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<title>Haaze.com / Lilly01 / Voted News</title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com</link>
<description>Test Web 2.0 Content Management System</description>
<pubDate>Mon, 25 Apr 2011 07:10:26 +0000</pubDate>
<language>en</language>
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<title><![CDATA[Watch out Leaf, Wheego LiFe EV hits the streets]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=watch-out-leaf-wheego-life-ev-hits-the-streets</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=watch-out-leaf-wheego-life-ev-hits-the-streets</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 25 Apr 2011 07:10:26 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>premampir</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=watch-out-leaf-wheego-life-ev-hits-the-streets</guid>
<description><![CDATA[A couple in Georgia receives the first Wheego LiFe electric car to be sold.(Credit:Wheego)The tiny segment of electriccars just got a little more crowded, as Wheego announces the delivery of its first LiFe electric car today. Similar to the Nissan Leaf, the Wheego LiFe runs off lithium ion batteries, has a range of about 100 miles, and, with a top speed of 65 mph, is freeway legal.The first delivery, which heralds the general availability of this two-seat electric runabout, went to a couple in Georgia. The car was sold through a Jim Ellis dealership in Atlanta. Wheego has dealerships signed up across the country.The name of the LiFe, formerly called the Wheego Whip, uses the periodic table abbreviations for lithium and iron, Li and Fe. The body and chassis for the car come from Shuanghuan Automobile in China. Wheego fits it with a 60-horsepower electric motor and 30 kilowatt-hour lithium ion battery pack.As a two seater, the Wheego LiFe is similar in format to the Smart Electric Drive, although the Wheego uses a front-wheel-drive format and has greater range. Cabin tech in the Wheego is limited to a stereo head unit with a CD slot and USB port.Wheego sells the LiFe for $32,995, and notes that a Federal tax credit of $7,500 may be claimed for purchasing the car.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Postagram sends postcards from your iPhone]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=postagram-sends-postcards-from-your-iphone</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=postagram-sends-postcards-from-your-iphone</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 12 Apr 2011 07:10:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Kavita01</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=postagram-sends-postcards-from-your-iphone</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Postagram lets you send postcards from your iPhone.(Credit:Postagram)Xobni co-founder Matt Brezina is launching a fun and clever product today to letiPhone users send real, physical postcards directly from your iPhone (or from the Web). Postagram is the app. Sincerely is the new company he started to create it. Postagram uses the Instagram API. It requires that users have an Instagram login and the app installed on their phone. But from there, it looks like a quick procedure to select a photo from your Instagram library, put a message of up to 140 characters on it, address it (unfortunately the app can't access your phone's address book directly), and have it sent out as a postcard through the mail.The postcard itself has a clever twist: The Instagram-styled square photo can be popped out of the postcard that carries it. Unlike traditional postcards, the image doesn't take up the whole front surface. (The SMS-length message and the photo are on the front' I haven't seen one yet so I don't know what's on the back, aside from the address.)It costs 99 cents to send a Postagram, payable via credit card since Apple won't let companies sell physical goods through its App Store payment system. That's a completely reasonable fee for taking the cheapest of social gestures--sending a photo to someone electronically--and making it more real and valuable.  Brezina's business is based on the correct understanding that people will pay for physical souvenirs even when the memories they represent can be sent for free. It's hardly a new realization, but Postagram brings that important social capability to the large group of iPhone users who just never bother to print or send photos anymore.  Brezina's new company, Sincerely, will soon have other photo-delivery products, he told me. Also coming up: An Instagram-free way to send postcards from your phone. On launch day, April 12, new users can send one Postagram for free.The images can pop out of the postcard-sized carrier.(Credit:Postagram)<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Report: Google and DOJ close to ITA settlement]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=report-google-and-doj-close-to-ita-settlement</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=report-google-and-doj-close-to-ita-settlement</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 07 Apr 2011 07:11:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>materliqazwsxedc</dc:creator>
<category>Politics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=report-google-and-doj-close-to-ita-settlement</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Google and the U.S. Department of Justice are said to be close to reaching a legal settlement over Google's intended $700 million acquisition of travel data company ITA Software, which was has been under scrutiny since the deal was announced last July.Citing &quot;people familiar with the matter,&quot; The Wall Street Journal reports that the proposal agreement, which would allow the purchase to go forward, is not finalized. That agreement, the Journal says, also lets the government keep an eye on Google for antitrust activities and could be made within days.From the get-go, the proposed acquisition has faced challenges from the Department of Justice over whether the control of the travel software company would give Google too much power. Google has since set up a site that outlines its intentions with ITA, including honoring all existing agreements with companies that make use of ITA's data and technology in their services. Nonetheless, groups including the coalition FairSearch.org have sprung up, contesting the buy, saying that it would give Google an upper hand against competitors, many of whom use ITA's technology. ITA's core business is curating and indexing prices, flight schedules, and open seats, and offering the data to partners. The 500-person company has relationships with airlines and travel agencies and can be found powering sites like Kayak, Hotwire, and Orbitz. When Google first announced plans to buy the company, it said it intended to use ITA's technology to let users buy tickets directly from its search pages.A report by Reuters, which also claimed that a deal was days away from completion, said the Justice Department was concerned with how Google planned to license the technology to competitors and that there was still some argument over how those competitors would be presented as part of Google's search results.Google last week entered into a settlement agreement with the Federal Trade Commission over violating user privacy as part of the roll-out of its Buzz service last year. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Google begins tablet version of Chrome OS]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=google-begins-tablet-version-of-chrome-os</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=google-begins-tablet-version-of-chrome-os</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 07 Apr 2011 07:10:13 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>svetalawo</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=google-begins-tablet-version-of-chrome-os</guid>
<description><![CDATA[A Google mock-up from last year of a Chrome OS tablet is coming to fruition.(Credit:Google)Details in Google's source code reveal that company programmers have begun building atablet version of Chrome OS, its browser-based operating system.The work isn't a surprise, given that Google created mock-ups of a Chrome OS tablet more than a year ago. But it does indicate that a tablet incarnation of Google's Web-app operating system is a near-term priority, not just an idea.Google acknowledged the tablet version of Chrome OS but wouldn't discuss details such as when the project's first version will be done. &quot;We are engaging in early open-source work for the tablet form factor, but we have nothing new to announce at this time,&quot; the company said in a statement.Chrome OS tablets, though, are not first on the list, the company said: &quot;Chrome OS was designed from the beginning to work across a variety of form factors. We expect to see different partners build different kinds of devices based on Chrome OS, but for this initial release we are targeting the notebook form factor.&quot;Chrome OS has been evolving since Google announced it in 2009. Initially it was aimed at Netbooks, the small, low-end laptops. But the first incarnation of Chrome OS--a pilot release intended for developers and testers rather than ordinary customers--arrived in a more polished laptop package called the Cr-48.A tablet version of Chrome OS, though, raises a big question about Google's strategy, because the company's tablet version of the Android operating system, Honeycomb, is just now arriving on the market with Motorola's Xoom and other products designed to compete with the leader of the tablet market,Apple's iPad.For use in a tablet version of Chrome OS, Google&amp;39's browser is getting virtual keys, including this design for a return key, for a screen keyboard.(Credit:screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)Signs of Chrome OS for tabletsA number of changes in Chrome and Chrome OS source code that arrived in March and April reveal the tablet work. Among them:&amp;149' The &quot;user-agent string&quot; text that browsers supply so Web servers can deliver the appropriate version of a Web site--for touch user interfaces. The string includes the term &quot;CrOS Touch,&quot; not just CrOS as before.&quot;This lets Web sites that are already customizing for tablet experiences easily adapt to support tablet ChromeOS devices,&quot; the programming change log notes.&amp;149' A &quot;virtual keyboard&quot; with a number of keys--tab, delete, microphone, return, and shift, for example--drawn in SVG so they can be shown by a browser. Screen keyboards are, of course, a necessity with tablets.&amp;149' A variety of moves to make the browser more touch-friendly, for example by increasing the space around items to make it easier to select them with a touch interface.&amp;149' A revamped new-tab page (which people see when they open a new, blank tab) that's &quot;optimized for touch.&quot; The current page shows an array of Web applications downloaded from the Chrome Web Store, but the modified version adds multiple screens of icons in the style of iOS devices.The orientation of the new-tab page, but not its size, will change when the device is rotated, according to the new-tab page's coding annotations. &quot;Note that this means apps will be reflowed when rotated (like iPad),&quot; the annotation said.The CSS code for the new-tab page also indicates that programmers would like to be able to move icons around the page, preferably with animation.Chrome&amp;39's new-tab page, shown here in Chrome&amp;39's Canary version with the experimental version enabled through about:flags, is being redone to make it more like an iPad in both presentation and suitability to the touch-screen user interface coming to Chrome OS. The three rectangles at the bottom select between multiple screens of apps that slide by, though at this stage the second and third pages are blank and the text at the bottom of the page is only a placeholder.(Credit:screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)Pick a tablet, any tabletSo with Android and Chrome OS tablet software under development, what's Google's top tablet priorityClearly, the answer today is Android. It's at the forefront of Google's mobile strategy and is a commercial success, at least in phones. Tens of thousands of Android applications are available today, and even Google rivals such as Yahoo and Microsoft are offering software.Chrome OS, by comparison, is immature and conceptually a greater leap from prevailing software development patterns. That's because Chrome OS solely runs apps on the browser, not on its underlying Linux operating system embedded under the covers.Related links&amp;149' Google shows off Chrome OS tablet ideas&amp;149' Rumor: Chrome OS tablet coming in November&amp;149' Google plans Chrome-based Web operating system&amp;149' Google Cr-48 Chrome hardware pilot program: 'Not for the faint of heart'There are abundant Web sites and Web apps that Chrome OS users can use today, of course, and some, like Google's Gmail site optimized for Apple's iPad, are designed with a touch user interface already. But the tools for building advanced, interactive, high-performance Web apps today just don't match what's possible with apps that run natively on a mobile device or computer, and most people today aren't ready to live solely in the cloud.Timing also isn't on Chrome OS's side. The project had been set to launch in 2010, but has been delayed to midway through this year, though the Chrome Web Store used to bookmark and purchase Web apps is live.Google can let both tablet projects duke it out internally and in the market. Or, if Google co-founder Sergey Brin is to believed, Android and Chrome OS might merge into a single project.It's not a simple matter of some internal Darwinian process within Google to let the be best product survive, though. That's because there are external parties involved: hardware partners, developers, retailers, and customers.Each of these groups must be won over, persuaded that the new ecosystem is worth their investment of time and money.Google's modus operandi--release early and iterate often--is a lot harder to pull off when others are involved. Web applications and native Android applications are by no means mutually exclusive, but developers with finite resources can't be blamed for trying to figure out where to place their bets.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[PornWikiLeaks reveals identities of porn stars]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=pornwikileaks-reveals-identities-of-porn-stars</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=pornwikileaks-reveals-identities-of-porn-stars</comments>
<pubDate>Sat, 02 Apr 2011 07:10:23 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>wpexpert</dc:creator>
<category>Marketing and advertising</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=pornwikileaks-reveals-identities-of-porn-stars</guid>
<description><![CDATA[For some reason, I am reminded of Eric Schmidt's dictum.You know, the one that went something like: &quot;If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place.&quot;It comes to mind because someone whose motivations seem slightly troubling has taken it upon himself to be the Julian Assange of porn.For there now exists a site called PornWikiLeaks, on which, as you might be able to imagine, certain intimate details of porn stars are displayed for all to see.The site doesn't display diplomatic messages from one porn star to another. Instead, it attempts to offer a comprehensive revelation of who these stars really are.Some of you might be familiar with many of the more famous brands in porn: stars like Sacha Grey, who has stretched her abilities beyond matters of the skin into fine mainstream works of art such as &quot;The Girlfriend Experience&quot; and &quot;Entourage.&quot;(Credit:Screenshot: Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)However, many of those who earn an often meager income from their carnal knowledge don't really want their neighbors to know what they do to pay the rent. Moreover, some have left the industry in order to become elementary school teachers or accountants.So one can only imagine that when PornWikiLeaks reveals not merely their real name, but also address, pictures of their family, and phone numbers, they might just be a little upset.Which might make some wonder why someone would choose to do this. The Daily Beast offered an interview with the man who claims to be behind the site.His motivations seem, at best, to be twisted beyond repair. For example, he told the Beast he did it to &quot;get the gays out of straight porn and illegal gay pimps that have ruined porn and shut it down making condoms mandatory by the government now.&quot;The site itself also reflects this ranting, hateful lexicon. Even though its mission statement seems remarkably similar to that of Julian Assange and friends.There is also a suggestion that it is the creator's intention to reveal the STD status of every single porn star, although this hasn't actually happened yet.But where did PornWikiLeaks get this information At least some of the leaked data may have come from a database at AIM Medical Associates, a company that routinely tests porn stars for STDs. AIM told NBC Los Angeles that it is investigating. However, PornWikiLeaks has been going since December, so the investigation might simply be related to the sudden publicity the site is enjoying.Still, AIM believes it has been violated just as much as the U.S. government. Its spokeswoman, Jennifer Miller, told the Beast: &quot;I can't stress enough, we're victims of a crime. Just like the Pentagon and the FBI, we have been victimized and hacked. We are investigating and we will press all charges.&quot;The porn industry is undergoing considerable changes, especially with the huge proliferation of free online porn. Will the existence of PornWikiLeaks make some think twice about their chosen means of making moneyOr is the expectation now entirely reasonable that anything you do, anywhere, at any time could--at any moment--be revealed online for all the world to see, know, and, of course, judge<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Boeing's 747-8 touches down for the first time]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=boeings-747-8-touches-down-for-the-first-time</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=boeings-747-8-touches-down-for-the-first-time</comments>
<pubDate>Sun, 20 Mar 2011 07:10:25 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>TOF4KWS7</dc:creator>
