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<title>Haaze.com / Kiran01 / Voted News</title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com</link>
<description>Test Web 2.0 Content Management System</description>
<pubDate>Mon, 25 Apr 2011 07:10:01 +0000</pubDate>
<language>en</language>
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<title><![CDATA[How to clean up your Facebook feed]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=how-to-clean-up-your-facebook-feed</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=how-to-clean-up-your-facebook-feed</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 25 Apr 2011 07:10:01 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Peplyclere</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=how-to-clean-up-your-facebook-feed</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Kinect for Windows SDK means business]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=kinect-for-windows-sdk-means-business</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=kinect-for-windows-sdk-means-business</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 13 Apr 2011 07:10:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>escucce</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=kinect-for-windows-sdk-means-business</guid>
<description><![CDATA[LAS VEGAS--Microsoft had some fun while offering up details of the software development kit for Kinect for Windows. A technology evangelist named Clint Rutkas jury-rigged a lounge chair with wheels, wiring, and a Kinect motion-sensing controller for the company'sXbox 360 game console. Then, using just hand gestures, he drove the chair onto the stage at Mix11, Microsoft's annual Web and mobile phone developer conference.The Kinect SDK, though, may wind up leading to a business that's anything but trivial. The kit will give software developers tools to create applications that use motion-sensing and hand gestures. And Microsoft expects developers to come up with ideas that could generate huge paydays.Kinect drivable lounge chair at Mix11(Credit:Jay Greene/CNET)Think about running a meeting and moving through presentation with hand gestures, instead of a handheld clicker. Or maybe a device for conference video calls that knows to shift camera angles for different speakers. And there's little doubt Microsoft will come up with applications inside products such as Office.If developers embrace the technology and come up with clever and useful creations, Microsoft stands to gain. And maybe it stands to gain a lot.&quot;I think it could be a meaningful business,&quot; said Anoop Gupta, a distinguished scientist in Microsoft Research who is overseeing the project. And a meaningful business for Microsoft, which generated $62.5 billion in sales in the last fiscal year, generally has a few commas in it.That's because Microsoft would license the technology to enable so-called natural user interfaces. Software developers would likely pay Microsoft a fee to build applications that use the Kinect technology. And computer screen monitor makers would likely pay a licensing fee, too, to put the Kinect technology in their products.&quot;There's both the hardware and the software opportunity,&quot; Gupta said.And he knows a bit about building those businesses. From 2003 to 2007, Gupta built and led Microsoft's Unified Communications Group, running Microsoft Exchange Server,Microsoft Office Communications Server, and Microsoft Office Live Meeting.It's taken Microsoft some time to embrace developers using the Kinect for something other than Xbox gaming. When hackers first created applications, Microsoft was ambivalent at best. It mostly looked the other way, though Gupta said it was because the company was heads down on selling the device to gamers.Initially, Microsoft won't encourage commercial applications for Kinect. The software giant will release the SDK later this spring, but only on a noncommercial basis. That means developers can't use it for projects that they want to sell. That probably limits it to academics and enthusiasts, many of whom have already come up with creative hacks in the absence of an official SDK from Microsoft.And what happens if a developer creates an application that has commercial viability They do so at their own peril, according to Gupta. &quot;We are not making any promises that the (programming interfaces) will remain the same,&quot; Gupta said.Part of the reason is that Microsoft is trying to figure out how to draw up a commercial SDK license that protects its financial opportunity. &quot;Certainly, that would be one of the considerations,&quot; Gupta said.In the meantime, developers will have to satisfy themselves with ginning up applications more clever than a mobile lounge chair.Here's a video of me taking the Kinect Drivable Lounge Chair for a spin, with instruction from its creator, Microsoft's Clint Rutkas.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Purported iPod Touch prototype sports new home button]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=purported-ipod-touch-prototype-sports-new-home-button</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=purported-ipod-touch-prototype-sports-new-home-button</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 05 Apr 2011 07:10:20 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>purplexoxo</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=purported-ipod-touch-prototype-sports-new-home-button</guid>
<description><![CDATA[(Credit:MacRumors)Photos of a supposed fifth-generationiPod Touch have cropped up online today, first appearing on MacRumors, then later on gadget site Crunchgear. Both show an alleged prototype iPod Touch with two interesting features: 128GB of storage and a capacitive home button.The current generation iPod Touch tops out at 64GB, putting the version in the pictures at double the capacity. As for the home button, this would be an interesting move given that it has been a moving part on Apple's iOS devices since the originaliPhone. Apple briefly dabbled in non-moving, touch-activated buttons with the third-generation iPod, before moving to the clickwheel, which remains as part of the iPod Classic's design. One oddity in the design, which MacRumors points out, is that the volume buttons on the supposed prototype are still joined, which was changed in the most recent model to match the split design found on the iPhone 4. Given that, this could very well have been a design candidate for the current generation that didn't quite make the cut. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Robot clone summit like one big, happy family]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=robot-clone-summit-like-one-big-happy-family</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=robot-clone-summit-like-one-big-happy-family</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 01 Apr 2011 07:10:51 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>housefille</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=robot-clone-summit-like-one-big-happy-family</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Meet the Geminoids: Seated, from left to right, Geminoid F, Geminoid HI-1, and Geminoid DK. Standing behind them are some random humans.(Credit:Geminoid.dk)Imagine walking into a room and seeing these people. Well, only some of them are people. Imagine they're all sitting down and they slowly turn to you and one says, &quot;Welcome. You're just in time for your Voight-Kampff test.&quot; Kyoto took on a sci-fi tinge recently when the Geminoid clan had a family reunion. The people who spawned three of Japan's eerie lifelike robots met up with their clones at the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (ATR) for some heart-warming photos. ATR has been developing the air servo-powered doppelgangers since 2006, when Osaka University engineering professor Hiroshi Ishiguro unveiled an android copy of himself called Geminoid HI-1 for research into robotics and cognitive science. Ishiguro, who works with Tokyo-based entertainment firm Kokoro, later fashioned a female robot called Geminoid F that was based on a female model. Last year, Danish professor Henrik Scharfe of Aalborg University's Center for Computer-mediated Epistemology got into the game by ordering the first Geminoid based on a non-Japanese. When Scharfe ordered his Geminoid DK bot from Kokoro, the price tag was around $200,000, he told The Vancouver Sun. It took about six months to build. Scharfe can remotely operate Geminoid DK so that it imitates some of his upper-body movements such as head position and facial expression. Meanwhile, it automatically &quot;breathes&quot; and blinks for a more lifelike effect. &quot;It begins to feel very natural to operate it,&quot; Scharfe tweeted. &quot;Really like a natural extension of my first body.&quot;Scharfe said he used his clone in a translation experiment when he got together with the other Geminoids.  Geminoid DK is due to appear at an exhibition titled &quot;IRL: In Real Life 2011&quot; at the Irish Museum of Contemporary Art in Dublin this summer, where Scharfe will deliver a keynote address. The android will also do a stint at a men's fashion shop in Denmark, perhaps as a kind of freaky mannequin. What would the Old Navy dummies say<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Bing adds tweets to its news page]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=bing-adds-tweets-to-its-news-page</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=bing-adds-tweets-to-its-news-page</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 25 Mar 2011 07:10:13 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Crissy6d6</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=bing-adds-tweets-to-its-news-page</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Microsoft's Bing just added Twitter feeds to its news pages, giving readers the ability to quickly scan the latest buzz about the biggest events.When Web surfers search Bing News for a story, tweets now show up in a scrolling column on the right side of the page under the heading &quot;Public updates.&quot; So news links today about Elizabeth Taylor's funeral were accompanied by brief tributes from fans as well as promotions from publications linking to articles about the actress.Bing News Twitter feed, circled(Credit:Screenshot by CNET)The idea behind the new Twitter feed is to give readers yet another source of information. &quot;As we've seen with the tragedy in Japan or political turmoil in the Middle East, real people are relaying timely and compelling items not captured by traditional outlets,&quot; Betsy Aoki, a Bing senior program manager, writes on the Bing blog.The Twitter feed adds a bit of clutter to a page that also includes related video to the news topic as well as links to people in the news related to the search. But it also differentiates Bing News from its much larger rival, Google News.Microsoft also expanded its &quot;Liked Results&quot; feature, highlighting links that Facebook friends have &quot;liked&quot; directly in Bing's search results. Users have to be signed into both Facebook and Bing for the feature to work.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[How to transfer your iPad 1 data to iPad 2]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=how-to-transfer-your-ipad-1-data-to-ipad-2</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=how-to-transfer-your-ipad-1-data-to-ipad-2</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 14 Mar 2011 07:10:38 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Arvinda</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=how-to-transfer-your-ipad-1-data-to-ipad-2</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[SSD vs. HDD: How low will hard drives go]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ssd-vs--hdd-how-low-will-hard-drives-go</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ssd-vs--hdd-how-low-will-hard-drives-go</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 09 Mar 2011 08:10:20 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>sallyln</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ssd-vs--hdd-how-low-will-hard-drives-go</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Hard disk drives are becoming so inexpensive that prices alone--seemingly improbable a couple of years ago--garner headlines. So, how will speedy yet pricey solid-state drives keep up Beyond the above-the-fold &quot;2TB for $75&quot; attention-getters for external hard drives, laptop hard disk costs have also been dropping like a rock, pushing mobile HDDs far below solid-state drives. The laptop market is one of the primary markets for flash memory-based SSDs, which are generally faster--in some cases much faster--than HDDs.Case in point: the Hitachi Travelstar 7K500 HDD. The $64.99 price at Newegg.com not only gets you a 500GB capacity drive in a slim form factor but also one rated at 7200RPM--as fast as a laptop hard drive gets. Other goodies integrated into the drive include a 16MB cache and SATA 3 gigabit per second interface.Apple still provides a good example of the price shock facing buyers who opt for an SSD over an HDD.(Credit:Apple)Two-figure pricing like that for laptop HDDs makes SSDs look like a luxury purchase by comparison. &quot;HDD and NAND (flash memory) cost per gigabyte are destined to remain an order of magnitude apart for the foreseeable future. SSDs will remain from 10 to 20 times as expensive as HDDs of the same capacity,&quot; said Jim Handy, principal analyst at Objective Analysis, a firm that does semiconductor-related market research. Look no further than Apple for the price shock that buyers face when opting for an SSD. In its MacBook Pro line, upgrading from a 320GB HDD to a 256GB SSD adds $650 to the cost of the system. And this has been the status quo for some time. Prices are a bit lower for retail SSDs from top-tier suppliers such as Crucial, an arm of memory chip and SSD manufacturer Micron Technology. At $514.99, Crucial offers a better deal than Apple on a cutting-edge 256GB SSD with a high-speed 6Gbps interface. Still, that doesn't get anywhere close to HDD pricing at that capacity. (Note this does not include SSD pricing from second- and third-tier vendors.) &quot;SSDs will not gain prominence in PCs as long as consumers continue to fixate on price and HDD capacity at the same time,&quot; said Handy. Plummeting HDD prices may level off a bit, though, in the wake of the planned acquisition of Hitachi's hard drive unit by Western Digital. &quot;One of the consequences of the WD acquisition of [Hitachi's storage business] will likely be a reduction in the decline of average HDD prices,&quot; said Thomas Coughlin of Coughlin Associates, a data storage consulting firm. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[The iPad 2 makes its debut]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=the-ipad-2-makes-its-debut</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=the-ipad-2-makes-its-debut</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 02 Mar 2011 08:10:37 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>rayhonagnn</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=the-ipad-2-makes-its-debut</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The Apple iPad 2.(Credit:James Martin/CNET)The wait is over for eager Apple fans wanting the next-generation iPad. At an invite-only event in San Francisco today, the company took the wraps off theiPad 2.Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who is taking a leave of absence from the company, returned to unveil the new product, which is expected to be a hot seller.As anticipated, the newtablet has two cameras and is faster with dual-core processors. They just about double CPU performance and make the graphics speed 9 times faster, while using the same power as the processor from the first iPad. The iPad 2 is thinner than the older model. It went from 13.4mm in thickness on the old iPad to 8.8mm in thickness on the new one. And it works not only on AT&amp;T's 3G network, but also Verizon Wireless' 3G network. In terms of the technical specifications, the device is 9.5 inches high, 7.3 inches wide, and 0.34 inches deep. And it weighs just 1.33 pounds. It comes in three storage sizes for both the Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi +3G models: 16GB, 32GB, 64GB. And the rear camera is 720p and the front camera is &quot;VGA-quality&quot; suitable for video and still photography.The new tablet will go on sale in the U.S. on March 11 and will start at $499. The original iPad, which went on sale last April, is now $399 for the 16GB Wi-Fi only version of the product. The 3G version of the 16GB iPad is $529. Apple will begin shipping the iPad 2 internationally to 26 countries starting March 25.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[PayPal suffers outage]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=paypal-suffers-outage</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=paypal-suffers-outage</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 18 Feb 2011 08:10:36 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>riauckli1</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=paypal-suffers-outage</guid>
<description><![CDATA[PayPal was hit by an outage early this morning that prevented customers from using the online payment service for more than an hour. The outage started at 12:11 am PT,  according to PayPal's Developer Network. PayPal said it was resolved by 1:23 a.m. PT, though the company acknowledged that access to international PayPal sites, such as ones in the U.K. and Spain, may have been slow or intermittent until 2 a.m. PTThe outage prevented customers from logging into their PayPal accounts. But the company said it didn't affect the ability of merchants to use PayPal's API services through which they integrate the PayPal payment option into their own online checkout systems.PayPal schedules regular maintenance each Thursday and Friday from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. PT, but such maintenance rarely leads to downtime, according to Netcraft, a provider of Internet services.A PayPal representative sent CNET a short, very general statement later this morning, blaming the outage on a &quot;software issue discovered during routine maintenance.&quot; CNET has requested more details. This is what PayPal posted about its outage.(Credit:PayPal Developer Network)Updated at 9:20 a.m. PTwith a statement from PayPal.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[SolarCity taps GroSolar to bring solar leasing east]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=solarcity-taps-grosolar-to-bring-solar-leasing-east</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=solarcity-taps-grosolar-to-bring-solar-leasing-east</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 17 Feb 2011 08:10:58 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>arisggal</dc:creator>
<category>Eco</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=solarcity-taps-grosolar-to-bring-solar-leasing-east</guid>
