April 2012
32 posts
8 tags
Pirate Bay must be blocked by all UK ISP's.
Controversial ruling set a few hours ago:
Sky, Everything Everywhere, TalkTalk, O2 and Virgin Media must all prevent their users from accessing the site.
BPI’s chief executive Geoff Taylor said: “The High Court has confirmed that The Pirate Bay infringes copyright on a massive scale.
“Its operators line their pockets by commercially exploiting music and other creative works...
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“First we thought the PC was a calculator. Then we found out how to turn numbers...”
– Douglas Adams on the PC.
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Raspberry Pi: The Next Step.
The Raspberry Pi, which is a small linux based computer selling for $25, has only just started shipping to its many customers after being introduced back in February.
I think this could be greatly used in schools, given out to students taking ICT, and being given an introduction into how a computer actually works. A great introduction like this would be really beneficial for them.
BBC News has a...
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The original 'Google Phone' in 2006.
Another interesting story from the Oracle vs. Google case ongoing:
At that time, touchscreen support wasn’t a requirement — in fact, the baseline specs required two soft menu keys, indicating that touchscreens weren’t really in the plan at all.
Back in 2006, Google had Android working on TI’s OMAP850 processor “in three form factors,” and functional apps included...
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Apple WWDC 2012 announced for June 11th to June...
The future of Mountain Lion and iOS for 2012 is unveiled on June 11th!
Source.
Update: Tickets sell out in 2 hours. Compared with 12 hours last year and a week the year before.
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Skype for Windows Phone is useless, and here's...
The Skype app has to be open and displayed on the phone in order for someone to call them, otherwise if it’s in the background, nothing happens.
Skype 1.0 for Windows Phone lets you make Skype video and voice calls over 3G and WiFi, seach for and add contacts, and make calls to landlines. However, no one can call you via Skype unless you have the app open and running on your phone. Unlike...
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Google Drive launches.
Often rumoured, lately often leaked service finally launches:
Today, we’re introducing Google Drive—a place where you can create, share, collaborate, and keep all of your stuff. Whether you’re working with a friend on a joint research project, planning a wedding with your fiancé or tracking a budget with roommates, you can do it in Drive. You can upload and access all of your files, including...
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iPad app made on an iPad.
The future:
Cargo-Bot is the first game on the App Store developed using Codea, an iPad app for rapidly creating games and simulations.
Cargo-Bot was developed by Rui Viana using Codea. After creating an initial prototype he spent several months polishing and perfecting his design. The completed Codea project was then imported into the Codea Xcode Template (to be released soon) and published...
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Intel 'Ivy Bridge' launches.
Intel’s processors for 2012 have finally launched, with a lot of fuss over the ‘tri-gate’ transistor:
Intel hopes a new transistor technology, in development for 11 years, will help it challenge Arm’s reputation for energy efficiency.
“For the user, that means the benefits of better performance and energy use will continue for as far as Intel sees on the road...
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“Games are a trigger for adults to again become primitive, primal, as a way of...”
– Shigeru Miyamoto - Next Generation Magazine.
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Tim Cook meeting with Valve never took place.
The report that started it all from AppleInsider:
Apple’s chief executive Tim Cook reportedly visited the Bellevue, Washington headquarters of Valve Corporation earlier today, inciting questions about new potential for collaboration between the two companies.
Source.
Then founder and chairman of Valve, denies this on a podcast from yesterday:
We actually, we all sent mail to each...
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How Technology has no limits to anyone.
Something i posted on my Twitter a few weeks ago:
Inspiring, heartwarming, an amazing example of how technology can work, of how it has limitless possibilities.
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His iPad is the 'laptop', his Macbook Air is his...
No, I no longer wish I had an 11in Air. What I have here – a third-generation iPad and an Apple Wireless Keyboard – is better. I have better-than-good native iOS apps to handle almost all of my mobile needs. When only a desktop app will do, I have VNC, and/or the wonderful OnLive Desktop service that allows me to run Microsoft Office on a virtualised Windows 7 server.
My MacBook is still the...
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YouTube adds more editing features to Audio
We introduced AudioSwap to let you replace a video’s soundtrack for free with a song from our library of thousands of tracks. With more of you using AudioSwap and giving us lots of feedback, we have some cool improvements to share today in YouTube Audio Editing:
You asked for more tracks, and our library of songs now includes more than 150,000 tracks—and growing!
