Techno-News Blog

by ANNE EISENBERG, NY Times

PEOPLE who want to enjoy the eye-popping effects of 3-D movies at home, far from the multiplex, usually do so on a 3-D television set. Sony’s headset will be priced at $799.But for those who want an even more personal experience, Sony will soon introduce a high-definition, three-dimensional display built into the visor of a headset. Called a Personal 3D Viewer, this pearly gray visor has two small screens that sit an inch or two in front of the eyes. Pull on the visor as you would a baseball cap, plug the headset into a cable box, game console or Blu-ray player and then watch as high-definition 3-D video fills the visual equivalent of a movie theater screen. The images on the twin screens are made of micron-size pixels that are unnoticeable even from a nose-length away.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/30/business/high-definition-3-d-coming-in-a-sony-headset.html

by David Pogue, Pogue’s Posts NY Times

Man, I thought I was brilliant asking Siri, the new iPhone’s virtual assistant, funny questions like “What is the meaning of life?”

Turns out she has an assortment of answers to that question, including:

“I don’t know. But I think there’s an app for that.”

“Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in and try to live in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”

“I give up.”

“Life: a principle or force that is considered to underlie the distinctive quality of animate beings. I guess that includes me.”

“To think about questions like this.”

“42.”

“Life: the condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter including the capacity for growth, reproduction functional activity and continual change preceding death.”

“I can’t answer that now, but give me some time to write a very long play in which nothing happens.”

http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/14/siri-is-one-funny-lady/

by David Pogue, Pogue’s Posts NY Times

Every time I’m tempted to write about some tech product that’s been around awhile, I’m torn. On one hand, I’ll be blasted by the technogeeks for being late to the party. On the other hand, it doesn’t seem right to keep something great hidden under a barrel from the rest of the world. So here goes: I love Dropbox. It’s a free service that puts a magic folder on your computer desktop. Anything you put into it magically appears in an identical folder on all your other computers. That simple concept offers a wealth of possibilities. You can work on a project at the office, then go home and pick right up from where you left off. Those same files are in the same Dropbox folder — without ever having to send them, carry them or transfer them.

http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/20/dropbox-will-simplify-your-life/

by: Chris Preimesberger, eWeek

Cloud-based office suite morphs several key applications into a single service with several functions–including 100GB of storage–for a mere $10 per month. If you’re going to start a business, it’s usually a good idea to name it after what the business actually does, so potential customers can understand it immediately. A smart new Tucson, Ariz.-based company, YourOfficeAnywhere, has taken this to heart. The new service, which launched Nov. 1, is a cloud-based office suite that morphs several key applications into a single service with several functions: It facilitates online meetings for up to 200 people at a time; offers unlimited collaboration spaces for others on the services; and provides 100GB of file storage for each user —for starters.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Cloud-Computing/YourOfficeAnywhere-Launches-LowCost-Prosumer-SMB-Cloud-Office-Service-772139/

By Darryl K. Taft, eWeek

IBM conducted a Watson symposium with Harvard Business School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management Oct. 31 to highlight the innovation IBM has created in its Watson technology and to look at the future of technology in business. The event brought together some of the brightest academic minds to collaborate on the use of advanced analytics, like those powering Watson, to transform the way the world does business. As part of the symposium, teams of students from Harvard Business School and MIT Sloan School of Management tested their skills in a demonstration of IBM Watson’s question-answer capabilities in an exhibition game of the television quiz show Jeopardy! Watson, named after IBM founder Thomas J. Watson, is a computing system created by IBM scientists that understands the meaning and context of human language, can analyze data and learn correlations between data. The technology introduces the capability to sift through an equivalent of about 1 million books or roughly 200 million pages of data to provide instant answers to questions posed to it.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/IT-Infrastructure/IBMs-Watson-Stumps-Harvard-MIT-Students-470459/

By Don Reisinger, eWeek

Although it’s more than a year away, Microsoft just can’t stop talking about Windows 8. Nearly each passing day, the company has something to say about its next operating system version, and for the most part, each bit of news is quite interesting. Lately, Microsoft has been focusing many of its discussions on Windows 8 security. The company says that with improvements made to Windows Defender, Internet Explorer and the operating system’s kernel, it should be able to safeguard the software far more effectively than it has in the past. Microsoft’s efforts have become so well-received by security experts that some are wondering if users of the operating system will need anything other than the security tools that come with the software. But given Microsoft’s history, perhaps it’s not such a good idea to get so excited about Windows 8 security. Will it be more secure than Windows 7? Probably. But to say that the platform will undoubtedly become a near-impenetrable software package is laughable. Like it or not, hackers will find the inevitable security holes in Windows 8.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Windows-8-Wont-Escape-Security-Threats-10-Flaws-to-Look-For-858995/

