Techno-News Blog

by Jason Mick, Daily Tech

Google, which holds an extremely dominant position in the search market, made some major modifications including changes to its search results page layout which rolled out last month. Now it’s promising “50 percent fresher results for web searches” than those found with its last indexing service. In a blog Google explains the need for Caffeine, writing, “Our old index had several layers, some of which were refreshed at a faster rate than others; the main layer would update every couple of weeks. To refresh a layer of the old index, we would analyze the entire web, which meant there was a significant delay between when we found a page and made it available to you.”

http://www.dailytech.com/Google+Rolls+Out+Addictive+New+Search+Indexer+Caffeine/article18663.htm

By Mary Jo Foley, ZD Net

Microsoft rolled out a new social search subsite on its Bing search engine that integrates Facebook and Twitter information and trending results. There’s a new subsite going live today on Bing — bing.com/social — that Microsoft is calling “the first search experience integrating the full Facebook firehose with non-pages content.” (Twitter real time content is going to be integrated there, too.) The new social search subsite will detect trending topics and surface top links that are being shared, without making non-Fan-Page content traceable back to an individual user.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/microsoft-adds-new-social-search-capabilities-to-bing/6495

By Jennifer LeClaire, Top Tech News

Apple’s new iPhone 4 is living up to expectations with “next year’s technology at last year’s prices,” as an analyst described it. He said Apple’s iPhone 4 redefines the smartphone experience. Apple’s new iPhone 4 features FaceTime conferencing, a high-resolution Retina display, a five-megapixel camera, and iOS 4 with multitasking.

http://www.toptechnews.com/story.xhtml?story_id=0210017SA5ZX&full_skip=1

By Tom Simonite, Technology Review

At a time when online privacy concerns have forced Facebook and Google to back down, it might seem audacious to ask for 10,000 volunteers to allow the government to monitor every bit and byte of their home Web use. But that is exactly what the U.S. Federal Communications Commission did last week. Better data: The FCC already has broad-brush data on the availability of broadband services across the United States. But by placing connection-monitoring equipment in 10,000 homes, it hopes to gain more detailed figures about service speed and quality. Anyone can volunteer for the program at its dedicated website. https://www.testmyisp.com/

http://www.technologyreview.com/communications/25497/

By Stephen Cass, Technology Review

The latest version of Apple’s Web browser, Safari 5, sports a feature called “Reader” that concatenates the multi-page articles seen on most news sites (including Technology Review’s) into a single scrollable window. According to Apple, the stripped down format “removes annoying ads and other visual distractions from online articles.”

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/editors/25309/

by the Associated Press

The rise of smart phones has presented Hewlett-Packard Co. with a problem. For years, HP has relied on the sale of its printer ink to supply a big piece of the company’s profits. Smart phones are a challenge because they’re by design not connected to printers, and with people reading more of their Internet content on their phones, they’re printing fewer pages. HP, the world’s No. 1 printer maker, hopes changes it announced Monday will help reverse that trend.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g_ejldKlpJ66NVRdHNLrRJVLZsigD9G76B380

by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, ZD-net

OK, so I’ve sat through the WWDC 2010 keynote speech, sifted through the tech specs and checked out the hot sheets to see what others are making of Apple’s latest creation. Time for a verdict … Evolutionary, not revolutionary.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/iphone-4-evolutionary-not-revolutionary/8551

by Anna Salleh, Australian Broadcasting Co

Cyborgs are alive and well today and asserting their rights, presenting society with a challenge that needs to be met head on, says one Australian expert.  Dr Roger Clarke, a visiting professor at Australian National University’s School of Computer Science, will outline his argument in a keynote speech to the IEEE International Symposium on Technology and Society in Wollongong next week.  “The first generation of cyborgs is alive, well, walking among us, and even running,” says Clarke, an expert in social impacts of information technologies.

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2010/06/04/2916443.htm

By Jessica Bliss, THE TENNESSEAN

Did you wash your hands? Who needs to go potty? Use your inside voices In most daycare settings, these are common catchphrases. Here’s another: “We need to Google that.” The expression is catching on at Belle Meade UMC Children’s Center, where kids are offered computer classes as early as age 21/2 and teachers have Netbook laptops in every classroom to keep notes for daily child assessments, send e-mails to parents, and Google answers to any questions that may come up during circle time. “We just want the children to understand their community, and now their community is the world,” center director Lynn Deal said.

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20100603/FEATURES01/6030349/Daycares-offer-computer-classes-to-toddlers

by David Talbot, Technology Review

But the emergence of e-books provides Alpha with a new outlet–as a ready-made supplier of interactive graphics, plots, charts, and real-time data. These features can be incorporated within publications developed for Apple’s iPad and other devices. “Deeper information becomes available by way of tapping,” says Theodore Gray, cofounder of Wolfram Research. The first example is now out: a Wolfram/Alpha app for The Elements, a book Gray wrote on the periodic table. The paper version of the book is dominated by glossy photos of elements and products made from them (Pepto-Bismol, for example, uses bismuth). The version developed for the iPad, however, is chock-full of on-screen buttons that lead to Wolfram’s online computational engine and data sets.

