the Jones case amounted to a search requiring a warrant, but did not affirm whether or not GPS monitoring for shorter periods would require a warrant.

Justice Antonin Scalia wrote “We hold that the government's installation of a GPS device on a target’s vehicle, and its use of that device to monitor the vehicle’s movements, constitutes a 'search,' and added in a footnote, that, "Whatever new methods of investigation may be devised, our task, at a minimum, is to decide whether the action in question would have constituted a 'search' within the original meaning of the Fourth Amendment. Where, as here, the government obtains information by physically intruding on a constitutionally protected area, such a search has undoubtedly occurred."

Scalia's majority opinion was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, and Justices Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Sonia Sotomayor.

Justice Samuel Alito wrote, in the other concurring opinion, the one that took the length of time of the monitoring into account, "The use of longer term GPS monitoring in investigations of most offenses impinges on expectations of privacy. We need not identify with precision the point at which the tracking of this vehicle became a search, for the line was surely crossed before the four-week mark." Alito was joined in his opinion by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan.

Sotomayor wrote a third concurring opinion, in which she specifically said she agreed with Alito on this conclusion.

A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. had overturned Jones' drug conspiracy conviction because police did not have a warrant for the GPS device installed on his vehicle. The Supreme Court agreed with the appeals court, but although the decision focused on that one case, the decision will obviously have sweeping ramifications.

Apple's iBook e-textbooks see 350,000 downloads in first three days

2012-01-24T00:01:00.000-08:00

If you're wondering if Apple's new iBooks education initiative, only a few days old, will prove disruptive to the market yet, the answer is still unclear, but what is clear is that 350,000 e-textbooks have been downloaded through Apple's iBookstore in just the first three days since the program was announced .

The "statistics" come via Global Equities Research, which monitors Apple’s iBook sales with a proprietary tracking system. The company has not revealed how that system works.

In addition to iBooks textbook download statistics, Global Equities Research added that 90,000 copies of iBooks Author, Apple's free Mac-only e-book authoring tool, were downloaded during that same time span.

Last week, Apple unveiled e-textbooks for its iPad under the umbrella of its iBooks 2 app. The books are coming through McGraw-Hill, Pearson and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, which produce about 90 percent of the textbooks published.

As they are digital, these textbooks can be interactive, with video, 3D images, easy searching, and the ability to add notes and highlight text. Apple is charging $14.99 or less for the high school textbooks available so far, making them more affordable than their traditional counterparts, but since they are non-transferable, that means they must be repurchased annually.

As a standard print textbook has an estimated lifespan of 5 years for a $75 price, the outlay for districts and parents would seem about the same, but it's unclear how much Apple is taking for each purchase. A good guess would probably be the 30 percent it takes for purchases from the App Store.

Apple hasn't divulged its own download figures.

Largest solar storm in 7 years could disrupt GPS, communications

2012-01-23T18:31:00.000-08:00

The biggest solar storm in 7 years is heading in our direction, and while it won't cause the havoc seen in the Larry Niven short story "Inconstant Moon," there is concern that it could affect communications and GPS systems.

NASA estimates that the solar storm could reach the Earth's magnetic field as early as Tuesday morning Eastern Time.

It began with a solar flare that erupted on the surface of the sun late Sunday night. That flare caused a coronal mass ejection, which is a release of a huge burst of plasma and charged particles. That CME is approaching the Earth at the speed of 1,400 miles per second, according to NASA.

NASA scientists predict that the storm will peak at about 9 a.m. EST Tuesday, although they noted it is possible that it could actually peak up to seven hours earlier or later. In either case, the storm is expected to continue through Wednesday.

Doug Biesecker, a physicist at the Space Weather Prediction Center, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Boulder, Co. said, "We expect moderate to potentially strong geomagnetic storming that can cause pipeline corrosion effects and power grid fluctuations.

"With the radiation storm in progress now, satellite operators could be experiencing trouble, and there are probably impacts as well to high frequency [radio] communications in polar regions."

Michael Hesse of NASA’s Space Weather Laboratory added, "It's not going to be a catastrophe, but there could be noticeable geomagnetic current induced on the electrical grid."

It's possible that Earth-orbiting satellites will experience isolated reboots, due to the solar storm. Aircraft that travel in polar regions will be rerouted and no spacecraft are expected to be launched during the event.

However, solar scientists and NASA's flight surgeons examined the solar flare and have determined that the six astronauts currently on the International Space Station do not have to take any extra precautions against the radiation.

The current solar cycle is increasing, with an expected peak in 2013 or 2014. Solar activity increases and decreases on an approximate 11-year cycle.

President Obama to 'hang out' on Google+, Jan. 30

2012-01-23T15:19:00.000-08:00

In the summer of 2011, U.S. President Barack Obama held a "virtual town hall" with a live webcast and questions submitted via Twitter. This Friday, continuing his longstanding use of social media, our POTUS will do an "interview" in a Google+ Hangout on Jan. 30 at 5:30 p.m. EST, 2:30 p.m. PST.

The interview will be held on Google+ and will be live streamed on YouTube. Questions can be submitted via the White House YouTube channel , either by commenting or by submitting a video question. The public have until midnight EST Jan. 28 to submit a question.

The public can also vote on questions submitted to the channel. That is how questions will be "selected." The top vote-getters will be sent to the POTUS to be answered.

Although text questions are being accepted, and based on the entries, are the preferred method of entry by the public, Google said they and the POTUS prefer video questions. Video should be about 20 seconds long, if you choose to submit such a question.

In addition, several of those with top vote-getters will be selected to join Obama in the Google+ Hangout to take part in the conversation live. For those who aren't members of Google+ or otherwise need a refresher, "Hangouts" are places used to facilitate group video chat, with a maximum of 10 people participating in a single Hangout at any one point in time. Potentially, anyone could join a "Hangout" if they know its unique URL.

Looking through the questions, there are several themes running through them, such as reversing Citizens United, bringing those responsible for the financial meltdown to trial, taking money out of politics, health care for all, and more.

Need some help coming up with questions? Google has a video you can watch, embedded below.

A real Twitter fail whale: Tweeted death threat to Kyle Williams after NFC championship miscues

2012-01-23T09:57:00.000-08:00

Twitter has been used to report breaking news from disasters, protests, and more, but it's sad to see it used in the following manner: San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Kyle Williams received a Tweeted death threat after fumbling a punt in the 49ers' 20-17 loss to the New York Giants on Sunday, Jan. 22.

The fumble occurred in overtime when Williams fielded a punt inside the 49ers 20 and took off, only to see the ball stripped by the Giants' Jacquian Williams, giving the Giants the ball at the 49ers' 24. A few plays later, the Giants' Lawrence Tynes kicked a 31-yard field goal, and the 49ers lost the NFC championship game to the New York Giants 20-17.

