http://www.technewsi.comtechNewsi.com for all the latest tech and developer newsSun, 01 May 2011 18:00:02 +0000http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Venturebeat/~3/atOscGhJLVY/ Sat, 30 Apr 2011 17:26:09 +0000 Matthew Lynley

Valve is bucking one of the largest trends in the video gaming industry — releasing additional content for games and charging extra for it — by releasing the next phase of content for its blockbuster hit Portal 2 for free for all gamers. Downloadable content for games can be as big as blockbuster games themselves. The Call of Duty series, a first-person shooting game set during a war, has proven it time and again by selling additional maps for multiplayer games. But the additional costs can VentureBeat  |  Matthew Lynley  |  Apr 30  |

]]> Valve is bucking one of the largest trends in the video gaming industry — releasing additional content for games and charging extra for it — by releasing the next phase of content for its blockbuster hit Portal 2 for free for all gamers. Downloadable content for games can be as big as blockbuster games themselves. The Call of Duty series, a first-person shooting game set during a war, has proven it time and again by selling additional maps for multiplayer games. But the additional costs can]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/V6E1H80oj3g/ Sat, 30 Apr 2011 17:00:44 +0000 Steve Gillmor

The Gillmor Gang — Kevin Marks, Danny Sullivan, JP Rangaswami, John Taschek, and Steve Gillmor — christened the new Gang studio with a surprise welcome to Kevin Marks. It turns out he’s joining salesforce.com on Monday, following JP (six months), JT (7 years), and me, who is celebrating my one year anniversary. Kevin has been a forceful champion of open standards at Apple, Technorati, Google, BT (Ribbit), the Gillmor Gang, and now salesforce.com. Before, and once the festivities were o TechCrunch  |  Steve Gillmor  |  Apr 30  |

]]> Kevin Marks, Danny Sullivan, JP Rangaswami, John Taschek, and Steve Gillmor — christened the new Gang studio with a surprise welcome to Kevin Marks. It turns out he’s joining salesforce.com on Monday, following JP (six months), JT (7 years), and me, who is celebrating my one year anniversary. Kevin has been a forceful champion of open standards at Apple, Technorati, Google, BT (Ribbit), the Gillmor Gang, and now salesforce.com. Before, and once the festivities were o]]> http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/gP0aWWxL5xc/Using-Googlemaps-To-Simulate-Tsunamis 30 April 2011, 2:40 pm timothy

flemster writes "Tsunami mapper is a new site which uses the googlemaps elevation service and the flood fill algorithm to predict which areas near a coast are likely to be affected by a tsunami. You can search for your local beach, set a wave heading and height and then double click the tsunami starting point off the coast, after which the tsunami range will be drawn. Naturally, predicting a tsunami is far more complicated than this and this application is a general guide and not a true predicto slashdot  |  timothy  |  Apr 30  |

]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mashable/~3/EaGLHxOZ8DM/ Sat, 30 Apr 2011 23:02:01 +0000 Charlie White

Attention adventurers: Your smartphone has arrived. The hardened Casio G’zOne Commando is so tough, the company says it can withstand 30 minutes under a meter of water. Oh really? Let’s put it to the test:Look at that — it emerged unscathed.Casio‘s made tough “feature phones” before, including the other members of the G’zOne family, the Ravine and Brigade. But this is the G’zOne family’s first smartphone, a relatively slim and compact And Mashable  |  Charlie White  |  May 01  |

]]> smartphone has arrived. The hardened Casio G’zOne Commando is so tough, the company says it can withstand 30 minutes under a meter of water. Oh really? Let’s put it to the test:Look at that — it emerged unscathed.Casio‘s made tough “feature phones” before, including the other members of the G’zOne family, the Ravine and Brigade. But this is the G’zOne family’s first smartphone, a relatively slim and compact And]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider/~3/-iKyNvzkj1U/thats-what-she-said-computer-technology-2011-4 Sat, 30 Apr 2011 17:43:00 -0400 Courtney Comstock

