IBLOG SPACE

I think most of us would agree that the new Facebook Timeline isn’t something we want on our profiles. I don’t like the way timeline profiles look, and I’m sure I am not alone. Facebook has now launched a new app that will take all the content you put on your Timeline profile, and turn that content into a little movie. That sounds interesting, and some people will probably appreciate the new app. Facebook says the new Timeline Movie Maker creates a movie highlighting special moments from your Timeline and the app is built in cooperation with Facebook and Definition 6. This is clearly designed to lure people to use the new Timeline, even though Timeline is going to be mandatory soon and users won’t have a choice. The app appears to be easy-to-use, you give it permission to access your basic information from your profile and the movie it constructs lasts a minute.

Apple has admitted that it had planned poorly for the launch of the iPhone 4S in China. Apple launched the iPhone 4S in China and didn’t have enough stock leaving many who waited in line without the device, which led to near riots with eggs thrown at windows, and employees smacked around. Despite the initial issues with the iPhone in China, Apple is predicted to sell a huge number of devices by 2013. In fact, analysts predict that Apple could add as much as $10 per share in revenue from China alone. Investment bank Morgan Stanley is predicting that Apple will partner with both China Telecom and China Mobile over the next year, which will give it availability for the iPhone on all three of the Chinese carriers. The wide availability is expected to allow Apple to sell as many as 40 million iPhones in 2013. As it stands now analysts are saying that Apple can only reach about 10% of the 150 million high-end Chinese subscribers in the country because it is currently only partnered with Chin

Apple has revealed its new retail chief, grabbing John Browett from European tech chain Dixons as its new Senior Vice President of Retail. Browett, who has been Dixons CEO since 2007, will join Apple in April, and helm the company’s global retail strategy as well as organizing the expansion of Apple’s retail stores. “Our retail stores are all about customer service, and John shares that commitment like no one else we’ve met,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said of Browett’s joining the company in a statement. “We are thrilled to have him join our team and bring his incredible retail experience to Apple.” Dixons not only operates its eponymous stores in the UK, but Currys, Currys.digital, PC World and Electro World, in addition to European brands including Pixmania and Equanet. The company also has its own in-house PC brand, Advent Computers. Although retail performance has been shaky in the past few years, the company is still a significant player in the marketplace. Browett also led supermarket c

Sky has revealed a new on-demand streaming TV service, offering subscription-based and pay-per-view content to those who haven’t signed up to the network’s satellite TV option. Set to launch in the UK in the first half of this year, the new Sky internet TV service will stream content to computers, tablets, mobile phones, games consoles and smart TVs. Meanwhile, there’s also news on expansion to the Sky Go mobile app, including a version for Android. Initially, the Sky IPTV system will offer films from Sky Movies; however, the company expects to expand that to encompass sport and entertainment content soon after launch. Pricing has not been confirmed, though Sky says it will offer both packages – including, say, unlimited access to movies for a monthly fee, and with no minimum contract – and pay-per-view for those only wanting to watch specific content. The system will include recommendations based on previous viewing habits, and be maintained alongside the existing Sky Go IPTV option f

Legitimate user data stored with seized file-sharing service MegaUpload is safe from deletion until at least mid-February, the lawyer for the piracy-accused site has confirmed, though there’s still no way for users to actually access it. Having been taken down by US federal prosecutors earlier this month, the longevity of MegaUpload’s database was in question after investigators said hosting companies could begin deleting data from Thursday, February 2. That’s been avoided, MegaUpload lawyer Ira Rothken told TorrentFreak, for “at least” two weeks more. Concerns around the safety of data had been sparked from the original legal action taken against MegaUpload, with legitimate users claiming their personal backups, media collections, family photos and other information had been uploaded to the site. At present, however, visiting MegaUpload.com shows only the FBI takedown and domain seizure notice. However, worries around access turned to fears the data could be irretrievably lost, when i

