There is life on Mars — and it's out for revenge against some nasty pigs!
Angry Birds creators Rovio announced a new chapter to Angry Birds Space will come out Thursday. The update is titled "Red Planet", and will send players to the fields of Mars for more bird-on-pig rivalry.
NASA helped Rovio create the trailer by giving them footage taken by the Mars Rover Curiosity from the planet's surface. In addition, the additional levels will include NASA vehicles as part of the architecture.
"Rovio is teaching huge new audiences about NASA's missions to Mars thanks to this collaboration," said David Weaver, associate administrator for communications at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "It's a great way to introduce both kids and adults to the wonders of the planet in a fun and entertaining way."
It's not the first partnership between the two. When Angry Birds Space debuted in March, NASA Flight Engineer Don Pettit demonstrated the physics behind Angry Birds — while in space.
"We're huge NASA fans, and we were all cheering the Mars Curiosity rover as it touched down," said Peter Vesterbacka, chief marketing officer of Rovio Entertainment. "So, working together on the Mars update was a perfect fit."
Players can download the updates for the iOS [iTunes link] and Android [Google Play link] versions right now.
пятница, 24 августа 2012 г.
воскресенье, 22 апреля 2012 г.
Asus quad-core Transformer Pad 300 tablet ships for $379
The tablet has a 10.1-inch screen, Google's Android 4.0 operating system and a quad-core Tegra 3 processor from Nvidia running at a clock speed of 1.2GHz.
The tablet is priced started at $379.99 for 32GB of storage and 1GB of RAM. Though most features are similar to those available in its predecessor, the Eee Pad Transformer Prime, the starting price is lower. Some of the new features GPS capabilities and the new OS pre-installed.
The company did not immediately comment on worldwide availability.
The tablet is the first that does not have Asus' famous "Eee" moniker, which debuted in 2007 with the pioneering Eee PC 700 netbook. Asus is upgrading its tablets at a furious pace, and the new tablet comes just six months after it shipped the Transformer Prime, which was the industry's first quad-core tablet.
Asus also joins a bevy of companies pricing Android 4.0 tablets under US$400. Samsung's Galaxy Tab 2 10.1-inch tablet will ship on May 13 and starts at $399.99. The aggressive pricing strategy of Android tablets may be an attempt to take market share from Apple, which is expected to dominate the tablet market this year, according to Gartner. Apple's iPad is priced starting at $499.
The Transformer Pad 300's 10-hour battery life can be extended to 15 hours with an additional battery in the optional $149 keyboard dock. The dock has a full keyboard and a touch pad to make the tablet a functional laptop. The dock has Android-specific buttons for quick access to tablet functions, and also USB 2.0 and SD card slots.
The tablet weighs 635 grams (1.4 pounds), according to Asus. The display shows images at a resolution of 1280 by 800 pixels, and the Tegra 3 chip enables a strong gaming experience with 12 integrated graphics cores.
The 8-megapixel rear camera on the tablet can shoot video at 30 frames per second. There is also a 1.2-megapixel camera on the front of the tablet. A micro-HDMI port allows the tablet to be connected to TVs. For expandable storage, the tablet has a microSD card slot.
The Transformer Pad 300 has been advertised with 4G LTE, but this tablet does include mobile broadband connectivity features.
Asus is also bulking up its cloud offering with the tablet, offering 8GB of free storage on it Asus WebStorage service. The WebStorage service allows users to share files and backup data to PCs.
Software on the tablet includes Polaris Office, which makes it easier for users to see Word, Excel and Powerpoint files. An application called App Backup can save data to local or removable microSD storage.
пятница, 20 апреля 2012 г.
Apple in talks with iPad trademark challenger to try and settle dispute
IDG News Service - Apple and a Chinese company have started talks to try and resolve an ongoing legal dispute over the iPad trademark, according to a lawyer involved in the case.
Ma Dongxiao, a lawyer representing the Chinese company Proview, said on Friday the talks were happening, but declined to offer details.
The legal dispute between Apple and Proview is still being deliberated by the Higher People's Court of Guangdong Province. But earlier this week, the court recommended that both Apple and Proview find a way to mediate the dispute, according to a court spokesman.
Before a ruling is issued, Chinese law allows both parties to enter a "mediation procedure" to negotiate a possible settlement. But the talks are voluntary, the court spokesman said.
