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<title>Haaze.com / Lynda / Voted News</title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com</link>
<description>Test Web 2.0 Content Management System</description>
<pubDate>Fri, 22 Apr 2011 07:10:06 +0000</pubDate>
<language>en</language>
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<title><![CDATA[Yahoo tops all U.S. sites in March' Google follows]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=yahoo-tops-all-u-s--sites-in-march-google-follows</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=yahoo-tops-all-u-s--sites-in-march-google-follows</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 22 Apr 2011 07:10:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>wanparjujbh</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=yahoo-tops-all-u-s--sites-in-march-google-follows</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The top U.S. Web properties, according to ComScore.(Credit:ComScore Media Metrix)It was business as usual on the Web in March, ComScore found in its latest Media Metrix survey.According to the research firm, more than 212 million Americans surfed the Web last month, and once again, Yahoo was their top destination, scoring nearly 180 million unique visitors. Google trailed Yahoo with more than 176.8 million unique visitors. Microsoft, Facebook, and AOL followed the search giant with 176.4 million, 153 million, and 118 million unique visitors, respectively.Perhaps the biggest surprise of the month was the growth of Zynga.com. According to ComScore, the FarmVille creator's site saw traffic rise 164 percent from over 2.7 million unique visitors in February to 7.3 million visitors in March. ComScore didn't say why Zynga's traffic rose so sharply.Neither the research firm nor Zynga immediately responded to request for comment.Aside from Web traffic, ComScore also examined the state of advertising in March. Once again, Google's Ad network reigned supreme, with its ads reaching 91.7 percent of the entire U.S. Web audience. Yahoo Sites had 84.4 percent reach.One other interesting tidbit: Americans were thinking seriously about repairing their homes in March. According to ComScore, home improvement sites saw traffic rise by 10 percent compared to February.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Google launches Groupon competitor in Oregon]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=google-launches-groupon-competitor-in-oregon</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=google-launches-groupon-competitor-in-oregon</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 21 Apr 2011 07:10:46 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>garzafrraz</dc:creator>
<category>Marketing and advertising</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=google-launches-groupon-competitor-in-oregon</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The first market that will get Google's new Groupon competitor will be--drum roll, please--Portland, Ore.The search giant announced Thursday that it will be launching the beta version of its Google Offers coupon and discount deals service in Portland. Google first revealed its plans for the Groupon-like service in January.Google has already put up a page where people can sign up to receive deals that will be e-mailed each day. Like the Groupon service, users can receive discounts of 50 percent or more at local businesses. But unlike Groupon, the deals won't need to hit a user threshold before they're valid. Google says it will expand the service soon to other cities, including New York and San Francisco. &quot;We're working hard to get Google Offers up and running in Portland&quot;, the company said on its Help page. And it said services in other cities will be launched &quot;in the near future.&quot; Google Offers was announced a month after Groupon reportedly rejected the company's $6 billion bid to buy it. Groupon, which is rumored to be doing $2 billion a year in revenue, has since increased its coffers by raising $950 million in funding. Earlier this year, the company was valued at about $6.4 billion. As Google enters the social-buying market, it faces not only Groupon as a competitor but also several Groupon clones. LivingSocial, which is backed by Amazon.com, is also a strong player in the market. Earlier this year, it made headlines and fans by selling more than a million $20 Amazon gift cards for $10 each.This market is important for Google because it gives it access to more revenue from local search and advertising.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[How to root your Android]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=how-to-root-your-android</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=how-to-root-your-android</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 15 Apr 2011 07:10:45 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>john1946mc</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=how-to-root-your-android</guid>
<description><![CDATA[In the early days of Android, gaining root access was a complicated process, involving around a dozen steps and patience enough to test even the most serene of ascetic monks. Nowadays, not only do you not need a saffron-colored robe, it's much simpler: There's an app for that.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[A better-sounding way to play CDs]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=a-better-sounding-way-to-play-cds</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=a-better-sounding-way-to-play-cds</comments>
<pubDate>Sat, 09 Apr 2011 07:10:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>bioexperiences</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=a-better-sounding-way-to-play-cds</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The PS Audio PerfectWave Transport and DAC(Credit:PS Audio)I've owned, listened to, and reviewed a lot of high-end CD players, but none of them sounded as good as PS Audio's PerfectWave Transport and Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC) components. The Transport uses a CD-ROM drive mechanism that &quot;reads&quot; and rereads the data on the CD as many times as necessary until a bit-perfect match is achieved. PS Audio's Web site says the CD's data is placed in a 64MB memory buffer as the music plays, so you're not directly listening to the CD. To prove that claim remove the disc from the Transport and the music will continue playing for approximately 30 seconds! The Transport can also play high-resolution WAV files off DVDs, with sample rates up to 192-kHz with 24-bit resolution. I had a few of these DVDs on hand for this review, and the PerfectWave components really shined with high-resolution audio. The Transport and PerfectWave DAC can be hooked up in all the usual ways--coaxial, Toslink optical, balanced XLR, Ethernet--and via HDMI. The catch is that this HDMI connection only works between PerfectWave components. The DAC can be used with any digitally connected source such as a CD player, CD transport, satellite receiver, music server or computer. The Transport and DAC are beautifully constructed components, and both feature easy-to-read color touch-screen displays. The Transport and DAC are loaded with innovative design details, which are fully covered on the PS Audio Web site. For this review I used my Dynaudio C1 speakers and Pass Labs XA100.5 power amplifiers for all of my listening tests. The sound of the Transport and DAC are radically better than what I've heard at home from CDs, approaching SACD quality on some of the better sounding CDs. There was a relaxed, unforced quality to Tom Waits' &quot;Glitter and Doom, Live&quot; concert CD that in some ways reminds me of analog sound, but with improved resolution of fine detail. The transient snap of drums is extremely realistic' the transparency of the sound, so pure and clean, was far beyond what I've heard from my Oppo BDP-83SE Blu-ray player. The Oppo is no slouch, but it sounded dynamically flatter, veiled and cloudy by comparison.On acoustic music, like the Low Anthem's new &quot;Smart Flesh&quot; CD, the PerfectWave duo gave me not only the sound of the band, but I could also hear the sound of their voices and instruments bouncing around the acoustics of the Pasta Sauce Factory where the CD was recorded. I felt like I was in the Factory with the band. I've never really liked the sound of the Jefferson Airplane's &quot;Surrealistic Pillow,&quot; until I heard it with the Transport and DAC. Before, the band's sound was drenched in too much reverberation, but the Transport and DAC clarified the vocals and instruments, allowing them to stand apart from the reverberation. I now think the sound is pretty good, which is great, because I've always loved the music.The Transport and DAC sounded even better playing Reference Recordings' HRx ultra-high-resolution (176.4-kHz/24-bit) music DVDs. There the sound was even sweeter, and the vast soundstage behind the speakers was broad and deep. The Reference DVD's stereo images were three-dimensionally solid and palpable, and in that sense the recordings sounded more like a great LP, but the resolution was superior to LPs. Bass definition and articulation were spectacularly rendered. That's great, but I own around 3,000 CDs and the Transport and DAC &quot;connected the dots&quot; better than any previous CD system I've tried. If you averaged the cost of my CDs to $10 each, that would add up to a $30,000 investment (the collection dates back to 1983). Viewed in that context, the Transport and DAC's $6,000 total price isn't out of line for wealthy audiophiles with large CD collections. The DAC is future-proof in the sense it can bring out the best with high-resolution downloaded music. Also noteworthy is that PS Audio manufactures the PerfectWave components in the U.S. Each one is built from start to finish by one PS Audio technician. When you unbox and examine each piece, it's easy to see that they take pride in their work. PS Audio previously built products in China, but they found that most Chinese factories are geared to mass production, and less well-suited to building low-volume high-end gear. In the end, it made more sense to build the PerfectWave components in Boulder, Colo. Check the PS Audio Web site to find an online or brick-and-mortar dealer near you' they also have 50 overseas distributors.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Vivendi to buy Vodafone's stake in SFR]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=vivendi-to-buy-vodafones-stake-in-sfr</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=vivendi-to-buy-vodafones-stake-in-sfr</comments>
<pubDate>Sun, 03 Apr 2011 07:10:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>aldaccccad</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=vivendi-to-buy-vodafones-stake-in-sfr</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Vivendi announced today that it has agreed to acquire Vodafone's 44 percent stake in French mobile operator SFR for 7.95 billion euros ($11.3 billion).The deal would give Vivendi, which already owned 56 percent of SFR shares, complete control of SFR--France's second largest carrier, with nearly 21 million customers. &quot;We are very pleased to reach our strategic objective to own 100 percent of SFR, which will help Vivendi to focus further on profitable growth and innovation,&quot; Vivendi CEO Jean-Bernard Levy said in a statement. &quot;I am very confident that this will greatly benefit both the Group's industrial development and our millions of subscribers and consumers globally. The transaction will create a significant increase in Vivendi's adjusted net income, enabling us to raise the dividend to our shareholders.&quot; Under the terms of the cash deal, Vodafone will receive 7.75 billion euros ($11 billion) and an addition 200 million euros ($284 million) in the form of SFR's final dividend.&quot;Our board remains committed to realising maximum value from our noncontrolled assets,&quot; Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao said in a statement. &quot;The sale of our stake in SFR, at an attractive multiple, represents a significant further step in the execution of this strategy.&quot;Vodafone and SFR also announced that they would maintain a commercial partnership.Vivendi said the deal is expected to close by the end of June, but is subject to customary Competition Authority approval.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[iPhone 4 falls from plane, lives to teach us physics]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=iphone-4-falls-from-plane-lives-to-teach-us-physics</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=iphone-4-falls-from-plane-lives-to-teach-us-physics</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 24 Mar 2011 07:10:11 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>ivelislviv</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=iphone-4-falls-from-plane-lives-to-teach-us-physics</guid>
<description><![CDATA[This phone and case survived a 1,000-foot fall, according to the owner. Any Angry Birds within were certainly even more so by the time they landed.(Credit:Ron Walker, via iLounge)When U.S. Air Force Combat Controller Ron Walker dropped hisiPhone 4 more than 1,000 feet out of a plane traveling 150 miles per hour, he was pretty sure his relationship with his phone (unlike his contract with his carrier) had just been terminated.Walker is a jump master who makes sure the plane is in the right position before handing parachute jumpers over to the mercy of gravity. When he leaned out of the plane somewhere above North Carolina to take a look at landmarks below, he says, his iPhone slipped out to take on a new role as a real-life math and physics SAT question.Once back on the ground, and with the help of MobileMe, a friend, and an ATV, Walker says he was soon reunited with the phone, which he declares was completely unscathed in its Griffin Motif TPU case. He originally shared his story and photos with iLounge.The iPhone &amp;34'Drop Zone.&amp;34'(Credit:Screen capture by Ron Walker, via iLounge)Walker says he believes the phone's fall may have been broken by leaves and pine needles in the forested area where it landed (rather than the nearby lake or two-lane highway, fortunately.) The iPhone's survival credibility has also been demonstrated through more wet encounters, but I know a good reason to geek-out algebra style when I see one: if an iPhone 4 is traveling at 150 miles per hour on a 3G network and falls 1,000 feet, when does the plane get to Charleston And does it drop your callSeriously, though, this tale reminded me of the old warning I received about not throwing a penny off the top of a tall building, coupled with the total dearth of human deaths attributed to falling coinage. Me thinks there's more at work here than just a few pine needles...So I checked in with NASA, which provided me with the primer about falling objects and air resistance I likely slept through in school. There are some rather involved algebraic equations we could use to figure out what happened to that iPhone in the air--if we had all the data, like air density, which we don't.But here's the thing: When something falls, only two things matter--weight and drag. Weight stays the same, and with an iPhone, it's not much. Drag, on the other hand, increases as an object falls through the air (as does its velocity) until the drag reaches a point equal to the weight of the object. At that point, it stops accelerating.  With something light like a paper or feather, this happens almost immediately. So, with something not too heavy, like an iPhone, it may have happened just a little bit later. In other words, the phone might not have slammed into the forest floor at 3,000 mph. Hell, it may have glided right through those pine needles.That said, my grandmother still prefers you not throw your iPhones off tall buildings, even if you're still on AT&amp;T.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Rebecca Black: iTunes hit, YouTube whipping girl]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=rebecca-black-itunes-hit-youtube-whipping-girl</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=rebecca-black-itunes-hit-youtube-whipping-girl</comments>
<pubDate>Sat, 19 Mar 2011 07:10:14 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>anybgado</dc:creator>
<category>Marketing and advertising</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=rebecca-black-itunes-hit-youtube-whipping-girl</guid>
