Google- The Spending Never Ends

Recently, Google has been acquiring company, after company, after company, after- you get the idea.

Aardvark was the first acquisition Google made this year. Aardvark is a social search engine that connects friends by having them answer their friends questions correctly to verify they are actually friends.Google spent $50 million to get this company. It may seem like a lot of money, but that's just the beginning.

Then there was reMail. reMail automatically downloads your mail to your iPhone and allows you to search through those emails rather quickly.

Following that came Picnik, an online photo editing that allows you to get all your photos from Picasa,  Flickr, and other photo sharing siets.

DocVerse was the next acquisition, and it brought major improvements to the collaboration in Google Docs.

Episodic is a company that specializes in online video streaming. They were the ones that introduced the advertisements and and the analytics that you see on YouTube now. Well, now you know who to rage against.

To get the knowledge for the Visual Search in Google Goggles, they purchased Plink Art, a startup company focusing on visual search.

Then Agnilux back in April.This wasn't the start of the spending spree, but this company was actually pretty interesting. Agnilux focuses on server technology and has been helping Google to maintain their servers and keep them protected from floods (massive amounts of connections).

LabPixies was one of the first developers to create gadgets for iGoogle, so it makes some sense that Google ends up buying them.

BumpTop was a pretty cool thing back when it first came out. It was changing the desktop environment on a computer to one that's more like an actual desktop.

Here's a demonstration.


But since Google acquired them, they haven't released anything new for the desktop, and they took down the old programs. Oh well, at least they put it to good use in Android.

Global IP Solutions worked on sending voice and video over IP, allowing for the Google Talk and Google Video Chat we have now.

Simplify Media was next. A startup that allowed for iTunes music syncing across multiple platforms. So Google used this to sync music with Android.

InviteMedia was another company that focused on advertising, and  you can probably guess what Google's using that for.

Then ITA Software, a travel industry software, was also acquired by Google. Recently Google has been purchasing a lot of software in the travel industry. Hm...

Anyways, that's not even all of the software they've acquired this year. There have been others such as BlindType, and they're even considering shelling out 5 BILLION to purchase Groupon. In my opinion, that's a stupid idea, since Google will probably not make that much revenue back. If you bought Groupon for 1.5 Billion dollars, and got 300 million dollars back per year, that's 5 years before you make the money back. Then there's the competition.

For a complete list, check here.

That's all for now, and probably the last post from our blog.
Have fun anybody that reads our blog.

-Teguh

ARSENIC BASED LIFEFORMS? [Goodbye Message]

HELLO FAITHFUL NONEXISTANT READERS,
THIS IS MASONasdvfdsxz! heLlp me i'm being eatedsw by somEQA2 MONSTER. ITS THe Ezine monstER. Beofre I go I must tELL YOU THAT THERE IS SOME COOL STUFF. MAn! TherE Are soM E ArsenIC BAseD LiFeFORMs nNOW  BRO. dSDSfsFSSFSSDSDSsdsdsdsdssfsfs. woops that was the bomb exploded. Thi IS THE END FOR ME. I amACtuAlly BEing Devoured by TEH Sci TECh MONseter. AnywY1 there are some arsenic based lifeforms that were discovered in a California lake. They are different from any life we have ever encountered before, for they live off of arsenic, not phosphorus, carbon etc. ALSO NASA discovered a TON of life sustaining planets relatively close to us. It would only take around 20 years to fly there at near light speed. Also, WikiLeaks has information on UFO's! Too bad that he turned himself in for charges of rape... ANNNND, there are some really awesome mods for the Xbox Kinect.
This is just about the coolest thing EVER!
It makes me actually want a Kinect!
Well I hope that whoever reads this blog enjoyed it, and I hope you had as great a time in eZine as I did.
WELL GOTTA GO I'M BEING DIGESTED.
-mason

