Technology News

Has social media shifted balance when making complaints?

Paralysed patients control a robotic arm only with their thoughts

If you're cine-cave is already decked out with the Super Hi-Vision display, the Super Hi-Vision camera, and the Super Hi-Vision-supping antenna, we guess you just need the 120fps Super Hi-Vision projector to complete the set? Guess what? Working with JVC, NHK has developed just that. It might not be much to look at, but that hunk of tech up there comes with the extra frame rate that also makes it play fast nice with the sensor technology NHK was kind enough to develop first. The projector will be giving its first public demos on May 24th , and we hope that 7680 x 4320 resolution will make all those hi-res skate-slams come out a charm.Continue reading NHK and JVC develop 120fps Super Hi-Vision projectorNHK and JVC develop 120fps Super Hi-Vision projector originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 May 2012 15:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink   |  NHK (Japanese)  | Email this | Comments

Verdict deliberations in Oracle v. Google have been mixed up again as the jury looks like it might be stuck on the question of infringement once again.

Tom Warren / The Verge:Microsoft's ‘buy a PC, get a free Xbox 360’ deal returns for students on May 20th  —  Microsoft is announcing the return of its buy a PC and get a free Xbox 360 deal for students this week.  Students in the US who purchase a qualifying PC worth $699 or more at certain retailers will get a 4GB Xbox 360 for free from May 20th onwards.

The first hours of Facebook's IPO got off to a shaky start today with the share price wavering around the $40 mark, never gaining the astronomical momentum many had anticipated.

Fully 95% of 600 businesses surveyed by Cisco permit the use of employee-owned smartphones and tablets at the office and found productivity gains for workers who use their own hardware.

Three winners of an academic competition at the University of Rochester to create the most innovative and useful applications for IBM's Watson cognitive computing systems were announced yesterday by Big Blue.

Because many medical devices use commercial operating systems, they are as open to attacks as many computers

Administration may expand DIB CS/IA program to companies, but experts say some legislation is still necessary

Apple's walled garden is a paradise for many, simplifying the tasks of finding, downloading, and managing music and video for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. But for some people (including me), Apple's walled garden feels more like a penitentiary.

The Bad Astronomer writes "What's the nearest star to Earth that can explode as a supernova? Spica, at 260 light years away, is the nearest massive star that can explode, but IK Pegasi — a Sirius-like binary composed of a normal star and a white dwarf — will also one day blow. At a distance of 150 light years, it's truly the closest supernova candidate. Happily, that's too far away to damage the Earth when it goes off — and it won't explode for millions of years at least, by which time it'll be even farther away. Either way, we're safe... for now." Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Making his first appearance on the Engadget Mobile Podcast since Episode 86, Chris Ziegler has returned to dive into the week's wireless news. Joining him will be the wacky duo of Myriam Joire and Brad Molen, so head past the break and hop into our chat at 5PM ET, won't you? May 18, 2012 5:00 PM EDTContinue reading Listen to the Engadget Mobile Podcast, live at 5PM ET with special guest Chris Ziegler!Listen to the Engadget Mobile Podcast, live at 5PM ET with special guest Chris Ziegler! originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 May 2012 15:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Microsoft's is once again offering students a free Xbox with the purchase of a qualifying Windows PC.

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:Zuckerberg Receives Hoodie, Says “Our Mission Isn't To Be A Public Company” In Pre-IPO Remarks  —  Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg received a commemorative hoodie from the NASDAQ CEO Bob Greifeld and thanked his site's users in opening remarks recorded before he rang the NASDAQ opening bell this morning.

medv4380 writes "38 Studios, run by Curt Shilling, is having a hard time paying its bills and employees. The gaming community hasn't been happy with the company since the issue with an Online Pass for Single Player Content, which we discussed previously. Now, 38 Studios has bounced a check intended as a payment on its $75 million loan from the state of Rhode Island. If the company defaults, Rhode Island taxpayers will have to cover the loan and interest, which could total nearly $100 million." Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Facebook shares are up 6% at $40 on their stock market debut, having initially jumped to $42 within minutes of trade beginning.

Amazon is mulling over the possibility of bringing its Kindle Special Offers program to the Kindle Fire -- but there are some concerns.