<description><![CDATA[13-year-old Rebecca Black must be wondering about the deeper machinations of the human mind this weekend. Especially the human mind as it reveals itself online.Black, in case you have recently been arrested for grand larceny, has become one of the most talked about and railed upon individuals online in mere days.All she did was get a couple of thousand dollars from her parents in order to make a music video. The words of the song--called &quot;Friday&quot;--are so banal they're almost wonderful.Here's my favorite sample: &quot;Partyin', partyin' (Yeah), Partyin', partyin' (Yeah), Fun, fun, fun, fun, Lookin' forward to the weekend.&quot; Please don't tell me you didn't sing (or even write) something equally florid when you were 13.For reasons beyond any analysis Wittgenstein could muster, Black's music video has enjoyed more than 22 million YouTube views. Black told ABC's &quot;Good Morning America&quot; that she knew it could be big when it went from 4,000 views to 70,000 in one evening.But perhaps she couldn't have imagined just what kind of irrationalities would be flung her way, once the video gained YouTube traction. She described some of them to GMA: &quot;'I hate her voice. It's going to be in my head for the rest of my life.'&quot; Or the even more charming: &quot;'I hope you cut yourself and I hope you get an eating disorder so you'll look pretty.'&quot;Some might take it for granted that the Web displays every spectrum of humanity. Emotion's every gamut is there, so why be surprised if some people express hate And yet in Black's case, the specifically Web-based phenomena of cyberbullying and instant stardom seem to come together in a truly disturbing pas de deux. It's hard to understand why so many members of the WebMob seem to loathe Black. Her song isn't the worst in the world by any means. Some seem to be appalled that she has been Auto-Tuned, as if this must be hiding her incompetence. But in her ABC interview she sings a little of the National Anthem far better than many performers you have heard at ballgames--and I am not merely referring to Roseanna Barr's elegant version. Black doesn't seem to have a vast child-brat ego either. When asked by ABC if she thought she was a great singer, she offered a very sanguine answer for a 13-year-old: &quot;I think I have talent on some level.&quot;Indeed, she seems to be taking this sudden and quite insane level of fame with decent equanimity. Assisted by &quot;American Idol&quot;'s Ryan Seacrest, she now has a Twitter feed, which again doesn't reveal anything sinister or loathe-worthy. It was left to her mother, Georgina, to admit to ABC that, when she read what had been written about her daughter: &quot;In all honesty I could have killed a few people.&quot;But YouTube isn't the only place Black has attracted attention. When it comes to iTunes, her song has reached as high as No. 19 in the Top 100. Are people buying it just to laugh at it--splendidly twisted behavior Or might this be one of those songs that people don't want to admit publicly they like, but that privately makes them feel a little better when they're jogging, working, or robbing a bankIt's hard not to reach the conclusion that, through its behavior online with respect to Black, a large swathe of humanity has, for no obvious or fathomable reason, decided to display not its hate for Black, but its loathing of itself.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Phishers use HTML attachments to evade browser blacklists]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=phishers-use-html-attachments-to-evade-browser-blacklists</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=phishers-use-html-attachments-to-evade-browser-blacklists</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 16 Mar 2011 07:12:03 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Kavita01</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=phishers-use-html-attachments-to-evade-browser-blacklists</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Shown is an example of a phishing attack that encourages the recipient to download the HTML attachment and provide information. Note the poor grammar, &amp;34'required informations,&amp;34' which should be a red flag.(Credit:M86)To get around phishing blacklists in browsers, scammers are luring people by using HTML attachments instead of URLs, a security firm is warning. Chrome andFirefox are good at detecting phishing sites and warning Web surfers via a browser notice when they are about to visit a site that looks dangerous. So good, in fact, that scammers are resorting to a new tactic to lure victims into their traps via e-mails--attaching HTML files that are stored locally when they are opened, according to an M86 blog post yesterday.  After the user fills in a form with the information the scammers want to steal and clicks &quot;submit,&quot; the HTML form sends the data through a POST request to a PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) script hosted on a legitimate Web server that has been compromised. (POST is used when a computer is sending data over the Internet to a Web server.) Because few PHP URLs are reported as abuse, this action does not trigger a warning from the browser, M86 said.  &quot;Months-old phishing campaigns remain undetected, so it seems this tactic is quite effective,&quot; the blog post says. &quot;Logically, however, the browser should be able to detect a URL when the browser sends the POST request.&quot; The phishing URLs alone without the HTML form are hard to verify because the PHP script runs in the server and no visible HTML is displayed after clicking the submit button, other than redirecting to a page belonging to the company the scammer was pretending to be, the post says. To protect against this, people should avoid opening HTML attachments if the e-mail seems suspicious and not provide any information in forms. Financial institutions do not send such attachments to customers.  While many people will click on a link in an e-mail that looks like it comes from their bank, fewer are likely to open the HTML attachment.  Mozilla representatives did not provide comment on the report today. Meanwhile, a Google spokesperson provided this comment: &quot;Google has a number of defenses against phishing sites to help protect our users. For example, Gmail checks HTML attachments for phishing sites and displays a warning to users when one is detected. We always encourage users to be cautious when handling unexpected attachments and when providing personal information requested by email.&quot;<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Zynga, Disney embrace Web game technology]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=zynga-disney-embrace-web-game-technology</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=zynga-disney-embrace-web-game-technology</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 03 Mar 2011 08:10:13 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>maxhillbert</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=zynga-disney-embrace-web-game-technology</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Disney is the new owner of Rocket Pack, with its Rocket Pack Web-based game engine.(Credit:Rocket Pack)When it comes to the competition between Flash and Web technologies, the latter camp has two big new allies in the online gaming industry: Zynga and Disney.Zynga today mostly uses Adobe Systems' Flash technology as a foundation for its widely played CityVille and FarmVille online games. But an acquisition of a German company last fall is paving the way for a new foundation using technology that uses a browser, not a browser plug-in.Zynga joined the World Wide Web consortium this week and will share the fruits of its Web-based gaming experience, said Paul Bakaus, chief technology officer of Zynga Germany, in a blog post Wednesday. Bakaus is creator of the jQuery UI library of user-interface elements for sophisticated Web pages, and Zynga acquired his company, Dextrose, last year.And Disney Interactive Media Group, part of Walt Disney, acquired Finnish start-up Rocket Pack, TechCrunch reported today. Rocket Pack has been developing another foundation for Web-based games called Rocket Engine.There's more, too. Motorola Mobility Ventures announced today it invested in Moblyng, which develops Web-technology games for mobile devices and social networks.Those developments aren't enough to unseat Flash. But they exemplify the increasing attention paid not just to using the technology for Web games but for developing the underlying standards. Competitively, Flash is a powerful incumbent, and games is one of its strong suits. Many experienced programmers use Flash already, often employing the serious coding tools Adobe sells. And Flash is a moving target: Just this week Adobe released a test version of its &quot;Molehill&quot; technology for hardware-accelerated 3D Flash graphics. Even as Adobe begins embracing Web technologies, for example by contributing to jQuery, it's also investing heavily in Flash.Web standards have their advantages, too. Some reach iOS devices where Flash is banned and Android devices where Flash apps can struggle. And a large group of companies is working on bettering those Web standards.At Dextrose, Bakaus was working on a game foundation called the Aves Engine based on Web technology, not Flash. Now Zynga wants to share its work involving those Web technologies, including the JavaScript programming language and Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), with others, he said in the post. Zynga has recently started investing heavily into the open Web stack. While most of our current games (CityVille, FarmVille) still run on Flash, our subsidiary in Germany is exclusively focussing on JavaScript driven game technology. We are building a new-generation engine to power future games that run platform independent and cross-device...As we're doing something that (likely) hasn't been done before, a lot of our time is spent on research. Every day, we encounter new issues with the web stack, and we eventually realized that it doesn't make sense to keep all of it to ourselves. By joining W3C and actively contributing back and sharing our unique perspective, we hope to kill two birds with one stone: Improving our games, and improving the web for anyone building games.Facebook, where millions of people play Zynga games, is paying close attention. It's been working on a Web gaming benchmark and last week released JSGameBench 0.3, a third incarnation of the work in progress. The test measures how fast a browser can show animated &quot;sprites,&quot; graphical elements such as alien spaceships that move around the screen.Web technologies use a wide variety of standards for browser games. One coming with HTML5 is called canvas for two-dimensional graphics. A canvas drawing area also can accommodate accelerated 3D graphics using another standard, WebGL. The Facebook benchmark engineers found dramatically faster sprite drawing performance using WebGL.SVG is another important Web technology, and Bakaus now is a member of the W3C's SVG working group.SVG is very useful for some types of graphics such as logos and icons, and it's got an important advantage over bitmapped graphics formats such as JPEG and PNG in that it can gracefully be zoomed to larger or smaller scales. For an illustration, visit an SVG demo site and use Ctrl+ and Ctrl- to zoom the browser in and out.That SVG zooming is important for the varying screen sizes and pixel densities of smartphones,tablets, PCs, and TVs. Also nice: SVG rendering can be accelerated with graphics chips and, crucially, SVG is built into IE9.But Bakaus is interested in SVG for another reason: seeing what can be applied to yet another Web technology standardized at the W3C, Cascading Style Sheets. CSS is getting more sophisticated as a way to draw drop shadows or to animate transitions such as moving photos around a screen.&quot;While we do not use SVG currently mainly due to implementation performance reasons, I'm looking forward to see what knowledge is hidden within the SVG spec than could be ported over,&quot; Bakaus said.The new Web standards are at times rough around the edges, unstable, and inconsistently supported in browsers. But they're real, now. Mozilla, on the brink of releasing its first release candidate forFirefox 4, is promoting the new standards on its Web O' Wonders site, joining other envelope-pushing demos from Apple, Google, and Microsoft.Programmers have plenty of choices, and it's unlikely any single technology will win out. The Web technologies, though, clearly are a strong force that's growing stronger.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Google search to reward high-quality sites]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=google-search-to-reward-high-quality-sites</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=google-search-to-reward-high-quality-sites</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 25 Feb 2011 08:10:13 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>xxyg12as</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=google-search-to-reward-high-quality-sites</guid>
<description><![CDATA[With the latest changes to its search algorithm, Google is aiming to reward Web sites that offer original, in-depth content at the same time that it penalizes those that simply borrow content from others.Rolled out this week, the changes will help ensure that sites considered to be of &quot;high quality&quot; will rank higher in Google's search results, while those deemed of &quot;low quality&quot; will get dumped lower in the ranks, according to a blog posted yesterday by Google fellow Amit Singhal and principal engineer Matt Cutts.Google is clearly looking to crack down on &quot;content farms,&quot; sites that purposely tailor their pages with content that often makes little to no sense but is loaded with keywords and other information designed solely to generate a huge number of hits.How does Google figure out which sites are high-quality and which ones aren't, especially since that sort of determination can be subjectiveSinghal and Cutts explained in general terms that sites with original information, such as research, in-depth reports, and thoughtful analysis would be looked upon more favorably, while those that offer low value-add, that copy content, or &quot;that are just not very useful&quot; would be in the doghouse. And the criteria used to make this determination are part of the new algorithm.A spokesman for Google told CNET today that the company can't share the specifics of how the algorithm works because &quot;we don't want to give bad actors a way to game our algorithms and worsen the experience for our users.&quot; The company said that the new rankings won't rely on feedback obtained from its Personal Blocklist, a new Chrome extension that tracks which Web sites are blocked by users and then sends those results to Google. But the company said it did compare the information from the Blocklist with the sites caught by the new algorithm and found that many of them popped up in both places. Specifically, 84 percent of the top dozen domains flagged via the extension have also been caught by the tweaked algorithm.For now, Google has deployed these changes only in the U.S. but plans to roll them out in other countries over time. The company is also promising further updates that it thinks can further improve its search results.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Spotify signs on EMI for U.S. launch]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=spotify-signs-on-emi-for-u-s--launch</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=spotify-signs-on-emi-for-u-s--launch</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 17 Feb 2011 08:10:50 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>carolin7831</dc:creator>
<category>Marketing and advertising</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=spotify-signs-on-emi-for-u-s--launch</guid>