Meet DEviaNT, a new technology or "robot" with the ability to tell the joke, "that's what she said." That means the robot is able to listen to a sentence and "understand" that replying "that's what she said," would make people laugh. According to its developers, 72% of the time, DEviaNT (Double Entendre via NounTransfer) gets it right, and "says" "that's what she said" after a serious sentence, and it's hilarious. The sexual joke-making computer program is a hit. (A full explanation of what DEvi SiliconAlleyInsider  |  Courtney Comstock  |  Apr 30  |

]]> According to its developers, 72% of the time, DEviaNT (Double Entendre via NounTransfer) gets it right, and "says" "that's what she said" after a serious sentence, and it's hilarious. The sexual joke-making computer program is a hit. (A full explanation of what DEvi]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/readwriteweb/~3/fh2Aahr1s1c/quantified-self-data-portabili.php Sat, 30 Apr 2011 12:41:41 -0800 ReadWriteWeb

Last week while covering a tool for analyzing your iPhone location data (or as it turns out, your nearby cell tower and hotspot location data), I mused on my long-time interest in data portability - giving users access to and control over their own data. It's an idea we've been covering here for years. This week, the customer control over data received more attention, with a write-up in the New York Times, a new Facebook acquisition and the revelation that TomTom sold data on its customers' dr ReadWriteWeb  |  Apr 30  |

]]> tool for analyzing your iPhone location data (or as it turns out, your nearby cell tower and hotspot location data), I mused on my long-time interest in data portability - giving users access to and control over their own data. It's an idea we've been covering here for years. This week, the customer control over data received more attention, with a write-up in the New York Times, a new Facebook acquisition and the revelation that TomTom sold data on its customers' dr]]> http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/30/i-o-datas-hdca-ut3-0k-drive-offers-usb-3-0-and-3tb-of-storage/ Sat, 30 Apr 2011 19:07:00 EDT Dana Wollman

If you've been on the hunt for the biggest, fastest hard drive around, it seems your options are expanding. I-O Data just introduced the HDCA-UT3.0K external hard drive, which offers USB 3.0 support and 3TB of storage, which, as the company notes, makes it an ideal companion for TVs with a USB recording mode. Struggling to resist the charm of its blue LED and the possibility of owning more storage than you'll ever need? Look for it in mid-May with a price of ¥26,400 ($324).I-O Data's HDCA-U enGadget  |  Dana Wollman  |  May 01  |

]]> your options are expanding. I-O Data just introduced the HDCA-UT3.0K external hard drive, which offers USB 3.0 support and 3TB of storage, which, as the company notes, makes it an ideal companion for TVs with a USB recording mode. Struggling to resist the charm of its blue LED and the possibility of owning more storage than you'll ever need? Look for it in mid-May with a price of ¥26,400 ($324).I-O Data's HDCA-U]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110429/13151114086/chris-rhodes-favorite-techdirt-stories-week.shtml Sat, 30 Apr 2011 12:00:00 PDT Chris Rhodes

This week's favorites post comes from Chris Rhodes. Gather 'round, ye Techdirt readers. Whether ye be Kool-Aid drinkers or anonymous trolls, freetards or industry shills, spam bots or Dark Helmet himself, gather 'round, and I shall impart to you the harrowing tale of the best of Techdirt. Looking back, if I were to assign a Word of the Week to this week's stories, that word would have to be "irrelevance", as it seems to be a key point of many of the choice posts, whether it was applied to IP m techdirt  |  Chris Rhodes  |  Apr 30  |

]]> Chris Rhodes. Gather 'round, ye Techdirt readers. Whether ye be Kool-Aid drinkers or anonymous trolls, freetards or industry shills, spam bots or Dark Helmet himself, gather 'round, and I shall impart to you the harrowing tale of the best of Techdirt. Looking back, if I were to assign a Word of the Week to this week's stories, that word would have to be "irrelevance", as it seems to be a key point of many of the choice posts, whether it was applied to IP m]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Venturebeat/~3/cPgyZkjKcmc/ Sat, 30 Apr 2011 23:50:52 +0000 Anthony Ha

