E.T. Can't Phone Home Yet: Landfill Search for Atari Game Halted[ Thu, 20 Mar 2014 23:30:29 GMT ]New Mexico environmental regulators are blocking two companies from digging up an Alamogordo landfill in search of a rumored cache of what some consider the worst Atari video game of all time.Game cartridges for "E.T.

Twitter Blocked Nationwide in Turkey: Reports[ Fri, 21 Mar 2014 00:01:33 GMT ]Twitter has reportedly been blocked throughout Turkey in what appears to be a government-initiated shutdown following through on the threats of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Twitter has offered alternative modes of access as it looks into the issue.

Satellite Data Dump Slows Hunt for Traces of Missing Plane[ Fri, 21 Mar 2014 00:32:37 GMT ]A satellite-imagery company said on Thursday that the sheer number of pictures covering a large swath of ocean explains why it took days to reveal what could be debris from the Malaysia Airlines jetliner that has been missing for nearly two weeks.DigitalGlobe Inc., a Longmont, Colo.

Megaupload's Kim Dotcom Loses Round in Fight Against Extradition[ Fri, 21 Mar 2014 01:03:45 GMT ]WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom on Friday suffered another blow to his fight against extradition to the United States to face online piracy charges after New Zealand's highest court rejected his appeal to access evidence to be presented at the hearing.

Why Turkey's Leader Has Vowed to 'Eradicate' Twitter[ Fri, 21 Mar 2014 08:31:37 GMT ]ISTANBUL, Turkey — Turkey has blocked Twitter hours after the prime minister vowed he’d “eradicate” the popular social media site.A controversial new internet law passed last month allows the country’s telecommunications authority to order content removed within hours without a court order.

Mt. Gox finds 200,000 missing bitcoins in unused wallet[ Fri, 21 Mar 2014 02:49:07 GMT ] (Credit: Bitcoin) Mt. Gox has discovered 200,000 missing bitcoins in a wallet no longer in use, the troubled Bitcoin exchange announced Thursday, reducing the number of missing bitcoins from 850,000 to 650,000. "We believed there were no bitcoins left in old wallets, but found 199,999.99 bitcoins on March 7," Mt. Gox Chief Executive Officer Mark Karpeles said in a document (PDF) released Thursday. Mt. Gox said it reported the discovery to attorneys on March 8 and moved the newfound bitcoins to offline storage. Related stories Mt. Gox update lets users see their Bitcoin balances New Bitcoin glitch: Blockchain suffers hours-long outage Dorian Nakamoto: Bitcoin was not my baby, period Once one of the largest and most popular Bitcoin exchanges, Mt. Gox filed for bankruptcy last month, saying it had lost nearly 750,000 customer bitcoins, as well as 100,000 of the exchange's own bitcoins, as a result of a security lapse. The discovery of the overlooked bitcoins apparently occurred before hackers hijacked and defaced Karpeles' Reddit account and personal blog with charges of fraud earlier this month. Hackers accused the exchange of secretly keeping some of the coins allegedly stolen in the fraudulent withdrawals and posted data allegedly lifted from Mt. Gox servers they said backed up their claims. The data purportedly showed that 951,116 bitcoins had been deposited with the exchange, more than 100,000 more than Mt. Gox claimed to have lost. The troubled exchange suspended customer withdrawals on February 7, claiming a fundamental flaw existed in Bitcoin that affected all transactions. Not long afterward, the exchange shut down altogether. Although Mt. Gox later apologized for the issue and said it had developed a workaround that would allow it to resume service, customers are still unable to make withdrawals. Related Links:Bitcoin losses spur Mt. Gox to bankruptcy filingMt. Gox CEO's blog hacked; alleged Bitcoin balances postedMt. Gox resigns from Bitcoin Foundation BoardHey, Mt. Gox: I want my two dollars! (or my .02 bitcoin)Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox offline amid 'insolvency' charges

Survey names LinkedIn chief top-rated CEO, Zuckerberg falls to No. 9[ Fri, 21 Mar 2014 07:01:00 GMT ] LinkedIn's CEO Jeff Weiner (left) chats with Demo chairman Matt Marshall at the 2010 Demo conference. (Credit: Josh Lowensohn/CNET) Leading a professional networking site must mean you know your p's and q's and have some social grace. So, it makes sense that LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner is beloved by his employees. In fact, Weiner is so well-liked that he has been crowned the highest-rated CEO for 2014. The honors come via hundreds of thousands of employee surveys across all industries submitted to company-review site Glassdoor. Every year, the site tallies up the votes and publishes the rankings of the 50 highest-rated CEOs in the US for companies with at least 1,000 employees (see full list below). This year, Weiner received a "perfect 100 percent approval rating," according to Glassdoor. Last year's winner, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, fell several spots to No. 9 overall -- down from a 99 percent approval rating to 93 percent. Weiner took the helm of LinkedIn in 2009, after being Yahoo's Network Division executive vice president. He has since seen the professional networking site go public and swell its member base to 259 million users. Over the past year, Weiner has focused on new strategies like emphasizing content and mobile apps to attract a wider variety of business users. In December, LinkedIn was also voted the No. 3 best company to work for in the US. "The CEO is what helps spread the culture. He emphasizes culture," one LinkedIn associate Web developer wrote of Weiner on Glassdoor. "Colleagues are top notch as developers, collaborators, and acquaintances. Leadership is excellent. Perks are amazing," another LinkedIn employee wrote. Related stories $7,000-per-month tech interns are making bank, says report What are the weirdest interview questions from tech companies? Twitter tops charts as best tech company to work for Apple, Google, Facebook don't pay the highest engineer salary Nokia, Yahoo rank among top companies for work-life balance Of the Top 50 highest-rated CEOs, 14 come from tech companies, including Google's Larry Page in 10th place, Salesforce's Marc Benioff in 12th place, Apple's Tim Cook in 17th place, Amazon's Jeff Bezos in 32nd place, and more. This makes tech the top industry represented on the list. Last year, 20 tech CEOs made the list, but a few have dropped off, such as Oracle's Larry Ellison and Dell's Michael Dell. This year, a female tech CEO also made the Top 50: Yahoo's Marissa Mayer squeezed in at No. 49 with a 79 percent approval rating. "Marissa is cool and taking bold steps to move the needle," a Yahoo senior developer wrote on Glassdoor. "Presently she has tail winds beneath her wings. Good for general morale." While Glassdoor's list is a survey, it's voluntary rather than scientific. The figures come from employees who actively go to Glassdoor's site to rate their companies and bosses. Glassdoor said this Top 50 CEOs report includes only CEOs who received at least 100 employee ratings over the past year. The average CEO approval rating on Glassdoor for all CEOs is roughly 65 percent to 70 percent. (Credit: Glassdoor) Related Links:LinkedIn launches in China$7,000-per-month tech interns are making bank, says reportObama's commerce secretary to petition Silicon Valley on jobsChange this LinkedIn setting before starting your job searchYahoo launches its rumored integration with Yelp

