Technology News: 06/01/2010

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Apple antenna issue a 'physics problem,' not a software problem

Almost a week after the iPhone 4's launch, questions remain over why users experience signal loss when gripping the phone in a particular way. Apple has called this a "non issue," despite users being able to repeatedly reproduce the problem. In the meantime, it's been suggested that it might be a problem that can be fixed with a software update. Others have said, and Apple has suggested, that users buy a case to prevent fingers from coming in direct contact with the antennas built into the metal band surrounding the iPhone 4.

The antenna being built into the iPhone 4's exterior casing is the reason for signal loss, and can't be fixed with a software update, Anandtech reports.

The antenna built into the iPhone 4's exterior casing is the reason for signal loss, and can't be fixed with a software update, Anandtech reports.(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

Isadore is back, one of four Mimobot great-great grandparents being rereleased.

Nearly half the population is more worried about computer viruses than real ones(Credit: Centers for Disease Control)

Facebook announced Wednesday that it's beginning to institute a new interface that will pop up when users connect their Facebook accounts to third-party services--one which the social-networking company says will bring more "transparency" (yes, that word again) to how much information its nearly 500 million users are sharing across the Web.Consequently, when a third-party application that connects to Facebook asks a user for permission to do so, it has to stipulate exactly what parts of a user profile it'll be accessing: photos, friend list data, basic public information, and so forth. This is something that the company initially announced last year following criticism on behalf of privacy officials in Canada and expanded upon at its F8 developer conference this spring in San Francisco."In order for these applications and websites to provide social and customized experiences, they need to know a little bit about you," a post on the Facebook blog by chief technology officer Bret Taylor read. "We understand, however, that it's important you also have control over what you're sharing. With this new authorization process, when you log into an application with your Facebook account, the application will only be able to access the public parts of your profile by default. To access the private parts of your profile, the application has to explicitly ask for your permission."

If this query was entered in Google inside China, searchers would be unable to generate any results if they selected one of the suggestions from the drop-down menu.(Credit: Screenshot by Tom Krazit/CNET)

Google users inside of China are unable to use Google's search suggestions feature, as Google awaits word on its ultimate fate in China.Ever since Google announced it would offer Chinese language search out of Hong Kong rather than mainland China, it has maintained a "Mainland China service availability" page to track which Google services can be accessed from inside The Great Firewall and which have been blocked. At some point on Wednesday China began blocking searches done through Google Suggest, according to the company, which prompted Google to update that page with a little yellow wrench symbolizing a partial block of its Web search services.

Web copyright: YouTube up, Lime Wire down

While YouTube managers do victory dances following their massive courtroom win in the copyright case brought against the video service by Viacom, the triumph appears to have done little to buoy file-sharing service Lime Wire.

Lime Wire, the Web's largest and most popular file-sharing service, has fended off allegations that it violated the copyrights of the four largest recording companies for four years, but U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood last month granted summary judgment in favor of the Recording Industry Association of America. The court found Lime Wire and founder Mark Gorton liable for copyright infringement and that decision is likely "fatal" to Lime Wire, legal experts have said. On Monday, Wood denied Lime Wire's request to rethink her summary judgment decision, saying the file-sharing service offered no new arguments or information. Lime Wire claimed that Wood erred in some of her findings. Now, Wood has turned her attention to written arguments filed last week by both parties on whether it's proper for Wood to issue a permanent injunction against Lime Wire, a move that would mean the company would be forced to shut down.

Firefox's Jetpack extensions get 2010 goal

Mozilla had to restart an effort to overhaul Firefox's extension technology, but the Jetpack reboot is steadily coming together. Mozilla has released five beta versions of the Jetpack Software Developer Kit, a package that puts a friendly face on Firefox's inner workings so that extensions can do things such as open new tabs, add menu items, and modify Web pages. And the latest schedule was announced this week: its goal is to release Jetpack 1.0 by the end of 2010. "We've been working on the SDK for almost a year now (and the Jetpack project as a whole for over a year), and we've done a bunch of great work that we should get into the hands of developers who could benefit from it," said Mozilla Jetpack team member Myk Melez in a mailing list message. Jetpack takes a page from the Google Chrome playbook by letting programmers write extensions that use Web technologies such as HTML and JavaScript. That's the same direction Apple went with its new Safari 5 extensions, too.

Microsoft on track to develop glass-less 3D display?

Microsoft's Applied Sciences Group sure has some good ideas. By positioning a Webcam behind a transparent OLED or ultrathin LCD screen, The Wedge project allows a smart display to detect hand movements and interpret them as commands. If this sounds a little familiar, that's because this feature is similar to Microsoft's Kinect for Xbox 360. While that's no big deal, what really caught our attention was the claim that by tracking body position, one smart display can stream different images to individual viewers based on the body location. Hence, someone standing to the right may see a different picture compared with another viewer on the left. But that's not all. If different images are sent to each eye, the smart display may be able to achieve a stereoscopic 3D effect without the user having to wear polarized or active shutter glasses. This may hold the answer to mainstream 3D adoption. So for a glimpse into the future, check out the below videos demonstrating this technology.

Are supply issues putting Apple at risk?

Early demand for the iPhone 4 that exceeded supply could put Apple at risk and is prompting frustrated customers to consider competing smartphones, according to a new report from iSuppli.

The iPhone 4(Credit: Apple)

Quanp Flick File(Credit: Quanp)

Ricoh, the Japanese digital office solutions company, is announcing a new iPhone app from its Quanp subsidiary. The app provides 10GB of free cloud-based storage, the ability to share files up to 500MB, uploading and management of photos and videos taken on an iPhone, and a potentially cool local sharing function with other nearby iPhone users. The Quanp app rose to No. 2 on the Japanese App Store in the Productivity category after its release in Japan earlier this month. It's now available in the App Store for users in the U.S.

