Misfit Wearables Drops Android Support For Its Shine Activity Tracker Ahead Of Summer Launch

Heads up, Android fans. If you took the plunge and backed the rather sleek Shine wearable activity tracker from Misfit Wearables, you may want to get your money back. According to a recent update posted to the project’s Indiegogo listing, the Founders Fund-backed company has decided to drop Android support from the final version in a bid to better focus on polishing the experience for iOS users.

Will The Xbox One Rule The Living Room? Price Will Determine The Size Of Its Kingdom

Price and ship date are always the biggest concerns when new gadgets or hardware hits the market, but in the case of the Xbox One, it’s likely to help determine whether the “home entertainment system,” as Microsoft is characterizing it, becomes the category-busting, revolutionary multi-purpose living room command center it’s being billed as, or ends up just another console with niche appeal that makes it a target of lust for core gamers, but few outside that circle.

More sources say Intel Atom to power Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 3

Sources at VentureBeat have confirmed that Samsung has chosen Intel’s Atom to power at least one Samsung Galaxy Tab device, giving the chip-maker a desperately needed design win in the Android tablet market.

Google no longer able to accept payments for app developers in Argentina

Android developers in Argentina have received a letter from Google informing them that Google will no longer be able to accept payments on behalf of the developers beginning June 27. This applies to both paid apps and in-app purchases, and is likely due to new restrictions by the Argentina government on currency exchanges. Not only [...]

Come comment on this article: Google no longer able to accept payments for app developers in Argentina

More details for Samsung Galaxy S 4 Zoom discovered

As Samsung continues its march to produce a Galaxy S 4 model targeted at virtually every type of consumer, we continue to try to identify specifics for all of the models slated to hit the market. Our latest bit of information comes from a leaked UAProf file that was discovered on the Samsung domain. The [...]

Come comment on this article: More details for Samsung Galaxy S 4 Zoom discovered

Kyocera Hydro Elite on its way to Verizon

Frequent smartphone tipster @evleaks posted a tip earlier today indicating Verizon will be getting the Kyocera Hydro Elite added to their portfolio in June. Along with posting an image of the mysterious device, @evleaks indicates the device will be available for only $50. At that price point, the hardware is probably not anything particularly cutting [...]

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Who needs investors! Why many startups should bootstrap instead

Many of today’s startups are obsessed with figuring out the best way to score investors. But for many companies bootstrapping it might result in a better product and a healthier business in the long run.

New version of HTC One to launch with a larger screen

The latest round of rumors from the HTC camp are saying that a newer HTC One may be launching soon. The catch? It’ll have a larger screen, supposedly between 5 and 6 inches. Now, before you flip out and bash HTC for replacing a flagship device so quickly, (again) the rumors suggest that this larger [...]

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UFO Over Historic Barn Causes Stir In California

A picture showing a UFO near a historic barn in Santee, California is drawing a bit of attention this week. Ellen Henry was taking pictures of the Edgemoor barn when she noticed the object. Before she could get any clearer …

It’s a trap! Publishers crave an alternative to Google’s adtech “Death Star”

Adtech has made great strides but is in a period of transition. The most pressing concern for publishers? The need for a soup-to-nuts provider that isn’t also a competitor like Google.

Soda Meth Study Reveals Bad News For Your Teeth

Soda may be as damaging to your teeth as meth or crack in the long run, according to a recently released study. The study claims that the damage done by high soda consumption combined with a lack of proper dental …

Goldie Hawn at 67: Charity, Cycling, and Grandchildren

Goldie Hawn gained fame in the 70s, 80s, and 90s as a comedic actress in movies such as Overboard and Death Becomes Her. The 67-year-old actress may have put aside her acting career a decade ago, but she is still …

Tiger Kills Worker In British Zoo

A zoo worker mauled by a tiger at a British zoo died of her injuries at the hospital yesterday. The worker, 24-year-old Sarah McClay was in the big cat enclosure when the tiger attacked her. She was airlifted to nearby …

How to create your own audiobooks

For authors who want to use their own home equipment to narrate an audio version of their own books, or if you want to record your kids reading their favorite stories for posterity, you can do it with a microphone, and iPad and GarageBand.