Here’s our roundup of the week’s top tech business news. First, the most popular stories VentureBeat published in the last seven days: In fourth day of outage, Sony says it is beefing up PlayStation Network security — It was a big week for outages at a number of online services. Sony’s PlayStation Network went down for several days, and the company said it would improve security as it worked to rebuild the system. Possible iPhone 5 photos leaked — Blurry images of w VentureBeat  |  Anthony Ha  |  May 01  |

]]> Sony says it is beefing up PlayStation Network security — It was a big week for outages at a number of online services. Sony’s PlayStation Network went down for several days, and the company said it would improve security as it worked to rebuild the system. Possible iPhone 5 photos leaked — Blurry images of w]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/Z8-O7n8YcYM/ Sat, 30 Apr 2011 19:05:10 +0000 Jon Evans

Ever heard of Dropship? It’s an open-source project that “enables arbitrary, anonymous transfers of files between Dropbox accounts.” Dropbox hopes you haven’t; they tried to squelch it this week, and even accidentally reported that it was subject to a DMCA takedown notice, with predictably futile results. I’m mostly sympathetic: I’m a huge fan of their service, Dropship was a clear violation of their terms, and for obvious reasons they don’t want to turn TechCrunch  |  Jon Evans  |  Apr 30  |

]]> Dropship? It’s an open-source project that “enables arbitrary, anonymous transfers of files between Dropbox accounts.” Dropbox hopes you haven’t; they tried to squelch it this week, and even accidentally reported that it was subject to a DMCA takedown notice, with predictably futile results. I’m mostly sympathetic: I’m a huge fan of their service, Dropship was a clear violation of their terms, and for obvious reasons they don’t want to turn]]> http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/cxUdgQDTblA/Amar-Bose-To-Donate-Company-To-MIT 30 April 2011, 10:22 pm timothy

MBC1977 writes with this eyebrow-raising news from CNN: "'The Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced Friday that [Amar] Bose, the 81-year-old founder of the sound system company that bears his name, has donated the majority of Bose Corp.'s stock to the school.' Very cool indeed!" Read more of this story at Slashdot. slashdot  |  timothy  |  May 01  |

]]> http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/1Zo96hoxSoY/this-weeks-top-downloads Sat, 30 Apr 2011 17:00:00 PDT lifehacker

Miren Browses the Web In Hyper Speed on Android (Android) There's a bevy of great browsers out there for Android, and it can be hard to see past the big names like Firefox, Opera and Dolphin. Miren stands out from the crowd with its serious speed and minimalistic interface. More » lifehacker  |  May 01  |

]]> Miren Browses the Web In Hyper Speed on Android (Android) There's a bevy of great browsers out there for Android, and it can be hard to see past the big names like Firefox, Opera and Dolphin. Miren stands out from the crowd with its serious speed and minimalistic interface. More »]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mashable/~3/XgIQ2-yjpRU/ Sun, 01 May 2011 05:51:32 +0000 Ben Parr

Sony will resume some PlayStation Network services and beef up its security nearly two weeks after a hacker attack forced Sony to shut it down.The company made the announcements during a press conference in Tokyo. Kaz Hirai, Sony’s executive deputy president and the likely successor to CEO Howard Stringer, started by offering “our deepest and sincerest apologies” for the outage of the PlayStation network, as well as apologizing to customers whose personal information has bee Mashable  |  Ben Parr  |  May 01  |

]]> security nearly two weeks after a hacker attack forced Sony to shut it down.The company made the announcements during a press conference in Tokyo. Kaz Hirai, Sony’s executive deputy president and the likely successor to CEO Howard Stringer, started by offering “our deepest and sincerest apologies” for the outage of the PlayStation network, as well as apologizing to customers whose personal information has bee]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/readwriteweb/~3/7VrlKIqzwAE/readwriteweb_events_guide_april_30_2011.php Sat, 30 Apr 2011 21:40:52 -0800 ReadWriteWeb