An offshore wind demonstration farm with GE turbines.(Credit: General Electric)

General Electric has plans to install four 4-megawatt wind turbines off the coast of Norway, and one in Sweden.In March GE said it would invest $450 million over the next 10 years to expand its European wind turbine business. At that time the company said its investment would include plans to install its largest megawatt offshore wind turbines to date, but few details were released.

YouTube users who want to add music to their uploaded videos can now buy lifetime licenses for certain songs thanks to the company's new deal with Rumblefish.

Google Docs delivers presentation basics

Google Docs wouldn't open my test PPTX file, but the service lets you create and edit presentations in the older PowerPoint PPT format, albeit without most of the desktop app's formatting options. You won't find much in the way of transitions, effects, and other advanced features in Google Docs, either. The best feature of Google's online presentation tool is its clean interface, which isn't a surprise considering the company behind the service.

A promotion designed to show off the speed of Google's Chrome browser got off to a rocky start Wednesday morning.(Credit: Screenshot by Tom Krazit/CNET)

Famed baseball announcer Bob Uecker might have described a Wednesday promotion for Google's Chrome as "just a bit outside."Google posted a link Wednesday morning on Twitter and its official blog to a cute little Flash game called FastBall, designed to promote the latest version of Google's Chrome browser with its built-in Flash player. Unfortunately for Google, for the first hour after it was live, the game was still having trouble loading in various browsers on YouTube, although it did finally starting loading without incident about an hour and a half after Google launched the promotion.

If you know what this is and where it is located you could win a prize in the CNET Road Trip Picture of the Day Challenge. (Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)

iPhone 4 video embodies new-tech aesthetic

It's easy to see how the iPhone 4's high-definition 1280x720 video would be a handy feature. It's an entirely different thing to see just how impressive it can be in the right hands. In this case, those hands belong chiefly to Michael Koerbel and Anna Elizabeth James, students at the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts, who wrote a short video called "Apple of My Eye." Koerbel recorded it with an iPhone 4, and James edited it on the same hardware with Apple's new iMovie app--all in less than 48 hours.

As with Vincent Laforet's "Reverie," shot with Canon's first video-capable SLR, the EOS 5D Mark II, the appeal of "Apple of My Eye" isn't the acting or plot. Instead, it's the demonstration that a new generation of relatively mainstream equipment can achieve what only professional gear could earlier.

Hulu CEO: We're no cable killer

If you're planning on swapping out your expensive cable TV service for Hulu's $10 a month subscription offering, Jason Kilar has advice for you: Don't do it! The Hulu CEO insists that his "Hulu Plus" service, which gives subscribers a deep catalog of shows they can watch on their computers or on gadgets like the iPad, isn't meant to replace cable. Instead, he says, it's meant to augment cable. Just like your iPhone doesn't replace your PC. And he's right. Hulu Plus is designed explicitly not to threaten the cable business. That's why it doesn't offer any news or sports, and why it only offers shows that air on three broadcast networks, and almost nothing that runs on cable networks.

Louvre Pyramid with its original low-voltage 100W halogen lamps that were installed when it was constructed in the 1980s.(Credit: Erco)

The Louvre Museum is planning an overhaul to replace its current lighting with more energy-efficient and cost-effective LED lighting.To that end, the Louvre Pyramid, designed by architect I.M. Pei, will be refitted.

(Credit: Warner Music Group)

MTV will soon start to sell ads for music videos owned by Warner Music Group, the companies announced on Wednesday. MTV will have exclusive rights to Warner Music's video ad inventory, Warner said in a statement. The move comes less than a year since Warner signed a similar agreement with Outrigger Media. Rumors began circulating last week that Warner Music was shopping for a new means to sell ads. A music industry source said that Warner Music had spoken to music video portal Vevo about the possibility of that service selling Warner's ads.

Sony Vaio CW series laptop(Credit: Sony)

Roomba vs. NaviBot: High-tech hygiene hoedown

The AOC e2237Fwh; you can see right through it.(Credit: Josh P. Miller)

Get a 1.5-terabyte SATA hard drive for $69.99

Seriously, how much cheaper can giant hard drives get? Here's one for the record books: SuperBiiz (no points for spelling, guys) has a 1.5TB Samsung EcoGreen F2 SATA2 internal hard drive for $69.99 shipped. That's after applying coupon code JULY4TH, which cuts the already impressive $79.99 sale price by another 10 bucks.

This 1.5-terabyte internal hard drive can be yours for the impossibly low price of 70 bucks shipped.(Credit: SuperBiiz)

Richard Branson at a Virgin America press conference at San Francisco International Airport on Tuesday morning.(Credit: Caroline McCarthy/CNET)

Virgin Group CEO and entrepreneurial icon Richard Branson promised "one hell of a party" for the kickoff flight for air carrier Virgin America's first international route from San Francisco to Toronto on Tuesday, and if the trays of mimosas and acai-cranberry cocktails that kept getting toted past his first-class seat were any indication, his promise would not be broken.Branson, a British national who was knighted in 1999, has become one of Silicon Valley's icons of late for his enterprises in green energy and the fledgling Virgin Galactic space company, and Virgin America is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area. At the press conference to kick off the new route, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger were on hand to talk up how Virgin America's ongoing expansion will bring more jobs to the state and a forward-thinking attitude to the airline industry.