Flynn Robinson, Former Laker, Dies At 72

Flynn Robinson, an NBA guard in the 60s and 70s, has died at the age of 72. According to a New York Times obituary, Robinson passed away after a battle with multiple myeloma. He died on Thursday in Los Angeles. …

Vine, hip-hop and the future of video sharing

Is there a reason Vine videos are exactly six seconds long? Yes, and it has a lot to do with high profile court cases that almost destroyed hip hop music.

TED Weekends breaks the silence for suicide survivors

At TEDActive 2011, JD Schramm shares the story of his friend, John, who, after surviving a suicide attempt, found that there were few resources available for someone in his position to be able to communicate the hardship he experienced and the depression he continued to battle. And there are others in this position, too – […]

2013 Firestone Indy Lights Race Has Extremely Close Finish

The ending to the 2013 Firestone Indy Lights Race ended the way you typically see in the movies, as the winner Peter Dempsey passed the finish line just .0026 seconds quicker than the 2nd place racer. Not only was the …

Charlie Sheen Changes Name For Upcoming Film ‘Machete Kills’

Since his inaugural Hollywood appearance in Red Dawn, and even before that, Charlie Sheen has used his changed name in every movie or television show he’s appeared in. This will change with his role in the campy, action film sequel …

Decibel – Minimalistic Music Player for Audiophiles

Nowadays, iTunes is the standard music player for many Mac users and it offers numerous playback features tightly packed within an intuitive interface. Unfortunately, when it comes to high-end audio formats files like FLAC, WAVE or OGG, iTunes is lacking the ability to play them.

Decibel is an easy-to-use audio player specially designed to fulfill the needs of audiop…

TalkAndroid Daily Dose for May 24, 2013

With hectic schedules, it can be hard to keep track of everything in your news feed. That’s why we created the TalkAndroid Daily Dose. This is where we recap the day’s hottest stories so you can get yourself up to speed in quick fashion. Happy reading!! Apps BBC iPlayer app now adds support for 10-inch [...]

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Jumper Kills 5-Year-Old, Lands On Top Of Her After Suicide Attemp

South Korea has a problem with rampant suicide in their country, with it being the leading cause of death among 15-24 demographic. While this is a sad fact in and of itself, one suicide became an even more heartbreaking tragedy. …

AX64 Time Machine – Review

File backup solutions are abandoned by more and more users these days in favor of off-site storage locations provided by cloud services. On the other hand, the operating system is the one that needs a safety net against malfunctions (both software and hardware) or malware infections. Relying on disk imaging technology, a new generation of backu…

Top 5 Data Center Stories, Week of May 25

The Week in Review: Sears to convert old stores to data centers, robotics applications in the data center, Microsoft’s Xbox server armada. NSa faces surprise tax bill in Utah, energy experts on data center regulation.

Android this week: Nexus 7 cloned for $149; Google Edition HTC One; Chrome beta updated

If the $199 Nexus 7 is out of your budget range, a new $149 Hisense clone may be worth a look. HTC may announce a “Google Edition” HTC smartphone and Chrome beta users gain some useful new features.

WEEKLY ADDRESS: Giving Thanks to our Fallen Heroes this Memorial Day

WASHINGTON, DC— In this week’s address, President Obama commemorated Memorial Day by paying tribute to the men and women in uniform who have given their lives in service to our country.  The President said that America has always risen…

Weekly Address: Giving Thanks to Our Fallen Heroes this Memorial Day

In this week’s address, President Obama commemorates Memorial Day by paying tribute to the men and women in uniform who have given their lives in service to our country.

Transcript | Download mp4 | Download mp3
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7 stories to read this weekend

The long weekend is here and that means a lot to read: or at least I like to do that. Here are some amazing stories about San Francisco, Rajat Gupta, Argentina in the 1970s, Buffalo, razors, Philip Dick, Facebook, Brooklyn and cars.