Apple and Proview have been locked in a high-profile legal dispute over which company owns the iPad trademark in China. If Apple were to lose the case, the U.S. tech giant could be forced to pay large fines and see a ban on sales of its iPad devices in China.
Apple claims to have bought the iPad trademarks from Proview in 2009. But Proview contends that no such sale was made. Earlier this year, a Proview representative said the company wanted Apple to pay US$400 million for the iPad trademarks for China.
Zhao Zhanling, a legal expert on China's information technology law, said the opening of talks is a sign that both Apple and Proview are now taking a step back from their positions, and allowing room for compromise.
"I think there is some hope the talks will lead to a resolution," Zhao said. But if the negotiations fail, the higher court will be forced to move ahead and make a ruling, he added.
Apple could not be immediately reached for comment. The company's new iPad has not yet gone on sale in China. Analysts said this delay could be linked to the challenge from Proview, but Apple declined to comment.
Ma Dongxiao, a lawyer representing the Chinese company Proview, said on Friday the talks were happening, but declined to offer details.
The legal dispute between Apple and Proview is still being deliberated by the Higher People's Court of Guangdong Province. But earlier this week, the court recommended that both Apple and Proview find a way to mediate the dispute, according to a court spokesman.
Before a ruling is issued, Chinese law allows both parties to enter a "mediation procedure" to negotiate a possible settlement. But the talks are voluntary, the court spokesman said.
Apple and Proview have been locked in a high-profile legal dispute over which company owns the iPad trademark in China. If Apple were to lose the case, the U.S. tech giant could be forced to pay large fines and see a ban on sales of its iPad devices in China.
Apple claims to have bought the iPad trademarks from Proview in 2009. But Proview contends that no such sale was made. Earlier this year, a Proview representative said the company wanted Apple to pay US$400 million for the iPad trademarks for China.
Zhao Zhanling, a legal expert on China's information technology law, said the opening of talks is a sign that both Apple and Proview are now taking a step back from their positions, and allowing room for compromise.
"I think there is some hope the talks will lead to a resolution," Zhao said. But if the negotiations fail, the higher court will be forced to move ahead and make a ruling, he added.
Apple could not be immediately reached for comment. The company's new iPad has not yet gone on sale in China. Analysts said this delay could be linked to the challenge from Proview, but Apple declined to comment.
Antitrust Staff-poaching lawsuit Allowed to Proceed Against Tech Bigwigs
The antitrust lawsuit against Apple, Google, Intel and four other major tech companies will go forward, as a federal judge has denied the companies' request to dismiss the case, Reuters has reported.
Apple, Google, Intel, Pixar, Adobe, Lucasfilm, and Intuit face charges of illegally colluding not to "poach" each other's employees, thus limiting their chances for career advancement. The lawsuit was filed by five Silicon Valley engineers.
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On Wednesday, District Judge Lucy Koh rejected the companies' bid to dismiss claims against them, and gave a green light to the antitrust lawsuit, saying that the existence of "Do Not Cold Call" agreements among companies "supports the plausible inference that the agreements were negotiated, reached, and policed at the highest levels" of the companies.
"The fact that all six identical bilateral agreements were reached in secrecy among seven defendants in a span of two years suggests that these agreements resulted from collusion, and not from coincidence," noted Judge Koh, in court documents cited by Reuters.
Back in 2010, a DOJ investigation involving the same companies resulted in a settlement. The companies did not admit to any wrongdoing, but they did pledge to refrain from restricting competition for workers through practices such as setting limits for recruiting and cold-calling. Although the settlement ended the "Do Not Cold Call" agreements between the companies, engineers and other high tech employees were affected during the years these agreements were in place, alleges the private lawsuit.
Gentlemen's Agreement
To illustrate the gentlemen's agreement nature of the anti-poaching deals, Reuters also noted an email trail from 2007, between the late Steve Jobs and then Google-CEO Eric Schmidt. "I would be very pleased if your recruiting department would stop doing this," Jobs politely asked Schmidt in an email. At the time, Schmidt was still a member of Apple's board of directors. Schmidt forwarded that email to Google staff members, asking them to "get this stopped," according to court documents. The Google employee responsible for recruiting was eventually fired.
The "gentlemen's agreements" between the companies, designed to keep them from going after one another's employees, resulted in limiting both pay and job mobility. According to the plaintiffs, these practices eliminated the normal forces of competition for labor and limited their career advancement opportunities.
