| TRENDING STORIES IN TECH & GADGETS | | | | | | | ALL STORIES IN TECH & GADGETS | | |
| Apple MacBook Air Patented; Beware, Ultrabook Makers | | Wednesday, February 15, 2012 10:33 PM | Pete Pachal |
|  Apple was just awarded 19 patents, one of which is for the design of the MacBook Air. In theory, Apple could leverage its patent on the Air to try and block manufacturers of other light, thin laptops from marketing their products in the U.S. The patent, No. D654,072, refers to an "ornamental design for an electronic device," and lists Steve Jobs as one of its inventors. While the term "MacBook Air" isn't cited, the drawings of a laptop with tapered design is unmistakable. Just before the patent was awarded on Valentine's Day, a report on 9to5 Mac alleged that Apple had approached one of its Taiwanese suppliers, Pegatron, about ceasing production of another laptop with an eerily similar design, the Asustek Zenbook. Pegatron, which recently began manufacturing iPhones for Apple, will reportedly cease Zenbook production in March, forcing Asus to look elsewhere. Although the action, if true, occurred prior to the date when the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office awarded Apple its patent on the MacBook Air, it shows that Apple won't hesitate to move against any competitor it sees as copying its ideas. The patent could embolden Apple to go after other makers of Ultrabooks, the Windows PC world's answer to the MacBook Air, a project that Intel spearheaded. SEE ALSO: How Intel Plans to Make Ultrabooks a Lot Cheaper/a> There are several Ultrabooks on the market now, with dozens more on the way. If Apple decides to go after Air clones the way it's waged its legal war against Android manufacturers, the consumer PC industry could be in trouble. Many companies -- with Intel in the lead -- have a lot riding on Ultrabooks, and the prospect of fighting Apple in court would make any CEO nervous. However, there's a simple way around the patent: Just design something different. Ultrabooks like the HP Spectre and Lenovo Yoga look nothing like the MacBook Air and should be in the clear. However, Dell and Samsung -- Apple's favorite legal target -- might want to start preparing counterarguments. BONUS: The Best, Worst and Craziest Ultrabooks From CES 2012 |
| Roomba in Space? Swiss Robot Spacecraft to Clean Up Orbital Junk [VIDEO] | | Wednesday, February 15, 2012 10:02 PM | Joann Pan |
|  A team of Swiss astronauts and university professors are working to create a robot spacecraft called CleanSpace One, which will grab inactive satellite parts from space and bring them back to Earth. About 700 active satellites are in orbit around Earth, sending us weather, phone, television and GPS signals. But they are in constant danger of smashing into old inactive satellites. "It has become essential to be aware of the existence of this debris and the risks that are run by its proliferation," says Claude Nicollier, an astronaut and professor at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. A 2009 collision between American Satellite Iridium with an inactive Russian satellite caused $55 million worth of damage. The accident also left 2,000 additional pieces of debris in space. Thousands of satellites have launched since Sputnik's 1957 pioneering voyage into space. Over 16,000 pieces of broken and inactive satellites have collected in orbit causing a risk of collisions. SEE ALSO: NASA Wants To Send Astronauts To Mars Within 20 Years in New Deep Space Vehicle Before CleanSpace One is ready for space, there are technological hurdles to overcome. One being the machine's ability to come within range of an object in space, to be close enough to capture it. Another hurdle is developing robotic arms that can "grab" the item. After being captured, the debris will be taken by the robot spacecraft back into the Earth's atmosphere, where both will disintegrate upon re-entry. Although space junk has been proposed as a serious threat to NASA equipment and personnel, this is currently a university-funded project and not a full-fledged multi-million dollar development, EPFL members say. The maiden voyage will cost about $11 million, which the EFPL space team is hoping to raise over three to five years. Considering insurance premiums for satellites already go for about $20 billion, companies may be prompted to donate to the cause so insurance premiums don't increase if the problem gets worse. Thumbnail image courtesy of EPFL. |
| Path Releases Valentine's Day Metrics in Wake of Privacy Controversy | | Wednesday, February 15, 2012 9:07 PM | Kate Freeman |