Obama to meet again with tech leaders over surveillance[ Fri, 21 Mar 2014 07:10:17 GMT ] President Obama met at the White House with top tech execs last December, including Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer. (Credit: Official White House Photo by Pete Souza) President Obama plans to meet with a select group of technology CEOs on Friday to discuss "issues of privacy, technology, and intelligence," a White House official told Politico. A full list of chief executives was not made available by the White House, but industry sources told Politico that Google, Facebook, and Yahoo had been invited to the meeting. CNET has contacted those companies for comment on their participation and will update this report when we learn more. It's the second such meeting Obama has held with Silicon Valley executives in recent months over the controversial US electronic surveillance programs. During a meeting in December with the president over ways to improve the beleaguered Healthcare.gov Web site, a collection of tech leaders that included Apple CEO Tim Cook, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, and Twitter CEO Dick Costolo urged the president to move swiftly on reforming the federal government's surveillance programs. One of the chief executives expected to attend Friday's meeting is Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, who one week ago said he telephoned Obama to express his frustration over the National Security Agency's surveillance practices. Zuckerberg's call came after documents leaked by whistle-blower Edward Snowden revealed that the NSA uses an automated system called Turbine to hack into millions of computers. A frequent critic of the NSA, Zuckerberg wrote in an update to his Facebook page that the company he founded was working to identify flaws in others' services to "keep the Internet strong" but said that the US government needed to be "much more transparent about what they're doing." Related stories Gmail: Encryption is now mandatory NSA top lawyer says tech giants knew about data collection NSA can reportedly record every call made in a foreign country "I've been so confused and frustrated by the repeated reports of the behavior of the US government. When our engineers work tirelessly to improve security, we imagine we're protecting you against criminals, not our own government," Zuckerberg said. Google CEO Larry Page added his criticism on Wednesday during the TED conference in Vancouver, saying that it was "tremendously disappointing that the government sort of secretly did all these things and didn't tell us." "I don't think we can have a democracy if we have to protect our users from the government [and] from stuff that we never had a conversation about," he said. "We need to know what the parameters of it is, what the surveillance is going to do, and how and why." Related Links:British spy agency stored Yahoo Webcam images, report saysWhite House faces options for regulating NSA data snooping -- reportNSA top lawyer says tech giants knew about data collectionIBM: No, we did not help NSA spy on customersSnowden at SXSW: The NSA set fire to the future of the Internet

Transcend curries 4K favor with faster SD cards[ Fri, 21 Mar 2014 11:26:05 GMT ] Transcend's Extreme model of UHS-1 Class 3 SD card has read speeds of 95MBps, write speeds of 85MBps, and a maximum capacity of 64GB. (Credit: Transcend) Memory card maker Transcend announced higher-speed SD cards on Friday that are geared for videographers shooting high-resolution 4K video. The Transcend's new SDHC and SDXC cards are graded UHS-1 Class 3 and come in two varieties. The "Extreme" models have read and write speeds of 95MBps and 85MBps, respectively. The non-extreme models have read and write speeds of 95MBps and 60MBps, respectively. The newer UHS-1 (Ultra High Speed) Class 3 specification requires sustained write performance of 30MBps. Related stories Toshiba announces Exceria line of high-speed SD cards Need room for 4,000 photos? Try SanDisk's 128GB SD card Lexar deals out a 600X hand of SDXC memory cards Lexar's flash card reader supports USB 3, SDXC Yes, SD card categorization is a bottomless pit of acronyms. Here are two more: SDHC and SDXC, which govern maximum capacity. SDHC models top out at 32GB capacity, but SDXC can go much, much higher. Transcend's SDXC models reach 128GB, enough for 8 hours of UltraHD video shot at a resolution of 4096x2160, with a 35Mbps bitrate and the H.264 AVC compression standard. The Extreme models top out at 64GB, though. Trandscend's SDXC Extreme models cost $59 for 32GB and $119 for 64GB. The somewhat slower models cost $49 for 64GB and $109 for 128GB. The SD Card Association's attempt to demystify their flash cards' transfer-speed ratings. (Credit: SD Card Association) Related Links:Tight on memory? SanDisk microSD cards hit 128GBTranscend gives Mac Pro a 128GB memory upgrade optionSynology flagship DSM 5.0 NAS operating system now liveGet Password Depot password manager (Win) for freeSound bite: Despite Pono's promise, experts pan HD audio