What the Windows 8 leak tells us

A leaked series of Windows 8 presentations offers insight not just into what Microsoft wants to accomplish with Windows 8 but also how it plans to go about developing the next Windows. The company appears to be following much the same blueprint it did with Windows 7--talking early with computer makers but saying next to nothing publicly until the company is sure what it will be able to deliver. Of course, the leaked documents have thrown a bit of a wrench in that plan. That said, while there is quite a bit to learn by reading through the leaked Windows 8 planning documents, it would be wrong to just assume that Windows 8 will be the sum of those PowerPoint presentations. Microsoft has a long history of shipping Windows products that are very different than their initial incarnations. Windows Vista, for example, was a significantly different operating system than the original Longhorn plan unveiled at the 2003 Professional Developers conference. It's also possible that the gang in Redmond also may yet have a trick or two up its sleeve that aren't part of these documents, which were designed to be a starting point for a dialogue with computer makers rather than a feature list for customers.

During the past decade, airlines have been keeping passengers' eyes focused on the seat backs in front of them, filling in-flight entertainment systems up with satellite TV, real-time maps, and movies on demand. But does the proliferation of devices like the iPad mean people will stop paying attention?It's a particularly compelling question for Virgin America, which runs an in-flight entertainment system called Red that's inarguably the fanciest out of any U.S. airline. Virgin is still on its way to profitability--it recently posted a first-quarter loss of $35.5 million, narrower than last year's--and while trying to keep fares low it has continued to invest in edgy niches of the travel business like in-flight Wi-Fi and power outlets at every seat. (It hasn't been conclusively proven, for example, that the availability of Wi-Fi, especially if it isn't free, is a deciding factor in choosing an airline.)Conveniently, sitting two rows behind me on Tuesday's inaugural Virgin America flight to Toronto was somebody who could offer the company's perspective: James Weatherson, in-flight entertainment engineer.

YouTube: Why the Flash era isn't over

Google is among the biggest proponents of a collection of Web technologies that reproduce many important features of Adobe Systems' Flash, but it's not yet time for regime change at YouTube. One of the most important parts of the upcoming HTML5 standard is support for video that can be built directly into Web page without requiring a plug-in such as Flash Player. Other open standards such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) for formatting, Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), and Web Open Font Format (WOFF) for typography can mimic Flash features, but Flash's ability to deliver streaming video to multiple browsers is one of the main reasons it's got such a strong incumbent advantage.

"While HTML5's video support enables us to bring most of the content and features of YouTube to computers and other devices that don't support Flash Player, it does not yet meet all of our needs," said YouTube programmer John Harding in a blog post Tuesday. "Today, Adobe Flash provides the best platform for YouTube's video distribution requirements, which is why our primary video player is built with it."

Amazon.com experienced a widespread outage on Tuesday that lasted, at least for many customers, more than three hours and displayed blank or partial pages instead of product listings. By mid-afternoon, Amazon's home page was devoid of any product photographs and showed only a list of categories on the left of the screen. Searching for items often didn't work, and customers' shopping carts and saved item lists were temporarily displayed as empty. At an annual revenue of nearly $27 billion, Amazon faces a potential loss of an average of $51,400 a minute when it's site is offline. Amazon shares closed down 7.8 percent, a sharper fall than the Nasdaq index.

FAA floats a break to flying car

This 4th of July weekend, you might, either at its beginning or its end, find yourself wishing your car could fly.Thanks to a new FAA decision, this wish might seem slightly less Peter Pan and slightly more Peter Perfect.It seems that the soaring minds behind the Terrafugia Transition have secured a remarkable weight exemption from the FAA, allowing it to carry such vital necessities as crumple zones, airbags, and a structural cage on its revolutionary flying car.No, the airbags won't help much in the air. But road safety is just as vital for this dual-purpose flying machine. And road safety can be quite heavy.

Where are all the iPad competitors?

Several launches are planned for fall and winter 2010, but the iPad, on track to sell 16 million units, according to some, will be the iPod of tablets by then. If anything, iPad 2G will have been announced and everyone will be queuing up for the version with the camera on the front. Heck, I'm even considering rebuying the darned thing because I want the battery life and movie-viewing for traveling, and I'm sick of waiting for the Android-tablet hordes to get their collective act together.

Dating site tries to out-Facebook Facebook

As I understand it, Facebook was largely created so that boys who perhaps hadn't enjoyed the greatest success with girls could somehow make themselves look somehow desirable online.As I also understand it, many people these days still join Facebook in the hope of extending their ability to find The One, or even A One, through friends, extended friends, or merely people they have talked and stalked into being their pretend friends.Now a dating site for sad singles called Pirate Date claims to be "a dating trust-network for friends."I am not sure whether, in a word-association game insisted upon by my psychiatrist, I would immediately on hearing the word "trust" offer the word "pirate." Still, perhaps it is merely a description of our times, a description of the love that the Pirate Bay has created in so many hearts, that "trust" and "pirate" are as one.

(Credit: Google)

On the heels of Google introducing automatic updating for the Adobe Flash plug-in, a future version of Google Chrome will include technology that blocks out-of-date plug-ins and helps users update them, Google said.

preGAME 20: Singularity

Android users can decline to participate in Google's wireless hot-spot data gathering, but they'll have to forgo getting their location information via hot spots, a reliable and battery-friendly method.(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

There's a reason Google can shut down its Street View cars and still maintain a quality geolocation service on mobile devices: it's crowdsourcing the data.Mobile-phone and some laptop users who use Google applications to get a fix on their position or share their location with friends are helping Google build out a database of Wi-Fi hot spots, the company confirmed Tuesday. Users generally understand when they are sharing their own location with Google or its partners, but they may not realize they are also helping Google match Wi-Fi hot-spot location data with GPS coordinates by transmitting the location of any Wi-Fi access point in wireless range.