Imagine how Williams felt, as he already muffed an earlier punt in the game, early in the fourth quarter. That muff gave the Giants the ball deep in 49er territory; they scored to take a 17-14 lead, which the 49ers later tied to put the game into OT.

Imagine how Kyle Williams felt when he went home, checked Twitter, and saw the above Tweet from Javier Pasquel, which said "@KyleWilliams_10. I hope you, youre (sic) wife, kids and family die, you deserve it."

Indeed, Kyle Williams cost the 49ers ten points, and the game. But if you really want to blame someone blame the doctors, or the injury bug. Williams would not have been in that position --- punt returner --- if their regular return man Ted Ginn, Jr. wasn't injured.

It's not as though the rest of 49ers WR corps lit up the stadium on Sunday. Only one WR --- Michael Crabtree --- had a catch. And their WR corps was really light on Sunday, as well, with Ginn, Jr., and Josh Morgan out with injuries, and after the 49ers released Braylon Edwards, earlier.

Williams may be receiving Twitter death threats, but he's receiving encouragement from his team. QB Alex Smith, himself a focal point for 49er fan disdain over the years, said, “We all know him. We know how committed he is to winning. It’s not on him. I look at the 1-for-13 on third downs. I know he’s going to feel bad, but he’s still part of our team. We didn’t lose the game there. We lost it across the board offensively. We just couldn’t get it done.”

Star LB Patrick Willis added, “I told him we’re all in this together. I believe in him. If I had a do-over, he’d still be my guy back there. He’s a tremendous athlete.”

The Tweet is still live on Twitter, and so is the account. For those into technology, Pasquel used Twitter for BlackBerry, meaning he's using that dying platform. 'Nuff said?

Amazon Appstore's Free App of the Day, 1/23/2012: KeepTrack Pro

2012-01-23T06:19:00.000-08:00

Amazon.com has promised to make a paid app free every day in the Amazon Appstore, and today's app is KeepTrack Pro.

KeepTrack Pro is priced at $1.99 in the Android Market. It is normally priced at $1.99 in the Amazon Appstore. As we've noted previously, prices sometimes differ between the two marketplaces.

KeepTrack Pro is described as follows:

Organizing and tracking different areas of your life couldn't be easier with KeepTrack Pro. Turn your Android device into a personal assistant that can help you stay on-time, meet your goals, and track what is important to you. KeepTrack Pro helps you get a handle on aspects of your life that require careful attention.

Track What's Important to You

KeepTrack Pro lets you track any details you wish over time. Keep tabs on serious details, such as the medication you're taking, and more whimsical details, such as how many buses you see each day. You decide what you wish to track, how often, and what to do with the information. The app's clean interface makes it easy to create new fields and enter data into existing ones. Keep Track Pro also provides helpful graphs and statistics if you wish to examine what you're tracking in greater detail.

Easy, Intelligent Interface

To start, add a new task by identifying it with a name, selecting the values data type, setting a default value, name the value units, choose the increment/decrement amount, and identify the goal, if any. Choose from the following data values:
Numeric: Decimal numbers are great for entering weight, distance, etc.
Text: Free text, which is ideal for reminders, ideas, and more
Boolean: Yes or No option to track simple questions, e.g., 'did I work out today?'
Marker: Includes a specific time so you can track occurrences
Group: Perfect for using multiple data values to track your task
Make the Most of Your Efforts

Once you've been tracking the items that are important to you, use the data to make improvements, adjustments, or to simply keep yourself informed. Click on a specific task to see the data breakdown. View a pie chart, statistics, and calendar. For those difficult to remember tasks, KeepTrack Pro features an alarm setting to remind you.

KeepTrack Pro makes it easier than ever to track information that is important to you in a way that works for you.

KeepTrack Pro has a rating of 4.4 stars in the Android Market and 4.2 stars in the Amazon Appstore.

It's not often we see this type of agreement between the two Android marketplaces. If this is the sort of app you can use (as for once it's not a video game), "buy" it while it's free.

Scientists develop biochip to measure blood glucose in saliva

2012-01-23T00:07:00.000-08:00

As a type 2 diabetes sufferer, we find taking blood to measure our glucose --- and see just how our diabetes is doing, the most tedious (and slightly painful) parts of the disease. Although advances are being made in terms of glucose monitoring, one advance that patients would love --- not having to poke themselves multiple times a day --- has eluded them.

While there are meters that don't require a patient to prick their finger and check their blood sugar, these are mostly designed to supplement regular monitoring, and are used to get additional readings between regular testing, and to warn of dangerous glucose reading.

However, the need to take blood may be replaced with a need to spit, if things work out as hoped for.

Brown University scientists say they've designed a biochip that can measure glucose levels in saliva almost as accurately as current devices can measure levels in blood. Glucose levels in your blood are about 100 times more concentrated in blood than in your saliva, which is saliva hasn't been used before now.

As described, the engineers:

"... etched a complicated array of thousands of plasmonic interferometers (no, this is not an episode of Farscape) onto a fingernail-size biochip. This means they were essentially using nano-scale slits and grooves to capture and then scatter incoming photons; they then observed the resulting interplay of light waves and changes in intensity to detect the concentration of a specific chemical--in this case glucose."

By adjusting things, the sensor can detect and measure more than just glucose levels. That could mean the development of a single chip that could measure a wide range of chemicals or substances, even including anthrax. The researchers published their proof-of-concept in the journal Nano Letters.

The next step in the research will be evaluating the new technology for accuracy, not just in terms of glucose but in terms of other substances, as well.

It could be some time --- if ever --- before the technology is perfected, but we're not going to spit on the idea.

Erroneous Tweet of Joe Paterno's death a cautionary tale of unverified Web reporting

2012-01-23T00:04:00.000-08:00

On Sunday, Jan. 22, 2012, at 6:35 a.m. EST, former Penn State head coach Joe Paterno died of complications of lung cancer. But on Saturday, the day before, a Tweet issued by Onward State, an online news organization that serves Penn State's students, faculty, staff, alumni, and along with State College, Pa. became another example of how unconfirmed Internet reports can lead to false assumptions.

Onward State Tweeted that Joe Paterno had died, but on Saturday, not Sunday. As if that weren't bad enough, the story was then picked up by major media, including CBSSports.com, which ran a photo of Joe Paterno with a caption that said that the former Penn State head coach had lost "his battle with lung cancer at 85."

While Paterno did lose his battle just the next day, the incident shows the risks of taking unconfirmed Web reports and trying to "be first" with them. It's the same thing that Onward State admitted being guilty of, saying in an apologetic post that "In this day and age, getting it first often conflicts with getting it right, but our intention was never to fall into that chasm. All I can do now is promise that in the future, we will exercise caution, restraint, and humility."

The managing editor of Onward State, Devon Edwards, has resigned over the incident.

Meanwhile, CBSSports.com admitted their mistake as well, also apologizing and saying the error "was the result of a failure to verify the original report. CBSSports.com holds itself to high journalistic standards, and in this circumstance tonight, we fell well short of those expectations."