Moto 360 will use sapphire glass, wireless charging, report says[ Fri, 21 Mar 2014 11:28:56 GMT ] A photo of the Moto 360. (Credit: Motorola) Motorola has touted the premium materials for its upcoming Moto 360 smartwatch, which could include a step-up in material for its face. Related stories Voice is not enough: Motion is key to Android Wear Moto 360 smartwatch to ship in limited quantity, says report Motorola unveils Android Wear-powered Moto 360 Google's Project Tango phone rocks four cameras Motorola punches up phones with college colors, designs The Moto 360 could employ a sapphire glass face, according to G for Games. In addition, the site reported that the Moto 360 could also use an OLED display, as well as magnetic induction wireless charging. CNET has contacted a Motorola representative for comment, and we'll update the story when the company responds. These rumored details seem to fit in with what Motorola has hinted at with the Moto 360. Sapphire is often used in watches, and is a premium material that would set the Moto 360 apart from other devices. Other smartwatches, like smartphones, have used Corning's Gorilla Glass. The idea of wireless charging was already speculated upon when Motorola confirmed there would be no USB port for charging. Jim Wicks, the Motorola executive in charge of the Moto 360, would only say that the company was working on a "secret" method of charging the device. OLED display technology, meanwhile, is commonly used in smartphones, and has been touted for its energy efficiency. Wicks wouldn't go into detail, but noted that power management was a priority for the company. Related Links:Corning exec slams sapphire -- rumored for Apple deviceMotorola wants in on the smartwatch game, too -- and soonMoto 360 smartwatch to ship in limited quantity, says reportMoto G coming to Republic WirelessMotorola unveils Android Wear-powered Moto 360

TED celebrates 30 years[ Thu, 20 Mar 2014 11:18:51 EDT ]Celebrate TED's thirtieth birthday with some of its top moments.

'Flappy Bird' will fly back to app stores[ Thu, 20 Mar 2014 05:32:55 EDT ]Let the flapless among us take heart. "Flappy Bird," the now defunct mobile sensation, will one day rise like a phoenix and fling itself awkwardly into an app store near you.

Twitter unearths your first tweet[ Thu, 20 Mar 2014 16:49:36 EDT ]Unless you have a photographic memory or just joined Twitter last week, you probably don't recall your first tweet.

Meet Sony's 'Project Morpheus'[ Wed, 19 Mar 2014 17:18:18 EDT ]Virtual reality, the emerging 3D technology many expect to be the next quantum leap in the video gaming world, just got a little more real.

Twitter unearths your first tweet[ Thu, 20 Mar 2014 16:49:36 EDT ]Unless you have a photographic memory or just joined Twitter last week, you probably don't recall your first tweet.

At TED, Vision of the 'Internet of Things' Takes Shape[ Wed, 19 Mar 2014 23:01:33 GMT ]A day will come when ovens recognize the food placed inside them and automatically cook the dish according to their owners’ preferences.

HP CEO Meg Whitman on 3-D Printing: 'We're on the Case'[ Wed, 19 Mar 2014 23:47:44 GMT ]SAN FRANCISCO — Hewlett-Packard Co. will outline plans to enter the commercial 3-D printing market in June, saying it has solved a number of technical problems that have hindered broader adoption of the high-tech manufacturing process.

Marathon Bombing Survivor Rumbas on MIT 'Dancing Leg'[ Thu, 20 Mar 2014 00:49:29 GMT ]A professional dancer who lost her left leg below the knee in the Boston Marathon bombings danced on Wednesday for the first time since the blasts.Adrianne Haslet-Davis danced the rumba to Enrique Iglesias’ “Ring My Bells” at the TED conference in Vancouver, B.C.

$500,000 in Bitcoin Just Bought Someone a Villa in Bali[ Thu, 20 Mar 2014 00:49:29 GMT ]A brand-new villa on the southern coast of Bali has just changed hands — for somewhere above 800 bitcoins. In what appears to be the largest real-world-money purchase in bitcoin's history, an anonymous buyer has picked up a new house for the cryptocurrency equivalent of about $500,000.

'Revenge Porn' Site Ordered to Pay Ohio Woman $385,000[ Thu, 20 Mar 2014 01:35:47 GMT ]The founders of a so-called "revenge porn" site were ordered by a federal judge in Ohio to pay almost $400,000 to a woman who said the site posted nude pictures of her when she was a minor.U.S. District Judge Gregory L. Frost entered a default judgment Tuesday against Kevin C.

Revenge porn site operators ordered to pay woman $385K[ Thu, 20 Mar 2014 04:30:06 GMT ] The founders of a revenge porn site have been ordered to pay a woman $385,000 for posting sexually explicit images of her on their Web site. U.S. District Judge Gregory L. Frost entered the default judgment Tuesday against Eric Chanson and Kevin Bollaert, who ran You Got Posted, a Web site that allegedly posted more than 10,000 sexually explicit photographs of individuals without their permission and then demanded payment for removal of the images. The unidentified plaintiff sued the pair last May in Ohio after discovering "sexually explicit images" of herself on the site that were taken when she was underage. Tuesday's judgment included $150,000 for each of the child pornography claims, $10,000 for violating the woman's "right of publicity," and $75,000 in punitive damages, according to Marc Randazza, the plaintiff's attorney in the case. Randazza, who referred to the defendants as "scumbags" in a blog post Tuesday, said the judgment should put the operators of revenge porn sites on notice. "The message this $385,000 judgment sends to people who run revenge porn sites is unambiguous," Randazza wrote. "These sites irreparably harm their victims, and often without any criminal action against them. In this case, a civil suit allowed our client to obtain justice against the people who exploited her." Related stories 'Revenge porn' site operator arrested on hacking charges Alleged 'revenge porn' Web site operator arrested in California Post 'revenge porn' in California and you may go to jail Defendants in the case could not be reached for comment. Bollaert was arrested last December and charged with 31 felony counts of conspiracy, identity theft, and extortion related to You Got Posted, which allowed users to anonymously post private photographs containing nude and explicit images of individuals without their permission, prosecutors allege in court documents. The site required uploaded images be accompanied by the subject's full name, address, age, and social media profiles, according to the criminal complaint. Victims wanting their images and information removed from the site were directed to a second Web site Bollaert created called changemyreputation.com, where they could pay $250 to $350 to have their information removed, according to court documents. Between December 2012 and September 2013, Bollaert collected more than $10,000 from victims wishing to have their images and information removed from ugotposted.com, prosecutors allege. [Via Ars Technica ] Related Links:Twitter prohibits posting of sexually explicit videos on VineControversy after cops' aggressive arrest of jogger wearing earbudsBritish spy agency stored Yahoo Webcam images, report saysFacebook's Hot Mom enjoys more cold staresMan, mad at Internet seller, texts him Shakespeare (all of it)