<description><![CDATA[It's getting closer: Spotify has finalized a U.S. distribution deal with EMI Music, multiple sources tell me.Both EMI and Spotify declined to comment.Coupled with last month's Sony deal, Spotify now has the approval from two of the four major music labels for an American launch. But that still doesn't guarantee you'll see the streaming music subscription service in America anytime soon.In order to make a credible offer to U.S. users, Spotify will need to at least get Universal Music Group, the world's biggest label, on board, and it's not there yet.It would also be nice if Spotify could land Warner Music Group, which now seems more doable than in the past, given Warner CEO Edgar Bronfman's increasingly positive comments about the company.If and when Spotify does come to the U.S., it will also have to contend with new rules from Apple, which will require a 30 percent cut of any subscriptions the service sells through Apple's iTunes platform. That tariff is going to be a significant problem for many of Spotify's peers, who are working on slim margins to begin with' I don't know how Spotify plans to address this one.Story Copyright (c) 2010 AllThingsD. All rights reserved.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Mobile operators warn regulators to back off]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=mobile-operators-warn-regulators-to-back-off</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=mobile-operators-warn-regulators-to-back-off</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 15 Feb 2011 08:10:55 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>winbugpnos2u</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=mobile-operators-warn-regulators-to-back-off</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Executives from the some of the world&amp;39's largest wireless operators participated in a keynote event at Mobile World Congress 2011 in Barcelona. (Credit:Stephen Shankland/CNET) BARCELONA, Spain--The recession is over and wireless operators are finally growing again, but they are warning regulators in Europe, Latin America, and the United States to keep their paws off.CEOs from some of the largest wireless operators in the world took to the stage here today, the second morning of the Mobile World Congress, to discuss the challenges facing their industry. While each of the executives participating in the keynote panel said he is optimistic about the future as more consumers upgrade to smartphones, they lamented the challenges of keeping up with high traffic demands on their networks. Also high on their list of issues is making sure that regulators don't stifle growth in the nascent market of mobile data. With data traffic growing about a 100 percent a year, operators say they are doing all they can to keep up with demand from consumers. But they warn that regulators should not restrict new business models because it could slow investment in the networks. Cesar Alierta, CEO of Telefonica, which owns and operates mobile networks in Spain and much of Latin America, said he wants to see regulators allow operators to recover more of the costs associated with upgrading their networks to keep up with increased traffic demands. He doesn't see a need for more regulation in the mobile market. According to the GSM Association, the mobile market is expected to generate $1 trillion in revenue in the next two years.  &quot;I still don't understand why we are regulated at all,&quot; Alierta said. &quot;What we need is competition and openness. If they let us do that, we'll do the rest. This is the fastest evolving industry in the world, and the regulators are always at least a step behind in their policy.&quot;Vittorio Colao, CEO of Vodafone, echoed those sentiments. Regulators can't be on autopilot and simply apply rules for older generations of networks on the mobile networks of today and tomorrow, he said. Instead a new &quot;industrial&quot; approach is necessary to encourage investment, he said. Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao speaking at the Mobile World Congress(Credit:Stephen Shankland/CNET)Randall Stephenson, CEO of AT&amp;T, agreed. He said regulators should take a light approach in the rules they impose on wireless networks. History has demonstrated that when there is more certainty in the market regarding regulations that investment pours in, he said.&quot;Just let us know what the rules are,&quot; he said. &quot;And then get out of the way and let us compete.&quot;In the U.S., phone companies are unhappy with the Federal Communications Commission's new Net neutrality rules, which impose some restrictions on wireless networks. Verizon Wireless, the largest wireless operator in the U.S., has filed a lawsuit in federal court to challenge the new rules.Meanwhile, in Europe, Vodafone's Colao said that he feels comfortable with how European regulators have handled the issue. &quot;The way that regulators have dealt with the Net neutrality issue in Europe is healthy,&quot; he said. &quot;It recognizes the competitive environment. And I think it's something that U.S. regulators can learn from.&quot;But he said that issues dealing with inter-carrier compensation, or the way operators compensate one other for accessing networks, need to be revisited. Specifically, the government tariffs that are charged to access networks between countries are too high, which leads to higher prices for wireless consumers.Interoperability and cooperationWhile each of the executives said healthy competition will fuel growth in the market, they also acknowledged the need to cooperate with one other to ensure that consumers get access to the best user experience from new services. AT&amp;T's Stephenson said that operators need to come up with standard ways of allowing consumers to port content across different devices, operating systems, and even carrier networks. He referenced the evolution of the SMS text messaging market to make his point.AT&amp;T CEO Randall Stephenson at Mobile World Congress 2011(Credit:Stephen Shankland/CNET)In the early days, people could only use SMS to text one other if they were on the same carrier network, he explained. As a result, few people used the service. But then operators allowed inter-carrier SMS texting. &quot;And then y'all know what happened,&quot; he said. &quot;Demand exploded, and a business model was created to enable services like Twitter.&quot;Indeed, text messaging today is a significant revenue driver for every operator in the world, and it's all because consumers are not restricted in how they use the service.Stephenson said the key to interoperability is keeping the customer in mind and delivering a service and experience that they want. He used Amazon.com as another example of success. He called the company's decision to turn its e-reader technology into an app after theApple iPad launched, one of the gutsiest business moves. Instead of sticking to a model in which Amazon restricted its e-reader to its own hardware device, it began offering an e-reader app that works not only on its own Kindle device, but also on theiPhone, iPad and other devices. He called the Kindle an OS-agnostic user experience.If the industry doesn't come up with business models that allow consumers to take their content with them across devices, operating systems, and networks, Stephenson added, then the industry risks losing control of the business model.&quot;You saw what happened in music,&quot; he said, &quot;If you are slow to develop a business model, consumers will do it for you.&quot;Stephenson sees a similar trend happening in the app market.&quot;If you want to go to another device, you have to buy the same app again,&quot; he said. &quot;And if you go to a third device, you buy it a third time. That is not how customers want to experience this content.&quot;Wireless regulators also have a hand in ensuring interoperability, especially when it comes to using devices while roaming on other carrier networks around the world. Today, 18 operators globally have deployed so-called &quot;4G&quot; LTE networks. There are another 184 networks planned over the next few years. But unless regulators harmonize their spectrum plans among different regions of the world, LTE devices for service from one carrier in one part of the world will not work on LTE networks in another part of the world. If something isn't done to coordinate the spectrum plans for these services, &quot;handsets andtablets will not be interoperable across geographies,&quot; Stephenson said.&quot;Regulators need to be mindful of this,&quot; he said, warning that if efforts aren't made to bridge these divides, then the entire mobile market will not grow as much as it could. &quot;I've never seen the entire 'pie' grow, if we don't have interoperability,&quot; he said.  <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Strange turn in dancing baby vs. Prince case]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=strange-turn-in-dancing-baby-vs--prince-case</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=strange-turn-in-dancing-baby-vs--prince-case</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 14 Feb 2011 08:10:50 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>ext3na</dc:creator>
<category>Marketing and advertising</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=strange-turn-in-dancing-baby-vs--prince-case</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The woman who posted a video of her children dancing to the Prince tune &quot;Let's Go Crazy,&quot; and waged a three-year court fight with a top record company over the clip, has been accused of violating a court order and could be held in contempt of court. Pennsylvania resident Stephanie Lenz generated a lot of headlines in 2007 after she claimed in a lawsuit that Universal and music star Prince knowingly made a false copyright claim about the dancing-baby video she posted to YouTube. Now she finds herself with a court-order hanging over her head that requires her to turn over sensitive information about discussions she had with her lawyers. Lenz's copyright story began in 2007. YouTube removed her 30-second clip from the video-sharing site after receiving a take-down notice from Universal and Prince, who claimed the snippet violated their copyrights. To qualify for the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's safe harbor provision, service providers must remove pirated material when notified by copyright owners. Then, Lenz challenged Universal's claims, and the clip, titled &quot;Let's Go Crazy 1,&quot; was reposted a month later to YouTube, where it has remained ever since. The clip has been viewed more than a million times and Universal has never made another attempt to take it down. Takedown noticesThe story might have ended there but Lenz decided, apparently with input from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), an advocacy group for Internet users and tech companies, to file a lawsuit against Universal. She accused the label, home to U2, Lady Gaga, and Eminem, of knowingly filing a false claim and undermining her First Amendment rights. &quot;I don't care that YouTube doesn't want to host [my video]. Not like I'm paying them.&quot;--Stephanie Lenz, writing to an associateAt the time that Lenz filed her suit, take-down notices were a hot issue. Viacom, parent company of MTV and Comedy Central, had demanded thousands of clips containing its content be removed from YouTube in preparation for filing a $1 billion copyright suit against the service. But there were also reports that Viacom and other copyright owners had wrongly sent take-down requests for videos that featured none of their content.EFF warned YouTube users that just because someone made copyright allegations, that didn't mean they were true. EFF attorney Corynne McSherry told CNET in October 2007 that copyright owners were often careless when taking down material and wrongly removing clips interfered with free speech. Lenz, with EFF lawyers at her side, gave numerous interviews to the media about the case. Lenz appeared to make the perfect spokesperson, but there are questions about whether she understood the limitations to speaking publicly about her suit. Attorney-client privilegeLast fall, the case appeared to be winding towards a conclusion when something rare occurred. As both sides were preparing to request summary judgment--when lawyers try to persuade the court that there's enough evidence to rule in their favor--Universal instead argued that Lenz had waived her attorney-client privileges. The record label showed the court how Lenz &quot;disclosed repeatedly--in e-mails to friends and family, Gmail chats, and on her personal blog the substance of what she and her lawyers have discussed.&quot; Universal suggested in court documents that Lenz's writings reveal she suffered no injuries as a result of her video being briefly removed from YouTube. Universal argues that she was nudged into filing the suit by EFF, which believed the Lenz case &quot;would make an excellent vehicle for trying to change the legal standards and public debate.&quot; &quot;I don't care that YouTube doesn't want to host it [my video],&quot; Lenz wrote to one associate, according to court documents. &quot;Not like I'm paying them&quot; and another missive included this passage &quot;EFF is pretty well salivating over getting their teeth into UMG yet again.&quot; The attorney-client privilege is a legal concept designed to safeguard the confidentiality of communications, but clients can waive the privilege by, for example, disclosing them publicly. The reason this isn't allowed is to protect fairness. If parties in a case were allowed to protect some attorney-client information but not all, they might be tempted to disclose only information that was beneficial to them. In October, the court ruled that Lenz had waived her privilege in specific areas. Lenz was ordered to hand over documents related to discussions between her and her lawyers regarding the reasons she filed her suit and information about her legal strategies. In the months since, Lenz has turned over 80 documents. That's not enough for Universal's lawyers, who are skeptical that a 3-year-old case has generated so few documents. They asked the court to find Lenz in contempt and order her attorneys to conduct a thorough review of their files. The judge has yet to rule on the issue.&quot;I think Universal's accusations are absurd,&quot; McSherry told CNET yesterday. &quot;There weren't that many documents to produce. We talked to the client by phone because that's what everybody does. Universal has a very expansive view of the judge's order. They were given an inch and now they're trying to take a mile...We really want to move ahead to summary judgment and move on.&quot; As for whether Lenz was made aware of the rules regarding attorney-client privilege, McSherry said &quot;I'm not getting into what I told her.&quot; <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Blasts from the past: iPhone apps of the week]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=blasts-from-the-past-iphone-apps-of-the-week</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=blasts-from-the-past-iphone-apps-of-the-week</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 11 Feb 2011 08:10:30 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>lingInibunk</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=blasts-from-the-past-iphone-apps-of-the-week</guid>
<description><![CDATA[(Credit:CNET)I grew up playing video games and was part of the era of going to arcades and dropping quarter after quarter into my favorite games. Back then, if you would have told me that one day I could play the same games on a mobile phone I would probably have said, &quot;I doubt it, and who would want to lug one of those giant things around anyway&quot; In the '80s, mobile phones were huge. In other words, I would never have believed it.Now, there are hundreds of games in the iTunes App Store that bring old classics to your touch screen. Not all of them are perfect, certainly. Sometimes the controls don't translate well to the touch screen, for example. But even with mediocre controls, it's still fun to be able to play a game you loved as a kid while you're commuting to work.This week, two games were released that were favorites of mine in the arcades, and both work relatively well on the touch screen. My question to you is, What games from the old days should be made for iOS What games should not Let's talk about it in the comments. This week's apps are a classic gory fighting game and an arcade basketball remake that might already be one of my favorite games of 2011.The graphics look great on both the iPhone 4 Retina display and the iPad.(Credit:Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 for iPhone (99 cents) and iPad ($4.99) brings the legendarily gory and addictive fighting game to iOS, and it mostly hits the mark with only a couple of problems. What was formerly a smash hit (and somewhat controversial) stand-up arcade game went through a complete facelift for theiPhone version. Gone are the stop-motion character animations from the original arcade game, replaced with beautiful 3D animations that recreate all your favorite characters' fighting moves. For the most part, this game looks and plays great, as long as you can get past the limited character set and the lack of tactile controls.Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 lets you choose from nine characters, with two you can unlock by beating the game twice in the Arcade mode on different skill levels. While the characters included work great, characters with more complex animation requirements (like Cyrax and Kabal) were not included in the iOS version of the game. Hopefully EA will add these characters in later versions of the game, but perhaps they are waiting for a future, more powerful iOS device.Even without the remaining characters, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 is a great game. The control system includes a directional pad on the left and punch, kick, run, and block buttons on the right. What's interesting here is you can use the original six-button layout from the arcade version or you can use a modified control system that saves you from the difficult joystick motions required for some of the more complex fighting moves. (Instead of a complex set of commands, you simply hit the Special Attack button and a direction to use a character's signature moves.) While the purist in me initially thought this made the game too easy, I began to appreciate not having to remember the complex moves and just seeing the cool results.The Mortal Kombat franchise has always been controversial for its violent &quot;Fatality&quot; moves, and you'll get to do them all in the iOS version. Along with the modified control system giving you a break on the more complex moves, you also can pause the game at any time to see a list of moves and special attacks for your character, as well as Fatality moves, Babalities and Friendship. While some fans of the original game may think this makes the special moves too easy, fight game novices will appreciate being able to jump right into the game and use every advantage at their disposal.You get a few game modes to play, including Arcade, Survival, and Local multiplayer. The Arcade mode challenges you to fight your way to the top of a group of random opponents with four different difficulty levels adding extra challenge along with more opponents to fight through at harder difficulties. Survival lets you take on an endless stream of opponents to see how long you can last with one character. Local Multiplayer lets you play against a friend over a shared Wi-Fi connection. There is no online multiplayer at this time, but perhaps that is another feature that will come in later versions.Overall, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 is a beautiful game and plenty of fun in spite of its various issues. If you are a fan of the franchise, you will enjoy being able to bring the game with you on your iOS device and the graphics look great on both the iPhone andiPad. It's important to note that this game is probably not for kids with a high level of animated violence and some pretty gruesome finishing moves.Monta Ellis sizes up the defense before taking it to the bucket.