We're always on the lookout for upcoming Web tech events from around world. Know of something taking place that should appear here? Want to get your event included in the calendar? Let us know in the comments below or email us. Sponsor Discuss ReadWriteWeb  |  May 01  |

]]> email us. Sponsor Discuss]]> http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/01/sony-promises-phased-restoration-of-playstation-network-and-qr/ Sun, 01 May 2011 02:47:00 EDT Sean Hollister

Sony made quite a few promises this morning about how it intends to deal with the fallout from the PlayStation Network outage and breach -- you can find our liveblog right here -- including improved security measures and a few token handouts of 30-day free subscriptions to PlayStation Plus and Qriocity and some free software. Perhaps more importantly for you gamers, Kaz Hirai told reporters that services will resume "soon," and by the end of the week we should see some functionality return. Of enGadget  |  Sean Hollister  |  May 01  |

]]> right here -- including improved security measures and a few token handouts of 30-day free subscriptions to PlayStation Plus and Qriocity and some free software. Perhaps more importantly for you gamers, Kaz Hirai told reporters that services will resume "soon," and by the end of the week we should see some functionality return. Of]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Venturebeat/~3/4QSt_s3bnos/ Sun, 01 May 2011 06:36:12 +0000 Dean Takahashi

Sony executives formally apologized to users who were affected by the hacker attack on the PlayStation Network, the online entertainment service that has been down for more than 10 days. The company has been criticized for acting too slowly to respond to user concerns about the break-in and whether or not personal information such as credit card numbers were stolen. Sony executive Kaz Hirai said as many as 10 million credit card numbers may have been stolen by the hackers. Today, Sony’s Hi VentureBeat  |  Dean Takahashi  |  May 01  |

]]> Sony executives formally apologized to users who were affected by the hacker attack on the PlayStation Network, the online entertainment service that has been down for more than 10 days. The company has been criticized for acting too slowly to respond to user concerns about the break-in and whether or not personal information such as credit card numbers were stolen. Sony executive Kaz Hirai said as many as 10 million credit card numbers may have been stolen by the hackers. Today, Sony’s Hi]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/xg51TviNWBk/ Sun, 01 May 2011 06:27:15 +0000 Michael Arrington

“Consumer Internet entrepreneurs are like pro basketball players,” a venture capitalist told me recently while discussing the prospects for a thirty-something founder, “They peak at 25, by 30 they’re usually done.” Why? Because young entrepreneurs are more creative and imaginative, and are willing put 100% of their lives into their startups, he said. “It’s not a guess, this is a data driven observation,” says the VC. He had a number of caveats. Fir TechCrunch  |  Michael Arrington  |  May 01  |

]]> http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/J8dc-MTCOxM/Kdenlive-08-Adds-Advanced-Features-for-NLV-Ediiting 1 May 2011, 4:33 am timothy

dmbkiwi writes "For a long time I've been a big fan of Kdenlive. I've written two articles about it. One is a general overview of video editing on Linux and the other is more specific to Kdenlive. For a number of years, video editing on Linux – at least at a consumer level — has been patchy at best. This is somewhat ironic given the heavy use of Linux in major Hollywood blockbuster film production. However, with the advent of Kdenlive, things are looking pretty good and with the rele slashdot  |  timothy  |  May 01  |

]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider/~3/bBapxvkQx7U/remember-the-american-dream-what-a-bunch-of-crap-2011-5 Sun, 01 May 2011 08:54:00 -0400 Henry Blodget

The central idea of America, which has invigorated the country for more than 240 years, is that anyone who wants a better life can come here and make one. Unlike other countries, in other words, where "class" and "birth rank" and other luck of the birth-draw determine one's station in life, America is different. America is the land of self-determination. Work hard in America, this story goes, and you'll get rewarded for it. In America, your station in life is all about you.  Just look at A SiliconAlleyInsider  |  Henry Blodget  |  May 01  |