Enter the Nexus S

At the Dive Into Mobile conference in San Francisco, Google unveiled one of its newest ideas, the Nexus S. Cooperating with Samsung, Google has designed a slimmer, more effective tablet designed for everything Google. Its based off of the Gingerbread tablet (Android 2.3), but modified to fit Google's needs, plus some additional features as well. This new Tablet fixes the slugishness of some older Androids, while incorporating a large amount of new features, so that it feels slightly like using an iPhone in both speed and reaction time. Along with the release of this new tablet, Google put an advertisement out simaltaineously. The add is shown below, and in my opinion its not Google's greatest work. The video is just a 2 minute long epogy of someone looking at his feet, spinning, changing clothes, and sort of demonstrating what the phone can do, but with no context and without explaining. There's even one spot where the dude randomly starts flying through the air, along with other things. Although I can't wait for this new tablet to come out, I'm a bit concerned as to how many people will buy it as a result of this video. This is Karl J., signing off for the last time (hooray?). For more information about this product, watch the video and look here. Do it now.
Introducing Nexus S from BULGARI on Vimeo.

Winter Survival Guide: How to build an Igloo

In my quest to help Austinites prepare for the harsh winter that seizes central Texas every year, I have stumbled across an article from Wired Magazine that explains how to build an igloo. An igloo is a ice shelter that I know is very vital to everyone's survival during winter. Igloos have been used for ages, and are used now by the Inuit. This article describes the process that takes about five hours. It doesn't take many tools, as the only tool that is really needed is a knife for cutting the blocks of ice used to make the igloo. The blocks of ice are what make up the wall of the igloo, and are taken from the frozen tundra that will cover the Austin area in the coming months. Tools that could aid in the construction of your ice shelter are a saw and shovel. A saw can help cut ice in a different way than the knife can, and a shovel can help with excavating ice.

After making the ice blocks, all that is needed is to construct the igloo itself. To do that, you must layout the first ring of ice, and then cut down part of it to give the igloo its spiral shape. From there, you must just follow the new curve of the igloo and continue lining the blocks up until you get to the top. The last step is to simply fill in any holes between blocks of your igloo so that the frigid wind that blows across Texas does not enter the shelter. Now you are ready to sleep in the ice house for the long nights that come with Austin winter.


-Scotty

Nissan Leaf is 'Car of the Year' in Europe.

Nissan's new all-electric car has taken the automobile industry by storm. It is the first relatively inexpensive electric car that has been mass-marketed, and this is big news. “Nissan Leaf is the first EV that can match conventional cars in many respects," Hakon Matson tells Wired. In one charge, the Nissan Leaf can drive 80-100+ miles. This makes it great for anyone who isn't on a road trip, or drives 40+ miles to work. An electric car is also a much more spacious ride. Without the gas engine, and all the components that it requires, than there is enough room for more seats, and a hatchback. That is exactly what the Leaf is. It is a 5-seat hatchback, but it is a rather small sedan. The only real issue that could arise with such a car is the lack of charging stations. This would really be an issue for people who drive for 80+ miles in one sitting. Obviously, this is not that common, but it would be a nice to have charging stations integrated into gas stations. All I know is that this is my dream car, and a breakthrough for the automobile and technological worlds.

tech dudes' man caves

Here is an article about the houses and mansions belonging to the kings of the technological universe. It shows a personal view into their lives, one that we don't get very often. I am dissapointed that the pictures are mainly from satellites and not very good quality, although that is also impressive because we can the the immense size  the homes. The nearest to all of us in ATX is of course Micheal Dell's mansion nicknamed "The Castle." It is truly an awesome display of wealth. From the image, you can see a swimming pool and a basketball court combined with a tennis court. His house is just across the lake from downtown, and is perched atop a hill.

The most impressive house in my opinion belongs to the Microsoft giant and multi-billionaire Bill Gates. He is worth 54 billion dollars, and his house rounds up to a mere $145,000,000. It houses 25 bathrooms, an 1,000 square foot dining hall, and six kitchens. It is right on the water, and looks very impressive against the California landscape near Seattle.

Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder of Facebook has a very interesting house compared to the rest displayed in the article. He seems to have a normal house. It is pretty small compared to all the other mansions, but is close to his Facebook headquarters where he works. 