(Credit:Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)NBA Jam is an updated and faithful recreation of probably the most popular standup arcade basketball game of all time. For those who never went through several dollars in quarters at the local arcade playing this fun classic many years ago, NBA Jam is not your standard five-on-five simulation you see on consoles. This game is all about two-vs.-two high-flying dunk basketball, where just about every play is worthy of a highlight reel.The control system for NBA Jam on offense includes a directional pad on the lower left part of the screen, and pass, shoot, and speed boost buttons on the lower right. On defense you have the D-pad, but your options are steal, jump (for blocks), and speed boost buttons.Each team of the full 30-team NBA lineup uses the currently biggest stars on each team as your default starters. But the game gives you a couple of options for other players on the team should you decide to go with a different strategy. You also decide which player you control on your chosen team, but be aware that you will control that player the entire game--there is no player switching in NBA Jam as you have on consoles.The gameplay in NBA Jam is excellent--just like the arcade classic. You get a couple of game mode options including a standard exhibition game so you can start playing immediately in a single game, and a longer classic campaign mode in which you play games against all 30 teams for the championship. NBA Jam also has a number of achievements you can earn--all of which are listed in the Challenges section.Probably best of all for those of us who played the original arcade game, NBA Jam offers unlockable classic players for each team. Some expansion teams will only let you play as the mascot, but most teams have classic players many NBA fans will remember from the original arcade game. Once it's unlocked you can play past greats Magic Johnson and James Worthy from the Los Angeles Lakers, Dominique Wilkins and Kenny Smith from the Hawks, and Tim Hardaway and Chris Mullin from the Golden State Warriors, as examples. Also, to add to the nostalgia, EA has used the same announcer from the original game who still says &quot;Boom Shakalaka!&quot; among other things when you make a particularly nasty dunk.Our only problem with this otherwise solid iOS game is that it doesn't include a multiplayer mode, because part of the fun in the classic arcade game was smack-talking as you dunked on your friends. We hope later releases will add online multiplayer games, but even just the ability to play locally would be a huge improvement because this game needs to be played head-to-head.Overall, even if you just play this single-player game with the current rosters, NBA Jam has enough excitement and challenge with four skill settings to keep you coming back for more. Anyone who played the original arcade game, or anyone with even a passing interest in basketball or sports games, will love this game.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Apple overhauling iPhone notification system]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=apple-overhauling-iphone-notification-system</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=apple-overhauling-iphone-notification-system</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 11 Feb 2011 08:10:14 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>riasirmar47</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=apple-overhauling-iphone-notification-system</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Almost two years since Apple first introduced its push notifications for iOS, is it getting ready for a major overhaul(Credit:James Martin/CNET)To cap off a week chock-full of Apple-related rumors, we now have this: is Apple about to acquire a company in the process of giving its iOS notifications system a major makeoverApple blog Cult ofMac says it's hearing exactly that from a source, who is not named. The company Apple is allegedly buying isn't confirmed in the report, but is said to be &quot;small&quot; and currently has an application available for sale in the iOS App Store.Now that would describe about a thousand companies. But there aren't that many that do slick notification apps. Cult of Mac has zeroed in on App Remix, the company that makes the app called Boxcar.Boxcar pools all of your social media feeds and delivers your notifications from each into one app. (App Remix's CEO apparently had &quot;no comment&quot; on Cult of Mac's query as to whether Apple plans on making the company an offer.)Apple's own notification system isn't regarded as the most stellar implementation. The originaliPhone actually shipped without any real push notification system for third-party apps. It took Apple three iterations of the iPhone's software before it found a system it liked. But the system employed in Palm's original Pre smartphone featuring WebOS is still roundly praised as the best in the business. Hewlett-Packard, of course, owns WebOS now and recently introduced the software on several new phones and atablet.The man who invented the WebOS notification system, Rich Dellinger, actually quit Palm just after the HP acquisition last year to return to his former employer, Apple. The rumor mill heated up then that iOS' notifications were in for a big change, but nothing more has come of that--at least not yet. Apple updates its iOS software on a yearly basis, usually in June, and there's a preview event usually around March to see what will be in the next version, in this case iOS 5. It's possible we could see a new push notification process included in the next big software update for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[eBay paying for smartphones]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ebay-paying-for-smartphones</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ebay-paying-for-smartphones</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 09 Feb 2011 08:10:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>joycelinyymc</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ebay-paying-for-smartphones</guid>
<description><![CDATA[                                Smartphone users looking to sell their current devices to pick up a new Verizon iPhone will find eBay a willing buyer.The auction site yesterday launched a special two-week promotion through its Instant Sale feature that offers cash to people willing to sell their current smartphones.Running through February 22, people can receive at least $200 from eBay by sending in any one of a number of phones, including an AT&amp;amp'T iPhone 3GS, a Motorola Droid X, a Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant, or an HTC Evo 4G. Those willing to part with an AT&amp;amp'T 32GB iPhone 4 can grab more than $500.(Credit:eBay)Prices vary based on the condition and functionality of the phone. But for a phone in excellent shape, eBay, of course, is touting its promotion as a better deal than people can get through Best Buy or Verizon Wireless, both of which are promoting their own trade-in or buyback programs to coincide with this week's debut of the Verizon iPhone.eBay's trade-in values do appear to be more competitive, depending on the models and condition. For example, Verizon's trade-in plan appears willing to pay $212 for AT&amp;amp'T's 16GB iPhone 4 and $285 for the 32GB version--as long as the phones function and the displays aren't cracked.Best Buy's online trade-in option will pay $306 for the 16GB iPhone 4 and $337 for the 32GB model, both in the form of gift cards and with both models in good condition. Cash is available at lower amounts.eBay upped the price to $405 for a working 16GB iPhone 4 in excellent condition and to $511 for the 32GB model. For models in good condition, eBay's offers are $344 for the 16GB model and $434 for the 32GB edition.Verizon is also offering $200 in the form of a gift card for certain model smartphones. But that applies only to phones bought between through Verizon between November 26 and January 10 and requires the customer to buy a new iPhone at the full retail price.To use eBay's Instant Sale for the smartphone promotion, you pick the smartphone you want to sell and indicate its condition. eBay in turn will reveal the price it's willing to pay. If you accept the offer, a free shipping label is generated for you to mail in your phone. After eBay receives and checks out the item, the money is put into your PayPal account.eBay's Instant Sale tool was launched as a pilot project in October and will offer people cash for cell phones and other electronic gadgets.                 <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[DOE readies giant wood-to-fuel loan guarantee]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=doe-readies-giant-wood-to-fuel-loan-guarantee</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=doe-readies-giant-wood-to-fuel-loan-guarantee</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 04 Feb 2011 08:10:38 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>terrencest</dc:creator>
<category>Eco</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=doe-readies-giant-wood-to-fuel-loan-guarantee</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Kior&amp;39's process uses a catalyst to treat biomass to turn it into a petroleum replacement. The proprietary catalyst is recuperated during the production process. Biofuel company Kior said yesterday it has it is close to securing a $1 billion loan guarantee from the Department of Energy to build plants to make fuels from wood. Pasadena, Texas-based Kior said that it has a term sheet with the DOE for the loan guarantee to build four biorefineries in Mississippi, Georgia, and Texas. The plan envisions making 250 million gallons of biofuels a year.Rather than ethanol, Kior's process converts wood chips and similar materials into replacements for gasoline or diesel fuel. It uses a catalyst and a technique called fluid catalytic cracking borrowed from oil refining. It reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 70 percent compared to fossil-derived fuels, Kior CEO Fred Cannon said in a statement.The company landed a $75 million loan last year from of Mississippi to build two plants in the state. The DOE loan guarantee would allow it to scale up faster and build two more plants, Mississippi governor W. Haley Barbour said. The loan guarantee, which would be the largest for a biofuels plant, means that the government will cover a borrower's debts in the case of a default.Investor Vinod Khosla said that the plants will create jobs in rural areas, particularly people who used to work at mills. Although the deal is not yet final, the news is bright spot in the biofuels industry which has been overshadowed by discussion over electric vehicles as a way to pollute less and cut oil use.A number of companies continue to work on biofuels from non-food sources. But progress on making ethanol from wood or agriculture residue has lagged behind expectations, missing the government mandate set in 2007.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Microsoft tries undoing Chrome's H.264 omission]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=microsoft-tries-undoing-chromes-h-264-omission</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=microsoft-tries-undoing-chromes-h-264-omission</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 02 Feb 2011 08:10:22 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>beminnusjdahsh</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=microsoft-tries-undoing-chromes-h-264-omission</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Weeks after Google announced it would drop support for H.264-encoded video from Chrome, Microsoft announced it's adding support back in through a browser extension forWindows 7 users.&quot;Today, as part of the interoperability bridges work we do on this team, we are making available the Windows Media Player HTML5 Extension for Chrome, which is an extension for Google Chrome to enable Windows 7 customers who use Chrome to continue to play H.264 video,&quot; said Claudio Caldato, principal program manager on Microsoft's Interoperability Strategy Team, in a blog post. The software can be downloaded from MIcrosoft's Web site.The move matches what Microsoft already did withFirefox, which unlike Chrome never supported H.264 in the first place. Mozilla, Google, and Opera prefer the WebM video-streaming technology and its VP8 video codec in particular, which at least for now doesn't require the patent royalty payments that H.264 does for browser makers and those offering for-fee video over the Net.And the move also points a way through the video codec mess that currently prevails on the Web. Microsoft, and possibly Apple, could offer H.264 plug-ins for use by browsers that don't support it, and Google could offer WebM plug-ins for the opposite situation. Indeed, Microsoft said Google is working on such a plug-in for Internet Explorer on Windows.That solution doesn't make life much easier for Web site operators trying to decide whether they need to support both technologies or just one, though, unless a large fraction of people install such a plug-in or unless the Web developer is willing to fall back to Adobe Systems' Flash Player.A requirement to license patents--from a group called MPEG LA in the case of H.264 patents--is antithetical to the World Wide Web Consortium's ethos for open Web standards. &quot;In order to promote the widest adoption of Web standards, W3C seeks to issue recommendations that can be implemented on a royalty-free (RF) basis. Subject to the conditions of this policy, W3C will not approve a recommendation if it is aware that essential claims exist which are not available on royalty-free terms,&quot; the W3C's patent policy states.H.264, also called AVC (Advanced Video Coding) and MPEG-4 Part 10, definitely has patent issues. It's not yet clear how free WebM and VP8 are, though Mozilla expressed confidence and Google offered royalty-free use of VP8 technology it acquired when it bought On2 Technologies in 2010. MPEG LA, though, has a different view.&quot;We do not believe VP8 is patent free,&quot; the organization told CNET in a statement in late January. &quot;There continues to be interest in the facilitation of a pool license to address the apparent marketplace desire for convenience in accessing essential VP8 patent rights owned by many different patent holders under a single license as an alternative to negotiating individual licenses.&quot;The nascent HTML5 standard includes built-in video support in an attempt to make video as easy to use as, say, JPEG graphics on the Web today. But Google's move spotlighted a rift in the HTML5 standards world: because of differing views on the appropriate codec, neither H.264 nor VP8 nor any other codec is specified. And with Microsoft and Apple pushing one way and the other three browser makers pushing the other way, it doesn't look like there will be any resolution any time soon.In a blog post today IE General Manager Dean Hachamovitch expounded on Microsoft's earlier position, mostly reiterating the company's concerns about the possibility of VP8 patent infringement and Microsoft's willingness to accommodate a WebM plug-in.&quot;The only true arbiter of infringement, once it's asserted, is a court of law,&quot; Hachamovitch said, suggesting one way Google could protect WebM users would be through an indemnification pledge to protect them in the event they're sued for patent infringement. &quot;If Google were truly confident that the technology does not infringe and is not encumbered by patents whatsoever, wouldn't this indemnification be easy It's one way to move away from conversations about unknown and unbounded risk to a rational conversation about costs and liability.