Qualcomm’s mirasol color e-paper technology has found its way into another device, the Koobe Jin Yong eReader , a 5.7-inch XGA slate targeting ebooks, digital comics, animated picture books and magazines. The Koobe model is the fourth to use Qualcomm’s screen tech, and like models from Kyobo it runs a reskinned Android 2.3 on top of the chip company’s 1GHz Snapdragon S2 processor. The mirasol appeal, of course, is the combination of E-Ink style low power consumption but with video-capable refresh rates, as well as outdoor visibility. mirasol builds on the same light-bouncing principles that make a butterfly’s wings shimmer, only Qualcomm uses it to produce a color display that gets brighter and more color-saturated the more light is directed at it. Design-wise, we’re guessing all of the four mirasol ereaders we’ve seen so far – the Kyobo model, the Bamboo Sunflower , the Hanvon C18 and this new Koobe version – are all based on Qualcomm’s own reference design. That would explain the

There aren’t many mobile phone games from the 1990s that are really worth taking a second look. In fact, the entire market of vintage cell phone games is sorely uninspiring, but there is one that has and always will stand out from its monochromatic brethren. If you had a Nokia phone back in the day, then you either played Snake or you should have. Now, developer Willem Middelkoop has revived the archaically simplistic game on Windows Phone, as ably demonstrated by Pocket-lint in the video below. And no, it doesn’t just put a black-and-greenish screen on the display and let players have at it. This app effectively turns your Windows Phone into a mid-1990s Nokia handset, complete with buttons and all. The experience is meant to be as faithful as possible, giving players a limited play area and requiring them to push numerical buttons to move the snake. It is perhaps a fitting tribute to the fact that Nokia now runs a third-party operating system, something that mobile enthusiasts just a

The guys at Harmonix are fairly occupied working on continuous downloadable content for Dance Central, but apparently there is something else in the works for the music game moguls. Brian Chan, who was the senior designer for Rock Band 3, has mentioned on his own public resume that he has begun working on a new Harmonix project, but nothing matching his description has yet been announced by the video game company. On Chan’s resume, it mentions the game is being developed as a downloadable title for the Xbox 360 and PS3, with the unlikely pairing of Facebook as well. It’s unclear if the three will have some sort of interconnected social communication or if the Facebook version will simply stand on its own. Nevertheless, it is a curious revelation. After all, Harmonix is not exactly known for making downloadable games. Its high-concept projects are grandiose and live on for years through sequels and fresh content. After Chan’s resume change was spotted, Harmonix was soon to reply that it

In case you’ve been wondering what happened to Ice Cream Sandwich upgrades to Android-powered tablets, Lenovo has confirmed it will release an update to the ThinkPad Tablet in the second quarter of 2012. Asus’s Transformer Prime device has been the only upgraded tablet so far and it’s being met with problems, but hopefully those kinks will be worked out before Lenovo steps into the ring. The ThinkPad Tablet launched in July of last year without a lot of fanfare, despite its then-attractive price point of $479 and support for Android 3.1 Honeycomb. The device was marketed to business and enterprise customers, just like the ThinkPad brand of laptops. The market of business-oriented Android tablets is still incredibly niche, but with Ice Cream Sandwich compatibility, Lenovo will have a distinct competitive advantage. As mentioned, Asus is paying the price for being an Ice Cream Sandwich guinea pig. The update file has caused handfuls of Transformer Prime tablets to lock up and crash, leav

President Obama appeared before the world tonight in a virtual town hall that took place on Google+. As could easily be expected, there were some controversial issues to discuss, one of which was the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Obama responded to a question about the piece of legislation by saying there could be other workarounds, though he did not firmly voice opposition to the measure. It was a rather stark and perhaps ironic discussion place for the bill. After all, Obama is the most technologically-active president the United States has ever seen. Tonight’s event, at the behest of the president, was broadcast on YouTube, a site that by its own admission would be forced to shut down the day that SOPA was put into effect, should that day ever come. As such, even though he is a master of political statements, it was pretty obvious what Obama’s true sentiments were about the proposed law. “I think that it’s going to be possible for us” to go a different route for battling online pir

If we told you that a man who was able to create a replica of the Star Trek Voyager starship in his apartment ended up being served divorce papers by his wife, you probably wouldn’t be that surprised. But if we told you that same amazing apartment was going to be destroyed by said wife, you’d probably at least be disappointed. That is the story of a poor unfortunate nerd named Tony Alleyne. Before we go on with the details, just take a moment to look at that picture. Someone lived here. How amazing is that? So here’s the thing – Alleyne’s wife decided to divorce him in 1994. It wasn’t until then that he decided to convert his 500-square-foot living space into geek heaven, but based on this we can imagine the two probably weren’t speaking the same language all along anyway. So with all the extra spare time not having a wife allows, he was able to spend $150,000 in hand-crafting futuristic furniture, installing a voice-activated lighting system, and converting the bedroom into a transpor

