Stories from last night’s show (in no particular order):
Tongue Drive uses dental retainer and tongue piercing to control wheelchair : http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-02/21/tongue-drive-system
GPS spoofers– devices that create false GPS signals to fool receivers into thinking they are somewhere they aren’t– could be used for high-frequency financial trading fraud:
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-02/22/gps-spoofing
Flowers grown from 30,000-year-old fruit : http://boingboing.net/2012/02/21/flowers-grown-from-30000-year.html
Skier saved from deadly avalanche by airbag backpack : http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/21/skier-saved-from-deadly-avalanche-by-airbag-backpack/
NYT sez: Google to sell Android-based heads-up display glasses this year : http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/21/nyt-google-to-sell-android-based-heads-up-display-glasses-this/
Google and Adobe team up to make Flash Player for Linux : http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/22/google-and-adobe-team-up-to-make-flash-player-for-linux/
Nightline’s Foxconn report offers revealing look at factory: http://www.macworld.com/article/165514/2012/02/nightlines_foxconn_report_offers_revealing_look_at_factory.html
Google Fiber just got better– Google asks permission to provide video service to Kansas City : http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/22/google-fiber-just-got-better-big-g-asks-for-permission-to-provi/
iPad owners are far more likely to be able to claim they are considerably richer than you : http://www.reghardware.com/2012/02/24/ipad_owners_richer_older_than/
– survey conducted by US market watcher NPD
– more than 40% of iPad owners have a household income in excess of $100,000 annually
– only 26% of owners of other tablets (Android, BlackBerry, WebOS, Windows) were as well-heeled
Fraunhover’s Full-HD Voice brings high-fidelity VoLTE to Android smartphones : http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/24/fraunhofer-full-hd-voice-for-volte/
Court rules that TrueCrypt user cannot be compelled to decrypt hard disk
(fifth amendment upheld) : http://it.slashdot.org/story/12/02/24/1315230/us-appeals-court-upholds-suspects-right-to-refuse-decryption
New password-snatching Mac trojan is spreading in the wild : http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/02/24/flashback_mac_trojan/
Facebook started out building its own data centers, and then their own servers. Now they’re building their own storage hardware : http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2012/02/facebook-builds-storage-gear/
– extends philosophy of ‘vanity-free engineering’
– eliminating any ancillary components around the drive itself, to make it more serviceable
iFixit examines alleged iPad 3 display, confirms doubled resolution :
http://www.tuaw.com/2012/02/23/ifixit-examines-alleged-ipad-3-display-confirms-doubled-resolut/
– iPad 2 has 1024×768
– new display has 2048×1536
Apple patents design for ultra-thin keyboard : http://www.tuaw.com/2012/02/24/apple-patents-design-for-ultra-thin-keyboard/
Physicists pinpoint W boson, narrow search for the Higgs : http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-02/24/physicists-pinpoint-w-boson
After US v. Jones, FBI turns off 3,000 GPS tracking devices : http://yro.slashdot.org/story/12/02/26/147226/after-us-v-jones-fbi-turns-off-3000-gps-tracking-devices – FBI sought court orders in some cases to obtain permission to turn the devices on again briefly, in order to locate and retrieve them
Google+ gets unblocked in China; President Obama’s page flooded with comments
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/12/02/26/1835242/google-unblocked-in-china-president-obamas-page-flooded-with-comments
Researchers have developed optical memory devices that could find their way into future all-optical routing devices : http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/12/02/26/2041256/optical-memory-could-speed-up-the-internet
– based on optical cavities that can be switched between light-transmitting and light-blocking states to construct digital signals
– new memory cells use just 30 nanowatts of power, 300x less than previous designs, and can retain data for up to one full microsecond, which is long enough to support processing
Android ‘phablets’ like the Galaxy Note are a big thing a MWC 2012 : http://www.androidapps.com/tech/articles/11157-android-phablets-could-reign-at-mwc-this-year
Carrier iQ– remember them?– opens up iQCare diagnostics platform to smartphone end users : http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/27/carrier-iq-opens-up-iqcare-diagnostics-platform-to-smartphone-us/
AT&T service in the works to let app developers pay for their users’ data use
– why would anyone do this? : http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/27/atandt-app-developers-pay-for-data/
London Sunday Times is reporting that Facebook read SMS text messages of users who downloaded the FB smartphone app for Android : http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/report_facebook_read_users_text_messages.php
– FB admitted to reading text messages as part of a trial to launch its own messaging service
– it’s not clear if FB has discontinued this practice
Three of the four DC lobbying firms Facebook had hired abruptly terminated their contracts
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/hollywood_pressures_dc_lobbyists_to_cut_ties_with.php
– Politico is reporting that the firms are siding with content providers (Hollywood) in their fight against Internet firms in the growing battle on Capitol Hill
East Africa’s high-speed Internet access is severely disrupted after a ship drops anchor into fiber optic cables off Kenya’s coast : http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/q83k7/east_africas_highspeed_internet_access_is/
IBM researchers image electrical charge distribution inside a single molecule : http://tech.slashdot.org/story/12/02/27/0321222/ibm-researchers-image-electrical-charge-distribution-in-a-single-molecule
http://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/q7268/first_images_of_the_charge_distribution_in_a/
HTC has signed a deal with Dropbox to better compete against iCloud : http://techcrunch.com/2012/02/27/quietly-brilliant-htc-sure-made-some-noise-at-mwc/
Facebook mobile operator billing opens app economy to the credit card-less : http://techcrunch.com/2012/02/27/facebook-mobile-operator-billing/
Prosthetics breakthrough might fuse nerves with fake limbs : http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/02/nerve-prosthetics/
Lego International Space Station built aboard the real ISS : http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-02/27/lego-international-space-station