It is not the first time that a faux Internet took the world by storm. In 2008, a CNN iReport (iReporters submit stories that are not fact-checked or verified) said that then Apple CEO Steve Jobs had a heart attack. Apple stock plummeted as a result; Jobs did not have a heart attack that day, but eventually did pass away in 2011 as a result of complications from pancreatic cancer.

Meanwhile, false report aside Joe Paterno died on Sunday morning, Jan. 22, 2012 at the age of 85. While he had an impressive legacy, including the record for most Division 1 college football victories (409), his legacy will be forever tainted by the still-ongoing Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal.

Jerry Sandusky, a former Penn State assistant coach, has been indicted for numerous counts of child sex abuse with boys. Although prior to Sandusky's arrest, Paterno was revered in college football, he was accused of inaction, or lack of sufficient action, when it came to a report from then-graduate assistant Mike McQueary who told Paterno that he had witnessed Sandusky in the showers with a boy.

Only days after the indictment was handed down, Paterno was fired by Penn State's board of trustees.

And now, nine weeks after his final game on Nov. 5, Joe Paterno is gone. Some felt he would coach forever. Others felt that once he was fired, his time would not be long, although none were aware of his lung cancer at the time.

Still, those who made the latter statement were aware how much the Penn State job meant to Paterno. He passed up numerous chances to coach at other places, including the pros. Perhaps those who felt he would not survive long after his firing were not far off.

Accused Craigslist Killer Richard James Beasley indicted for kidnapping, murder

2012-01-23T00:01:00.000-08:00

Did you know there was (at least one) a site dedicated to crime related in way or another to Craigslist? Considering the number of cases that have been dubbed "Craigslist Killer," it seems like it's not a bad idea, not a bad idea at all.

Richard James Beasley, 52, is the latest to be called the Craigslist killer. On Friday, he was charged with multiple counts of aggravated murder and kidnapping around the slaying of three men in Ohio who were allegedly lured to their death when they answered a fake Craigslist ad.

Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty for Beasley.

Beasley and his suspected accomplice, Brogan Rafferty, then 16, are accused of enticing four men to Noble County in Ohio with the promise of a job as a ranch-hand on a 688-acre property. The job supposedly paid $300 a week.

Rafferty will be tried as an adult and was charged in Noble County with murder and attempted murder.

Three of the four men were killed, with their bodies found last November. Two of them, David Pauley, 51, of Norfolk, Virginia and Ralph Geiger, 56, of Akron, Ohio were found buried in Noble County, while Timothy Kern, 47, of Massillon, Ohio was found in a shallow grave behind a mostly-deserted shopping mall in Akron, Ohio.

The fourth man, Scott Davis, 48, of South Carolina narrowly survived after meeting Beasley and Rafferty on Nov. 6, 2011. After accompanying the pair to a heavily wooded area and exiting the car the trio had used, Davis heard the click of a gun's action, took off and ran. He was shot in the arm, but hid in the woods and then walked two miles to a home from whence he called the police.

The next hearing in the case has not yet been scheduled.

It's the latest version of a "Craigslist Killer" case. Many will remember the case of Philip Markoff, the "first" so-called "Craiglist Killer," who was accused of killing a masseuse he met through Craigslist. Markoff was found dead in his jail cell of an apparent suicide in August of 2010.

Meanwhile, in September of 2011, another "Craigslist Killer" case was brought to a close, when the fourth of a quartet involved in the brutal slaying of James Sanders on April 28, 2010 in Edgewood, Washington, near Tacoma, was sentenced.

Clabon Berniard was sentenced to 123 years in prison, joining his accomplices Kiyoshi Higashi, Joshua Reese, and Amanda Knight who are serving what are essentially life sentences in the case.

Sanders and his wife, Charlene, had posted an ad for a diamond ring for sale on Craigslist, which the killers responded to. They invaded the Sanders' home, intending to rob and assault the family. When Sanders attempted to protect his wife and sons, one of whom was pistol-whipped, the assailants shot and killed him.

CraigsCrimeList.org was created to spotlight crimes on CraigsList. As the site owner said in his About section, "My goal here is not only act as a type of consumer advocate but to also bring attention to the crimes that are being perpetrated on an unsuspecting public facilitated by the bad business practices of some of these classifieds sites."

Classifieds on Craigslist have been used for anything from attracting people for murderous purposes to rape against an ex-girlfriend.

Diablo III senior producer leaves, casting further doubt on Q1 2012 release

2012-01-22T13:42:00.000-08:00

Fans have been waiting and waiting and waiting for Diablo III since it was first announced in 2008. While the last "official" date from Blizzard was that customers could expect a Q1 2012 release, events this week seem to negate that, and certainly the most recent info really casts doubt on that.

Blizzard's Steve Parker dropped a haymaker this weekend. He is the Diablo III senior producer, and he Tweeted that he is leaving the project and the company. He did not reveal the reasons for his departure.

He Tweeted, "I'm no longer working at Blizzard or on D3. I've had a great five years there and those guys are going to kill it with Diablo."

Before "killing it," Blizzard has to make Diablo III live, and other news from this week wasn't so good in that front. Blizzard continues to make what have been called "sweeping system overhauls" and "major mechanical changes."

Diablo III was announced in mid-2008. Will we reach the four-year anniversary of that announcement before we see a release?

At this rate, we just might.

Apple shows us why manufacturing will never return to the U.S. from China

2012-01-22T13:25:00.000-08:00

Reports such as SACOM's from May of 2011 have shown us of the stresses, low wages, and unsafe conditions of plants such as those used for manufacturing iDevices and other electronics. Yet, on the surface, a New York Times reports seems to point to more than just cheap labor as being the reason just about everything is manufacturered overseas.

They're right too; it seems like far more than just cheap labor; it seems more like virtual slave labor, and we don't mean "virtual reality."

The New York Times article is titled "How U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work." A few of the points made for Apple using China, and not the U.S.:

Apple’s executives believe the vast scale of overseas factories as well as the flexibility, diligence and industrial skills of foreign workers have so outpaced their American counterparts that “Made in the U.S.A.” is no longer a viable option for most Apple products.

When Apple redesigned the iPhone’s screen at the last minute, [...] A foreman immediately roused 8,000 workers inside the company’s dormitories, according to the executive. Each employee was given a biscuit and a cup of tea, guided to a workstation and within half an hour started a 12-hour shift fitting glass screens into beveled frames. Within 96 hours, the plant was producing over 10,000 iPhones a day. “The speed and flexibility is breathtaking,” the executive said. “There’s no American plant that can match that.”

“We sell iPhones in over a hundred countries,” a current Apple executive said. “We don’t have an obligation to solve America’s problems. Our only obligation is making the best product possible.” [We would modify that statement. As a corporation, their only obligation is to increase shareholder value. That means dismissing the 99 percent, and enhancing the 1 percent. In the long run, when "peak oil" hits with full force, globalization will prove unsustainable and localization will be forced onto people --- globally.]