<description><![CDATA[SolarCity said today that it has acquired the residential solar business from GroSolar, giving it presence in four states in the eastern U.S.Through the move, SolarCity will offer its solar panel leasing program to homeowners in New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania starting March 1, said SolarCity CEO Lyndon Rive. Financial terms for the cash deal were not disclosed. GroSolar will continue to operate its distribution business and installation for commercial customers.The deal adds about 55 people to SolarCity, giving it about 1,100 employees. It now works in 10 states, including California, Arizona, Colorado, and Texas, giving it the largest footprint in its line of business, according to the company.SolarCity is a pioneer in solar financing, through which consumers avoid the upfront cost of buying solar photovoltaic panels. The model initially took hold in California and is spreading to other states, particularly in places with high electricity prices or policies to encourage solar power.With a solar lease, consumers have solar electric panels installed and pay a monthly fee. Between reduced electricity consumption from the grid and the leasing fee, the net result is about a 10 percent reduction in electricity bills, Rive said. SolarCity also bought an energy efficiency company and intends to offer residential efficiency services in the new states later this year.Although not a giant acquisition, it does point to a trend of consolidation among solar installers. Whereas many residential installers have historically been small operations, Rive expects that larger companies will be able to operate with lower costs and expand further.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[FBI to announce new Net-wiretapping push]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=fbi-to-announce-new-net-wiretapping-push</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=fbi-to-announce-new-net-wiretapping-push</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 16 Feb 2011 08:10:41 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Cheery</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=fbi-to-announce-new-net-wiretapping-push</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The FBI is expected to reveal tomorrow that because of the rise of Web-based e-mail and social networks, it's &quot;increasingly unable&quot; to conduct certain types of surveillance that would be possible on cellular and traditional telephones.FBI general counsel Valerie Caproni will outline what the bureau is calling the &quot;Going Dark&quot; problem, meaning that police can be thwarted when conducting court-authorized eavesdropping because Internet companies aren't required to build in back doors in advance, or because technology doesn't permit it.Any solution, according to a copy of Caproni's prepared comments obtained by CNET, should include a way for police armed with wiretap orders to conduct surveillance of &quot;Web-based e-mail, social networking sites, and peer-to-peer communications technology.&quot;The last example, which was floated last fall, is likely to be the most contentious. When an encrypted voice application like Phil Zimmermann's Zfone is used, the entire conversation is scrambled from end to end. It's like handing a letter directly to its recipient--bypassing workers at the neighborhood post office, who could be required to forward a copy to the FBI.Forcing companies like Zfone and Skype, which also uses encryption for peer-to-peer calls, to build in back doors for police access was rejected in the 1990s and would mark a dramatic departure from current practice. And anyone hoping to foil the FBI could download encrypted VoIP software from European firms like Lichtenstein-based Secfone, which sells it for Android phones.Caproni's remarks don't, however, include a specific proposal. &quot;Most our interception challenges could be solved using existing technologies,&quot; she says, &quot;that can be deployed without re-designing the Internet and without exposing the provider's system to outside malicious activity.&quot; In addition, she says, &quot;the Going Dark problem does not require fundamental changes in encryption technology.&quot;The FBI's announcement comes amid two countervailing trends: a coalition of advocacy groups and technology companies including AT&amp;T and Google is pressing to rewrite federal law to include additional privacy protections for cloud computing and mobile devices. Meanwhile, the Justice Department and some conservative Republicans have proposed that Internet service providers (and perhaps Web companies as well) be required to keep records of what their customers are doing, a concept called data retention.Yesterday some members of that same coalition--the American Library Association, the Center for Democracy and Technology, NetCoalition (Google, Yahoo, and CNET are members), and TechFreedom--released an open letter expressing concerns about the FBI's push to broaden wiretapping laws. At the very least, the letter says, the bureau must &quot;identify the particular services or technologies most in need of additional surveillance capability&quot; and demonstrate that alternatives to new laws won't work.The FBI is couching its arguments in broad terms, saying it's only trying to preserve the ability to conduct wiretaps as technology advances. &quot;Any solution to the Going Dark problem should ensure&quot; that once a judge has approved a wiretap request, Caproni is expected to tell a House of Representatives committee tomorrow, &quot;the government is technologically able to execute that court order in a timely fashion.&quot;Today's capabilitiesElectronic Frontier Foundation attorney Kevin Bankston said this evening that the FBI already can intercept messages on social-networking sites and Web-based e-mail services with existing law. (This was the purpose of the FBI surveillance system known as Carnivore, later renamed DCS1000.)&quot;Facebook messages and Gmail messages travel in plain text over those same broadband wires for which the FBI demanded wiretapping capability just a few years ago,&quot; Bankston said. &quot;Why has that new capability not been sufficient&quot;Congress should investigate exactly how the FBI has used its existing interception capabilities, he said, before contemplating &quot;adding to that capability and forcing online communications service providers to redesign their systems to introduce new security vulnerabilities to facilitate government wiretapping.&quot;Under a 1994 federal law called the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, or CALEA, telecommunications carriers are required to build in back doors into their networks to assist police with authorized interception of conversations and &quot;call-identifying information.&quot; As CNET was the first to report in 2003, representatives of the FBI's Electronic Surveillance Technology Section in Chantilly, Va., began quietly lobbying the FCC to force broadband providers to provide more-efficient, standardized surveillance facilities. The Federal Communications Commission approved that requirement a year later, sweeping in Internet phone companies that tie into the existing telecommunications system. It was upheld in 2006 by a federal appeals court.But the FCC never granted the FBI's request to rewrite CALEA to cover instant messaging and VoIP programs that are not &quot;managed&quot;--meaning peer-to-peer programs like Apple's Facetime, iChat/AIM, Gmail's video chat, andXbox Live's in-game chat that do not use the public telephone network. In the last few years, according to Caproni's prepared remarks, investigations have been hindered because of the lack of built-in back doors. Examples she cites include a two-year Drug Enforcement Administration investigation into cocaine importation that was thwarted because an unnamed communications provider lacked intercept ability, and a 2009 child pornography prosecution where neither the (unnamed) social networking site nor the (unnamed) communication provider could intercept the communications.&quot;On a regular basis, the government is unable to obtain communications and related data, even when authorized by a court to do so,&quot; Caproni's statement says. It adds, however, that the Obama administration does not have an official position on whether any legislative changes are necessary.If Congress does nothing, law enforcement still has options. Police can obtain a special warrant allowing them to sneak into someone's house or office, install keystroke-logging software, and record passphrases. The Drug Enforcement Agency adopted this technique in a case where suspects used PGP and the encrypted Web e-mail service Hushmail.com. And the FBI did the same thing in an investigation of an alleged PGP-using mobster named Nicodemo Scarfo.Another option is to send the suspect spyware, which documents obtained by CNET through the Freedom of Information Act in 2009 showed the FBI has done in cases involving extortionists, database-deleting hackers, child molesters, and hitmen. The FBI's spyware is called CIPAV, for Computer and Internet Protocol Address Verifier. Update 12:00 a.m. PT Thursday: I should have noted that the EFF obtained some relevant documents via FOIA a few weeks ago that they posted on Wednesday, just in time for the House hearing. Among the high points: the FBI's Operational Technology Division says that the Going Dark program is one of the FBI's &quot;top initiatives.&quot; There's a five-pronged Going Dark program that includes extending existing laws and seeking new federal funding to bolster lawful intercept capabilities. Going Dark has been an FBI initiative since at least 2006 and has involved writing checks to consultants at RAND Corporation and Booz, Allen and Hamilton to come up with solutions.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Microsoft accuses former employee of cloud data theft]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=microsoft-accuses-former-employee-of-cloud-data-theft</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=microsoft-accuses-former-employee-of-cloud-data-theft</comments>
<pubDate>Sat, 12 Feb 2011 08:10:02 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>eimadep</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=microsoft-accuses-former-employee-of-cloud-data-theft</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Microsoft has suspicions that an ex-employee retained strategic data after he left the firm for a position at rival Salesforce.com. In an amended court motion, filed with a Washington State Superior Court on Thursday, Microsoft alleged that Matt Miszewski lied about retaining over 600MB of proprietary information after he left the company, according to reports. &quot;[The data] would be highly valuable to Microsoft's competitors, including Salesforce.com,&quot; Microsoft said in the motion, according to Computerworld, &quot;both in terms of capitalizing on Microsoft's efforts to prepare these materials, as well as revealing in detail Microsoft's own competitive strategies.&quot; Upon his resignation on 31 December Miszewski told Microsoft he had taken purely personal items with him, Microsoft said in the motion.Read more of &quot;Microsoft accuses former employee of cloud data theft&quot; at ZDNet UK. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Blasts from the past: iPhone apps of the week]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=blasts-from-the-past-iphone-apps-of-the-week</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=blasts-from-the-past-iphone-apps-of-the-week</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 11 Feb 2011 08:10:30 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>lingInibunk</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=blasts-from-the-past-iphone-apps-of-the-week</guid>
<description><![CDATA[(Credit:CNET)I grew up playing video games and was part of the era of going to arcades and dropping quarter after quarter into my favorite games. Back then, if you would have told me that one day I could play the same games on a mobile phone I would probably have said, &quot;I doubt it, and who would want to lug one of those giant things around anyway&quot; In the '80s, mobile phones were huge. In other words, I would never have believed it.Now, there are hundreds of games in the iTunes App Store that bring old classics to your touch screen. Not all of them are perfect, certainly. Sometimes the controls don't translate well to the touch screen, for example. But even with mediocre controls, it's still fun to be able to play a game you loved as a kid while you're commuting to work.This week, two games were released that were favorites of mine in the arcades, and both work relatively well on the touch screen. My question to you is, What games from the old days should be made for iOS What games should not Let's talk about it in the comments. This week's apps are a classic gory fighting game and an arcade basketball remake that might already be one of my favorite games of 2011.The graphics look great on both the iPhone 4 Retina display and the iPad.(Credit:Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 for iPhone (99 cents) and iPad ($4.99) brings the legendarily gory and addictive fighting game to iOS, and it mostly hits the mark with only a couple of problems. What was formerly a smash hit (and somewhat controversial) stand-up arcade game went through a complete facelift for theiPhone version. Gone are the stop-motion character animations from the original arcade game, replaced with beautiful 3D animations that recreate all your favorite characters' fighting moves. For the most part, this game looks and plays great, as long as you can get past the limited character set and the lack of tactile controls.Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 lets you choose from nine characters, with two you can unlock by beating the game twice in the Arcade mode on different skill levels. While the characters included work great, characters with more complex animation requirements (like Cyrax and Kabal) were not included in the iOS version of the game. Hopefully EA will add these characters in later versions of the game, but perhaps they are waiting for a future, more powerful iOS device.Even without the remaining characters, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 is a great game. The control system includes a directional pad on the left and punch, kick, run, and block buttons on the right. What's interesting here is you can use the original six-button layout from the arcade version or you can use a modified control system that saves you from the difficult joystick motions required for some of the more complex fighting moves. (Instead of a complex set of commands, you simply hit the Special Attack button and a direction to use a character's signature moves.) While the purist in me initially thought this made the game too easy, I began to appreciate not having to remember the complex moves and just seeing the cool results.The Mortal Kombat franchise has always been controversial for its violent &quot;Fatality&quot; moves, and you'll get to do them all in the iOS version. Along with the modified control system giving you a break on the more complex moves, you also can pause the game at any time to see a list of moves and special attacks for your character, as well as Fatality moves, Babalities and Friendship. While some fans of the original game may think this makes the special moves too easy, fight game novices will appreciate being able to jump right into the game and use every advantage at their disposal.You get a few game modes to play, including Arcade, Survival, and Local multiplayer. The Arcade mode challenges you to fight your way to the top of a group of random opponents with four different difficulty levels adding extra challenge along with more opponents to fight through at harder difficulties. Survival lets you take on an endless stream of opponents to see how long you can last with one character. Local Multiplayer lets you play against a friend over a shared Wi-Fi connection. There is no online multiplayer at this time, but perhaps that is another feature that will come in later versions.Overall, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 is a beautiful game and plenty of fun in spite of its various issues. If you are a fan of the franchise, you will enjoy being able to bring the game with you on your iOS device and the graphics look great on both the iPhone andiPad. It's important to note that this game is probably not for kids with a high level of animated violence and some pretty gruesome finishing moves.Monta Ellis sizes up the defense before taking it to the bucket.(Credit:Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)NBA Jam is an updated and faithful recreation of probably the most popular standup arcade basketball game of all time. For those who never went through several dollars in quarters at the local arcade playing this fun classic many years ago, NBA Jam is not your standard five-on-five simulation you see on consoles. This game is all about two-vs.-two high-flying dunk basketball, where just about every play is worthy of a highlight reel.The control system for NBA Jam on offense includes a directional pad on the lower left part of the screen, and pass, shoot, and speed boost buttons on the lower right. On defense you have the D-pad, but your options are steal, jump (for blocks), and speed boost buttons.Each team of the full 30-team NBA lineup uses the currently biggest stars on each team as your default starters. But the game gives you a couple of options for other players on the team should you decide to go with a different strategy. You also decide which player you control on your chosen team, but be aware that you will control that player the entire game--there is no player switching in NBA Jam as you have on consoles.The gameplay in NBA Jam is excellent--just like the arcade classic. You get a couple of game mode options including a standard exhibition game so you can start playing immediately in a single game, and a longer classic campaign mode in which you play games against all 30 teams for the championship. NBA Jam also has a number of achievements you can earn--all of which are listed in the Challenges section.Probably best of all for those of us who played the original arcade game, NBA Jam offers unlockable classic players for each team. Some expansion teams will only let you play as the mascot, but most teams have classic players many NBA fans will remember from the original arcade game. Once it's unlocked you can play past greats Magic Johnson and James Worthy from the Los Angeles Lakers, Dominique Wilkins and Kenny Smith from the Hawks, and Tim Hardaway and Chris Mullin from the Golden State Warriors, as examples. Also, to add to the nostalgia, EA has used the same announcer from the original game who still says &quot;Boom Shakalaka!&quot; among other things when you make a particularly nasty dunk.Our only problem with this otherwise solid iOS game is that it doesn't include a multiplayer mode, because part of the fun in the classic arcade game was smack-talking as you dunked on your friends. We hope later releases will add online multiplayer games, but even just the ability to play locally would be a huge improvement because this game needs to be played head-to-head.Overall, even if you just play this single-player game with the current rosters, NBA Jam has enough excitement and challenge with four skill settings to keep you coming back for more. Anyone who played the original arcade game, or anyone with even a passing interest in basketball or sports games, will love this game.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Roof-mounted solar assists in cooling too]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=roof-mounted-solar-assists-in-cooling-too</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=roof-mounted-solar-assists-in-cooling-too</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 03 Feb 2011 08:11:05 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>jsetan</dc:creator>
