iPhone 4 Vs HTC Desire HD. Which Makes A Better Skipping Stone?
So we look at smartphone comparisons on Youtube, and they cover the usual suspects of specifications: camera, speed, build quality, etc. The last thing we (and probably you) expected to see was a test of just how well these handsets skip across a lake.
That's exactly what this Chinese fellow did on Youtube.
Infographic: Cash. Apple's got it
So after Apple's Quarterly profits report, it's fair to say that the old saying 'made of money' goes some way to describing the state of the company at the moment. It seems rather difficult to question just how far $400 billion could really be used, likened to asking similar questions such as "how long is a piece of string?" If split evenly, how much can Apple pay each of it's employees? How much of this money is 'reserve cash?' And, most interestingly, how many countries' worth of public debt can the reems of profit pay off? All this and more in our favourite infographic of the moment, courtesy of MBAonline.com.
Likebelt: Dry Hump Your Surroundings For Facebook Likes
We have a feeling that NFC (Near Field Communication) was probably not invented with this resulting device in mind. Presenting DeepLocal's LikeBelt: taking the simple action of tapping your smartphone against tags, and replacing it with an awkward thrust of the connected belt buckle.
Can Google Predict Who You Are By The Sites You Visit?
So Google revised it's privacy policy earlier this week, introducing all kinds of small modifications which were overshadowed by the sharing of information between the Google products you use. One of these changes has been an upgrade to the Ads preferences tab in your settings.
Jailbreaking exemption law expiring soon
Copyright protection for people who jailbreak their iPhones, as to install unauthorized apps and modify the inner workings of the OS, is set to expire soon. In the face of this, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has started asking for signatures on a new petition to renew this jailbreaking exemption law.
HP announces Open webOS 1.0
So webOS wasn't doing so well before, and after a prolonged wait was announced to be open sourced. Following this, HP have now released details on the process leading up to the code being released as the finished product, which will be called Open webOS 1.0.
The company went into great detail about the matters at hand, and told developers to expect open sourcing to be complete by September time.
Apple On Track To Be World's Most Valuable Company After “Unimaginable” Quarterly Profits
CEO Tim Cook’s opening tenure at Apple has led the technology company to record first-quarter profits double those seen year-on-year of $13.1 billion (£8.4 billion). The results were labelled as “just unimaginable” by analysts, leading to Apple’s share price to jump 12% in aftermarket trading to more than $460 a share.
100-core processor created by MIT, to be released later this year
We sit here as consumers, feeling content with quad-core processors in our computers (or maybe eight, if you are feeling particularly greedy). But 100 processors on a single chip? That's exactly what silicon manufacturer Tilera has done, and it's coming later this year.
LG's 'Optimus 3D 2' Leaked. Faster, Brighter, Thinner
Though it was a fairly decent first effort for LG, the Optimus 3D was not the success story that LG might have hoped for. Here was a glasses-free 3D smartphone in which its USP could only be witnessed in landscape mode and even then 3D content was mostly limited to 3D-enabled YouTube videos, self-recorded images and videos, and but a handful of pre-installed 3D games – the Android Marketplace remains lacking in third-dimension applications still. But that seemingly hasn’t dissuaded LG who, if this leaked image is anything to go by, is planning to release the successor to the Optimus 3D fairly soon.
The Upstart Website Designed To Sell On Unwanted Gifts From Broken Relationships
Relationship break-ups are never a nice thing. A list of duties following a split ranges from everything to closing down shared bank accounts to informing relatives, friends and other parties. But when it comes to disposing of unwanted gifts from past relationships, website NeverLikedItAnyway.com aims to make it as smooth as possible.
SOPA protesters really hate the Scottish Organic Producers Association
In what is possibly the most idiotic and hilarious mix-up we've seen in a long time, during this timeframe of the general populous expressing their opposition towards SOPA, the Scottish Organic Produers Association saw an unfathomable spike in internet traffic. This was paired with many emails of threats and demands that they stop what they are doing.
Amazon’s Kindle ‘Most Unused’ Christmas Gift
Despite surging in popularity throughout 2011 – a year that included Amazon announcing we would be seeing an array of new models, including a quite impressive tablet, the Kindle Fire – Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader has topped an online discount website’s survey revealing last Christmas’ most ‘unused’ gifts. This comes after it was announced in late-2011 that Kindle sales were expected to be around the 5 million mark for the year.
'Portrait of the Ghost Drummer.' Music turned into visual art
We look at a drummer, and see a more audible form of art. Sure the person operating the percussion instrument is present, in a storm of drum sticks and sweat; but it's the rythmic intonations, and the harder emphasis on key strikes of the drums that grab the attention.