“They [Foxconn] could hire 3,000 people overnight,” said Jennifer Rigoni, who was Apple’s worldwide supply demand manager until 2010, but declined to discuss specifics of her work. “What U.S. plant can find 3,000 people overnight and convince them to live in dorms?”

[In a small section of the article, the NYT made Apple into an Occupier's target, with just one sentence, and details to back it up (emphasis ours).] As Apple’s overseas operations and sales have expanded, its top employees have thrived.

[More Occupier material.] “Companies once felt an obligation to support American workers, even when it wasn’t the best financial choice,” said Betsey Stevenson, the chief economist at the Labor Department until last September. “That’s disappeared. Profits and efficiency have trumped generosity.” [Interestingly enough, a cynic would say this just proves that companies are human, as Citizens United said. They're greedy and selfish, just as humans are.]

“The entire supply chain is in China now,” said another former high-ranking Apple executive. “You need a thousand rubber gaskets? That’s the factory next door. You need a million screws? That factory is a block away. You need that screw made a little bit different? It will take three hours.”

Despite what the article says, the bottom line is still --- the bottom line. Claims are that the people in China are more nimble, quicker to adjust when things change. There's a reason for that.

Put 200,000+ people into a "dormitory," and that's the obvious reason for the flexibility. Need to wake the grunts up because something has changed? It's easy when they are all in their dorms, not living at home.

Easy to hire people? Of course it is. Even at the low Foxconn wage, it's a good wage for a Chinese worker.

Do you think those Foxconn workers grab onto the job because they love it? The Foxconn suicides of 2010 belie that possibility.

Consider also what we know to be true: the CEO of Foxconn's parent company Hon Hai believes his employees are "animals," and --- we're sure --- treats them that way.

The fact that the Chinese government is a Communist one, and doesn't really care all that much about labor and environmental laws, and it's obvious. It's still all about the money, no matter what anyone tries to say.

Amazon Appstore's free app of the day, 1/22/2012: Cubicle Golf

2012-01-22T06:11:00.000-08:00

Amazon.com has promised to make a paid app free every day in the Amazon Appstore, and today's app is Cubicle Golf.

Cubicle Golf is priced at $1.99 in the Android Market. It is normally priced at $0.99 in the Amazon Appstore. As we've noted previously, prices sometimes differ between the two marketplaces.

Cubicle Golf is described as follows:

Tee Up at the Office
Golf is a great way to get a break from less important things--like work! But we all know it's a long way from the office to the golf course.

Luckily, there's Cubicle Golf. This fun and challenging game for your Android device provides an easy way to get a few rounds in without leaving your desk.

Beware the Water Cooler Hazard

Cubicle Golf features a full, 18-hole course that will test even the hardiest office golfer's skills. Choose from two control options to suit your playing style. It's easy to track scores at each hole, and you'll even hear fun shot-by-shot commentary as you play.

Build team unity by playing the always-challenging Office Links. Take advantage of your co-workers' strengths as you navigate the course: one colleague wields the driver, another the iron, another the putter, and one possesses the hallowed Secret Weapon.

But keep a wary eye out as you work on that handicap. Make sure you avoid Mr. Hazard (also known as your boss) if you want to keep playing!

No Golf Cart Required

Unlike the outdoor version, this golf game progresses quickly and is easy to learn. Also, and most important, it's fun. Play through all 18 holes, improve your score, and blow off some steam. (Just make sure the boss isn't looking.)

Cubicle Golf has a rating of 3.9 stars in the Android Market and 3.0 stars in the Amazon Appstore.

The game was downgraded quite a bit because of issues on tablets (such as the Toshiba Thrive). Still, an Asus Transformer user said it worked fine on his device; definitely a no-go on a Motorola Xoom updated to Ice Cream Sandwich.

Crowd-sourced 'Star Wars Uncut: the Director's Cut' now ready for screening

2012-01-22T00:04:00.000-08:00

After nearly three years, it's here at last: "Star Wars Uncut: the Director's Cut." No, we don't mean a "George Lucas as director" cut of his "Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope." Instead, we mean the entire "film" by Casey Pugh and Jamie Wilkinson, a crowd-sourced, fan-made version of the original classic.

In 2009, Pugh split the original "Star Wars Episode 4: A New Hope" film into 472 15-second episodes and asked the Internet to remake the film segment-by-segment. Now all of those episodes have been compiled into one film that can be watched in one fell swoop.

If you didn't know better, at first glance, it might seem to be the original, beginning with the 20th Century Fox opening. The dueling lightsabers that cut the Fox logo into pieces might be a clue that all is not what you might think.

Still another clue occurs when "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...." appears in a Twitter edit box.

Finally, the Star Wars Episode IV opening crawl concludes with a commenter, jawaklr1559 declaring "First!," as he might have done if commenting on a blog post, followed by 4ce4real with "The Empire sux," and ChewyLewis complaining that he would "never get that minute back" (the time of the crawl, that is).

Despite what you might think, the project has been essentially approved by George Lucas. At the 2011 South by Southwest Interactive festival, Pugh and Wilkinson explained that LucasFilm loved the idea for the project, but was wary about branding problems (e.g., if a soda can appeared on-screen). Thus, the project is non-profit.

The project even won an Emmy, though not for the video itself, but for the dynamic playback system it built and incorporated into its website.

So now, three years later, the project is over. Of course, there's no realy to believe it is ALL over. There are those nagging two sequels and three prequels in the Star Wars movie universe. Is anyone ready to take on "The Empire Strikes Back Uncut?"

Samsunged: Apple zinged in lead-up to Samsung's Super Bowl ad

2012-01-22T00:01:00.000-08:00

Samsung's next "Next Big Thing" ad is here, and it makes you wonder what Samsung has planned for the Super Bowl.

The "Next Big Thing" campaign begin in November, with a well-received ad that mocked Apple fanboys waiting in line for Apple's next big thing (a new iPhone).

However, the Samsung owners in the ad showed those in line that the next best thing was already here:" the Galaxy S II.

In the latest ad in the series, Apple fanboys are again waiting in line, in Austin, TX. One of them shows another an "unboxing video" from the London store, to which the reply is, "Oh, that looks like last year's phone!"

Meanwhile, the roommate of the first Apple fanboy shows up with a charger --- it's unclear where the fanboy will plug it in. Moreover, the roommate is using turn-by-turn navigation to find the location where the line is, to which another fan --- well, fangirl --- asks, "How much did you pay for that app?"

Nothing, of course, as it's built-into the Samsung Galaxy S II. Zing, or rather, as the fanboy who lamented about the unboxing video says, "Oh, we just got Samsunged."

He then adds, "I don't like your roommate very much."

We can hardly wait to see how the Korean giant attempts Samsungs Apple on Feb. 5. More successfully, we hope, than Motorola did with last year's Super Bowl ad, when it introduced the Xoom tablet, the first tablet with a tablet-optimized version of Android.