<category>Eco</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=roof-mounted-solar-assists-in-cooling-too</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Conserval Engineering is testing a new product with the U.S. Army based on its original solar thermal wall panels that could help cool a building in addition to helping heat it up, the company announced today.The company is best known for its SolarWall corrugated galvanized-steel solar collectors that can be used to heat a building's HVAC (Heating, Ventilating, and Air Conditioning) system as a way to save energy and bring down heating costs. It's used mainly on commercial, industrial, or large apartment buildings with vast wall space. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory, for example, installed a solar collector air heating system from SolarWall for its Research Support Facility. SolarWall air heating system panels are mounted on the Research Support Facility at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo.(Credit:NREL/U.S. Department of Energy)Conserval Engineering's new product, NightSolar, employs technology that works akin to the Nocturnal Radiation principle, in which a large body, like the Earth, for example, after spending a day absorbing heat from the sun, radiates that heat back into the cold night air.SolarWall air heating systems are attached to south-facing walls so they can absorb long-wave radiation delivered by the sun (aka heat) during the day and transfer that heat to passed air via the building's HVAC system. The new product does that and its opposite. Connected to air handlers or an air conditioning system, the NightSolar roof panel can also draw the heat from warm air inside a building and transfer that heat out into the cooler night air.As with the heating version, the NightSolar system is limited in function and is an aid toward building energy efficiency but not really a solution.For example, it can only chill air 10 degrees Fahrenheit below the building's ambient temperature, and only works between sunset and sunrise, according to company statistics.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Synology DS1511+ review: Storage, features, performance galore]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=synology-ds1511-review-storage-features-performance-galore</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=synology-ds1511-review-storage-features-performance-galore</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 26 Jan 2011 08:10:57 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>drpepper782</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=synology-ds1511-review-storage-features-performance-galore</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The Synology DS1511+ NAS server on CNET test bench.(Credit:Dong Ngo/CNET)You won't find any network storage device that offers more space than the recently reviewed five-bay DS1511+ NAS server from Synology. This is the first NAS we've reviewed that has up to 15TB of storage space out of the box, by supporting the new 3TB hard drives. On top of that, when used with two DX510 expansion units, the server's storage space can be scaled up to be 45TB. With front-facing drive bays, it's easy to replace or add more hard drives to the systems.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Paging Larry: Google's new CEO has lots to do]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=paging-larry-googles-new-ceo-has-lots-to-do</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=paging-larry-googles-new-ceo-has-lots-to-do</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 20 Jan 2011 08:10:01 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>dveri-Vopmeseapsugs</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=paging-larry-googles-new-ceo-has-lots-to-do</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Google&amp;39's Larry Page (right) has plenty of work now that Google&amp;39's ruling trio of Eric Schmidt (left) and Sergey Brin has changed.(Credit:Joi Ito/Flickr)Back in 2001, Larry Page wasn't ready to lead Google's 200 employees. Ten years later, with 24,400 employees, Page takes control of a much more complex operation, and both still have much to prove. Ready or not, it's Page's company now, following news that former CEO Eric Schmidt would be moving up and out of the way to assume a traveling statesman role as Google's public face. Page's longtime partner Sergey Brin will focus more on product and technology direction while Page assumes control of Google's overall strategy and financial performance, which is a similar working relationship the two enjoyed before Schmidt came on the scene. For all who levy the one-trick pony accusation at Google these days, back then that's exactly what is was. Now not only does Page have to make sure that Google stays atop the search world, he needs to figure out a way to make Google relevant in social media, oversee a burgeoning mobile software platform, nurture an enterprise-software sales and support group, and figure out a way to keep Google's best employees from departing for Facebook, Twitter, Zynga, and the other darlings of the start-up world. Oh, and the government is watching.Page is easily the shyest member of Google's Big Three, and with his elevation arguably becomes the most socially awkward CEO of any of the ruling powers of Silicon Valley. His performance on stage at the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show was awkward even by geek standards, as Page's monotone delivery and handheld paper notes lulled the Vegas crowd to sleep. But he is not one to be underestimated' the engineer who created PageRank with a keen mind for strategic concerns and a sense of what people want from Google. For example, he bootstrapped the Google Street View project by driving around Palo Alto, Calif., with a video recorder hanging out the side of hiscar. He famously wrote in the letter accompanying Google's 2004 initial public offering that &quot;Google is not a conventional company. Eric, Sergey and I intend to operate Google differently, applying the values it has developed as a private company to its future as a public company.&quot; Now that that ruling troika has changed, what's next for Page Perhaps the most immediate change is that Page now holds the legal responsibilities of a CEO, responsible for Google's financial statements and accountable to the demands of any legal actions in which Google is involved. Like most companies its size, that's quite a few, and staying on top of all those considerations will sap a lot of time from Page's schedule. The aforementioned 2004 letter was inspired by Warren Buffett's approach to management, and if Page adopts many of the Oracle of Omaha's tactics, he'll probably be all right. Yet while Google is far from broken as a financial and technical machine, Page's biggest challenge is the longer-term problems facing Google. As noted in our 2011 resolutions for Google, in addition to the social-media concerns, it needs to successfully confront government regulators and ramp up its game in consumer software to match the Apples of the world. If Schmidt is free to concentrate on Google's external opportunities and threats, Page and Brin can tag-team Google's strategic and execution problems when it comes to product development. Page also needs to figure out a way to make Google a more nimble decision-maker and more attractive place for those with entrepreneurial leanings. Google has experimented with alternative management structures that created autonomous teams, as it has did with the Google Wave team (perhaps not the best example from Google's point of view). However, there's just no getting around the fact that young, talented engineers looking to make a score before they settle down aren't as attracted to working for Google has they once were five years ago, when Google was the place to be. While life at Google has hardly turned into sweatshop labor, there are alternatives to its particular brand of engineering playgrounds filled with gourmet food and volleyball courts. Is Page merely a placeholder CEO, keeping the chair warm until another adult can be brought in to supervise It's certainly hard to imagine Google adding an external CEO at this point in its career, but an additional challenge for Page will now be succession planning and executive retention. For when the CEO is only 38, the experienced senior vice presidents who are invaluable when it comes to running the company can do the math and calculate whether their careers would be better served elsewhere. In any event, it's his company now. When Page wrote that 2004 letter, he envisioned working as one leg of a stool alongside Schmidt and Brin for a long time. While Schmidt isn't exactly leaving, he is putting an outsized amount of responsibility on the back of a brilliant engineer who hasn't run a company in 10 years. It's up to Page to prove that he's ready for the challenge of running one of America's most important and most targeted organizations. Google might wait a while before booking him on the Stephen Colbert show.See also:&amp;149' Schmidt: 'Adult supervision' at Google no longer needed&amp;149' CEO shake-up at Google: Page replaces Schmidt&amp;149' Eric Schmidt's letter on stepping down as CEO<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[CES: Skystream turbine makes most of air stream]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ces-skystream-turbine-makes-most-of-air-stream</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ces-skystream-turbine-makes-most-of-air-stream</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 06 Jan 2011 08:10:41 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>grydarmon89</dc:creator>
<category>Eco</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ces-skystream-turbine-makes-most-of-air-stream</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Southwest Windpower&amp;39's Skystream 3.7.(Credit:Southwest Windpower)Veteran wind turbine manufacturer Southwest Windpower unveiled a highly efficient small wind turbine at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas today.Southwest Windpower claims the Skystream 600, its follow-up to the Skystream 3.7, can produce 7,400 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year when used in an area with an average annual wind speed of 12 mph.If true, that's a pretty impressive small wind turbine. Many small wind turbines sold in recent years have touted around 2,000 kilowatt-hours annually under average conditions.Consider that Helix Wind claims about 3,362 kilowatt-hours annually with an average 15.6 mph wind speed for its vertical S594 turbine, and 3,168 kilowatt-hours for its D361 vertical axis wind turbine. The Windspire turbine is said to produce 2,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity annually when placed in an area with 11.2 mph to 12.5 mph average wind speeds. Windtronics claims 2,000 kilowatt-hours for its fan-like small wind turbine in a Class 4 wind area. The Swift turbine claims 1,900 kilowatt-hours annually in an area of 13.4 mph average wind speed.Although past SouthWest Power claims when it comes to turbine generation have proved true to rating to researchers, it's still wise to remain skeptical.Two recent studies, one in Massachusetts and one in the U.K., have shown that turbine manufacturers' power generation claims tend to be drastically overrated compared to real-life results, especially in urban areas. Both studies attributed the difference to unanticipated localized wind obstructions like buildings as well as technical glitches and poor placement. While governments and other groups have made area wind maps widely available, they obviously don't take into account local neighborhood conditions.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Man uses computers to discover four planets]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=man-uses-computers-to-discover-four-planets</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=man-uses-computers-to-discover-four-planets</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 03 Jan 2011 08:10:50 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>elishassah</dc:creator>
<category>Social</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=man-uses-computers-to-discover-four-planets</guid>
<description><![CDATA[How do you expect to achieve immortalityWell, should sporting prowess have passed you by, or should you have suffered an unfortunate career-ending injury on a night out with some foreign language students, perhaps you might might use your computer to discover a planet or two.Or, in the case of British utility worker Peter Jalowiczor, four. The Daily Mail reports that Jalowiczor is something of an astronomical enthusiast, despite not actually owning a telescope. If you want to discover a previously unknown planet, you don't apparently need the technology enjoyed by Admiral Lord Nelson.Jalowiczor told the Mail that he used two home computers--and much of the spare time of his last three years--to analyze data released by the University of California's Lick-Carnegie Planet Search Team in Santa Cruz, Calif.Jalowiczor, who does have a couple of college degrees, used Doppler spectroscopy to locate planets that are too far away to be located by telescopes or Richard Branson spacecraft. And now planets HD31253b, HD218566b, HD177830c, and HD99492c all have Jalowiczor as their co-Columbus.Would people have deep feelings for Pluto if it were just HD447799b(Credit:CC Lunar and Planetary Institute/Flickr)He described his technique to the Mail: &quot;I look for faint changes in stars' behaviors that can only be caused by a planet or planets orbiting about them. Once I identify likely candidates, I send the details back to Santa Cruz.&quot;In the countless nights that he spent searching he was, he told the Mail, looking for a very simple phenomenon: &quot;If a planet orbits a star it causes a tiny wobble in the star's motion and this wobble reveals itself in the star's light.&quot;So tonight--and perhaps for the next year or two--perhaps you should put aside your video games and deny yourself the pleasures of your DVR recording of VH1's &quot;Basketball Wives.&quot; Instead, you could go to your computer and discover your own planet far, far away. And when you do, please appeal to those who name planets. Please encourage them to stop using those dull nomenclatures that look like emergency passwords sent by online retailers.Planets are not just a number. They are personalities. And, for all we know, they have feelings. I feel sure Pluto, the ousted planet, certainly does.Wouldn't you prefer to hear about what's happening on Planet Jalowiczor rather than Planet HD31253b <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[RIM rejects claims of weak PlayBook battery]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=rim-rejects-claims-of-weak-playbook-battery</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=rim-rejects-claims-of-weak-playbook-battery</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 30 Dec 2010 08:10:22 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>limaparx232</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=rim-rejects-claims-of-weak-playbook-battery</guid>
<description><![CDATA[RIM&amp;39's BlackBerry PlayBook(Credit:Research In Motion)RIM has rebutted recent claims that its upcoming BlackBerry PlayBook tablet is hampered by a short battery life.On Tuesday, Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu issued a report in which he cited unnamed sources saying that the PlayBook's battery lasts only a few hours, compared with Samsung's Galaxy Tab, which lasts for six hours, andApple's iPad, which runs for 10 hours on single charge. The analyst pointed to the weak battery life as a reason why Research In Motion has delayed the launch of the device until the company's May 2011 quarter.But in a response issued today, RIM rejected those claims, according to Reuters, and insisted that the development of the battery was on schedule and that its life would be comparable to that of the competing tablets. The BlackBerry maker also offered an explanation of why outside testers may have assumed the battery would be weak.&quot;Any testing or observation of battery life to date by anyone outside of RIM would have been performed using pre-beta units that were built without power management implemented,&quot; the company said in a statement e-mailed to Reuters.Even with comparable battery life, the PlayBook faces an uphill battle competing against the likes of the iPad. An analyst from Oppenheimer expects RIM to sell only around 3.3 million units over the course of the year after it launches. In contrast, Apple sold 3 million iPads just in the first three months.See also:BlackBerry PlayBook, first impressionsRIM BlackBerry PlayBook (photos) <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Apple sued over privacy in iPhone, iPad apps]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=apple-sued-over-privacy-in-iphone-ipad-apps</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=apple-sued-over-privacy-in-iphone-ipad-apps</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 28 Dec 2010 08:10:05 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>healthmedicine</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=apple-sued-over-privacy-in-iphone-ipad-apps</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Apple is being sued for allegedly letting mobile apps on theiPhone andiPad send personal information to ad networks without the consent of users.Jonathan Lalo, who filed the lawsuit on Thursday in U.S. District Court in San Jose, Calif., alleges that Apple's iPhones and iPads let ad networks track which applications people download, how often they're used, and for how long, according to a Bloomberg article published today.Specifically, the suit alleges that the ad networks are able to trace an iPhone or iPad using the unique device identifier, or UDID, which is a number specific to each unit that can't be blocked by users. Claiming that sending personal data without consent violates federal computer fraud and privacy laws, the suit is seeking class action status on behalf of all Apple iPhone and iPad users who downloaded an app between December 1, 2008, and last week, according to Bloomberg.Privacy concerns over mobile data have heated up lately. Last week, a Wall Street Journal article asserted that mobile apps send certain information without the user's consent or knowledge. That article helped light a fire under the Mobile Marketing Association, an industry group that is now calling for new, more transparent privacy guidelines to tell consumers what information gets sent to advertisers and how it's used.Along with Apple, the lawsuit names as defendants certain mobile apps, such as Pandora, Paper Toss, Weather Channel, and Dictionary.com, Bloomberg reported. The Journal article had specifically mentioned Pandora, which it found was sending age, gender, and other personal information to ad networks, and Paper Toss, which the paper asserted was transmitting UDIDs.An Apple representative told CNET today that the company declines to comment on the suit.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Cash is dead, says Dwolla]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=cash-is-dead-says-dwolla</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=cash-is-dead-says-dwolla</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 17 Dec 2010 08:10:17 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>mandidmdda</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=cash-is-dead-says-dwolla</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Dwolla is a relatively new online payment system that's designed to hit PayPal where it hurts: the transaction fees.PayPal transactions, as well as credit-card payments, incur fees based on a percentage of the transaction amount in addition to a transaction fee. Dwolla transactions cost 25 cents each. The whole idea is to move cash cheaply--for businesses and for consumers. Dwolla founder Ben Milne says his retail payment kiosk is cheap, too. It's virtual, relying on Web-connected point-of-sale systems on one side and consumers with smartphones on the other. A consumer selects the store he or she wants to pay and enters the amount on the smartphone app' the register clerk can see a payment come in and close the transaction. In the future, Dwolla's mobile app, which is currently very bare-bones, will get location awareness so it will know what store you're in when you go to use the system to send a payment. But Dwolla is about more than saving consumers and retailers money on fees, Milne says. It's also closely tied in to social networks, today's de facto address books. From the Dwolla site, you can pay anyone in your Facebook or Twitter circle. All you have to do is start typing in their online name to find them. With Paypal, you can pay people if you know their e-mail address. Back in 1999, the company that eventually became PayPal had a strong person-to-person angle, except instead of relying on smartphones and the Web, the original PayPal made it possible for Palm Pilot users to &quot;beam&quot; money to each other over their devices' infrared links. Assuming I fund my Dwolla account, I&amp;39'll be able to easily send money to Facebook friends.