White House embarks on climate change mapping project[ Thu, 20 Mar 2014 04:58:00 GMT ] NOAA's real-time nowCoast mapping portal is available on the White House's Climate Data Initiative. (Credit: NOAA) The White House wants people and communities to be prepared for extreme weather events spurred by climate change, like coastal flooding, hurricanes, and wildfires. So, it's making data sets and maps from some of the country's top agencies available to the public in it's newly launched "Climate Data Initiative." The maps and data sets are being collected in one Web site, data.gov/climate, which is full of open government data on the country's infrastructure and geographical features, like bridges, roads, tunnels, canals, and river gauges. The information comes from agencies such as NASA, NOAA, the Department of Defense, and the US Geological Survey. Obama administration adviser John Podesta and White House science adviser John Holdren are leading the initiative. They called on tech innovators on Wednesday to use the data sets to help build interactive maps and data-driven simulations that could help people plan for natural disasters. According to Podesta and Holdren, extreme weather events racked up more than $110 billion in damages and killed more than 300 people in the US in 2012. "While no single weather event can be attributed to climate change, we know that our changing climate is making many kinds of extreme events more frequent and more severe," they wrote in a White House blog post. "Rising seas threaten our coastlines. Dry regions are at higher risk of destructive wildfires. Heat waves impact health and agriculture. Heavier downpours can lead to damaging floods." Related stories NASA shows 60 years of climate change in 15 seconds LA Times cuts off climate-change deniers One (alleged) cause of climate change you've never heard of Guess what? Global warming is real, and it's our fault Al Gore: Let's 'put a price on carbon' Several companies have already expressed interest in joining the initiative. Mapping software company Esri said it will partner with 12 US cities to create free and open "maps and apps" that will help local governments plan for natural disasters. And, Google said it would pitch in one petabyte of cloud storage for the data sets, along with 50 million hours of high-performance computing with its Google Earth Engine platform. "By taking the enormous data sets regularly collected by NASA, NOAA, and other agencies and applying the ingenuity, creativity, and expertise of technologists and entrepreneurs, the Climate Data Initiative will help create easy-to-use tools for regional planners, farmers, hospitals, and businesses across the country -- and empower America's communities to prepare themselves for the future," Podesta and Holdren wrote. Currently the Climate Data Initiative is in pilot phase, so the data sets are limited to coastal flooding and sea level rise. But over time more data and tools will become available, such as information on health risks, food supply, and energy infrastructure.Related Links:Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker friends Silicon ValleyGoogle Maps Gallery debuts as Web's interactive digital atlasWhite House faces options for regulating NSA data snooping -- report15 space organizations join hunt for missing Malaysian jetThe Web at 25: How it won the White House -- and won me back

Not tonight, darling, I'm online shopping[ Thu, 20 Mar 2014 05:45:00 GMT ] "Not tonight, darling, I just don't want to listen to you." (Credit: Amazon/YouTube screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET) I know that Nancy Reagan always encouraged us to "just say no." But it's not easy, is it? Some people can be terribly insistent, nagging even. Some can sulk or get aggressive. Thankfully, it seems that Americans have found a new way to tell their significant others that they don't have a significant mood for sex: they say they're busy online shopping. You might think I'm making it up. And I might think that people who create these surveys are making it up too. All I can tell you is that the cashback rewards site EBates commissioned TNS to perform a study among 1,000 American adults that emitted fascinating conclusions. Some 10 percent of women say they use their mobile devices -- and the excuse of shopping on them -- to deter their lovers from getting amorous. But here's the nugget that might astound even more: 13 percent of men admitted to doing the same thing. I confess that I hadn't considered online shopping as a means of expressing emotions toward another person. I certainly couldn't imagine telling a lover that I wasn't feeling carnal because I was trying to decide which pair of camel boots to buy. And you'll forgive me, I hope, if I mention that survey respondents often seem to have enjoyed a touch too much Bacardi. But for some people mobile shopping has become the equivalent of the invented headache. It brings with it the luxury of not being forced to take a couple of Advil, in the hope that this will somehow lift your libido. This splendidly twisted survey, performed between March 14 and 17, further offered that passive-aggressive shopping is also directed at annoying co-workers, annoying people on public transit and, of course, annoying in-laws. More Technically Incorrect Samsung: iPad's bad, Surface is a joke, and Kindle's a swindle How to issue your own emotional Bitcoin Man, mad at Internet seller, texts him Shakespeare (all of it) Glasshole heaven: Hotel offers free drink if you wear Glass This is how much you get on Google's nerves The original purpose of this survey was merely to examine mobile shopping habits. It seems that 45 percent of Americans use their mobile devices to shop -- and 10 percent claim they do it daily. Perhaps these are the 10 percent who stand in front of me at Starbucks desperately waving their phones at the scanner, only to get more reaction out of the whipped cream on their frappuccino. Tellingly, 49 percent of the respondents in this survey confessed that shopping on their mobile device cures boredom while they're waiting in line. And 24 percent somehow couple mobile shopping with watching reality TV. Perhaps Americans are just frightfully confused. (No "perhaps" about it) In essence, though, what is the difference between sex and online shopping? In the latter, it's much harder to haggle. Related Links:Three important things you should know about cashback servicesWomen prefer Apple, gentlemen prefer SamsungOn Facebook, good (and bad) moods are infectiousCould selfies be pushing more Americans to plastic surgery?When will retailers jump on the iBeacon bandwagon?