|  Path released a list of Valentine's Day stats Wednesday, just one week after a privacy controversy prompted Path's CEO to issue an apology. In a press release, Path lists mentions for certain terms such as "romance," "engaged," and "single" on Valentine's Day. The stats are somewhat interesting, however it seems ill-timed considering the hot water Path was in last week surrounding privacy issues with its app. Developer Arun Thampi discovered that users unknowingly submit their entire address book to Path's servers through the app, reporting the issue on his blog Feb. 8. Path CEO Dave Morin issued an apology on the company's blog that same day, admitting Path made a mistake. He added that the information was only used to improve the "Add Friends" feature and alert users when a contact joined Path. Morin wrote that user's address books were sent to servers "over an encrypted connection" and "stored securely on our servers using industry standard firewall technology." The way Path sourced this Valentine's data is different from last week's issue. With aggregate usage data, it analyzes all Path users as a whole without looking at any one individual. Numerous social network companies are privy to information about popular terms and what you're accessing on their sites without violating privacy policies. But this new batch of information could possibly keep concerns about what information companies such as Path can access front-and-center in user's minds. Last week's Path problem was a result of the fact the app didn't ask users' permission before it accessed their information -- a rule for all iOS apps. Permissions on Facebook's new apps drew similar concern from some experts and generated criticism, because to access the app, the opt-in agreement is usually mandatory. Here are the stats from the press release: Path metrics for Valentine's Day in the U.S. on February 14, 2012: Comments with the word "love" on Path up 26% Comments with the words "romantic" or "romance" up 153% Comments using the words "marry," "date" or "engage" up 54% Negative comments about Valentine's Day up 38% Comments with the word "single," up 53% Percentages of moments tagged with other people up 33% Love (hearts), 43.5% Happy (smiley face), 25% Laugh (laughing face), 18% Surprise (surprised face), 8.6% Sad (sad face), 4.9% Top 10 songs people listened to on Valentine's Day: Someone like You by Adele Young, Wild and Free (feat. Bruno Mars) by Wiz Khalifa Set Fire to the Rain by Adele We Found Love (feat. Calvin Harris) by Rihanna A Thousand Years by Christina Perry It Will Rain by Bruno Mars The One That Got Away by Katy Perry Paradise by Coldplay I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston Take Care (feat. Rihanna) by Drake Top 10 Artists listened to on Path: Drake Adele Rihanna Coldplay Beyonce Whitney Houston Bruno Mars Chris Brown Katy Perry Maroon 5 Average time users went to sleep, 12:11 a.m. What information do you feel comfortable providing to social networking sites? Tell us in the comments. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, oonal |
| Why QR Codes Won't Last | | Wednesday, February 15, 2012 7:40 PM | Jon Barocas |
|  Jon Barocas is the founder and CEO of bieMEDIA, a Denver-based online marketing and media solutions company that specializes in video content production and distribution, mobile visual search, technology platforms, SEO, VSEO and more. Like most technology fans, I am always ready and willing to try any technology that promises to simplify my life. QR codes seemed to present an accessible and uniform way for people with smart devices to interact with advertising, marketing and media. Those little squares of code seemed to open a world of opportunity and potential. But after using them for a length of time, I shifted my perspective. My initial honeymoon with QR codes was very short-lived. The initial rush that I had received from trying to frame the code on my device had lost its luster. I started to view QR codes as a barrier to additional information. And in many instances, the rewards (whatever I received as a result of scanning the code) did not measure up to the effort of the transaction itself. Consider a recent study by comScore, which states that only 14 million American mobile device users have have interacted with a QR code. In essence, less than 5% of the American public has scanned a QR code. So where's the disconnect? Inadequate technology, lack of education and a perceived dearth of value from QR codes are just three of the reasons mobile barcodes are not clicking with Americans. But it goes deeper than that. Humans are visual animals. We have visceral reactions to images that a QR code can never evoke; what we see is directly linked to our moods, our purchasing habits and our behaviors. It makes sense, then, that a more visual alternative to QR codes would not only be preferable to consumers, but would most likely stimulate more positive responses to their presence. The QR Alternative Enter mobile visual search (MVS). With MVS, you simply point at a product or logo and shoot a picture with your smartphone's built-in camera. Within seconds, the MVS application will provide product or company information, or even the option to make a purchase right then and there on your mobile device. MVS is a far more compelling and interactive tool to enable mobile marketing and commerce. In today's increasingly mobile world, instant gratification is the norm, and taking the extra step of finding a QR code scanner on your mobile device no longer makes sense. With MVS, you