(Credit:Screenshot by Rafe Needleman/CNET)Can Dwolla become the next PayPal--the scrappy payment company that's more convenient, more personal, and cheaper to use than the big guys (debit cards, credit cards, and PayPal itself) And, more importantly, when you're dealing with a service that connects to your bank account, is scrappy what you want The companies funding Dwolla have well-established relationships with the banking industry, at least in Iowa, where the company is based. The Veridian Credit Union gives the company a footprint in banking, and The Members Group does financial transaction processing and serves as Dwolla's backbone for executing money transfers. In Dwolla's hometown of Des Moines, a small number of businesses (like the Mars Cafe and Crown Cleaners) are currently taking payments with the system. Milne seems proud to tell me that the service has over 2,000 active users. In other words, it's barely off the ground. But Milne believes that lowering transaction costs and making it easier and cheaper for people to pay one other and small businesses is the right pitch for today. He says that people of his generation--he's 28--don't carry much cash around for incidental day-to-day expenses. He adds that the popularity of services like Mint, which tracks everything you spend electronic money on, highlight a problem of paying with cash: you can't track what you've spent. (On the flip side, when you don't want to leave any sort of record, that's cash's big bonus.) Dwolla does have a scary element: it can reach into your bank account. But then again, so can Mint, and it's doing pretty well. Other than that, it's a low-risk service to try. There are no fees unless you use it, and when you do, the 25 cents per transaction is close enough to free to not dissuade people from trying it out. For day-to-day cash transactions, Dwolla has the potential to become a major service. It will be interesting to see if the organizations behind existing electronic payment systems lower their rates or launch competing flat-fee services to keep this new and smart start-up at bay.See also: Oodle's social classifieds<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Report: Euro telcos want tech companies to pay]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=report-euro-telcos-want-tech-companies-to-pay</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=report-euro-telcos-want-tech-companies-to-pay</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 08 Dec 2010 08:10:29 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>csandaussu</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=report-euro-telcos-want-tech-companies-to-pay</guid>
<description><![CDATA[European telcos say companies like Google, Apple, and Facebook should pay to help them keep up with growing demand for data on their networks, according to an article published by Bloomberg today. France Telecom-Orange, Telecom Italia, and Vodafone Group would like to charge content providers fees linked to usage to help cover the cost of upgrading wireless broadband networks. France Telecom-Orange Chief Executive Officer Stephane Richard discussed the issue at the &quot;Le Web&quot; conference in Paris Wednesday. Richard said the current mismatch between revenue and investment for Internet infrastructure providers is not sustainable.&quot;Service providers are flooding networks with no incentive&quot; to cut costs, Bloomberg quoted France Telecom CEO Stephane Richard as saying said last month. &quot;It's necessary to put in place a system of payments by service providers as a function of their use.&quot;The problem Richard and other European telecommunication CEOs face is that as data connections and traffic grow on their networks, revenue is falling. The problem is particularly acute for wireless networks. For example, IDC estimates that the number of mobile data connections in Western Europe is expected to grow 15 percent a year to 270 million in 2014. But during this same period revenue is expected to fall 1 percent. Meanwhile, carriers are expected to increase capital spending by 28 percent to $3.7 billion, according to Canalys, Bloomberg said.U.S. broadband and wireless carriers face similar problems. Executives on this side of the Atlantic have in the past complained of content companies getting a free ride on their networks. In 2005, Ed Whitacre, then CEO of SBC Communications which later became AT&amp;T, said that he didn't think that Google should be given a free ride on his network. The remark ignited a firestorm of protest. Since then, consumer groups and content companies, many of which are based in the U.S., have fought back lobbying for regulations that would keep networks &quot;open.&quot; The Federal Communications Commission is in the final stages of drafting its so-called Net neutrality rules, which are aimed at doing this. The FCC will vote on these rules later this month.Network operators are not just asking content providers to pay more of the cost of upgrading wireless networks, but they are also asking consumers to pay for what they use. Wireless operators both in Europe and the U.S. say that the time for flat-fee unlimited data plans is drawing to an end. Instead, consumers will pay for what they use.In the U.S. AT&amp;T has already eliminated its unlimited data plan for its smartphones. And Verizon Wireless has been experimenting with tiered service offerings. France Telecom is also considering tiered pricing.&quot;We are progressively going to switch from the unlimited approach that has been the trademark of our industry to something which is more sophisticated,&quot; Bloomberg quoted the Richard, France Telecom's CEO as saying on Wednesday.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Add-on offers Gmail-like UI in Thunderbird 3.3]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=add-on-offers-gmail-like-ui-in-thunderbird-3-3</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=add-on-offers-gmail-like-ui-in-thunderbird-3-3</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 07 Dec 2010 08:10:10 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>resraswinnice</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=add-on-offers-gmail-like-ui-in-thunderbird-3-3</guid>
<description><![CDATA[If you're looking for a more Gmail-like experience in Thunderbird 3.3 alpha, a new add-on should be able to help you out.Dubbed Thunderbird Conversations, the add-on offers a conversation view in the e-mail program, allowing users to have all their messages to and from another party in one place, similar to Gmail. The app &quot;fetches&quot; e-mails across every folder in the user's Thunderbird installation. Users can reply to an e-mail inline, and access the add-on's &quot;contacts auto-complete&quot; feature to streamline its use.Thunderbird Conversations was first made available at the end of last week, but it was formally announced on the Mozilla Labs blog earlier today.If Thunderbird Conversations sounds familiar to current users of older versions of Thunderbird, there's a reason for that. The add-on is a totally rewritten version of the former Gmail Conversation View, available to those using Thunderbird 3.1. The add-on's developer, Jonathan Protzenko, claims Thunderbird Conversations is &quot;a significant improvement over previous versions.&quot; However, he also noted on the Mozilla Labs blog that the new Thunderbird Conversations will only work with Thunderbird 3.3 because it includes &quot;the required support&quot; for the add-on.A view of Thunderbird Conversations.(Credit:Mozilla)Thunderbird 3.3 alpha was released at the end of November and includes support for Windows,Mac, and Linux. Along with its launch, Mozilla announced that the e-mail program would not support PowerPC-based Macs going forward.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[DeviantArt CEO on painting with a broader brush (Q&A)]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=deviantart-ceo-on-painting-with-a-broader-brush-qa</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=deviantart-ceo-on-painting-with-a-broader-brush-qa</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 01 Dec 2010 08:10:45 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>mariavalo</dc:creator>
<category>Gaming</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=deviantart-ceo-on-painting-with-a-broader-brush-qa</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ In 2000, a young entrepreneur named Angelo Sotira co-founded an online community site built around giving artists a place to showcase their work, and art fans a place to discover new talent.Over the years, the site, DeviantArt, has signed up 15 million registered users and today sees about 35 million monthly unique users, according to Sotira. Yet, despite laying claim to being &quot;the largest online social network for artists,&quot; it's likely that most people have never even heard of the site.Angelo Sotira has built DeviantArt into what may be the world&amp;39's-largest social network for artists and fans of art. (Credit:DeviantArt)Now, CEO Sotira has decided to do something about that. He plans on undertaking what could be the site's first major marketing push in an effort to become more mainstream. And though it isn't yet talking about its specific plans, the Hollywood-based company is clearly hoping that not long from now it will be much better known.Of course, just saying you want to be more famous doesn't get you there. But then again, starting from a base of 15 million registered users and a billion page views a month can't hurt. Sotira's previous success as an entrepreneur is also likely to help. As a teenager just out of high school, his underground music and MP3 discussion community,1 Dimension Music, drew the attention of super agent Michael Ovitz, who bought the site and brought Sotira to Los Angeles. Having lived in L.A. ever since, Sotira is now 29 and one of the movers and shakers in the online art world. Earlier this week, he sat down with 45 Minutes on IM for a discussion about what DeviantArt is and how he plans on conquering the Internet.Q: Thanks very much for taking some time to talk to me. I appreciate it. Can you start by describing DeviantArt for those who aren't familiar with the siteSotira: Sure. DeviantArt is the world's largest art community where millions of artists come to share their creations to get feedback and connect with peers and mentors, etc. But it's also a hub for art enthusiasts to check out awesome artwork.DeviantArt was described to me as the biggest site no one's heard of. With more than 15 million registered users, how is that possibleSotira: I'd say that's true. If you're in the arts, you've probably heard of us. But the wider world probably hasn't. Which is bizarre. Because we see 35 million unique visitors every month. We've been extremely focused on our community and building it organically--having our most passionate members tell their friends, who are typically artists or sensitive to the arts in some way and so on. We've found that people are selective about who they invite to the network. This is very much our strength, as we've been able to build perhaps the most passionate, emotional, creative community on the Web in this way.Just so we're clear, you're saying 35 million monthly unique usersSotira: There are 35 million monthly uniques and 15 million registered members.I was told that DeviantArt is getting ready to aggressively ramp up its marketing efforts so that the wider public knows you better. Talk a bit about what that would meanSotira: Yes that's true. I think it's time for a broader awareness of the incredible things happening in the &quot;digital city&quot; that is known as &quot;DeviantArt.&quot; Now I also think the way DeviantART.com today functions is incredible for our members, what with the nurturing atmosphere that we've fostered. A wider audience might need a simplified, more direct way to find the art that intrigues them more overtly.How do you plan to create that broader awarenessSotira: One way we've been thinking about approaching broader awareness is through our product. We've been developing some underlying technology for two years to reshape the underpinnings of our search capabilities, and I think once those are fully surfaced, the world will have a &quot;Pandora for art&quot; to help make art as a concept more accessible.Do you have an exampleSotira: Sure. I would say that the world at large doesn't really &quot;know art&quot; or know the art world. It's daunting. If we take an approach where we ask you to type in the name of an artist you know, to find more artists that are like those artists, guess what People don't know what artists they actually like. We prefer the approach where you see pretty artwork, and we use what you click on to continually refine your visual interests. To do this we need to surface a lot of data in to a search engine--billions of rows of data--that can be searched in about 15 milliseconds So the task is big, which is why it has taken us some time. But our engineers are in love with the work, adding the colors of pixels in our artwork in to the database and building algorithms that respond ultimately to a person's tastes.I know that deviant Art isn't a photography site, and Flickr's not an art site, but both seem to have very passionate users. So how would you compare the two sites, and the commitment level of their communitiesSotira: They don't really compare. Our members specifically intend the exact submission they post in to our community. At Flickr, you can &quot;dump&quot; hundreds of photos at a time. Inherently that sets a different tone. Additionally, we accept and encourage submissions from all mediums. Plus we're rather focused on mentoring and the growth and development of our artists, which I think isn't as much the case with Flickr, Photobucket, Facebook Photos, etc.How did you come to start DeviantArt What were you trying to achieveSotira: A popular trend in 1998 to 2000 was to skin applications, like the popular WinAMP MP3 player or Sonique, or other (typically Windows based) applications so that they would look awesome. At the time I was the CEO of an MP3 community known as DMusic.com, and we had launched WinAMP Facelift as a site to facilitate application skinners showcasing their creations. Long story short, a trend naturally arose where artists wanted to post more than just one type of skin, and skins for other skinnable applications, and soon enough for paintings and renderings and even tattoos. So we founded DeviantART as a response to that community.Okay, I have to ask. I read that you brought your mother to the 1998 MP3 Summit in San Diego. How did that go overSotira: Ha ha. Oh, my God, I'm going to be 30 in February and that story still haunts me! It was great. It was the first time in many years my mom and I had traveled somewhere together and certainly the first time we had been to California. So it was a great trip for us. I spoke on my first panel there, which had me completely nerve-racked. But she's a very proud mother and it was and always is wonderful to have her support. So, has she come with you to other professional events more recentlySotira: Of course! But I'm not an unaccompanied minor anymore so I go to a few all by myself these days. Well, all joking aside, I know you've done a number of different kinds of tech start-ups. What would you say is the common element among your different venturesSotira: Identifying trends that are going to lead to somewhere awesome is what I'd like to say. But more realistically I think being passionate about something has been the common element, and then connecting with others who are also passionate, which ultimately leads to me doing the thing I do, which is identifying opportunity and motivating result. So geek first, until the natural entrepreneuring does what it does.We're almost out of time, so just a couple more questions. First: do you have aniPad, and if so, what do you think of it as an artistic toolSotira: I hug my iPad every morning before I go to work. It stays at home, it's my home slice. And I love using Muro, our HTML5 drawing application, on it. And I also enjoy using ArtRage on it for layer and element blending. The iPad needs some more horsepower before it can really be a device for this. But tablets certainly will be important to artists moving forward, both for creation and for display and showcase.This weekend in San Francisco, there's an art show called Future/Canvas that's featuring only art made on iPads. What's your take on something like thatSotira: An iPad Art show Awesome. I want to go.Last question, and it's a 45 Minutes on IM standard. Interviews on instant message are great for many reasons, including that it gives me a perfect transcript, and because it allows my guests to be particularly thoughtful and articulate. But IM is also great because it allows for multitasking. So, tell me, what else were you doing while we were doing this interviewSotira: Eating a Turkey sandwich and doodling with my Pentel color brush.Well, thanks so much for taking the time to do this. I appreciate it. Sotira: Hey, thanks so much.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Geek Hanukkah: R2-D2 dreidel, virtual menorah]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=geek-hanukkah-r2-d2-dreidel-virtual-menorah</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=geek-hanukkah-r2-d2-dreidel-virtual-menorah</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 01 Dec 2010 08:10:25 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Simoncarter</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=geek-hanukkah-r2-d2-dreidel-virtual-menorah</guid>
<description><![CDATA[(Credit:StarWars.com)&quot;Oh droidel, droidel, droidel, I bought you from a Jawa.&quot; Sorry, it's the first night of Hanukkah and we can't help but sing that to ourselves after spotting the Droidel and other Festival of Lights geekery.  The official Star Wars site has complete instructions on making the DIY R2-D2 version of the dreidel from paper. Hopefully, Darth Vader won't steal your chocolate gelt while the Droidel's got your eyes.  The first day of Hanukkah is always special, especially when you gather with family and friends to light the menorah with your...iPhone Yep, in yet another case of &quot;there's an app for that,&quot; developer Matthew Parrott believes hisiPhone app iMenorah is perfect &quot;for the Jew far from home.&quot;  The app, which costs $2.99 (oy vey!) lets you virtually light eight candles with a digital shamash. A voice on the app sings blessings, including the Shehechiyanu, a prayer recited on special occasions. Unfortunately, the app vocals sound a little stale, but iMenorah appears to present about the most realistic-looking menorah in the App Store. You could also try Menorah, Mobile Menorah, and VirtualMenorah.  So, what apps/Star Wars paraphernalia/science experiments will you use to celebrate the Festival of Lights Let us know in the comments section below. (Credit:Indie)<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[U.S. to speed up offshore wind efforts]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=u-s--to-speed-up-offshore-wind-efforts</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=u-s--to-speed-up-offshore-wind-efforts</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 24 Nov 2010 08:10:44 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>bxikamilia</dc:creator>