Google lets you launch Android camera by voice command[ Thu, 20 Mar 2014 10:19:18 GMT ] A new feature lets Android users issue a voice command to launch their phone camera app in photo or video mode. (Credit: screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET) An update to Google's search app lets Android users launch their phone's camera, in photo or video mode, with a voice command. "With the Google Search App on Android, you can just tap the microphone or say 'OK Google,' then 'take a photo' or 'take a video.' Google will launch your camera app in the preferred mode," Google said in a Google+ post on Wednesday night. Related stories Sony steps closer to VR with Project Morpheus Voice is not enough: Motion is key to Android Wear Moto 360 smartwatch to ship in limited quantity, says report Sony kicks off Android 4.4 KitKat rollout across Xperia line Tech to enhance March Madness I couldn't get it to work with video in my test today on a Nexus 5, but the "take a picture" and "take a photo" commands worked, presenting a choice of installed camera apps to finish the command. For the command to work, most people will have to first launch the search app, which means pulling up from the bottom of the screen on most phones and swiping left from the home screen on a Google Nexus 5. That's potentially a lot harder than just tapping the camera icon. But don't consider today's interface to be done. The Touchless Control feature on some Motorola phones is always listening for the words "OK Google," and that approach could spread widely especially as devices like smartwatches and Google Glass spread the idea of voice controls. Via the unofficial Google Operating System blog Related Links:Google unveils Android Wear, its modified OS for wearablesGoogle to launch SDK for Android wearables in two weeksLG to launch G Watch with Android WearVoice is not enough: Motion is key to Android WearMozilla's $25 Firefox OS: It's real, and it works

Sony's Project Morpheus makes big bet on body tracking[ Thu, 20 Mar 2014 11:00:00 GMT ] Sony's Project Morpheus headset is used in conjunction with two PlayStation Move controllers for a sword-fighting demo called The Castle. (Credit: Josh Miller/CNET) There's one pivotal difference right now between the two most promising, best developed virtual reality headset prototypes, forming a simultaneously technical and philosophical barrier. Oculus VR, while exclusively focused on smooth tracking and optics, has made an open-source darling out of its Oculus Rift headset, turning a radical crowdfunding idea into the face of an emerging industry. Its openness has spawned a movement with a wide breadth of third-party spinoffs, from the Virtuix Omni to countless motion-tracking suits and handsets. Its final, relatively affordable development kit -- announced Wednesday at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco -- ahead of its official release will continue to accelerate the growth of that community. Sony's Project Morpheus, in the works since 2010 and unveiled at GDC on Tuesday, has crafted an equally amazing and immersive experience. Not only is it just as comfortable -- in some respects more so for a glasses wearer I noticed -- but it's also a smooth experience almost on par with Oculus' Dev Kit 2, which has had a more thoroughly field-tested development approach this past year. (Credit: Josh Miller/CNET) More importantly, however, Sony has baked in from the get-go a promise to make virtual reality (VR) a full-body affair, using PlayStation Move controllers in conjunction with the PlayStation Camera to get you moving around the room and swinging your arms like a madman. The results, still as early and limited as prototype demos can get, are both breathtaking and hilariously fun. The catch: Morpheus looks locked to the PlayStation platform, with no foreseeable exit from that proprietary strategy. Sony unveils Project Morpheus virtual-reality headset (pictures) 1-2 of 25 Scroll Left Scroll Right That difference -- a locked-down approach compared with an open-source one -- creates an interesting dynamic for the VR industry as it moves forward. Is a unified platform like Sony's the best way to bring this wild promise of the future to fruition with all the bells and whistles of motion tracking intact? Or is opening it up while buckling down and honing the focus -- as Oculus is doing with its headset -- a smarter decision, with the caveat being putting your trust in others to build out accessories and their feature sets? Those questions form the crux of how consumer VR comes to market. Sony seems intent on gambling that we'll not only want to strap on a goofy face-computer, but we'll also want to stand up in our living room and get physical. That may not be the best move to make when it comes to selling your everyday gamer on the potentially nausea-inducing, commercially untested notion of sitting for hours on end in a different reality. Maybe an Oculus Rift that just works with a controller, sitting down, will be more persuasive at first than a headset, dual motion-tracking controller, and camera bundle. Developers now have access to Oculus Rift Dev Kit 2 (pictures) 1-2 of 5 Scroll Left Scroll Right While it's incredibly early, with consumer models of neither Morpheus nor Oculus likely to come for some time, one thing is certain: Body tracking is an inevitable extension of VR. Sony is upfront in that respect, showing us exactly why we'll finally want to consider combining what have been up until now miserably peripheral accessories into unique gaming experiences. Take, for example, one of the more impressive Morpheus demos here at GDC. The Castle, a medieval-themed sword demo, showed the full capabilities of combining Morpheus with two Move controllers. Not only do you get the precision of a Wii Motion Plus, giving you accurate wrist tracking die-hard Zelda fans can respect, but your entire body is tracked based off the location of your head and hands. It sounds gimmicky, but is remarkably responsive on the level of Kinect play that, when combined with VR, momentarily convinces you you're experiencing something truly groundbreaking instead of the combination of existing technologies in an unprecedented package. (Credit: Josh Miller/CNET) In one instance, I stepped to the left in physical space and picked up a sword out of the ground with my right hand, doing so by pulling the trigger of the Move controller as I reached down. Stepping forward, I used my left hand to grab hold of a straw dummy's left arm and proceeded to chop it off with the sword hand, requiring a significant and worry-inducing amount of force in my swing. There I was left with a disembodied arm that I could now swing back and forth and even smack around the dummy with. All this, of course, was directed by the subtle nudging of the Morpheus demo assistant. After all, not much in VR is intuitive when you don't know where the precision is cranked up. Therein lies a strange sensation: Sony's body tracking is spectacular, but it's also limited by what our brains think we can and cannot do in a virtual space where tracking is precise for some parts of the body -- the hands and head -- and wonky and downright weird for everything else, namely your location in physical space. Related stories: Epic Games opens Unreal Engine 4 to public for $19 a month Get a smartphone-controlled RC race car for $39.99 Titanfall for Xbox 360 pushed back to April 8 Watch what's in store for Android Wear GamePop regroups for spring, signs Ubisoft, Warners Often during The Castle, I was disoriented by using my body as a function of my in-game location as I would swing my arm and be told repeatedly that I was too far away. And the demo assistant had to make sure to remove my backpack from behind me lest I take a tumble through the lightly constructed booth wall. It introduces a necessary reality-check. VR is likely not to develop on a clean, straight-forward track, no matter how friendly Sony and Oculus play together. You'll have different games, designed for different levels of immersion, motion control, and body orientation, along with ported games designed to take advantage of only certain functionalities and accessories. It's going to be a chaotic space that, while great for the acceleration of the tech, will prove to be a nightmare for anyone hoping to design cohesive, multiplatform experiences for VR. Eve Valkyrie is a great example of a game that's trying and has universal enough mechanics to pull it off, but it won't be easy for titles outside a seated, first-person shooter. That leaves users in the precarious position of not knowing exactly what we'll need to buy or even want to have when all of this begins rolling out, and puts pressure on both the hardware and software sides of VR to figure out how far we're willing to take this at first. So while Sony is pushing aggressive technology under the PlayStation helm, Oculus' simple "sit-down and enjoy the future" approach -- with open source add-ons left up to you -- may be an easier pill to swallow. Related Links:Can Sony's Project Morpheus finally bring virtual reality to home console gaming?Join CNET on Tuesday for Sony's PlayStation GDC eventRide the Oculus Rift to outer space!Oculus Rift Dev Kit 2 now on sale for $350Sony steps closer to VR with Project Morpheus