Cotton Delo / AdAge:Foursquare Hires Former iAd Exec as Revenue Chief  —  Steven Rosenblatt Is Longtime Mobile Exec From Quattro Wireless  —  A month after Ad Age learned that Foursquare will soon launch advertising products, the company has hired its first-ever monetization lead.

Facebook's much-hyped IPO kicked off today, but an anonymous reader points out that things didn't go quite as smoothly as investors hoped. "Public trading didn't get underway until about 11:30 a.m. ET, half an hour after it was supposed to. The delay was likely caused by the huge amount of interest in the stock – especially by retail investors. In the first few minutes of trading, Facebook shares were only up between 5 and 10 per cent and by noon were essentially back down to the IPO price of $38. Many observers had expected the stock to double in price by the end of the day, if not sooner." The NY Times has a data visualization showing how Facebook's IPO compares to other tech IPOs throughout the years, and how the first day of trading treated all of those companies. Meanwhile, the debate is lively over whether the social networking giant will be a good investment. "The banks helping take Facebook public want us to value this 8-year-old upstart at as much as $104 billion, more than Disney or Kraft Foods, though those companies earn three and four times more. That top valuation is also more than 100 times Facebook's earnings last year, versus 13 times for the average company. At such a high price, it will take years for this so-called earnings multiple to fall to a more reasonable level, and that's assuming the company can maintain its torrid earnings growth."[..]

With so many apps running around the Windows playground, Microsoft wants the grown-ups to be in charge of Metro. Programs for the new interface will be available only through the Windows Store, which will allow one-click installs, user feedback and crash monitoring. Developers shouldn't worry too much, as the heavy lifting for those features will all be handled by the OS. Redmond's demanding some tit-for-tat, however, asking programmers to resist the temptation to invoke APIs not included in the development kit. All the software will be vetted, App-Store style, while access to devices like GPS and cameras must be granted by users before the apps can grab them. We've already seen that the old BSOD is gone, so hopefully this new course plotted by Metro will keep those frowny faces away.Microsoft sets sandbox boundaries for Metro developers originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 May 2012 14:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink   |  Microsoft Developers Network  | Email this | Comments

Companies are now crawling with Apple sales representatives -- not paid representatives, but end-users.

London's police service will soon be allowed to 'hack' into phones of suspected criminals. This criminologist examines how dangerous this move is for ordinary citizens.

Total Telecom:Kodak accuses Apple of trying to derail its patent sale  —  U.S. firm says Apple is biggest infringer of its digital camera patents, as well as being a potential acquirer of those same patents.  —  Eastman Kodak Co. is accusing Apple Inc. of trying to shake up a planned patent sale in a bid …

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:$16B Should Cover It: Here's The $15B Facebook Privacy Class Action Suit, And Facebook's Response  —  Facebook, which has now listed on NASDAQ, is set to make $16 billion if its share holds at the $38 price that it set yesterday — more if it ends higher.  Here's a coincidence …

When Windows 8 comes out later this year, the new Start screen and Metro-style apps will likely be the first changes you'll notice, but those aren't the only things that are new. Microsoft is also making some serious security enhancements to help keep your system safer and to improve Windows' ability to combat viruses and malware. It just may be the biggest improvement to Windows security yet.

HP is reportedly considering laying off 25,000 workers. The company called that report speculation.

Facebook's initial public offering, or IPO, hits Wall Street Friday, and is one of the most highly anticipated tech stock offerings of the past decade. Everyone, it seems, wants to be in on the action. And it's possible to do so--after the big boys get their hands on it first.

"If the product is free, you are the product."

Microsoft will repeat last year's back-to-school promotion, kicking off the deal Sunday with an offer of a free Xbox 360 game console to eligible U.S. students who buy a new Windows 7 PC.

Unless you're lucky enough to live in Scandinavia, you'll have to wait till the end of summer to get your Cotton Candy fix. Aching to nab yourself a computer-on-a-stick before then? If you're willing to step down in specs, the Chinese-made MK802 could be the PC in your pocket. For $74 (versus $199 for the Cotton Candy), this 7-ounce device gives you a 1.5-GHz Allwinner A10 CPU, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of storage and, like the Cotton Candy, Android 4.0. FXI's version, on the other hand, packs a dual-core 1.2-GHz Samsung Exynos processor, and while the MK802 offers an HDMI port, the Cotton Candy includes an HDMI connector. The MK802 is slightly bulkier than its sweetly named competitor (3.5 inches vs. 3.1), but that Android logo on the front does wonders for its design cred. AliExpress.com is currently selling the MK802 with free shipping to the US -- click the source link for a gander.$74 MK802 PC-on-a-stick beats Cotton Candy to market, has ICS on board originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 May 2012 14:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink Netbooknews  |  Aliexpress.com  | Email this | Comments