"While these allegations concerning the labor market effects of cold calling remain to be proven, the court presumes these factual allegations to be true for the purposes of ruling on a motion to dismiss," explained the judge. "It is plausible to infer that even a single bilateral (do-not-call) agreement would have the ripple effect of depressing the mobility and compensation of employees of companies that are not direct parties to the agreement."
(reported by Alexandra Burlacu, edited by Dave Clark)
Apple, Google, Intel, Pixar, Adobe, Lucasfilm, and Intuit face charges of illegally colluding not to "poach" each other's employees, thus limiting their chances for career advancement. The lawsuit was filed by five Silicon Valley engineers.
Like Us on Facebook :
On Wednesday, District Judge Lucy Koh rejected the companies' bid to dismiss claims against them, and gave a green light to the antitrust lawsuit, saying that the existence of "Do Not Cold Call" agreements among companies "supports the plausible inference that the agreements were negotiated, reached, and policed at the highest levels" of the companies.
"The fact that all six identical bilateral agreements were reached in secrecy among seven defendants in a span of two years suggests that these agreements resulted from collusion, and not from coincidence," noted Judge Koh, in court documents cited by Reuters.
Back in 2010, a DOJ investigation involving the same companies resulted in a settlement. The companies did not admit to any wrongdoing, but they did pledge to refrain from restricting competition for workers through practices such as setting limits for recruiting and cold-calling. Although the settlement ended the "Do Not Cold Call" agreements between the companies, engineers and other high tech employees were affected during the years these agreements were in place, alleges the private lawsuit.
Gentlemen's Agreement
To illustrate the gentlemen's agreement nature of the anti-poaching deals, Reuters also noted an email trail from 2007, between the late Steve Jobs and then Google-CEO Eric Schmidt. "I would be very pleased if your recruiting department would stop doing this," Jobs politely asked Schmidt in an email. At the time, Schmidt was still a member of Apple's board of directors. Schmidt forwarded that email to Google staff members, asking them to "get this stopped," according to court documents. The Google employee responsible for recruiting was eventually fired.
The "gentlemen's agreements" between the companies, designed to keep them from going after one another's employees, resulted in limiting both pay and job mobility. According to the plaintiffs, these practices eliminated the normal forces of competition for labor and limited their career advancement opportunities.
"While these allegations concerning the labor market effects of cold calling remain to be proven, the court presumes these factual allegations to be true for the purposes of ruling on a motion to dismiss," explained the judge. "It is plausible to infer that even a single bilateral (do-not-call) agreement would have the ripple effect of depressing the mobility and compensation of employees of companies that are not direct parties to the agreement."
(reported by Alexandra Burlacu, edited by Dave Clark)
Report: Samsung Launching Cloud Service on May 3
Maeil Business reported (via Google Translate) that the so-called S-Cloud could be launched on May 3 at an event in London. Samsung has already sent out invitations to the event, where the "next Galaxy" device is scheduled to be launched.
From the report, it's not exactly clear how many gigabytes of storage the S-Cloud would launch with. Five gigabytes is listed as a suggested amount, the same capacity attributed to the rumored Google Drive. It's possible that Samsung might allow unlimited storage of all media purchased through the S-Cloud, similar to how Amazon treats media purchased through its online store.
Samsung already uses a cloud service of sorts, called Kies, to transfer content back and forth from a PC to its Galaxy Tab tablet devices.
Those tablets lack an SD card slot, so the Kies service needs to connect to a local network to transfer content. Kies, in turn, means that users need to sign up with Samsung for an account that allows them access to the Samsung cloud, including software updates to the platform.
Back in February, Samsung decided not to unveil the Galaxy S III at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, opting to instead show off the Galaxy Beam smartphone plus projector, the Galaxy Note 10.1, and the Galaxy S WiFi 4.2. The company also raised eyebrows by admitting to "not doing very well" in the tablet space.
In other Galaxy news, Sprint on Monday announced that it will offer the Android 4.0-enhanced Samsung Galaxy Nexus starting April 22.
For more, see our reviews of the Samsung Galaxy S II and the Galaxy Tab 2 and our slideshow of the Galaxy S II, below.
