Techno-News Blog

August 24, 2012

Facebook Passed Yahoo To Become The Second Largest Video Site In The U.S.

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by Leena Rao, TechCrunch

comScore’s monthly online video data is in and it looks Facebook passed Yahoo in July to become the second largest video site in the U.S. behind Google/YouTube. According to comScore, more than 184 million U.S. Internet users watched 36.9 billion online content videos in July, while video ad views totaled 9.6 billion. Google/YouTube still outpaced the rest of the online properties with 157 million unique viewers in July, compared to 53 million from Facebook, 48.7 million from Yahoo, 44.8 million from Vevo and 42.7 million from Microsoft. Nearly 36.9 billion video content views occurred during the month, with Google Sites generating the highest number at 19.6 billion, followed by AOL with 665 million. Google also took the top spot for engagement as well.

http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/17/facebook-passed-yahoo-to-become-the-second-largest-video-site-in-the-u-s-in-july/

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The Best Ways To Find Your Stolen Mobile Device

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by Veronica Henry, READWRITEWEB

Once upon a time, nothing was more stressful than losing your wallet. But these days, losing your smartphone can be even more traumatic – and even more expensive and risky. Fortunately, there are a number of ways to track and hopefully recover lost or stolen mobile devices. It’s a big and growing problem. Recent surveys show that travelers worry more about losing their phone than their wedding ring! And the Wall Street Journal estimates that losing your phone is like losing “your wallet with $900 in cash in it, plus your address book and your bank passwords.” And that doesn’t even address the security risks from compromised access to personal and corporate email, passwords and other potentially sensitive data. (This infographic lays out many of the dangers…) Worse, it happens all the time. Cell-phone insurance provider Asurion reports that 60 million smartphones are lost, stolen or damaged each year. In dollar terms, according to a report conducted by mobile security firm Lookout, Americans lost $30 billion dollars worth of smartphones in 2011.

http://www.readwriteweb.com/mobile/2012/08/the-best-ways-to-find-your-stolen-mobile-device.php

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How Online Reading Is Changing – And How to Cope!

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by RICHARD MACMANUS, ReadWriteWeb

We have outlined five reasons why Web publishing is undergoing a sea change, via new services like Medium, Branch, Svtle and App.net. In today’s post, we turn our attention to the readers. We’re all readers, in some capacity. So the changes we’re witnessing in publishing affect us all. Here’s what it will mean to you and how you can adapt. One of the curious factors in the new wave of publishing services is that they are restrictive in nature. In all four of the services we mentioned – Medium, Branch, Svtle and App.net – you cannot write to them unless you have been given permission to do so. Essentially, they’re read-only by default. In other words, this new crop of services is less democratic than what came before – Tumblr, WordPress, Blogger and even Twitter.

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/how-online-reading-is-changing-and-how-to-cope.php

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August 23, 2012

Adobe Flash Player exits Android Google Play store

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by the BBC

Adobe is pulling its Flash Player plug-in from Android’s Google Play store. It follows a decision to halt development of the software for mobile devices. The plug-in allows multimedia content created using the Flash format to be viewed via a web browser. Adobe will continue to develop the player for PCs. It will also support Air – a tool which lets developers turn web-based applications using Flash into standalone mobile apps. The Flash Player had been popular on Google Play – with two-thirds of users giving it a top score. But Adobe said it was removing the option to install the plug-in because it was likely to exhibit “unpredictable behaviour” when used with the latest version of Android, known as Jelly Bean.