Microsoft: Azure's showing business allure

Microsoft's cloud-computing push, Windows Azure, was only launched six months ago and while it is still early days for the technology, Azure has already attracted thousands of users and could prove central to the software giant's technology plans. Azure is Microsoft's cloud-computing platform, which provides its users with scalable computing power and storage, as well as a number of other online services hosted on Microsoft data centers. While Microsoft has offered online services for some time with consumer products such as Hotmail and Windows Live, Azure aims to boost its software-as-a-service presence to cater to its enterprise customers who are looking to push their computing infrastructure out into the cloud. Azure was launched as a paid-for service in February and although Microsoft isn't giving exact uptake figures, President of Server and Tools Bob Muglia recently told Silicon.com that many businesses are continuing to use the service after its initial period as a free service ended.

Tesla's IPO speeds past expectations

Tesla Motors shares zoomed upward to a closing price of $23.89 on Tuesday, handing the electric-car maker the second-best gain in an initial public offering this year. Even as the broader stock market declined, with the Nasdaq falling by 3.85 percent, investors propelled Tesla shares to a 41 percent gain over its initial price of $17. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based automaker has benefited not just from Wall Street enthusiasm for a plug-in car company, but also from a $465 million loan from U.S. taxpayers and favorable tax incentives from the federal and state governments. Tesla's $109,000 electric Roadster, which can accelerate from zero to 60 in 3.9 seconds and claims a 236-mile range, has received favorable reviews. Tesla has begun taking orders for its $57,400 Model S five-person sedan, which it plans to start building in 2012.

Send in your questions for Facebook's Chris Cox

We've got a blockbuster summer on CNET Conversations, and the next big release is Chris Cox, vice president of product at Facebook and second-in-command under CEO Mark Zuckerberg (who, we can only imagine, is taking a break from interviews after a rough outing last month). I'm looking forward to a fresh face from Facebook and, hopefully, a good conversation and some solid answers.

Chris Cox, VP of Product at Facebook(Credit: Steve Maller )

The Octiv Mini will be available in July for $59.99.(Credit: Altec Lansing)

There's a growing trend in iPhone/iPod speaker docks. Instead of building in a bunch of features like an LCD display for the clock, an AM/FM radio, or fancy alarm systems, companies like Altec Lansing are bringing out simple speakers that leverage the iPhone or iPod Touch's impressive capabilities that include the ability to run custom-designed alarm apps.

The iPhone 3GS is now running iMovie.(Credit: Apple)

That was fast. After less than a week of iPhone 4 availability, hackers have found a way to get Apple's iMovie application running on an iPhone 3GS.Apple's iMovie app, which costs $4.99, is officially available only to iPhone 4 owners. But hackers tipped off tech blog Redmond Pie that they were able to get the app running on the iPhone 3GS. The process, according to tipster David Romhan Torres, starts with users jailbreaking an iPhone 3GS running iOS 4. From there, they need to modify a few items in the app's files to get it running.

Foursquare poised to get new VC funding

The deal is likely to be completed and announced by early next week, at a valuation of about $80 million, barring unusual hiccups. "Light at the end of a very long and very twisty tunnel," joked one source familiar with the situation. Indeed, the wrapping-up of what has been a very convoluted funding process comes after a series of missteps and switchbacks over what's next for the start-up, which allows users to "check in" from various places.

Police push to continue warrantless cell tracking

A law requiring police to obtain a search warrant before tracking Americans' cell phones may imperil criminal investigations and endanger children's lives, a law enforcement representative told Congress this week. Obtaining a search warrant when monitoring the whereabouts of someone "who may be attempting to victimize a child over the Internet will have a significant slowing effect on the processing of child exploitation leads," said Richard Littlehale of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. "If that is acceptable, so be it, but it is a downstream effect that must be considered." Littlehale's remarks to a House of Representatives subcommittee come as an industry group called the Digital Due Process coalition is prodding politicians to update a mid-1980s federal law by inserting more privacy protections. The group includes Google, Microsoft, eBay, AT&T, the ACLU, and Americans for Tax Reform. Legislation has not yet been introduced, and coalition members have braced themselves for an extended period of negotiations among police, civil libertarians, and members of Congress that could take as long as a year or two. Meanwhile, no federal appeals court has ruled on the topic--a case is pending before one in Philadelphia--and lower courts have split over whether the U.S. Constitution requires a warrant or not.

If you know what this is and where it is located, you could win a prize in the Road Trip Picture of the Day challenge.(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)

Yesterday, the second day of Road Trip 2010, I visited one of the most impressive examples of industrial manufacturing I've ever seen. For today's picture of the day, I'm giving you the opposite of man made; this looming sculpture is all natural. I want you to tell me what it is, and just as importantly, where it is located. If you're right, you could win a prize in the CNET Road Trip Picture of the Day challenge.

Trying to make iPad run my Road Trip

GERMANTOWN, Md.--For the last couple weeks, I've been carrying around the iPad Apple lent me for Road Trip 2010, trying to figure out how it can best be used as a traveling computer of sorts. I've read lots of commentary on the question of whether the iPad replaces other devices--be they iPhones or laptops--and so far, I'm really not sure. On the one hand, the iPad is terrific for things like loading a quick Web page or playing a game of Marble Mixer or looking up a driving route. On the other hand, it certainly doesn't meet my needs for posting blog entries or photo galleries--since CNET's publishing tool doesn't work on it--and that means it's not suitable as a full replacement for the MacBook Pro I'm also carrying with me.

How is an iPad best used on a working Road Trip?(Credit: Apple)

Palm shareholders approve HP takeover plans

Palm stockholders at a special meeting Friday approved plans for the company's acquisition by Hewlett-Packard, according to an SEC filing. The transaction is expected to close on July 1, according to the filing. The companies announced in April that computer giant HP would buy the struggling smartphone maker for $1.2 billion. The deal then had already been approved by both companies' boards of directors. HP has long touted Palm's appealing IP portfolio and says it has plans to put Palm's WebOS on tablets, smartphones, Web-connected PCs.