are interacting with images that are familiar and desirable, not a square of code that elicits no reaction. The opportunities are boundless with MVS. Unlike two-dimensional barcodes and QR codes, MVS will have wrap-around and three-dimensional recognition capabilities. Even traditional advertising will be revitalized with MVS. For example, picture an interactive print campaign that incorporates MVS as part of a competition or game. Marketers can offer instant gratification in the form of videos, mobile links, coupons or discounts as incentive for taking the best pictures of a particular product or logo. The world has already started to migrate to MVS. For example, companies in Argentina and South Korea currently allow commuters waiting for subways or buses to view images of groceries or office supplies. Embedded within these images are recognitions triggers: Smartphone users place and pay for an order to be delivered or picked up within minutes. Also, MVS can cash in on word-of-mouth marketing. Marketers will seamlessly link their campaigns to social networks so consumers can share photos and rewards, such as vouchers, coupons or music downloads, with their friends and followers. QR Code Security Risks In addition to being a more versatile medium, mobile visual search is also more secure than QR code technology. Cybercriminals are able to cloak smartphone QR code attacks due to the nature of the technology - QR codes' entire purpose is to store data within the code. There is no way to know where that code is going to take you: a legitimate website, infected site, malicious app or a phishing site. MVS's encryption modality will eliminate the opportunity for malicious code to download to your smartphone. Recently, there have been documented cases of QR code misuse and abuse around the globe. For instance, infected QR codes can download an app that embeds a hidden SMS texting charge in your monthly cellphone bill. QR codes can also be used to gain full access to a smartphone - Internet access, camera, GPS, read/write local storage and contact data. All of the data from a smartphone can be downloaded and stolen, putting the user at risk for identity theft -- without the user noticing. Mobile visual search is a safer and more secure technology that can provide more information and content than a QR code, without as many security risks. By focusing on real-world objects and images rather than code, MVS lessens the risk of a virus or Trojan attack. Safety, security and versatility -- there are many reasons that MVS will supplant QR codes. However, there is one important, largely overlooked reason to favor MVS over QR codes: For the first time, we will be able connect with our actual surroundings in a truly interactive way. We will be able to provide a virtual marketplace that is familiar and accessible. Humanizing this interaction and making it more visual are the foundations of MVS's imminent success. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, youngvet |
| iPad 3: Which Features Do You Want? [POLL] | | Wednesday, February 15, 2012 4:10 PM | Todd Olmstead |
|  The iPad 3 rumor mill is ramping up, with the latest report that Apple's newest tablet offering will feature 4G connectivity. Many expect the next iteration of the iPad to be unveiled at an Apple event in early March, though Apple has yet to announce such an event. Behind the latest wave of rumors come reports that resales of current iPad products are shooting up. If you're an owner of an iPad looking to upgrade, now might be the time to resell -- though at a risk, of course, as we don't actually know when the new device will arrive. Of course, you could spend all your time trying to keep up with the latest Apple rumors and still not actually know anything. Nevertheless we enjoy the endless speculation. I asked Mashable's expert staff what features they want to see and what they hear users say they're craving the most in a new iPad. Our poll below reflects the most common and most realistic expectations. There were some more outlandish responses, too, for ideas that are unlikely to appear in the next iPad. For example, Pete Pachal suggested he'd like to see a bendable body, solar charging capability, and handwriting recognition. Not to be outdone, Matt Silverman suggested...cupholders. We want to hear what you're hoping to see. Take our poll below and let us know in the comments what features we've left out. iPad 3: Which Features Do You Want the Most? |
| Apple: Access to Contacts Will Require Explicit Permission | | Wednesday, February 15, 2012 3:10 PM | Zoe Fox |