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-19267140

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Sharks tracked by surfing robot and free app

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By Ella Davies, BBC Nature

A surfing robot is being used to track great white sharks off the coast of California, US, by marine scientists. The mobile transmitter is the latest addition to an extensive programme of electronic tagging. Researchers aim to fine-tune 12 years of results with the self-propelled craft and raise public awareness of the area’s diverse wildlife. Shark fans are able to follow the animals’ movements via a free app for smartphones and tablet computers.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/19287582

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Camouflage bendy robot changes colour for disguise

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By Rebecca Morelle, BBC News

The robot uses colour to either stand out from its surroundings or blend in. A robot that can change colour to either blend in with or stand out from its surroundings has been created by scientists. The machine, designed by researchers at Harvard University, was inspired by the camouflage skills of sea creatures such as octopuses, cuttlefish and squid. Like these cephalopods, the robot has a soft, rubbery body and can move with flexibility.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19286259#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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August 22, 2012

The Emerging Revolution in Game Theory

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by The Physics arXiv Blog

The world of game theory is currently on fire. In May, Freeman Dyson at Princeton University and William Press at the University of Texas announced that they had discovered a previously unknown strategy for the game of prisoner’s dilemma which guarantees one player a better outcome than the other. That’s a monumental surprise. Theorists have studied Prisoner’s Dilemma for decades, using it as a model for the emergence of co-operation in nature. This work has had a profound impact on disciplines such as economics, evolutionary biology and, of course, game theory itself. The new result will have impact in all these areas and more.

http://www.technologyreview.com/view/428920/the-emerging-revolution-in-game-theory/

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Apple’s Spat with Google Will Only Get Worse

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by Tom Simonite, Technology Review

The two companies seem fated to compete ever more fiercely over mobile computing. Apple’s relationship with Google recently reached a new low. The Cupertino, California, company announced it would drop Google Maps from the iPhone in favor of its own software and retire the YouTube app from the start screen of its mobile devices. It also launched legal action to halt sales of Google’s flagship Galaxy Nexus smartphone, which it claims infringes on several of its patents. The tussle is far from over. The direction that both tech companies are headed—toward greater reliance on mobile computing for their revenue—is setting them up for a long-term fight over the same technological turf.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/428863/apples-spat-with-google-will-only-get-worse/

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A Twitter Tweak, or a Revolution in Online Discourse?

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by Jessica Leber, Technology Review

Branch—a startup created by two Twitter cofounders—hovers in a space between a private, lengthy email thread, a public stream of tweets. Twitter cofounder Evan Williams took less than 140 characters to ask on Monday: “What are the limitations of an invite-only conversation? What do you gain and what do you lose?” The question was followed by a link to a discussion on Branch, a new site that he helped launch in public beta this week that enables this kind of conversation. Billing itself as a “new way to talk to each other,” Branch is a startup launched through Obvious Corp., an incubator started by Williams and fellow Twitter cofounder Biz Stone. Paired with a second Obvious Corp. launch this week, Medium, a publishing tool “built from scratch,” it’s clear the two Web entrepreneurs believe there is still wide room for innovation in online discourse.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/428924/a-twitter-tweak-or-a-revolution-in-online/

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August 21, 2012

Yes, Virginia, Regular Folks Can Be Taught to Code

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By KLINT FINLEYEMAIL, Wired

With so many resources for learning to program, from a children’s book that teaches basic computer science concepts to The Khan Academy’s new interactive programming lessons, you have to ask: Do any of them work? Is anyone out there learning to program and, more importantly, are they applying those skills to real-world problems? Corinne Salchunas thinks so. She’s a data analyst at customer loyalty software company FreeCause. Earlier this year she learned to program in JavaScript and has already started contributing code to the company website. Last February FreeCause announced its “Codinization Project” to teach all 60 of its non-engineering staff to code. CEO Mike Jaconi says the idea was inspired by a similar project at FreeCause’s parent company Rakuten, which taught English to all its employees in Japan.

http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2012/08/a-code-literacy-success-story/

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Why Would Some of the Brightest Minds at Facebook and Google Leave to Work For This Not-for-Profit?

