Science & Technology Feeds
- Limbo's ending: what does it all mean? The many theories29 July 2010, 8:10 am
Limbo, on the Xbox Live Arcade, is an interesting game that shows just how far you can push the boundaries with a smaller, downloadable release. The title features a young man who suffers innumerable violent deaths through the course of the game, and before the credits roll you're lead to believe that you've accomplished your goal... possibly. Be sure to look over our final thoughts, and if you haven't bought the game yet this may be a good time to jump on board so you can...
- Amazon rolls out smaller, lighter, WiFi-only Kindle for $13928 July 2010, 8:10 pm
Amazon is once again dropping the price of the Kindle, but this time, the Kindle is coming with a makeover as well. The company is introducing a WiFi-only version of the popular e-book reader that will debut at $139, with the WiFi + 3G version remaining at $189. The device will also come with the updated e-ink screen that its bigger brother, the Kindle DX, got earlier this month, and will now come in two colors: graphite and white. CEO Jeff Bezos told the Wall Stree... - Extension performance vastly improved in Safari 5.0.128 July 2010, 7:35 pm
Apple pushed out Safari 5.0.1 on Thursday morning, which includes several bug fixes and enables Safari 5's new extension system by default. Like many geeks, we here at Ars had already enabled extensions via the the debug menu in 5.0, but we ran into numerous performance problems in the 5.0 release. Though there still appear to be a few quirks with some extensions, Apple has definitely addressed the performance issues with this latest update. With Safari 5.0, loading... - Do Not Call list tops 200 million, some scammers still ignore it28 July 2010, 7:05 pm
The Federal Trade Commission announced a milestone this week: its Do Not Call registry has just passed 200 million numbers. It's quite amazing that any of this came to pass, really. When the registry was being considered back in 2002, telemarketing opposition was fierce, and for obvious reasons. The industry was large, powerful, and willing to be unbelievably annoying. It also saw quite clearly that a tough Do Not Call rule would chop off its business at the knees. ... - Microsoft argues for "neighborhood watch" approach to security28 July 2010, 6:35 pm
At the Black Hat security conference today, Microsoft championed a new approach to addressing security issues. The new emphasis is on collaboration between software vendors and security researchers to ensure that customers are kept as safe as possible. Microsoft likened its approach to Neighborhood Watch schemes—secure computing cannot be achieved with software vendors and researchers all working independently; the landscape is too complex and the attackers are...
- Lookout's App Genome Project warns about sketchy apps you may have already downloaded29 July 2010, 8:15 am
If you're an iPhone user, the only privacy notice you'll see from an app regards your current location -- as much a warning about the associated battery hit from the GPS pinging as anything. If you're an Android user, however, things are different, with a tap-through dialog showing you exactly what each app will access on your phone. But, do you read them? You should, with Lookout running a sort of survey across 300,000 apps on those two platforms, finding that many access personal information ... - Motorola manages $162 million Q2 profit, turns that frown upside down29 July 2010, 7:51 am
It's a good day here, because rather than poor 'ol Sad Moto we get to bust out Happy Moto, as Motorola has released some good news in its Q2 financial report. Earnings were $162 million, up from $26 million this time last year. That sounds like a big jump, but compared to overall sales of $5.4 billion you can see things are still rather tight -- especially since those sales were down from $5.5 billion the year before and all-important mobile device sales figures dropped six percent to $1.7 billi... - NZXT Phantom proves there's still life in chunky desktop towers29 July 2010, 7:23 am
Did the recent reappearance of the Phantom console spark a tiny bit of nostalgia in you? If so, you'll be happy to hear that NZXT has picked up the moniker for its latest full tower chassis, and it's a fittingly futuristic-looking beast of burden. The angular steel enclosure provides tool-free access to five 5.25-inch drive bays plus the room to fit in 7 HDDs, 7 fans (up to a mammoth 230mm size), and a dual radiator within its walls. A top-mounted mesh window is accessorized with a slightly mor... - Panasonic to spend $9.4b on buying out Sanyo and PEW shares, posts robust quarterly profits29 July 2010, 6:44 am
Clearly dissatisfied with what it sees in the mirror, Panasonic has today announced its decision to bulk up. A new share issue expected to raise ¥500 billion ($5.7 billion) will be enacted soon as part of raising the cash to complete the buyout of Sanyo Electric and Panasonic Electric Works. Don't ask us why a company named Panasonic has to buy another company with Panasonic in its name, but them's the facts. The total outlay is expected to come in at around $9.4 billion and is justified by... - Nintendo issues a 3DS release date date29 July 2010, 5:59 am
Find the headline confusing? Well, the explanation won't help to assuage the muddle much. A Nintendo spokesman told Bloomberg Japan that Ninty plans to announce the Nintendo 3DS price and release date on September 29th. Thus far, we've only seen speculation about pricing (between $249 and $299) and release dates (between October and March, 2011). So yeah, we still don't know when or for how much but at least we know when we'll find out when and for how much. Make sense?Nintendo issues a 3DS rele...