If you can’t wait until February 22 to get your hands on Sony’s newest portable gaming device, you’ll need to set aside some extra time for the bathroom. Your shot at winning a pre-release PlayStation Vita is at the same place where you can buy Fritos-filled burritos. Sony’s new partnership with Taco Bell follows the storied tradition of fast food/video game enterprises – we’re talking about Burger King Xbox 360 games, Nintendo Zone hotspots at McDonald’s, and Kinect promotions at, again, Burger King. So here’s the nitty gritty. If you want to enter, you’ll need to buy a 5 Buck Box, which as everyone knows includes a Cheesy Gordita Crunch, Burrito Supreme, Crunchy Taco, and a medium drink. On the packaging of your box of meaty goodness, there will be a code that you can enter at unlock.tacobell.com. The first winners will start receiving their Vitas around February 8. The Taco Bell partnership goes beyond the sweepstakes deal. The two companies also worked together to created an Augmen

There’s new life emerging for one of the big Apple rumors that came out last year but never gained much steam. We’re talking about Near Field Communication (NFC) support for the next generation of the iPhone. NFC, of course, is the standard used in contactless credit cards today and is looking to be a standard feature of smartphones tomorrow. Apple fan site 9to5mac.com said it recently chatted with a “well-connected developer” at the Macworld conference, who said Apple software engineers are “heavy into NFC.” The developer, whose identity was not revealed, said he is working on an iPhone app that will support NFC payments, something that wouldn’t really make sense unless said developer was quite sure that the next iPhone would incorporate the new payment standard. Of course, getting hardware support is only knocking down one barrier to entry when it comes to NFC. The rest of the puzzle includes the mobile carriers, the software makers, the payment service providers, and the retailers.

In this world, there are people who make games and there are insane, talented fans of those games who create their own amazing adaptations of famous series and franchises. Sadly, these two sides rarely intertwine. Take for example, a recently uploaded trailer for Zelda: The Lost Oracle – not an actual Zelda game, but we certainly wish it were. The video was created by an animator and Zelda crazy fan by the name of Joel Furtado. The graphical style is evocative of the Gamecube sensation The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and opens with the words “A sequel 10 years in the making.” Wind Waker was a polarizing entry in the Zelda series; some loved it and some hated it. But regardless of what you thought of that particulat game, you have to admit this video is pretty awe-inspiring. Sadly the “trailer” only lasts 55 seconds and leaves you wanting more. Much more. If it was truly a new and upcoming Zelda game, pre-orders would be lighting up across all the major online stores right now. Unfo

If you want an iPhone 4S in Hong Kong, you’ll need an Internet connection, a government-issued photo ID, and a bit of luck. Apple has amended its online lottery system after scalpers and bots created mayhem and an utter lack of fairness to normal consumers. The new system makes Hong Kong the most stringent country to officially offer the newest iPhone. So here’s how it works. Hong Kong residents can go to a special website on Apple.com and fill out an online form. This form requires complete contact information as well as a government ID number. Each day, Apple randomly selects from its pool of users to award vouchers to eligible customers. Previously, the online form was much simpler, allowing bots to ping the server all day and taking all the reservation spots in a matter of seconds. Prior to this, Apple Store locations were forced to shut down due to massive crowds, some of whom were poor workers being paid by scalpers to stand in line. The company is now no longer allowing walk-in

Those of you sticking so close to the iPhone app streets that you can tell that an app is coming before its developer even develops it knew that there was an app by the name of QuasiDisk out there today, one that allowed you to take advantage of tethering from your iPhone. This functionality is now allowed otherwise, so it was assumed early on that this app would, upon being updated to having this ability, be cut down from the market like a kite from a tree. That has happened, but not before thousands of users got ahold of it, fully functional. This application has until now just been what they’ve billed it as: a “simple file manager and file viewer.” But the developer of this app, Chris Simpson, otherwise known for his development of jailbroken-compatible applications galore, showed a video this week on how you could manipulate the app into allowing you no less than tethering with no hacking at all! Your carrier will not be too thrilled if they find that you’ve gotten this ability fre