&quot;Microsoft is one of the many patent holders whose H.264 patents are licensed by MPEG LA, and Hachamovitch had an offer for Google if it does offer indemnification:Ultimately, Microsoft remains agnostic in terms of HTML5 video as long as there is clarity on the intellectual property issues. To make it clear that we are fully willing to participate in a resolution of these issues, Microsoft is willing to commit that we will never assert any patents on VP8 if Google will make a commitment to indemnify us and all other developers and customers who use VP8 in the future. We would only ask that we be able to use those patent rights if we are sued first by somebody else. If Google would prefer a patent pool approach, then we would also agree to join a patent pool for VP8 on reasonable licensing terms so long as Google joins the pool and is able to include all other major providers of playback software and devices. The entire industry benefits from a significant investment in an ecosystem around a format well insulated from legal issues. As JPEG taught the industry, profitable companies merely wishing IP issues away does not make those issues go away.Google didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.Google is working on a plug-in to bring WebM to Windows, and Microsoft is helping with that work, Hachamovitch added.&quot;Our support for H.264 results from our views about a robust Web and video ecosystem that provides a rich level of functionality, is the product of an open standards process like the W3C's HTML5 specification, and has been free from legal attacks. Microsoft is agnostic and impartial about the actual underlying video format for HTML5 video as long as this freedom continues,&quot; Hachamovitch said. &quot;Our commitment to play WebM videos in IE9 for users who have installed WebM demonstrates our approach. We have worked closely with Google to help them deliver a WebM implementation on Windows and Google engineers are on the Microsoft campus this week' we appreciate their positive feedback to date around this work.&quot;VP8 appears to deliberately sidestep H.264 patents, Carlo Daffara said in a blog post in January:...It is clear that most design decisions in the original On2 encoder and decoder [which became VP8] were made to avoid preexisting patents...By going through the H.264 &quot;essential patent list,&quot; however, I found that in the US (that has the highest number of covered patents) there are 164 non-expired patents, of which 31 specific to H264 advanced deblocking (not used in WebM), 34 related to CABAC/CAVAC not used in WebM, 16 on the specific bytecode stream syntax (substituted with Matroska), 45 specific to AVC. The remaining ones are (to a cursory reading) not overlapping with WebM specific technologies, at least as they are implemented in the libvpx library as released by Google (there is no guarantee that patented technologies are not added to external, third party implementations).Further details are available in his earlier analysis.Updated 8:33 a.m. PTwith comment from MPEG LA and further details.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Tendril app tries to Energize consumer efficiency]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=tendril-app-tries-to-energize-consumer-efficiency</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=tendril-app-tries-to-energize-consumer-efficiency</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 01 Feb 2011 08:11:02 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Susan01</dc:creator>
<category>Eco</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=tendril-app-tries-to-energize-consumer-efficiency</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Tendril is trying to make the smart grid smarter about people.The company announced today the release of Energize, an application that seeks to improve energy efficiency with a simple user interface and techniques borrowed from the field of behavioral science.Grounded Power has tested out its home energy application via municipal utilities in Massachusetts. (Credit:Tendril)The product combines Tendril's software for managing home energy with tools that Tendril gained from its acquisition last year of Grounded Power, a small company with experience in smoking cessation efforts and other programs that rely on social psychology. There are dozens of companies that make dashboards to give consumers a real-time display of their energy use via the Web or a dedicated device. These dashboards are meant to help consumers save energy, but experts say that successful efficiency programs depend heavily on what information is presented to consumers and how.The Energize application seeks to get consumers actively involved by setting energy efficiency goals, measuring them, and then sharing them with others. The application can be accessed from Internet-connected devices such as smartphones or dedicated displays, or presented with paper reports. Opower is another company that has successfully used behavioral psychology, data analytics, and Web-based tools to improve utility efficiency programs. The announcement from Tendril, one of the most established smart-grid companies, was made at the DistribuTech utility conference. A number of consumer-oriented smart-grid programs are aimed at reducing peak-time power use and increasing customer efficiency.Late last week, Tendril announced a deal with Whirlpool in which the latter plans to make connected, or smart, appliances that can be managed by Tendril's Connect software.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Al Jazeera calls for bloggers to spread Egypt news]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=al-jazeera-calls-for-bloggers-to-spread-egypt-news</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=al-jazeera-calls-for-bloggers-to-spread-egypt-news</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 31 Jan 2011 08:10:14 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>fredericko</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=al-jazeera-calls-for-bloggers-to-spread-egypt-news</guid>
<description><![CDATA[(Credit:Al Jazeera)With its own news outlet cut off in Egypt, Al Jazeera is urging the country's citizens to use blogs, social media, eyewitness accounts, and videos to tell the world what's going as the protests against President Hosni Mubarak continue, according to the Associated Press.Yesterday, the Arab news network's Cairo office was closed down and its broadcast signal cut off to some parts of the Middle East following complaints by Egyptian authorities that Al Jazeera's 24-hour coverage of the uprising was slanted toward the protesters and as such could incite more unrest.Along with the office's closure, six of its journalists were briefly taken into custody before being released today, however, their camera equipment has been seized by the Egyptian military, according to Al Jazeera. The journalists are part of Al Jazeera's English-language channel, a sister operation to its core Arabic service.On Sunday, Al Jazeera expressed &quot;utter disappointment&quot; of the blockage of its broadcast signal and said today following the arrests of its journalists that &quot;if anything, our resolve to get the story has increased.&quot; So far, Al Jazeera said it has been able to maintain coverage of the situation in Egypt with fixed-position cameras and news reports by phone, said the AP report.Al Jazeera has been one of many news networks and outlets trying to provide live video coverage of the wave of protests against the Egyptian government. But that effort and the efforts of citizens trying to spread the word through social media have been stymied by the government's shutdown of the Internet and other critical lines of communication.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Microsoft earnings get boost from Xbox, Office]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=microsoft-earnings-get-boost-from-xbox-office</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=microsoft-earnings-get-boost-from-xbox-office</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 27 Jan 2011 08:10:30 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>bewinresamie</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=microsoft-earnings-get-boost-from-xbox-office</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Microsoft beat Wall Street's expectations today with its fiscal second quarter earnings. For the three months ended December 31, Microsoft earned $19.95 billion in revenue, or 77 cents per share, on $6.63 billion of net income. Analyst estimates from earlier in the week had pegged the software giant's revenues at 69 cents per share on $19.2 billion in revenue. In the same quarter last year, Microsoft earned 74 cents per share on revenue of $19 billion, though that included $1.7 billion in sales that had been deferred from the previous quarter because of Microsoft'sWindows 7 coupon program. Not including that deferment from last year's numbers during the same quarter, Microsoft said that its second-quarter growth rate for revenue was 15 percent, with earnings at 28 percent.The star of the quarter was Microsoft's Entertainment and Services division, which saw a 55 percent growth, bolstered by breakout sales of the Kinect at more than 8 million units and theXbox 360 console, which topped 6.3 million unit sales. Microsoft also attributed the group's success to subscriptions of Xbox Live, which went up 30 percent year over year, and strong Xbox game sales.&quot;We are enthusiastic about the consumer response to our holiday lineup of products, including the launch of Kinect. The 8 million units of Kinect sensors sold in just 60 days far exceeded our expectations,&quot; Peter Klein, chief financial officer at Microsoft, said in a statement.Also pushing high, double-digit growth was Microsoft's Business Division, which grew 24 percent year over year. Microsoft attributed some of that success to Office 2010 being the fastest-selling version of the software suite for consumers. The group also posted a 9 percent growth in its multi-year licensing revenue, as well as double-digit growth of revenue from its SharePoint, Lync, and Dynamics CRM products. Missing entirely from Microsoft's earnings release was mention ofWindows Phone 7, which launched in Europe and Australia in late October, and in North America in early November. Yesterday Microsoft announced sales of 2 million of the devices since its launch, though that was to mobile operators and retailers and not necessarily customers. During the company's conference call, Microsoft chief financial officer Peter Klein said that the company was pleased with the initial response, but that the company still has &quot;a long road ahead of us.&quot; As for PC sales--something of interest to analysts and investors alike given recent reports of a sales slowdown--Microsoft said that the total OEM revenue growth was 2 percent for the quarter. That's including an adjustment for last year's deferred revenue from Windows 7. Going into the next quarter, Microsoft said it anticipates segment revenue in Windows and Windows live to be in line with PC market growth. Even so, the company said that it's now sold more than 300 million licenses of Windows 7, making it the fastest selling operating system ever. Meanwhile, Microsoft's Online Services Division, which includes Bing, MSN, and the company's advertiser and publisher tools, posted a $543 million loss. That's slightly better than last quarter's $560 million, but not by much. For a more in-depth look, here's a chart of how each of Microsoft's individual business units performed: (Credit:Microsoft) Update at 2:45 p.m. PT: Some assorted tidbits from the company's quarterly conference call:   &amp;149' On the slowdown of PC buying: Klein said Intel's Sandybridge, and AMD's Fusion processors are making the company &quot;bullish&quot; about improving the computer refresh outlook for the year.  &amp;149' On cannibalization from tablets: Klein noted that Netbooks already hit their peak, but that it's not just tablets, it's a handful of other device types. These were classified as &quot;secondary&quot; devices, though. &quot;That's caused a little bit of drag on the consumer side,&quot; he said.  &amp;149' On Bing: Klein said the company is &quot;laser focused&quot; on growing search share and the revenue on that search share. To do that, Klein said the company could continue to do a lot of the same things it's doing now--like enhancing the product with new features.  &amp;149' On Kinect: Klein noted that Kinect promises to make the Entertainment and Devices division even more profitable based on margins. &quot;The long-term story is a good one,&quot; he said, saying that if the company continued to build on its install base, it would end up with higher attach rates for new services and games.  <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Windows Phone 7 sales top 2 million]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=windows-phone-7-sales-top-2-million</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=windows-phone-7-sales-top-2-million</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 26 Jan 2011 08:10:36 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>dathaytdyy</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=windows-phone-7-sales-top-2-million</guid>
<description><![CDATA[HTC&amp;39's Surround, one of the initial Windows Phone 7 launch devices.(Credit:HTC)Microsoft now says it's sold more than 2 millionWindows Phone 7 devices since launch. That number represents handsets sold to mobile operators and retailers and not necessarily consumers.The first initial report of Windows Phone 7 sales came from Microsoft in late December and topped 1.5 million units. Back then, Achim Berg, vice president of business and marketing for Windows Phone, said that number was &quot;in line&quot; with company expectations.In a phone call with CNET, Greg Sullivan, senior product manager for Windows Phone 7, said while sales were certainly a measure of the platform's success, customer satisfaction and developer investment were more important leading indicators. And to that end, the company has been pleased.&quot;93 percent of Windows Phone customers are satisfied or very satisfied with Windows Phone 7, and 90 percent would recommend the phone to others,&quot; Sullivan said. Those numbers were based on a recent survey of Windows Phone 7 customers numbering in the hundreds.Back atCES, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer had articulated that people &quot;fell in love&quot; with Windows Phone 7 once they saw the device, and that getting it into the hands of consumers would be &quot;job number one.&quot; To that end, Sullivan said Microsoft is planning more marketing outreach.&quot;We're absolutely doing things to turn people onto this great thing, that those who have experienced it, love,&quot; he said. &quot;You will see us continue to do some very visible things in terms of getting that word out, that--boy--once people use this phone, they fall in love with it very quickly.&quot;As for why Microsoft doesn't have a more precise number on the actual number of handsets that have been sold to users, Sullivan noted that mobile operators were not contractually obligated to provide Microsoft with the activation numbers and the sell-through data. &quot;We have a high degree of confidence in the precision of the sell-in numbers, which is why that's what we're providing,&quot; he explained. Sullivan said there are now more than 6,500 apps in Microsoft's Marketplace application and the company currently has more than 24,000 registered developers. That's compared to the 5,500 apps and 20,000 developers announced at CES earlier this month. Microsoft plans to release the first of two announced software updates to Windows Phone 7 devices in what Sullivan said would be within &quot;the next few months.&quot; This first one will bring copy and paste functionality, along with better application loading performance and some bug fixes. The second update, planned for release in &quot;the first half&quot; of this year, will bring support for CDMA networks like Sprint and Verizon, where Windows phones are currently unavailable. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[IRS launches iPhone, Android apps for taxpayers]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=irs-launches-iphone-android-apps-for-taxpayers</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=irs-launches-iphone-android-apps-for-taxpayers</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 25 Jan 2011 08:10:47 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>JenSimms</dc:creator>