<category>Gaming</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=boeings-747-8-touches-down-for-the-first-time</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The first Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental touches down at Boeing Field in Seattle on Sunday. The plane completed its maiden flight about four-and-a-half hours after taking off from Paine Field in Everett, Wash.(Credit:Daniel Terdiman/CNET)SEATTLE--With the beautiful snow-covered mountains of Washington state behind it, Boeing's 747-8 Intercontinental made its first-ever landing today, four-and-a-half hours after taking off on its maiden flight.The flight went about as well as could be expected, 747 chief pilot Mark Feuerstein said in a brief press conference at Boeing Field here, minutes after the plane touched down at 2:25 p.m. PT.Flawless first landing for Boeing's 747-8 Intercontinental (photos) The plane, with its unique red, orange, and white livery, took off at 9:58 a.m. PT from Paine Field in Everett, Wash., and headed immediately toward the Olympic Peninsula, Feuerstein told the crowd gathered for the landing celebration, and then ultimately out to the tip of Washington state. Along the way, he and co-pilot Paul Stemer took the plane, which is Boeing's longest, fastest, and in theory, most fuel- and cost-efficient ever, up to 20,000 feet and to 250 knots. They also flew it as slow as 105 knots during some of the approaches to stall tests. During the flight, they worked on a series of tests, including simple approaches to stalls, a couple of directional stability tests, and some functional checks of the airplane's systems. And, Feuerstein reported, everything went well, and the plane is &quot;actually ready to go fly right now.&quot;Although Boeing made the first flight of the 747-8 freighter on February 8, 2010, it waited until today to put the passenger version of the plane in the air. But Feuerstein said that, from the pilot's perspective, the wait was worth it. During the interim, Boeing implemented many changes and upgrades to the five 747-8 freighters in its test fleet. But while each of those planes has had a slightly different set of updates, the Intercontinental has benefited from all the various changes made as part of the freighter program. &quot;The changes we've made on the freighter have been rolled into this airplane,&quot; Feuerstein said of the Intercontinental. &quot;All those changes have been rolled into one airplane.&quot;Boeing's 747-8 Intercontinental flies skyward (photos) One test that he and Stemer put the Intercontinental through today was what he called a &quot;steady heading side slip,&quot; which involves putting &quot;the rudder all the way to the floor, and keeping the airplane tracking in the same direction by rolling the airplane,&quot; Feuerstein said. Essentially, that means they were flying the plane &quot;sideways, but in a straight line.&quot; The idea is that seeing how it performs in such a test &quot;tells us a lot about how it behaves...fortunately, it didn't surprise us at all.&quot;Now that the first flight of the Intercontinental has been completed, Boeing plans on conducting about 600 hours of flight testing throughout the summer and fall, said Elizabeth Lund, the vice president and general manager of the 747 program. Then, sometime in the fourth quarter, she added, Boeing hopes to make its first customer delivery of the plane.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Wi-Fi-only Xoom launching March 27 for $599]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=wi-fi-only-xoom-launching-march-27-for-599</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=wi-fi-only-xoom-launching-march-27-for-599</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 16 Mar 2011 07:12:01 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>niehhman</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=wi-fi-only-xoom-launching-march-27-for-599</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The Wi-Fi-only Motorola Xoom is launching on March 27 for $599.(Credit:Motorola Mobility)It took a while for Motorola Mobility to confirm it, but the Wi-Fi-only Xoom is now official.On March 27, thetablet will launch in the U.S. for $599, Motorola Mobility announced today. The device will feature the same 10.1-inch display as its 3G-equipped counterpart. It will also come with Android 3.0 Honeycomb, 32GB of onboard storage, and a 1GHz dual-core processor.Motorola Mobility currently offers a 3G version of the Xoom that retails for $799.99 without a contract and $599.99 with a two-year commitment with Verizon Wireless.With the upcoming launch of the Wi-Fi-only Xoom, Motorola Mobility is taking a page out of Apple's book. Apple, which released the iPad 2 last week, offers both Wi-Fi-only and 3G models. Pricing for the Wi-Fi-onlyiPad 2 starts at $499 for 16GB of storage. The 32GB model, which might be the best comparison to the Wi-Fi-only Xoom, retails for $599.Rumors have been swirling for weeks now that Motorola would be launching a Wi-Fi-only version of the Xoom. Earlier this month, photos leaked of a Wi-Fi-only-Xoom display at a Sam's Club. The photos suggested that the retailer, which is owned by Walmart, would be selling the Xoom for $539. That report was followed up earlier this week by a leaked flyer from Staples that turned out to be spot-on--it was promoting the Wi-Fi-only Xoom retailing for $599 and launching on March 27.According to Motorola Mobility, both Staples and Sam's Club will be among retailers selling the Wi-Fi-only Xoom in-store and online when the tablet launches. They will be joined by Amazon, Best Buy, Costco, RadioShack, and Walmart.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Facebook to test Groupon-like deals service]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=facebook-to-test-groupon-like-deals-service</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=facebook-to-test-groupon-like-deals-service</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 14 Mar 2011 07:11:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>feofanovv</dc:creator>
<category>Marketing and advertising</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=facebook-to-test-groupon-like-deals-service</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Facebook will soon begin testing a service that will provide its members local discounts, a move that will put it in direct competition with daily-deals giant Groupon.The service will be tested in Dallas, Austin, Atlanta, San Francisco, and San Diego, and will expand on the social-networking giant's Deals program, which offers users deals to members when they use Facebook Places to check in at local business, the company said. Members will be able to buy deals and share them with their friends on the network.&quot;Local businesses will be able to sign up to use this feature soon and people will be able to find deals in the coming weeks,&quot; the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company said in statement today.Facebook plans to sell the deals through its own sales team, as well as working with partners such as Gilt City, Home Run, Pop Sugar City, Tippr, KGB Deals, Plum District, Reach Local, Zozi, and Open Table.With 500 million members, Facebook will bring a sizable user base in its challenge for dominance in the deals market, which brought in $873 million in revenue last year and could bring in $3.93 billion by 2015, according to a projection from consulting firm BIA/Kelsey.Chief among those competitors is Groupon, which has been riding meteoric growth with half-price massages, discounted restaurant meals, and travel bargains. Chicago-based Groupon, with 60 million users and more than 39 million deals sold in its two years in business, is expected to beef up its muscle with an initial public offering later this year.In addition to Groupon, Facebook will have to contend with a host of &quot;Groupon clones,&quot; including deals site LivingSocial, which announced a $175 million investment from e-commerce giant Amazon.com late last year.Facebook will also face competition from Google, which over the past couple of years has been losing employee talent to the social-networking giant. Just a month after being rebuffed in a buyout offer of Groupon, Google confirmed in January that it's preparing to launch its own social-buying competitor called Google Offers.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Onboard the Startup Bus, let's bounce]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=onboard-the-startup-bus-lets-bounce</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=onboard-the-startup-bus-lets-bounce</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 09 Mar 2011 08:10:46 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Enladavoill</dc:creator>
<category>Gaming</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=onboard-the-startup-bus-lets-bounce</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Members of Bouncr sit on the ground outside the Santa Monica, Calif., co-working space Coloft, where the Startup Bus stopped yesterday afternoon. (Credit:Daniel Terdiman/CNET)PALM SPRINGS, Calif.--If I've learned one thing during my first, long, day on the Startup Bus yesterday, it's that in a rapid prototyping environment, it's all about &quot;MVP.&quot;For those who think that's a sports term, it isn't. At least not in this context. Here, riding through dry California lowlands at 60 miles per hour on a bus packed with a couple dozen hard-core tech entrepreneurs, it means just one thing: minimum viable product.I'm on one of two Startup Bus coaches that left San Francisco early yesterday bound for the South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) festival in Austin, Texas. All told, six buses full of so-called &quot;buspreneurs&quot; are heading towards the Texas capital, including one each from New York, Chicago, Miami, and Cleveland. And all six are filled with teams of techies who want to come up with the best start-up pitch they can craft between their starting point and Austin. To them, especially before we've even stopped for our first night on the road, MVP is what it's all about.Even if MVP occasionally makes you wince at what you've built.&quot;If you're not embarrassed by your first release,&quot; said Jay Stakelon, a member of Team Bouncr, &quot;you're not releasing early enough.&quot;A version of the Bouncr Web site that the team built in less than a day Tuesday aboard the Startup Bus.(Credit:Bouncr)There are six teams onboard my bus, but I've spent the bulk of the first day shadowing Bouncr. This team of six--including Stakelon, Max Mullen, Adam Burmister, Diana Mounter, Mischa Nachtigal, and Jason Katzer--is trying to build a start-up that began around the idea of a &quot;bit.ly for e-mail addresses.&quot; On the one hand, as they first thought about it, their product would provide an auto-generated e-mail address that could be useful in trying to craft 140 character tweets, and on the other, the team thinks it may have a solution to the problem of providing throw-away e-mail addresses for Web service sign-ups or to people you don't really want to hear from: It's the e-mail address you give the annoying job seeker or guy in the bar who won't leave you alone. When they write you and you don't want to hear from them, the click of a button--maybe it says &quot;Let's bounce,&quot; or &quot;bounce me,&quot; a polite &quot;nothing to see here&quot; sort of response is automatically sent back. &quot;Shorten, share, and protect your e-mail address&quot; is the team's tagline.Throughout the day, the Bouncr crew has, like all the others on the six buses, been building its idea up from scratch. These are, after all, people who for the most part met for the first time in the last 36 hours. And while they're a long way from landing a round of venture funding from Kleiner, Perkins, the six have already crossed a significant milestone: they've struck their first deal.Toward the end of the day last night, the team was busy pitching Philip Fierlinger, who hails from New Zealand's Xero, a major Startup Bus sponsor, on plunking down some advertising dollars. Leading the pitch was Katzer, who was enthusiastically pointing out to Fierlinger that Bouncr had already had well over 1,000 visits to its Web site--in one day--and that more than 10 percent of those people had signed up. Katzer was jockeying hard to score a $100 advertising buy.At first, Fierlinger was dismissive, saying that Xero had already put down all the money it could on the Startup Bus. But Katzer wouldn't let go, nor would his teammate Mullen, who carefully explained all the ways that Bouncr &quot;touches&quot; a user: upon initial sign-up' at registration confirmation' when blocking an e-mail or user' and any time a user visits the management tool. With this new insight into Bouncr's idea--and both a newfound sense of respect for the Bouncr team and that the product might very well align nicely with Xero's online accounting software--Fierlinger is won over for an ad buy of at least $100, and maybe more. There's a handshake. And then Mullen belted out, &quot;Bouncr is profitable!&quot;'What's the point of the service' Since laws governing how many hours a bus driver can work meant that we had to find a place to stop by 10 p.m., we quietly rolled into a Palm Springs Travelodge that advertises itself as &quot;brand new and affordably hip&quot;--though, surprise, surprise, it's neither--in the dark. I had dreams of some last work, and then a (more or less) decent night's sleep.But then there was a knock and the door, and there was Mullen, inviting me to come and sit in on a team meeting where they'd be going over &quot;user stories.&quot;This wasn't about testimonials. It was a discussion of the many different potential Bouncr use cases, and features they were considering. What if, they pondered, someone sent a Bouncr e-mail with attachments--should the service forward the attachment or host it and send a link A brief discussion ended with a consensus that Bouncr should behave like e-mail normally does, and not force users to adapt to something new. So, it should forward any attachments.What happens, it was asked, if someone submitted a Bouncr e-mail address for conversion to a Bouncer e-mail address More discussion, and an agreement that the system should be set to automatically refuse to accept addresses from its own domain.One particularly important topic of discussion was whether Bouncr would really offer most users utility as a shortening service. After all, bouncr.com is a longer domain than, say, gmail.com. Mullen said, however, that he had put in a request for boun.cr, a Costa Rican URL that was available, but would require approval. If accepted, it would offer the team a three-character advantage over the .com.Another question was whether users would be able to request custom Bouncr addresses, or if they'd have to accept what was autogenerated. Clearly, it was decided, custom addresses were essential--but not something that should be included in the list of features the team would be focusing on in the two days before arrival in Austin.Indeed, much of the evening meeting centered around &quot;above the line&quot; and &quot;below the line&quot; features, meaning those that were high priority, and those that could be put off into the future. Energetic and enthusiastic, Stakelon, a dead-ringer for Foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley, nonetheless was clearly the pragmatic voice of reason in the room, constantly expressing passion for ideas while also declaring them &quot;below the line.&quot;Bouncr members Max Mullen (second from right) and Mischa Nachtigal (right) interview people on the street about the product their team is building.(Credit:Daniel Terdiman/CNET)With some features being called into question, including whether Bouncr even makes sense as an e-mail address shortening service, Mounter got existential. &quot;Now, what's the whole point of the service,&quot; she asked.A question like that could bring everything crashing down, but the Bouncr team seems a lot more confident than that. Indeed, though I haven't spent as much time with any of the other teams as I have with this group, I've gotten the feeling that these six people are particularly cohesive. Whether crammed into the seats at tiny tables onboard the bus--seemingly the same kind of Bauer Limousine coach that ferries hundreds of Google employees to work from San Francisco every day--or sitting on the floor of Coloft, the Santa Monica, Calif, co-working space we spent the afternoon at yesterday, or working on two queen beds at the Travelodge, the team always seems loose, easygoing, and on task. It's not that the other teams are rife with conflict--far from it: One thing about my Startup Bus experience that has surprised me is how little tension there is. But there certainly is some, and at least one team has more or less had to abandon its original idea after a day of disagreements over direction and, finally, the defection of a teammate.With Bouncr, even disagreements seem more like constructive discussion, and an important point like Mounter's is taken at face value and considered soberly. As the team tries to work out whether Bouncr offers real utility to enterprises, and ponders whether its goal of &quot;adding intelligence to e-mail&quot; is valid, or even possible, the reaction is that &quot;the fact that we're having this conversation is important because we are coming up with solutions.&quot;But there might even be a bit of hubris on display.At one point, the team is talking about how well they work together. And Nachtigal, who works for Twitter, looked up and said, &quot;We may not have the best idea [on the bus] but we can execute the best.&quot;Whether that's true or not, Bouncr is certainly being seen as promising by the Startup Bus community. In a virtual stock market game (note: the link gives me a referral boost in the game) that is being run in conjunction with the project--in which anyone can &quot;bet&quot; on the stocks of the various teams--Bouncr's stock price has been one of the top gainers. Above the line Though everyone on the bus is tired from lack of sleep, the Bouncr team continued to work late into the night despite our planned 7 a.m. PT departure this morning. But finally, Stakelon hit his wall, threw his bag over his shoulder and announced he was heading for bed.For Mounter, this was a clear opportunity.&quot;Now that Jay's gone,&quot; she said, pausing for effect, &quot;let's move everything above the line.&quot;Stay tuned for more CNET coverage of the Startup Bus.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[WebGL 1.0 is done. Where's Microsoft]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=webgl-1-0-is-done--wheres-microsoft</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=webgl-1-0-is-done--wheres-microsoft</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 03 Mar 2011 08:10:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>tozoreleg</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=webgl-1-0-is-done--wheres-microsoft</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Brace yourself for the 3D Web.At least, if you useFirefox, Chrome, Opera, orSafari. Those are the browsers that support--though sometimes only in developer-preview editions--a technology called WebGL. And today, the Khronos Group standardizing the graphics interface announced that WebGL 1.0 is finished.Although WebGL has significant momentum, its prospects are significantly hampered by Microsoft's lack of enthusiasm. When I've asked Microsoft its feelings about it, the company expressed a preference for &quot;using existing standards to build 3D today,&quot; pointing as an example to the Sky Beautiful demo site.Granted, Microsoft has bit off a lot trying to modernize Internet Explorer with IE9, but WebGL is arguably a pretty important piece of the Web technology platform. Perhaps some reluctance can be explained by the fact that WebGL is based on the OpenGL graphics interface used onMac OS X, Windows, iOS, and Android and that competes with Microsoft's DirectX.If there's enough interest among Web developers, though--and those developers long have shown a fondness for IE alternatives--Microsoft could conclude that WebGL support is as important as other Web technologies such as Scalable Vector Graphics that only now are top priorities. WebGL is one of a suite of developing Web technologies that are gaining clout as a foundation for Web-based applications.Jay Sullivan, Mozilla's vice president of products, thinks there's enough browser support already to attract programmers. &quot;Between Firefox and Chrome, people will build stuff,&quot; he said in an interview. This WebGL demonstration shows 3D models of asteroids striking a rotating planet. It&amp;39's not fancy, but it&amp;39's 3D in a browser.(Credit:screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET) And WebGL has some compelling possibilities. Microsoft's own Fish IE Tank demo, used to show off IE9's hardware acceleration, runs vastly faster in a Jeff Muizelaar's Fish IE demo rewritten to use WebGL--although not using its 3D features.And Facebook sees WebGL's performance advantages for its nascent JSGameBench speed test. &quot;Implement WebGL!&quot; pleads Facebook's Bruce Rogers in a blog post about WebGL's benefits. &quot;WebGL powerfully expands the design space available to Web developers and is not just for 3D content. Don't force developers and users to abandon their browser of choice in order to experience great Web content.&quot;WebGL no doubt will enable Web developers to put annoying rotating cubes on their sites. But there are plenty of serious uses for the interface as well.For example, the hardware-accelerated 3D graphics of WebGL are well suited to many games--not necessarily top-end first-person shooters, but certainly for maze exploration, rollercoaster rides, and races. Also, WebGL is good for bringing a 3D element to Google or Bing maps.WebGL, though, is a very low-level interface many programmers can't be expected to master, especially in the sometimes lightweight world of casual online gaming. Happily, libraries are sprouting up to automate its usage.&quot;There is already a thriving middleware ecosystem around WebGL to provide a wide diversity of Web developers the ability to easily create compelling 3D content for WebGL-enabled browsers,&quot; Khronos said. &quot;These tools include: C3DL, CopperLicht , EnergizeGL, GammaJS, GLGE, GTW, O3D, OSG.JS, SceneJS, SpiderGL, TDL, Three.js and X3DOM.&quot;Some big competition for WebGL comes from Adobe Systems' Flash, which already is a major force in online gaming. Flash has lacked true 3D support, but that's changing. In the last week, Adobe released a preview version of Molehill, its 3D programming interface, in a Flash Player 11 &quot;incubator build.&quot;And like WebGL, Molehill is accompanied by higher-level libraries and is useful for more than just 3D.&quot;The power of Molehill does not stop [at] 3D,&quot; said Thibault Imbert, a product manager for Flash runtimes, on the Molehill announcement. &quot;You should think about it as a new rendering engine tied to the GPU [graphics processing unit]. If you architect your application, Web site, or game correctly (by using classic techniques to leverage the GPU) you will be able to use Molehill in many situations, [including] 2D on GPU.&quot;Another challenge will be reaching mobile browsers. It's coming though, as shown with work in the mobile version of Firefox, for example. With Android and iOS also supporting OpenGL ES 2.0, it should be mostly a matter of time before those influential operating systems' mobile browsers add the feature.With WebGL version 1.0 released, though, and companies like mobile-phone chipmaker Qualcomm endorsing it, WebGL comes with a greater assurance of stability and support. Now it's up to allies and developers to build WebGL a full-fledged programming ecosystem. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Quake rescue robot rocks Kinect to find victims]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=quake-rescue-robot-rocks-kinect-to-find-victims</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=quake-rescue-robot-rocks-kinect-to-find-victims</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 02 Mar 2011 08:10:57 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>brucelee</dc:creator>