T-Mobile will be making some changes to its domestic data roaming come April 5, according to a leaked internal document obtained by TmoNews. Instead of capping data speeds for domestic data roaming, T-Mobile will completely cut off your data if you exceed your allotment for the billing cycle. This means you won’t be able to connect unless you use WiFi or return to an area within your T-Mobile network. According to T-Mobile, the change will help reduce data roaming costs so that the carrier can continue to provide competitive pricing options. Customers will begin receiving notifications in February regarding the change via bill inserts, emails, and SMS messages. The change will take effect starting April 5 and T-Mobile will send text messages to alert customers when their domestic data roaming approaches 80 percent and 100 percent of their allotments. The new domestic data roaming allotments will apply to all existing T-Mobile data plans, including grandfathered plans. There are some ac

One of the most famous suites of software on earth, Microsoft’s Office, has been released in its 15th iteration this morning as a Technical Preview. As JP Hough, CVP of Development for Microsoft’s Office Division notes, Office 15 is the codename of the next generation of Microsoft’s Office products, and this Technical Preview is the first Phase of release for a limited group of customers under non-disclosure agreements. This release does not currently have any semblance of a price or release date, and this early build will not be released to the public. Customers testing this early build of what’s currently code-named Office 15 will be providing feedback to Microsoft’s Office team and changes they suggest will be taken into account for the final build and release. Hough notes that Office 15 will be “the most ambitious undertaking yet” for the Office division. When the release comes down to the public, there will be one simultaneous update to all of the following: PC and mobile clients

Several updates to software surrounding AirPort and Time Capsule have been sent out by Apple today, each of them coming to users through Software Update. The first update is to 802.11n AirPort Express, 802.11n AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule models – in it, users get an issue fixed for wireless performance amongst other smaller issues. The other update is for AirPort Utility 6.0 for Mac OS X Lion, it being an update for you to more effectively manage your Wifi network and AirPort base stations galore. The AirPort Base Station and Time Capsule Firmware is being upgraded to version 7.6.1 and will allow you to get remote access to an AirPort disk or a Time Capsule hard drive with your own iCloud account. This upgrade will be to your Firmware and should be done only AFTER you grab AirPort Utility 5.5.3. Additionally, you should have AirPort Utility 6.0 at least (this being the other part of the upgrade) as well as Mac OS X Lion version 10.7.2 or later so that you might work with iCloud. U

Following the Carrier IQ controversy over its data tracking software on mobile devices, new legislation is being proposed that would require both wireless carriers and mobile device manufacturers to disclose of any monitoring software. Rep. Ed Markey drafted the new mobile privacy bill, which would place the Federal Trade Commission in charge of making sure mobile companies comply. The Mobile Device Privacy Act proposed by Markey would require companies to obtain customer consent in order to install monitoring software. Companies must also disclose if a device has the software installed, what information it collects and transmits, to whom it’s being transmitted, and how the data is used. However, the legislation is still in draft and not yet a formal bill. But should it make it into federal law, the FTC will have one year before requiring the disclosure from carriers and phone manufacturers, many of which have already dropped Carrier IQ amid the controversy.

Panasonic is developing new applications that use WiGig technology, which can wirelessly transfer data at multi-gigabit speeds. Although first announced back in 2009, adoption of WiGig has taken some time. Panasonic is demoing the technology in use on prototype SD cards that work with tablets to transfer videos to in-car entertainment systems. The technology in this implementation can transfer a full DVD video from the tablet to the in-car system in only 60 seconds on a 60Hz frequency band, boasting data transfer rates of up to 7Gbps. That’s pretty impressive considering the much touted high-speed Thunderbolt wired ports offer 10Gbps transfer speeds, though bi-directional. However, the wireless range is limited to 1 to 3 meters, which means it won’t be replacing current WiFi standards, which can offer a range of up to 30 meters. But in Panasonic’s in-vehicle application, the technology could offer great entertainment solutions. The company hopes to commercialize the WiGig SD cards for