by Rory Cellan-Jones, BBC

We used to call it “the box”. But already this century, television has been transformed, becoming ever thinner, smarter and sharper — no longer a box. And after the flat-screen and high-definition revolutions of the last decade, prepare for more change. In Japan, they have been working for years on Super Hi Vision. It gives you a picture 16 times sharper than HD and the technology, already tested by the BBC, will be on display at the Olympics next year on giant indoor screens. But getting Super Hi Vision into the home will take time and you may need to set aside a whole wall of the living room. Manufacturers in Japan are working on 85-inch screens, but don’t expect them to be on sale before 2020.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15553386

by the BBC

Neelie Kroes, the European Commissioner for the Digital Agenda, has called on EU states to appoint digital champions similar to the UK’s Martha Lane Fox. Ms Kroes said the lastminute.com founder was “doing a great job” at convincing UK adults who did not use the internet to change their minds. Talking to the BBC, Ms Kroes said it was vital to deal with the 30% of Europeans currently not online. She said EU states needed ministers with specific digital portfolios. Ms Kroes made the comments at the inaugural London Conference on Cyberspace. She took the opportunity to emphasise the social benefits of being online. “It connects communities, friends and families, as I know when I Skype my grandchildren thousands of miles away,” she said.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15544517

by the BBC

Nokia has switched on a trial of a free wi-fi service in central London. From today until the end of 2011, the public will be able to use the high-speed service in certain parts of the city courtesy of the phone firm. If the two-month trial is deemed a success, the Finnish company plans to turn it into a fully fledged free wi-fi service early in 2012. The initiative is one of many that will eventually see London dotted with hotspots offering free net browsing.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15536482

By Don Reisinger, eWeek

With the launch of the Amazon Kindle Fire only a few weeks away, just about everyone is speculating on how it might affect the tablet business. For its part, Amazon believes that it should be able to secure a sizable portion of the tablet space with its device and, thus, put some real pressure on the leader in the market, Apple. Chances are that Amazon might be right. Based on the data available now, Amazon has reportedly ordered more Kindle Fire units than it initially anticipated. What’s more, the company’s decision to make it easy for the millions of people who visit Amazon every day to find the tablet on its home page has improved sales, and that will only continue to help them in the future. Meanwhile, other tablet vendors trying to grow their market share will find themselves overshadowed by not one, but now two premier tablet makers.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Amazon-Kindle-Fire-Poised-to-Reshape-Tablet-Market-10-Reasons-Why-438820/?kc=rss

By: Clint Boulton, eWeek

Apple’s iPad is proving popular in educational markets as a supplementary slate to desktop computers, according to Piper Jaffray. Android tablets, not so much. Numerous case studies and anecdotal evidence tell the tale of Apple’s iPad as a boon for e-commerce and even in some select business markets. Law firm Prosskauer Rose, for example, issued 500 iPad 2s to its attorneys, who use them to send and receive email messages and share contracts with clients. Now evidence of the iPad’s viability in the education market is beginning to emerge, according to Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster. The analyst found that all 25 technology directors in U.S. school districts he polled were testing or actually rolling out iPads for users in schools. Conversely, no respondents indicated that they are testing or deploying Android tablets.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Desktops-and-Notebooks/iPads-No-Android-Tablets-Seen-in-US-Schools-674797/?kc=rss

By: P. J. Connolly, eWeek

Sometimes, simple evolution can be revolutionary. Apple’s iPhone 4S is identical in dimension to last year’s iPhone 4, and some observers had staked their reputations on the fifth-generation phone being branded as “iPhone 5.” Yet the 4S is overall a vast improvement on its predecessor—thanks in no small part to the inclusion of the Siri voice-control technology, which sets off the new iPhone from everything else in the market. That’s not to say that the new iPhone is all that it’s cracked up to be. Questions remain about its battery life, and about its ability to be easily moved from one carrier to another. But compared with what came before it, the iPhone 4S is truly a breath of fresh air.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Apples-Newest-iPhone-Is-Good-but-402010/?kc=rss

By Stephen Ennis, BBC Monitoring

Media control has been one of the key factors that have allowed Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to dominate Russia’s political landscape since he was first elected president in 2000. As the country prepares for parliamentary and presidential elections, though, there are signs that the Kremlin is facing a fresh media challenge in the form of an increasingly politicised audience on YouTube. Over the past few weeks, a number of Russian politics-themed clips on YouTube have achieved over one million views.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15553373