 
-Scotty

Google Under Investigation

Today, the European Union (EU) announced an investigation towards Google about abusing the rules of the EU relating to online search. Specifically, the spokesperson claimed that due to Google's monopoly over the search industry, that they had a biased view against European users, and tended to favor their own products. This investigation does not imply that there is any proof to these allegations, and Google chose to cooperate with the EU in this investigation. A Google spokesperson announced that "But there's always going to be room for improvement, and so we'll be working with the Commission to address any concerns". A commission was formed to lead the investigation, saying that it will focus on whether Google lowers the ranking of unpaid ads, and raises the level of paid ones. Additionally, they claim that Google lowered the quality score of unpaid ads, forcing them to be displayed even lower than before, along with adding a better score to the paying users. Finally, they intend to investigate whether or not Google discriminates against a site based on the advertisements present. Specifically, that Google will force one company with the same content as another company, to pay more because they are running a specific add from say, a rival search engine, or a company that Google doesn't approve of. The time this check up on Google will take is unknown, as the Commission said that they will make this "probe" last as long as necessary to ensure that Google conforms to the regulations of the EU.

--Karl J.

Cowon 3D

 

Now, you probably haven't heard of Cowon before. Like Apple's iPod and Microsoft's Zune, Cowon is also a portable media player. They have had successful versions before that have been highly regarded for the amount of formats they will play, such as FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) and other high quality formats.

As the name suggests, this media player allows you to view things in 3D. Normally for 3D like those in movie theaters, you need glasses. However, more recently technology has been developed that allows you to view 3D without glasses, which is exactly what the Cowon 3D does.

The Cowon 3D has full 1080p playback, which is considered "Full HD," but this doesn't quite make sense, as the Cowon only has an 800x480 screen. So while you can't watch in higher resolutions than 480p on the Cowon (still better than the average YouTube video), it does have an HDMI output port so you can watch the videos on your TV in their full 1080p glory. The Cowon 3D also has 64GB of flash storage and a 4.8 inch screen, so this is quite a bit larger than your iPhone or Droid, but still smaller than a tablet such as the iPad.

The battery can last for 10 hours of video, and over 300 hours on standby (more than the iPhone. Heh. iPhone battery life,) and also includes WiFi capabilities.

The Cowon 3D is set to launch December 10th in South Korea with a price of $431 for the 32GB model, and $509 for the 64GB version.

You can check out the product page here (Korean) and here (English)

-Teguh

Karl's Poll

Poll Found here

Karl J.

Poll Frenzy

I was going to embed it into the blog, but it didn't work.
Oh well.

Take the poll here.

-Teguh

Here's a poll!

Here's a poll about the computers you have at home!

-Scotty

A poll

Here.  Take this poll about media preferences if you would like to.

-mason

Schwarzenegger v. EMA

Today Arnold Schwarzenegger, also known as the Terminator or Governor of California, is taking his case of the "Violent Videogame Law" signed in 2005 which prevented sales of violent videogames (generally rated M or above) to minors. However, before the act took place, the ESA (Electronics Software Association) claimed that the law violated First and Fourteenth amendment rights, by restricting the freedom of expression in the entertainment industry.

Then in February 2009, a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, consisting of three judges, agreed that the law was unconstitutional. But Schwarzenegger has kept on defending his law, stating that "I signed this important measure to ensure parents are involved in determining which video games are appropriate for their children."

The case was accepted to be heard by the Supreme Court on April 26, and the hearing is to take place today. November 2, 2010.

Happy Halloween!

Yesterday was Halloween! To celebrate, Google had produced five Halloween sketches for their homepage. These sketches are all of the classic cartoon Scooby Doo. They more or less all have the same elements and tell a bit of a story. Looking at all the drawings, you can see motifs of Scooby and the gang, jack-o-lanterns, ghouls, and lots of candy! They seem to tell a short story of a couple of trick-or-treaters that get their candy stolen by a mysterious ghost, and then the gang comes in to help them find their candy. Of course Scooby and Shaggy run into a little trouble on the way, but eventually they retrieve the stolen candy. I am really starting to like the variety of doodles that Google is putting on their homepage, and really enjoy these fun ones! Now have a good Halloween, and feel free to celebrate with Google!

In other news, MSNBC has provided us with many different wild and crazy technology idea for a costume for Halloween. I think the pictures on the site speak for themselves. From a iPhone costumes for dogs to a working Pac-Man machine costume for adults, these Halloween costumes are very creative!