Bloomberg:Facebook IPO Makes Zuckerberg Richer Than Google Founders  —  Facebook Inc. (FB)'s $16 billion initial public offering has made 28-year-old Mark Zuckerberg the 29th richest person on Earth.  —  Facebook, the world's most popular social networking company, sold 421.2 million shares for $38 each.

Apple's SIM design would result in handsets costing more to manufacture.

Sparrowvsrevolution writes "On Thursday, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing to discuss a proposed bill to limit location tracking of electronic devices without a warrant — what it's calling the Geolocational Privacy and Surveillance Act, or the GPS Act. Ahead of that hearing, University of Pennsylvania computer science professor Matt Blaze submitted written testimony (PDF) telling Congress that phone carriers, as well as the law enforcement agencies with which they share data, can now use phones' proximity to cell towers and other sources of cellular data to track their location as precisely or even more precisely than they can with global positioning satellites. Thanks to the growing density of cell towers and the proliferation of devices like picocells and femtocells that transmit cell signals indoors, even GPS-less phones can be tracked with a high degree of precision and can offer data that GPS can't, like the location of someone inside a building or what floor they're on. With the GPS Act, Congress is considering expanding the ban on warrantless tracking of cars with GPS devices that the Supreme Court decided on in January. Blaze's testimony suggests they need to include non-GPS tracking of cell phones in that ban, a measure law enforcement agencies are strongly resisting." Read more[..]

Federico Viticci / MacStories:Four Years of App Store: Developers Weigh In On Search, Discovery, and Curation  —  “The App Store is a grand slam, with a staggering 10 million applications downloaded in just three days”.  That's how Apple co-founder and late CEO Steve Jobs saluted the launch of the company's new storefront for iOS …

Students. PCs. Free Xbox 360. The Redmond team's at it yet again. Similar to last year's deal, Microsoft's hooking students up with a 4GB Xbox 360 if they drop some cash on one of its Windows machines. It's simple: shell out over $699 on a PC, or $599 if you're in Canada, and you'll be walking out with a shiny new console free of charge -- naturally, you'll have to do so at participating shops such as Best Buy, Fry's, Newegg, Staples, The Source and, of course, Microsoft's own stores. The promo is set to kick off here in the States on May 20th, while those living in the True North can take advantage of it starting today. And before you ask -- yes, you will need to show your scholar credentials to get in on the bargain.Microsoft encourages students to buy a PC, gives them a free Xbox 360 in return originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 May 2012 13:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink   |  Windows Experience Blog  | Email this | Comments

Matthew Panzarino / The Next Web:Apple no longer censoring the word ‘jailbreak’ in U.S. iTunes Store  —  Yesterday a bit of a hullabaloo was started when it was discovered that Apple was censoring the word ‘jailbreak’ in the U.S. App Store.  Now, that censoring has been corrected, and the word is visible across all categories …

Adoption of Android tablets and smartphones in large businesses has been "severely limited" because of the complexities of managing the various Android models and versions, market research firm Gartner said in an evaluation of 20 mobile device management software vendors.

bonch writes "Autoparts manufacturer Delphi has developed a diesel-like ignition engine running on gasoline, providing a potential 50 percent efficiency improvement over existing gas-powered engines. Engineers have long sought to run diesel-like engines on gasoline for its higher efficiency and low emissions. Delphi's engine, using a technique called gasoline-direct-injection compression ignition, could rival the performance of hybrid automobiles at a cheaper cost." Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Hey, we're back! And boy howdy do we have a fun show for you this month. You guys like video games, right? Great, because we'll be speaking with the directors of the award winning documentary, Indie Game: The Movie. We've also paid a visit to the Smithsonian to check out the museum's Art of the Video Game exhibit and took a look the insanely awesome Fifth Avenue Frogger arcade machine hack. We've also got a look at the newly reborn Chinatown Fair arcade in Manhattan and the month's latest and greatest gadgets -- not to mention an in-studio performance by indie singer-songwriter Alex Winston. Want to join in on the fun? Of course you do. We'll be getting this streaming party started at 6PM ET, and you can watch us live at this here URL. See you tonight!The Engadget Show is live tonight! originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 May 2012 13:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Reuters:Worries mount as Nokia burns through cash  —  Nokia Oyj is tearing through its cash reserves at an unsustainable rate, raising what some analysts say are serious questions about the struggling Finnish phone maker's ability to stabilize its finances in the months ahead.