Microsoft reportedly plans to take a cut of used game sales

Xbox One games are installed to the console’s hard drive and registered to users’ Xbox Live accounys. It remains unclear how the system will handle used games and Microsoft has failed to address the issue. According to a report from gaming news website MCV, retailers will be allowed to charge whatever they want for pre-owned Xbox One games, however both Microsoft and publishers will receive a percentage of every sale. Microsoft is looking to take control of the pre-owned market and will reportedly only allow specific retailers that have agreed to its terms to resell games. After a customer sells a game to an approved retailer, it will be registered in Microsoft’s cloud-based system as having been traded-in then it

Samsung reportedly supplying OLED displays for Google Glass

One of the more intriguing stories to follow in recent months has been the relationship between Samsung and several of the big-name tech companies that have relied upon it for components. Apple has made definitive moves away from Samsung and Google has shown some wariness about the company’s overwhelming clout in the Android ecosystem. But any anxieties Google might have about Samsung haven’t been enough to keep the South Korea-based manufacturer out of the loop on Google’s most experimental projects. The Korea Times reports that Google is using Samsung’s OLED displays for the consumer version of Google Glass, a decision that one of the publication’s supply chain sources describes as “a really big thing because it means that Google shares

Yahoo reportedly places bid to buy Hulu stake

Yahoo is apparently determined to show that it can do more than pay $1.1 billion for a bunch of teenage girls’ blogs. Unnamed sources tell Bloomberg that Yahoo has submitted an offer to buy video streaming website Hulu, a sign that the company is still considering ways to counter the enormous video streaming clout that Google now holds with YouTube. Yahoo was interested in buying a majority stake in French video streaming website Dailymotion earlier this year but that deal fell apart after the French government reportedly threatened to block it. In making an official bid for Hulu, Yahoo will be competing with Time Warner Cable, which is considering buying a 33% equity stake in the company. It’s unknown at

Another patent suit bites the dust: Motorola can’t ban Xbox

The good news with patent suits is that even when they’re successful they very rarely result in outright sales bans of popular products. And now Ars Technica reports that yet another attempt to enforce a sales ban has fallen flat on its face, this time Motorola’s attempt to stop sales of Microsoft’s Xbox. According to Ars, Motorola filed suit against Microsoft back in 2010 because its Xbox allegedly infringed upon Motorola patents that detailed technologies for “video transmission and compression as well as Wi-Fi.” Motorola’s quest against the Xbox ended this week, however, when a six-person panel at the International Trade Commission decided to toss out the company’s complaint. A Microsoft spokesperson described the ITC’s decision as “a win for

Connecticut Leads the Way on Protecting Children

At a town hall meeting today on school safety at the Classical Magnet School in Hartford, I got to hear firsthand how Connecticut is leading the nation in adopting common-sense solutions to reduce gun violence and improve school safety.
In the aftermat…

Chris Anderson shares his tips for giving a killer presentation

Watching curator Chris Anderson in speaker rehearsals before a TED conference feels like witnessing the zen of a longtime coach who knows his sport both inside out and backwards. Whenever a trial run of a talk feels just a little askew, a few simple sentences are whispered. Magically, the next time the talk is given […]

Microsoft still stamping out used games fire

This past Tuesday Microsoft did its long-awaited Xbox reveal, though the company did not unveil every bit of information that customers were waiting for. For instance, we still do not know pricing or release date. However, the biggest urban legend in circulation — that of used games — is under attack from the console maker. On the day of the big reveal, Larry Hryb took to his blog to assure users “While there have been many potential scenarios discussed, today we have only confirmed that we designed Xbox One to enable our customers to trade in and resell games at retail”. These… [Continue Reading]

Moments of Wonder Traveling With Secretary Kerry

The view from Secretary of State John Kerry’s airplane as it flies over the Red Sea on the evening of March 24, 2013, en route from Amman, Jordan, to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]

Microsoft: Compliant YouTube Windows Phone 8 app coming, meanwhile take the dreadful old version back

Following a cease and desist letter sent by Google little over a week ago, today, Microsoft reaches out to me and announces a new update for its homebrew YouTube Windows Phone 8 app. You might want to contain that burning desire to hit the “Update” button though. “Microsoft and YouTube are working together to update the new YouTube for Windows Phone app to enable compliance with YouTube’s API terms of service, including enabling ads, in the coming weeks”, says the Redmond, Wash.-based corporation. This comes two days after the passing of the deadline to remove the app from the Windows Phone… [Continue Reading]