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by Simi Singh Juneja, Huffington Post

In 2004, Salman Khan began tutoring his seventh grader cousin in math over the internet. The former hedge fund manager, MIT graduate, and Harvard MBA, then began recording lessons and uploading them onto the newly created YouTube from his Palo Alto closet. Along with dancing babies and cute kittens, Khan’s tutorials gained a substantial following and grew into the highly regarded not-for-profit Khan Academy “with the goal of providing a free world-class education for anyone anywhere.” Khan has been called Bill Gates’ favorite teacher and was voted one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world for 2012.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/simi-singh-juneja/post_3717_b_1721862.html

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Khan Academy Launches The Future of Computer Science

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by the Droid Guy

Educators all over the world are struggling to motivate students to take up technology-related majors and really to just learn in general. An Online Education start up known widely as Khan Academy, has a fantastic approach to this issue. “Computer Science is an intensely creative field,” says Shantanu Sinha, the President of Khan Academy. Sinha gave TechCrunch an exclusive look into their new education portal that will teach Computer Science fundamentals through interactive drawing. “We really wanted to focus on creating something that could inspire young children, and get them excited and motivated to explore CS further,” he continued. This interactive design is a major step for the website that has been almost based on YouTube lectures. Online Education is always supposedly getting what people call “revolutionary” ideas, which usually just happened to be someone else’s idea with an added feature. Often, it’s almost just a recycled version of our current education system in a digital format too. That said, the Khan Academy Computer Science project is what I would deem beyond what anyone else has thought of. I am majorly impressed.

http://thedroidguy.com/2012/08/khan-academy-launches-the-future-of-computer-science/

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August 20, 2012

A $1.2bn Simulation of Civilization

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by Tom Simonite, Technology Review

Ever wish you could turn back the clock and try a day, week, or year over again? Plans afoot in Switzerland to build a more detailed simulation of the globe’s environment, societies, and economies than ever before could make that possible. Professor Dirk Helbing of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich wants to build a “living earth simulator” to probe the kind of dangerous cascading effects that he believes threaten financial markets, power grids and other complex systems that modern life relies upon. He has a good chance at getting €1bn ($1.2bn) of EU research funding to build it, as co-leader of one of six projects competing for two huge research grants.

http://www.technologyreview.com/view/428891/a-12bn-simulation-of-civilization/

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Network Theory Breakthrough Reveals The Origin Of Outbreaks

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by The Physics arXiv Blog

Researchers solve the seemingly impossible problem of using only a few measurements to find the first victim of a disease The way information percolates through networks is of ongoing fascination to increasingly diverse groups of people. That’s why physicists have developed a new science of networks to better understand what’s going on. The models they have developed can accurately describe how disease spreads through society, how gossip spreads through social networks and how malware spreads over the internet. In other words, given the location of the source and the structure of the network, they can accurately predict how information will spread. However, the reverse task of determining the source of information after it has already spread is much harder. That’s because most interesting networks are so big that it’s impossible to measure the state of every node.

http://www.technologyreview.com/view/428906/network-theory-breakthrough-reveals-the-origin-of/

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A 3-D Printed House? Yes.

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by David Zax, Technology Review

Well, this may well be the coolest video you see today. It’s a TEDx talk from a fellow named Behrokh Khoshnevis, who is a professor of engineering at USC, where he directs something called the Center for Rapid Automated Fabrication Technologies. CRAFT has stated as its grand challenge “building a custom-designed house in a day while drastically reducing the costs, injuries, waste and environmental impact associated with traditional construction techniques.” The applications of such rapid-fire housing are endless: affordable housing for the poor; “extraterrestrial buildings constructed from in situ materials”; emergency FEMA-style housing, and the like.

http://www.technologyreview.com/view/428909/a-3-d-printed-house/

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August 19, 2012

U.S., China Talks Address Cyber-Weapons, Not Cyber-Spying

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By: Robert Lemos, eWeek

Informal discussions between the United States and Chinese think tanks have led to an understanding about cyber-spying, but not solutions. The United States and China have participated in informal bilateral discussions about restricting the use of online attacks, better crisis communication and mitigating the risk of attacks by third parties. Still, there is one issue notably missing from the dialog: any agreement on limiting cyber-espionage. Organized by the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR) and the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the discussions brought together members of other think tanks as well as government officials to highlight problems the nations continue to have in cyber-space. The groups agreed that restricting the use of attack programs in cyber-space—a.k.a., “cyber-weapons”—and cooperating more fully to secure cyber-space were both in their nations’ interests, but acknowledged that there were significant hurdles to working together, said Adam Segal, senior fellow for China studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/US-China-Talks-Address-CyberWeapons-not-CyberSpying-329861/