http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/25441/?a=f

by Tom Simonite, Technology Review

To be 4G, a mobile device like a cell phone must offer a connection of at least 100 megabits per second. WiMAX’s speeds can peak over 100 megabits per second, but it can’t reliably reach 4G-grade delivery, and Sprint’s network currently offers six megabits per second at most. For now, though, “WiMAX provides data service at the highest available rate,” says Zhi Ding, an electrical engineering professor at University of California, Davis, who leads a research group working on improving wireless communications.

http://www.technologyreview.com/communications/25472/

By Tom Simonite, Technology Review

A prototype computer vision system can generate a live text description of what’s happening in a feed from a surveillance camera. Although not yet ready for commercial use, the system demonstrates how software could make it easier to skim or search through video or image collections. It was developed by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, in collaboration with ObjectVideo of Reston, VA.

http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/25439/?a=f

By John D. Sutter, CNN

For months, the tech press has been drooling over details of a next-generation Apple iPhone, which likely will be unveiled on Monday at an event in California. The phone is expected to be fitted with a higher-resolution screen, a front-facing camera that can be used for video conferencing and a camera flash. But even with those new features, the iPhone is far from the undisputed crown jewel of the smartphone market, industry experts said in interviews on Thursday.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/mobile/06/04/iphone.competition/?hpt=Mid

By NICHOLAS CARR, New York Times

The Roman philosopher Seneca may have put it best 2,000 years ago: “To be everywhere is to be nowhere.” Today, the Internet grants us easy access to unprecedented amounts of information. But a growing body of scientific evidence suggests that the Net, with its constant distractions and interruptions, is also turning us into scattered and superficial thinkers.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704025304575284981644790098.html?mod=rss_Today’s_Most_Popular

by Neal Gabler, LA Times

For years now numerous observers have described the process by which the very fundaments of art are changing from the old principle of one man, one creation. Songs have remixes through which anyone so disposed can alter the original music; videos have mash-ups that use footage to reposition and change the original meaning; the visual arts have communal canvases and websites; poetry has Flarf, which allows one to generate verse from random words; , and books have collages, like David Shields’ recent “Reality Hunger,” which was assembled entirely, paragraph by paragraph, out of other authors’ words. Recombinant art is the rage.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-wiki-culture-20100606,0,7851757.story

By JAD MOUAWAD, New York Times

Airlines have made great technological leaps in recent years, allowing passengers to check in from home or download boarding passes on their smartphones. But if you’ve ever been stranded at an airport during a raging thunderstorm, chances are you will end up standing in a long line watching a gate agent typing furiously on an outdated computer.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/05/business/05air.html?src=busln

By Thomas Claburn, InformationWeek

In keeping with its effort to promote HTML5 as the future and to cast Adobe Flash as the past, Apple on Friday launched a new series of Web pages called “HTML5 Showcase.” HTML5 is the emerging standard for next generation of Web pages and applications. It remains a draft specification and isn’t expected to be finalized for years.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/open_source/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=225401998&cid=RSSfeed_IWK_News

By Suzanne Hodgson, Kennebunk Post

Through the Internet, students have the ability to take extra classes not offered at the school. Students whose schedule will not accommodate certain required classes or those who have a study hall can take an extra class in one computer lab Keezer runs. She said she had two students interested in being veterinarians, so they took classes online at the virtual high school. Keezer said at the end of the semester, one student loved it and one hated it, which helped both students decide if such a career was for them. Students have taken classes online including Mandarin and AP physics at Kennebunk High School, but the classes are taught in classrooms hundreds of miles away.

http://blog.kennebunkpost.com/2010/06/04/classes-evolve-with-technology—june-4-2010.aspx

by Yen-Shyang Hwang, Taipei; Joseph Tsai, DIGITIMES

Quanta Computer has announced at Computex 2010 a new touchscreen technology called dispersive signal technology (DST), which the company has co-developed with 3M, and expects to launch related products by the end of 2010. Panel featuring DST have an extra layer of specially-designed glass, which is filled with sensors, and when a finger or a pen touches the panel, the technology will find the position of the touched area by calculating the location of the “shock” the motion creates, according to 3M.

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20100601PD216.html

By Donna Miles, American Forces Press Service

Got a cell phone handy? It could be your ticket to keeping up with your professional development requirements. That’s just one concept being explored at Air Education and Training Command, the Air Force’s training and education component. Like its counterparts in the Army, Navy and Marine Corps, AETC hopes to take advantage of new and emerging technologies to provide more efficient, effective educational opportunities to the force. Most servicemembers are familiar with the concept of distance learning, with training delivered through the Internet or snail mail. Distance online learning is a big money saver for the military, reducing travel and temporary duty costs associated with classroom training. And in light of heavy mission requirements, it enables servicemembers to meet many of their educational requirements without extended absences from their duty stations and loved ones.

http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=59442

by Stephen Shankland, CNet news.com

Google has begun answering concerns that VP8, the compression technology it hopes will invigorate and liberate Web video, isn’t as good as a rival. Which is better at compressing video, H.264 or VP8? Some sites such as Quavlive offer comparisons. Nobody questions that VP8 is superior to Theora, the encoding-decoding “codec” that also has been available without royalties. But some have concluded that it’s not as good as H.264, aka AVC, today’s dominant but definitely not royalty-free codec.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20006434-264.html