Wounded boy gets 3-D printed arm[ Wed, 19 Mar 2014 10:42:34 EDT ]Artificial limbs made by 3-D printing are changing the lives of amputees in Sudan.

Google's plans for your wrist[ Wed, 19 Mar 2014 11:54:01 EDT ]Kristie Lu Stout talks to Nilay Patel of The Verge about Google's new software for wrist devices, Android Wear

'Flappy Bird' will fly back to app stores[ Wed, 19 Mar 2014 16:50:19 EDT ]Let the flapless among us take heart. "Flappy Bird," the now defunct mobile sensation, will one day rise like a phoenix and fling itself awkwardly into an app store near you.

Meet Sony's 'Project Morpheus'[ Wed, 19 Mar 2014 17:18:18 EDT ]Virtual reality, the emerging 3D technology many expect to be the next quantum leap in the video gaming world, just got a little more real.

Sony goes virtual with 'Project Morpheus' [ Wed, 19 Mar 2014 17:21:10 EDT ]Virtual reality, the emerging 3D technology many expect to be the next quantum leap in the video gaming world, just got a little more real.

Apple CEO Tim Cook Blasts New Book on Company As 'Nonsense'[ Tue, 18 Mar 2014 21:45:25 GMT ]Apple CEO Tim Cook has issued a statement about a new book about the tech giant called, "Haunted Empire," saying it is "nonsense" and fails to capture Apple or former CEO and Co-Founder Steve Jobs.

Android Wear: 5 Things We Know, 5 We Don't[ Tue, 18 Mar 2014 22:16:27 GMT ]Just how will the new smartwatches powered by Google's Android operating system look, feel and function?

IRS: Employee Took Home Personal Info on 20,000 Workers[ Tue, 18 Mar 2014 22:47:29 GMT ]WASHINGTON — An Internal Revenue Service employee took home personal information on about 20,000 IRS workers, former workers and contractors, putting the data at risk for public release, the agency said Tuesday.

Pandora Raises Subscription Fees, Does Away With Annual Plan[ Wed, 19 Mar 2014 00:20:34 GMT ]Pandora Media will increase fees for its ad-free music-streaming service by $1 a month to almost $5 a month in May, in a move to cover the rising cost of licensing tunes.

Sony Takes on Oculus Rift With 'Project Morpheus' VR Headset[ Wed, 19 Mar 2014 01:38:10 GMT ]Sony announced a new virtual reality headset at the Game Development Conference in San Francisco on Tuesday, putting it in direct competition with crowdsourced favorite Oculus Rift. The sleek, futuristic device is known for now as "Project Morpheus.

'Smart tags' can sense when food or medicine go bad[ Wed, 19 Mar 2014 02:36:39 GMT ] The green tag on the container indicates that the product inside is no longer fresh. (Credit: Chao Zhang) What if you never had to do a smell test for spoiled milk again? Instead of having to take a whiff of the sour liquid, you could just check the color of a small tag placed on the container. This is exactly what researchers at Peking University in Beijing, China, are working on: color-coded "smart tags." These corn kernel-sized tags can be stuck to containers of food or medicine and have the capabilities of determining whether the food has gone bad or if the medications are still active. What's more, these tags will reportedly cost less than one penny each. "This tag, which has a gel-like consistency, is really inexpensive and safe, and can be widely programmed to mimic almost all ambient-temperature deterioration processes in foods," lead researcher Chao Zhang said in a statement. While most food and medicine have expiration labels, sometimes products are subjected to unanticipated high temperatures that could lead to early spoiling. Zhang said the smart tags could even take these sorts of variables into account. The color-coding on the tags would indicate the quality of the food or medicine on a range of 100 percent fresh to 100 percent spoiled. Related stories This Android SmartWatch doesn't run Android Dish-Disney deal changes future of online TV Samsung reveals Galaxy S5 with new wearables What's the deal with WhatsApp? Belkin WeMo smart home networks in danger of hacks "In our configuration, red, or reddish orange, would mean fresh," Zhang said. "Over time, the tag changes its color to orange, yellow and later green, which indicates the food is spoiled." The science behind the tags is based on tiny non-toxic metallic nanorods that change color as they react to the length of time microbes grow in food. For example, "the gold nanorods we used are inherently red, which dictates the initial tag color," Zhang said. The smart tag research was presented on Monday at a national meeting of the American Chemical Society. The smart tags aren't yet available, but the Peking University researchers said they are currently in the process of reaching out to manufacturers.Related Links:Fresh Jawbone apps tackle the science of sounder sleepThe Web at 25: I was a teenage dial-up addictA beating patch of cells could mend broken heartsLet them eat Yoda: A geek food feast full of fun and failureFarmer's Fridge brings fruit, veggies to vending machines