Meet Oscar, the adorable bionic pet cat

This is Oscar. The cute little feline from Jersey in the U.K. had an accident about nine months ago when a combine harvester ran him over while he napped in a field, severing the bottom part of his two back legs. But Oscar is plucky. His local vet, Peter Haworth, consulted another vet, Noel Fitzpatrick of Surrey, England, who has an advanced practice. They discussed Oscar's case via phone and e-mail, and after viewing X-rays and photos, they reasoned that Oscar was a good candidate for a cutting-edge new procedure Fitzpatrick had been developing: bionic cat legs.

(Credit: ABC News screenshot by Matt Hickey/CNET)

Bing-Zune integration still not working

commentary On Tuesday evening, Microsoft announced the integration of playable songs into Bing search results. At the time, when you clicked the play button by each song result, the pop-up window for the player said that this feature was "coming soon." I blogged about it anyway, relying on a forthcoming Microsoft blog post that said the feature was available "now."

The error message I receive when I try to play Tom Petty's "Runnin' Down a Dream" from within Microsoft's Bing search engine. (Credit: Screenshot)

I should have known better. Nearly three days later, the feature is still "coming soon." So I visited the music page of the Bing Entertainment site to get a taste of how this feature's supposed to work. Sure enough, the player launched when I clicked on my first selection, Tom Petty's "Runnin' Down a Dream." This time, the player told me that I needed to enable application storage in my version of the Silverlight player. (Silverlight is a Microsoft platform for creating rich Internet applications, like audio and video, and basically competes with Adobe's Flash.) A casual user would have given up, but having a professional interest in the feature, I followed the instructions on the screen, only to find that my copy of Silverlight already had the box checked to enable application storage. Sigh. I unchecked and rechecked it. Still no luck. (I suppose the next step would be to uninstall and reinstall Silverlight, but it's just not worth the time.) At least the player looks cool, with a shadowy image of Tom Petty and nice album art above the error message.

How to hold the iPhone 4? Don't look to Apple

When reports surfaced Thursday that the iPhone 4 loses signal strength when simply held in the palm of a person's hand, Apple responded with words that have been uttered by countless engineering departments: user error. That's not a direct or complete quote, of course. Apple tossed in a couple more familiar responses, such as "everyone does it" and "there's a solution, but it will cost you." Here's its full statement: "Gripping any phone will result in some attenuation of its antenna performance, with certain places being worse than others depending on the placement of the antennas. This is a fact of life for every wireless phone. If you ever experience this on your iPhone 4, avoid gripping it in the lower left corner in a way that covers both sides of the black strip in the metal band, or simply use one of many available cases."

Customers are complaining that when they touch both seams of the iPhone 4's antenna band they lose reception.

Now on Facebook: Lady Gaga vs. Obama

On today's ever more open Web, to whom do you want to be closer? Is there someone for whom you wish to express your affection, your desire, or your admiration, perhaps in the hope of getting some in return?May I give you just two choices? President Obama or Lady Gaga.Perhaps you feel I am limiting you too much. But this is an issue of such importance, one that will show just what the world sees when it looks in the mirror.On the one hand, we have someone who is trying to rectify so many wrongs. Someone who wants you to know that, yes, anyone can. On the other, we have Barack Obama, who is also trying to do the same thing.

One of the proof-of-concept apps was disguised as a preview of the "Twilight Saga: Eclipse" movie. (Credit: Jon Oberheide)

Canada to phase out older coal-fired power plants

Canada will phase out older coal-fired power plants to cut the country's greenhouse gas emissions, Environment Minister Jim Prentice said on Wednesday, as it moves to make natural-gas-fired plants the new clean-power standard. The new standards, expected to be firmed up by early 2011, will force electricity producers to phase out older, high-emitting coal-fired plants and require newer facilities to match the lower greenhouse-gas emissions of more efficient natural-gas fired plants. Canada has 51 coal-fired units producing 19 percent of the country's electricity and 13 percent of its greenhouse gas emissions. However, 33 of those plants will reach the end of their economic lives by 2025. Unless the operators make substantial investments to cut emissions from the aging facilities, they'll be required to shut down.

Ask Maggie: On cell phone safety and avoiding data charges

It's time to Ask Maggie again.This week has been a busy one with the launch of the new Apple iPhone 4 and Motorola's new Android-based Droid X. With new smartphones hitting the market, many consumers are deciding whether they should buy something new now or wait to see what comes out later this year. Readers this week also asked about service plans, wireless operator upgrade plans, and getting the most bang for your buck--and even about cell phone safety.Readers responded well to last week's call for questions. Unfortunately, I couldn't get to everyone's questions, but I tried to choose a sampling that would answer some key themes I've heard over the past week from consumers. Please keep the questions coming. If you've got something you'd like me to consider for next week's column, send an e-mail to me at maggie dot reardon at cbs dot com. If I don't know the answer to your question, I'll do some digging and find out.

Apple says that the way you hold the iPhone 4 affects the reception.(Credit: Apple)

Mom posts pic of baby with bong on Facebook

This might well be a case of someone who wasn't entirely au fait with her Facebook privacy settings. Yes, not everyone knows about how easy they are. Or even that they exist. It could also be a case of someone doing something very stupid. Or perhaps both.According to Channel 4 News in Jacksonville, Fla., a 19-year-old mother in Florida took a picture of her 11-month-old son with his mouth over a bong. Just as these things sometimes happen on Facebook, someone saw it and passed it on. The Web being the Web, it kept being passed on until it ended up in the hands of both Channel 4 and the Florida Department of Children and Families.Channel 4 tracked the woman down and, in an e-mail exchange, the mother reportedly said: "If you look at the picture you can see that there is no bowl in the TABACCO (sic) pipe."