-By Scotty

Minecraft

I recently have stumbled upon a fantastic game called Minecraft. It is an indie game created by a man named Markus Persson and it has been in development since May 10, 2009. His realized "a game that [is] simple yet that dynamic had a lot of potential." The plot of the game is nonexistant. The player is just a man on a deserted planet. The only other inhabitants are plants and animals. Everything in the game is a block, and you can interact with the blocks. Harvest the resources from the blocks and use them to create tools and other blocks with different uses. You start with nothing but your character, and the player is left to collect resources as he/she figures out how. Here is an example of the first few minutes of gameplay.
1. Gather wood.

2. Craft the wood into planks.
3. Make a workbench out of planks.
4. Craft the planks into sticks.
5. Use the sticks and wood to create a wooden pickaxe and search for coal.
6. Use the coal and sticks to make torches.
7. Dig and build a massive home above and below grounds. Do anything you want, and it will still be fun.
The game is still in alpha, but soon it will be released in beta. The last update that Markus is working on is full multiplayer compatibility. There is multiplayer but it is buggy and difficult to use. However, the rest of the game is just amazing! It is only $14.21 right now, and YES I am plugging it. It is a good investment to support indie game programmers, and a good way to pass time.

-MASON 

Samsung Galaxy Tab

Recently, Samsung came out with its new smart phone, the Galaxy Tab. This new development had been given a hard ride for its packaging prior to release, but it has silenced critics now. This new phone works across all four major service providers, giving it a higher versatility and consumer reach. Additionally, it is packed with features, such as a 7-inch touch screen, full flash support (complementary of Android 2.2), the capacity for up to 32 GB of storage, a 1 GHz processor, dual cameras, and (of course) wifi and 3g connectivity options. This new tablet has a range of costs across different suppliers and with different requirements. You can get either the $600 flat fee with no obligation from Verizon, or the $400 fee with a 2-year contract from Sprint. Samsung has tried very hard to differentiate the appearance of their new phone from the rest of a marketplace packed full of smart phones. The color scheme on the front is fairly familiar, what with the normal black finish around the screen, but a shiny white background for the back of the phone, although its uncertain if this will diminish in luster over time. Could this new tablet rival the iPhone? Only time will tell.

--Karl J.

Gamer Update

Here's a post for all you gamers! This Tuesday (today), Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II comes out! The story of Darth Vader and his apprentice Starkiller continues with this game for PS3, Xbox, PC, Wii, DS, and iOS. The story continues from the original game, with Vader having made many clones of Starkiller. These clones have been killed off by Vader because they have flashbacks of the original Starkillers life. This leads to them having thoughts of rebellion and turning on Vader.

For the most part, the game seems to remain mostly the same. If you like running around destroying everything in sight with the force, you will still love this game. If bringing pain to others by slicing them with two light-sabers, and using force lightning on them, you will still love this game. The makers did improve many aspects of game play, like I said two light-sabers, and this one seems to just be a continuation of the previous one. One of the major changes the makers made in the second game is that they took away support for the PSP platform. So as long as you have another platform to use, feel free to buy the game today, and run around the Star Wars universe using the force to your heart's content.

New eReader coming soon.

With Amazon's Kindle and Apple's iPad, Barnes and Noble's Nook may seem like a pale imposer. However, soon that may be subject to change. An "overzealous" accessory designer seems to have revealed a secret that B&N has been hiding for a while. The Nook color. The screen protector product was advertised on the B&N website and CNET quickly copied it before it could be removed. As surprise about the image seen below is that there is seemingly no buttons.

If it has no buttons, then it would be a touchscreen, color e-reader. And if that means it has eInk than it would be a total domination over the kindle. Currently, kindle has the edge on price, for iPad is a whopping 500+ dollars. Plus Kindle has been praised for the enjoyable reading experience, with no light shining in your eyes from the backlight. If the Nook Color manages to be color AND eInk, than it would be a fantastic product. Another leaked secret about this new Nook is something called "Nook Kids". It is a dedicated kids library of books with a interactive pictures. This could be another great addition to an eReader which could put it into the spotlight.

Read more 
-Mason

Google, meet the TV.

Google TV is Google's latest product. From where they first started by dominating the search engine world, to taking over web browsing with Chrome, introducing Android to smartphones, and a slew of other programs such as GMail, Blogger, Google Reader, Google Docs, and more. Google TV has the potential to completely revolutionize the way we watch and use TV, for good or for worse.