|  Apple said Wednesday that iOS apps accessing users' contact lists will require explicit permission, following a week of accusations that a number of iPhone apps were storing data on their servers. "Apps that collect or transmit a user's contact data without their prior permission are in violation of our guidelines," Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr told AllThingsD. "We're working to make this even better for our customers, and as we have done with location services, any app wishing to access contact data will require explicit user approval in a future software release." The recent controversy began after an OS X developer discovered Path had been storing users' contact lists. While Path CEO Dave Morin quickly apologized, other apps such as Twitter, Foursquare and Yelp came forward to state they planned to change their mobile permission settings. Apple's response comes on the heels on an inquiry from the U.S. government. Two members of congress wrote a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook Wednesday, expressing concern that app developers are accessing and storing data without obtaining user permission. Reps. Henry Waxman and G.K. Butterfield, both ranking members on the subcommittee on commerce, manufacturing and trade, asked Cook to examine the steps required to get data stored on users' phones. What do you think of Apple's statement? Let us know in the comments. Here's the complete text of the letter: Dear Mr. Cook: Last week, independent iOS app developer Arun Thampi blogged about his discovery that the social networking app "Path" was accessing and collecting the contents of his iPhone address book without ever having asked for his consent. The information taken without his permission - or that of the individual contacts who own that information - included full names, phone numbers, and email addresses. Following media coverage of Mr. Thampi's discovery, Path's Co-Founder and CEO Dave Morin quickly apologized, promised to delete from Path's servers all data it had taken from its users' address books, and announced the release of a new version of Path that would prompt users to opt in to sharing their address book contacts. This incident raises questions about whether Apple's iOS app developer policies and practices may fall short when it comes to protecting the information of iPhone users and their contacts. The data management section of your iOS developer website states: "iOS has a comprehensive collection of tools and frameworks for storing, accessing, and sharing data. . . . iOS apps even have access to a device's global data such as contacts in the Address Book, and photos in the Photo Library." The app store review guidelines section states: "We review every app on the App Store based on a set of technical, content, and design criteria. This review criteria is now available to you in the App Store Review Guidelines." This same section indicates that the guidelines are available only to registered members of the iOS Developer Program. However, tech blogs following the Path controversy indicate that the iOS App Guidelines require apps to get a user's permission before "transmidata about a user". In spite of this guidance, claims have been made that "there's a quiet understanding among many iOS app developers that it is acceptable to send a user's entire address book, without their permission, to remote servers and then store it for future reference. It's common practice, and many companies likely have your address book stored in their database. One blogger claims to have conducted a survey of developers of popular iOS apps and found that 13 of 15 had a "contacts database with millions of records" - with one claiming to have a database containing "Mark Zuckerberg's cell phone number, Larry Ellison's home phone number and Bill Gates' cell phone number." The fact that the previous version of Path was able to gain approval for distribution through the Apple iTunes Store despite taking the contents of users' address books without their permission suggests that there could be some truth to these claims. To more fully understand and assess these claims, we are requesting that you respond to the following questions: Please describe all iOS App Guidelines that concern criteria related to the privacy and security of data that will be accessed or transmitted by an app. Please describe how you determine whether an app meets those criteria. What data do you consider to be "data about a user" that is subject to the requirement that the app obtain the user's consent before it is transmitted? To the extent not addressed in the response to question 2, please describe how you determine whether an app will transmit "data about a user" and whether the consent requirement has been met. How many iOS apps in the U.S. iTunes Store transmit "data about a user"? Do you consider the contents of the address book to be "data about a user"? Do you consider the contents of the address book to be data of the contact? If not, please explain why not. Please explain how you protect the privacy and security interests of that contact in his or her information. How many iOS apps in the U.S. iTunes Store transmit information from the address book? How many of those ask for the user's consent before transmitting their contacts' information? You have built into your devices the ability to turn off in one place the transmission of location information entirely or on an app-by-app basis. Please explain why you have not done the same for address book information. Please provide the information requested no later than February 29, 2012. If you have any questions regarding this request, you can contact Felipe Mendoza with the Energy and Commerce Committee Staff at 202-226-3400. Sincerely, Henry A. Waxman, Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade G.K. Butterfield, Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade cc: Dave Morin, Path, Co-Founder and CEO Image courtesy of iStockphoto, courtneyk |