<category>Social</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=quake-rescue-robot-rocks-kinect-to-find-victims</guid>
<description><![CDATA[(Credit:University of Warwick)It seems you can do almost anything with robots and Kinect--perhaps even save lives. Students at the U.K.'s University of Warwick are using the motion controller on a robot that's designed to help find victims in quake-hit buildings. With a look that seems inspired by &quot;Short Circuit&quot; star Number 5, Warwick's Teleoperated Search &amp; Rescue Robot (PDF) can crawl over obstacles and fit into cramped spaces. It has six tracks and a sensor-laden &quot;head&quot; on an articulated arm, and is powered by two Roboteq AX3500 motors. It can use its new Kinect sensor to map terrain in 3D, perhaps identifying areas in a collapsed building where victims could be trapped. The Kinect is an improvement to past versions of the robot that saves significant sums compared with Lidar laser sensors, which use light to image objects and create maps. The team also wants to equip the crawler with a manipulator that could help bring food and medicine to trapped victims. The robot won the European rescue championship at RoboCup last year in Germany, and aims to win this year's world competition in Turkey. Last year's RoboCup Rescue in Singapore was dominated by Thai teams. The Warwick group is currently looking for sponsorship to help win the next world tournament. So if you no longer want your Kinect, consider donating it to a robot. (Via BBC)<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Skype to expand online meetings via GoToMeeting]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=skype-to-expand-online-meetings-via-gotomeeting</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=skype-to-expand-online-meetings-via-gotomeeting</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 02 Mar 2011 08:10:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Audrey-Markis</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=skype-to-expand-online-meetings-via-gotomeeting</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Skype is expanding its video- and audio-conferencing options through a new deal that will let it tap into Citrix's popular GoToMeeting software.Skype said yesterday that partnering with Citrix to integrate GoToMeeting technology will help it expand its business service by offering more robust and user-friendly collaboration and online meeting tools.Specifically, the company plans to enhance its Skype for Business option with Web- and audio-conferencing features to add to the service's existing IM, video calling, and file-sharing tools. Business users will be able to more easily and quickly set up online audio conferences using either Skype or the regular phone network. Screen sharing will also be improved, according to Skype, allowing meeting hosts to demo and highlight anything on their screen. Finally, a new audio codec should boost the quality of the calls themselves.&quot;We are thrilled to partner with Citrix, which offers one of the most popular and easy to use Web-conferencing solutions on the market today,&quot; David Gurle, vice president and general manager of Skype Enterprise, said in a statement. &quot;Web and audio conferencing has been among the top requested features by our business users. This represents a significant step toward broadening our enterprise offerings, while adding features that will enable business people to collaborate even more efficiently and effectively.&quot;Skype expects to roll out the new GoToMeeting-enabled conferencing features toward the end of the year.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Mozy getting a taste of Dropbox: file sync]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=mozy-getting-a-taste-of-dropbox-file-sync</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=mozy-getting-a-taste-of-dropbox-file-sync</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 02 Mar 2011 08:10:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>shimon2011</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=mozy-getting-a-taste-of-dropbox-file-sync</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Mozy, the online backup service, is testing out a bit of technology offered by rival DropBox: file synchronization.The company started telling customers today that it's begun closed beta testing of the sync feature, which will let files stored on one machine automatically be replicated on another. It's a big advancement over Mozy's bread-and-butter of file backup, transforming the service into something people actively use rather than run passively in the background. It also dovetails with the multicomputer subscription plans Mozy introduced in January at the same time it announced it's ditching unlimited-data backup.Also taking a page from Dropbox, Mozy announced mobile apps for Android,iPhone, andiPad that let people access their archived files. Again, this makes an archive more actively useful.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Google creeps deeper with Street View trikes]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=google-creeps-deeper-with-street-view-trikes</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=google-creeps-deeper-with-street-view-trikes</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 28 Feb 2011 08:10:51 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>juwanpno8w8</dc:creator>
<category>Marketing and advertising</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=google-creeps-deeper-with-street-view-trikes</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Please don't tell Google, but its Street Viewcars haven't been up my street yet. I don't know why. Perhaps my rather forceful neighbor from Tennessee scared them off.However, Google has today revealed a huge raft of images of many places around the world that it could only reach by tricycle.In a blog post on the Google site, software engineer (what else) Jeremy Pack explained that the trikes have been successful in breaching the ramparts of places hitherto unscalable by car. Take the National Botanic Gardens in Dublin (which, hopefully, will not be subject to severe budget cuts). Then there's Chateau de Chenonceaux in Civray-de-Touraine, France.Yes, you can now waft along with the Google trikes--which weigh 250 pounds and are 9 feet long--as they sail up the paths of stately homes and other places of fun and laughter.Google engineer, Daniel Ratner, who designed the bikes (and their 7-foot masts), told the San Jose Mercury News that he had personally pedaled his wares in Legoland and the Santa Monica Pier. So one place that is an engineer's delight and another that is unique for its ability to bring Hollywood stars and homeless people together. The trikes were actually created during the 20 percent of time that Google's employees are given to work on personal projects. And Ratner told the Mercury News that he based his design on that of the pedicabs at San Francisco's Ferry Building.Though the first trike images were posted in 2009, today saw a veritable triking rollout from many parts of the world.Yes, these lovely trikes have even started to photograph hiking trails such as the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District in Rancho San Antonio.Soon, they will be driving right up your garden path so that they can take a really good shot of your kitchen. Or your nostril hair. Well, perhaps.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[iPad 2 delayed until June]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ipad-2-delayed-until-june</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ipad-2-delayed-until-june</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 22 Feb 2011 08:10:23 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Emma01</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ipad-2-delayed-until-june</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Apple's current iPad(Credit:Apple)TheiPad 2 may be delayed until June due to production issues. At least, that's what one Taiwanese brokerage firm is claiming.In a research note released today, Yuanta Securities analyst Vincent Chen said that manufacturer Hon Hai has run into issues with the production process in light of thetablet's new design and is working on a fix.&quot;Our supply chain checks suggest that iPad 2 shipments will be delayed from April to June (time to market), owing to production bottlenecks at Hon Hai after Apple made design changes before Chinese New Year,&quot; Chen said in the note sent to CNET and other publications. Chinese New Year began February 3. (Editors' note: Not long after this story was posted, AllThingsD reported that, according to multiple sources, Apple plans to host a press event March 2 to introduce the iPad 2.)Makers of components for the iPad 2 have &quot;pretty much complied with new changes in the design by now,&quot; said Chen, but Hon Hai has encountered challenges with the new production process.With the delay, Chen said, iPad 2 shipments during the second quarter will be limited. That could give the growing lineup of Android tablets a brief opportunity to grab more customers. However, the risk to Apple will still be on the downside as the analyst believes that Apple fans will be patient enough to wait for the new iPad rather than switch to Android.For 2011, Chen is forecasting iPad shipments of 30.6 million, though with the two-month delay, that number could drop to as low as 23 million.One possible kink in Chen's prediction: several retailers have already been running low on the current iPad, with a few vendors out of stock completely on certain models, according to the 9to5Mac enthusiast site. Such short supply is typically seen as a sign of an impending new release from Apple.Ironically, the current iPad was the target of similar rumors almost a year ago when an analyst with Canaccord Adams claimed that production problems would push out the tablet's debut by a month to late April. At the time, Apple was saying it would launch the iPad to consumers in late March and missed that timeframe only by nose, releasing the device in the U.S. on April 3. The global debut of the tablet was delayed by a month as a result of higher-than-expected demand in the U.S.Though Apple has yet to reveal what customers can expect from an iPad 2, several reports assert the new tablet will offer a faster processor, thinner case, and built-in cameras both on the front and back, among other features. A few initial reports also claimed the iPad 2 would feature a higher-resolution Retina display, but some analysts now say the tablet will likely offer the same resolution as the current model.Apple told CNET the company would not comment on rumor.Updates at 9:50 a.m. and 10:52 a.m. PT:First, to include information directly from analyst Vincent Chen, and second, to make note of a report saying Apple plans to unveil the iPad 2 next week.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[FTC looking into Apple's in-app purchasing policy]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ftc-looking-into-apples-in-app-purchasing-policy</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ftc-looking-into-apples-in-app-purchasing-policy</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 22 Feb 2011 08:10:16 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>wanabbugtae</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ftc-looking-into-apples-in-app-purchasing-policy</guid>
<description><![CDATA[iPad and iPhone apps aimed at kids are now the subject of a review by the FTC.(Credit:James Martin/CNET)The Federal Trade Commission will review how Apple markets games with in-app purchases, but not for the reason you may think.Apple introduced a controversial policy for developers last week when it said that it would take a 30 percent cut of revenue generated from subscription publishing apps that included in-app purchases. Apple also said it would only accept apps whose subscription offers through its iOS app are consistent with the lowest price offered by the publisher elsewhere. The U.S. Department of Justice said last week it would take a look at Apple's policy, but stopped short of launching any kind of formal inquiry.Today FTC Chairman John Leibowitz wrote a letter to Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) saying he would review the way Apple is marketing in-app purchases, in particular apps aimed at children, according to The Washington Post. Last week the Post reported on parents having to pay massive bills generated by their children making purchases within apps. Children are able to buy items within games that cost real money without fully understanding what they're doing, the report asserts.In portions of the letter published by the Post, Leibowitz wrote to Markey, &quot;We fully share your concern that consumers, particularly children, are unlikely to understand the ramifications of these types of purchases...Let me assure you we will look closely at the current industry practice with respect to the marketing and delivery of these types of applications.&quot;Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Zero Motorcycles offers public charging option]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=zero-motorcycles-offers-public-charging-option</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=zero-motorcycles-offers-public-charging-option</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 09 Feb 2011 08:10:43 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>mishatorer</dc:creator>
<category>Eco</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=zero-motorcycles-offers-public-charging-option</guid>
<description><![CDATA[2011 Zero DS all-electric motorcycle(Credit:Zero Motorcycles)The 2011 lineup from electric-motorcycle maker Zero Motorcycles will be offered with an upgrade allowing them to be recharged at public charging stations, the company announced yesterday. The company's line of all-electric motorcycles, which made their debut in the U.S. in 2009, has undergone a major overhaul, including new brakes and wheels. But most notable to those interested ingreen tech may be that Zero will now offer an upgrade that allows its motorcycles to accept DC (direct current) fast charging, and, with the use of a plug accessory, make it compatible with any charger using the SAE J1772 plug. The SAE J1772 is the five-pin charging system and coupler agreed upon by members of the Society of Automotive Engineers International (SAE), the standard organization for automotive industry technology and aerospace, to be used as the standard connection for plug-in vehicles. It's currently used for fast-charging stations like those made by Coulomb and Ecotality, as well as EVs like the Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt.The SAE J1772 standard agreed upon by the Society of Automotive Engineers(Credit:SAE International)In addition to the quick-charge option, the Zero S and Zero DS models have also gotten a battery pack upgrade, which the company says will improve efficiency by 12.5 percent allowing for longer range between charges.The Zero DS, which was recently adopted by a California police department, has been touted as having a range of about 50 miles. The 2011 version will have a maximum range of about 58 miles, according to company specs. The Zero S (which starts at $9,995) and Zero DS (starting at $10,495) have also gone from a chain to belt drive system, which has made them even quieter than before (see video) in addition to reducing maintenance, according to the company. The new models will be available in March.   <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Microsoft responds to Google's copycat claims, again]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=microsoft-responds-to-googles-copycat-claims-again</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=microsoft-responds-to-googles-copycat-claims-again</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 02 Feb 2011 08:10:40 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>James01</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=microsoft-responds-to-googles-copycat-claims-again</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Following yesterday's fracas over whether Microsoft was culling search results from rival Google, Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft's senior VP of its Online Services Division, has weighed in, reiterating that Google's claims are false.&quot;We do not copy results from any of our competitors. Period. Full stop,&quot; Mehdi said in a post on Bing's community blog titled &quot;Setting the record straight.&quot; &quot;We have some of the best minds in the world at work on search quality and relevance, and for a competitor to accuse any one of these people of such activity is just insulting,&quot; Mehdi said.Mehdi went on to mirror some of the statements made by Harry Shum, Microsoft's head of core search development, during the company's Farsight event. Shum had discussed allegations on stage with Google's head of Web spam, Matt Cutts' Mehdi outlined how Bing made use of anonymous click stream data, along with &quot;more than a thousand inputs&quot; to create Bing's ranking algorithm.Mehdi said that Google's plan to check whether Bing was looking at that click stream data was &quot;rigged to manipulate Bing search results,&quot; and called Google's honeypot attack &quot;click fraud.&quot; He then compared Google's efforts to the the methods used by spammers to create fraudulent search result pages.&quot;What does all this cloak and dagger click fraud prove Nothing anyone in the industry doesn't already know,&quot; Mehdi said. &quot;As we have said before and again in this post, we use click stream optionally provided by consumers in an anonymous fashion as one of 1,000 signals to try and determine whether a site might make sense to be in our index.&quot;Mehdi closed up the post by saying that the company would continue to focus on innovating the product, though added a jab about the timing of Google's honeypot discovery, saying it was directly related to some of Microsoft's recent improvements to Bing, which were &quot;so big and noticeable that we are told Google took notice and began to worry,&quot; Mehdi said.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[How well does your ISP stream Netflix]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=how-well-does-your-isp-stream-netflix</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=how-well-does-your-isp-stream-netflix</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 27 Jan 2011 08:11:08 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>pornohasusasuha</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=how-well-does-your-isp-stream-netflix</guid>