It was a nice ad, but it couldn't help improve poor Xoom sales.

Watch the new Samsung ad below.

Amazon Appstore's free app of the day, 1/21/2012: FishPop

2012-01-21T06:17:00.000-08:00

Amazon.com has promised to make a paid app free every day in the Amazon Appstore, and today's app is FishPop.

FishPop doesn't appear in the Android Market. It is normally priced at $0.99 in the Amazon Appstore. As we've noted previously, prices sometimes differ between the two marketplaces.

FishPop is described as follows:

Something's Fishy
FishPop is a fun fast-paced game with fish that pop when you touch them. It's fun for all ages.

If you like to let your kids play with your expensive mobile devices then this is the game for you. Guaranteed to provide endless minutes of near silence interrupted only by the sound of giggles and popping fish.

Survival Mode

How many fish can you pop before all the fish escape? Tens? Hundreds? thousands? Hit the Chum Can when it drops to lure in more fish. Pop the Jellyfish to slow everyone down. Don't pop the Octopus unless you want a giant ink blot the fish will hide behind.

Timed Pop

How many can you pop in 60 seconds? Keep popping the same type of fish for bonus.

Aquarium Mode

This is nice calm mode where you can see all the fish and pop them or not. Great for toddlers trying to develop touchscreen skills. Before you know it, they'll be texting Grandma.

FishPop has a rating of 4.0 stars in the Amazon Appstore.

It's better when we can look at both Android Market and Amazon Appstore ratings, although they generally don't agree, anyway. However, there are 35 ratings, with a 4.0 average, so since this is the Amazon Appstore FAOTD, we'd recommend "buying" it.

12Mbps satellite broadband: it's not coming, it's already here

2012-01-21T00:04:00.000-08:00

While quite a bit of the U.S. has broadband, quite a bit of it does not, at least partially because --- to be honest -- the return on putting broadband infrastructure into sparsely populated rural America just isn't there. But a service that was hidden underneath all the higher profile announcements at CES could potentially remedy all that.

The magic bullet may be Exede, a new satellite broadband service from ViaSat that just launched this week. Satellite broadband service has existed for some time, but it has never been able to match the speed of terrestrial broadband --- until now.

Starting --- and that's the key word, starting --- at $50 monthly, the company claims its Exede12 service can provide 12Mbps download and 3Mbps upload speeds. That's on average, and based on our experience with satellite TV, we'd wonder how that would work in a downpour. However, tests conducted at CES seem to point to ViaSat being able to match that claim, at least under clear skies.

Naturally, the devil is in the details. That $50 service seems attractive, until you look closer. It has a 7.5GB cap, and in addition, for now only the East and West Coasts can get the Exede12 service. Those in the middle part of the country (hey, isn't that where much of rural America is?) can only get the Exede5 service, with 5Mmbps download and 1Mbps upload.

Still, that's much better than previous satellite broadband. The data cap is more troublesome.

The second tier of Exede service has a 15GB cap, and costs $80 monthly, while the "top of the line" tier is $130 with a cap of 25GB. Don't expect anyone using BitTorrent to subscribe to the services, unless they have no other choice.

If you go over your cap, you're not totally shut down. You will, however, be throttled.

Later this year, satellite TV company Dish Network will offer a bundle, with Exede broadband. Although using ViaSat's service, it will be called Dish Broadband; the company said at CES it will launch the service in Q1 for $80 a month, covering broadband and basic TV and a 5GB data cap.

Also this year, Continental and JetBlue will launch in-flight wi-fi using Exede. The service is expected to be much faster than GoGo, which uses ground-based cellular for its Internet service.

Student Tweets gratitude for another year of life, only to die hours later

2012-01-21T00:01:00.000-08:00

Jan. 17 was Ariane Noelle Patterson's 21st birthday, and she was grateful to be alive. She took to micro-blogging / social networking site Twitter to express her gratitude to God on that day, and posted the message. "Thank you God for a nother year of life."

It was an ironic Tweet. The Gardner-Webb University student, a senior, collapsed while in a class. She was rushed to a nearby hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

The cause of her death is still under investigation. It is unclear if her Tweet was related to past health issues that would have made her "more grateful" for another year of life.

The university released the following statement on its Facebook page:

"We are deeply saddened and in shock by this monumental loss. We pray for Ariane's family and friends during this difficult time, and hope they will somehow find peace in the midst of this tragedy. No words can truly express how we collectively feel as a university during this time."

A prayer service was scheduled to be held at noon on Jan. 20 at the university's Paul Porter Arena.

How Anonymous enlisted unwitting 'aides' for DDoS attacks on the DOJ, FBI, etc. in the wake of MegaUpload's takedown

2012-01-20T17:06:00.000-08:00

Anonymous has retaliated against the United States Department of Justice and a number of other sites, including Universal Music, MPAA, FBI, RIAA, and still more. It was a particularly effective attack. This time, however, it seems that Anonymous was getting people to help them, without their knowledge.

Typically, "volunteers" can help Anonymous without any hacking knowledge at all. To do this, they simply download and install the so-called "Low Orbit Ion Cannon" (commonly abbreviated LOIC, for Windows, Mac and Linux), enter a target destination (IP address or URL) and off they go: a DDoS attack.

This time, however, as noted by Gawker, this time Anonymous "enlisted people" without their knowledge. While the attack still utilized the so-called "Low Orbit Ion Cannon," it used a Web-based version, that was triggered when a user simply clicked on a link that was being widely shared on Twitter and in Anonymous chat rooms.

End users, who may only have known that the link related to Operation MegaUpload, Anonymous' reprisal against the takedown of MegaUpload.com, were unwittingly turned into DDoS volunteers in Anonymous attack.

It's one thing when people actively volunteer to use the LOIC; it's another when they are enlisted without their knowledge.

The link, found in this Twitter search, no longer seems to be working.

Now, while using something like the LOIC to execute a DDoS attack intentionally could end up with an end user in jail, something like this ... someone clicking on a link would have an excuse. In fact, in the past, users of the LOIC could say their computer had been infected, etc. etc., but this sort of link methodology makes the risk to those not directly in the Anonymous collective pretty invulnerable, even if they actually wanted to help, and were not unwitting aides.

What's interesting is that Anonymous Tweeted the following:

"The Largest Attack Ever by Anonymous - 5,635 People Confirmed Using #LOIC to Bring Down Sites! #Anonymous"

How many of those were willing, and how many unwitting, isn't clear.

whited00r gives your obsolete iDevices somewhat of an iOS 5 refresh

2012-01-20T14:48:00.000-08:00

Although much of our hardware is designed for obsolescence, so we absolutely, positively MUST buy something new, there are those who still hang onto their old stuff, because it still just works. And if you've got an iPhone 2G (you remember that old EDGE version?), iPhone 3G, or a first or second generation iPod touch, Whited00r 5.1 can bring iOS 5 looks --- and some of its feature set --- to iDevices currently stuck running iOS 3.1.3.