| iPad Owners Rush to Sell Devices Ahead of iPad 3 Announcement [VIDEO] | | Wednesday, February 15, 2012 2:40 PM | Lauren Indvik |
|  Apple hasn't yet officially announced the launch date of the iPad 3, or even confirmed its existence. But owners of the first and second generations of Apple's tablet are already rushing to sell their devices based on reports that the iPad 3 will debut in March. According to the Boston Herald, Gazelle, an online service that buys used electronics and resells them through retail outlets, saw a 500% increase in iPad resale orders last Thursday, a number that grew steadily stronger over the weekend. A similar service, NextWorth, saw a 400% traffic increase to the iPad section of its website and in the volume of iPads available for resale. Last year, Gazelle bought 10,000 original iPads from the time of the iPad 2 announcement to its launch. Those who sold their iPads first were able to fetch the highest prices. Thus, iPad owners who are looking to upgrade to the iPad 3 are likely smart to trade in their iPads now. Thumbnail image courtesy of iStockphoto, wdstock |
| Samsung Galaxy Note Breaks the Size Barrier for Phones [REVIEW] | | Wednesday, February 15, 2012 11:24 AM | Pete Pachal |
|  Without a doubt, the Samsung Galaxy Note is the biggest smartphone you've ever seen. It's still nice and thin (just 0.38 inches), so don't worry about flashbacks to the Zack Morris phones of yesteryear. Still, why would you want such a big screen in a phone? Samusng has a few ideas, some of them brand new. With a 5-inch screen, the Galaxy Note blurs the line between phone and tablet. Any function that benefits from extra screen space effectively gets an upgrade on the Note, and there are a lot of them. Still, let's be clear: you buy this device from AT&T with a contract. It has a built-in data connection (4G LTE, thank you very much) and -- oh yeah -- it can make voice calls over wireless networks. This is a phone. The Note's sheer size has both advantages and disadvantages. With more real estate, the menu screen has room for 30 app icons. That's amazing, though it's kind of too many -- looking for an app in a 5x6 array definitely makes it a bit harder to lock on to a target. Reading, however, is a better experience than almost any phone, letting you get through lots of text in emails and articles before you need to scroll. If you're a slow reader, though, you'll need to increase the time before the screen goes dark from inactivity. The Stylus Returns Besides the gigantic screen, the Note has another piece of hardware that stands out from the multitude of smartphones today: a stylus, which Samsung calls the S Pen. As all of Twitter has observed, its presence feels more like an odd throwback than a bonus, Still, it's important to note that you can completely ignore it (or lose it) and still use the Galaxy Note just fine. Physically, the stylus is unremarkable, and it looks like any number of stylii from the past 15+ years, with one difference: there's a button. The stylus has no battery, but somehow the Note knows when you're pressing it, giving your taps an extra dimension of functionality (more on that in a bit). The S Pen is married to the Galaxy Note -- it won't work with other touchscreens, failing to get any response from the other phones and tablets on hand in the Mashable offices. SEE ALSO: Samsung Galaxy Note Up For Pre-Order Online At AT&T So what sort of tricks can you do with the delightfully retro S Pen? First, there are several drawing apps (surprise, a few are preloaded) that let you get your stylus on, like Touch Physics clone called Crayon Physics, where you draw objects to coax a ball across the screen to hit a star. Cute -- and addictive. But the app Samsung wants you to use the most is S Memo, which you can call up while running any app (even the phone) by holding down he stylus button and double tapping. That way, you can stop and take notes -- handwritten notes -- anytime, anywhere, no matter what you're doing. Samsung even throws in handwriting-to-text software to translate your scribble into something intelligible. In practice, the concept isn't as good as, um, on paper. As a reporter, I often have to take notes, but writing on the Note feels alien after using an actual notebook. You can simulate an actual pen better with a $50 accessory, but the whole idea just feels better suited for quick Post-It-type messages. Even for those, I'd wager most smartphone users are so good at dashing them off with their thumbs that S Memo would just be redundant. The handwriting recognition is far from flawless as well (shown in the photo below -- click to see it larger).
