Techno-News Blog

July 31, 2010

Tracking the National Mood Through Twitter

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By NICK BILTON, New York Times

A Twitter mood map, showing emotions at 4 a.m. East Coast time. Greener areas indicate happiness, red ones unhappiness. If you’re happy and you know it, and you really want to show it, send a tweet. By gauging the mood of messages on Twitter, a group of researchers from the Northeastern University College of Computer and Information Sciences, along with researchers from Harvard Medical School, set out to determine how happy or sad Americans are at different times of the day and week.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/22/tracking-u-s-mood-through-twitter/

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IT Workers Getting More Confident, Report Says

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By Don E. Sears, eWeek

In the war between perception and reality, perception appears to have the edge right now. IT worker confidence in the second quarter of 2010 has risen 6.6 points to 58.2 despite rocky economic indicators all around, according to a survey by Harris Interactive that was sponsored and published by staffing company Technisource.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/IT-Management/IT-Workers-Getting-More-Confident-Report-Says-654609/?kc=rss

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Google Voice Makes Faster Calls on Android, BlackBerry

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By Clint Boulton, eWeek

Google added direct access numbers to its Google Voice for mobile application on Android and Blackberry smartphones. The company is actively soliciting suggestions from users about how to improve Google Voice. Google July 22 moved to accelerate calls placed on Android and Blackberry smartphones through its Google Voice for mobile application, the latest in a string of changes the company has made to its phone management tool.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/VOIP-and-Telephony/Google-Voice-Makes-Faster-Calls-on-Android-Blackberry-873130/?kc=rss

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July 30, 2010

Apple’s White iPhone: 10 Reasons Why It’s a Waste

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By Don Reisinger, eWeek

Apple announced July 23 that the white iPhone 4, arguably the most anticipated device the company has released in quite some time, will be delayed once again. Initially, the white version of the iPhone 4 was slated for a summer release. Last week at an impromptu press conference detailing the iPhone 4’s antenna issues, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said the device would come out by the end of the month. Now, the white iPhone 4 is being pushed back to late 2010.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Apples-White-iPhone-10-Reasons-Why-Its-a-Waste-867264/?kc=rss

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Tech that really understands you

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by the BBC

Speech recognition is being used in a range of gadgets – but does it actually work? BBC tech reporter Sharif Sakr tries out a new BMW, a Garmin sat nav, and a Google app that can all be voice-controlled. (video report)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-10701973

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The ups and downs of social networks

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by the BBC

Facebook has announced that it now has 500m active users, just six years after it was launched. The site has become the poster child of social networking on the web. While some others have seen growth, MySpace, Flickr and Bebo appear to have declined in the past year, according to these figures from Nielsen. Interesting international variations are seen, both in the amount of time Facebook users spend on the site each month and in the competing networks’ popularity in different countries.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-10719042

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July 29, 2010

The latest ways to charge your devices without wires

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by Spencer Kelly and Richard Taylor, BBC

Spencer Kelly and Richard Taylor have had a look at the market and found a couple of wireless chargers that could help you can the cables and juice up your phone or laptop – but will they catch on? (video review of devices)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/8845626.stm

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India unveils prototype for $35 touch-screen computer

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by the BBC

The Indian government has unveiled the prototype of an iPad-like touch-screen laptop, with a price tag of $35 (£23), which it hopes to roll out next year. Aimed at students, the tablet supports web browsing, video conferencing and word processing, say developers. Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said a manufacturer was being sought for the gadget, which was developed by India’s top IT colleges.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-10740817

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Be careful what you tweet

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by Bill Thompson, BBC

It all started last week when Twitter user @rachelemoody made a remark about Bad Science, Dr Ben Goldacre’s much admired book on the poor state of media coverage of medicine and science. The book includes a chapter that criticises Gillian McKeith’s work…. the situation offers a stark warning to anyone using social network sites and services that tweeting in haste may leave you to repent at leisure. We may eventually develop a set of social rules and legal conventions that acknowledge that an angry tweet is less likely to be considered defamatory than a published article, but we are not there yet.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-10740954

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July 28, 2010

Why Flipboard Matters

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By Alex Wilhelm, The Next Web

Flipboard has a core quality that makes it special: it turns noise into signal. Across several content sources, Flipboard is more than an aggregator, it is an improver of content. It sharpens the influx. The two social networks that are built into the device are prime examples of this. Flipboard is a near-perfect (see above gripes) casual Facebook and Twitter application. Flipboard takes the tweets, and turns that feed into a readable, coherent, content spread. From tweets to product, from Facebook statuses to well organized nuggets of information, Flipboard brings in text and gives you a book.

http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2010/07/24/why-flipboard-matters/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheNextWeb+%28The+Next+Web+Top+Stories%29

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The Facebook Effect: How the Social Network Touched 500M Users