<description><![CDATA[A chart released by Netflix shows how ISPs perform at distributing the company&amp;39's streaming video. Charter comes in first, while Clearwire finishes last.(Credit:Netflix)As promised, Netflix released a report today on the company's tech blog about which Internet service providers are best at distributing the company's streaming video to customers' homes. According to Netflix's data, the nation's largest cable operators are tops in delivering the company's content. Netflix, the high-flying video rental service, said cable operator Charter Communications was the best-performing Internet service provider, with Cox Communications, Comcast, Cablevision, and Time Warner Cable all outperforming phone companies AT&amp;T and Verizon Communications, as well as wireless broadband provider Clearwire.Ken Florance, Netflix's director of content delivery, wrote on the company's technology blog: &quot;We find ourselves in the unique position of having insight into the performance of hundreds of millions of long-duration, high-definition video streams delivered over the Internet.&quot;For January 15, the last date Netflix included in the report, the best-performing ISPs were as follows: 1. Charter2. Comcast3. Time Warner 4. Cox5. Suddenlink6. Cablevision7. Cable One8. Verizon9. AT&amp;T10. BellSouth 11. Embarq12. Windstream13. Qwest14. Century Tel15. Frontier16. ClearwireNetflix's release of such a report is rooted in its dissatisfaction with ISPs that insist it pay all the costs of delivering streaming content to customers' homes. &quot;We think the cost sharing between Internet video suppliers and ISPs should be that we have to haul the bits to the various regional front doors that the ISPs operate,&quot; CEO Reed Hastings wrote. He then argued that ISPs should carry the bits the last mile to customers' homes, as it's their customers who are ordering Netflix's service. By releasing the report, Netflix appears to be sending the message that it is prepared to try making some ISPs uncomfortable. The performance data released by Netflix, however, makes it difficult to determine which companies Netflix may have been trying to embarrass. Comcast is one of the ISPs that has disagreed with Netflix on the issue of who should pay for &quot;the last mile&quot; of delivery to customers' homes, but the ISP fared well in Netflix's report. Best and worstTo get a handle on which broadband service providers offered the best service to Netflix's streaming-video customers, the company compiled data from October 2010 to January 15, 2011. Netflix tracked the performance of customers streaming high-definition video over their broadband connections. A time-weighted bit rate metric was used to represent the effective data throughput subscribers received over many of the top ISPs.Content delivery director Florance explained that Netflix's top HD streams are about 4,800 kilobits per second. But it's likely that Netflix subscribers will switch through a number of bit rates, as they watch a movie streamed over the Internet. Sometimes, the streams ramp up to the highest bit rates, but when networks are congested, they shift down to lower bit rates. Viewers cannot sustain a 4,800kbps bit rate from start to finish, Florance said. But the higher the bit rate that can be sustained throughout the viewing of the video, the better the performance and ultimately the better the quality of the image over the duration that the video is played at home. &quot;We find ourselves in the unique position of having insight into the performance of hundreds of millions of long duration, high-definition video streams.&quot;--Ken Florance, director of content delivery, NetflixFlorance also pointed out that the quality of the video stream is affected by a number of factors, including which content delivery networks--or even which physical technology of the broadband network--are used by the viewer. This means that performance could vary between fiber-based Internet Protocol networks, DSL networks, wireless broadband, or cable networks. Regions of the country where infrastructure is better may also play a part. In its study, Netflix averaged the performance of these network providers throughout their footprints. This means that Verizon's results include data about performance on its DSL network, as well as its faster Fios, fiber-to-the-home network. And AT&amp;T's results include DSL, as well as its fiber-to-the-neighborhood U-verse service.  Charter came in first by providing an average bit rate of 2,667 kilobits per second over the three-month period evaluated. &quot;Charter strives to consistently deliver the fastest and most reliable Internet service,&quot; a representative said in an e-mail to CNET. &quot;We're pleased that our efforts are paying off.&quot; At the bottom of the pack, Clearwire delivered an average bit rate between 1,400Kbps and 1,600Kbps, Netflix reported. The results should not shock anyone. On average, cable networks offer faster throughput on their broadband networks than either the phone companies or wireless broadband providers. With DOCSIS 3, cable operators are capable of delivering download broadband speeds up to 160Mbps. DOCSIS 3 is the next generation of cable-networking technology that allows operators to bond digital channels together to get faster throughput. In areas where they have deployed their fiber networks, AT&amp;T and Verizon are able to keep up with cable operators, in terms of download speeds. This is especially true of Verizon, which has spent billions of dollars over the past few years upgrading about 70 percent of its footprint with fiber to the home.  Fiber provides almost limitless broadband capacity. AT&amp;T was not as aggressive in its fiber deployment, but the company has been able to significantly boost fiber deep into neighborhoods and get big boosts in performance.  The problem for each of these providers is that they are unable to provide these faster services to every customer. About 30 percent of Verizon's customer base will never get access to the Fios fiber service. Instead, these customers are only offered the slower DSL technology. And the DSL technology that is used to deliver broadband services for the phone companies in these areas cannot compete, in terms of speed, with cable offerings.  It's also not surprising that Clearwire's service doesn't perform as well as the cable or phone companies' broadband services. One problem with wireless is that network performance degrades the further away a user is from a cell tower. So customers on the edge of the network will get slower network connections than customers very close to the bay stations. This likely factors into the overall quality of streamed video into the home. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[NFL star: I got death threats on Twitter]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=nfl-star-i-got-death-threats-on-twitter</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=nfl-star-i-got-death-threats-on-twitter</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 26 Jan 2011 08:11:20 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>davidpanama77</dc:creator>
<category>Marketing and advertising</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=nfl-star-i-got-death-threats-on-twitter</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Sometimes it's hard to choose which social-networking site fully encapsulates man's generosity to man. I wanted to plump for Facebook. Its depth of friending possibilities allegedly led one woman to attempt to drive over her cousin' her cousin had managed to become friends with someone whom the driver had not.However, I have now decided that it is Twitter, thanks to the recent activities of--and alleged death threats toward--Maurice Jones-Drew.Should you not know the name, Jones-Drew is a fine running back for the Jacksonville Jaguars. However, on Sunday, he was one of quite a few current and former NFL stars who took to Twitter to criticize Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler.(Credit:Screenshot: Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)Jones-Drew appeared to believe that Cutler should not have removed himself from a championship game against the Green Bay Packers because of a knee injury. He offered a couple of critical tweets, one mentioning the dreaded concept of quitting. Perhaps the most personal tweet read: &quot;All I'm saying is that he can finish the game on a hurt knee...I played the whole season on one...&quot;He claimed, subsequently and a little unconvincingly, that he was joking.It seems that some people, perhaps fans of the Chicago Bears who were slightly disgruntled with their loss to the Packers, decided that Twitter was the place to respond to Jones-Drew's humor (or not).Some, electing to exercise their quaint interpretation of free speech, wished him ill. A sample, retweeted by Drew, read: &quot;RT @gabrield91: @Jones_Drew32 you wont ever apologize cause you dont know how to apologize, insecure !@%* diva. !@%* you, i hope you tear your knee again.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Apple creates App Store Twitter account]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=apple-creates-app-store-twitter-account</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=apple-creates-app-store-twitter-account</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 24 Jan 2011 08:11:00 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>lasidigo</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=apple-creates-app-store-twitter-account</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Though the App Store has several methods for keeping track of the newest and most noteworthy Apps, Apple has decided that a dedicated Twitter account would further promote some of its favorite applications foriPhone,iPad, andiPod Touch. (Credit:Screenshot by Joe Aimonetti/CNET) The @AppStore account has just been verified by Twitter as officially as the first post, &quot;Welcome to App Store on Twitter! Follow us to discover new apps, get exclusive offers, and share with friends. appstore&quot; was retweeted by the verified @iTunesTV account (and several other accounts). The second tweet from @AppStore promotes the Nike Training Club App, &quot;Motivation. Full-body workouts. On-demand instruction. It's all available on Nike Training Club. http://tw.appstore.com/4zo appstore&quot;. Apple asks users to &quot;follow us for official App Store tweets including our featured apps, exclusive offers, and more.&quot; No exclusive offers have been posted, though following certainly can't hurt. What are your favorite follows on Twitter Let me know in the comments! (And follow me, @ammojoe, for peculiar insights mostly derived at coffee shops.) <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Boeing resets Dreamliner delivery to third quarter]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=boeing-resets-dreamliner-delivery-to-third-quarter</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=boeing-resets-dreamliner-delivery-to-third-quarter</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 18 Jan 2011 08:10:56 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>StephTanner</dc:creator>
<category>Social</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=boeing-resets-dreamliner-delivery-to-third-quarter</guid>
<description><![CDATA[In October 2010, this Boeing 787 Dreamliner, designated ZA006, became the sixth and final 787 to join the flight test program. (Credit:Boeing)Rebounding from its latest scheduling setback, Boeing now says that it expects to deliver its first 787 Dreamliner in the third quarter.In December, the company resumed flight testing of its marquee commercial aircraft, which had been halted in early November because of an onboard fire sparked by a faulty electrical power panel.Boeing said today that the rescheduled delivery date factors in the time that it needs to produce, install, and test updated software and new power distribution panels in both flight test and production versions of the Dreamliner. Of the six 787 aircraft being used for flight tests, four have received interim software and hardware improvements and have undergone extensive ground testing and review en route to returning to flight status. The other two aircraft will return to flight &quot;in the days ahead,&quot; Boeing said.If Boeing makes the third-quarter target for deliveries, the Dreamliner will be more than three years behind schedule. The Japanese carrier All Nippon Airlines originally was scheduled to receive the first 787 in May 2008.The Dreamliner made a splashy public debut in July 2007, but its transition from drawing board to commercial service has encountered repeated turbulence, from supply chain shortages to a machinists' strike. The aircraft completed its maiden flight in December 2009. The design of the aircraft, which Boeing says will be especially fuel-efficient, is notable for the flair of its curved wingtips and for its extensive use of carbon fiber composite materials.Behind the scenes of Boeing's Dreamliner project (photos) <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Report: iPad 2 to use fast graphics chip]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=report-ipad-2-to-use-fast-graphics-chip</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=report-ipad-2-to-use-fast-graphics-chip</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 17 Jan 2011 08:10:02 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>wannula5</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=report-ipad-2-to-use-fast-graphics-chip</guid>
<description><![CDATA[TheiPad 2 will sport powerful, new graphics hardware, along with a higher-resolution display, according to a report.That graphics chip would be Imaginations' SGX543, according to Apple Insider. If this rumor is on the money, it is, indeed, a potent graphics technology. Imagination describes the POWERVR SGX543MP as allowing &quot;up to 16 cores...in a high-performance, multiprocessor graphics solution without performance or silicon area compromises.&quot; This graphics tech would be used in conjunction with a dual-core ARM processor, as CNET previously reported. And Apple's next-geniPhone 5 would also feature this chip design--the so-called Apple A5 processor.&quot;This makes sense,&quot; said Linley Gwennap, principal analyst at the Linley Group, a chip consulting firm. &quot;The A5 processor must have at least dual Cortex-A9 CPUs (central processing units) to be competitive with [Nvidia's] Tegra 2 and other current smartphone CPUs,&quot; Gwennap said in response to an e-mail query. The Cortex-A9 is a design being used by most major ARM chip suppliers, such as Texas Instruments, Samsung, and Nvidia. Gwennap continued. &quot;The single-core SGX543 does not have enough graphics performance to keep up with Tegra 2, but a dual-core SGX543 should be within the same range. Even a dual-core SGX543 would fall well behind the graphics performance of Marvell's new Armada 628, which should be in phones in 2H11,&quot; he said. Not surprisingly, graphics chips--needed for handling high-resolution images, video, and games--are becoming a major focus for next-generationtablets and smartphones. Look no further than Motorola's Xoom tablet and upcoming Droid smartphones. Those devices use a version of the ARM processor from graphics-chip supplier Nvidia, which integrates 8 cores into its GeForce GPU (graphics processing unit), according to Nvidia's Tegra 2 spec page.  And RIM's PlayBook is expected to boast stellar graphics, based on Texas Instrument's OMAP 4 ARM chip, which uses Imagination's PowerVR SGX540.  The iPad 2 is also rumored to have a high-resolution display, though it's not clear if this would be similar to the Retina Display used on the iPhone 4, or another technology.  <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[At 10, highlighting Wikipedia's past and future]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=at-10-highlighting-wikipedias-past-and-future</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=at-10-highlighting-wikipedias-past-and-future</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 14 Jan 2011 08:10:15 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>BeekQueeste</dc:creator>
<category>Gaming</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=at-10-highlighting-wikipedias-past-and-future</guid>