IAB sets new guidelines for online advertising

The IAB is hoping its new set of guidelines will help online advertisers better understand the interactive-ad market and how to work with ad networks and exchanges.

Get 'em, Boies: Salesforce countersues Microsoft

Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff says Microsoft is a patent troll. Looks like it takes one to know one. On Thursday, the company answered Microsoft's charges of patent infringement with patent-infringement charges of its own. In a suit filed in U.S. District Court in Delaware, Salesforce accuses Microsoft of willfully violating five of its patents and using them in everything from Windows 7 to the Windows Live authentication system. And the company is really going for the neck here: Not only is it seeking triple monetary damages, it has hired David Boies, the former U.S. Justice Department attorney who successfully argued the agency's antitrust case against Microsoft, to represent it. But if Microsoft finds this disconcerting, the company isn't letting on. Reached for comment, Horacio Gutierrez, vice president and deputy general counsel, said it's still intent on taking Salesforce to the mat over this. "We are reviewing Salesforce.com's filing, which we have just received," he said. "We remain confident about our position and will continue to press ahead with the complaint we initiated in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington."Story Copyright (c) 2010 AllThingsD. All rights reserved.

Friday Poll: Most marvelous medical marvel?

More people grabbing directions via mobile phones

People are increasingly relying on their mobile phones to deliver maps and directions on the go, according to ComScore.

Report: Sony PS3 may offer Hulu service

Hulu's paid subscription service may be offered on Sony's PlayStation 3 game console, according to a published report.

All Facebook noticed that certain search results in Facebook produce external pages that have been "liked" by users, but that does not a search engine make.(Credit: Screenshot by Tom Krazit/CNET)

Early estimates indicate that 77 percent of those who queued up for the iPhone 4 yesterday were upgrading from an older iPhone.

Actor's HitRecord lets more artists get in on the act

WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif.--Joseph Gordon-Levitt has certainly benefited from Hollywood. As a young actor, he made his debut in the movie "Beethoven" and had roles in "Third Rock From The Sun" and the movie "10 Things I Hate About You." More recently he starred in a leading role in "(500) Days of Summer."

The notion of bringing together different artists from around the world was the impetus for Joseph Gordon-Levitt's start-up, HitRecord.org.(Credit: Ina Fried/CNET)

But, despite being a product of Hollywood, Gordon-Levitt also thinks that there are plenty of good ideas from people with no access to traditional filmmaking technology. The good news, he says, is that today anyone with a laptop can make movies. "Better stories are going to be told because more people get to tell them," he said in a panel discussion Tuesday. That, he said, is preferable to the world he inhabits, which is, "let's admit it, an often narrow-minded Hollywood industry." This notion of bringing together different artists from around the world was also the impetus for his company, HitRecord.org, which lets all kinds of artists collaborate on a film, eventually sharing in the profits if something commercially viable is made. In an interview after the panel, Gordon-Levitt talked about HitRecord and how technology is changing the face of entertainment. Q: How did you get started with HitRecord.org?
Joseph Gordon-Levitt: It started five years ago as more of a hobby of mine and evolved into more of a community. In 2010, it's become a production company. I'm an actor and I am lucky enough to be in a place where I can get projects off the ground. I didn't want to only work within Hollywood. I wanted to also work with any number of people all over the world who are doing all sorts of great stuff. HitRecord is kind of my way to do that. Whether you cut video or you are a writer or a graphic designer or some sort of performer, musician, anything audio, video, image, text. We make all sorts of stuff and we all collaborate together on our Web site. I'm there kind of directing. When I am able to take something we have all made collaboratively and turn it into a money-making production, then the profits get split down the middle. Half goes back to the company and half goes back to the contributing artists. For example, we went to Sundance this year. We partnered up with a company called Getac who makes hard drives. They paid for us to go there. There was enough money left up for some profits. All the different people that contributed to the short film that we screened at Sundance shared in those profits. We sent out a bunch of different checks. Now, are we talking $20?
Gordon-Levitt: A few people made close to a grand. Some people made $4. It depends. If they spent 10 minutes saying hello, as opposed to someone who contributed (a lot). It can be both.

Gordon-Levitt wants to share more than just his Hollywood side with start-up HitRecord.org.(Credit: Ina Fried/CNET)

What are some of the most interesting things that have come out of HitRecord.org so far?
Gordon-Levitt: One of my favorite things we made so far is a short film called "Morgan M. Morgensen's Date With Destiny." It started just as an idea for a collaboration. Someone said "Hey, how about we try to write with nonsensical language?" Someone else met that challenge and wrote this short story. I liked the short story so I recorded myself reading it. Then other people liked that so they started drawing the characters. Other people started taking those drawings and turning them into animations. I got together with an actress and shot a live-action version in front of white walls. The whole community started contributed visual elements to go over that. Someone else took those visual elements and remixed them together into this beautiful collage.We did the score collaboratively as well. It ends up this beautiful lush piece of filmmaking with hundreds of people having worked on it. It all took shape organically and with no budget at all. How do you think technology is changing things. Is there an audience or are we all creators?
Gordon-Levitt: I love the (Greek) tradition. That means there's a stage and there's the audience and there's a separation. But there's I think an even older tradition of more communal story telling that probably dates back to cavemen sitting around a fire telling a story. "Oh, I heard it went this way. No I heard it went this way." I think where technology can bring us is a dissolving of that division between audience and performer, where it's less about I've got something to say and you are all just going to listen. It becomes more like "Let's tell the story together and figure out what it is." That's ancient, but now because of technology, it doesn't have to be around a campfire. It can be all over the world among thousands and thousands and really millions of people. Are you more on the Mac side of things or PC?
Gordon-Levitt: I use Final Cut on a Mac and Pro Tools on a Mac, but you know, whatever works. Windows Movie Maker comes free and you can use that. I don't have any real allegiance to any particularly technology. I love the fact people can use the technology to make stuff.
Source: CNET News (http://cnet.com/)

Road Trip Pic of the Day, 6/25: What is this?