That has now come to an end, as Polish artist Obaide developed a new form of digital art, which tracks the sticks of a drummer in motion and creates an intriguing line pattern, showing the aftermath of just how much movement the tempo keeping-percussionist actually makes.
Editorial: Apple Kills The Classroom
So Apple has announced iBooks 2: the company's pledge to 'reinvent the textbook,' and the renovation of iTunes U to incorporate and entire course worth of material beyond video and audio, which will 'reinvent the curriculum.' And they're right; but maybe not in the vein they were expecting.
MegaUpload Founder arrested. Anonymous takedown Justice Department and record label website in response
So Megaupload has been in and about the news, since the odd promotional music video, starring artists who said they have nothing to do with the video (making for a paradox of sorts). Things got more serious for the company and it's founder, Kim Dotcom, after the United States Justice Department filed charges against the site and had the man at Dotcom arrested.
New Rising Media's position on SOPA
It was a day of protest across the internet yesterday. All the major players came out in force: Wikipedia, Google, Reddit, and others went dark to oppose the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Our readers come first, so we continued to provide our usual amount of content; but that doesn't mean we haven't had an opinion about what's been going on around us. With this in mind, as editor-in-chief, I wanted to publish our thoughts and New Rising Media's stance when it comes to SOPA.
Sony launches 'Dot Switch' promo
Doing a classic Apple: bringing technologies together, yet keeping vague on details. Sony have just released a short promotional trailer about what they're called the "Dot Switch."
In the demo, the user uses his Sony Xperia phone to activate various Sony technologies as he/she walks by them, including a gramophone (we're just as confused as you on that one), a Bravia TV set, a set of confetti cannons (again, confused), and finally a device that's revealed by a robot arm removing the tray cover.
An Interview with a Kopimist
So the story went viral not so long ago that a rather small 3,000 strong organisation, called the Church of Kopimism, had been confirmed as a religion by Swedish Officials. You may know this more as another coined term: 'The Church of file sharing.'
Starting as a term used in Pirate forum conversations to invite copying of information in the early 2000s, 'Kopimi' soon expanded in definition to a way of life and belief in the freedom to copy and be copied, not for political reasons; but for a much deeper purpose: sharing information, copying and building upon it just as a DNA strand's ability to replicate and evolve. The religion follows a key set of axioms, and carries a powerful missionary message:
- Copying of information is ethically right.
- Dissemination of information is ethically right.
- Copymixing is a sacred kind of copying, moreso than the perfect, digital copying, because it expands and enhances the existing wealth of information
- Copying or remixing information communicated by another person is seen as an act of respect and a strong expression of acceptance and Kopimistic faith.
- The internet is holy.
- Code is law.
From all to one and from one to all – and then back again – exchange without beginning and without end. Everything to everyone’s delight, and everybody’s joy of it all. No one is excluded from the global community of knowledge and information sharing. Every believer has all knowledge – all knowledge is spread by every believer to all people without exception. Start the exponential cascade.
Source: Kopimism USA
Christopher Carmean is in no way of special status beyond being a registered Kopimist living in America, as he urged to tell us before we began to ask him questions: "I am merely an enthusiastic Kopimist, hoping to share the faith in the USA and ultimately establish a legal non-profit entity to conduct religious services and charitable work." This made us much more appreciative, and all the more curious to hear his story.
The iPad That Fell From Space And Lived To Tell The Tale
Like it or loathe it, like a good portion of modern consumables, Apple’s iPad is far from the most robust pieces of technology, and the day it finally gives in to the strains you impart on it is something we all fear.
Where aesthetics and ergonomics often come at the cost of shock absorption and damage proofing, it’s no wonder accessory manufacturers have enjoyed terrific growth in the wake of ever more expensive, yet ever more everyday, electronic gadgets; from smartphones, to tablets and immensely popular e-book readers. Meanwhile, companies such as Motorola have built whole marketing campaigns around the ruggedness of its phones – such as in the case of its ‘Defy’ handset which was labelled, hyperbolically perhaps, as ‘life proof’.
Editorial: Smart TV is not a smart move
So a great deal of the buzz at CES this year has surrounded the idea of 'Smart TV,' as every company fell over themselves to try and create the competition to a product that we don't even know for sure of it's existence, the real Apple TV.
The vision behind this year's movement is that of convergence. Some have gone the Google TV route, whereas others have gone for a proprietary interface (LG's gone for a Wii-style control system), all options implementing instances of the internet, the participatory nature of web 2.0, and technologies more computer-esque. Of course, if Vizio's CTO Matt McRae is to be taken at his word, the prediction is that we'll see an internet TV service provide 50-100 channels in 18 months time (interviewed by The Verge), making the 'web connected' part of my argument completely pointless.
But the idea of a TV is not due for a further 'smart' revolution, because as consumers, we (well...I) don't want it to be.