<description><![CDATA[With just 20 simple words and two entries, it began: &quot;Hello, world.&quot; And &quot;Humor me. Go there and add a little article. It will take all of five or ten minutes.&quot; Written by Larry Sanger and Jimmy Wales on January 15, 2001, those four sentences ushered in one of the most widely used and important reference projects in history, let alone on the Internet: Wikipedia. Tomorrow, Wikipedia turns 10 years old. It's hard to imagine that a tiny, user-created project founded by two unknowns behind the online expert-written encyclopedia Nupedia could have grown into a project featuring more than 17 million articles in more than 270 languages, including 3.5 million in English, and more than 100,000 each in 32 other tongues. But Sanger and Wales, who had previously started Nupedia, which was having trouble getting off the ground, saw the virtues of a fairly new Web editing and creation tool called a wiki and decided to run with it.Now, all those years later, Wikipedia is the fifth-most popular Web property in the world, attracts 410 million unique visitors a month, is used by 42 percent of American adults, according to a Pew Internet study, and has made Wales--currently a member of the board of trustees of the nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation, which oversees Wikipedia--a household name, at least in technology circles.Along the way, the project has gone through no small number of ups and downs. It has had its share of controversies, including the departure of Sanger in 2002 and subsequent public disagreements between him and Wales over whether he was a founder, and the infamous &quot;Seigenthaler incident,&quot; in which the article about former Robert Kennedy aide John Seigenthaler was edited to include a baseless suggestion that he was involved in the assassinations of both Kennedy brothers.As well, there's been no shortage of consternation over Wales' role on the Wikimedia board, and about whether Wikipedia is a real research tool or if it promotes laziness among students unwilling or unable to search for primary sources to cite.But for the most part, the story of Wikipedia's first 10 years has been one of steady growth, a rise in stature, and a place among the most impressive user-created projects ever built.Hits the 'sweet spot' To Andrew Lih, the author of &quot;The Wikipedia Revolution,&quot; deciding to study Wales' and Sanger's creation came from his realization that the project hit a &quot;sweet spot&quot; and addressed what he called a &quot;gap in human knowledge between news and history books.&quot;With Wikipedia, Lih continued, Wales and Sanger, and the community of thousands of authors and editors they inspired, were taking on that gap, having created a &quot;continuously updated, changing state of human knowledge [that is] an archive living in front of our very eyes.&quot;It's hard to argue that. In its early days, Wikipedia was seen as a poor-man's Britannica. But it has long since surpassed the size and scope of that venerable project, which has &quot;hundreds of thousands of articles.&quot; Indeed, where content on Wikipedia was once seen as having questionable accuracy, given that it can be created by anyone, expert or not, a 2005 study by the journal &quot;Nature&quot; laid that notion to rest, concluding that the free, open-source encyclopedia's accuracy was on par with that of the for-profit, expert-written project.In 2005, in a bid to explain Wikipedia to his readers, &quot;Esquire&quot; magazine writer A.J. Jacobs came up with an imaginative approach to demonstrating the way that the site's volunteer editors clean up inaccuracies. First, Jacobs wrote an error-plagued version of a story about Wikipedia. Then he posted the text to Wikipedia, letting loose the community on the article. Eventually, having had the story cleaned up and fixed by Wikipedia users, &quot;Esquire&quot; ran both versions--illustrating its evolution.Was Wikipedia inevitable With the tremendous growth of the Internet in the late 1990s, as well as the emergence of numerous and powerful online communities, not to mention the development in 1995 by Ward Cunningham of the wiki, an obvious question is whether someone else would not have come up with the same idea as Wikipedia if Sanger and Wales hadn't gotten there first.To Joi Ito, a well-known Internet investor and the chairman of the board of Creative Commons, the answer isn't clear-cut. Ito said that he thinks Wikipedia as we know it today may well have only arisen due to the set of specific circumstances that gelled around the site back in 2001. &quot;The core community back...when it started was really, really special,&quot; Ito said. &quot;I called them 'bookworms for the common good.' I think that a community isn't a single person, but it really was like the Ocean's 11 or whatever Mission Impossible-like metaphor you want to use.&quot;As Ito put it, serendipity certainly had a lot to do with it, but he suggested it's hard to argue with the fact that the decision by Wales, Sanger, and other early decision-makers to keep the project free and open-source, helped make it what it is. Had someone else come along and created an online encyclopedia, they might well have tried to make it commercial, and that might have limited its size.Lih agreed. &quot;I don't think it could be what it is today without the free license,&quot; Lih said. &quot;It [was] so important to grab the attention and passion of so many volunteers. If a project like that [had been] started by Microsoft or even Apple...if you are going to labor that long [to create or edit an article] on something owned by a for-profit, you're not going to have as many volunteers as if the mission is pure. That is something that is quite unique, and was a way to attract a lot of volunteers in a very small amount of time.&quot;Further, Lih argued, Wales' personality had a lot to do with the project's success. After Sanger's departure, Wales was the unquestioned face of Wikipedia, yet Lih said that Wales found a smart balance between knowing when to stay out of the way and let the community do its thing and when it was necessary to assert his authority.Ito suggested that this was a difficult balance to strike.&quot;I think the face of the organization has a huge impact on how the public perceives it,&quot; Ito said. &quot;It's very difficult to have a project without a face. On the other hand, it's very tricky because leadership of open-source and online [communities] is really different, and most community members will feel that leaders get too much credit or that leadership is overrated.Of course, the question of leadership of Wikipedia, at least in the early days, was in dispute, and likely led to the departure of Sanger from the project.Wales was not available for comment for this story. For his part, Sanger, who has been critical of Wales and Wikipedia in the past, told CNET he has no regrets about having left the project. &quot;I've had plenty of opportunities to get back involved in Wikipedia,&quot; Sanger said. &quot;And as I've gotten farther and farther away in time from when I was involved and farther in psychological distance, I've had less and less desire to be involved.&quot;These days, Sanger said, he rarely uses Wikipedia.But Sanger, who is currently working on online educational video tools for children called WatchKnow, also said that he nonetheless has advice he thinks Wikipedia needs to take as it moves ahead.First, he suggested that the site's board of advisors must begin to take the amount of pornography that can be found on the site more seriously, and find a way to label it so parents can filter it. And second, Sanger, long a proponent of expert authors, thinks that Wikipedia needs to &quot;adopt a system whereby they allow experts to be...identified as such, and to give comment and ratings of versions of articles.&quot;Limited growthFor any project that's grown as big as Wikipedia, there inevitably comes a point at which the trend line evens out.To Lih, Wikipedia has reached that point, and those deeply involved in the project are only just starting to accept that fact. One problem, Lih said, is that the opportunity for new volunteers to come to Wikipedia and create great articles has long since become rare. That, of course, is because, with 17 million articles, most subjects of human knowledge have already been broached. What's left is largely pop culture and current events, Lih said, meaning that the main impetus that drew so many of the early power users is harder to come by. And at the same time, existing editors are more protective of the site than ever, keeping watchful eyes on favorite articles and regarding newcomers with what might be seen as suspicion.&quot;That kind of viral rush of [creating or] editing an article is hard to capture today,&quot; Lih said. And longtime volunteers &quot;are not slapping newcomers on the back and saying, 'Welcome to Wikipedia.' It's, 'Hey, what did you just do Unless you're doing something useful, go away.'&quot;That could lead to a problem finding the next generation of power users, Lih worries, a dynamic that threatens the site's future growth. &quot;Where are the next 3.5 million articles [in English] going to come from,&quot; Lih said.The next 10 yearsBut Lih doesn't think Wikipedia is in any way finished. Quite the contrary, the &quot;Wikipedia Revolution&quot; author thinks that the key to the project's next 10 years of growth lies in its ability to attract significant new sources of content.And that's why he thinks it's crucial that the Wikimedia Foundation be successful in outreach efforts to cultural institutions like government, libraries, archives, and museums, that can provide the site with new material. Another big effort will likely be a push to add large amounts of multimedia. But before that can happen, Lih said, tools must be created that allow for collaborative creation and editing of video and audio. As well, despite being available in more than 270 languages, there are still many more to go, and that's something that seems like an obvious growth area for the project. Indeed, Wales told the Washington Post that he wants to see Wikipedia reach every language on Earth. It may take some time before Wikipedia reaches that point, but then, the site isn't going anywhere. With 17 million articles and a still-loyal stable of thousands of authors and editors, there's plenty of horsepower to keep the site vital for the foreseeable future.And what is its legacy, after 10 years. To Lih, Wikipedia has turned conventional wisdom on its head.&quot;There's a famous saying,&quot; he said, &quot;'Winners get to write the history books.' This is no longer true. [Now], the people get to write the history books.&quot;<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Stolen laptop contains cancer cure data]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=stolen-laptop-contains-cancer-cure-data</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=stolen-laptop-contains-cancer-cure-data</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 13 Jan 2011 08:10:36 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>queruraes</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=stolen-laptop-contains-cancer-cure-data</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Sook Shin and Ralf Jankecht have posted flyers in pawn shops appealing for the return of their stolen laptop.(Credit:News 9)Today's &quot;Dude, you got to back up your data!&quot; public-service announcement comes courtesy of Sook Shin, a university researcher who says her stolen laptop contained years worth of data related to a possible cure for prostate cancer. And nope, you guessed it. She didn't back up and says some of her research can never be retrieved, while other parts could take up to two years to replicate.  Shin and husband Ralf Jankecht, a professor of cell biology at Oklahoma University, are leading cancer researchers at the school. Sunday, they made a quick stop in Oklahoma City on their way back to the lab, according to the local News 9. That's when someone smashed the window of their car and made off with a 13-inch white MacBook in a dark orange computer bag.  &quot;I'm devastated and I feel so guilty,&quot; a tearful Shin told News 9.  The pair is now offering a $1,000 reward for return of the computer, no questions asked. &quot;Thief, it is OK. Everybody makes mistakes,&quot; reads a flyer that's been posted in area pawn shops.  &quot;Please return the computer with the data saved,&quot; Jankecht said. &quot;This would tremendously help us and you would do something for society.&quot;  While most people who own a computer know they should regularly back up their data, surveys have shown that a surprising number rarely (or never) do. In this case, we can only hope for a story like that of the Swedish professor who had his laptop stolen and a week later received a USB drive holding all his data.  That thief, it appeared, took pity on the professor, backed up his information, and returned it to him. At which point, we hope, the professor backed it up a few more times over.  <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[First hydrogen-powered UAV takes flight]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=first-hydrogen-powered-uav-takes-flight</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=first-hydrogen-powered-uav-takes-flight</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 12 Jan 2011 08:10:45 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Sana01</dc:creator>
<category>Social</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=first-hydrogen-powered-uav-takes-flight</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Global Observer&amp;39's first flight.(Credit:AeroVironment, Inc.)When it comes to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), hydrogen is all the rage.The first hydrogen-powered, unmanned UAV flight took place over California yesterday, AeroVironment, a company with 20 years experience in building unmanned aircraft, announced. Dubbed Global Observer, the &quot;unmanned aircraft system&quot; took off from Edwards Air Force Base and lasted more than four hours in the air. The company said the aircraft was able to reach an altitude of 5,000 feet.Last year, Global Observer was put to the test at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center. The government organization load tested Global Observer's wings, as well as ground vibration. NASA said at the time that the aircraft will eventually be used for &quot;defense and homeland security missions.&quot; The organization could also see it used in &quot;civil and commercial applications,&quot; like hurricane tracking and aerial imaging.But before that happens, AeroVironment has much more testing to perform. The company said it &quot;will now systematically expand the altitude and duration of test flights to validate the aircraft's high-altitude, long endurance performance.&quot; Ultimately, Global Observer should be able to fly at 55,000 to 65,000 feet for up to one week at a time. At that level, AeroVironment said, it should &quot;view a significantly larger area on the surface of the earth than conventional, lower-flying aircraft.&quot;The unmanned aircraft is designed to be more &quot;reliable and more affordable&quot; than UAVs already being used by the U.S. government. And thanks to its use of hydrogen, AeroVironment is quick to point out that Global Observer does not consume fossil fuels or emit carbon emissions.However, AeroVironment isn't alone in developing hydrogen-powered UAVs. Last year, Boeing offered up some information on its Phantom Eye aircraft. Boeing's drone is capable of flying at 65,000 feet and cruise for up to four days.If Global Observer and Phantom Eye testing goes as planned, it might not be long before the U.S. government's surveillance drone program enters its next phase. The Predator and Global Hawk, which are currently employed by the United States and have proven extremely successful, lack the improved surveillance capabilities and endurance of their hydrogen-powered counterparts.<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[CES: Verizon plays up Android angle (live blog)]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ces-verizon-plays-up-android-angle-live-blog</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ces-verizon-plays-up-android-angle-live-blog</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 06 Jan 2011 08:10:29 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Anjali01</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ces-verizon-plays-up-android-angle-live-blog</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Verizon showed off the Motorola Xoom at its CES keynote speech. (Credit:CNET )Editor's note: This live event has concluded. For a brief rundown of what was announced, check out our summary post here. You can also replay our live blog in the Cover It Live module below.LAS VEGAS--Verizon Communications CEO Ivan Seidenberg will take the stage Thursday morning to deliver a keynote address here at the Consumer Electronics Show.Rumors have been swirling for months that Verizon Wireless, the largest wireless operator in the U.S., will introduce its own version of the Apple iPhone. Will Seidenberg use hisCES keynote to make the big announcement It's unlikely, but the company is expected to push its newly launched 4G wireless broadband network. Insiders say Verizon is expected to announce at least four new 4G smartphones and a tablet PC. Much of Verizon's news is expected to be announced at the company's press conference Thursday afternoon. But Seidenberg, who doesn't give many press interviews, may have some news up his sleeve about the new 4G products during the keynote. To stay on top of all the news, CNET will be live blogging the keynote starting at 8:30 a.m. PT. The link below will take you to the live blog. Verizon CEO to address CES attendeesEditors' note: The original pre-event version of this story was published January 5 at 9:28 a.m. PT.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Micron's new solid-state drive: 256GB for $425]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=microns-new-solid-state-drive-256gb-for-425</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=microns-new-solid-state-drive-256gb-for-425</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 04 Jan 2011 08:10:34 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Simoncarter</dc:creator>
<category>Business &amp; Finance</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=microns-new-solid-state-drive-256gb-for-425</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Micron Technology is unveiling four new solid-state drives at the Storage Visions conference in Las Vegas this week. One 256GB model will cost $425--pricey compared to a traditional hard disk drive but competitive for the speedy flash chip-based storage drives. Micron 256GB solid-state drive will be available for about $425.(Credit:Micron)Micron's RealSSD drives--marketed under the Crucial brand name--will be available for laptops in 1.8-inch and 2.5-inch form factors--the former size typically goes into ultra-small laptops like the MacBook Air, while the latter is the standard size for mainstream laptop drives. Micron, which runs a joint flash chip manufacturing venture with Intel, is making the flash chips (that populate the SSD) on a cutting-edge 25-nanometer manufacturing process, allowing higher data capacities. Generally, SSDs are much faster than standard hard disk drives at reading data and tend to be lighter and more shock-resistance than hard disks. For that reason, SSDs are used, for example, across Apple's new MacBook Air product line. Based on the SATA 6-gigabit-per-second (Gb/s) interface, the new drives reach read speeds up to 415 megabytes per second, which is 17 percent faster than Micron's previous generation drives, the company said in a statement. Write performance varies by capacity, with the 512GB drive achieving up to 260MB/second write speeds, which is more than 20 percent faster than previous drives, Micron said. Micron's solid-state drive pricing--in volumes of 1,000--will be $825 for 512GB, $425 for 256GB, $215 for 128GB, and $110 for 64GB. Final consumer pricing will come out from Crucial around March, Micron said. &quot;We expect the consumer pricing to be similar to OEM (1K volume) pricing,&quot; the company said. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[LCD TV shipments expected to slow in 2011]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=lcd-tv-shipments-expected-to-slow-in-2011</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=lcd-tv-shipments-expected-to-slow-in-2011</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 03 Jan 2011 08:10:46 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>juwanparmic</dc:creator>
<category>Marketing and advertising</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=lcd-tv-shipments-expected-to-slow-in-2011</guid>
<description><![CDATA[(Credit:Vizio)LCD TV shipments will rise this year, but that growth won't be as high as it has been over the past few years, market research firm DisplaySearch predicts.Global LCD TV shipments are expected to rise 13 percent in 2011 to 215 million units, DisplaySearch said Monday. In 2010, LCD TV shipments were up 31 percent compared to 2009, with 190 million units shipped for the year.Even with more shipments, the LCD TV market's continuing price erosion will cause it to see its &quot;first ever revenue decline,&quot; DisplaySearch claims. The researchers didn't say how much lower revenue will be in 2011--there's no way to know how prices will change--but it speaks to the issues vendors and retailers are having at coaxing some consumers into buying televisions because of the lingering effects of the recession.&quot;North America continues to be a tough market for TV sales,&quot; Paul Gagnon, DisplaySearch's director of North America TV Research, said in a statement. &quot;As unemployment remains high and consumers remain sensitive to price, budget-conscious consumers have been surprised by limited price declines, partially influenced by a much stronger mix of advanced TV technologies introduced this year like LED backlights, 3D, and Internet connectivity which offset any price declines.&quot;DisplaySearch noted that television prices in North America fell by 6 percent in 2010. Prices declined by 22 percent in 2009.All told, 247 million televisions--led by LCD and plasma--were shipped to retail stores in 2010, up 17 percent compared to 2009 figures.Further reading:Best 5 HDTVs<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA['Go to' clouds of the future, part 1]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=go-to-clouds-of-the-future-part-1</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=go-to-clouds-of-the-future-part-1</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 03 Jan 2011 08:10:41 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>advavouck</dc:creator>
<category>Business &amp; Finance</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=go-to-clouds-of-the-future-part-1</guid>