Amanda Bynes Arrested: Pictures, Video Released

On Thursday evening, former child actress Amanda Bynes was arrested after creating a disturbance at her Manhattan apartment. Bynes was allegedly smoking marijuana in the lobby of her building, causing the doorman to call police. When police arrived, Bynes allegedly …

Julianne Moore: Toes Are Getting Cut Off

Julianne Moore never realized that she was having a wardrobe malfunction while walking the red carpet at Cannes until she got home and saw the pictures online. Due to a busy night and a long dress, Moore never noticed that …

Despite upcoming Xbox One launch, Microsoft aims to sell 25 million more Xbox 360s

Microsoft’s newly unveiled Xbox One has gamers excited despite some huge question marks, but Microsoft thinks its current-generation Xbox 360 still has legs. Speaking with Official Xbox Magazine, Microsoft’s senior vice president of Interactive Entertainment Business Yusuf Mehdi said that the company is looking to sell 25 million more Xbox 360 consoled over the next five years. The Xbox 360 recently registered its 28th consecutive month as top-selling console, but sales of the 8-year-old console have slowed significantly in recent quarters. Inevitable price cuts may help Microsoft on its mission, but the company also has a few tricks up its sleeve that will be announced during the annual E3 video game conference next month.

Microsoft and Google partner to bring YouTube app back to Windows Phone

Both Google and Microsoft think it’d be a shame to deny Windows Phone users the glory of Keyboard Cat videos, which is why the two companies have agreed to team up and jointly create a native YouTube app for Microsoft’s mobile platform. The Next Web reports that the companies released a joint statement today saying that they “are working together to update the new YouTube for Windows Phone app to enable compliance with YouTube’s API terms of service, including enabling ads, in the coming weeks.” Once they finish the new app, Microsoft will remove the YouTube app it created from the Windows Phone store. The two companies’ decision to collaborate on a new app comes just a week after Google

Google Talks About The End Of Google Checkout

Google announced that it would shut down Google Checkout in favor of Google Wallet back in 2011. This week, the company announced that in six months Google checkout will be officially dead to merchants. With that, the company has shared …

Watch This Irish Woman Freak Out While “Riding” A Virtual Roller Coaster

We’ve already ascertained that the Oculus Rift is pretty awesome. The virtual reality headset has transported a grandmother to the Tuscan countryside in one demo while another has given people a taste of the French Revolution. Now it’s freaking out …

Tiger Global invests $50 million in Automattic’s WordPress.com

Automattic, the company that operates blogging service WordPress.com, announced a $50 million investment from hedge fund Tiger Global on Friday, Reuters reported.

The post Tiger Global invests $50 million in Automattic’s WordPress.com appeared first on peHUB.

Microsoft vows Xbox One won’t be struck by ‘red ring of death’

One of the most common problems that annoyed early Xbox 360 adopters was the appearance of the “red ring of death,” a flashing red light on the console’s start button indicating that its hardware was essentially fried and would need to be sent to Microsoft to be replaced. But Microsoft Game Studios vice president Phil Spencer tells Edge that the company has learned its lessons and that the new Xbox One will not experience hardware failures on a mass scale like the Xbox 360 did. In particular, Spencer noted that Microsoft’s success rate on the more recently released Xbox 360 Slim was “very high” and said that the same team behind the Slim also built the Xbox One, so chances are very good that the

Bynes Wig In Court: Actress Wigs Out

Amanda Bynes, you’re making me worry about you. The 27-year old former actress showed up in court this morning after her arrest on Thursday for allegedly throwing a bong out a window and she looked a bit…disheveled, to say the …

Netflix Unlocked This Weekend for All Xbox LIVE Users, Just in Time for Arrested Development

If you’re excited about this weekend’s big Arrested Development season 4 premiere and you want to watch it on your TV, Microsoft is giving you another option. The Xbox Netflix app will be unlocked this weekend – meaning that those …

Couple Stabbing Occurs Over ‘American Idol’ Argument

A couple in York, Pennsylvania have been arrested for stabbing each other during an argument over Fox network TV karaoke contest American Idol. According to a report from the York Dispatch, 48-year-old Karen Harrelson and 57-year-old Gregory Stambaugh were drinking …