Among the improvements you'll see is multitasking (tuned for low memory environments), folders, reminders, a sort-of-iCloud which uses DropBox, Newsstand and much more. As you might assume, its jailbroken by default.

You won't, however, get the new Notification Center or the App Store.

Why do this instead of buying new hardware? Good question. Maybe you've been saving that old junky iPhone 2G for your kids, so you won't have to buy them a new iPhone, but want to spiff it up some for them.

At any rate, it's an impressive custom OS. If you've got the (obsolete) hardware, go for it. It's free, though donations are welcomed.

Victory? SOPA and PIPA derailed --- for now

2012-01-20T13:55:00.000-08:00

Victory? SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act, House) and PIPA (Protect IP Act, Senate), the legislative measures that were the focal point of a Web protest on Wednesday, have been derailed --- for now.

It's that "for now" that is, of course, of continued concern for critics of the measures, which many said were a slippery slope to Web censorship. On Friday, in a statement, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex.), who was author of SOPA, said:

“I have heard from the critics and I take seriously their concerns regarding proposed legislation to address the problem of online piracy. It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products.”

Also on Friday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced he would delay consideration of PIPA, which had been scheduled for a vote on Tuesday. He Tweeted, "In light of recent events, I have decided to postpone Tuesday's vote on the PROTECT IP Act #PIPA."

The steps that the Department of Justice took on Thursday against the file storage and download site MegaUpload.com would seem to confirm what many have said: current law is enough to ensure that intellectual property rights are protected.

Despite this, these bills are far from dead. Sue Gardner, Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation, said it well in an email sent to the press, regarding the Friday developments.

"The Wikimedia Foundation welcomes these developments. This is another step towards the ultimate destruction of these two pieces of proposed legislation. But let’s be clear, these bills are not dead. They will return, and when they do, they must not harm the interests of the hundreds of millions of people who contribute to the free and open Internet.

"The blackout was led by millions of ordinary Internet users, and the people who make projects like Wikipedia possible - writers, photographers, editors and illustrators. They sent a clear message to Congress: don’t mess with free expression, don’t destroy the free and open Internet, don’t do the bidding of traditional corporate interests. This is a moment in history when the people who create and share works on the Internet as part of the free knowledge movement, and the people who depend on access to those works, are asking to be heard and to have their freedom of speech protected."

A number of large Internet names are critics of the bills, including Google, Reddit, Wikipedia, Facebook, Twitter, AOL, Yahoo!, Mozilla, and many, many more. These companies are concerned that the bills will interfere with the "free and unfettered" Internet, lead to censorship, and more.

All that said, it's clear that the bills aren't going to disappear, not when they are as well-backed as they are by corporate interests, including the entertainment industry. According to an analysis by MapLight, the film, TV and music industries, strong supporters of the bills, donated more than seven times as much money to members of the U.S. Senate as did the Internet interest groups that oppose the bills, $14,423,991 compared to $2,011,332.

First untethered iOS 5 jailbreak for iPhone 4S, iPad 2 released

2012-01-20T12:43:00.000-08:00

The word "finally" is emerging from the lips of many an iPad 2 and iPhone 4S owner today, as an untethered 5.0.1 jailbreak has finally been released for the newest of Apple's iOS devices. Just to mess with us, we expect Apple to release iOS 5.1 (currently still in beta) this afternoon.

Seriously, however, the jailbreak will make many a life easier. A tethered jailbreak means that every time the device boots, it has to be re-cabled to a desktop system and jailbroken again.

The new "Absinthe A5" jailbreak comes via pod2G and the Chronic Dev Team, which teamed to release an enhancement to the popular Greenpois0n jailbreaking tool. Sadly for Windows and Linux users, the best we can say for them is ... "soon, soon."

The tool has only been released for Mac OS X as of now, but versions for Windows and Linux are scheduled to follow quickly.

There's even bad news for those with Macs. Due to the announcement and the (one might imagine) sudden popularity of the Greenpois0n site, the site is experiencing intermittent connectivity issues (translation: it's down a lot).

Absinthe will jailbreak the iPhone 4S running iOS 5.0 (9A334) and 5.0.1 (9A405 and 9A406) and all models (wi-fi, CDMA, GSM) of the iPad 2 running iOS 5.0.1 (9A405).

While jailbreaking has been declared legal in the U.S., Apple warns users that jailbreaking can void a device's warranty, if Apple detects it when you bring a device in for warranty service.

Amazon Appstore's Free App of the Day, 1/20/2012: Lame Castle

2012-01-20T06:21:00.000-08:00

Amazon.com has promised to make a paid app free every day in the Amazon Appstore, and today's app is Lame Castle.

Lame Castle is priced at $1.49 in the Android Market. It is normally priced at $1.49 in the Amazon Appstore. As we've noted previously, prices sometimes differ between the two marketplaces.

Lame Castle is described as follows:

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a knight in possession of a toy horse must smash a bunch of lame-o castles.

The Lame Game

Lame Castle is a fast-paced dash-and-run game with a lighthearted medieval theme. Mount your steed, grab your helmet, and dash and jump through tons of danger-strewn levels.

Gallop through 24 levels filled with deadly pits and obnoxious boulders. Try unique bonus objectives for each level, and shoot for a high score. At the end of each level, smash the lame castle of Wizzy the evil wizard, and garner the adoration of a generic pink princess.

Lame Difference

Get lost in four endless modes, and enter a nightmare maze of poor castle architecture.

Use a simple touchscreen interface to control your knight. Jump, double jump, and long jump with the left side of your screen, or press the right side to attack. Hit both for a jump-attack!

Lame-Faced

Get ready to punt chickens, loot treasure chests, and smash rocks. Don't stand idly by while lame castles remain intact!

Lame Castle has a rating of 4.3 stars in the Android Market, and a rating of 4.1 stars in the Amazon Appstore.

It's not often we see agreement (in a good way) between the two Android marketplaces. When we do, as now, we say, "buy" the app while it's free.

Not so 'red' after all: Amazon.com averaging $130+ profit on each Kindle Fire: analyst

2012-01-20T00:11:00.000-08:00

Despite losing about $2 to $3 on the hardware , Amazon.com is making well over $100 on average per Kindle Fire sold, according to estimates by RBC Capital analyst Ross Sandler.

Naturally, these are just estimates. And just as naturally, we'll probably never get exact figures from typically secretive Amazon.com. But here's how Sandler breaks things down, in a research note to clients: "Our analysis assigns a cumulative lifetime operating income per unit of $136, with a cumulative operating margin of over 20 percent."

In other words, subtract the $2 to $3 Amazon.com loses on the hardware, and it still makes about $130 from add-on sales. That could be a somewhat princely sum for Amazon.com's bottom line if the Internet retailer sold the estimate 3-4 million Sandler believes (which is in line with most estimates).