Android, Supersized Let's talk software. The Note runs Android 2.3.6 (a version of "Gingerbread"), and it comes with a good chunk of bloatware from AT&T and others. You can uninstall some of those apps, of course, but it's a chore, and if you're used to iOS, you'll wonder who the hell filled your phone with a bunch of junk before you even opened the box. Specific to the Note -- indeed, all Samsung devices going forward -- is something called AllShare Play. Samsung snuck out this cloud-sharing service at CES, which automatically uploads photos, videos, music and even those silly S Memos to the cloud, letting you access them from any device. Check that: any device that can run AllShare, which only includes PCs and Android portables. Per usual, Samsung has no interest in cultivating any favor with Mac or iOS users. SEE ALSO: Unboxing the Samsung Galaxy Note/a> AllShare allows sharing to the cloud or directly to any DLNA device, which is nice, although that's really a feature just for hardcore power users. Ultimately, I don't see anything so compelling about AllShare that I would use it over Google's built-in cloud integration. Just one example: after I set up my Google account on the Note, every single photo and video I took on the last Android phone I reviewed was right there in my gallery app. Google Music works similarly. Why would I use something that does the exact same thing in a more limited way? Big on Detail All that said, Samsung says it considers the Galaxy Note a "superphone," and it's definitely got the guts to match. The Note packs a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, and it can also access AT&T's budding 4G LTE network, giving it some incredible download prowess. When I ran the Speed Test app, I was able to 12.1 megabits per second (Mbps) download speed sitting at my desk -- that cranked up to 32.8 Mpbs near a window. One test even went as high as 50 Mbps. Remember, though, that there are few phones on AT&T's high-speed network now, so that will probably go down a bit as more LTE phones are sold. But it'll always be immensely faster than 3G. Does such speed and processing power give you a lot of practical benefits? If you do a lot of file transfer, especially video, to and from your phone, absolutely (though you should pick your data plan carefully if so). However, after streaming a few YouTube videos, I saw lots of pixelation in supposedly "high quality" versions available on mobile. You can see what I'm talking about below in a screencap from the recent trailer for The Avengers. Up top is a close-up of Robert Downey, Jr. on the Galaxy Note; below, the same moment on the iPhone.
The Note's pixelation may have had something to do with YouTube itself (Vimeo looked better), but it's demonstrative of how the guts of your phone only open up potential -- a lot of things need to align to really take advantage of them. Is It Notable? The Galaxy Note is a lonely giant among smartphones, certainly. For all the capabilities and extra breathing room that bigger screen bestows, there's a clear trade-off in gracefulness. The Note is an unwieldy beast -- if you have small hands or just wear jeans a lot, it probably isn't for you. For those tall enough for this ride, however, the Galaxy Note's tricks aren't really exciting or game-changing, at least outside of a Super Bowl commercial. At the end of the day, it's just a really big phone. Corrections: This review initially had the wrong spec for the Galaxy Note's processor -- the correct spec is 1.5GHz. Also, it misidentified the game that Crayon Physics is similar to -- the game I was thinking of was Touch Physics. |
| The Mashable SXSWi House Returns to Austin in 2012 | | Wednesday, February 15, 2012 10:37 AM | Jennifer Diamond |
| 
It's that time of the year again, where members of the digital and technology communities come together in Austin, TX for the SXSW Interactive festival, March 9-13. Amid five days of panels, presentations and networking opportunities, Mashable will be hosting one of the biggest and most memorable events at the festival: the Mashable SXSWi House. Working with SXSW and our partner sponsors, on Sunday, March 11 from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m., we will offer an exciting evening of music and networking with an open bar. Joining us will be San Francisco-based DJ duo A Plus D of Bootie, who will be spinning their world famous mashups at the Mashable SXSWi House. In addition, the Mashable editorial team will be in Austin in full force. Last year, Mashable was named the most buzzed-about brand during SXSWi, and this year we'll have some fun surprises for the SXSWi community that we'll be announcing soon. Details Date: Sunday, March 11, 2012 Time: 9 p.m. - 2 a.m. Location: Buffalo Billiards, 201 6th Street, Austin, TX Socialize: Follow #MashHouse on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Plancast and Instagram RSVP Policy The event is open to all 21+ SXSWi badge holders. Please RSVP on Eventbrite.
Photo highlights from last year's Mashable SXSWi House Presenting Sponsors |
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