There’s a brand new set of no less than seven CPUs out on the market announced by Intel today, each of them with a slight modification over the last comparable version of them, with both Core i5 and Celeron units up for sale. Each of these units has been announced extremely silently for one reason or another, most likely because they do not offer major advances over the last wave of comparable cores. Other than the P at the end of the names for two of the three Core i5 units possible meaning a modification to the GPU has been made, not one whole heck of a lot is known about the innards of these products. What is known is the prices, which units these CPUs are replacing, and the frequency, core number and thread number, and L3 Cache of each. You’ll find your current Core i5250 K, 2400 and 2320 being replaced by 2550K, 2450P, and 2380P respectively. They each remain quad-core, frequency 3.4, 3.2, and 3.1 down the list, and prices sit at $225, $195, and $177 as the power lessens. Prices h

The Nintendo DSi isn’t what you’d expect teachers to want in classrooms, but that may change as the handheld gaming device explores new uses in education. Along with Japanese telecom company NTT, Nintendo is testing speech-to-text and speech recognition technology on the DSi for students with hearing impairment or other disabilities. Trials for the technology started Monday in Tottori Prefecture and Okinawa, where disabled students will be able to read what they otherwise could not hear of their teacher’s lessons. The technology converts vocal instruction into text that shows up on the Nintendo DSi or on an electronic blackboard. Beyond converting from speech to text, the technology also saves lectures to the cloud so that students can access them later. Students can also use the Nintendo DSi to interact and communicate.a

Clearwire has released information on price and release for a couple of new hotspots, both of them running on their current WiMAX 4G network. The first is a $99 wifi router mobile hotspot combination device called Clear Hub Express, it made for both your home and your mobile office. The Clear Spot Voyager, on the other hand, is a $124 device and the ability to run WiMAX wirelessly to eight devices for up to six hours on its own internal battery. These come amid Clearwire upgrading their network to LTE, but stick to WiMAX in the interim. Each of these devices is able to be coupled with a $35 a month “unlimited 4G” plan, but know this: we’ve heard more than a few people complain that Clear has been throttling their data speeds after something so simple as a single streamed movie. It’s no kind customer you’re going to get, Clearwire, if you’re only tending to the people who use your data for checking email. That sort of customer is soon to be extinct, mark my words. The specifications her

When you’re running a company so gigantic and so very profitable that even the smallest leak of information on your upcoming product line could cost you masses of cash, you’ve got to take Apple-level precautions. That’s what its come to- when you speak about security of product names, details, and the whole lot, you compare a company to Apple, the mack-daddy of all secured product releasers. This week its become apparent that their level of secrecy runs so deep that engineers new to the company are put on projects that will not amount to anything for their first nine or so months of employment. This tidbit was brought up first, it seems, in the book “Inside Apple” by Adam Lashinsky, and was again brought up and “re-confirmed” by a former Apple employee. How on earth either of these folks plans on moving through the rest of their lives with the knowledge that Apple now has them on their “do not tell secrets to” list, we may never know. Lashinsky spoke at a Linkdin event this week and it

Verizon may finally be launching its long teased family data plans, according to a tip received by Engadget. The tipster sent in screenshots of Verizon’s internal account management application, which were part of employee training material on the updated system. The images reveal the addition of new “account level data plans” that appear to have a base charge plus a $9.99 per additional line charge. Verizon already offers shared family plans for talk and text, but has yet to extend that to data plans, requiring each device to have its own separately metered data service. Since at least May, the carrier has been hinting at offering family data plans with Verizon CEO Lowell McAdams confirming last month that the shared data plans should arrive in 2012. However, no other details have been revealed about Verizon’s family data plans and when exactly we can expect to see it launch. But with more and more people requiring data service and having multiple devices that require data service, it

One of the most popular an addicting first person shooter games of all time has been re-built from the ground up to bring you all the classic action on your Android device. What you’re going to get is a version of the game that’s been made by fans wishing to continue the legacy of the original which itself was originally a fan-made modification of the game Half-Life. True to form this version of the game will have a team of counter-terrorists facing off against a team of terrorists with the objective to either plant and detonate a bomb or defuse a bomb before the other team annihilates you entirely – welcome to the future, CS! The original version of Counter-Strike took place on Windows-based computers exclusively, with expansion from there leading up to what’s now also browser-based versions of the game and countless additionally modded versions spread across the web. This newest version can also be found on Facebook and Kongregate for web based browser playing. There are currently tw