Back to the Mac

October 20, 2010. In Cupertino, California at Apple headquarters, Apple had its "Back to the Mac" event. At this event, Apple announced a number of new products, among them the new version of the MacBook Air.This new laptop is available in two sperate versions, both an 11.6" screen version weighing 2.3 lbs and the larger 13.3" screen weighing 2.9 lbs . Steve Jobs announced that he intended to merge some of the best features of the iPhone/Pad with the new Macs being released. The laptops will be beginning at $999, but could reach up to $1599, depending on the features/screen size you choose. Apple also announced the release of their new Mac OS X version, which will be dubbed Lion, intended to be released in September 2011. Alongside of this release, Apple intends to be adding the App Store to this new Mac OS, although there will be other ways of getting apps. Apple finally announced a new version of iLife, costing $49 for Macs already in service, and will be included in the charge of new posts. This is the first time in a while that Apple has chosen to specify on the Mac, rather then branching off in numerous directions, and could lead to increased profit. I personally believe this event was held in order to counter the rising sales of Windows 7 in the market and to combat microsoft further. More information can be found here.

--Karl J.

The Google Car

Google has begun testing its self driving car, to ensure that it is driver safe and friendly. This ground breaking car combines a lot of the features Google already uses, such as the databases that share known road blockages, the maps of the city to plot the best route, and finally speed limits in order to prevent speeding. The car has several video cameras in order to see what's around it, along with radar sensors to gain information while driving. This car has a very large convenience factor, as all you have to do is get in, enter your final destination, and then wait while the car does all the work and you can do whatever you choose.  Although this car has not been mass-produced yet, a few prototypes have been designed and tested on the roads of California. Although the car is not quite advanced enough to be given to the general public, one such car has managed to log 140,000 miles on its own. Google stated the reason for producing this car was to help people overcome everyday problems with technology, such as by developing a safe, efficient, reliable car to begin patrolling the roads. Despite this car's ability to drive itself, it is never driven around unmanned, for security reasons, as humans can effortlessly and quickly, whether to avoid danger, or merely to get that hands on feel of driving a car. To read more, look here

--Karl J.

Apple TV not up to par.

Recently, the new Apple TV was released and engadget reviewed the item. The new version has many new features and is a smaller unit at a much lower price.

• The hardware consists of many aspects alike to the iPad, iPod, and iPhone. It has around 1GHz like an iPad, the A4 CPU chip like all the iDevices, and it has WiFi compatibility. 

• The remote is small, and has 3 buttons. According to engadget, it is a chore to use. They believe the best way to control the Apple TV is through an iDevice with the "remote" app. 

• The interface is much like the previous version, extremely easy to set up and navigate. One flaw is the on-screen keyboard, since it is not QWERTY. 

• The actual act of renting and viewing a purchase is great, and if you are a netflix user then the iTunes store and netflix are integrated well. 

A few problems: The channels affiliated with apple TV are limited. Also, only M4V, MP4, or MOV files can be read through apple TV. This means one cannot just rip a dvd and upload it. Another issue is the high cost of video on the iTunes store. This brings the competitors that use Amazon direct a step above, for the cost of renting and buying digital content is much less. Sadly, the Apple TV does not really deliver, but that does not mean it isn't good. It just isn't above Roku and the competitors.
-mason

LEDs. In your skin.

Yep, that's right. LEDs in your skin. While there have already been flexible displays like this E-Ink and OLED, normal LED's are very brittle and cannot be bent easily. 

LED's are cheap and reliable, and one of the technology powerful light sources out there on a small scale. With this new development by John Rogers into flexible LEDs, their technologic advancements really shine.

Skype five has five person calling

Skype 5.0 has introduced a few new features. Besides the change in design of their home screen, they have integrated Facebook into their interface. You can now access your news feed and update your status while in Skype. You can also start calls with your Facebook friends (read this article). Skype has new competition with Google, who recently added a calling feature to Gmail (Google's email service) so that all users could make internet phone calls. Because Skype is basically an internet calling and chatting service, this could develop into a major rivalry. The developing of Facebook into Skype could be a new way to have a step up on Google, by getting Facebook users.