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BYOD Environments: 10 Hidden Networking Costs and How to Overcome Them

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By Chris Preimesberger, eWeek

Bring your own device, or BYOD, in the enterprise is the recent trend that shows how far IT has come in understanding and responding to what employees want and need to be productive. Employees coming into the workforce, especially to large enterprises, now are expecting to use new-generation devices, such as tablets or smartphones, at work. If they are not supplied with one, they often opt to use their own. As you can imagine, this can drive IT and security administrators crazy. A well-equipped mobile workforce can accelerate productivity, but because BYOD signals a fundamental shift, costs can definitely add up. According to the Aberdeen research group, enterprises now spend an extra $170,000 a year per 1,000 mobile devices deployed in a BYOD environment. A typical BYOD enterprise model costs 33 percent more than the traditional corporate-wireless model, Aberdeen reported.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/BYOD-Environments-10-Hidden-Networking-Costs-and-How-to-Overcome-Them-407533/

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Can DARPA’s Strategy Help Motorola Compete Again?

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by David Talbot, Technology Review

Google’s layoff of 4,000 Motorola Mobility workers today—just three months after buying the company for $12.5 billion—is the first step in a high-stakes bet that it can reinvent Motorola as a competitor to Apple and Samsung using cutting-edge new technology. But it will be a challenge to actually come up with a smartphone that makes a dent in a marketplace so heavily dominated by Apple and Samsung—all while convincing the handset makers that use Google’s Android operating system that Google won’t favor its own device. In addition to cutting 20 percent of Motorola’s workforce, Google fired 40 percent of Motorola’s vice presidents and installed a management team led by new CEO Dennis Woodside, a longtime Google advertising executive.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/428862/can-darpas-strategy-help-motorola-compete-again/

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August 18, 2012

Google Works to Make Search Smarter

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by Rachel Metz, Technology Review

Not content to rest on its search laurels, last week Google outlined some ways it’s working to make its flagship consumer product better and more personal. The company said Wednesday that it is allowing some users to sign up to see emails from their Gmail accounts within search results on the Web, along with the other results that would normally pop up in response to a query.

http://www.technologyreview.com/view/428805/google-works-to-make-search-smarter/

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More Grist for the iPad Mini Rumor Mill

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by David Zax, Technology Review

He’d said a 7-inch tablets would be “dead on arrival.” He called them, in an earnings call, “tweeners: too big to compete with a smartphone and too small to compete with the iPad.” But a document that has emerged from the Apple-Samsung patent battles shows that in fact, Steve Jobs eventually came around to the idea of a 7-inch tablet. In a January 2011 email, Vice President Eddy Cue wrote to Tim Cook (not yet CEO, but rather COO), “There will be a 7-inch market and we should do one. I expressed this to Steve several times since Thanksgiving and he seemed very receptive the last time… I found email, books, Facebook, and video very compelling on a 7-inch. Web browsing is definitely the weakest point, but still usable.”

http://www.technologyreview.com/view/428802/more-grist-for-the-ipad-mini-rumor-mill/

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The iPhone Has Passed a Key Security Threshold

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by Simson Garfinkel, Technology Review

It’s still possible for a hacker to take over a phone, but it’s increasingly difficult, largely because each app runs in its own isolated “sandbox.” The phone even verifies its operating system when it boots. Today the Apple iPhone 4S and iPad 3 are trustworthy mobile computing systems that can be used for mobile payments, e-commerce, and the delivery of high-quality paid programming—all of which bring Apple significant revenue in the form of commissions. In fact, in its efforts to make its devices more secure, Apple has crossed a significant threshold. Technologies the company has adopted protect Apple customers’ content so well that in many situations it’s impossible for law enforcement to perform forensic examinations of devices seized from criminals. Most significant is the increasing use of encryption, which is beginning to cause problems

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/428477/the-iphone-has-passed-a-key-security-threshold/

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