<description><![CDATA[I am often asked which companies I think will be the most dominant names in IT 10 years from now, thanks to cloud computing. My answer often surprises those who ask' not because the two companies I believe will be the most recongnized names in cloud-based IT services aren't considered players today, but rather because of why I believe they will be so recongized.In this, the first of two posts exploring the companies that can best exploit the cloud model, I'll identify those two companies and explain why they best fit the needs of a large percentage of IT service customers. Then, in the second part of this series, I will explore several companies that will challenge those two leaders, possibly taking a leadership spot for theirselves.But before I get into who these leaders are, I have to explain why success in cloud computing will be different in 10 years than it is today.Why today's clouds don't represent tomorrow's biggest opportunityThink about what cloud computing promises. Imagine being a company that relies on technology to deliver its business capability, but does not sell computing technology or services itself. Picture being able to deliver a complete IT capability to support your business, whatever it is, without needing to own a data center--or at least any more data center than absolutely necessary.Imagine there being a widely available ecosystem to support that model. Every general purpose IT system (such as printing, file sharing or e-mail) has a wide variety of competing services to choose from. Common business applications, such as accounting/finance, collaboration/communications and human resources, have several options to choose from. Even industry specific systems, such as electronic health records exchanges and law enforcement data warehouses, have one or more mature options to choose from.Need to write code to differentiate your information systems There will be several options to choose from there, as well. Most new applications will be developed on platform as a service options, I believe, with vendors meeting a wide variety of potential markets, from Web applications to &quot;big data&quot; and business intelligence to business process automation. However, if you want (or need) to innovate the entire software stack, infrastructure services will also be readily available.With such a rich environment to choose from, what becomes your biggest problem I would argue that's an easy question to answer: integration. Your biggest problem by far is integrating all of those IT systems into a cohesive whole.In fact, we see that today. Most cloud projects, even incredibly successful ones like Netflix's move to Amazon Web Services, focus efforts within one cloud provider or cloud ecosystem, and usually include applications and services that were developed to work together from the ground up. While there have been attempts to move and integrate disparate IT systems across multiple clouds, none of them stand out as big successes today.While some may argue that's a sign of the nascent nature of cloud, I would argue that its also a sign that integrating systems across cloud services is just plain hard.Why integrated services will drive the most revenueNow imagine you are founding a small business like a consultancy or a new retail store. You need IT, you need it to &quot;just work&quot; with minimal effort and/or expertise, and you need it to be cost effective. What are you going to be looking for from &quot;the cloud&quot;There, again, I would argue the answer is easy: start-ups and small businesses will be seeking integrated services, either from one vendor, or a highly integrated vendor ecosystem. The ideal would be to sign up for one online account that provided pre-integrated financials, collaboration, communications, customer relationship management, human resources management, and so on.In other words, &quot;keep it simple, stupid.&quot; The cloud will someday deliver this for new businesses. But there are very few companies out there today that can achieve broad IT systems integration. I would argue the two most capable are Microsoft and Google.&quot;What!,&quot; you might be saying. &quot;Both of those companies have been tagged as fading dinosaurs by the technorati in the last year. Why would anyone want to lock themselves into one vendor for IT services when the cloud offers such a broad marketplace--especially those two&quot;To answer that, we need to look a little more closely at each vendor's current offerings, and stated vision.Microsoft: it's all about the portfolio, baby!Microsoft stands out for its breadth of offerings. While its infrastructure as a service and platform as a service offerings (both part of Azure) are central to its business model, it's the applications that will ultimately win them great market share.Already, offerings such as Office 365 provide cloud-based versions of key collaboration and communications capabilities for a variety of business markets. However, Microsoft CEO, Steve Balmer, has also made it clear that every Microsoft product group is looking at how to either deliver their products in the cloud, or leverage the cloud to increase the utility of their products.As every product group within Microsoft pushes to &quot;cloudify&quot; their offerings, I am betting similar effort will be put in to making sure the entire portfolio is integrated.Combine the Dynamics portfolio with Sharepoint and Lync and add &quot;Oslo&quot;-based tools to integrate across system or organizational boundaries, and you've got a heck of an IT platform to get started with. Add in Azure, and you have the development platform services to allow you to customize, extend, or innovate beyond the base capabilities of Microsoft's services.Google: Bringing consumer success to businessWhat impresses me most about Google's move towards the cloud has been its pure focus on the application. Google doesn't put forth offerings targeted at providing raw infrastructure. Even Google App Engine, one of the poster children of the platform as a service model, is built with making a certain class of applications--perhaps not surprisingly, Web applications--as easy to develop as possible. Most of the integration of the underlying platform elements has been done for the developer already.However, it's when you look at its consumer application portfolio, and how it's modifying those applications for business, that you can see its real strength. Google takes chances on new Web applications all the time, and those who succeed--either by building a large user base, or by actually generating revenue--draw additional investment aimed at increasing the application's appeal to a broader marketplace. Google Mail is the most mature of these options, but Google Apps is not far behind.What appears to be happeninging now, however, is a concerted effort by Google to build an ecosystem around its core application offerings. The Google Apps Marketplace is a great example of the company trying to build a suite of applications that integrate with or extend its base Google Apps and mail offerings.Add the company's nascent suite of communications and collaboration tools, such as Google Voice and Buzz, and signs of integration among all of their offerings, and you can see the basis of a new form of IT platform that will especially appeal to small businesses and ad hoc work efforts.There are no guarantees in cloudAs you can see, Microsoft and Google have the basic tools and expertise to deliver on the one-stop shop IT services model, and both have proven to me that they have the desire as well. However, neither company is a shoe-in for success in this space. There are two reasons for this, the most important of which is neither company has what I would call a spotless execution record. In fact, both have struggled mightily to impose change on their core business models.Both companies will have to align their various efforts to see this vision through, even as it disrupts current markets. Each has plenty of applications that show great promise, but both are also a long way away from proving they can deliver on a one-stop shop vision.The other reason is that there are a variety of worthy competitors vying for the &quot;one-stop&quot; throne. You may have been asking by now about Amazon, Salesforce.com, VMware, or the hosting companies, and telecoms. In the second post of the series, I'll outline my favorites to displace the two leaders, including one that may surprise you.In the meantime, I think cloud services targeting developers will still get most of the press for the next several years. Achieving an integrated IT platform that serves multiple business markets is extremely difficult, and will take a true commitment and concerted effort by the company or companies that ultimately achieve that vision.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Battle Royale 4: Windows Phone 7 enters the ring]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=battle-royale-4-windows-phone-7-enters-the-ring</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=battle-royale-4-windows-phone-7-enters-the-ring</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 21 Dec 2010 08:10:21 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>belimsirkak</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=battle-royale-4-windows-phone-7-enters-the-ring</guid>
<description><![CDATA[(Credit:Eric Franklin/CNET)Editors' note: If you've already read &quot;Battle Royale: Five smartphones face off&quot;, &quot;Battle Royale 2: Smartphones face off, screen to screen&quot;, or &quot;Battle Royale 3: The Final Conflict&quot; (which, you know, didn't really pan out given the article you're currently reading), then you may experience some deja vu when reading this article. We've used the same tests and presented the article in the same style. Only the phones in question and the details of their performance have changed. Because of some technical difficulties on the back-end, our How We Test Smartphone Displays page (still!!) isn't up yet, but hopefully, by Round 5 it will be.I've now tested 12 different smartphone displays, including the two new ones presented today. Android andiPhone fans remain as passionate as ever about seemingly every aspect of their favorite phones, but now a new fighter enters the tournament. Today we test our firstWindows Phone 7...um, phone. (I still have an aversion to the OS name.) Once again, using DisplayMate Multimedia Edition for Mobile Displays, I put each phone through a battery of tests. Well, today is a new day, and with that comes the promise of a more robust evaluation (or so the saying goes). For Round 4, not only do we have the iPhone 4, but also the Samsung Nexus S. As in previous roundups, we used three different types of tests to evaluate each phone:Scientific measurements: We used the Konica Minolta CS-200 ChromaMeter to test the maximum brightness, black level, and contrast ratio of each phone and reported numbers for each of these three tests.Test pattern screens: We used several DisplayMate Mobile test patterns to test for color-tracking errors, 24-bit color, and font legibility, among others.Real-world: We conducted real-world anecdotal testing using 3D games, and photos.All test screens were viewed within each phone's native gallery application. Some phones may handle pictures differently--and even improve them to some extent--outside the gallery application. That said, we believe that testing within the respective gallery applications is still a viable test, as this is where most users will view pictures on their phones.In order to diminish potential repetition, I'll dive right into the details of how each phone performed' if you'd like to know more about our tests, you can binge on nerdy details in our &quot;How we tested&quot; section at the bottom of this article. Please note that this is an evaluation of each phone's screen performance and nothing else. Check out the full reviews of these phones to determine which is right for you. Also, DisplayMate has posted a more technically focused evaluation of the http://www.displaymate.com/iPhone_4_ShootOut.htm iPhone 4 screens that's worth checking out.The bottom line Here's how we rank the phones in screen performance:Apple iPhone 4HTC HD7Samsung Nexus SKeep reading to find out why we ranked them this way. I know everyone has strong opinions and usually fiery passions about their smartphone of choice, so I don't expect everyone to agree with my assessment or the methods used in drawing my conclusions. If there are any questions about how I came to my conclusions or anything relevant I may have left out, please leave a comment saying as much. This has become a regular feature here at CNET, so don't in any way believe this is the last word on the subject. We'll likely be seeing &quot;Battle Royale 15: The iPhone 4 is dead, long live the iPhone 5D &quot; at some point in the not too distant future.Lastly, though I hope consumers get something useful out of this, I'd also be happy if the manufacturers of the phones took a serious look at these results and at least considered them when making their respective hardware and software revisions. We all want these phones to continue improving, and I'm just attempting to contribute to the cause.Apple iPhone 4The iPhone 4 was the best overall performer of the three phones we tested. The iPhone 4 was capable of displaying 24-bit color and was able to display colors in games and pictures with pop and life while still being accurate. The iPhone 4 won in most of our scientific tests and also had the best performance overall in our real-world tests. Once again, the iPhone 4 has the best smartphone screen on the market. HTC HD7The HD7 displayed mostly accurate color' however, the color did show evidence of being washed out in certain tests. Also, the phone's gallery app may have a bandwidth problem, which resulted in blurry text in our tests. We'll need to do more testing though to confirm. Samsung Nexus SThe Nexus S saw an incredible contrast ratio thanks to its OLED screen. Also, it displayed fonts smoothly and legibly and passed the Coke can test with only minimal dithering. Unfortunately the Nexus S failed in most of our other tests, especially color tracking, white level saturation, and false contouring. The Nexus S was the least impressive of the three. How we testedWe measured each display's brightness, black level, and contrast ratio using theCS-200 and test patterns provided by DisplayMate. All phones were tested at their maximum brightness with full battery charges. All readings were conducted in a completely dark room. Phone nameResolutionBrightnessBlack levelContrast ratioApple iPhone 4960x640 pixels510 cd/M20.30 cd/m21,701:1Samsung Nexus S480x800 pixels333 cd/M2(At least) 0.0049 cd/m2(At least) 67,959:1HTC HD7480x800 pixels297 cd/M20.17 cd/m21,747:1  &quot;At least/At most&quot; explanation: True black can be represented as 0 candelas per square meter (cd/M2). Thanks to its OLED screen, the HTC HD7's black levels were so low, the Konica Minolta CS-200 ChromaMeter wasn't equipped to detect them. According to its specs, the CS-200 can only see black-level measurements as low as 0.005 candelas per square meter (cd/m2). Using simple logic, we can infer that both phones achieved, at most, a 0.0049 cd/m2 black level. Using this method we were able to determine the estimated contrast ratio of the Nexus S.  Test patterns: All test pattern tests were conducted in a completely dark room. White-level saturation: This test includes a number of rectangular blocks on a bright, white background. Peak white is represented by the block labeled 255. The closer a screen gets to displaying 255, the more likely it'll be to show certain colors when viewing a really bright screen. The iPhone 4 came out on top here by just barely displaying up to level 254. The HTC HD7 also displayed up to level 254, just not as clearly. The Nexus S achieved no higher than 251, and it must be noted that it had some red tint problems where what should have been gray boxes looked pink instead. Color scales: Tests the display's ability to show 25 distinct intensity levels for each of the 10 primary colors, from black to peak brightness. A perfect showing would have each color with 25 distinct steps. The Samsung Nexus S had the worst performance as its scaling from dark to light included several nonlinear jumps. Also, a few colors within a given color row were noticeably inaccurate. The HTC HD7 showed a linear progression from dark to light, but some of its steps had evidence of compression as some levels blended in with others and were not as distinct as they should have been. The iPhone 4 displayed the color scale linearly and accurately' however, it could not show the next to darkest level of the colors, indicating that very dark colors may be out of the iPhone 4's reach. Both the Nexus S and HD7 had not problem showing that level though. Color tracking: This screen tests the LCD's capability to display the grayscale uniformly and accurately without any color tint problems. As in previous rounds, the iPhone 4 had the best presentation here with an accurate grayscale and no apparent color tint problems. The HTC HD7 also showed an accurate grayscale with no apparent color problems. The Nexus S had a very obvious green and red color tint problem and like in the color scales test, its progression from dark to light was nonlinear and skipped around a lot.  RGBW smooth color ramp: This an excellent test for determining whether the LCD can display 24-bit color. If the scale is smooth, without visible &quot;steps,&quot; the display should be capable of 24-bit color. If not, it's likely limited to 16-bit, or possibly 18-bit, color. The Nexus S showed very visible steps and and is likely not capable of 24-bit color, at least not in its gallery app. Both the iPhone 4 and HD7 each showed a smooth progression from dark to light and likely each supports 24-bit color.  Fonts: We tested black, gray, and white fonts on different combinations of black, gray, and white backgrounds. Depending on how the phone handles things, certain combinations may affect the text's legibility. The HTC HD7 delivered blurry text during our test. Our test photo has a resolution of 480x800, the same as the HD7's native resolution. Also, when viewing Websites and the phone's menu, we saw no signs of blurry text. It could be that the phone's gallery app just doesn't have quite enough bandwidth devoted to it, but we can't yet say that definitively without more testing. Text on the iPhone 4 was sharp, but thanks to its high resolution, was also small and difficult to see without squinting. The Nexus S delivered the best overall text, as it was properly sized and just as sharp as the iPhone 4's.  DisplayMate Mobile's white-level saturation test.(Credit:DisplayMate) Real-world testsCoca-Cola photo: A high-quality picture of a Coke can can be used to test how close the phone can come to reproducing colors from the real world. We used a real Coke can as reference. The iPhone 4 displayed the pic with the most accurate color, where red looked accurate and vibrant without looking washed out. The Nexus S was second best, with a detailed can with only a small amount of visible dithering' however, the color was oversaturated and the can's color appeared more orange-red than red. The HD7 showed no signs of dithering, but had washed-out color.  Mars photo: We used a picture of a sunset on Mars to test the display's real-world false contouring threshold. The sky should appear to smoothly transition in color. If visible steps are noticeable, the phone has a false-contouring problem. The iPhone 4 displayed the clearest picture with no false contouring signs, but it was too dark to see the darkest detail of the rocks on the bottom of the picture. The HD7 came in second with no false contouring, and more visible dark detail than the iPhone 4, but the overall picture was less clear. The Nexus S had very noticeable evidence of egregious false contouring in the sky, but dark detail was more visible than on the iPhone 4.  