<category>Marketing and advertising</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=irs-launches-iphone-android-apps-for-taxpayers</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Everyone's favorite government agency, the Internal Revenue Service, has launched its own mobile application.The IRS&amp;39's new iPhone appReleased last week to iPhone and Android users, the free IRS2Go provides a few tidbits of information that could make April 15 a bit less stressful.Those of us fortunate enough to qualify for a refund can find out exactly when Uncle Sam will be sending out that check. Entering your Social Security number (which the IRS says is masked and encrypted), filing status, and expected refund amount delivers the due date for your payment.People who file their federal taxes electronically can check their refund status about 72 hours after they get an e-mail from the IRS acknowledging the receipt of their tax return. Those still doing things the old-fashioned way--on paper--will have to wait around three or four weeks after filing before they can learn when their refund check will arrive.According to the agency, around 70 percent of the 142 million individual tax returns filed last year were done electronically.Beyond providing the refund status, the app lets you subscribe to tax tips and updates sent each day during tax season and less frequently the rest of the year. IRS2Go also points you to the agency's own Twitter feed where you can learn even more about filing your taxes.&quot;This new smart phone app reflects our commitment to modernizing the agency and engaging taxpayers where they want when they want it,&quot; IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman said in a statement. &quot;As technology evolves and younger taxpayers get their information in new ways, we will keep innovating to make it easy for all taxpayers to access helpful information.&quot;The IRS has increasingly been moving taxpayers toward e-filing and encouraging them to access more information electronically as a way to cut costs. Last year, the agency announced that it would no longer mail paper income tax packages to individuals and businesses since all of that information is freely available online or through libraries and post offices. The IRS is also looking for other ways to take advantage of technology, especially the move toward mobile.This phone app is a first step for us,&quot; Shulman said. &quot;We will look for additional ways to expand and refine our use of smartphones and other new technologies to help meet the needs of taxpayers.&quot;<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Flipit! powers USB devices when outlets are taken]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=flipit-powers-usb-devices-when-outlets-are-taken</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=flipit-powers-usb-devices-when-outlets-are-taken</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 21 Jan 2011 08:10:35 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>despicrt</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=flipit-powers-usb-devices-when-outlets-are-taken</guid>
<description><![CDATA[It&amp;39's like having a third outlet in your pocket. Or something.(Credit:FlipIt!)Yeah, I&amp;39'm totally that guy. Sorry.(Credit:Matt Hickey/CNET)As you can see in the photo at right, I'm a power hog. I just unplugged the &quot;No Commies Allowed&quot; sign at my favorite bar coffee shop so I could juice up both my laptop and myiPad. But if I had this clever new Flipit! USB charger I could have all the USB power I want without having to put up with the comrade next to me making plans to take over the world. It's a standard USB charger, like the ones that come with most cell phones nowadays, but instead of taking up a socket, it has a neat pass-through feature that lets you charge your device even when all AC outlets are in use. It powers out at 5V, which is standard for USB ports and what most cell phones use. It's not quite powerful enough to charge some devices, like iPads, but for most uses it's just right.It's available now for $15 from the Flipit! Web site, and if you--like me--travel a lot, it could be one of the most useful travel gadgets you carry. And because you wouldn't be robbing an important sign of power, you wouldn't have to risk a run-in with Ivan.(Via Gizmodo)<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Download the 10 billionth App Store app, win $10,000]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=download-the-10-billionth-app-store-app-win-10000</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=download-the-10-billionth-app-store-app-win-10000</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 14 Jan 2011 08:10:06 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Ayesha01</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=download-the-10-billionth-app-store-app-win-10000</guid>
<description><![CDATA[About 1,000 apps are downloaded every three seconds.(Credit:Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)Apple will be awarding one lucky (and timely) person a $10,000 iTunes gift card to commemorate the download of the 10 billionth App Store app.The easiest way to win the prize is to download the 10 billionth app from the marketplace before entry forms are submitted from Apple's site. In order to make it fair to those who might not want to download more apps to their devices, Apple is offering a &quot;non-purchase method&quot; for entering the sweepstakes. Those folks need to fill out an entry form to join in.People who opt for the non-purchase method will be able to win by submitting their entry form just prior to the 10 billionth app's download.There are some limits to Apple's giveaway. For one, entrants must be 13 years of age or older to participate. Apple is also limiting user involvement to 25 downloads or entry-form completions per day.Apple has established a countdown page for folks to see how many apps have been downloaded so far. As of this writing, the site shows over 9.7 billion downloads, and about 1,000 apps were reportedly being downloaded every three seconds.Apple's App Store growth has been impressive, to say the least. The company tallied its first billion downloads in 2009, just nine months after the App Store's launch. It announced back in June that 5 billion apps had been downloaded.But when it comes to giveaways, Apple is starting to fall short. When 13-year-old Connor Mulcahey downloaded the one billionth app, he was given aniPod Touch, a MacBook Pro, and a Time Capsule, in addition to a $10,000 iTunes gift card.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Samsung responds to claims of holding back Vibrant's Froyo update]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=samsung-responds-to-claims-of-holding-back-vibrants-froyo-update</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=samsung-responds-to-claims-of-holding-back-vibrants-froyo-update</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 13 Jan 2011 08:10:32 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>riaterwinqw</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=samsung-responds-to-claims-of-holding-back-vibrants-froyo-update</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Samsung Vibrant(Credit:Sarah Tew/CNET)This post was updated at 5:27 p.m., PT with comment from T-Mobile.There's a story circulating the Web today that's causing an uproar among Samsung Vibrant owners and putting Samsung in the hot seat. According to AndroidSpin, they received a tip from a reliable source that claims that Samsung is preventing T-Mobile from releasing the Android 2.2 Froyo update to Vibrant users in order to push the next-gen Vibrant 4G.The tipster, who appears to be from within the T-Mobile organization, writes:Some disturbing things have happened the last week or so concerning our &quot;Vibrant.&quot; Samsung has NOT allowed us to push the update OTA for 2.2 because they feel it will decrease the value of the upcoming Vibrant4G +. While from a marketing aspect I totally understand, as the Vibrant 4G is what the original Vibrant should have been in the 1st place. But to shun off and bold face lie to customers is NOT what T-Mobile is about.The source goes on to say that the Samsung Vibrant 4G is largely similar to the current model, except it adds a front-facing camera, and new movie and 4G capabilities. We reached out to Samsung for comment and a company spokesperson sent CNET the following response:Samsung Mobile does not comment on rumors or speculation. With regard to the Froyo update, we recently issued the following statement: &quot;Samsung feels it is important to make the Android 2.2/Froyo upgrade available only after we feel that we can give the millions of U.S. Galaxy S owners a simple and reliable upgrade experience. Due to the complexity and unique functionality of each Galaxy S device, we are performing additional testing and are working to make the Android 2.2/Froyo upgrade available to all U.S. Galaxy S owners, including the Samsung Vibrant, as soon as possible.The noncommittal answer surely isn't satisfactory to Vibrant owners, but what I'm more concerned about here is Samsung's general delay in releasing a Froyo update to all of its Galaxy S smartphones here in the States. When the Galaxy series of Android phones was unveiled in late June, Samsung said that the entire portfolio would be upgraded to Android 2.2. Though it never promised a delivery date, some of the models have been out for about seven months now with no sign of an update. Meanwhile, other handsets, including the Motorola Droid X and HTC Evo 4G, have received the Android 2.2 update.It's all a little too reminiscent of the Samsung Behold II fiasco, where Samsung stopped pushing updates after Android OS 1.6. Though the company never officially said it, we suspected the TouchWiz interface was to blame, which is why we were concerned when we saw an even more customized TouchWiz UI on the Galaxy phones, but at the time, Samsung assured us updates would not be a problem. We appreciate the thoroughness in testing, but this doesn't help Samsung's cause. I really hope for its sake that all Galaxy owners get a helping of Froyo soon. When asked for comment, T-Mobile referred us to Samsung's official statement shown above.        Bonnie Cha     Full Profile E-mail Bonnie Cha   E-mail Bonnie Cha If you have a question or comment for Bonnie Cha, you can submit it here. However, because our editors and writers receive hundreds of requests, we cannot tell you when you may receive a response.   Submit your question or comment here: 0 of 1500 characters       Bonnie Cha is a senior editor for CNET, covering smartphones. When she's not testing the latest gadgets, you can find her chasing after her crazy lab or surfing in the chilly waters of Northern California.  <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[preGame 36: LittleBigPlanet 2]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=pregame-36-littlebigplanet-2</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=pregame-36-littlebigplanet-2</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 11 Jan 2011 08:10:32 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>bepnozi254</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=pregame-36-littlebigplanet-2</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Microsoft looks into 'phantom' Windows Phone 7 data use]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=microsoft-looks-into-phantom-windows-phone-7-data-use</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=microsoft-looks-into-phantom-windows-phone-7-data-use</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 10 Jan 2011 08:10:14 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>gribuStierrrtg</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=microsoft-looks-into-phantom-windows-phone-7-data-use</guid>
<description><![CDATA[(Credit:Microsoft)Microsoft said it's investigating aWindows Phone 7 software behavior that has the phone slurping up cellular data, even when the phone is connected to Wi-Fi.The cause of this data use is not yet known, but the BBC points to a handful of reports that say it's a built-in feedback tool that's essentially phoning home.If true, this type of behavior would not be out of place compared to other smartphone operating systems. In fact, Apple'siPhone came under similar scrutiny last year, with some users reporting large chunks of data getting sent in the wee hours of the night.A Microsoft spokesperson said simply that the company was &quot;investigating this issue to determine the root cause and will update with information and guidance as it becomes available.&quot;Several years ago background data use would not have been as much of an issue, however within the last year, carriers like AT&amp;T and Verizon have moved away from so-called &quot;unlimited' data plans, to packages of data that can be purchased in allotments. (Note: Verizon still offers an unlimited data plan, but added a limited 150MB plan in October.) For consumers these represent a more economical way to buy into a smartphone purchase over the course of a long-term contract, but can carry steep penalties for overages.With some entry-tier data plans hovering in the 150MB to 200MB range (depending on which carrier you're on), that amount can be reached quickly when normal use is mixed with this extra data polling, which is said to range from 30MB to 50MB of data per day. Microsoft's first big update to its Windows Phone 7 platform is set to roll out to users in the next month or so. It's not yet clear whether that update will address this issue, or whether new software will be necessary to make any changes.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[CES: Vizio's VIA Android smartphone also a remote control]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ces-vizios-via-android-smartphone-also-a-remote-control</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ces-vizios-via-android-smartphone-also-a-remote-control</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 04 Jan 2011 08:10:19 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Cristoph-i</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ces-vizios-via-android-smartphone-also-a-remote-control</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Laptop ban at German transport ministry]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=laptop-ban-at-german-transport-ministry</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=laptop-ban-at-german-transport-ministry</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 30 Dec 2010 08:10:20 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>kohlline142</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=laptop-ban-at-german-transport-ministry</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Germany is a remarkably underrated country. Not only has it largely avoided the financial arthritis brought on by the most greedy banks, it also offers a unique sense of playful optimism in a world gone sour.You might, therefore, wonder why Germany's transport minister, Peter Ramsauer, rammed through a rather difficult diktat against laptops.Oh, he didn't ban his no doubt assiduous employees from staring into screens and rectifying traffic problems. No, he banned the use of the word &quot;laptop&quot; as it is not German but Denglish--that difficult mixture of Deutsch and English.The Independent reports that the replacement of &quot;laptop&quot; with the far more elegant &quot;Klapprechner&quot; has been an uproarious triumph. It seems that other techneologisms have failed to escape the cross herrs (my pun) of the ministry. The wondrous (not really) German word &quot;downloaden&quot; is now verboten. How can this work of art possibly be a Klapprechner(Credit:Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)However, I must admit to a woe-filled tear duct at the thought that a common Denglish word for cell phone has also suffered the same cloaking as have so many German buildings on Google Street View.For many Germans refer to their cell phone as their &quot;handy&quot;.Yes, no more &quot;I have lost my handy.&quot; At least at the transport ministry. Out with &quot;Can I take a picture I'll use my handy.&quot; And begone &quot;I haven't had a handy since myiPhone caught fire at the circus.&quot;Somehow, this seems a great pity. It also seems symbolic of the year 2010. The more we have believed that technology enhances freedom (including freedom of speech), the more the truths of that supposed freedom have been tested, questioned and, in some cases, assaulted by greasy-haired lawyers. Technology has taken us to places where some (even those in government) feel more uncomfortable than in a tuk tuk from Moscow to Turkmenistan. As those whose incomes (and politics) depend on making technology's exigencies the only ones that matter, real human beings will, just occasionally, worry and resist. In 2011, that tension will only become more pointed.But one cannot leave 2010 on a miserable note. So might I wish everyone who has read, commented, written e-mails (using long words or short), liked, disliked or retweeted, an extremely enlightened New Year. Perhaps I will bump into some of you at CES. Should I have a glazed look in my eye, it will probably be the shock of the new. Or the effects of a random tempranillo. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Apple's iPad 2 rumored to have USB port]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=apples-ipad-2-rumored-to-have-usb-port</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=apples-ipad-2-rumored-to-have-usb-port</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 29 Dec 2010 08:10:07 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>sufreter365</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=apples-ipad-2-rumored-to-have-usb-port</guid>