- Opera Mini Serves One Billion Daily Page Views29 July 2010, 5:31 am
Despite the fact that popular smartphones such as the iPhone and Android already have great web browsers, Opera’s Java ME-based mobile browser Opera Mini is constantly growing. According to Opera, on July 25th it served one billion page…... - The New Kindle: Smaller, Faster, Cheaper29 July 2010, 2:50 am
Today, Amazon announced the newest generation of Kindle, its popular e-reader.As hardware is wont to do, the newest version of the Kindle has become smaller and lighter while retaining its 6-inch reading area. Contrast on the screen has improved…... - Google Makes Custom Web Typography Ridiculously Easy29 July 2010, 2:15 am
Google has once again given an excellent new tool to designers and developers (and even CSS-savvy “common folk”) who long for better, more diverse typefaces on the web: a cool Font Previewer that makes adding a new font…... - 5 Ways Facebook Questions Can Be Improved29 July 2010, 1:21 am
Facebook’s newest feature, Questions, has the potential to bring social Q&A into the mainstream. But like most beta features and apps, Questions is somewhat fragmented, and suffers from usability issues and apparent bugs. It could also benefit from a…... - YouTube Banned in Russia Over Racist Video28 July 2010, 10:59 pm
A court in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Russia has demanded a Russian ISP block access to YouTube because the site hosted “Russia for Russians,” which was judged to be an extremist video.The court’s decision also applies to the Internet Archive…...
- Lengthen Your Attention Span with Interval Training26 July 2010, 6:09 pm
Email, IM and the web is a huge distraction, especially for those with short attention spans. My new friend Clay Johnson uses interval training techniques to lengthen his attention span the same way he trained his body to run a marathon. Clay writes: Paying attention, for long periods of time, is a form of endurance athleticism. [...]... - IKEA Jerker Do-It-Yourself Treadmill Desk26 July 2010, 5:41 pm
The muscle soreness I'm experiencing today after walking around Comic-Con all weekend made me realize: I've got to incorporate more standing and walking into my daily routine. Maybe a treadmill desk? There are some expensive desks made to fit over a treadmill (sold separately), but someone on Hacker News modified an IKEA Jerker desk [...]... - The “Only If We’re Offline Friends” Rule20 July 2010, 6:51 pm
I'm active on a LOT of social/sharing webapps: Twitter, Flickr, Foursquare, Tumblr, and to a lesser degree, FriendFeed, Delicious and Buzz. While most of my posts are public and open to everyone, on Foursquare and Facebook*, I only accept friend requests from people who I know and hang out with offline. Still, I feel bad [...]... - (Updated) How to Transfer Google Voice to Your Google Apps Account16 July 2010, 7:42 pm
Update: Google Voice product manager Craig Walker confirms that the Apps transfer is NOT supported right now, and that it was only done for a small group of testers. Sorry, all. The good news? He says there will be a way to transfer your Voice account to Google Apps once the new GApps [...]... - This Week in Google, Episode 5115 July 2010, 7:10 pm
Leo, Jeff and I jawed about the new Android App Inventor, Picnik in Picasa, mobile local search, my 23andme results, and iPhone 4 in this week's episode. My tip of the week: setting up a rich text signature in Gmail....
- July 29, 1958: Ike Inks Space Law, NASA Born in Wake of Russ Moon29 July 2010, 12:00 am
President Eisenhower signs the National Aeronautics and Space Act, creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. ... - Amazon Strikes Back at the iPad With New, $140 Kindle28 July 2010, 8:20 pm
Amazon will ship the third generation of its Kindle e-book reader on Aug. 27, offering a cheaper, Wi-Fi only version for just $140. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos also offers some optimistic predictions about the future growth of e-book sales. ... - Photoshop of Horrors: Readers Show BP How It's Done28 July 2010, 8:15 pm
We asked for your help to show BP how to improve upon their terribly Photoshopped oil-cleanup images, and you delivered some awesome images. ... - U.S. Military Learns to Fight Deadliest Weapons28 July 2010, 8:00 pm
The most deadly weapons in Iraq and Afghanistan aren't AK-47s or grenades -- they're roadside bombs made out of gas cans, garage door openers and fertilizer. Here’s how the U.S. military is fighting back. ... - Let the Little Guys Get In on Pre-IPO28 July 2010, 8:00 pm
The rich are adding to their millions with pre-IPO stock, but today's internet stock rockets are social networks built by their members -- so shouldn’t Regular Joes get a cut, too? ...