Game: We used Raging Thunder 2 on the iPhone 4 Raging Thunder 2 Lite on the Nexus S and Need for Speed: Underground on the HD7 to evaluate each phone's color performance in a fast-moving game. Both the iPhone 4 and Nexus S delivered a bright and vibrant image' however, the Nexus S's color was not as accurate and noticeably oversaturated. Not surprisingly, the HD7 showed somewhat washed-out color and a muted vibrancy.  The sun, from a Mars perspective. Each phone should display a smooth transition in intensity and color of the skyline.(Credit:NASA) <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Web Sockets and the risks of unfinished standards]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=web-sockets-and-the-risks-of-unfinished-standards</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=web-sockets-and-the-risks-of-unfinished-standards</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 10 Dec 2010 08:13:29 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>darrylkikr</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=web-sockets-and-the-risks-of-unfinished-standards</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Enthusiasm for a promising new standard called Web Sockets has quickly cooled in some quarters as a potential security problem led some browser makers to hastily postpone support.The Web Sockets technology, which opens up a live communication link between a browser and a server, remains an important part of plans to make the Web a home for more dynamic, interactive sites. It could, for example, speed up Google Instant searching and multiplayer games. But Mozilla and Opera put their Web Socket plans on hold this week until the wrinkles are ironed out.The reversal is only the latest difficulty, though. Web Sockets development already had become somewhat contentious as eager browser makers--Google in particular--began including support for a specification they knew wasn't done. Overall, the Web Sockets history illustrates some pitfalls of the style and pace of Web standards development.When technology companies are working on the next version of standards for Ethernet or USB, much of the work happens among dedicated engineers informed by work at test labs. But with the Web, the entire Internet is the test lab. That's because Web developers, not just browser makers and other industry powers, play a role in early-stage work shaping specifications and gauging interest.Browser makers, naturally eager to curry favor with this influential audience in the highly competitive browser market, race to include new technology. With Web Sockets, Google was the first with a version of Chrome a year ago. Apple has followed suit withSafari 5' Mozilla had been building Web Sockets into the upcoming Firefox 4 and Opera into its upcoming Opera 11.Web Sockets problemNow, though, plans are shifting with publication of a security problem by Adam Barth, a programmer with extensive browser security expertise. In a November 26 paper  (PDF), Barth pointed out a problem with the &quot;handshake&quot; used to set up Web Sockets connections. By exploiting it, an attacker could get a browser to run malicious code through a mechanism called cache poisoning, Barth and the paper's co-authors said.&quot;Although raw socket access is an important capability for full-featured browser-based applications, providing sockets safely has proven to be challenging,&quot; the paper said. The paper proposed a new, more secure mechanism that has won support among browser makers.The backtracking came a few days later.&quot;We've decided to disable support for WebSockets inFirefox 4, starting with beta 8 due to a protocol-level security issue,&quot; Christopher Blizzard, a Mozilla leader of new-technology work, said in a blog post. &quot;Once we have a version of the protocol that we feel is secure and stable, we will include it in a release of Firefox, even a minor update release...To be clear, we're still excited about what WebSockets offers and we're working hard with the IETF [Internet Engineering Task Force] on a new WebSockets protocol.&quot; (Although the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is standardizing Web Sockets as part of HTML5, the IETF is in charge of the actual communication protocol it uses.)An illustration of the cache-poisoning security risk raised by a prototype version of Web Sockets.(Credit:Adam Barth et al.)Next came Opera. &quot;Until the new WebSocket protocol handshake is sorted out by the IETF it will be behind a preference in Opera,&quot; Anne van Kesteren, who works on standards for Opera, said in another blog post.Apple hasn't made commitments, but it appears to be concerned too. &quot;We would be hesitant to ship protocol updates that do not fix the handshake. Given the security issues identified by the paper from Adam and company, we would even consider disabling WebSocket entirely in future releases until there is a more robust handshake,&quot; Maciej Stachowiak, a lead developer of Apple's Safari, said in a mailing list post.Microsoft, which is trying to make up for lost time supporting new Web standards with Internet Explorer 9, was more cautious about Web Sockets support even before the security problem arose. So its commentary on the matter took the form of an I-told-you-so in a blog post by Web technical evangelist Giorgio Sardo.&quot;Rushing the implementation of a specific feature and call it &quot;done deal&quot; is dangerous and in some circumstance can bring to unpleasant results,&quot; Sardo said.But Google, which employs Web Sockets editor Ian Fette, sees things differently from the rest of the pack. Fette had this to say in a statement to CNET:We are not hiding it behind a flag at the current point in time. We released the details of the research to help guide the working group towards what we believe will be a more secure version of the Web Sockets protocol, and are hoping that the group will reach consensus in the next few weeks. We already have detailed a proposal for a more secure version, and are addressing various concerns that have been raised by others in the standards community. It's important to note that the research paper Adam Barth et al. published does not demonstrate a working attack against the actual Web Socket implementation, but rather against one part [of] the protocol taken in isolation. There are other parts of the protocol that would make an actual attack more complicated in practice. We believe there will be consensus on a new version of the protocol, and implementation in Chrome of that new version, before someone is able to actually demonstrate an attack against the full Web Socket protocol as currently shipping in Chrome.Web Sockets' backgroundIn the early days of the Web, communications between browsers and servers were limited. A browser would request a Web page and a server would deliver it.The modern Web, though, needs more. Web sites are becoming actively updated, and Web applications must communicate with the outside world. To that end, programmers have come up with workarounds such as Comet and long polling to try to keep a communications channel open.Web Sockets is designed to make this task much easier to program and much faster in operation.That could be very useful for many dynamic Web tasks--for example a site with live-streaming updates or multiplayer games with real-time interaction. Another example, from Fette, is a Web-based e-mail program: typing a letter in the &quot;To:&quot; field, the server might want to start providing a list of names or e-mail addresses that begin with that letter, then update the list when the next letter is typed.That sort of communication is exactly what goes on with Google Instant, which provides search results on the fly, so it's not hard to imagine that Google would like Web Sockets there, too, in its obsession over cutting any millisecond possible out of the search process.The technology has two important attributes. One is low latency: there's a smaller delay between when a message is sent and when it's received than using current approaches. Another is that Web Sockets doesn't use as much data.It's therefore no surprise that browser makers were eager to embrace Web Sockets. Google, with its Chrome OS and Chrome Web Store push to enable a world of rich Web applications, has a particularly strong incentive.Breaking changesEven before the new security problem, the Web Sockets development had been contentious as Google and others issued browsers using the early &quot;-76&quot; version of the technology. One issue was whether Web Sockets support should be tucked behind what's called a vendor prefix. That would mean a Web programmer would call upon the feature using browser-specific instructions. That approach protects against Web sites breaking when the final, incompatible version is released later.The debate about how to handle early-stage Web Sockets support has been going for months on the Mozilla mailing list.&quot;I think the best strategy is to just keep breaking people to force the expectation that this is still a work in progress, and if you're not aware of that you shouldn't be using it,&quot; Fette said in one comment. &quot;From the browser perspective, my intent is to keep pushing out new revisions, with the assumption that we auto-update and will not have old versions lying around to deal with.&quot;But not everybody updates software as diligently as might be ideal. That can lead to difficulties ensuring new technology doesn't break older technology, even if the older technology doesn't comply with modern standards.&quot;Personally I like Web Sockets. I'm looking forward to seeing them available in all browsers. But I also do care about consistent implementations, that work the same (interoperable, secure, stable) way across any browser--over time,&quot; Sardo said. &quot;I don't want to write some code today, falling in the '(non) Web Standard trap,' and then have to re-write my code in 1 year from now because that particular implementation wasn't exactly ready for prime time yet and has been removed or changed.&quot;In his comment to CNET, Fette defended Google's approach, including shipping Web Sockets early in Chrome with the possibility that its underlying technology would change.&quot;We have gained a good deal of insight by having an implementation we and others can experiment with,&quot; Fette said, including details about message sizes, compression, and interactions with the complex realities of networking. &quot;I don't think it would be possible to do this work without that ability to experiment.&quot;Because of that value, it's not likely that Web standards development will stop relying on real-world trials.But what is changing is that development's pace. Google has a sense of urgency around developing Web Sockets. But with other major browser powers concluding otherwise, it's clear that Web Sockets' momentum has been slowed.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Robots meet solar at Solyndra Fab 2]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=robots-meet-solar-at-solyndra-fab-2</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=robots-meet-solar-at-solyndra-fab-2</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 09 Dec 2010 08:11:10 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>mamapapa2010</dc:creator>
<category>Eco</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=robots-meet-solar-at-solyndra-fab-2</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Robotics manufacturing tends to evoke visions of a John Henry-esque scenario in which competent women and men lose jobs to hunks of automated metal.But in the case of Solyndra it may be robots that help American workers compete more effectively against China's low-cost labor force.The cylindrical shape allows Solyndra&amp;39's modules to collect sunlight in various forms.(Credit:Solyndra)Consider the video that solar manufacturer Solyndra released this week illustrating how thin-film CIGS (copper, indium, gallium, and selenide) solar modules are produced.In reality, the video (see below) is a showcase for the company's new state-of-the-art solar manufacturing plant, built with a $535 million federal loan guarantee from the Department of Energy, and $198 million in funding led by Argonaut Private Equity.The futuristic Solyndra Fab 2 integrates robotics manufacturing with 1,000 human workers to build unique cylindrical solar modules. The thin-film panels are made of a series of tubes that facilitate the capture of direct, diffuse, and reflected sunlight, which maximizes efficiency while making rotation toward the sun throughout the day unnecessary, according to Solyndra.Solyndra's video shows an impressive cadre of robots, with workers directing their automated partners from laptops or from touch screens mounted on walls. The narrator tells of RFID tags enabling parts to be traced and directed to where they need to go, special LED lights used to mimic solar rays in quality checks, and a manufacturing capacity that will eventually ramp up to 1 million solar modules a week.Solyndra Fab 2 from Solyndra, Inc. on Vimeo.But this Fab 2 showcase is not just a pitch for Solyndra. It's a pitch for American technology prowess.President Obama used Solyndra as the backdrop for his &quot;We've got to go back to making things&quot; speech in May. The White House has also been holding the company up as a positive example of U.S.green tech and manufacturing innovation. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu were both present at Fab 2's groundbreaking ceremony.It's also test case for whether America can still be competitive when it comes to manufacturing.Solyndra makes thin-film flexible solar modules using CIGS cells, rather than silicon, as the absorbent layer. This alternative to traditional solar panels had an edge in the past because they were inexpensive to manufacture and install compared to silicon solar cells. But as China has ramped up its silicon solar production and the cost of manufacturing silicon solar cells has dropped, there has been a changing dynamic in the industry.Solyndra announced in early November that it was closing its old manufacturing plant near Fab 2. The change resulted in 40 Solyndra employees being laid off and another 150 subcontractors not having their contracts renewed.At the time, the company said that its old plant was simply not able to keep up with production at a competitive or cost-effective rate. Coincidentally, a month early Suntech, the Chinese thin-film solar manufacturer, had announced three key partnerships that many said would further redefine the economics of manufacturing.The Fab 2 plant is much more efficient and will reduce production costs compared to its old facility, Solyndra CEO Brian Harrison has told The New York Times.Only future financial reports from Solyndra will reveal whether Fab 2 and its team of robots and humans is really efficient enough to compete globally against both silicon solar and thin-film counterparts.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Amazon enhances Kindle for the Web]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=amazon-enhances-kindle-for-the-web</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=amazon-enhances-kindle-for-the-web</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 08 Dec 2010 08:10:09 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>eladlickululk</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=amazon-enhances-kindle-for-the-web</guid>
<description><![CDATA[(Credit:Amazon)Amazon is looking to attract more readers and sellers of e-books with its improved Kindle for the Web.Demonstrated yesterday at Google's Chrome event, Amazon's Kindle for the Web will let users buy and read full Kindle e-books directly from their browsers with no special download or installation required. The new version of the application will be available early next year. Users will also have a lot of choice over where they can buy their Kindle books. Online retailers, publishers, authors, and bloggers will be able to offer Kindle books through their own sites, according to Amazon. Web and blog sites can embed a Kindle for the Web widget to allow them to preview and sell Kindle books directly and earn referral fees on any sales, courtesy of Amazon's Associates Program.&quot;Kindle for the Web makes it possible for bookstores, authors, retailers, bloggers or other website owners to offer Kindle books on their websites and earn affiliate fees for doing so,&quot; Russ Grandinetti, vice president of Kindle Content, said in a statement. &quot;Anyone with access to a web browser can discover the seamless and consistent experience that comes with Kindle books.&quot;Kindle for the Web isn't new. It initially launched in late September, but it's currently limited to displaying only the first chapter of an e-book within the browser. The new and improved features promise to put Amazon on par with Google's new eBookstore, which opened for business on Monday. Both companies are touting the similar features of their respective e-book apps, such as the ability to read entire books within the browser and sync content from one reading device to another.Though it may be competing with Google in the e-book marketplace, Amazon is working with the search giant to make Kindle for the Web Chrome-friendly. The updated Kindle for the Web will support forthcoming Chrome OS devices.The new Chrome Web Store is also playing host to Amazon's Windowshop. Similar to Amazon's Windowshop for the iPad, the Chrome version offers a user-friendly display where consumers can visually browse and buy Amazon products.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[U.S. Cellular rolls outs unlimited prepaid plans for texters]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=u-s--cellular-rolls-outs-unlimited-prepaid-plans-for-texters</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=u-s--cellular-rolls-outs-unlimited-prepaid-plans-for-texters</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 03 Dec 2010 08:10:31 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>BestyMerryBMW</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=u-s--cellular-rolls-outs-unlimited-prepaid-plans-for-texters</guid>
<description><![CDATA[U.S. Cellular rings in the holiday season with three affordable prepaid plans that will make messaging fans happy. They are $29, $39, and $49 respectively, and all include unlimited messaging.  The $29 per month plan has 200 minutes, the $39 option has 400 minutes plus 5GB of mobile surfing, and the $49 plan has 1,000 minutes. Interestingly, the $29 and $49 plans don't include the mobile surfing plan. If you want an all-in-one option, U.S. Cellular does offer a $69.99 Primary Plus plan that includes unlimited voice, text, and 5GB of data. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Reback rehearses for the case against Google]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=reback-rehearses-for-the-case-against-google</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=reback-rehearses-for-the-case-against-google</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 01 Dec 2010 08:10:41 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>darmoweGryK5</dc:creator>