Dropbox to bring personal and work account toggling in April[ Wed, 19 Mar 2014 03:57:43 GMT ] Dropbox has focused on its Dropbox for Business product over the past year. (Credit: Screenshot by Donna Tam/CNET) Dropbox is said to soon be enabling an upcoming feature that lets users create distinct work and personal accounts without having to log in and out, according to The Verge. The tech news source got its hands on an email that Dropbox recently sent to its business users that said the company plans to launch the feature on April 9. The company originally announced the feature last November, but it's been unclear when it would roll out. Related stories Dropbox gets chatty and buys workplace chat service Zulip Why Google's price cut made the consumer cloud biz a lot cloudier BBM iOS, Android users can soon make free phone calls Google's Woodside said to be hired as Dropbox's new COO Dropbox snags $250M in funding at $10B valuation, says report Dropbox has increasingly geared its cloud storage service toward business customers. Last April, it launched Dropbox for Business, which allowed for a single sign-on feature. And, in November it announced a rebuild of Dropbox for Business that included the toggle feature for work and personal accounts. The cloud storage company boasts that it serves more than 4 million businesses and they save hundreds of millions of files every week. The company also says that 97 percent of the Fortune 500 companies also use the service. Dropbox is facing steep competition in the cloud storage market, however. While users reportedly tend to like the service, many complain the pricing is too high compared with competitors like Google Drive, Microsoft's SkyDrive, and Box. It's possible that Dropbox is working to appease the masses by rolling out new features like multiple accounts. CNET contacted Dropbox for comment. We'll update the story when we get more information.Related Links:Why Google's price cut made the consumer cloud biz a lot cloudierDropbox gets chatty and buys workplace chat service ZulipOneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive, and Box: Which cloud storage service is right for you?Box expects to make more than $200 million in revenueRealPlayer Cloud goes global

After rough IPO, concern for Apple supplier Japan Display[ Wed, 19 Mar 2014 04:40:00 GMT ] The iPhone 5S uses a screen from Japan Display Inc. (Credit: Apple) Japan Display, the world's largest smartphone display supplier, had a rough IPO on Wednesday. When Japan Display (JDI) listed its shares in a $3.1 billion initial public offering Wednesday, the price at opening dropped 15 percent below the IPO price, as reported by Nikkei. This despite the fact that the IPO price of 900 yen (about $8.87) was at the lower end of the suggested IPO range, according to The Wall Street Journal. And the share price got as low as 706 yen on Wednesday. "The [IPO] pricing was wrong," Amir Anvarzadeh, director of Japan Equity Sales at BGC Partners, said in CNBC interview. Related stories iPhone 5C sales stall in China, report says Apple eyes fingerprint sensors to connect various devices "They're very focused on the smaller screens, low-temperature polysilicon, which is still good business," he said. JDI's low-temperature polysilicon technology is used in Apple's iPhone 5S display. "[But] in the case of small screens [and] low-temperature polysilicon, we're seeing the Taiwanese coming [on] and the Koreans have moved on to AMOLED," or active-matrix organic LED, according to Anvarzadeh. The latter is used by Samsung on its popular Galaxy smartphones, for example. JDI is a merger of the display businesses of Sony, Toshiba, and Hitachi, all of which had been crippled by losses in their respective small display businesses. The merger -- which received major financial backing and support from the Japanese government -- looked doomed at first, but eventually, in 2010, the company was formed. Subsequently, JDI became a major supplier of displays for Apple's iPhone. For the nine months through December, Japan Display reported a profit of 33.5 billion yen ($331 million), exceeding the previous full year profit by about 10 times, according to the Wall Street Journal. JDI has about 16 percent of the smartphone display market, the largest share of any one company. "The question mark is what happens after this year when [Taiwanese] companies like AU Optronics (AUO) begin to bring supply in?" Anvarzadeh asked, who said repeatedly during the interview that the Taiwanese are just now beginning to get their production yields to levels that are competitive with market leaders like JDI. Related Links:Apple's hiring binge could point to more iPhone developmentImagination, Apple graphics tech supplier, talks futureCheaper new 8GB iPhone 5C goes on saleDiscontinued iPad 4 may see return with 8GB iPhone 5CApple-Samsung silicon union still strong, chip expert says