<category>Eco</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=u-s--to-speed-up-offshore-wind-efforts</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The Obama administration yesterday unveiled plans to begin issuing new offshore wind energy leases as soon as next year under an accelerated approval process.The U.S. Interior Department said it will work to identify high-priority areas off the Atlantic coast for offshore wind energy development, as well as revise regulations to simplify the leasing process as part of its new initiative.&quot;To fully harness the economic and energy benefits of our nation's vast Atlantic wind potential we need to implement a smart permitting process that is efficient, thorough, and unburdened by needless red tape,&quot; Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in a statement.The department said it will also move &quot;aggressively&quot; to process applications to build offshore transmission lines to bring power from the wind farms onshore.The push to promote offshore wind power may provide a boost to a proposed $5 billion offshore transmission project backed by Google and its partners.Last month Cape Wind received the nation's first lease for a major offshore wind farm, but the approval came after nearly a decade of regulatory hurdles for the $1 billion project.To speed up development, the department will designate so-called Wind Energy Areas off the coasts of states including Delaware, Virginia, and Rhode Island in the next 60 days.The department will begin preparing environmental assessments of the offshore tracts in January.Barring any findings of major environmental impacts, the department would start offering leases in the areas by the end of 2011 or early 2012.The American Wind Energy Association applauded the department's expedited leasing process.&quot;Efforts to rationalize the multistep permitting process for offshore wind projects are essential for Eastern states to be able to take advantage of this excellent resource,&quot; AWEA chief executive Denise Bode said in a statement.Story Copyright (c) 2010 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Sling finally launches iPad app]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=sling-finally-launches-ipad-app</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=sling-finally-launches-ipad-app</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 24 Nov 2010 08:10:30 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>yeeriikios</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=sling-finally-launches-ipad-app</guid>
<description><![CDATA[As we reported last week, Sling was on the verge of launching its much-anticipated SlingMobile Player foriPad app. Well, at long last, it's finally hit the App Store and our fears were realized: like other SlingMobile Player apps, it costs $29.99. Furthermore, it's not a universal app, so if you downloaded theiPhone version, you've got to pay up again.Though the app appears to be impressive, we do think the price should be $14.99 or even $9.99 (some would argue free, but we'll take a price cut for starters).<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Study: Fleet buyers can jump-start plug-in vehicles]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=study-fleet-buyers-can-jump-start-plug-in-vehicles</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=study-fleet-buyers-can-jump-start-plug-in-vehicles</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 15 Nov 2010 08:10:30 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>paulsmith385</dc:creator>
<category>Eco</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=study-fleet-buyers-can-jump-start-plug-in-vehicles</guid>
<description><![CDATA[While it's unclear how many consumers are willing to pay more for plug-in electriccars, the case for fleet operators is a lot simpler to make, according to advocacy group the Electrification Coalition.The group, made up of CEOs from the auto and electric power industries, today released a road map for fleet electrification in which it argues that corporate fleets can help make plug-in vehicles more commonplace. The document, prepared in an effort to influence policy, was released by members at a press conference in Washington, D.C.Electrifying transportation offers the best means for reducing oil consumption, but there are significant barriers to bringing plug-in vehicles onto the road, including cost, said FedEx CEO Frederick Smith at the press conference. Combined with fuel efficiency mandates, the U.S. could decrease its oil consumption of light-duty vehicles from about 10 million barrels of oil today to 4 million barrels of oil in the next 25 years, Smith said. With just the fuel efficiency mandates, consumption in the U.S. will go to about 16 million barrels of oil a day by 2035, one factor leading to anticipated higher oil prices and price spikes. The cost of electrical components, notably the batteries in electric vehicles, is a very difficult barrier to overcome. But fleet operators have a few characteristics that make them more likely buyers than consumers, according to the Fleet Electrification Roadmap report, which was done in conjunction with management consulting company PRTM. Photos: Alt wheels for fleet drivers  Fleet operators tend to consider the total cost of ownership, rather the upfront costs, and pay higher electricity rates than consumers. And they tend to run predictable routes and often have centralized fueling. Buying is also centralized: the top 50 fleet operators manage more than half a million cars and trucks. There were 16.3 million fleet vehicles in operation in 2009.&quot;Fleets (offer) a possible pathway to get early adoption of electric vehicles that will drive scale and bring down the price of batteries for everyone,&quot; said Robbie Diamond, the CEO of the Electrification Coalition. He said the policy recommendations should appeal to both political parties because they address national security as well as economic and environmental issues.The analysis in the fleet road map document finds that EVs are cost-competitive in many fleet applications today without government subsidies. Traditional hybrids driven more than 20,000 miles per year are expected to be more cost-effective than internal combustion engines by 2012, it said. As the cost of batteries goes down in the next five to eight years, EVs become the most cost effective option, according to the report.Still, many fleet operators will find it difficult to get a return on investment or be willing to consider a multiple year payback. Also, some could find daily charging disruptive to their operations, according to the report.Some of the policy recommendations include tax credits for plug-in vehicles deployed in fleets and having federal agencies, such as the Postal Service, invest in electrification. Other recommendations including research and development spending on advanced batteries and a program to guarantee the residual value of large-format batteries put into service in the next three years. Used auto batteries can be recycled or refurbished for use as grid storage, but there is no marketplace yet established for handling spent lithium ion batteries used in the latest generation of plug-in vehicles.Last week, General Electric, which is a member of the Electrification Coalition, announced that it plans to purchase 25,000 electric cars for its sales people and to lease to its fleet management customers. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA['Unforgettable' iTunes announcement tomorrow]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=unforgettable-itunes-announcement-tomorrow</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=unforgettable-itunes-announcement-tomorrow</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 15 Nov 2010 08:10:17 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Kethy</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=unforgettable-itunes-announcement-tomorrow</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Apple is advertising an &quot;exciting announcement&quot; for iTunes that the company claims will make tomorrow a day you will never forget. The intriguing ad says that the news will be revealed at 7 a.m. PT on Tuesday, November 16.Until now, there has been no consensus on which features will come next for iTunes. Some industry insiders have speculated that Apple will announce a cloud-based music management system--perhaps related to new data centers it's building in North Carolina--but others suspect that Apple will announce a subscription-based streaming service.Apple&amp;39's announcement suggests the new features coming to iTunes will be &amp;34'unforgettable.&amp;34'(Credit:Apple)Apple's acquisition of the Lala streaming service about a year ago initially suggested a move to the cloud for iTunes. Apple shut down LaLa, however, making many wonder whether iTunes would see a merge with these technologies.Regardless of the specifics, Apple's wording of this announcement suggests that we may hear answers to these questions Tuesday morning.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Management blamed for space telescope cost overrun]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=management-blamed-for-space-telescope-cost-overrun</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=management-blamed-for-space-telescope-cost-overrun</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 10 Nov 2010 08:10:48 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>ahstuzl100</dc:creator>
<category>Social</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=management-blamed-for-space-telescope-cost-overrun</guid>
<description><![CDATA[NASA management miscues threaten to drive up the cost of the agency's next generation space telescope by some $1.5 billion, an independent review panel reported today, pushing the overall cost of the project into the neighborhood of $6.5 billion. That's a best-case assessment that assumes the agency launches the observatory in 2015, the earliest realistic target.But making that earliest possible launch date also assumes NASA comes up with an additional $250 million in both 2011 and 2012, an unlikely prospect in the current political environment. Barring a sudden infusion of cash, it's not yet clear what NASA can do to avoid additional delays--and even higher long-term costs--for the agency's successor to the hugely successful Hubble Space Telescope.A drawing of NASA&amp;39's James Webb Space Telescope.(Credit:NASA)Panel chairman John Casani, a widely respected project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said NASA had not squandered money budgeted for the next generation James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST. Rather, agency managers failed to accurately estimate the complex program's true costs in the first place.&quot;The fundamental root cause of the problem is that at the time of (the program's formal approval), which goes back to July 2008, the budget that NASA was presented with by the project office was basically flawed,&quot; he told reporters in an afternoon teleconference. &quot;The budget simply did not contain the content that the project even knew about at that time. And so from a money standpoint, it was just insufficient to carry out the work.&quot;The second major problem driving the projected cost overrun was that NASA Headquarters &quot;did not spot the error in it,&quot; Casani said. &quot;I don't think they fully recognized the extent to which the basic budget was understating the full requirements of the project. Those were the two major problems, the two root causes, at the outset.NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, who does not participate in news briefings, said in a statement that he was pleased the panel did not find any major technical problems with the new space telescope. But he added, &quot;I am disappointed we have not maintained the level of cost control we strive to achieve, something the American taxpayer deserves in all of our projects.&quot;&quot;NASA is committed to finding a sustainable path forward for the program based on realistic cost and schedule assessments,&quot; he said.The James Webb Space Telescope Independent Comprehensive Review Panel, or ICRP, was set up by NASA at the request of Sen. Barbara Mikulski, a Maryland Democrat whose district includes NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center where the telescope project is based. The review panel, which spent about two months evaluating the JWST project, presented its report today.Hailing the scientific potential of the new telescope, &quot;this report raises significant concerns about the way in which the JWST project has been planned and managed and how its budgets were established,&quot; the panel's report concluded. &quot;The ICRP did not find that the funds used by JWST over the last 7-8 years were wasted. On the contrary, a substantial amount of cutting-edge hardware has been delivered and is now being tested as part of the first steps toward the overall integration and test of the observatory.Mirror segments, built for the James Webb Space Telescope, undergoing testing.(Credit:NASA)&quot;The JWST project does face serious difficulties, however, largely stemming from the lack of a well-defined plan for completion and because a series of decisions have led to substantial underfunding. The project must find the path to a successful launch with a realistic budget and executable schedule.&quot;Chris Scolese, associate NASA administrator, said a new program office has been set up at agency Headquarters under the direction of Richard Howard, NASA's deputy chief technologist, who will report directly to Bolden and senior management.Scolese would not speculate on what NASA might do to find additional funding and avoid additional launch delays, telling reporters the agency would need several weeks to get a better idea of what might be needed.&quot;Our main goal right now is to strengthen the management, which we're doing, to strengthen the oversight, which we're doing, and develop a good, strong estimate that we can defend,&quot; he said. &quot;We aren't in the business of cost overruns...We're taking this very, very seriously.&quot;Howard said he hoped to present initial findings by February.The Hubble Space Telescope, NASA's premiere scientific satellite, has generated a flood of scientific papers, stunning pictures and major discoveries over the past 20 years. Thanks to a recent shuttle servicing mission, Hubble should remain operational through at least 2013 and possibly longer.The James Webb Space Telescope, named after NASA's second administrator, promises to push the frontiers of knowledge back almost to the big bang explosion that created the universe.&quot;We've all seen the stunning results that have come out from Hubble over the last nearly two decades,&quot; said astronomer Garth Illingworth, a member of the JWST review panel. &quot;The James Webb is a hugely more powerful facility than Hubble, a hundred times more powerful at least.&quot;Optimized to study infrared light emitted from the most ancient stars and galaxies, JWST is expected to give astronomers a glimpse of the first generation of stars to form in the wake of the big bang.Unlike Hubble, which rode into orbit aboard a space shuttle, the JWST will be launched by an unmanned European Ariane 5 rocket and boosted to a location known as the sun-Earth Lagrange point about one million miles from Earth. Satellites placed at gravitationally balanced Lagrange points can maintain stable orbits around the sun without the need for frequent rocket-powered maneuvers.To save money and simplify the engineering challenge, JWST was not designed to be serviced or repaired by spacewalking astronauts. Once launched, the telescope will be on its own for the duration of its five-and-a-half-year design life or however long it stays healthy.At the heart of the JWST is a huge, 21-foot-wide segmented mirror that is 2.7 times wider than Hubble's with about six times more light-collecting area. An instrument module is located below the mirror to analyze the ancient light collected by the telescope.Once in space, the JWST will unfold like a huge mechanical origami. A giant five-layer sunshade the size of a tennis court will unfold to shade the mirror, helping keep it at an operating temperature of about 50 degrees above absolute zero. The mirror itself will unfold to achieve its full diameter, along with an adjustable secondary mirror mounted at the apex of three folding support masts.The JWST will weigh about 14,300 pounds on Earth, about half the weight of the Hubble Space Telescope with its heavy one-piece mirror and closed-tube design. But given the one-shot make-or-break nature of the mission, the telescope's state-of-the-art systems must work perfectly right out of the box for the mission to succeed.&quot;This is a very large, complex project and to estimate something with any read degree of precision that's never been done before is a tough job,&quot; Casani said. &quot;The bottom line is, there was just not enough money in the budget to execute the work that was required.&quot;He said the review panel did not find &quot;any way that the project costs could be reduced in any way. But we did identify a number of things that could be done that would reduce the likelihood of future cost growth. ... All of those are doable and can be handled quite readily by headquarters.&quot;<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[ILM doc shows Lucas' focus on making 'great movies']]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ilm-doc-shows-lucas-focus-on-making-great-movies</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ilm-doc-shows-lucas-focus-on-making-great-movies</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 08 Nov 2010 08:10:45 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>cheapedhardy2</dc:creator>
<category>Gaming</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ilm-doc-shows-lucas-focus-on-making-great-movies</guid>