The folks at Spigen have a brand new accessory for the iPhone 4/4S that they’d love for you to try out: the GLAS.t premium tempered glass screen protector. What makes this particular screen protector different from the hundreds of alternatives is it’s makeup: it’s not plastic, it’s Oleophobic Coated Chemically Treated Glass, their own formula! The front is transparent and the back is covered with a just-as-transparent silicon adhesive, and when properly applied, the entire shield has absolutely no effect on the touch sensitivity of your device. When you want to protect glass, do you usually use more glass to get the job done? Not usually, of course not, no. But what we’ve got here is a reinforced bit of ultra-thin glass that will shatter if by some miracle you’re able to break it. The 0.4mm thickness will not only keep the excellent feel of the surface you paid for in your glass and metal smartphone, but will give you 8-9H hardness, three times the strength of your average PET film – t

Microsoft France has revealed that there are no plans to release a brand new Xbox inside 2012, saying that they’re not “convinced” that the device we’ve been calling the Xbox 720 will be happening this year. This information comes from the marketing director for Microsoft in France Cedrick Delmas interviewing with Lepointand brought to us by Eurogamer. Delmas notes that the proof of this notion comes in the lack of a price drop in the Xbox 360 thus far, he then noting that the life cycle for the Xbox 360 is far from over. In regards to how they plan on countering the oncoming release of the next generation Nintendo Wii console, still tentatively called Wii U, Delmas said that they weren’t there to fight Nintendo, and that they were simply on a different cycle from the other manufacturers. There’s nothing like a good console war, but it’s simply not time for a new Xbox to be released, basically. His translated words read like this: “We’re in an industry that talks a lot, that likes tell

There’s a whole lot of malware going down right now in the Android Marketplace, and aside from scaring the bajeesus out of new Android users everywhere, the situation has highlighted a basic mis-step on the part of both consumers and Google. What Google has fallen under fire for many more times than here and now is that their Android Market has next to no curation process for apps, this allowing the possibility for malicious apps to be dropped and run rampant as they are today. As far as consumers go, there’s a fantastically large amount of people out there who have no idea what they’re doing. It’s just as basic as that, when it comes down to it: if you’ve picked up a tablet for the first time, or a smartphone for the first time, and you want to grab some apps, you just head to the market and start downloading like a maniac. The step that exists between here and there that, unfortunately, is the only real level of security that exists for Android today is this: reviews by people like y

T-Mobile USA has a problem: uninterested subscribers, patchy “4G” coverage and, with the collapse of the AT&T acquisition deal, sole responsibility for digging itself out of the whole mess. The carrier – or more accurately owners Deutsche Telekom – had envisaged AT&T taking over responsibility for US operations, leaving the German parent company to handle the European market it’s far more familiar with. Those schemes have been left in disarray, but could T-Mobile’s UK cousin have shown it the way to shock-style market salvation? Deutsche Telekom scaled back investment in its network – as well as negotiations on new device exclusives and the like – when the AT&T deal looked like it would go ahead. With those plans in tatters, the carrier has been left playing catch-up. AT&T will be forced to hand over a $1bn chunk of AWS spectrum, but T-Mobile USA still has to invest in actually building out a usable network, something expects believe will cost three times the $3bnAT&

In a leaked set of key points from a developer event in India this week, codesters were given a bit of information on the upcoming hero version of Windows Phone, that being code-name Tango. This version of Windows Phone will first of all be supporting C++ code use by developers, this giving them a much more low-level bit of control for their apps in the pipeline. Then there’s language support: here moving the current support for 35 languages in Windows Phone Mango up to 120 languages for Tango – that’s a boost! This will, as it’s been reported in the past, bring Windows Phone to a whole new possible set of international markets. When you’ve got a device that’s only able to work with a few languages, you’re only able to drop a phone with the software its running in those few markets – should Tango bring three times the languages to the party in one swoop, there may well be a big change in Microsoft’s fortunes in the near future. This information, by the way, comes from WP Sauce – though

When you see a tablet that’s less than $350 on the market these days, you must first always figure out if it’s a “crap” tablet or not – in the case of this brand new $265 Spark tablet running Plasma Active Linux, we’re hoping for the latter. This tablet has been revealed to be running an open-source Linux-based operating system (not Android) with KDE Plasma Active user interface running on top. With its single-core 1GHz processor and 7-inch capacitive display it’s certainly not going to set the world on fire, but the combination is unique, and may open up a whole new door for mobile operating systems worldwide. At the moment you know good and well that it’s a battle out there between the iPad, Android tablets galore, and the up and coming Windows 8 software coming to all sorts of manufacturers soon. What this device represents is a big alternative: KDE Plasma Active, a system you may well have never heard of before, running on top of a completely open source Linux build. Have a peek at

