China delays Green Dam filter rollout after failed beta test

Archive for June, 2009

This morning, China’s Xinhua news agency announced that the country’s IT ministry has decided to indefinitely delay the rollout of its “Green Dam for Escorting Children” Internet filter software, which was supposed to have been mandatory for PCs sold in that country beginning tomorrow. This after reports that the software — whose code US-based software firm Solid Oak software claims was pilfered from its own filter products — didn’t actually work very well in real-world tests. Read more...

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TweetPsych wants to get inside your head

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By Angela Gunn, Betanews

We spent some enjoyable time earlier this week playing with TweetPsych, a site that puts linguistic analysis algorithms to work figuring out just what’s with the most compulsive Twitter users out there. Currently in beta, the for-entertainment-only analysis still provided us with some amusing insight into Twitter talk — and into the brains of three Betanews staffers. Read more...

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14 year old girl discovers supernova

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We’re more used to seeing news stories about teenage girls running up astronomical cell phone bills than having an interest in astronomy, but 14 year old Caroline Moore is clearly exceptional. Caroline, who is from New York, was scouting the night sky with her amateur telescope when she spotted celestial object SN 2008ha (catchy name, huh?)

The supernova is an exploded star located 70 million light-years away from Earth (approx) and no-one had ever identified it before. It appears to be unusually bright. Read more...

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What does the internet think ?

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Ever wondered what that huge informational powerhouse called the “internet” thinks about a particular topic, say – Barack Obama, Swine Flu, The iPhone 3Gs, or just Dirty Laundry?

Well, being the powerful entity that it is, the “internet” ought to have a mind of its own now, doesn’t it? Which is why this site called whatdoestheinternetthink tries to demystify those nagging questions which have, until now, remained unanswered. whatdoestheinternetthink analyses the search results from popular search engines (Google, Yahoo & Bing), and categorizes the final result on the topic as being Positive, Negative, or Don’t Care. It also colorfully depicts the percentage of search results that fall under each of these three categories, along with a short summary of this topic being discussed on Twitter. Read more...

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What’s the miracle cure for cellulite?

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There is none. But you knew that.

The New York Times‘s Catherine Saint Louis explains why. If you are beach-bound, there’s really only one small ray of hope. Your cellulite may be temporarily less noticeable if the skin around it is plumped up. Cellulite creams and machines often work this way. They irritate your skin so that it swells, which disguises lumpiness a little bit for a little while.

Very irritating.

Afloat on the endless news tide

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By Angela Gunn, Betanews

This episode of Recovery is brought to you by second bananas. Ed McMahon knew he was one, but I’ll bet Farrah Fawcett would have been surprised how things worked out. (What, too soon?)

There’s an application just launching into beta called thisMoment, and I’ve had a tab open for it all week in hope that I’ll catch some quiet time to try it out. Harry McCracken at Technologizer got there first, and he describes it as “part social network, part media sharing site, and part Facebook application.” Read more...

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Firefox 3.5 gears up for a possible Tuesday public release

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By Scott M. Fulton, III, Betanews

A Mozilla spokesperson confirmed to Betanews early this evening that, if all pans out as planned, the organization will officially release the Firefox 3.5 Web browser to the general public as soon as Tuesday, June 30. No longer a beta, users will get the first opportunity to see a completely stable version of Firefox’s new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine, whose latest new features were demonstrated to us today by two of its engineers. Read more...

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Android Apps can now tap ARM processor directly

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By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Until yesterday, Android developers had to build their applications to run inside Dalvik, the Java virtual machine upon which Google’s mobile OS is built. While it is beneficial in embedded systems with limited processor power and RAM, it is limiting for developers who, for example, want to create CPU-intensive, but not RAM-intensive, applications such as more in-depth computations, simulations, or signal processing. Read more...

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Sony Ericsson Wants to Light up Your Wardrobe

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As our gadgets have become more prevalent in our lives, it’s also become a necessity for our tech to not only improve our lives but look good while they do it. Cell phone companies have answered the call for high-quality tech and aesthetics with phones specifically designed to function as high tech fashion accessories decked out with everything from precious metals to jewelry.

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Limited edition Nooka UNDRCRWN watch up for grabs

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The footwear and apparel company UNDRCRWN has teamed up with watchmaker Nooka to create this stunning Nooka UNDRCRWN watch which is now available on pre-order.

The limited edition watch (only 200 to be manufactured) has a smart, black ZenV display that depicts the time, date, and alarm functionalities in a unique graphic-like format. It is water-resistant, and sports a colorfully striped polyurethane band that is sure to get you abundant attention. If you have 5 to spare and a love for style, book one now and hold your breath until June 29th when it is going to be shipped out. Read more...

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Mobile Technology News & Mobile Fun

Archive for June, 2009