Finding Skype friends on Facebook goes along with 

the new Skype features.

Skype has also greatly improved their video calling service. Now you can have a video chat with up to ten people. Skype says that 40 percent of their minutes last year were used for video calling, so with this new advancement, Skype will probably used more and more, even with businesses for things like conference calls.  Skype has worked hard to make the video calling better, and has come up with new designs and formats. These are things like having the person that is talking the most in a video chat on a more prominent position on your screen, and gauging audio and video quality throughout the call.

The new video conference calls.

-Scotty

Space Travel Anyone?

Back in July the SpaceShipTwo, Virgin Galactic's newest suborbital spaceplane (to take tourists into space), went on a flight with the full crew. The flight lasted for 6 hours, but the SpaceShipTwo remained attached to it's mothership, the VMS Eve.

Now more recently on Sunday October 10th, the SpaceShipTwo went on its first solo glide flight. The ship took off with the VMS Eve carrying it to an altitude of 45,000 feet, at which point the SpaceShipTwo disconnected from the mothership and glided for 11 minutes before safely landing at the Runway 30 in the Mojave Air and Space Port.

The purpose of this flight was to establish a clean release from the mothership, and to free glide and land back at the Mojave Air and Space Port. Both of these goals were accomplished, and will help Virgin Galactic meet its goals to have a commercial flight into space next year.

So far, the company has 370 customer deposits, totaling to a value of $50 million. The company plans to have future operations in New Mexico's Spaceport America.

In case you're curious, tickets cost $200,000 and have a deposit of $20,000. If you just so happen to be interested in booking a flight, you can do that here.

In other news...

-Teguh

The World of Multiple Search Engines

I have long been looking forward to a world of multiple search engines, where we can turn different places to  find the information that we want to find. Bing has shown that it has the potential to be a major competitor of Google. It  has always been developing fast, even merging with the web giant Yahoo to form an alliance to rival Google. This alliance is now found to be very effective at advertising, which has marketers excited, because they would want a broader advertising world than just Google. If the search engine world had more than one place for marketers to go, there would be more competition between Google and Bing.

This article has many interesting statistics and logistics about the search engine advertising world. Having the advertising world play a part in deciding major search engine's successful is something that I haven't really thought about. At the same time, this could be used to help diversify the search engine world. I find the quote at the end of the article stands out to me. It sums up the point that if the Yahoo/Bing alliance can master advertising, they can start to be a major rival of Google.

-Scotty

ra1n and pois0n.

Last post I introduced you to greenpois0n, a jailbreak making use of the SHAtter vulnerability. It was to be released this week, or a couple days ago but old-time favorite hacker "geohot"/"geohotz" came back from retirement with what he called an "unpatchable" jailbreak. This new jailbreak is called "limera1n", and it is currently windows only (mac and linux coming soon). limera1n has attracted a lot of controversy and angered jailbreakers, for it delayed the release of "greenpois0n". The dev-team, another group of hackers, was working on a top-notch unlock, but with the unexpected return of geohot and release of limera1n, Apple now can patch what is being used to jailbreak. The dev-team wisely decided to keep SHAtter hidden and thus saving a jailbreak for when apple patches to hole used by limera1n.
Limera1n is much like blackra1n, the very popular unlock that geohot made for the iOS 3 system. However, the user-friendly, one-click jailbreak of blackra1n is no more. I believe that limera1n resembles blackra1n, with the rain symbol (but now it's green), and the "make it ra1n" program. All I really know is that limera1n is legit, and that when it comes for mac, I will be using it.
Read more.


EDIT: greenpois0n was just released using the same vulnerability as limera1n, SHAtter being preserved for later. 
-mason

Windows 7 Phone

Microsoft intends to release it's new Windows Phone 7 Series phone ( to use it's official name) just at the beginning of the 2010 holiday season. Microsoft has alluded that they will be cooperating closely with Zune, so if you are familiarized with that interface then Windows 7 will be right up your alley. This mobile phone has an effective history system, which allows easy access to the apps you use most frequently. The phone comes  complete with it's own social connection App, called The People Hub, which gives you the ability to connect with all of your friends quickly and effectively. Parallel to this App, there will also be The Photo Hub, which allows you to manage and share your photos, and also The Office Hub, probably one of the most exciting Apps, which gives you the ability to manage the documents on your PC from your phone. In addition, you have the ability to take notes, prepare a presentation, and have a method of flagging emails, all from your phone. Probably one of the largest features is that Zune has linked with Xbox live, allowing hardcore Xbox players to connect with their friends on the go. Unfortunately, this new phone will be released with Bing as it's primary search engine, despite Google's superiority. More about the Windows Phone 7 Series can be found here

-- By Karl J.