<description><![CDATA[(Credit:Apple)With the bulk of the holiday shopping buzz dying down, rumors of Apple's newiPad 2 have sprung to life. The most recent rumor, courtesy of the Mobile Review blog editor-in-chief Eldar Murtazin, says the iPad 2 will include a USB port.The tweet, discovered by AppleInsider, reads: &quot;Talked with colleague which working with some ODM vendors connected with Apple. He is research guy. According to his sources iPad2 will have usb port.&quot;AppleInsider reports that Murtazin is a trusted insider with good sources and the news of the integrated USB could be the result of a European device-maker pact that decided micro-USB ports should be standard device charging ports. Apple, of course, uses the 30-pin dock connector for its mobile devices, including the iPad.Including an integrated USB port would also quickly make obsolete the USB adapter kit provided by Apple for the iPad. Currently, the USB adapter only supports importing photos from digital cameras, though some other peripheral devices have been said to work. There is no word whether an integrated USB port would offer greater functionality. In the meantime, expect rumors to keep flowing from various sources as the new iPad gets closer to be announced and released.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Google eyes 'cloaking' as next antispam target]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=google-eyes-cloaking-as-next-antispam-target</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=google-eyes-cloaking-as-next-antispam-target</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 29 Dec 2010 08:10:05 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>bobmarley</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=google-eyes-cloaking-as-next-antispam-target</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Those obsessed with where Google ranks their Web site have a new topic to mull over: cloaking. Google's Matt Cutts, in charge of much of the search giant's antispam efforts, tweeted over the past week that Google plans to take a closer look at the practice of &quot;cloaking,&quot; or presenting one look to a Googlebot crawling one's site while presenting another look to users. This can include &quot;serving a page of HTML text to search engines, while showing a page of images or Flash to users,&quot; according to Google's Webmaster Central help pages, but Cutts implied that Google was looking beyond page content in its renewed emphasis on cloaking by suggesting that Webmasters &quot;avoid different headers/redirects to Googlebot instead of users.&quot; As with just about any change that Google announces to its secret and powerful Web ranking recipe, Webmasters immediately started to freak out (to a certain extent) over what exactly Cutts meant in his tweet. Search Engine Land summed up some of the reaction, which initially appears to center on whether or not legitimate sites that are serving up rich media files will get caught up in a Google purge, or sites that present mobile-optimized content to those withmobile browsers will get punished. Still, it's rare for Cutts and Google to announce this type of algorithmic shift so publicly, which implies they're giving Webmasters a warning shot in order to reexamine their sites before the ranking changes go into effect, and that rankings may be a little fluid as it rolls out.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[It's time to embrace software's auto-update era]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=its-time-to-embrace-softwares-auto-update-era</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=its-time-to-embrace-softwares-auto-update-era</comments>
<pubDate>Mon, 20 Dec 2010 08:10:09 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>stonkse</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=its-time-to-embrace-softwares-auto-update-era</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Driven by Google and like-minded software makers, a new era is dawning in which your software is constantly refreshed--often without any intervention on your part at all.Depending on how you see things, that could be either a scary loss of control over your own computer or a boon to convenience and security. Either way, the practice is increasingly common.I, for one, welcome it.How many times a week do you see a software update dialog box like this(Credit:Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)In the last week or so, I've manually updated Google's Chrome, Chrome Canary, and Picasa' Adobe Systems' Flash Player, Photoshop, Premiere, and AIR'Microsoft Windows 7 and Office 2008 for theMac' Apple Aperture' Mozilla'sFirefox and Thunderbird' Opera' and Evernote. Should this really be my job Automatic updates can cause compatibility problems and yield control to corporations whose agendas may differ from your own, but used judiciously, I think it's an improvement.In days of yore, software came on disks manufactured and shipped at some expense to customers. But the Internet Age has enabled not just digital distribution, but frequent distribution, and programmers are following suit with a more continual stream of smaller updates.In short, a lot of software is becoming a constant work in progress rather than a finished product. With that change, along with the spread of computing technology to so many corners of our lives, the burden of maintaining it shifts to the software maker.&quot;[With] commodities like browsers or operating systems, non-technical consumers may well be best served by automatic updates,&quot; said Sebastian Holst, chief marketing officer of PreEmptive Solutions, a company that helps customers monitor and manage their software. &quot;Many of the updates address emerging security threats rather than simply adding 'nice-to-have' feature extensions. Wouldn't it be great if we could automatically update the batteries in smoke detectors If we have to work to motivate homeowners to take that simple step to protect themselves, how realistic is it to expect consumers to conscientiously update their software&quot; Browsers lead the chargeBrowsers are a prime example of the auto-update ethos. When Google released Chrome more than two years ago, the company quietly began a program in which the browser silently updates itself automatically. The software periodically checks a server to see if an update is available, downloads it when it finds one, and installs it for use when the browser or computer is restarted.  At the time, Google said, &quot;For major version updates, when feature changes are involved, we'll explore options for providing users with more details about the changes,&quot; but so far it's maintained its silence, so to speak. Here's Google's rationale for silent, automatic updates today:The primary reason is to ensure that as many users as possible are on the most current version of the software--and therefore as secure as possible--with minimal user effort...We've found that [waiting for user permission] only is desired in certain administration cases and in enterprise scenarios. For those cases we provide auto-update control via standard administration mechanisms.Opera has followed suit. &quot;We actually do it as a silent update now. You can change that to have more control, though. But the default is silent,&quot; spokesman Thomas Ford said.And with the new version of Firefox due in 2011, Mozilla plans to make automatic updates easier. &quot;With Firefox 4 we'll be adding the capability to apply updates in the background to reduce the delay on start-up, and (thankfully) changing things so that not every update will result in a new tab being opened,&quot; said Mike Beltzner, vice president of engineering for Firefox. &quot;However we'll always provide a clear message about how the user's software has been updated, as well as a way to see what was changed.&quot;Firefox programmers want the browser to improve faster, though, and to accommodate that is considering a more aggressive auto-update embrace.&quot;I think we also need to consider whether doing releases as frequently as once a quarter requires we default to mandatory (silent) updates across major versions,&quot; said Mozilla programmer Robert O'Callahan in a mailing list message this week.&quot;Yes, we need to consider it,&quot; Beltzner replied. However, he added, &quot;I wouldn't equate mandatory with silent--there are ways of doing automatic updates that are not silent, and I find that silent ends up putting people on tilt a bit.&quot;In the browser world, I'm inclined toward automatic updates. It raises compatibility issues with plug-ins, but given how central a role browsers play in today's Net attacks, I want holes plugged as soon as possible.And in the long run, an auto-update ethos could help avoid today's bane of the Web, Internet Explorer 6, released in 2001 and now holding back efforts to build a more secure and powerful Web. Cultural adjustmentWindows Update embodies the shift in software distribution and was a significant moment in my growing appreciation for automatic updates.Microsoft has shifted to an incremental monthly &quot;Patch Tuesday&quot; update cycle that has partly replaced the earlier service pack approach of infrequent, massive overhauls. The motivation is simple: security. No longer do software makers get much of a grace period between discovery of a vulnerability and attackers exploiting it. Indeed, Microsoft sometimes releases &quot;out-of-band&quot; patches for urgent problems.Major feature updates--such as the shift from Windows XP to Windows Vista to Windows 7--are still unusual. But plenty of real improvements such as better video drivers arrive regularly, too. You&amp;39're doing it wrong: This Microsoft Office for Mac 2008 update dialog box, hidden behind other windows, perversely says I have to quit the Microsoft AutoUpdate program before updating Office.(Credit:Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET) A few years ago I had an &quot;Aha!&quot; moment with Windows Update, which I'd set to automatically download updates but wait for my permission to install. I realized that I installed every security patch Microsoft sent. There have been some problems sometimes with those patches, but despite being fairly technical I'm not the kind of person who'll be able to detect them in some sort of testing.I concluded that I'd probably be better off overall with Windows installing those updates and my checking later to see what was patched. I made the change, and I'm happy with it so far.Sure, maybe some creepy government programmer is slipping a back door into my computer, but my guess is the updates are more likely to protect than compromise me and my data.I've also become a part-time sysadmin for a mother-in-law who lives several time zones away (thank you, LogMeIn). She's not technically inclined at all, so it was a no-brainer for me to enable automatic Windows updates on her machine.Her situation made me think more carefully about silent updates. I want to be notified of updates with easy-to-find release notes detailing what changed on my computers (hint hint, Adobe AIR team). But many people lack the expertise to understand that information. In my mother-in-law's case, pop-ups and dialog boxes and tabs alerting her to changes are confusing and worrying rather than helpful.&quot;It shouldn't be, but alas, it is the user's responsibility [to update software]. We're willing to tolerate this horrible user experience simply because PCs are so useful,&quot; said Paul Kocher, president of Cryptography Research. &quot;As microprocessors become more pervasive such as in smart appliances at home, the update experience becomes even less tolerable, so finding a solution to this problem is a top priority for the PC industry. Intel understands this, as evidenced by their purchase of McAfee, so I'm cautiously optimistic that we'll see some improvements eventually.&quot; CaveatsAuto update must be effective if it's to work. In three major updates to Office 2008 for the Mac in the last year, I've had to endure dialog boxes hidden inaccessibly behind other windows, mammoth downloads, and intrusive requirements to shut down all sorts of third-party software. The most perverse moment, each of the three times: the alert that I had to quit the Microsoft AutoUpdate program before I could proceed with the update.It turns out I only had to quit an invisible dialog box asking me how often I wanted to check for updates. My gut reaction, given how awful the experience is: never! But a poorly implemented automatic update shouldn't hold back the automatic update idea overall.We should each get to choose silent or verbose updates, but I've concluded that there's a role for silent updates, too.Your opinion may differ, of course, and especially in a corporate environment caution is appropriate to avoid breaking existing computer systems. And think twice before you let any old software maker issue automatic updates.&quot;Users should decide their level of trust on a supplier-by-supplier basis, not app-by-app, and grant auto-update privileges only to those with a well-earned (established) reputation for software quality and customer support,&quot; Holst said.Enabling auto update isn't such an easy choice for those with responsibility for managing dozens, hundreds, or thousands of computers, though.&quot;Corporate IT admins make every possible attempt to block auto-updating software because it often breaks other software the users need,&quot; said Jennifer Bayuk of the Stevens Institute of Technology. &quot;Corporate admins do a lot of what is called 'sociability testing' to ensure thatdiverse software can operate in harmony on a single machine, and auto-updating software defeats the integrity of their desktop deployment strategy.&quot; Web, Chrome OS, and phonesPerhaps the most ambitious embodiment of the auto-update era is Google's Chrome OS. It's a browser-based affair, running Web applications rather than anything on the Linux operating system hidden under the covers. Like Chrome, it's got two common plug-ins built in--a PDF reader and Adobe's Flash Player--so Chrome OS can take over responsibility for updating them, too.With Chrome OS, Google will send updates automatically. It shouldn't be the user's responsibility to keep the software up to date, Google argues.With Chrome OS and Web applications, the lines blur between Web applications and native applications. The auto-update era is already well-established at Web sites. Sometimes companies such as Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter, and Google give users a chance to opt in to new versions of their sites, but many more changes happen behind the scenes without the user's say-so, and the old versions eventually are phased out.Web applications on Chrome OS can take a variety of forms ranging from glorified bookmarks to apps that work without a Net connection to browser extensions that give the browser new abilities. All these mechanisms, though, can be updated automatically.Google also is headed this direction with Android. Newer versions of its mobile operating system let people grant applications permission to automatically update themselves. It didn't take me long to enable it for most applications.Chrome OS, smartphones, Net-connected TVs, satellite navigation systems, and automobile firmware illustrate how software is moving beyond the relatively narrow domain of personal computers. Multiply today's update woes by these new electronics, then factor in the limited user interfaces many of these new devices, and the idea that users bear responsibility for keeping software up to date becomes increasingly untenable.I see plenty of possible concerns with the auto-update era--incompatibilities, mistrust of corporations, new malware conduits, and intrusive user monitoring. But in my mind, the overall benefits outweigh the risks. I look forward to a world in which software is fluidly and constantly improved. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[iPhone, Android battle for top spot on ad network]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=iphone-android-battle-for-top-spot-on-ad-network</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=iphone-android-battle-for-top-spot-on-ad-network</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 14 Dec 2010 08:10:31 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>vanessarice</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=iphone-android-battle-for-top-spot-on-ad-network</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Apple and Android continue to duke it out for the top spot on Millennial Media's ad network.Each of the two competing platforms captured 38 percent of all smartphone ad impressions (how often an ad appears) in the U.S. for November, according to Millennial Media's &quot;November Mobile Mix Report.&quot; That number reflects a 1 percentage point gain in ad impressions for both Apple and Android from October's results following Android's 6 percentage point gain and Apple's 9 percentage point drop from September.BlackBerry maker Research In Motion took third place on Millennial Media's network with 19 percent of all ad impressions, leaving Microsoft's Windows Mobile OS and Nokia's Symbian each with a 2 percent share.(Credit:Millennial Media)Looking strictly at mobile-device manufacturers, Apple kept its top spot on the ad network with theiPhone,iPod Touch, andiPad collectively capturing 25 percent of all ad impressions. Grabbing 17 percent of all impressions in November, Samsung held onto second place with its mixture of feature phones and Android smartphones. Motorola took home a 15 percent share, helped by its Droid 2 and Droid X phones. And with five BlackBerry devices on Millennial Media's top 30 mobile device list, RIM won 11 percent of all ad impressions last month. Overall, smartphones accounted for 19 of the top 30 mobile devices in November.  Android mobile apps grabbed 54 percent of all ad impressions seen among apps on the Millennial Media network, averaging 10 percent monthly growth over the past four months. Apps created for Apple's iOS accounted for 38 percent. Gaming apps proved the most popular category in general, winning 28 percent of all ad impressions, with Music and Entertainment in second place with a 22 percent share. Millennial Media currently covers and tracks ads on 85 percent of all mobile devices in the United States. <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Chrome Cr-48, black MacBook: Separated at birth]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=chrome-cr-48-black-macbook-separated-at-birth</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=chrome-cr-48-black-macbook-separated-at-birth</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 10 Dec 2010 08:14:25 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Leeta</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=chrome-cr-48-black-macbook-separated-at-birth</guid>