Man, mad at Internet seller, texts him Shakespeare (all of it)[ Wed, 19 Mar 2014 05:20:00 GMT ] He wrote a lot. (Credit: Bio/YouTube screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET) Getting mad occasionally results in getting even, but often only in getting madder. Ultimately, the whole point of revenge isn't even to get even at all. It's to feel that you have. Edd Joseph needed to feel better about an internet transaction. As the Bristol Post declaims it, he bought a PS3 online for 80 British pounds (around $132) on the Gumtree site and the transaction went perfectly. Except for the tiny detail that he didn't receive his PS3. This he deemed an arrow of outrageous fortune. So he mulled and cogitated and pondered and thought therefore of revenge and ceased to weep. (Oh, it's "Henry VI," if you must know). The 24-year-old Joseph fell upon the realization that you can copy and paste things from the Web and send them as texts. He told the Post: "It got me thinking, 'what can I send to him,' which turned to 'what is a really long book,' which ended with me sending him 'Macbeth.'" Joseph was mad because he knew he couldn't get his money back. He'd paid by bank transfer (which is against Gumtree's terms and conditions.) On the other hand, he had an iPhone. He realized that with just one pressing of "send" he could text a whole play to his alleged scoundrel. So he cried havoc and let slip the dogs of war. One text for him was 792 texts for the receiving party. This was quite some dagger he saw before him. For he had an unlimited text plan, to complement his need to inflict pain. Why not send all Shakespeare's works? More Technically Incorrect Glasshole heaven: Hotel offers free drink if you wear Glass This is how much you get on Google's nerves Your new disease, America: Compulsive gadget-hoarding How to spy on your lover, the smartphone way Courtney Love: I may have found missing Malaysian plane Not all Shakespeare plays are the same length. "Hamlet" is the longest. Yes, that one would have amounted to 1,143 texts at the receiver's end. In total, Joseph hopes to complete his task of sending all Shakespeare's plays, which ought to result in 29,305 texts.(He says he's already sent 22 plays.) You might wonder whether the alleged bad guy responded. Joseph said: "I got the first reply after an hour, and then a few more abusive messages after that. His phone must have been going off pretty constantly for hours." This is not deterring Joseph. "I'm going to keep doing it. If nothing else I'm sharing a little bit of culture with someone who probably doesn't have much experience of it," he explained. There's one small part I don't quite grasp. If this story is as Joseph describes, why doesn't the seller just block his number? Perhaps he's afraid that parting will be sweet sorrow. Related Links:Exclusive cover peek at latest Ian Doescher 'Star Wars' parodyOne more thing: Opera mashes up Steve Jobs, ShakespeareThe Web at 25: I was a teenage dial-up addictDon't be a techhole: A common sense guide to tech courtesyThe one real problem with Republic Wireless

Oppo debuts world's first 5.5-inch Quad HD Find 7[ Wed, 19 Mar 2014 07:43:06 GMT ] Allen Wu, Oppo's vice president domestic (China) division, takes the stage to introduce the new handset. (Credit: Aloysius Low/CNET) BEIJING, China -- Priced at a reasonable $599, Oppo's latest Find 7 has just made its debut in China, and is the first to sport a 5.5-inch Quad HD display. QHD, not to be confused with qHD (960x540-pixels), has a resolution of 2,560x1440-pixels, which is more than four times as many pixels as you'll find on 720p TVs. If you're interested in the numbers, that's 538 pixels per inch (PPI), and you'll never have to worry about fuzzy fonts anymore. Apart from a super-sharp screen, the Find 7 comes packing a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor clocked at 2.5GHz, 3GB RAM and 32GB of onboard storage. Other specs include a 3,000mAh battery, a 13-megapixel camera with dual-LED flash. The Find 7 will support a wide range of LTE bands and should work in most countries as well as in China, Mexico and the U.S. The smartphone runs a custom firmware called ColorOS, that's based on Android 4.3 (Jelly Bean). The specs alone of the Find 7 are likely overkill for the average user, so Oppo will be offering a full-HD version (1,920x1,080-pixels) but it has less storage (16GB), a slightly slower quad-core processor (2.3GHz) and a 2,800mAh battery instead. Also announced at the event was a fitness band called O Band, which tracks your sleep patterns as well. The Find 7 and Find 7a will be available globally in mid-April and will retail for $599 and $499 respectively. Related Links:HTC announces new flagship mid-range Desire 816Leaked specs paint fuller picture for HTC Desire 8The chips of Samsung's Galaxy S5 -- Exynos and SnapdragonSony Xperia Tablet Z2 leak hints at thinner profile, KitKatYezz reveals two new Android smartphones for MWC

Things we learned at SXSWi[ Mon, 17 Mar 2014 15:03:55 EDT ]Even when pared down to just its Interactive portion, South by Southwest can feel like a huge and amorphous thing -- sort of like, as director Hugh Forrest says, the Internet itself.

Robot band plays 'heavy metal'[ Mon, 17 Mar 2014 14:31:10 EDT ]What has 78 fingers, 22 arms, and no brain? Answer: The coolest robot band you've ever seen.

Ripples in space-time revealed[ Tue, 18 Mar 2014 13:45:15 EDT ]Scientists announced a breakthrough in understanding how our world as we know it came to be.

Forget texts ... send smells[ Mon, 17 Mar 2014 15:04:13 EDT ]If the digital age has increased the volume of communication, it may not have improved the quality. That is the goal of a new generation of sensory engineers who are going beyond sight and sound to produce devices that use our untapped faculties, with the most exciting breakthroughs in olfaction.

Lego robot breaks Rubik's Cube record[ Mon, 17 Mar 2014 14:31:31 EDT ]If you were never able to solve a Rubik's Cube without peeling off the stickers or prying it apart with a butter knife, you're really going to hate this robot.

Unnerving 900-Megapixel Portraits Seem to Stare Back[ Tue, 18 Mar 2014 00:23:42 GMT ]Photography of the "gigapixel" order really hit the mainstream with the massive picture of President Obama's 2009 inauguration, in which individual faces were visible from a quarter mile away. But what if all those pixels were dedicated to just one face?

Dave and Busters Waitress Arrested in Credit Card Skimming Plot[ Tue, 18 Mar 2014 00:54:25 GMT ]A waitress at a Dave and Busters restaurant in New York has been arrested along with three accomplices, accused of stealing customers' credit card information.

Missing Malaysian Airliner Scams Crop Up on Facebook[ Tue, 18 Mar 2014 00:54:28 GMT ]Online scammers rarely let a big news event go by without trying to exploit it. The case of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which disappeared more than a week ago and still has not been found, is no exception.

Men from Ukraine, New York Charged in International Cybercrime Scheme[ Tue, 18 Mar 2014 01:09:58 GMT ]Federal prosecutors on Monday announced the indictment of three men they accuse of being members of an international cybercrime ring that tried to steal at least $15 million by hacking into U.S. customer accounts at 14 financial institutions and the Department of Defense's payroll service.

Wal-Mart to Let Shoppers Exchange Used Videogames[ Tue, 18 Mar 2014 11:57:52 GMT ]Wal-Mart will allow shoppers to trade in used videogames for anything from groceries to gadgets across its 3,100 stores from March 26, the nation's largest retailer said Tuesday.