By: Fahmida Y. Rashid, eWeek

Security researchers have uncovered yet another Mac Trojan in the wild, this time hiding inside pirated versions of the Mac OS X image editing application GraphicConverter. The pirated copy of GraphicConverter 7.4 is being actively distributed on file-sharing networks and torrent sites like Pirate Bay and contains the DevilRobber Trojan, Sophos researchers reported Oct. 29. Once on the Mac OS X, DevilRobber creates a backdoor for remote access and installs a Bitcoin miner that uses up spare system resources and steals the content of the user’s Bitcoin wallet, according to Sophos. BitCoins are anonymous, decentralized virtual currency commonly used online among people interested in keeping their transactions secret. The BitCoin value is determined on an online electronic exchange and generally hovers around $14 to $17 per unit.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/New-Mac-Malware-Part-Trojan-Data-Stealer-Spyware-BitCoin-Miner-313602/?kc=rss

By: Don Reisinger, eWeek

Apple’s Siri application, which acts like a virtual personal assistant allowing iPhone 4S users to give run phone functions and applications with voice commands, has been heralded by people around the globe who say that it’s one of the most useful and appealing products they’ve tried in quite some time. Siri is especially important for Apple. Although the technology itself is nothing new, there are no other products in the wild that perform all of its many functions as effectively as Siri does. More importantly, its chief competitors in the mobile space, including Google, Microsoft, and RIM, have nothing of their own that they can point to as a strong competitor.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Siri-iPhone-Voice-App-Is-Important-to-Apples-Future-10-Reasons-Why-811341/?kc=rss

By: Clint Boulton, eWeek

Motorola Mobility will take a $31 million hit, including $27 million for severance fees and $4 million for shuttering a facility. The move came before Google’s purchase of the company. Motorola Mobility is cutting 800 jobs and closing facilities, a downsizing that will cost the phone maker a total of $31 million as it prepares to be acquired by Google. Motorola agreed to be acquired Aug. 15 for $12.5 billion by the search giant, which plans to use the Android OEM’s patents to defend against rampant litigation by Microsoft and Apple versus Android OEMs. The deal is expected to close by the end of this year or in early 2012 pending regulatory approval. Motorola Oct. 24 approved the job cuts and agreed to pay out a pretax charge of $27 million in severance costs and $4 million to close office space for the fourth quarter.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Motorola-Laying-Off-800-to-the-Tune-of-31M-514052/?kc=rss

by the BBC

The UK says cyber crime is as serious a threat as international terrorism Cyber attacks on the UK are at “disturbing” levels, according to the director of Britain’s biggest intelligence agency. Government computers, along with defence, technology and engineering firms’ designs have been targeted, Iain Lobban, the head of GCHQ, has said. China and Russia are thought to be among the worst culprits involved in cyber attacks. On Tuesday, the government hosts a two-day conference on the issue. Foreign Secretary William Hague convened the London Conference on Cyberspace after criticism that ministers are failing to take the threat from cyberwarfare seriously enough.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15516959

by the BBC

London is hosting a major international conference on the threat from cybersecurity attacks. Representatives of 60 nations are gathering to discuss how to tackle the rising levels of cybercrime. Foreign Secretary William Hague convened the London Conference on Cyberspace, and urged a “global co-ordinated response” on policy. However, Wikipedia founder, Jimmy Wales, warned that ill-advised interventions posed their own risks. The event comes a day after intelligence agency GCHQ warned that cyberattacks on the UK were at “disturbing” levels.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15533786

By Stephen Cass, Technology Review

Games are the front line in the battle to dominate mobile and social platforms. They’re also changing how businesses manage employees and engage customers.

http://www.technologyreview.com/business/?p1=featured

David Zax, Technology Review

Do you ever get tired of the simplicity and sensitivity of your smart phone’s touchscreen, or the elegance and intuitiveness of the now-standard pinch zoom? Do you want a way of interacting with your phone that requires two hands, and an element of brute force? If so, then this Nokia concept–a “kinetic device” that receives input by being bent or twisted–might be for you. A CNET reporter spotted the device at the Nokia World show in London recently, and took a video.

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/helloworld/27303/?p1=blogs

http://youtu.be/QsbZOKahdMw

by Christopher Mims, Technology Review

Twitter’s strengths are its limits; its weakness is that it isn’t limited enough. The point of Bulletiner is simple — inevitably, all social networks become overwhelmed by oversharing. The signal to noise ratio is just too hard to manage, and the utility of that network drops as the people on it shove more and more content our way. That’s why Twitter took off — its short missives increased the signal to noise ratio. The problem with Twitter is that its incentives remain perverse. To gain attention on the service, it pays to post often, so that you’re more visible in other users’ streams. Past a certain point, of course, they stop following, but the incentive is to post right up to the limit of other users’ tendency to become annoyed with you. That makes Twitter simultaneously supremely useful and annoyingly overwhelming.

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/mimssbits/27301/?p1=blogs