If there’s one thing the Chinese news service NMA is good at, it’s presenting these ultra-strange 3D animation videos made to help people visualize the situations groups like Nintendo have gotten themselves into. Today’s animation takes Nintendo’s earnings presented last week and skewers them on several levels, showing Mario being smashed by an original GameBoy while a happy-go-lucky teen plays Angry Birds on his iPhone. Nintendo also faces off against Sony and Microsoft only to get beaten down by the consoles they each have held high above their heads. This animation begins with Nintendo releasing the Wii all the way back in 2006, seeing then people playing the game and Mario himself sucking out hoards of USD cash from their pockets with a vacuum cleaner. Nintendo’s fortunes turn sour in the video next with the price of the 3DS being cut and that same teen from the head image picking one up for himself, laughing as he does so. In a double unfortunate turn of events, it’s revealed that

Tonight the President of the United States will rely on the power of Google+ Hangouts to address the people of the internet. This address has previously been billed as a post-State of the Union talk, but now appears to be more of a question and answer session in which questions submitted via the web have been voted upon by non-White House officials – voted upon by Google users, in fact. These questions will be answered by the President one by one in turn while the world watches from their computers, smart TVs, and mobile devices at home. This Google+ hangout is slated for 5:30PM EST and the questions, again, are said to have been picked based solely on their popularity on Google through their pre-set ratings system. There will be a set of five pre-selected American hangout partners joining in on the conversation at some point during or after the questions to add questions of their own as well. This event had previously been slated for 9PM EST but has been moved back to the much more re

Carpathia Hosting, one of MegaUpload‘s server companies, has responded to US federal investigator suggestions that user data will be deleted from Thursday February 2, pointing out it has no access to any files and denying it supplied the cut-off date. “Carpathia Hosting does not have, and has never had, access to the content on MegaUpload servers” a company spokesperson told us this morning, “and has no mechanism for returning any content residing on such servers to MegaUpload’s customers.” Carpathia, along with Cogent Communications Group, were two hosting companies named in a report suggesting MegaUpload’s server agreements would run out before the end of this week. That could mean users’ data – including legitimate files, rather than just copyright-infringing content – would be permanently lost. The hosting firm suggests that “anyone who believes that they have content on MegaUpload servers contact MegaUpload” and says “please do not contact” the host itself. However, with MegaUploa

Dramatically falling bee populations aren’t a sign of the impending apocalypse or even a hive-mind abandoning Earth but the side-effect of neonicotinoid insecticides discovered to be highly toxic to honeybees. Researchers at Purdue University found the insecticides – which are commonly used to coat corn and soybean seeds prior to planing, Science Daily reports – cause tremors, loss of coordination and convulsions, before eventually death, in bees. However, discovering the cause of the decline is only part of the problem: bee populations in the US continue to dive by around a third each year, the Purdue team believes. The treated seeds themselves aren’t what causes the problem, it’s suggested: instead, it’s how the seeds are planted. Farm machinery used to sew the fields release high concentrations of the insecticides in the waste talc that is exhausted; the clouds are “quite light” and “quite mobile” Christian Krupke, associate professor of entomology and co-author of the Purdue report

Multicore processor specialist Tilera has returned with a new “manycore” offering, the 36 and 16-core TILE-Gx 64-bit processors, promising grunt in line with the top-spec chips from Intel and AMD yet with power demands more akin to ultraportable notebooks. According to Tilera, just one TILE-Gx36-based server can outperform a Xeon-based system, despite using only one-fifth the power and one-eighth the space of its Intel-based counterpart. Tilera made headlines back in 2009 with its 100-core Tile-GX chip, targeting data indexing, web search, and video search, especially in systems with high concurrent load. As cloud storage and processing has gained popularity – not least because of the rise in data speeds allowing mobile gadgets to rely on remote data crunching and capacity – so the interest in multicore chips of this sort has increased. According to the company, it’s working with more than 80 customers and has twenty design wins already for the new 16- and 32-core processors. Potential