<description><![CDATA[A new documentary about Industrial Light &amp; Magic highlights the biggest accomplishments of its 35-year history. Among them are the digital effects seen in 'Terminator 2.'(Credit:ILM)SAN FRANCISCO--When George Lucas talks about the raison d'etre of his award-winning visual effects studio, Industrial Light &amp; Magic, his logic might strike some in the bottom line-obsessed world of Hollywood as heretical.&quot;I started ILM to help make great movies,&quot; Lucas told CNET recently. &quot;That's what we're here for. We're not here as a big moneymaking organization. We're not here as a business. We're here to make great movies.&quot;Of course, any filmmaker would probably want to say something like that, but Lucas may well be the one person for whom such a sentiment is legitimate.&quot;Obviously there are financial constraints that have to be adhered to&quot; in working on a film, Lucas continued, &quot;which are [difficult for outside filmmakers who hire ILM] because they have a real hard budget. When I do it, I'm in charge of the budget, so I can decide on a day-to-day basis what we're going to spend money on and what we're not...Nobody else can say that, because...I own the company, and I also am making the movie.&quot;35 years of 'impossible' ILM visual effects (photos) ILM and the process for creating award-winning visual effects it has developed over the last 35 years--whether profitable or not--is at the center of a new documentary by &quot;The Pixar Story&quot; director Leslie Iwerks. Titled &quot;Industrial Light &amp; Magic: Creating the Impossible,&quot; the new film premieres on the Encore cable TV network on November 12, and without a doubt, one of the best things about it is watching some of Hollywood's most prominent artists gush about how the famous visual effects studio has changed filmmaking forever.It's no accident that the new film is packed with moments featuring the leading lights of the film industry. Iwerks was given access to countless hours of ILM archival materials, as well as to people like Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, J.J. Abrams, Jerry Bruckheimer, and many others who have hired or worked with George Lucas' effects house since its creation in 1975.&quot;I think ILM's biggest accomplishment isn't any one [film],&quot; Abrams, who directed 2009's mega-hit &quot;Star Trek,&quot; says in the film. &quot;It's that they've managed to realize the dream that any filmmaker would have, which is the ability to do anything.&quot;That, of course, is the sentiment that keeps ILM at or near the peak of the visual effects industry. But the Lucas-owned studio, which has worked on nearly 300 films, and which has won 15 Academy Awards, wasn't always a world-changing organization. Indeed, it was started for one focused purpose, and with one specific client.The original ILM logo, as displayed at a special screening of a new documentary about the award-winning visual effects studio(Credit:Daniel Terdiman/CNET)&quot;With 'Star Wars,' I wanted to do an action picture,&quot; recalls Lucas in Iwerks' documentary. &quot;I wanted to do something where I could pan with the spaceships, where there's a lot of really short cuts...a lot of rhythm, a lot of pace, a lot of movement on the screen. I wanted it to be very cinematic. And at that point in time, that was impossible. You just couldn't do that with special effects. So when the studio said, 'Well, how are you going to do that' I said, Oh, well, we'll figure it out. But I had no idea what I was going to do.&quot;What Lucas did, back in those heady days before &quot;Star Wars&quot; was perhaps the most successful film franchise of all time, was start a new outfit whose sole purpose was to design the effects he needed for his unlikely space opera.Thanks to a vast and sudden shrinking of the special effects industry in Hollywood, Lucas was able to purchase a lot of the gear he needed for his fledgling operation at pennies on the dollar. And, setting himself up in a warehouse in Van Nuys, Calif., Lucas began what is now undeniably a march towards forever changing what the film industry sees as a realistic effect.'Invent our way out'Today, filmmakers like Spielberg take it as almost a given that effects houses like ILM can achieve even the most demanding goals. But back in 1975, when Lucas and his team of artists set out to begin work on &quot;Star Wars,&quot; that was hardly true. Instead, as Iwerks illustrates in her documentary, the visual effects supervisors on the project found themselves in a constant battle against the limits of their art form. Yet rather than give in to those limits, they always looked for ways to break them down.It would take hours, or days, to complete shots that would appear on screen for just seconds, and more often than not, Lucas and his ILM visual effects supervisors wouldn't have any precedent to turn to when trying to figure out how to complete a shot.&quot;We would paint our way into a corner,&quot; Richard Edlund, who worked on the film and later became an ILM visual effects supervisor, says in the documentary, &quot;and have to invent our way out of it.&quot;That meant innovations like the Dykstraflex, named after primary developer John Dykstra, an all-digital system that gave filmmakers a computer controlled system that allowed the programming of dynamic and repeatable elements and which facilitated combining multiple components into a single shot. George Lucas poses for a picture with Leslie Iwerks, the director of the new documentary about ILM, 'Industrial Light &amp; Magic: Creating the Impossible.'(Credit:ILM)&quot;It was like we were in Florence during the Renaissance,&quot; recalls Bill George, an ILM visual effects supervisor.And yet, a big part of why ILM was able to take these leaps forward in the &quot;Star Wars&quot; days was because Lucas was both the owner of the studio, and its only client. In the documentary, Lucas recalls being in meetings with his effects supervisors and being told that they couldn't get something or other done.But Lucas would hear none of it. Instead of accepting that answer, he would tell his team that, yes, they could do it, and they would do it. He wouldn't accept the alternative.I had a chance to ask Lucas about that sense of pure confidence at a recent private screening of the documentary at LucasFilm's San Francisco headquarters, and his answer highlighted his very surprising notion that ILM is supposed to be about enabling artists to create great work rather than obsessing about every last dollar. &quot;I have enough knowledge of what needs to get done that I'm allowed to make the leap,&quot; Lucas explained, talking about his control of budgets on his own projects. &quot;I had a movie ['Star Wars']. I wanted it to be a great movie. I needed visual effects to do that. But I wanted the best visual effects...So if I say we will get this done, there's many times when I said I don't care. I know it's going to cost more than we thought, but we're going to do it. So I can say that. Nobody else can say that, because again, I own the company, and I'm also making the movie.&quot;To be sure, outside filmmakers like Spielberg who hire ILM almost certainly don't have that kind of financial freedom. But Lucas' philosophy of ensuring that ILM's artists help directors get what they want when they engage the visual effects house was reflected throughout Iwerks' film.&quot;It's wonderful to know that the tools are there to really begin to get what's [in my imagination] out there in the world,&quot; Howard says in the film, &quot;and ILM has been leading the charge in that quest since it began.&quot;The most famous movies, the most famous shotsYou might not know it, but ILM's legacy extends to an incredibly wide selection of the most famous movies of the last 35 years. From Lucas' own &quot;Star Wars&quot; series to &quot;Raiders of the Lost Ark,&quot; &quot;The Abyss,&quot; &quot;Terminator&quot; and &quot;Terminator 2,&quot; &quot;Jurassic Park,&quot; &quot;Star Trek,&quot; the &quot;Pirates of the Caribbean&quot; series, and the &quot;Iron Man&quot; films, it's nearly impossible to think of visual effects without considering ILM's influence.George Lucas and longtime ILM visual effects supervisor Dennis Muren--seen here on camera crane--between takes for a scene from the Speederbike chase during the filming of 'Return of the Jedi.'(Credit:ILM)Even though there are several other leading VFX studios sharing the spotlight these days--such as Peter Jackson's Weta Digital, or Digital Domain, or Sony's Imageworks--most observers would still place ILM at the top of the pyramid.And that's got a lot to do with the work it has achieved over the years and the ground it's broken. From the award-winning effects on &quot;Star Wars&quot; itself to innovations like the first-ever computer graphics sequence--in &quot;Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan&quot;--to the first CG character--in &quot;Young Sherlock Holmes&quot;--to the first morphing shot ever done--in Howard's &quot;Willow&quot;--to its more recent work, ILM has continued to shape the state of the art of the visual effects industry.To be sure, Iwerks' film looks almost entirely at ILM's ground-breaking accomplishments. But that's because the list of those achievements is so long. Yet, to those who pay attention to the visual effects industry, ILM's biggest contributions to the modern version of the art probably boil down to its work on two films: &quot;Jurassic Park&quot; and &quot;Terminator 2.&quot;In the documentary, Spielberg recalls the day when legendary ILM visual effects supervisor Dennis Muren came to him and reported that it would be possible to create some of the crucial dinosaur scenes in &quot;Jurassic Park&quot; digitally, rather than relying on traditional analog methods.&quot;All the onus of stop motion photography was suddenly eradicated,&quot; Spielberg recalls.And to Lucas, the one moment moved the visual effects industry forward forever.&quot;The major breakthrough was when [Spielberg] bought off on [Muren's] idea of making that leap from analog to digital,&quot; Lucas says in the film. &quot;And that's really what changed everything. Once we did those dinosaurs, I saw that we had unlimited possibilities.&quot;Before long, movies were getting studio support largely on the strength of the new ability of the visual effects teams' to craft what would previously have been impossible shots.For example, Ian Bryce, the producer of 1996's &quot;Twister,&quot; recalled that that movie was given the go-ahead after a roomful of decision makers saw a test of a digital tornado shot ILM created. We &quot;sat in the screening room,&quot; Bryce said, &quot;and everybody loved the shot so much, that that's when the film got green-lit.&quot;New tools It's been years since &quot;Twister,&quot; of course, and the most recent visual effects Oscar belongs to Weta Digital for its work on James Cameron's &quot;Avatar.&quot; But to those in the industry, ILM's influence on the field is impossible to ignore. &quot;Technology changes very quickly, and gets better and better,&quot; said Jerry Bruckheimer, the producer of many hit movies including the &quot;Pirates of the Caribbean&quot; series, &quot;and so it gives the artists at ILM and their supervisors more fun to play with, and more things to play with, and more toys, and pushes the limits, which is exactly what we want to do.&quot;Indeed, these days, ILM is so good at what it does that some filmmakers can no longer distinguish between the visual effects and real scenes.In helping to make Jon Favreau's 2008 smash &quot;Iron Man,&quot; ILM developed both digital and real versions of the famous exoskeleton worn by Robert Downey Jr.'s character, Tony Stark.In the documentary, Favreau recalls giving notes to the ILM team about how he didn't like the reflections coming off the suit in what he thought was one of the digital sequences. &quot;And the supervisor said, 'That's the real suit,'&quot; Favreau says. &quot;And that's when I knew that it's crossed that line...It has passed the point where I could tell the difference. And then it became how best to design the shots to make full use of what it could do well and not to ask of those shots or the technology what it wasn't good at. So I think a lot of times now, when you see bad CGI, it's because of poor planning on behalf of the filmmaker, and not the artists who are working on it.&quot;Iwerks' documentary chronicles the illustrious 35 year record of ILM, highlighting the early, &quot;Star Wars,&quot; period, as well as the crucial &quot;Jurassic Park&quot; breakthroughs. But if one thing comes through in her film, it's that ILM is hardly resting on its laurels, or letting its rivals lead the pack.Still, what really illustrates ILM's influence on the industry is the never-ending compliments paid to it by the likes of Spielberg, Howard, Bruckheimer, and so on. In the film's final moments, Spielberg recalls how important it was to the industry when Lucas made the decision to open ILM's doors to outside filmmakers--essentially ensuring that all of Hollywood could benefit from the visual effects artistry that was going on in Lucas' until then private fiefdom.&quot;George made his company available to every studio and to every filmmaker,&quot; Spielberg says with a very warm smile. &quot;That was the first time that had ever happened before, where a company was formed for all of us to achieve all of our impossible dreams. And George made that possible for all of us.&quot;<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[How new Congress will tackle privacy, Net neutrality]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=how-new-congress-will-tackle-privacy-net-neutrality</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=how-new-congress-will-tackle-privacy-net-neutrality</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 04 Nov 2010 07:10:16 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>zimansuf2</dc:creator>
<category>Politics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=how-new-congress-will-tackle-privacy-net-neutrality</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Rep. Tom Price, chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee, said yesterday that this week's elections will provide &quot;an opportunity for our Republican principles to shine through our policies.&quot;But what that means for privacy, Net neutrality, and other regulatory areas that affect Internet companies isn't entirely clear.The Contract from America, a set of grassroots-derived governing principles signed by some incoming Republicans and backed by dozens of Tea Party groups, stresses evaluating the constitutionality of government programs but doesn't specifically address technology. Neither does the Republican Party's 2010 Pledge to America.This should come as no surprise. After the number of unemployed, discouraged, or marginally employed Americans has doubled in the last two years and stands at a recent record of 22 percent, no politician hoping to be elected spends much time talking about regulation of transborder data flows. Or, say, the nuances of amendments to the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act.In fact, it's possible, even likely, that Washington's approach to technology topics will remain largely the same.Nothing will change, says Jim Harper, a former Hill staffer and policy analyst at the free-market Cato Institute.&quot;Proposals for 'baseline' federal privacy legislation will continue to float around, as they have for the last decade,&quot; Harper told CNET. &quot;Net neutrality regulation, which was going nowhere before the election, will go nowhere. Intellectual property supporters will continue to have the stronger voice in Congress.&quot;Net neutrality turned out to be something less than a compelling campaign slogan this year.Scott Cleland, an industry analyst who receives funding from companies including AT&amp;T, Sprint, and Verizon, noted that &quot;every single one&quot; of the 95 Democratic challengers who took a Net neutrality pledge lost in the mid-term elections.Last month, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee announced a list of Democratic candidates who took a pledge saying: &quot;In Congress, I'll fight to protect Net Neutrality for the entire Internet--wired and wireless--and make sure big corporations aren't allowed to take control of free speech online.&quot;Whoops. Tuesday's results mean that pro-regulation groups like Free Press &quot;can no longer legitimately claim their Net neutrality movement has significant grass roots political support,&quot; Cleland suggested.Progressive Change Campaign Committee co-founder Adam Green replied in e-mail yesterday, saying the Cleland can't point to any candidates who campaigned against Net neutrality &quot;for the obvious reason that such a position is a big political loser.&quot; In addition, Green said, other Net neutrality supporters currently in Congress were reelected, while some politicos who signed a letter opposing such regulations were not.How the 2011 Congress views privacy probably won't change very much. But because it depends in large part on which politicians end up heading which committees, which hasn't been decided yet, it's difficult to say for sure.Because Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.) lost his bid for reelection, longtime industry critic Ed Markey (D-Mass.) could become the senior Democrat on a House Internet subcommittee.And whether Joe Barton (R-Texas) or fellow Republican Fred Upton (R-Mich.) will become the next chairman of the full House Energy and Commerce Committee remains a tossup. (Because Barton is running up against the GOP's term-limit rules for committee chairman, he'd need a waiver from party leadership.)For a Republican who joined the Tea Party Caucus this summer and claims to be committed to &quot;limited government&quot; and &quot;free markets,&quot; Barton's record on privacy includes repeated calls for more regulations and for handing more power to federal bureaucrats. Barton and Markey have singled out Apple, Google, and Facebook, for instance, for criticism.Harper, from the Cato Institute, says that Boucher's proposed privacy legislation never had a serious chance of passing: &quot;The result was that tech lobbyists could always report to the home office that they had something to do, and tech trade associations could garner corporate support for all those noon-time strategy meetings over sandwiches--without generating a true threat to the business models of the companies they (purport to) represent.&quot;&quot;With the defeat of Rick Boucher, we are losing someone who understood the Internet and played a key role in opening it up to commercial activity, who co-founded the Internet Caucus, and who has taken a lead on key issues like privacy,&quot; said the Center for Democracy and Technology. Public Knowledge's Gigi Sohn called him someone who understood the &quot;importance of standing up for consumers' rights to use technology lawfully.&quot; (Boucher introduced an unsuccessful bill in 2002 to amend the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, for instance.)Marc Rotenberg, head of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, which supports a broad law regulating the private sector's data collection and use practices, says &quot;I think you're going to see continued bipartisan leadership on privacy issues&quot; in the House.In addition, Rotenberg said, the election of Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) could have positive impacts on privacy. Blumenthal has &quot;been a great champion on a lot of consumer-related Internet issues,&quot; he said. &quot;Over on the government oversight side, I think having Rand Paul in the Senate is going to be (a significant check on) the growing surveillance state.&quot;Another key departure on privacy and civil liberties: Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.), who lost his reelection bid. He was the only senator to vote against the Patriot Act and was a fierce critic of warrantless wiretapping. He was even endorsed by Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party's 2008 presidential nominee.The Computer and Communications Industry Association, whose members include Google, Facebook, and Microsoft, suggested that one area to watch will be what happens once Tea Party-backed candidates are sworn into office in the new Congress: &quot;Will proposals to increase government surveillance of domestic phone calls and e-mails get these constitutional fundamentalists worked up&quot;<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Apple sues Motorola: A look at the complaints]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=apple-sues-motorola-a-look-at-the-complaints</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=apple-sues-motorola-a-look-at-the-complaints</comments>
<pubDate>Sat, 30 Oct 2010 07:10:02 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>pnojubimJohn1</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=apple-sues-motorola-a-look-at-the-complaints</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Apple has sued Motorola over multitouch patents in two separate lawsuits.The complaints, first reported by Patently Apple, were filed Oct. 29 and cover six patents. In the first complaint, the main document is only 9 pages, but one exhibit--patent 7,479,949--is broken into two parts and weighs in at a whopping 362 pages. Motorola on Oct. 6 sued Apple for patent infringement.Read more of &quot;Apple sues Motorola: A look at the complaints&quot; at ZD Net.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[At SRI, developing an expertise in R&D, innovation]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=at-sri-developing-an-expertise-in-rd-innovation</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=at-sri-developing-an-expertise-in-rd-innovation</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 26 Oct 2010 07:10:23 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Sarah01</dc:creator>
<category>Gaming</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=at-sri-developing-an-expertise-in-rd-innovation</guid>