<category>Politics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=reback-rehearses-for-the-case-against-google</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Antitrust expert Gary Reback outlines how regulators might one day try to take down Google.(Credit:Tom Krazit/CNET)WASHINGTON--Fresh off the news that Europe is formally investigating Google, a Silicon Valley antitrust expert today laid out the hypothetical case against Google that might play out should U.S. regulators decide to get involved.Gary Reback, an attorney with Carr &amp; Ferrell and a prominent figure in the antitrust trials involving Microsoft, told attendees at Consumer Watchdog's Future of Online Consumer Protections conference here that the European case, built off complaints by a comparison shopping engine, could demonstrate that Google has improperly penalized specialty search engines in its quest to maintain its leading search engine market share. The refrain is a familiar one among Google critics: that Google's Universal Search unfairly promotes its own content over that of competitors. In a new twist, Reback discussed the results of a study he concluded on over 40,000 shopping-related search queries. Nearly all of those queries displayed Google's shopping pages as either the first or third result' curiously, not a single query resulted in a Google Web page showing up in the second spot. &quot;As the dominant supplier of search, are they running something that's neutral Or are they providing manipulated results for their own benefit&quot; Reback wondered. In the past Google has strongly denied any suggestion that employees pick and choose winners within search results, but it does make frequent changes to the algorithm that powers those results for various reasons, usually to combat what it considers spam. Foundem, a price-comparison search engine based in the U.K., is leading the charge against Google in Europe. It has complained that Google made changes to its algorithm that unfairly penalized the site, knocking it way down Google's rankings until it was eventually restored after the company protested the decision. Reback also addressed a recurring question about how exactly a regulated Google would continue to provide relevant search results if it had to disclose its algorithm as a result of a successful prosecution. Microsoft was required to disclose its source code to a technical committee to evaluate whether it was playing by the rules, and Reback said Google could be forced to do something similar that would allow regulators to verify it was operating properly without having to air the algorithm in public, which would quickly result in a spam-filled search engine. Like many of the panelists at Consumer Watchdog's conference--including the organizers themselves--Reback has been a noted critic of Google for several years. He is a member of the Open Book Alliance, which opposes Google's proposed settlement with authors and publishers over publishing rights to certain out-of-print but copyright-protected books.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Level 3 takes spat with Comcast public]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=level-3-takes-spat-with-comcast-public</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=level-3-takes-spat-with-comcast-public</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 29 Nov 2010 08:10:39 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>medicabc</dc:creator>
<category>Politics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=level-3-takes-spat-with-comcast-public</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Internet backbone provider Level 3 is accusing cable giant Comcast of violating Net neutrality principles as it takes public a dispute over network peering between the two companies.Level 3 issued a statement Monday that said Comcast plans to charge it a &quot;recurring fee&quot; to carry video traffic on the Comcast broadband network. Level 3 said that charging such a fee violates the Federal Communications Commission's Net neutrality principles.&quot;By taking this action, Comcast is effectively putting up a toll booth at the borders of its broadband Internet access network, enabling it to unilaterally decide how much to charge for content which competes with its own cable TV and Xfinity delivered content,&quot; Thomas Stortz, chief legal officer of Level 3, said in a statement. &quot;This action by Comcast threatens the open Internet and is a clear abuse of the dominant control that Comcast exerts in broadband access markets as the nation's largest cable provider.&quot;But Comcast says Level 3 is being disingenuous in its portrayal of what is a typical network peering negotiation between two network providers.&quot;Level 3 has misportrayed the commercial negotiations between it and Comcast,&quot; Joe Waz, Comcast's senior vice president for external affairs, said in a statement. &quot;This has nothing to do with Level 3's desire to distribute different types of network traffic. Comcast has long established and mutually acceptable commercial arrangements with Level 3's content delivery network competitors in delivering the same types of traffic to our customers.&quot;The news comes on the heels of Netflix turning to Level 3 to handle its streaming video. Earlier this month, Netflix announced the deal that would send the bulk of its content-distribution business to Level 3 and Limelight and less to rival Akamai. This was a huge win for Level 3 in terms of its content delivery network (CDN) business, but it also means that the company will now be carrying a much higher traffic load on its network. Subsequently, it means that it will also ask its peering partners to accept much higher traffic loads than previously. Prior to the Netflix deal, Comcast and Level 3 had a typical industry peering arrangement. Level 3 is an Internet backbone provider and it regularly carries traffic that originates and terminates on Comcast's broadband network. Under their previous arrangement, the companies essentially swapped traffic since both networks generated equal amounts of traffic.But with the Netflix deal, the balance of traffic between the two companies will shift dramatically. Netflix has been said to generate 17 percent of traffic on the Internet at peak times in the U.S. Comcast said in its statement that it expects to receive five times more traffic from Level 3 as part of this new arrangement.Unlike the peering relationship between Level 3 and Comcast, Comcast and Akamai, which had previously delivered Netflix's streaming video, had a commercial arrangement, a source close to Comcast confirmed. In other words, instead of swapping traffic between Comcast and Akamai for free, Comcast charged Akamai a fee to deliver its traffic including the Netflix video content. Comcast said in its statement that all it has been trying to do in its negotiations with Level 3 is to work out a similar deal as the one it had originally had with Level 3's content delivery competitors.&quot;Comcast offered Level 3 the same terms it offers to Level 3's CDN competitors for the same traffic,&quot; Waz said. &quot;But Level 3 is trying to undercut its CDN competitors by claiming it's entitled to be treated differently and trying to force Comcast to give Level 3 unlimited and highly imbalanced traffic and shift all the cost onto Comcast and its customers.&quot;It has accused Level 3 of trying to get a free ride by crying foul over Net neutrality.&quot;What Level 3 wants is to pressure Comcast into accepting more than a twofold increase in the amount of traffic Level 3 delivers onto Comcast's network--for free,&quot; Waz said in the Comcast statement. &quot;In other words, Level 3 wants to compete with other CDNs, but pass all the costs of that business on Comcast and Comcast's customers, instead of Level 3 and its customers. &quot; But Level 3 claims it was bullied into accepting a deal that it says violates the &quot;spirit and letter &quot;of the FCC's proposed Internet Policy principles and other regulations and statutes, as well as statements Comcast has made previously about favoring an open Internet,&quot; Stortz said. Level 3 executives are asking Comcast to reconsider its position and are approaching regulators and policymakers, asking them to take action to &quot;ensure that a fair, open, and innovative Internet does not become a closed network controlled by a few institutions with dominant market power that have the means, motive, and opportunity to economically discriminate between favored and disfavored content,&quot; the company said. Representatives from Level 3 did not return calls seeking further comment based on Comcast's assertions.Public interest organizations were quick to take Level 3's side in its fight against Comcast. &quot;Comcast's request of payment in exchange for content transmission is yet another example of why citizens need strong, effective network neutrality rules that include a ban on such 'paid prioritization' practices,&quot; said Andrew Jay Schwartzman, senior vice president and policy director of the nonprofit law firm Media Access Project. &quot;It is also yet another clear demonstration of why Comcast should not be permitted to acquire NBC Universal, given its clear tendency to exercise control in the video marketplace.&quot; &quot;This is exactly the sort of anticompetitive harm that opponents of Comcast's merger with NBC-Universal have warned would happen--that Comcast would leverage its network to harm distribution of competitive video services, while raising prices on its own customers,&quot; said Harold Feld, legal director of Public Knowledge. &quot;Policymakers should see this as the third strike for Comcast, following the BitTorrent complaint, the complaint by Zoom modem manufacturers over treatment of their products and now this.&quot; But other experts say that Level 3 may be exploiting the tension over Net neutrality to negotiate more favorable business terms for itself. &quot;If this turns out to be a fight over peering arrangements, then this clearly has nothing to do with Net neutrality,&quot; said Larry Downes, a consultant and author, who has contributed columns regarding Net neutrality and other Internet issues on CNET. Level 3's complaint comes at a time when the Net neutrality issue is bubbling to a head at the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC, which has been promising to make Net neutrality rules official regulation for more than a year, is expected to lay out its final plan for those rules next month at its December open meeting. The FCC is also considering the merger between Comcast and NBC Universal. And some industry watchers have speculated that the FCC may include Net neutrality provisions as conditions in the merger. Last September, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski proposed making four of the Net neutrality principles official regulation. He also proposed adding two new principles. It is these original four principles that Level 3 accuses Comcast of violating. The existing principles can be summarized this way: Network operators cannot prevent users from accessing lawful Internet content, applications, and services of their choice, nor can they prohibit users from attaching nonharmful devices to the network.The additional principles, which the FCC hopes to make part of the regulation, would prevent Internet access providers from discriminating against particular Internet content or applications, while allowing for reasonable network management. The second principle would ensure that Internet access providers are transparent about the network management practices they implement.It's unclear what type of action Level 3 expects the FCC to take, since the FCC's authority to enforce these principles has already been called into question by a federal court. In 2008, the FCC gave Comcast a slap on the wrist for violating its principles when the company throttled Bit Torrent traffic on its network. Earlier this year, a U.S. appeals court threw out the FCC ruling. Judges in the case said that the FCC had no authority to regulate an Internet provider's network management practices.(CNET's Greg Sandoval contributed to this report.)Updated 6:42 p.m. PST with background and reaction.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Palin's publisher sues Gawker over book excerpt]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=palins-publisher-sues-gawker-over-book-excerpt</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=palins-publisher-sues-gawker-over-book-excerpt</comments>
<pubDate>Sat, 20 Nov 2010 08:10:15 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>maralyn45</dc:creator>
<category>Marketing and advertising</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=palins-publisher-sues-gawker-over-book-excerpt</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Want to read parts of Sarah Palin's biography before it's officially released Head over to Gawker, which has been displaying excerpts from the book since Thursday.That's despite the fact that Palin's publisher, HarperCollins, filed a lawsuit yesterday against Gawker Media, citing copyright infringement. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Are efficient LED bulbs worth the price]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=are-efficient-led-bulbs-worth-the-price</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=are-efficient-led-bulbs-worth-the-price</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 19 Nov 2010 08:10:33 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>vxjkzhygoohxya</dc:creator>
<category>Eco</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=are-efficient-led-bulbs-worth-the-price</guid>
<description><![CDATA[At this point, LED bulbs are the hybrid cars of lighting. They're cheaper to operate but cost more upfront than their less-efficient cousins.There have been LED spotlights and smaller lights for years, but now people can buy LED bulbs that give out as much light as a 60-watt incandescent and are designed for use just about anywhere. And rather than purchase them online or in a specialty store, they will be available at Home Depot, Lowes, and no doubt other familiar retail outlets next year.More LED bulbs to choose from (photos)  Weighing cost and light quality, LEDs are worth considering right now for downlights and worth keeping an eye on if you have a lot of incandescent bulbs. If you already have a lot of CFLs in places like desktop lamps, don't expect a quick payback by switching over. But LEDs offer some other advantages, notably longer life.Lighting your living space is obviously a very personal decision, but as you think about upgrading with energy efficiency in mind, here are a few factors to consider. CostThe good news on LEDs are that these lights, quality-wise, are quite good and they put out enough light for a lot of needs. But there's no getting around the fact that LED bulbs for general lighting are a new technology that comes with a price premium.Home Depot's 800 lumen Philips LED bulb is priced at just under $40 and consumes 12 watts. A 40-watt equivalent from Lighting Sciences Group, which consumes less than 8 watts, costs just under $18. If you were considering moving en masse to LEDs, you would need to take a long view from a financial perspective. Osram Sylvania figures that putting its $39.98 LED in to replace a 60-watt incandescent will save $132 over the life of the bulb, assuming a price of electricity at 10 cents per kilowatt-hour. That's more than 25,000 hours, or 17 years of using a bulb four hours a day.The Sylvania LED designed for general lighting, which gives off as much light as a 60-watt incandescent and uses 12 watts.(Credit:Osram Sylvania)Taking a more conservative, short-term view, I did some back-of-the envelope calculations. If you used a bulb for just two hours a day and paid the national average of 11.5 cents per kilowatt hour, a single 12-watt LED will cost you about $1 per year. Comparable CFLs that consume about 14 watts come to $1.17 per year and about $5 a year for 60-watt incandescents in that scenario. (See formula.)The minimal energy savings you get from going from CFL to LEDs reflects that LED bulbs are only slightly more efficient, when measured on lumens per watt. And, of course, CFLs have come way down in price over the past few years, while LEDs are still at the top of a projected downward cost curve. If you have incandescent bulbs, saving $4 a year with an LED is more compelling, but that's still a long pay back. Electricity prices vary quite a bit (see here for your state average) in the U.S. and changing the number of hours per day will vary the result quite a bit. For example, if you use an LED bulb four hours a day and pay a higher rate of 16 cents per kilowatt hour, you'd save $11 per year per bulb over an incandescent, giving you a payback time frame for a $40 LED of between three and four years. Obviously, these savings get bigger, the more bulbs you replace. More significant is that LEDs have a stated life time of 25,000 hours or more, compared to about 8,000 for CFLs, and less than 1,000 for incandescents. So if you factor in replacements, the numbers look more favorable. Keep in mind that LEDs are on a faster efficiency and price-improvement track than other lighting technologies. Some lighting industry executives expect the price for an 800-lumen LED bulb to fall to about $20 within two years, which changes the math significantly. And utilities could begin to subsidize them, as they did with CFLs.How you'll be using the bulbBefore you get too lost in the numbers, consider what you're using your lighting for. A good application for long-lasting LEDS is a tough-to-reach space or one where you need to leave the light on for a long time, for example. Often, CFLs are not always dimmable and LEDs typically are.Also, consider that LEDs are best at directional light, which is why there are so many spotlight and downlight LEDs that fit into cans. Reviews for the Home Depot downlight from Cree--a 65-watt replacement that uses 10 watts--are generally positive and there are signs that pricing is going to be aggressive. They are listed at $49.97 online but they were on sale for $20, at least in some Massachusetts stores. Another good use is a goose-neck desk lamp, which is designed for directed light.Philips LED glows warm (photos) View the full galleryThese latest general-use LED bulbs do a better job dispersing light, but there are limits. Last night I put two LED bulbs from Lighting Sciences Group into sconces that are at about at eye level on either side of a mirror. The amount of light was fine, but because most of the light was projected down, it didn't provide the light where I wanted it to use the mirror. That same bulb in a ceiling light works just fine.Paying $20 or $40 for a bulb is obviously a lot compared to the $2 bulbs already available, but there are other reasons to switch bulbs besides yearly energy savings, as commenters at CNET and the Home Depot Web site made clear. Many people get impatient waiting for CFLs to warm up, particularly outside, or they don't want to worry about mercury in CLFs (which should be recycled through waste collection agencies or retailers). The inefficiency of incandescent bulbs manifests itself as heat. Using cooler LEDs can be significant when you consider the cost of cooling.I'm about to buy some LEDs for my own home and one feature I'm considering is color temperature. In some areas, I think that a warmer yellow light--rated at 2,700 Kelvin--would work well. But some LEDs have a cooler white at 3,000 Kelvin, which I'll put in other spots. I'll also be paying more attention to color rendering index, which is a measure of color accuracy. Green factorSome lighting manufacturers refer to the LED business right now as the &quot;wild west,&quot; which doesn't sound very comforting as a consumer. The fact is that there are inflated claims regarding the life times and light quality of LEDs, which has even led to the Federal Trade Commissioner filing suit against a manufacturer.As you're looking around, remember that for LEDs to last a long time, they need a heat sink. That's the main reason LED bulbs have metal fins that go down the side, making them look different than the classic Edison-style bulb. LED bulbs creep into the home (photos) One way to combat that problem is to check out reviews and buy from places where you know you can return the product. A good resource for learning the lingo around lighting and getting specifications on individual products is the Department of Energy's LightingFacts Web site, where you can see a new label now being used. Another thing that lighting professionals will tell you is that we should expect more diversity in lighting technology, not a takeover of LEDs. In the next years, expect to hear quite a bit more about LEDs for the home as retail outlets start carrying more and prices come down. Also worth watching is whether they live up to their promised long life.I bought a hybridcar because I wanted the best mileage I could get and, similarly, I plan on buying some LEDs to lower my electricity usage as my CFLs burn out. And like other consumers, I'll be watching for prices to fall and hoping they last as long as they should. How well they fare displacing other types of lighting remains to be seen, but LEDs are now part of the mix.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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