Meet the Bill That Wants to Put Plane-Like Black Boxes in Our Cars
Yes. If the bill becomes law, cars manufactured in the U.S. will have black boxes -- similar to the recording devices that are standard inclusions on aircraft.
There are some obvious benefits to making trip reporting a standard feature of automobiles -- not just the same benefits, basically, that make them standard features on planes, but also (assuming it's an option) the personal consumer benefits that come from understanding, in detail, how you use your car. Even more obvious, however, are the drawbacks that will come with the recording devices. For one thing, they'll make GPS tracking in cars not an anomaly, but an assumption. They'll be an implicit, omnipresent threat to personal privacy. They'll take the thing that has been Americans' prototypical symbol of freedom and individuality -- the car -- and render it just another piece of trackable infrastructure.
The bill tries to preempt these concerns, going out of its way to specify that the data recorders will be the property of the owners or lessees of the cars that contain them. ("Any data in an event data recorder required under part 563 of title 49, Code of Federal Regulations, regardless of when the passenger motor vehicle in which it is installed was manufactured, is the property of the owner, or in the case of a leased vehicle, the lessee of the passenger motor vehicle in which the data recorder is installed.") And the data recorded on the devices, more significantly, may not be retrieved by anyone except the owner or lessee.
However. That doesn't preclude the government -- or anyone else -- from demanding those data once they're collected, for legal or many other reasons. Here are the exceptions to the bill's "ownership of data" stipulation:
Data recorded or transmitted by such a data recorder may not be retrieved by a person other than the owner or lessee of the motor vehicle in which the recorder is installed unless--
(A) a court authorizes retrieval of the information in furtherance of a legal proceeding;
(B) the owner or lessee consents to the retrieval of the information for any purpose, including the purpose of diagnosing, servicing, or repairing the motor vehicle;
(C) the information is retrieved pursuant to an investigation or inspection authorized under section 1131(a) or 30166 of title 49, United States Code, and the personally identifiable information of the owner, lessee, or driver of the vehicle and the vehicle identification number is not disclosed in connection with the retrieved information; or
(D) the information is retrieved for the purpose of determining the need for, or facilitating, emergency medical response in response to a motor vehicle crash.
Yes. And loopholes, as we're reminded pretty much every day, are made to be driven through. As Kim Zetter reported today at Wired, just last week a federal judge ruled that evidence gathered through the DEA's warrantless use of covert GPS vehicle trackers was permissible as evidence to prosecute a suspected drug trafficker -- this despite the Supreme Court ruling that such tracking is unconstitutional without a warrant. A reminder that, for all the good that can come from the generation of new data about our lives, there will always be trade-offs and compromises. And those trade-offs, when it comes to our cars, could be coming very soon. MAP-21, Infowar's Watson notes, is "already passed by the Senate and set to be rubber stamped by the House."
Job Posting Hints Skype for Xbox En Route
The Redmond-Wash.-based computing giant made its intentions clear in a recent job posting for an Xbox software development engineer in London. The job ad reads, "We're building the next generations of our products and technology right here in London and Skype is looking to hire a Software Development Engineer to contribute to the development of our experiences on Xbox."
The description then goes on to say, "You will be designing and developing next generation scalable services for millions of end users." Microsoft purchased Skype last year for a staggering $8.5 billion in one of the largest software acquisitions ever. The company said in October that it was in the process of integrating the popular video chat service across many of its business and consumer communications platforms, including Lync, Windows Live Messenger, Windows Phone, and the Xbox platform.
Microsoft said Thursday that users placed over 100 billion minutes of calls via Skype last quarter, an increase of 40 percent over the same quarter last year.
Microsoft has remained mum, however, about when the Xbox integration would happen. It's unclear from the job posting whether Microsoft is looking to build Skype into Xbox 360, or into the console's successor, which is expected to be revealed next year.
Richard Sherlund of Nomura Securities specifically asked whether Skype would be "a big benefit" to the Xbox division in Microsoft's Thursday call. Executives, however, dodged the question.
"Skype will be a big benefit across the company, as we've talked about how it plays across all of our businesses," Peter Klein, Microsoft's chief financial officer, replied.
While Microsoft aims to bring Skype to users' living rooms, those with a Windows Phone can already Skype with their friends on the go. The Skype for Windows Phone app is currently available in beta, and a full version is expected to be released this month.
Earlier this month, Skype revealed that it had reached a milestone: 40 million concurrent users.
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