According to Sandler's survey, which is how he came up with his estimate, about 80 percent of Fire owners have purchased e-books. Of those, 58 percent bought more than three of e-books within the first 60 days of Fire ownership.

Sandler extrapolates that to mean that the typical Kindle Fire owner will buy five e-books per quarter, which means about $15 net per quarter for Amazon, assuming an average e-book price of $10.

The rest of the add-ons are most apps. Two-thirds of those surveyed had purchased at least one app, and 41 percent claimed to have purchased three or more. Sandler estimated that the typical Kindle Fire owner will buy three apps per quarter, generating another $9 for Amazon.com. He's not, of course, assuming that folks will "buy" only FAOTD apps.

Other interesting factoids from the survey: the most frequent use for the Kindle Fire was e-book reading (no surprise there), at 71 percent. In second was browsing the Web, at 39 percent. Playing games came in at 29 percent, and using apps (hey, games are apps, guys), 20 percent. Video streaming was only mentioned by 13 percent of those surveyed.

Good but perhaps not as good as Amazon.com might have hoped is that 26 percent of the Kindle Fire owners surveyed said they had used their Kindle Fire to buy physical goods on Amazon.com. Of those, one-third said the purchases were incremental to what they would have purchased on the site anyway. Also, of those, 51 percent said that increased their physical purchases on Amazon.com “slightly to significantly” due to owning their Kindle Fire.

Foxconn chief calls employees 'animals,' invites zoo director to lecture on 'management'

2012-01-20T00:07:00.000-08:00

Humans are mammals, and mammal are animals, therefore humans are animals. That said, it's not good practice to call your employees animals.

Hon Hai chairman Terry Gou called his employees animals at an end-of-the-year party, as quoted by WantChinaTimes. "Hon Hai has a workforce of over one million worldwide and as human beings are also animals, to manage one million animals gives me a headache."

Hon Hai is the parent company of Foxconn, which saw numerous employee suicides in 2010, many of them from a location that manufactures Apple products. It recently saw the threat of a mass suicide at a plant that manufactures Xbox 360s for Microsoft.

To make matters worse, Gou added that he wants to learn from Chin Shih-chien, who is the director of Taipei Zoo, exactly how animals should be "managed." It should be noted that Gou was probably joking --- maybe. Or perhaps not.

Gou had invited the zoo director to speak at the Hon Hai's annual review meeting. He asked all of his general managers to listen carefully to the lecture, so that they could learn how to manage "the animals that work for them."

It was when Gou asked Chin to put himself in the chairman's shoes that he reportedly "earned" laughter from his managers.

Still, one has to admit that changes in the minds and lives of Chinese workers have undoubtedly made them far less malleable than Gou might like.

Foxconn is just one of the huge manufacturing firms in what would formerly have been called underdeveloped nations where manufacturing is done in conditions that might not pass as livable or humane in the Western world. While Guo may not have meant it to come out the way it did, saying it at all, when his firm is already under scrutiny and criticism, is a huge FUBAR.

That said: Americans and other Western nations aren't exactly running for the exits away from these OEMs. The reason: we Westerners selfishly want stuff, want it cheap, and pretend we don't really know --- no matter what inspections might say --- how bad things are for the labor there.

Apple's new three-pronged push into education: iBooks 2, iBooks Author, iTunes U app

2012-01-20T00:04:00.000-08:00

At its education-based event on Thursday, Apple unveiled a three-pronged attack on the education market.

The first prong is called iBooks 2, the next generation of Apple's e-book service. While the iPad was at first thought to be a major competitor to the Kindle and Amazon.com's e-books, it turned out that many people who read e-books on the iPad do so via Amazon.com's Kindle iOS app.

iBooks 2 is a "new textbook experience for the iPad," the company said, during its presentation. It's not a new idea. Amazon.com partnered with a number of universities when it introduced its Kindle DX, but a foray into e-textbooks never panned out.

Can Apple succeed where Amazon.com failed, or at least, didn't really make much of an impact?

iBooks 2 brings students and teachers fullscreen e-textbooks with interactive diagrams, photos, animations and videos. Naturally searching is easy, and there's a revised index, to boot, to make things still easier.

iBooks 2 includes page thumbnails as well, and those end of chapter / section Q&A sessions that are always there in a textbook are interactive and multiple choice. As you might expect with an e-book, highlight and notetaking are available.

The new textbooks are in a new, dedicated iBookstore category; you will be able to peruse free samples before buying. The iBooks 2 app is free, and it was available on Thursday in the App Store.

Textbooks are priced at $14.99 or less and will initially target the high school market. Interestingly enough, these sorts of textbooks are normally priced at $75 a book. McGraw Hill said that it will make up the difference because normally textbooks are sold to schools with a five year lifespan. These new e-books will be "renewed" annually, meaning that after the five-year lifespan of a normal book, the publisher would have the equivalent of a $75 paper book.

Of course, that doesn't take into account Apple's take (we'll guess it's the same 30 percent that Apple takes out of App Store purchases) or development costs for all the interactive portions of the book.

In addition to McGraw-Hill, Pearson and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt will also be providing e-textbooks. These three currently produce about 90 percent of the textbooks available.

Also, DK Publishing who is releasing four new books aimed at younger children. Those include: “Dinosaurs and Prehistoric life,” “Natural History Insects,” “Natural History Animals,” and “My First ABC.”

While the new books will be kept by the student, rather than returned to the school at the end of the school year, they will be non-transferable and also --- here's the bad part for parents --- paid for by parents, who either have to pay out of pocket or get a voucher from the school.

Apple's SVP of worldwide product marketing Phil Schiller opened the presentation with the words, "Education is deep in our DNA, and it has been since the very beginning." Ironically, that's become less true as public schools have been underfunded; if the right had its way there would only be private schools, disenfranchising many.

School books are expensive, too, both for schools and as they enter higher education, students, and although with iBooks 2, Apple hopes to disrupt the textbook model, we're wondering how many will be disenfranchised by the lack of an iPad or the funds to buy these e-books.

As Android fans, we're also annoyed at being forced into an iOS tablet purchase.

Nevertheless, moving on, prong 2 in the Apple education attack was a way to pen those e-textbooks, called iBooks Author, which is a free Mac app which allows authors and publishers to easily create multimedia-rich e-textbooks for Apple's iBooks 2 app for the iPad.

For now, iBooks Author cannot be used to create iPhone or iPod touch-compatible iBooks, but on the positive side of things, iBooks Author can be used to create e-books in general, not just textbooks.

The final prong in Apple's education attack is the iTunes U app. It is a new way for teachers and students to manage course material for classes on an iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch. The app allows teachers to incorporate an entire term's subject matter, including lectures, assignments, reading material, quizzes and syllabuses into one "self-contained" iTunes U course.

iTunes U can also be used by K-12 school districts, too.