<description><![CDATA[MENLO PARK, Calif.--If you've never seen a robot climb straight up an entirely flat vertical wall, I dare you not to be impressed the first time you do.SRI, based in the heart of Silicon Valley, is one of the premiere research and development shops in the world. But it also specializes in sending its innovations to market. One of the most exciting in its pipeline now is a technology known as electroadhesion, which allows small robots like this one, to climb walls.(Credit:Daniel Terdiman/CNET)That was my certainly experience when I watched a wall-climbing robot do its thing at SRI International here the other day. Indeed, my host, who had been with me through several product and project demonstrations over about three hours, noticed how excited I was by watching this little device go straight up the wall, and, I think, began to wonder if I was actually interested in any of the other things I'd seen.In fact, she shouldn't have worried. I was at SRI as part of my ongoing Road Trip at Home series and was getting a rapid-fire lay of the land at this Silicon Valley research and development--and incubation--powerhouse. And while the robot technology may well have been the coolest thing I saw all day (see video below), I liked almost everything I saw during my visit.The wall-climber is the sexy model SRI built to showcase its electroadhesion technology, which, as senior research engineer Harsha Prahlad explained, is as it sounds, an electrical adhesive. &quot;With the power on, there's adhesion,&quot; Prahlad said. &quot;With the power off, there's no adhesion.&quot;At SRI, wall-climbing robots and much more (photos) Prahlad said that SRI sees this technology as a &quot;sticky pad&quot; for objects, a &quot;temporary tape you can attach objects to your wall with.&quot; Yet, there's no sticky residue: all the adhesion is done through the power of attracting opposite electrical charges to each other. An object, like a small robot, has flexible plastic electrodes attached to it, which are charged positive or negative, and then it will stick to any surface because &quot;the world develops opposite charges for us,&quot; Prahlad said. &quot;So wherever there's a positive, the material gets charged negative, and vice versa.&quot;So what is SRI doing with electroadhesion According to Prahlad, it is looking for ways to incorporate it into structural or building inspection--you could have a wall-climbing robot place a camera or a sensor in a hard-to-reach spot' into consumer products--so you can attach objects to a wall' into military use--so soldiers can place a surveillance camera, or to place some other kind of item' into industry--it could be used to move large items, such ascar parts, around. Prahlad said that electroadhesion is a winning idea because the systems that power it require very little power, weigh next to nothing, and are nearly silent. &quot;And they can conform around [any] object,&quot; he said, &quot;so they can adapt to any shaped object.&quot;Today, places like car manufacturing plants use a variety of robotic systems, like vacuum or mechanical graspers, to move items around. But Prahlad said electroadhesion offers as much as 20 times the power and 10 times the mass savings over such legacy systems. First shown publicly in 2008, the wall-climbing robot and other systems built with electroadhesion are at least two years away, Prahlad predicted.A history of innovationFor decades after its 1946 founding, SRI was part of Stanford University, and was known as Stanford Research Institute. But during the Vietnam War, said Norman Winarsky, SRI's vice president for ventures, licensing, and strategic programs, Stanford was getting picketed for having government contracts, and so the institute was spun off as a nonprofit.The irony of that is that today, SRI has plenty of partnerships with Stanford, and at least 70 percent of its contracts are with the government, Winarsky said.Silicon Valley, of course, abounds with companies and institutions geared toward pushing the latest technology and science toward profitable markets. There's the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), Stanford' Google and Hewlett-Packard and Intel, and others. But SRI has been leveraging high-tech R&amp;D into start-ups for years, and Winarsky said that around 50 companies that began inside the institute have eventually been spun off. Four of these companies have gone IPO and together are now worth $20 billion. And, of course, this is the institution that spawned the invention of the mouse, the hyperlink, surgical robots, that was in on the very first Arpanet communication ever, and so much more.&quot;Our mission is to be the world's leader in innovation,&quot; Winarsky said, &quot;delivering new innovations and solutions into the marketplace. That's very different from our peers, which are usually [set up] to educate, or to do R&amp;D alone.&quot;At any given time, SRI has around 2,000 projects in the pipeline, spread across five major divisions.Among them are the information technology division--with three sub-divisions focusing on artificial intelligence, speech and natural language, and computer security' physical sciences--clean tech, batteries, alternative energy, and new materials' and engineering systems, where the institute is looking at developing new systems and software.There's also an education division, which was one of my first stops for the day, accompanied by Melissa Koch, a senior project manager in SRI's Center for Technology in Learning. Among other things, Koch is working on a surprising National Science Foundation-funded project she told me about, one aimed at providing low-income, urban girls with after-school science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) development.The idea, Koch said, is to help answer the question of where the next generation of innovators is going to come from. Working alongside a nonprofit known as Girls Inc., she is trying to entice middle-school-age girls in underserved communities to consider careers in information technology--through exposure to professional women of color, as well as visits to places like Google and IDEO--and to &quot;get comfortable using new technologies as they come about.&quot;The last of SRI's five areas is its biosciences division, which largely focuses on drug development, Winarsky said.It might be surprising to know that the institution is a major pharmaceutical player, but that's because most of its work ends up being brought to market by companies with professional marketing and sales organizations. Still, the underlying science behind some of the pharma industry's pills comes straight from SRI.One project I got to see is run by Gita Shankar, the director of formulations R&amp;D in the biosciences division. Shankar explained that one big problem in the pharmaceuticals industry is that many drugs require being taken intravenously--something that is not practical in many situations.Even when it's practical, Shankar added, many people prefer to take drugs orally--as a pill or a solution--rather than having them injected, and research shows that people are more likely to take a prescribed oral drug than one that's IV. So at SRI, Shankar and her team are working hard at figuring out the rather complex problem of converting IV drugs into those that can be taken orally.The difficulty, she explained, is that while an IV drug goes straight into the blood stream, a swallowed substance must first transit the stomach and the intestines--and their myriad acids and bases--before making it to the patient's veins. That process can take as much as two hours and easily degrade the drug. As a result, SRI has built up a competency, Shankar explained, in converting existing drugs--such as the antibiotic vancomycin--from IV-only to oral and building a giant database of the substances--known as &quot;enhancers&quot; that can help push a drug successfully through the stomach and intestine and into the veins. Once the division is successful at coming up with a drug transformation, SRI will find a commercial partner to market it, and then collect royalties.According to Shankar, all the drugs in SRI's pipeline are in a pre-clinical pathway, and many are geared toward maladies common in the Third World, often those that are not well served by major pharmaceutical companies. As a result, she said, much of the division's funding comes from philanthropic organizations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.At the same time, the division is also working on developing drugs for the military, including one geared toward battling anthrax attacks in the field. Shankar said that an IV approach to such a drug was impractical because it required 18 doses over six months. But by converting an existing drug into one that can be taken through the nose--which shortcuts the stomach and the intestine--that slow, deliberate process can be streamlined for the reality of military life.Siri and Intuitive SurgicalThroughout my visit, almost everyone I met made a point of mentioning Siri, a DARPA-funded company that emerged from SRI's R&amp;D labs and went on to get acquired by Apple, which wanted its mobile virtual personal assistant technology to allowiPhone oriPod Touch users to ask questions about things like services, destinations, or finding consumer goods. Another frequently mentioned success story was Intuitive Surgical, a Sunnyvale, Calif., SRI spin-off that makes the Da Vinci robotic-assisted surgical system. Da Vinci is being used far and wide for high-precision prostate surgery, as well as myriad other procedures.The system was first available in 1999, and in 2000, the FDA made it the first robotic surgical system ever cleared for general laparoscopic surgery, SRI said. Since then, Da Vinci has added cardiac, urological, chest, and gynecological procedures to its FDA-approved repertoire.The point of everyone mentioning Siri and Intuitive Surgical was to showcase SRI's well-known and respected innovation engine. Because while it is a nonprofit that performs more than 70 percent of its contracts for governments, and because much of its funding comes from private foundations and government agencies like the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, DARPA, and others, it is still in business. And to hear Winarsky tell it, its business, ultimately, is spinning off new ventures.As well, it's about trying to determine, earlier than most, where the next great innovation fields will be. To SRI, Winarsky said, those will be the true emergence of artificial intelligence-based virtual personal assistant systems (SRI currently has four developing ventures in that area)' and cybersecurity--&quot;We're beginning to see malware that's profoundly different than worms and viruses we've seen in the past,&quot; said Winarsky.But for many of the SRI employees, these fields could well end up being their path to millions, Winarsky suggested.Indeed, a chief selling point for its more than 2,200 employees is the chance to participate in hefty royalty checks that can come in from successful spin-offs, or even to join new SRI-spawned ventures as founders or executives.And in the end, Winarsky said, SRI is all about generating an environment that breeds innovation. And that takes a clear and well-defined process.In fact, oddly enough, one of SRI's most consumed products is a two-day course on its innovation process that it teaches both at its Silicon Valley headquarters and around the world. &quot;The theory is that innovation is a discipline,&quot; Winarsky said. &quot;It does and can have a genius moment of creativity. But it's not necessary that the climate be overcoming all obstacles...So what SRI is refining and leading is cultivating the environment to make innovation.&quot; <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[YouTube buys video production startup Next New Networks]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=youtube-buys-video-production-startup-next-new-networks</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=youtube-buys-video-production-startup-next-new-networks</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>kristlelev</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=youtube-buys-video-production-startup-next-new-networks</guid>
<description><![CDATA[YouTube confirmed today that it has acquired online video production and distribution company Next New Networks.Does that mean YouTube is actually going to start producing its own videos It sounds like the answer is no, according to a company blog post. YouTube says:At YouTube, wea4a4re focused on building a great technology platform for creators, and so we leave the actual creation of great videos to the people who do it best: our partners. This new group and the addition of the Next New Networks team doesna4a4t change that. But being a great platform for creators also means helping our partners get the tools and guidance they need to develop higher quality videos and drive bigger audiences to their work.So instead of asking the Next New Networks team to create videos, YouTube says it will become a a4Alaboratory for experimentation and innovationa4 working with a4Aa wide variety of content partners and emerging talent to help them succeed on YouTube.a4 To achieve this goal, the company is creating a new unit called YouTube Next.This approach seems pretty logical. YouTube has been notoriously unprofitable for Google for years now (though there are rumblings thata4a4s finally changing), in part because brands were leery about putting their advertising next to YouTubea4a4s user-generated content. Thata4a4s why YouTube wants to bring in more professional, high-quality videos. Partnerships are probably a more effective way to make that happen than creating the content itself.The acquisition price is less than $100 million, according to The New York Times, which first reported on the deal in December. Next New Networks has raised $26 million from Goldman Sachs, Velocity Interactive, Saban Media Group, Spark Capital, and others.Next Story: Event app HurricaneParty comes out swinging against competitors Previous Story: Charlie Sheen seeks social media intern a4&quot;will he pay in tiger bloodPrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: video, YouTube NextCompanies: Google, Next New Networks, YouTube          Tags: video, YouTube NextCompanies: Google, Next New Networks, YouTubeAnthony is a senior editor at VentureBeat, as well as its reporter on media, advertising, and social networks. Before joining the site in 2008, Anthony worked at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing. He attended Stanford University and now lives in San Francisco. Reach him at anthony@venturebeat.com. (All story pitches should also be sent to tips@venturebeat.com) You can also follow Anthony on Twitter. Have news to share Launching a startup Email: tips@venturebeat.comVentureBeat has new weekly email newsletters.  Stay on top of the news, and don't miss a beat.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[In Defense Of Chrome&nbsp'OS]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=in-defense-of-chromenbspos</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=in-defense-of-chromenbspos</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>sufreter365</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=in-defense-of-chromenbspos</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Looking over the tech news today, you&amp;'d think Chrome OS is dead. Nevermind that it hasn&amp;'t even officially launched yet. Dead.Early reviews for the Cr-48, the prototype device (which Google has no plans to officially release) running Chrome OS, have ranged from mediocre to poor. And Paul Buchheit, the man often credited with creating Gmail for Google back in the day, kicked up the firestorm this morning when he predicted that Chrome OS would be &amp;''killed&amp;'' next year in favor of Android.So that&amp;'s it, right Not so fast.Before I begin, remember that I&amp;'m the person who wrote perhaps one of the most scathing long reviews of the Cr-48 and the initial build of Chrome OS. Simply put: neither that device nor the OS are anywhere near where they need to be if Google wants to release these devices to the public. But we knew that would be the case. And Google had to as well. It&amp;'s a little bit odd just how many Cr-48s they&amp;'re sending out, but they really seem to believe that third-party developers will help solve some of their woes.I don&amp;'t know about that. But I do know that at its core, Chrome OS remains a good idea. And it seems like one that ties directly to Google&amp;'s entire essence. If they put the resources necessary into it, and give it time, I do think it has a good chance to succeed.Of course, both of those are pretty big &amp;''ifs&amp;''. One issue is that Google, like every other large tech company before it, seems to be spreading itself too thin. Despite some spin to the contrary, the company still essentially makes all of its money from one thing: search advertising. Other revenue sources are starting to emerge, but the actual potential of those businesses is still a bit cloudy a4&quot; namely because there is a lot of competition in places like display advertising, local, and mobile.Google may not win all of those spaces. Hell, they may not win any of them. That doesn&amp;'t mean they won&amp;'t be money-makers, but if they don&amp;'t win in the same way they&amp;'ve won search and search advertising, none of those businesses will be anywhere near the size of the core business. And that makes Google vulnerable.But this concern isn&amp;'t stopping Google from pushing full steam ahead on dozens of projects ranging from books to self-driving cars. You could argue that all of that stuff is eventually in Google&amp;'s interest both from a product and business perspective, but no one, including Google, knows for sure. And because they&amp;'re dividing their awesome engineering talent between all of these various projects, they&amp;'re making it hard to nail any single project a4&quot; such as Chrome OS.My sense is that it&amp;'s becoming an empire divided. Sort of like Microsoft. There&amp;'s just too much going on, and too many people who aren&amp;'t on the same page a4&quot; or even know what&amp;'s going on in other areas of the company. That doesn&amp;'t seem to be the case right now at the smaller tech companies like Facebook and Twitter. And perhaps that&amp;'s part of the reason why Google is losing talent to those places. Talent like Chrome OS&amp;'s chief architect.But back to Chrome OS. While there are plenty of reasons to be skeptical, there&amp;'s also plenty of reason to believe in it. Again, fundamentally, it seems to be the closest product to what Google is at its core. That is, the web.Android is not that. Android is a company Google smartly acquired when they realized that the mobile web was not going to be good enough, fast enough for the smartphone revolution. There needed to be native applications. It will probably go down as the smartest acquisition Google ever made.But saying that Android will kill Chrome OS is myopic. Right now, apps are all the rage. But again, that&amp;'s because web technologies are not yet where they need to be. Apple found this out at first when they asked developers to create web apps and not native applications for the original iPhone. A year later, they had to open up native development. But the original idea was web apps.And there&amp;'s a pretty solid chance that this will still be the future. The web governing bodies move too slowly, but they do move. And eventually mobile web apps should be on par with their native counterparts. And if that&amp;'s the case, developers will have a huge incentive to develop once for one unified platform, rather than three or four different ones.We&amp;'ve already seen this happening on the web at large. Web apps are eating into traditional desktop apps for this very reason (along with others like ease of distribution, etc). Mobile is just a newer and different beast. One that has to be tamed natively first.It seems as if all of this is cyclical. Native apps are the rage on mobile now. Walled gardens are hot because they make it easier to nail user experience a4&quot; especially on the limited dimensions that mobile devices offer. But open will come charging back. I don&amp;'t know when. But I know it will.And that&amp;'s likely to be the web. Again.And the web is Chrome OS. In following up on his earlier post, Buchheit noted his surprise that an OS with roughly &amp;''zero users&amp;'' had so many fans. But that&amp;'s not really the case. Chrome OS already has millions of users a4&quot; because Chrome OS is just Chrome. Say what you will about the OS, but that&amp;'s what it is. It&amp;'s Chrome with a few little bells and whistles to make it so that you don&amp;'t need all the bloat that Windows has forced down our throats over the years.In many ways, Chrome OS is the anti-OS. And that&amp;'s refreshing. It&amp;'s not where it needs to be yet, but when and if it gets there, it could be really, really great. Imagine a computer that boots in two seconds. Imagine one that lasts for an entire day on a single charge. Imagine one that costs less than $100. It could change the world.Just think about what you use your computer for these days. There&amp;'s a very good chance that it&amp;'s mainly to use the web. I&amp;'m at a cafe right now. Looking around, every single screen has a web browser open. That&amp;'s important. That&amp;'s why Chrome OS was created.Again, as I said in my Cr-48 review, unlike Google CEO Eric Schmidt, I don&amp;'t believe we yet live in a world fully ready for Chrome OS. So the key is for Google to keep the dream alive long enough for us to get there. That could mean several years of backlash and questions as to why they continue to work on it when Android is exploding. But the answer is because Chrome OS a4&quot; at least the concept behind it a4&quot; will eventually win. And when the time is right for that to occur, Google will be in prime position to really hit Microsoft where it hurts a4&quot; in the wallet.It&amp;'s a nuclear bomb that has been dropped, but could take years to explode.That&amp;'s not a popular concept in today&amp;'s instant gratification world. Especially for a publicly traded company that has to answer to shareholders. But if Googlea4sdoes kill Chrome OS next year, mark my words, someone else will create it down the road. And Google, in full Microsoft-mode by that point with Android, will scramble to copy it. And they will lose.[photo: flickr/andy z]CrunchBase InformationGoogle Chrome OSInformation provided by CrunchBase<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Social Shopping App CheckPoints Downloaded 100K Times Since&nbsp'Disrupt]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=social-shopping-app-checkpoints-downloaded-100k-times-sincenbspdisrupt</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=social-shopping-app-checkpoints-downloaded-100k-times-sincenbspdisrupt</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>rozemiluc</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=social-shopping-app-checkpoints-downloaded-100k-times-sincenbspdisrupt</guid>