ananyo writes "A newly-discovered microbial community living tens of meters beneath the Pacific Ocean floor uses so little oxygen that researchers believe they may be living at the absolute minimum energy requirement needed to subsist. For years, scientists thought that the ascetic conditions of the deep sub-seabed — high pressure, minimal oxygen and a low supply of nutrients and energy — made such environments uninhabitable to any form of life. The discovery extends the lower bound for life (abstract). The surface of Mars, for instance, may be inhospitable, but there may be conditions below the surface that are reminiscent of the deep subsurface on Earth. As microbiologist Bo Jørgensen comments in the Nature piece, while the discovery does not mean there is life on Mars, 'it's now really challenging to show where there is no life.'" Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Who knew that owning a ZTE Score M would mean living life on the edge? ZTE has confirmed that the MetroPCS phone has a backdoor vulnerability which could let a less-than-scrupulous hacker get root-level control over the Android 2.3 phone -- and because it's a unique app baked into the firmware, the login credentials won't change as long as the exploit survives. Other ZTE phones, like the Skate, supposedly face the same hole as well. The company says it should have a patch ready to push over the air in the "very near future," but it hasn't said why the app existed in the first place. Either way, if you currently pocket the Score M or one of ZTE's other recent Android devices, we'd keep watch for any suspicious goings-on until a fix is in place.ZTE confirms the Score M has a backdoor, hopes to patch up soon originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 May 2012 12:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink Reuters, John Gruber (Twitter)  |  Pastebin  | Email this | Comments

Drew Olanoff / The Next Web:Zynga's stock drops 13% during Facebook IPO, trading halted  —  During Facebook's IPO event, which the world is watching, a company closely tied to it called Zynga wasn't celebrating.  —  Its stock dropped over 13% and trading has been halted.  —  Since Zynga's gaming business relies heavily …

Julianne Pepitone / CNNMoney:Facebook IPO trading opens at $42  —  NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Facebook's stock market debut is finally here — and investors jumped on the breathlessly hyped IPO, sending shares up almost 11% at the start of trade.  —  On Thursday night, Facebook ( FB) set its final IPO price at $38 a share.

Alexei Oreskovic / Reuters:Facebook fizzles in debut, shares skirt IPO price  —  (Reuters) - Facebook Inc shares fizzled on their first day of trade on the Nasdaq, erasing early gains of as much as 18 percent to trade close to their initial public offering price.  The stock opened 11 percent higher and rose to $45 …

Cisco's Wireless Networking Business Unit doesn't actually talk so much about wireless networking these days. Increasingly, its message aimed at IT groups is about the broader concept of "mobility."

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carries some extra cargo: the cremated ashes of 300 souls. They include James Doohan (Scotty of 'Star Trek' fame) and Gordon Cooper, one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts.

Let's face it: right now, the head nods and other rudimentary controls of Google's Project Glass are mostly useful for looking good, sharing photos and not much else. A US patent application submitted last September and just now published, however, raises the possibility of more sophisticated control coming from your hands. A ring, a bracelet or a even a fake fingernail with an infrared-reflective layer would serve as a gesture control marker for a receiver on heads-up display glasses. Having this extra control would give the glasses-mounted computing room to grow by learning gestures, and it could even depend on multiple ornaments for more sophisticated commands -- at least, if you don't mind looking like a very nerdy Liberace. We can imagine the headaches a hand-based method might cause for very enthusiastic talkers, among other possible hiccups, so don't be surprised if Project Glass goes without any kind of ring input. That said, we suspect that Sauron would approve.Google patent application could give Project Glass one true ring controller to rule them all originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 May 2012 12:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink DVICE  |  USPTO  | Email this | Comments

(Reuters) - Networking gear maker F5 Networks said former Yahoo Inc CEO Scott Thompson has resigned from its board of directors, effective immediately.