With Thursday's announcements, parents may soon find themselves pulled kicking and screaming into the Mac and iOS world, even if they prefer Android and Windows. Google, Microsoft, are you listening?

Wikipedia sees unique visitors rise during SOPA / PIPA blackout; says 'overwhelming support' for protest

2012-01-20T00:01:00.000-08:00

Did you survive your 24 hours without Wikipedia? Admittedly, for those trying to find information on the Web, it is certainly more challenging without the site, which went dark to protest the SOPA / PIPA bills in the House and Senate, respectively. The site is now back, but adds, "we're not done yet."

[If you now realize how much you rely on Wikipedia, you might consider donating to the site. Just a hint. It's a non-profit, after all.]

What exactly Wikipedia means by not being done yet is unclear. Hopefully it doesn't mean another SOPA / PIPA blackout.

At any rate, you can read their full message here . Each page displays a banner redirecting there.

According to Wikipedia, more than 162 million people saw the site's SOPA / PIPA blackout on Wednesday. Wikipedia noted that while Twitter didn't go dark, there were some interesting Twitter trends on Wednesday: #factswithoutwikipedia, #SOPAstrike, and #wikipediablackout.

More than 12,000 comments were made on a blog post announcing the blackout. A “breathtaking majority” supported the blackout, Wikipedia added.

Part of Wikipedia's protest involved a tool that allowed users to find their Senate and House legislators. Approximately eight million visitors used that tool to look up their elected representatives’ contact information.

The site said:

“You shut down Congress's switchboards. You melted their servers. Your voice was loud and strong. Millions of people have spoken in defense of a free and open Internet.

"SOPA and PIPA are not dead: they are waiting in the shadows. What’s happened in the last 24 hours, though, is extraordinary. The Internet has enabled creativity, knowledge, and innovation to shine, and as Wikipedia went dark, you've directed your energy to protecting it.

"We’re turning the lights back on. Help us keep them shining brightly."

Critics of the SOPA (House, Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Senate, Protect IP Act) legislation are concerned that the bills, which are largely designed to reduce online piracy of television shows and movies, may give content providers and the government too much power in terms of the ability to close down sites they believe to be copyright infringers.

Even search engines would be affected, forced to remove links to sites from their search results, and payment providers would be forced to block the flow of money to such sites.

One other interesting note about Wikipedia's protest: despite Wikipedia being blacked out, it actually saw a rise in traffic. Comparing Wikipedia's traffic at midday Wednesday with its traffic the previous Tuesday, the number of unique visitors was noticeably increased, while overall the site saw slightly more total Web transactions.

Chevrolet's 'Game Time' mobile app gives users a chance to win a car during Super Bowl XLVI

2012-01-19T19:18:00.000-08:00

In this age of smartphones and tablets, the Super Bowl is no longer just about (aside from the game, of course) advertisements --- it's about apps, too. And Chevrolet hopes its soon-to-be-released Game Time app will get your social networking love during Super Bowl XLVI.

The Chevy Game Time app will be available in the Android Market, the App Store and at chevy.com/gametime by the start of the NFC Championship game this Sunday (at 3:30 p.m. PST).

As users watch the Super Bowl, they can play the app, possibly winning prizes from Chevrolet, Bridgestone, Motorola, the NFL and NFLShop.com, Papa John’s Pizza and Sirius XM Radio. The app will pose trivia questions and polls on subjects that include not just the game and the teams, but commercials, as well.

Users could even win a car. Everyone who downloads the app will receive a unique "license plate" number. Anyone whose number matches a plate in Chevy's Super Bowl ads will win a vehicle.

Answer trivia questions correctly or choose the most-common poll answers and you will be entered into drawings where you could win one of "thousands of prizes" from Chevrolet as well as Bridgestone, Motorola, the NFL and NFLShop.com, Papa John's Pizza and Sirius XM Radio. Everyone who downloads the app will also receive a unique "license plate" number. Consumers whose numbers match any plate in Chevy's Super Bowl spots will win a vehicle.

Joel Ewanick, global chief marketing officer of Chevrolet's parent company General Motors, said,

"This is the first time any company has attempted such a large-scale app, which will enhance the game watching experience and help them engage in the online conversation about the Super Bowl. The way people watch TV has changed with smart phones and tablets helping viewers interact while in front of the screen. This app takes that interactivity to a whole new level on one of the biggest days for television viewing.”

In case you're wondering, Chevrolet --- or Big Brother --- will be monitoring you. Chevrolet will track the number of downloads as well as app activity. There are quite a few Super Bowl viewers who spend more time in the kitchen than watching the game, Chevy said, and the carmaker hopes that this year the apps will reach those casual fans, drawing them into the all-important Super Bowl ads.

Anonymous retaliates after Justice Dept. shuts down MegaUpload.com

2012-01-19T18:01:00.000-08:00

For quite some time, SOPA and PIPA critics have said the Justice Department has plenty of alternatives if they want to reduce piracy, and on Thursday the DOJ exercised those options against popular file sharing site MegaUpload.com. In doing so, the DOJ awoke the sleeping beast that is the loosely knit hacker group Anonymous.

egaUpload is based in Hong Kong. Individuals can upload files of any type and provide links that others can use to download with. While basic access is free, the site charges for memberships that allow users faster access and unlimited transfers. It claimed it saw 50 million users, daily it is "off the air" as of now, one day after the SOPA / PIPA protest which resulted in many sites "blacking themselves out."

The indictment accuses MegaUpload.com of costing copyright holders at least $500 million in lost revenue. Its Hong Kong home notwithstanding, the DOJ said that at least part of the alleged pirated content was hosted on leased servers in Ashburn, Va., which gave it jurisdiction.

According to a DOJ statement, Kim Dotcom, 37, and three other MegaUpload employees were arrested on Thursday in New Zealand at the request of U.S. officials. Three other defendants are still at large.

Before MegaUpload's site was taken down, it posted a statement which stated that the allegations were "grotesquely overblown." It said, "The fact is that the vast majority of Mega's Internet traffic is legitimate, and we are here to stay. If the content industry would like to take advantage of our popularity, we are happy to enter into a dialogue. We have some good ideas. Please get in touch."

It's true that even BitTorrent, the popular P2P transfer protocol, has legitimate uses. So did MegaUpload. What percentage was legal and what percentage was pirated is the big question.

In response to the arrests, Anonymous claimed it knocked several websites off the Internet. Among them was the DOJ's website, which is now accessible, at the time of this writing, but which loads very slowly.

The group also claimed to take down Universal Music Group's website (UMG was one of the music label most vociferous in its criticism of MegaUpload), and that site is definitely offline at this time. Attempting to visit it returns a blank page with an "under maintenance message."

Among the other targets of Anonymous on Thursday were the RIAA and the MPAA, which are both again operating normally.

Anyone else who has ever criticized MegaUpload should probably keep its IT department on alert: Anonymous said that there's "more to come."