Archive for the ‘Tech News’ Category

Apple cofounder and CEO Steve Jobs’ criticisms of Flash are included in the showcase in the form of a Thoughts on Flash statement. After reviewing Apple’s “long relationship with Adobe,” he noted that Flash is “100 percent proprietary.” He conceded that “Apple has many proprietary products, too,” such as its operating systems, but that all standards for the web should be open.

Jobs also wrote that much of the web’s video is already available in the H.264 format, which is supported in HTML5, and that there are 50,000 non-Flash games and entertainment titles in the company’s App Store. He also criticized Flash’s reliability, security, performance and effect on battery life.

Makes sense to me.

Um. Things are so messed up at Google right now, they need to look at a few good prototype 37c reviews to see if those wrinkles can be ironed out before people get too upset.

“Don’t be evil” has gone all 1984 on us. Or so it seems after Google revealed Friday that its Street View cars, in addition to snapping photos of the world’s roadways, have also been collecting sensitive personal information from unencrypted wireless networks.

It was no secret that Google’s cars had already been collecting publicly broadcast SSID information (Wi-Fi network names) and MAC addresses (unique numbers for devices like Wi-Fi routers). But this techie data, which is used for location-based services such as Google Maps, didn’t include any “payload data,” or personal information sent over the network.

Wow.

What the heck is Project Pink? Have I been outside the loop so long that I have no idea what that is? I don’t get it. What is the benefit of marketing items to kids who aren’t even old enough for acne treatment yet? They don’t have money!!!

Turns out all the leaked photos of Microsoft’s “Project Pink” phones were real. Targeted squarely at young “social” chatters looking to share their every waking moment with the world, the Kin One and Kin Two boast slide-out QWERTY keypads, Zune media players, multi-touch displays, and more social networking tools than you could shake a stick at. No app store, though.

Set for release in the “beginning” of May exclusively on Verizon Wireless (no pricing details or exact release dates yet), the Kin One and Two look like a combination of the T-Mobile’s old Sidekick sliders (which were developed by a company now owned by Microsoft) and Motorola’s new Motoblur service, which pushes an endless stream of Twitter, Facebook, Windows Live, and MySpace updates to Moto’s Android phones.

Oh, blech. Project Puke is more like it.

Good news for the guys at Atebits in the form of 401k and dental discounts, but bad news for the rest of us who prefer other Twitter apps that are not “official”.

Twitter has just announced that it has acquired Atebits, the company behind the Tweetie iPhone app and Mac desktop application.

In a blog post, Twitter CEO Evan Williams announced the move to acquire Tweetie and its creator, Loren Brichter. There is no word yet as to what Twitter will do with Tweetie, but it’s almost certain that the app will become the basis for Twitter’s official iPhone app.

One of the best things about Twitter has been the fact that there is no “official” Twitter anything when it comes to applications. The fact they chose Tweetie over Twittelator Pro shows they weren’t truly interested in focusing on innovative of killer apps.

Twittelator Pro is, and has been, the best Twitter app for the iPhone since I got my iPhone, and believe me, I have tried them all.

Boo on you Twitter for making anything “official”. That doesn’t mean it’s the best.

It figures. Leave it to the government to spark the fight, then back off into the corner because they don’t want to make the Chinese angry at them.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in a major speech on Internet freedom two months ago, called on US technology firms not to support online censorship.

“I hope that refusal to support politically motivated censorship will become a trademark characteristic of American technology companies,” Clinton said. “It should be part of our national brand.”

Amid a host of trade disputes with China, however, Google’s decision last week to halt censorship there met with only a fairly muted response from the State Department — and virtual silence from other US technology giants.

Stay strong Google. Some of us are behind you in this fight, I just wish you would have started it before you moved into China in the first place.

Google has acquired Picnik, whose Web-based application lets people import and edit photos in a browser.

“We’re not announcing any significant changes to Picnik today, though we’ll be working hard on integration and new features,” wrote Brian Axe, a Google product management director, in an official blog on Monday.

I wonder if this is one of those acquisitions where they let the product die as they incorporate the technology into something else, or is this going to be one of those rare exceptions? I sure wish I lived closer, because if I did, my job search would definitely include Google!

When I think of hurdles, I think of working out, burning fat, no xplode side effects, and other assorted exercise regimens, Not browsers.

U.S. and European regulators have cleared the long-discussed Internet search partnership between Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc., enabling the rivals to form a tag team as they try to mount a more serious challenge to Google Inc.

The government approvals announced Thursday anointed an alliance that Microsoft and Yahoo proposed nearly seven months ago after years of flirtation and often contentious negotiations.

Do they honestly think they will make more than a dent in Google’s market share? Seriously?

Have you heard about the scandal over at TechCrunch?

TechCrunch is covering its ass while continuing to sell YOU out and to sell out every company Daniel wrote about that did NOT offer him a Macbook Air for his troubles. You can accept that or you can demand better.

I stopped paying attention to TechCrunch a long time ago. This incident just solidifies my decision. Maybe everyone over there needs a good adult acne treatment, then they can start acting their age.

The Goole App Store is coming! I’d much prefer a new cigar app store though.

Google may open as early as March an online store to sell third-party software that complements its Google Apps collaboration and communication hosted suite, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

Google would let customers purchase the software from its store and charge the third-party developers a commission, according to the Journal, whose article was based on anonymous sources.

A Google spokeswoman reached via e-mail declined to comment specifically on the Journal article, but she pointed out that Google already has a site called Solutions Marketplace where it features applications and professional services from third-party developers that complement Google Apps and other Google enterprise products.

Pardon me while I don’t get too terribly excited. I’ve heard the Nexus One is a nice “entry” model, but several people I know have ditched theirs because it’s too “entry”. If you know what I mean.

Yahoo knew about the attacks and didn’t want people to know they had been a target? Why not? It’s not like they had hemorrhoids or anything and needed some hemorrhoid creams to cure themselves. It was a public attack by a foreign government, people should have been told.

Yahoo Inc knew it had been a target to sophisticated Chinese cyber attacks on U.S. corporations before Google alerted the company to them, a source familiar with the matter said, but chose to remain silent after its bigger rival went public.

The two Internet search and email providers had discussed a highly coordinated attack originating in China prior to Google’s high-profile announcement on Tuesday, the person said.

Google said the hackers’ primary goal was to access Gmail accounts of human rights activists, and that at least 20 other large companies had been targeted. It was unclear whether the attacks on Yahoo were also aimed at grabbing information off emails, or if they had been successful.