<description><![CDATA[CheckPoints, a mobile shopping app that launched at TechCrunch Disrupt over a month ago, has surpassed 100,000 downloads of its iPhone app. The milestone is impressive considering that the app has only been available for one month. CheckPoints takes a more product centric approach to its shopping app. When you walk into a store, the app will show you featured products that you can scan with the built-in barcode reader. After scanning, you&amp;'ll receive an interactive game that a marketer has made for that brand, allowing marketers to actually directly connect with consumers at the point of sale. Consumers are incentivized to scan products because it earns them a4Acheckpointsa4 which can be redeemed for discounts and products once you have enough.  For example, Frito-Lay is using CheckPoints to advertise a promo for their new Tostitos Artisan Recipes. When consumers scan a Frito-Lay product, they will earn points and receive holiday recipe ideas and exclusive music content from Frito-Lay. At launch, Checkpoints has deals with a number of brands including Belkin, Tyson Energizer, and Unilever, Kmart and Belkin. And when it comes to actual usage, CheckPoints is reporting thousands of user scans per day in stores all across the U.S.CheckPoints faces competition from Shopkick and Barcode Hero. CrunchBase InformationCheckPointsInformation provided by CrunchBase<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Quirkat to develop games for the Middle East market]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=quirkat-to-develop-games-for-the-middle-east-market</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=quirkat-to-develop-games-for-the-middle-east-market</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>rewinbugtalk</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=quirkat-to-develop-games-for-the-middle-east-market</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The Middle East has been pretty much off the map when it comes to making video games. But a small Dubai-based start-up called Quirkat would like to change that.The company&amp;'s very existence is a nod to the globalization of the video game business. In a time when web technologies enable start-ups to create, publish and distribute their games anywhere, it&amp;'s a lot easier to create games anywhere in the world. So it&amp;'s only fitting that an Arab game company should make games for hundreds of millions of people in the Middle East, or people who are interested in games set in the region.The name &amp;''Quirkat&amp;'' has deep origins as the name of the ancient Middle Eastern game of strategy that may have spawned the game that we know as checkers.&amp;''It traveled around the world from the Middle East into the West and now we&amp;'re trying to make the same thing electronically centuries later,&amp;'' said Mahmoud Ali Khasawneh (pictured below, left), co-founder and chief executive, in an interview at the recent Game Developers Conference, where he spoke on Middle Eastern games at the Localization Summit and attended a gathering of a couple of dozen Middle East game developers.While the company&amp;'s headquarters is in Dubai, its game studio is in Amman, Jordan, and it has a couple of artists in Beirut.He started the company with Candide Kirk (who is half Jordanian, pictured right) in 2004. Khaswaneh was leading the program to get the Jordanian government online and was frustrated with the lack of Arabic language content in the region.He and Kirk wanted to create the first Arabic-focused video game development studio that would produce local content. They can take games and &amp;''Arabize&amp;'' them with local content or make original games for the region.In 2007, they got a big break by being able to co-produce a $5 million game with U.S.-based Breakaway Games. For that two-year effort, they beefed up the team to 40 contractors and co-produced a game called Arabian Lords (pictured top and bottom). That was a disk-based PC strategy game that allows players to become merchant lords during the time of the rise of Islam. The player starts with one palace and expands to rule an entire city during the 7th through the 13th centuries.&amp;''It was tough to learn how to make games, but we had a lucky break,&amp;'' Kirk said.Kirk said that shadowing the Breakaway team during the production of the game was invaluable. The game sold about 20,000 copies on the PC. That wasn&amp;'t much, but it was the No. 1 game in the region at the time, and Khasawneh said it helped the company get on the path toward its goal of being the No. 1 brand for Arab gamers.&amp;''Breakaway saw that we could do it, and so then on the second game we were able to take on more responsibility,&amp;'' Khasawneh said.That game got canceled when the world financial crisis hit in late 2008. But they split on good terms, and Quirkat sped off into its mission of making original games. It created casual game portal Fuzztak for online gaming in Arabic, English and French.It has also been working on PC games, Flash games for the web, the iPhone, and Android. It has made four games for Sony&amp;'s PlayStation Portable and it is a licensed PlayStation 3 developer (focused on the lighter online PlayStation Network games). Consoles dominate the Middle Eastern market compared to the PC, and the PS 3 is by far the most dominant console because Sony moved into the market first. High piracy rates have hurt the PC.Historically, the Middle East&amp;'s mobile phone market has been about 80 percent Nokia Symbian. Now it is shifting to more BlackBerry and iPhone mobile users, who are still getting accustomed to downloading apps to mobile phones. There is some competition now. There are probably some 20 game studios in the Middle East, including a number in Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. And there are lots of smaller developer shops across the region as well.One of the limitations is compliance with Islamic law. The company doesn&amp;'t touch on religion or politics for its game topics. Topics such as sex, gambling, alcohol and nudity are banned, and the portrayal of Arabs as the bad guys in games such as Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 is frowned upon. (Call of Duty games aren&amp;'t banned per se and are actually popular.) And within the 22-country region, the standards vary, with strict content standards in Saudi Arabia and looser ones in Egypt and Jordan.Even with those restrictions in place, that leaves a lot of fun stuff to do, from card games to sports to mythical role-playing games.&amp;''The top ten games in the Middle East will likely mirror the top games in the U.S.,&amp;'' he said. &amp;''Soccer is huge.&amp;''Knowledge of the region is also an advantage, since Quirkat can alert game developers to inaccuracies or sensitivities related to local culture.Quirkat has done some casual games and Facebook titles as well. Roughly 15 percent of Facebook&amp;'s audience originates in the Middle East, and there are 75 million people on the internet in the region, Khasawneh said.The company has 10 employees and got funding last year. That funding took about six years to raise, but it eventually came from Accelerator Technology Holdings, a fund that focuses on the Middle East.&amp;''We have to raise the value and profile of our company so that it becomes sexier,&amp;'' Kaswaneh said.One way it does that is to work on well-known games via outsourcing, and another is to make sure that its art style is distinctive and identifiably Arabic. Kaswaneh said the company is focused on trying to make a PlayStation Network game in the coming year to show what his company can do. (The Xbox 360 doesn&amp;'t have much of a base in the Middle East). Kirk says the game will likely focus on casual sports.Jordan&amp;'s universities produce technically savvy graduates for the company to hire, but it usually has to train them in how to make video games. Kirk said that employees have skill, but not experience in dealing with things such as crunch time (finishing a game) or cancellations, which are common.Because of the focus on Arabic art, the company puts more resources into the artwork and the artists needed to make it. While some engines such as Gamebryo are too expensive, Quirkat can make games with less expensive game-making technologies such as the Unity 3D engine.So far, all of the revolutions in countries such as Egypt, Libya and Tunisia haven&amp;'t led to a disruption in the market yet. The Persian Gulf countries tend to be the more stable ones for game sales.Next Story: 9 emerging minitrends to watch Previous Story: Plaxo gives up on social networking, refocuses on address booksPrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: Arabian Lords, pc, Playstation 3, PlayStation Network, Playstation Portable, Unity 3DCompanies: QuirkatPeople: Candide Kirk, Mahmoud Khasawneh          Tags: Arabian Lords, pc, Playstation 3, PlayStation Network, Playstation Portable, Unity 3DCompanies: QuirkatPeople: Candide Kirk, Mahmoud KhasawnehDean is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He covers video games, security, chips and a variety of other subjects. Dean previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News, the Wall Street Journal, the Red Herring, the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register and the Dallas Times Herald. He is the author of two books, Opening the Xbox and the Xbox 360 Uncloaked. Follow him on Twitter at @deantak, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat. Have news to share Launching a startup Email: tips@venturebeat.comVentureBeat has new weekly email newsletters.  Stay on top of the news, and don't miss a beat.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Augmented reality helps you fix your printer]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=augmented-reality-helps-you-fix-your-printer</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=augmented-reality-helps-you-fix-your-printer</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>sealazenby</dc:creator>
<category>Latest News</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=augmented-reality-helps-you-fix-your-printer</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Augmented reality (AR) company Metaio will show a demo at next week&amp;'s Mobile World Congress in which AR on your mobile phone shows you how to change a printer toner cartridge.Augmented reality overlays digital information over your view of the physical world in a mobile devicea4a4s camera viewThe printer demo is significant for a couple of reasons: the application of mobile AR to a service and maintenance scenario, and the sophisticated technology used.Metaio has a division which works with industrial clients like the car company Volkswagen. For example, a 3D model of a new vehicle can be superimposed overa digital photo of the actual factory environment to help with plan theassembly room layout. This kind of application requires very precise 3D modeling and overlay of the AR image over the real-world image.For the printer demo, Metaio&amp;'s software creates a virtual 3D point cloud (see the video) from the image of the printer in the mobile phone&amp;'s camera view. This point clouddefines the structure of the printer. The cloud is then compared to a markerless tracking reference (a sort of a4Asignaturea4 created from 3D CAD models of the printer) sothe software can recognize the correct printer model. The software then renders AR objects over the camera view of the printer in real time and with the correct scale in order to instruct the user on how to change the cartridge.Most mobile AR applications so far have been simple, sometimes gimmicky and according to some commentators not even real AR. Now that the initial novelty has worn off, Metaio is convinced that AR users are looking for more useful applications and, in areas like games and media, higher production values. Replacing the service manual certainly falls into the category of useful.Improving AR graphics for applications like games is made difficult by the already high processing and battery power required by AR.Metaio worked with ST-Ericsson&amp;'s latest dual-core smartphone platform, the U8500,to optimize its AR software to run on that chip set (the printer demo can be seen in the in the ST-Ericsson partner zone at Mobile World Congress).This increased the frames per second of the AR image rendering from about 18 frames/second on an off-the-shelf smartphone to 30 frames/second on ST Ericsson&amp;'s platform, resulting in a much smoother and more accurate AR experience.The company thinks that such partnerships between hardware and AR software vendors are essential to push mobile AR technology forward.Although the functionality shown in the printer demo is not yet available in Metaio&amp;'s mobile AR browserJunaio, the company has been busy adding other interesting features like image recognition and visual search (similar to Google Goggles) including face recognition.Metaio is based in Munich, Germany, was founded in 2003 and has around 65 employees. It is privately funded.Next Story: Could we see an iPad 3 this year Previous Story: Rate-your-company startup Glassdoor raises $12MPrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: AR, augmented reality, mobile, printerCompanies: Metaio, St Ericsson, Volkswagon          Tags: AR, augmented reality, mobile, printerCompanies: Metaio, St Ericsson, VolkswagonCiara Byrne is a full time techie and part-time writer. She has worked as a software developer, team lead, engineering manager and mobile standards expert. Ciara is based in Amsterdam and her interests include creative companies, useful technology, torture by piano and cycling in high heels. Follow her on Twitter at @deciara.  Have news to share Launching a startup Email: tips@venturebeat.comVentureBeat has new weekly email newsletters.  Stay on top of the news, and don't miss a beat.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Apple approves SkyFire iPhone browser with Flash video support]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=apple-approves-skyfire-iphone-browser-with-flash-video-support</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=apple-approves-skyfire-iphone-browser-with-flash-video-support</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 30 Nov -001 00:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Nina01</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=apple-approves-skyfire-iphone-browser-with-flash-video-support</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Mobile browser developer SkyFire has seemingly done the impossible by getting its Flash video-capable web browser approved for Apple&amp;'s App Store.The SkyFire 2.0 browser was submitted for Apple&amp;'s approval in early September, and at the time we argued that Apple would have very little reason not to accept the browser. Now we&amp;'ve learned that it will be available for download at 9 a.m. ET Thursday morning for $2.99 from the App Store, according to a report by CNN.SkyFire&amp;'s big claim to fame is its ability to play video embedded on web sites with Adobe&amp;'s Flash technology. But since Flash still isn&amp;'t supported on the iPhone, the browser goes through some clever hoops to play Flash video: SkyFirea4a4s cloud-computing technology allows the browser to translate  Flash videos in real-time to Apple-approved HTML5 standard. The company  says it adheres to all of Applea4a4s video and browser guidelines a4&quot;  including the use of a WebKit browser core and H.264 adaptive video  streaming.SkyFire 2.0 also makes its Flash video streaming very efficient. The  browser compresses video data by about 75 percent on average a4&quot; making it  easier to stream videos without buffering, and saving precious battery  life in the process.The browser won&amp;'t play video from Hulu, CNN notes. It also won&amp;'t be able play other Flash elements like games, or let users view websites that rely on Flash for navigation.You can view a demonstration of the app below:Next Story: Overwhelmed by Yelp Bizzy takes a personal approach to business recommendations Previous Story: Supreme Court transcripts show where the witty justices stand on the video game violence casePrintEmailTwitterFacebookGoogle BuzzLinkedIn      DiggStumbleUponRedditDeliciousGoogleMore&amp;8230'          Tags: App Store, apps, Flash, iOS, iPhone, Skyfire 2.0, smartphones, streaming, video, web browserCompanies: Adobe, Apple, Skyfire          Tags: App Store, apps, Flash, iOS, iPhone, Skyfire 2.0, smartphones, streaming, video, web browserCompanies: Adobe, Apple, SkyfireDevindra Hardawar is VentureBeat's lead mobile writer and East Coast correspondent. He studied philosophy at Amherst College, worked in IT support for several years, and has been writing about technology since 2004. He now lives in Brooklyn, New York. You can reach him at devindra@venturebeat.com (all story pitches should also be sent to tips@venturebeat.com), and on Twitter at @Devindra.VentureBeat has new weekly email newsletters.  Stay on top of the news, and don't miss a beat.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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