You can now mix music...
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Larry Page doesn't think 'Android is critical' to...
File under ‘what you must never say when in charge’:
When asked if he believed Android was a critical asset to Google around 2010, Page said: “I believe Android was very important for Google. I wouldn’t say it was critical.”
When asked whether Google’s board of directors was told that Android was critical to Google, Page stated that he wouldn’t be...
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Buying Instagram, the Zuckerberg way.
On the Friday & Saturday, he and the CEO of Instagram, Kevin Systrom, negotiated the small details, and on the Sunday, he told the board of directors he was going to use $1 Billion to buy them, no questions asked.
It was the first the board heard of what, later that day, would become Facebook’s largest acquisition ever, according to several people familiar with the matter. Mr....
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Mobile Operators unconvinced by Nokia's revival...
Skeptics among operators say the sleek, neon-colored phones are overpriced for what is not an innovative product, cite a lack of marketing dollars put behind the phones, and image problems caused by glitches in the battery and software of the early models.
“No one comes into the store and asks for a Windows phone,” said an executive in charge of mobile devices at a European...
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Twitter's Innovator Patent Agreement
Like many companies, we apply for patents on a bunch of these inventions. However, we also think a lot about how those patents may be used in the future; we sometimes worry that they may be used to impede the innovation of others. For that reason, we are publishing a draft of the Innovator’s Patent Agreement, which we informally call the “IPA”.
The IPA is a new way to do patent assignment that...
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Apple and Samsung CEO's to face off in court.
In a court filing late on Monday, both companies agreed to the settlement conference. U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh on Tuesday then referred the companies to a San Francisco-based magistrate judge who will lead the talks.
Along with Apple chief executive Tim Cook and Samsung CEO Choi Gee-sung, both companies’ general counsels will also participate, according to Koh’s order.
The two...
11 tags
Prince of Persia Source Code found and extracted...
The creator of the game ‘Prince of Persia’, Jordan Mechner, had a call from his dad in New York finding the original code in a box 3 weeks ago, in no less than 20 floppy disks amounting to 2mb.
Luckily, the code has been able to be copied from an Apple II to a modern day laptop, and it was only finished today without fault, incredible.
Jordan Mechner on Twitter.
EDIT: Jordan...
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4 Windows 8 Editions to Debut.
So Windows 8 and Windows Pro, Windows Enterprise and finally Windows RT (ARM).
Good to see there’s some common sense instead of the 10 or so editions from previous releases.
But the glaring omission to me is no Windows Media Player in RT, how will users be able to play their content as soon as they switch their device on?
Source.
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Free Dongle!
Although the Transformer Prime is not a professional GPS device, as part of our unwavering commitment to customers we are offering all Transformer Prime owners a free external GPS extension kit, called a dongle, which may help improve signal reception and optimize the user experience.
Imagine if Apple had to deal with this.
Source.
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35th Anniversary of the Apple II.
Put it this way: if Apple’s only computer had been the Apple I, it would be remembered today only by scholars with an arcane interest in the prehistory of the personal computer. But if the company had folded after releasing the Apple II, it would still be one of the best-known PC companies of all time. The II was — and is — that important.
Oddly, the first time i saw one wasn’t in a...
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iCloud's first Six Months.
‘At least in theory. The past six months have also shown that, without proper developer tools and a clear explanation of how things work in backend, things don’t “just work” — in fact, quite the opposite: some developers have given up entirely on building iCloud apps for now, others are wishing for new APIs that would make the platform suitable to their needs, while the ones who did...
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Meet the next Galaxy. May 3rd.
Answers on a postcard to what will be shown.
An event just over 2 weeks away on the Thursday in London, and if the rumours of a 10 megapixel camera and a 1080p screen is to be believed, it looks to be a good follow up to the unofficial flagship phone to Android.
Source.
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The Double-Sword of iTunes
Even though i do believe that iTunes is long overdue an overhaul, the legacy of the app across the many iOS devices it controls and manages would be a nightmare to control. Many people don’t like updating, they’re perfectly happy to stay on iTunes 9 if they can still manage their iOS device.
But even splitting the app up into different uses would cause confusion.
Would you really...
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“‘Just because we’re competing, doesn’t mean we have to be...”
– Steve Jobs on competing with Google while at D8. 