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By Clint Boulton, eWeek

Facebook celebrated hitting the 500 million user mark on July 21 by launching a new consumer application called Facebook Stories. Stories is a Web app like everything else Facebook, so users needn’t download it. Simply go to this Website to read the stories users have submitted to Facebook describing how the social network has affected their lives. In some cases, such as where a high school student struck up a petition to save a theater, Facebook has been used to affect positive changes. Here is a tour of Facebook Stories, which includes some 200 stories out of the gate and allows users to view them by location around the world or theme. Users may also like and share the stories with their Facebook friends.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Cloud-Computing/The-Facebook-Effect-How-the-Social-Network-Touched-500M-Users-642965/?kc=rss

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Computer gaming skills opening career paths

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by Jessica Graham and Joe Kullman

“Look for computer games to be employed in ever more sophisticated fashion as tools to aid education, business, finance, law and even medicine,” said Ashish Amresh, a lecturer in the School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering, one of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University.

http://asunews.asu.edu/20100712_computergamingprogram

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July 27, 2010

Amazon: Kindle titles outpacing hardcovers

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by Caroline McCarthy, CNet news.com

The Amazon.com Kindle e-reader and bookstore have reached a “tipping point,” the company said Monday, with Kindle titles outselling hardcover books on the massive online marketplace for the first time. “We’ve reached a tipping point with the new price of Kindle–the growth rate of Kindle device unit sales has tripled since we lowered the price from $259 to $189,” Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos said in an announcement release, referring to last month’s price drop for the device. “In addition, even while our hardcover sales continue to grow, the Kindle format has now overtaken the hardcover format. Amazon.com customers now purchase more Kindle books than hardcover books–astonishing, when you consider that we’ve been selling hardcover books for 15 years and Kindle books for 33 months.”

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-20010975-93.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

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Google Buzz opens up the firehose

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by Tom Krazit, CNet news.com

Google has opened up a key data stream coming out of Google Buzz that gives developers access to content as it’s published. Access to the so-called “firehose” of Google Buzz data was turned on Monday, Google announced in a blog post. This allows developers to incorporate public Google Buzz content into their applications without having to go and find it: Google Buzz will just zap it directly to their apps through an API.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-30684_3-20010998-265.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

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Wired details Apple, AT&T’s ‘dysfunctional relationship’

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by Erica Ogg, CNet news.com

 Apple and AT&T may be exclusive partners, but neither is very pleased with the current state of the relationship, according to Wired. On Monday, Wired posted a behind-the-scenes look at the state of the partnership between the iPhone maker and the iPhone’s carrier partner in the U.S. News flash: the two are kind of sick of each other.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-31021_3-20011006-260.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

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July 26, 2010

Using computers to teach children with no teachers

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By Jonathan Fildes, BBC News, Oxford

A 10-year experiment that started with Indian slum children being given access to computers has produced a new concept for education, a conference has heard. Professor Sugata Mitra first introduced children in a Delhi slum to computers in 1999. He has watched the children teach themselves – and others – how to use the machines and gather information.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-10663353

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Brains take over from video game controllers

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By Jonathan Fildes, BBC News, Oxford

A wireless headset that can interpret brain waves to control video games and other onscreen action, had been shown off at a hi-tech conference. The Emotiv Epoc claims to be the first neural headset aimed at consumers. The system, which is already on sale, uses a century old medical technique to read electrical signals in the brain. The technology then uses a series of algorithms to convert them into onscreen movement.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-10647555

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Growing trend of social networking sites for children

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by Sharon Carpenter, BBC

A social networking site aimed at 6 to 8 year-olds is the latest indication that children are spending increasing time on computers. Critics say youngsters are missing out on ‘human connections’, whilst participating parents hope an early start will teach children online etiquette and safety under parental supervision.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-10670794

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July 25, 2010

Five Robots to Watch

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By NICK BILTON, NY Times

Before we know it, robots will be teaching our children in schools, sitting next to us in nursing homes and fighting for us in battle. But we are still a few years from these changes starting to enter our everyday lives. But one can dream, right? I often find myself mesmerized by robot videos that surface on YouTube. They appear from inside university research labs and are also uploaded by private company research centers, where many receive millions of views by robot-loving hopefuls.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/15/five-robots-to-watch/

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Boxee Readies Its Set-Top Box

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By NICK BILTON, NY Times

Boxee, software that allows users to watch movies and TV shows from the Web on a television, is preparing to introduce a set-top box in a few months. Boxee announced the new set-top box late last December. Boxee is working with D-Link, a Taiwanese manufacturer of networking equipment, to build the box, which is expected to go on sale for around $200.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/16/boxee-readies-its-set-top-box/

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Twitter Traffic During the World Cup

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By NICK BILTON, NY Times

In a post on the company’s blog, Matt Graves, a Twitter employee, said that the final match of the World Cup “represented the largest period of sustained activity” for a single event since Twitter started several years ago. Mr. Graves also said that during the final 15 minutes of the game the company was seeing more than 2,000 World Cup-related tweets per second, being generated from over 170 countries in 27 languages. Once Spain scored its winning goal, that number passed 3,000 posts per second.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/17/bits-pics-twitter-usage-during-the-world-cup/

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