If you recognize this giant, let me know and you might win a prize in the Road Trip Picture of the Day challenge.(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)

Update (9:22 p.m. EST): The answer to today's Picture of the Day Challenge--which, amazingly, 216 of you got, was Howard Hughes' Spruce Goose. Well, the left wing of it, anyway. The H-4 Hercules is located at the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum, in McMinnville, Oregon. To everyone, thanks for playing. And please remember to come back over the weekend, as the Picture of the Day Challenge doesn't rest during Road Trip. On Thursday, I made my first stop on the CNET Road Trip 2010. But before we start looking forward, there's still time to look back at some of the best imagery from previous Road Trips. That leads me to Friday's Road Trip Picture of the Day challenge: can you figure out what this picture is and where it's located? This is clearly a very big plane--after all, the only parts of it showing here are its left wing and its many propellers. Still, I bet you can figure it out. If you have both answers, e-mail them to me no later than 6 p.m. Pacific time Friday (at daniel--dot--terdiman--at--cnet--dot--com, including "Picture of the Day" in the subject line). I'll choose a winner at random from among everyone who sends in both pieces of the correct answer. Please forgive me if you don't hear from me if you're not the winner. I get dozens of responses each day. Also, I've turned off comments because some people have been posting the correct answers there. I hate to shut down discussion, but I want you to figure out the answer on your own. One caveat: no individual can win more than two prizes. But at the end of the trip, I'll be drawing a name from among all the daily challenge winners and giving out something a little more substantial. On Thursday, Geek Gestalt kicked off Road Trip 2010. After driving more than 18,000 miles in the Rocky Mountains, the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest and the Southeast over the last four years, I'll be looking for the best in technology, science, military, nature, aviation and more throughout the American northeast. If you have a suggestion for someplace to visit, drop me a line. In the meantime, you can follow my preparations for the project on Twitter @GreeterDan and @RoadTrip and find the project on Facebook.
Source: CNET News (http://cnet.com/)

ICANN OKs .xxx domain name for porn sites

Porn sites may soon be able to tag themselves with a .xxx address now that ICANN has given the new domain name its initial OK.After denying several requests over the years for a new .xxx top-level domain, ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) finally relented Friday by giving the new domain its conditional approval.ICM Registry, which would manage and sell the new domain name to porn sites, has waged a long struggle to get .xxx accepted by ICANN as a top-level domain, only to get a thumb's down at each turn. ICM's Chairman Stuart Lawley has consistently touted the .xxx domain as a way to segregate and safely filter out adult entertainment sites. However, conservative groups have in the past lobbied Washington and reportedly pressured ICANN to deny the request.

But after acknowledging that its refusal to accept .xxx was "not consistent with the application of neutral, objective, and fair documented policy," ICANN agreed to review the proposal once again, according to the Associated Press.On the ICM Web site, Lawley said of ICANN's decision: "It's been a long time coming, but I'm excited about the fact that .xxx will soon become a reality. This is great news." Lawley added that the decision brings to fruition a six-year effort to create a specific Web address for online adult entertainment, and comes on the heels of an independent review that declared that ICANN's previous decision to deny .xxx was wrong.Though ICM is declaring victory, ICANN's final and official approval of the new domain is not quite a done deal yet and faces some red tape that could delay the new domain's debut.In an e-mail to CNET, Lawley said ICANN agreed Friday to check his company's financial and technical ability to run the new registry, which he claimed is a simple exercise. The next step, according to Lawley, would be to negotiate a contract that takes into account recommendations from the Government Advisory Committee, which advises ICANN on issues of public policy. Then the matter would go to ICANN's board for final approval. Lawley said he's hopeful that ICANN will sign the final contract at its next board meeting in October, clearing the way to go live with .xxx domains at the start of next year.ICM said it already has 110,000 pre-reservations from sites looking to adopt the new address and expects that number to increase once ICANN grants formal approval.After final approval comes through, the .xxx domain name would become a new top-level domain, like .com, .net., .org., and .edu. The .xxx name would be strictly voluntary, only to adult sites that wished to adopt it.Lawley expects to make $30 million a year in sales by selling each .xxx site for $60, according to the AP, but is promising to donate $10 from each sale to child protection initiatives through a nonprofit group that he has set up.He's also looking to establish a standard code of practices that adult sites with the .xxx domain name would follow. The code would address such issues as deceptive marketing practices, the use of malware, practices designed to attract children or suggest child pornography, and the misuse of personal information. Lawley believes that the new domain and practices would help porn sites face fewer complaints and enjoy greater customer retention.
Source: CNET News (http://cnet.com/)

Analyst: Nintendo 'stole the show' at E3

Nintendo 3DS "stole the show" at E3, analysts say.(Credit: Nintendo)

Each year, after E3 comes to a close and financial analysts have a chance to sift through all the news from the gaming industry show, those analysts share their opinions on which companies did well and which left something to be desired. This year, a few analysts, speaking to Gamasutra in an interview, contend that it was Nintendo that did the best job of building hype for its products."Nintendo 3DS stole the show," Panoptic Management Consultants analyst Adam H. Kraus told Gamasutra.His sentiments were echoed by another Panoptic analyst, Asif A. Khan, who told the gaming publication that "if 3DS is a success, [Nintendo] could see huge sales growth."Unfortunately for Microsoft, they didn't have the same feeling about the company's Kinect motion-gaming platform. Although the analysts believe Kinect is "compelling," they're concerned that it won't have enough viable games "to make it a success."On the Sony front, the analysts said that they don't have much faith in the company's Move motion-gaming peripheral. The issue, the analysts said, is that consumers might not believe the Move is "a big enough improvement over the Nintendo Wii motion controller to warrant its purchase."Admittedly, the analysts' comments are based solely on what they've seen to this point and how they believe the new technologies will fare in the industry. But their comments are insightful. The 3DS is arguably the most interesting concept to come out of E3, since it allows for 3D gaming without glasses. And although the Move could be a major player in the motion-gaming space, it has a Wii-esque feel to it that could, in fact, turn consumers off.It should be interesting to see what happens with each of the big three's new products after they hit store shelves in the coming months.
Source: CNET News (http://cnet.com/)