<description><![CDATA[(Credit:Josh Miller/CNET)The all-black Cr-48 that Google is shipping to the first members of its Chrome OS notebook pilot project looked awfully familiar to us when it showed up at our office.Software aside, after putting it side by side with a black MacBook that Apple shipped in 2007 we had in house, it dawned on us why: the two are practically twins. Not identical, but at least fraternal. The overall look is shockingly similar to Apple's now-extinct machine: from the color to the chiclet keyboard to the hinge, size, trackpad, even to the indentation in the place where you lift the lid. Well, see for yourself. We took some photos of the two machines next to each other for you to peruse. Google's Cr-48 and a MacBook side by side (photos) Now, if you go deeper than a first glance and break out a ruler, you'll see that there are some differences between the two externally. While the hinges look practically the same size, they aren't: 6.5 inches on the MacBook to 6 inches on the Cr-48. And the screen sizes vary slightly: The Chromebook's measures 4.5 inches by 7.5 inches, and the MacBook's 5.25 inches by 8.5 inches. The trackpads, however, are equal in size--though not in function: in 2007, Apple had not yet introduced its clickable touchpad-as-button, which the Chrome notebook utilizes.Of course there are some pretty big functional differences too: Google has nixed the disk drive, Ethernet port, and all but one USB port, but does include an SD card slot. The 3-year oldMac notebook also has those pesky caps lock and function keys that Google has eliminated.But what's inside these two machines is obviously where the key difference lays: Apple has the fully-featured Mac OS X desktop operating system powering its notebook, while Google's test hardware is wrapped around its brand new Web browser-based operating system, Chrome OS.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Gmail's Priority Inbox improved for Android]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=gmails-priority-inbox-improved-for-android</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=gmails-priority-inbox-improved-for-android</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 09 Dec 2010 08:10:12 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>valentaava</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=gmails-priority-inbox-improved-for-android</guid>
<description><![CDATA[(Credit:Google)Google's Priority Inbox for Gmail has evidently been successful enough on the desktop that it's now moved to the Android smartphone. The new Gmail for Android 2.3.2 (compatible with Android 2.2 (Froyo) and 2.3 (Gingerbread) better supports the &quot;Priority Inbox&quot; e-mail filtering tool by showing off tagged e-mails in a view dedicated to the feature.If you don't currently use it, you can activate and try Priority Inbox in the Gmail.com Settings from your desktop ormobile browser.This version of the Gmail app provides some management options, including marking messages important or unimportant--a menu option lets you toggle between the two. In addition, you can rejigger Gmail's settings to notify you when an &quot;important&quot; message comes in. Google acknowledges that this is a start, but not comparable to the desktop experience. Accordingly, we expect to see more enhancements in the not-too-distant future.In addition to enhanced e-mail support, the updated Gmail app also sees a change to replies. Instead of relying on a series of back buttons to differentiate between replying to one sender or all of them, you can now make use of a drop-down menu at the top of the e-mail to settle replies and forwards. Even better, you can now add in-line comments in a response.In addition, Google is offering a small but useful feature that lets recent Gmail converts from other Web mail clients compose messages using the Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL, or other addresses.[via Google]<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[iPad wins Apple big chunk of mobile PC market]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ipad-wins-apple-big-chunk-of-mobile-pc-market</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ipad-wins-apple-big-chunk-of-mobile-pc-market</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 07 Dec 2010 08:10:15 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>cupuniahoy</dc:creator>
<category>Mobile &amp; Electronics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=ipad-wins-apple-big-chunk-of-mobile-pc-market</guid>
<description><![CDATA[If theiPad is considered a mobile PC, then Apple is now the top mobile PC vendor in the U.S. and the third largest in the world thanks to its popular tablet, according to data released yesterday by DisplaySearch.Over the third quarter, Apple was able to grab a 12.4 share of mobile PC shipments around the world, with the iPad accounting for two-thirds (8 percent) of those devices, according to the new &quot;DisplaySearch Quarterly Mobile PC Shipment and Forecast Report.&quot;(Credit:DisplaySearch)Of course, some may disagree with DisplaySearch calling the iPad a mobile PC and lumping it in with notebooks and Netbooks. Leaving out the iPad, Apple recently became the third largest overall PC vendor in the U.S. behind Hewlett-Packard and Dell, according to IDC. But DisplaySearch's numbers still point to the clear impact of the tablet on Apple's market share.Though other tech players have been busy launching and prepping their own tablet PCs, the iPad continues to dominate the landscape. Apple sold more than 3 million iPads in the first three months. Bernstein Research retail analyst Colin McGranahan projected in early October that Apple would capture around $12 billion in global iPad sales for the year, and almost $20 billion next year.Of all iPad shipments in the third quarter, 95 percent were directed to developed markets, mainly North America, according to DisplaySearch. McGranahan told CNET in October he believes 45 percent of the tablet's sales are in the United States.But the iPad's booming business in North America also points to a weakness in certain other countries, notably Japan, says DisplaySearch. The lack of language-specific content and apps has slowed the adoption of the tablet in normally tech-savvy Japan. The iPad may also face a tough road in less developed regions.&quot;On a global scale, the adoption of iPad is not without its challenges,&quot; Hidetoshi Himuro, director of IT market research at DisplaySearch, said in a statement. &quot;Localized content in non-English speaking regions is sparse, and iPad owners must have a PC for downloading content from iTunes. As a result, penetration in developing regions will be slow.&quot;That could open opportunities for other tablet vendors to reach local consumers in different countries.&quot;As other players come to market with tablet PCs it will be interesting to see if they can move beyond the Western-centric nature of Apple's product and develop an infrastructure to support local needs, especially with the growth of consumer spending in China on personal computing devices,&quot; Chris Connery, vice president of large-format displays at DisplaySearch, said in a statement.Looking beyond the iPad at other mobile PC vendors, HP was still the global leader in the third quarter with a 17.3 percent share and 9.5 million mobile PCs shipped. But Acer trailed closely with a 16.5 share and 9.1 million units shipped.Overall, global shipments of mobile PCs (including tablets) hit 55 million in the third quarter, a gain of 19 percent from the prior year's quarter and the highest volume since DisplaySearch started tracking the market in 1999.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Verbatim MediaShare NAS goes Mini]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=verbatim-mediashare-nas-goes-mini</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=verbatim-mediashare-nas-goes-mini</comments>
<pubDate>Thu, 11 Nov 2010 08:10:17 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Freefesed</dc:creator>
<category>Technology</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=verbatim-mediashare-nas-goes-mini</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The new MediaShare Mini NAS server from Verbatim.(Credit:Verbatim)If you like the MediaShare NAS server but are discouraged by its rather large size and heavy weight, there's now an alternative. Verbatim announced today the mini version of the home NAS server, aptly called MediaShare Mini Sharing Station, that's just about one-third the size of the MediaShare. Unlike the MediaShare that comes with built-in storage, the MediaShare Mini manages to stay &quot;mini&quot; by offering only four USB ports, into which you can plug USB external hard drives and turn them into the storage space of the home network storage system. This makes it very similar to the iConnect Wireless Station from Iomega.Other than that, according to Verbatim, the MediaShare Mini offers the same features as the full-size MediaShare NAS server:Remote access: users can access MediaShare Mini over the Internet to upload, download, and manage files, as well as view photos, play music, and watch videos. Photo album sharing: the ability to turn a photo album into a URL to share it with friends over the Internet.Handheld device support: the MediaShare supports theiPhone,iPod Touch,iPad, BlackBerry, Android, Palm Pre, and other smartphones.Social Web site integration: share content via Facebook.Media Streaming: the MediaShare Mini supports all DLNA-compliant media players, such as the Sony PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Xbox 360. It also supports iTunes software. The MediaShare Mini comes with a three-year warranty and is available now. It's slated to cost $90.  <br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Vote for your favorite cigarette health warning]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=vote-for-your-favorite-cigarette-health-warning</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=vote-for-your-favorite-cigarette-health-warning</comments>
<pubDate>Wed, 10 Nov 2010 08:10:40 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>dveri-Vopmeseapsugs</dc:creator>
<category>Politics</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=vote-for-your-favorite-cigarette-health-warning</guid>
<description><![CDATA[The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services today unveiled 36 graphic cigarette warning images, 9 of which will make their way to cigarette packages and advertisements in 2012, and they've given the public two months to weigh in, starting Friday.This is one of 36 proposed graphic health warnings.(Credit:FDA)Tobacco use is the leading cause of premature and preventable death in the United States, according to the HHS, and it is responsible for 443,000 deaths each year, with 1,200 current and former smokers dying prematurely every day due to tobacco-related diseases.Dozens of countries around the world, including the U.S., already mandate the presence of some form of health warning on cigarette packages. A smaller number, including Brazil and Australia, require that graphic images take up a certain percentage of those ads and packages' Canada led that pack, so to speak, with images that cover at least half of the entire package since 1994.The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, introduced in March 2009 and signed into law by President Barack Obama in June 2009, requires the Food and Drug Administration to issue final regulations requiring these color graphics by June 22, 2011, after a review of &quot;the relevant scientific literature, public comments, and results from an 18,000-person study.&quot; The final rule prohibiting companies from manufacturing cigarettes without new graphic health warnings on their packages for sale or distribution in the U.S. will go into effect in September of 2012.The nine graphic health warnings must appear on the top of the front and rear panels of each cigarette package and take up at least the top 50 percent of these panels.&quot;Some very explicit, almost gruesome pictures may be necessary,&quot; FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg told The Associated Press.Judge for yourself on the FDA's Web site. Images range from a rather gruesome close-up of rotting teeth to a far less messy cartoon of a mother blowing smoke in her baby's face, to a black-and-white rendering of a cigarette package followed by an arrow pointing to a headstone with the letters RIP.Of course, denial is a strong force. In 2003, The Telegraph reported that sales of cigarette cases in the United Kingdom grew by 300 percent in one year, as people tried to hide stern health warnings on cigarette packages. Another choice alternative was to cover the warnings with stickers such as, &quot;You could be hit by a bus tomorrow&quot; and &quot;Smoking is cool.&quot;If you find the FDA's proposed images too graphic, check out what Brazil's Health Ministry chose:In 2001 Brazil became the second country in the world to require that warnings and graphic images illustrating the risks of smoking cover some portion of cigarette packages.(Credit:Instituto Nacional do Cancer)<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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<title><![CDATA[Cowboys fire coach, forget to renew Web domain]]></title>
<link>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=cowboys-fire-coach-forget-to-renew-web-domain</link>
<comments>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=cowboys-fire-coach-forget-to-renew-web-domain</comments>
<pubDate>Tue, 09 Nov 2010 08:10:39 +0000</pubDate>
<dc:creator>Kiran01</dc:creator>
<category>Marketing and advertising</category>
<guid>http://www.haaze.com/story.php?title=cowboys-fire-coach-forget-to-renew-web-domain</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Like the New York Yankees and pungent curries, it is not easy to love the Dallas Cowboys.Somehow, they seem hell bent on proving that everything really is bigger in Texas. Including, some believe, mouths. They have built a new stadium at which parking is $75 and pizzas a mere $60 (oh, of course they're 20 inches). They constantly seem to act as if they are rather more important than other NFL teams, more important than any other sports team anywhere. Which might make some people curious that the Cowboys have often been referred to as &quot;America's team.&quot; While you might ponder what that says about America, may I tell you that the Cowboys are a dreadful team this year. Sunday, they lost again, making it just one win in their first eight games.You must decide whether it was all this excitement--or some strange and sudden inherent mediocrity--that caused the Cowboys some technological embarrassment. For those who wondered whether head coach Wade Phillips would be--or even had been--fired Sunday, were unable to find out at DallasCowboys.com. Yes, the world&amp;39's biggest LED screen is at the new Cowboys Stadium. Not the second biggest.(Credit:CC David Jones/Flickr)According to the Dallas Morning News, the team had forgotten to renew the domain. Which meant that DallasCowboys.com was adorned with a picture of two little boys playing soccer and a suggestion that it was for sale.Naturally, these things can happen at the finest of organizations. It's just like a CEO forgetting he's married and carrying on with some likable Latvian lady at a function. But CNBC reported that the domain expired November 2, and Network Solutions, the domain host, waited until Sunday before chop-blocking the site.It seems the company hoped the Cowboys would pull it out in overtime. Sadly, it was not to be. And yesterday, fans were frustrated not to be able to read about the firing of coach Wade Phillips on their most beloved site.The bill has now been paid. The site is now back up. So loyal Cowboys fans can go to it and read that current quarterback Jon Kitna feels &quot;terrible,&quot; that owner Jerry Jones has said there will be &quot;consequences,&quot; and that wide receiver Miles Austin declared: &quot;Hopefully, it's a good thing.&quot;I have no reason to believe they were referring to the return to life of DallasCowboys.com.<br/><br/>0 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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