]]> http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/01/gigabytes-s1080-windows-tablet-undressed-by-the-fcc/ Sun, 01 May 2011 08:07:00 EDT Terrence O'Brien

Looks like Gigabyte's S1080 tablet, which landed in Taiwan earlier this month, is getting ready to hit shelves here in the US. The 10.1-inch Windows 7 slate stopped by the FCC, where it got cracked open and had its silicon-packed innards exposed for the camera. There's nothing new to glean here -- specs are still the same (dual-core Atom, 320GB hard drive, etcetera) and we haven't heard anything about a much-needed price drop, but if you want a quick peak under the hood, check out the gallery b enGadget  |  Terrence O'Brien  |  May 01  |

]]> landed in Taiwan earlier this month, is getting ready to hit shelves here in the US. The 10.1-inch Windows 7 slate stopped by the FCC, where it got cracked open and had its silicon-packed innards exposed for the camera. There's nothing new to glean here -- specs are still the same (dual-core Atom, 320GB hard drive, etcetera) and we haven't heard anything about a much-needed price drop, but if you want a quick peak under the hood, check out the gallery b]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AVc/~3/aFuZsIDjn2I/first-time-vs-serial-entrepreneurs.html Sun, 01 May 2011 03:55:30 PDT Fred

I've been thinking a lot about the differences between first time and serial entrepreneurs. We invest in both and do not have a preference betweeen the two. But there are significant differences. The best first time entrepreneurs have been stewing on their idea for quite a while. It is a personal passion of theirs and they bring to it a fresh take, a stubborn insistence on their approach, and they obsess about the idea 24/7. They often get the right product into the market at the right time and AVC  |  Fred  |  May 01  |

]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Venturebeat/~3/kdgnLpMT_1E/ Sat, 30 Apr 2011 17:07:08 +0000 Matthew Lynley

Sony’s second-in-command, Kazuo Hirai, will hold a press conference tomorrow in the first public address by a Sony executive since its Playstation Network (PSN) online gaming network was taken down due to an external attack. Sensitive information about PSN users was stolen by hackers during an extensive attack and intrusion on the online gaming network, according to service provider Sony. It was a massive security gaffe that has caused the U.S. government to get involved and demand some an VentureBeat  |  Matthew Lynley  |  Apr 30  |

]]> Sony’s second-in-command, Kazuo Hirai, will hold a press conference tomorrow in the first public address by a Sony executive since its Playstation Network (PSN) online gaming network was taken down due to an external attack. Sensitive information about PSN users was stolen by hackers during an extensive attack and intrusion on the online gaming network, according to service provider Sony. It was a massive security gaffe that has caused the U.S. government to get involved and demand some an]]> http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/WjHBTmsOLek/Ask-Slashdot-Best-Small-Footprint-Modern-Browser 30 April 2011, 1:29 pm timothy

Annirak writes "I've recently started a paid internship at a company which is expanding faster than their IT department can supply new hardware. As a consequence, I've been issued a P4 2.4GHz with 512MB of RAM. Currently, I am using Firefox 4, but I find that it eats up far too much of my limited RAM. I'd rather not give up some of the more modern UI features that are offered by the current versions of Firefox and Chrome, but I need a smaller footprint. What other browsers are out there which co slashdot  |  timothy  |  Apr 30  |

]]> http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/JhaevSqyjyI/Help-Build-the-Worlds-First-Community-Funded-CPU-ASIC 30 April 2011, 12:26 pm timothy

An anonymous reader writes "The 32-bit OpenRISC CPU has been available for many FPGAs and was turned into a commercial ASIC in 2003. Now, the OpenCores community is asking for donations to create a new ASIC with the OpenRISC CPU, ethernet, PCI, UART, USB and other peripherals. The goal is to be able to sell these ASICs at a low price to anyone who wants to build a cheap embedded system built completely on open source. The OpenRISC currently runs on Linux 2.6.37 and has ports of gcc 4.5.1 among o slashdot  |  timothy  |  Apr 30  |

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