Google eyes more home energy jobs for PowerMeter

WASHINGTON--Google's PowerMeter is a straightforward application for monitoring home electricity at this point, but the company expects to stretch its features toward managing an array of energy loads in the home, according to an executive. PowerMeter gets data from smart meters or home electricity monitors and displays that data on a PC or smartphone, which helps people better understand electricity usage and leads to clues on how to cut bills. But "we're just getting going" with PowerMeter, said Dan Reicher, director of climate change initiatives at Google, here at the Kema Utility of the Future conference on Thursday.

Google PowerMeter on smart phone.(Credit: Google)

"We're starting with electricity and we're interested in moving on to natural gas and other utilities [such as water] in the home," Reicher said, speaking to utility industry executives. Asked afterward about timing, Reicher indicated that there are no immediate plans, but more sophisticated gas and water meters open up the possibility for Web-based monitoring. Google also sees PowerMeter as a way for people to manage when and how electricity gets used in the home. Reicher said that the application could be extended to let consumers take advantage of off-peak rates when using electricity-hungry devices such as appliances. 'Demand dispatch' for appliances and vehicles
On Thursday, Reicher said that Google engineers are doing research and development around what he called "demand dispatch," in which software and the Internet can be used to lower electricity use in the home and provide services to the grid now done by power plants. Specialized power generators push more electricity into the grid to keep a balance of supply and demand or to maintain a steady frequency. The idea of demand dispatch is that small reductions of electricity use across hundreds or thousands of homes can replace supplying more power into the grid. Last year, Google engineer Alec Brooks first described experiments Google has been doing around demand dispatch using its fleet of plug-in electric vehicles. The software Google is working on is designed to slow the charge rate of electric car batteries as a way to curtail load temporarily and maintain grid frequency, he explained. Google sees demand dispatch, through which hundreds or thousands of load reductions are coordinated and communicated to grid operators, as something that can work with big electricity users other than electric vehicles. "It goes way beyond what's going on with a limited number of plug-in vehicles in the near future," Reicher said after his talk. "It's dispatching all sorts of loads in people's homes." For example, a person could start a dishwasher at 5:30 on a hot afternoon and have an option to run it then or pay one-fifth the current rate to have it run at three in the morning. Reicher said there are a number of "simple loads" in the house that can be dispatched to the grid to cut peak-time electricity usage, something that utilities and policymakers are interested in to avoid having to build more power plants. PowerMeter could play a role in this demand dispatch scenario, although Google's work in this area is still in the R&D phase, Reicher said. In March, Google partnered with embedded chip developer Microchip, which said it will use the PowerMeter API to make it easier to integrate products such as appliances. "We're looking at it and we've done some experiments with other kinds of loads [than plug-in electric vehicles]," he said. "Smartphones, smart car, smart house--where a lot of those intersect, there's a lot of opportunities."
Source: CNET News (http://cnet.com/)

Week in review: iPhone 4's reception

Apple's latest phone hit stores Thursday to lines of people--some of whom waited six hours to buy one. But almost as soon as the device arrived on the doorsteps of customers who placed early preorders came scattered reports of reception problems, discolored spots on the screen, easily scratched exteriors, and issues with third-party accessory connections. Being popular and being perfect are definitely two different things.

Scenes from iPhone 4 launch (photos)

• Long lines mark phone's arrival
• Apple acknowledges antenna issue in iPhone 4
• iPhone 4 owners reporting yellow, discolored screens
• Full review: iPhone 4
• Getting a look inside the iPhone 4
• AT&T delays retail iPhone 4
• Apple: White iPhone 4 coming 'second half of July'
• Apple's iOS 4 already hacked More headlines

Road Trip 2010

CNET's Daniel Terdiman is on the road again. This time, he's driving a Porsche loaded down with tech gear and searching the East Coast for the most interesting spots for technology, military, R&D, naval shipbuilding, and more.
• Photos: The gear of Road Trip 2010

Google defeats Viacom in landmark copyright case

Judge grants summary judgment in favor of Google's YouTube, deciding that it is protected by the DMCA safe-harbor provision against copyright infringement claims.
• Biden to file sharers: 'Piracy is theft'
• Jammie Thomas lawyer not hopeful on mediation

FTC says current privacy laws aren't working

In a preview of what may be in a forthcoming report, a senior FTC attorney says existing U.S. law unreasonably places "too much burden" on people to understand privacy policies.
• Congressmen query Apple on privacy policy changes
• ACLU fights N.C. quest for Amazon customer data
• Facebook boosts D.C. ranks with public policy hire
• Twitter, FTC reach agreement on security

The media's love affair with Twitter could take a sharp turn for the worse if it continues to crash embarrassingly in the wake of unexpected World Cup victories.
• Facebook blocking parts of Twitter's FB app
• Facebook, Twitter no place for the lonely

Report predicts that a total of $21 billion worldwide will be spent on cybersecurity for smart grids between 2010 and 2015. Also of note

• Intel, FTC in talks to settle antitrust claims
• Sears, Kmart to offer streaming movie service
• Mars cave opening found by 7th graders
Source: CNET News (http://cnet.com/)

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Saturday, June 26, 2010