Document Foundation Breaks off from Oracle

Recently, Oracle bought SUN Microsystems and got the copyright to all of their products, including the massively popular free alternative to Microsoft Word, OpenOffice.org

This caused some of the creators of OpenOffice to branch off and create their own group, the Document Foundation, as they didn't like the idea of a corporate controlled open-source project. They say that they "welcome corporate participation, e.g. by sponsoring individuals to work as equals alongside other contributors in the community," but they do not want to be controlled by a corporation and be limited in what they can do. They also created the Document Foundation saying that "...an independent Foundation brings out the best in contributors and will deliver the best software for users."

They have offered Oracle to donate the code and copyright of OpenOffice to them, but they have also made it clear that they do not need the copyright to continue working. So instead, they have created a fork of the popular office suite, called Libre Office. This is currently in beta, and it isn't fully developed, but feel free to try it out here. Libre Office will also be an open-source project, and the Document Foundation hopes to expand and make Libre Office the best free alternative to Microsoft Word. Good luck!

-Teguh

Ironic Segway Accident

Tragic news, Jimi Heselden, the owner of the Segway Inc., died after a segway accident. He was using a segway, believed to be made by his own company (a gyrobike model), to drive around the perimeters of his property, when his segway drove off a cliff with him, it is believed. His body was found near what the police describe as "a segway-style vehicle". He had sustained multiple injuries upon the discovery of the body in the River Wharfe close to the town of Boston Spa in North England on September 16. A spokesman for Hesco Bastion (the company that Mr. Heseldon was chairman for) announced his death formally. A court session adjourned in the middle of deciding on whether or not a court inquest was required. The detective who inspected the scene, and later informed the wife of the deceased was Detective Superintendant Paul Taylor. Unfortunately, the body was not initially permitted to be released to the family in order for a funeral, but has now become available for a funeral service scheduled for October 11, at noon. Our hearts and minds are with this 62 year old man, whose life was stolen by the very product he loved, bought, and endorsed.


-Karl J.

SHAtter

Recently Apple released a new iOS update that provided many new features. It was iOS update 4.1 and it enabled a sort of mmo-based game center as well as a couple other minor features.  Jailbreakers have been told not to update there unlocked devices to this new update for it is a "trap" and will brick or unjailbreak their device. However a day later a vulnerability was discovered and a jailbreak is in the making. The hole in the software is a bootrom vunerability referred now to as SHAtter. It is still in development, but anytime this week, or this month, the dev-team (a group of hackers) will release a jailbreak called "greenpois0n." Apple will want to find a way to shut down this hole, but a full device recall is not going to happen. So the most likely response will be to close down the hole with the in-production devices. It is recommended that if you want to take advantage of this hole, than a device should be purchased now. However, when Apple ships the un-jailbreakable software, than it is more than possible that there will be another hole.
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-Mason

Happy Birthday Google!

Today, (Sept. 27) Google is 12! To celebrate, Google is sending the the whole world cake by means of a doodle on its home page! Of the many doodles on Google's homepage, this one is the second best I have seen- nothing can beat the Pacman game on the homepage. That is the first interactive Google homepage that I have seen. I would be more impressed if they had a cake with twelve candles, or an animation of the candle(s) being blown out every time that you searched something.

It isn't quite clear when exactly Google's birthday really is (read this article). I think that Google would know when its own birthday is, so this pretty effectively kills any arguments that say that their birthday is the seventh of September. Either way, at least it's been with us for a dozen years. Google has completely changed the web with all of their tools and services for all to use. What I love the most about Google is that they are still evolving, coming out with new tools and improving their existing tools. Overall, Google is transforming the internet for the better, so why not celebrate?

-Scotty