Saving and Changing Lives in Ghana

Ghanaian children weclome U.S. Ambassador to Ghana Gene Cretz to the Northern Region in May 2013. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]

More than Half of Doctors Now Use Electronic Health Records Thanks to Administration Policies

The Obama Administration has made improving the quality and efficiency of the health care system a priority. Already we have put in place new payment and care models that reward doctors and hospitals for providing high quality and efficient care to the…

Your weekend reading: The ban on gay Boy Scouts lifted, Carl Zimmer on rare diseases, and more

Fun stuff, stuff to make you cry, serious stuff, weird stuff. Here, a recap of all the coolest stuff on the interwebs this week. More than 60 percent of 1400 Boy Scout leaders voted to lift its longtime ban on openly gay scouts. [The New York Times] . A fantastic piece by Carl Zimmer on […]

Are You Indian Enough to Be Exempt from Obamacare?

Ilya Shapiro

You can’t make this up: Obamacare exempts certain American Indians from the “choice” Americans will face as of January of buying health insurance or paying Chief Justice Roberts’s special tax. But apparently this is a far narrower category of people than those recognized as “Indian” under various state laws:

The problem is so new that the federal government is still seeking to establish how many people might be affected, although Indian health advocacy groups estimate it could be up to 480,000.

In California alone, about 21,000 people who currently receive free health care through Indian clinics are not recognized as Native American by the federal government and would have to pay the penalty, according to the nonprofit California Rural Indian Health Board.

So people who’ve considered themselves American Indian all their lives and have been treated as such by their states–including for health care purposes–suddenly won’t be considered Indian as far as Obamacare is concerned. 

Wow–Indian law is complicated and constitutionally problematic enough without having further regulatory overlays bollix up the works even more. But that’s what happens when government encoraches more and more into civil society. As I wrote in January in an article on, of all things, the contraceptive mandate:

But there’s an even bigger issue here. This is just the latest example of the difficulties in turning health care—or increasing parts of our economy more broadly—over to the government. As my colleague Roger Pilon has written, when health care (or anything) is socialized or treated as a public utility, we’re forced to fight for every “carve-out” of liberty…

The more government controls—whether health care, education, or even marriage—the greater the battles over conflicting values. With certain things, such as national defense, basic infrastructure, clean air and water and other “public goods,” we largely agree, at least inside reasonable margins. But we have vast disagreements about social programs, economic regulation and so much else that government now dominates at the expense of individual liberty.

Obamacare delenda est.

Pakistan: Will the Third Time as Prime Minister be the Charm for Nawaz Sharif?

Doug Bandow

Pakistan always has been a good example of being careful for what one wishes when it comes to democracy in Third World nations. The Pakistani people theoretically rule the unstable nuclear state. Whether that actually is positive is not so clear.

In the latest election, Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz won a strong plurality, making him the almost certain prime minister. However, that position may be a poisoned chalice. When he was last premier, for the second time, in 1999, he found himself ousted in a coup, imprisoned for months, and eventually bundled into exile.

Despite the relatively free (though violence-laden) vote, Pakistan’s political, economic, and security problems are enormous. And the dangers of a failed state reach well beyond Pakistan’s borders. As I wrote in my latest Forbes online column:

for those who worry about an Islamic Bomb in Tehran, one already exists in Islamabad. Pakistan has between 90 and 120 warheads, and is producing more plutonium than any other nation on earth. The result likely will be an expanded arsenal. Observed Tom Hundley of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting: “Pakistan could end up in third place, behind Russia and the United States, within a decade.” Yet the contest with India has left Islamabad officials “hobbled by fear, paranoia, and a deep sense of inferiority,” in Hundley’s words. At the same time, Pakistan has increasingly dispersed its warheads to frustrate any U.S. attempt to seize the weapons. The practice increases the possibility of radicals grabbing a warhead or fissile material.

Oh joy.

Although only the Pakistani people can fix their own country, Washington could help. It should wind down the war in Afghanistan, which is a destabilizing force in Pakistan. The U.S. should reduce its use of drones, which have made America hated by Pakistanis. Washington should resist the temptation to dump ever more foreign “aid” into the corrupt and incompetent institution known as the Pakistani government. Finally, Americans should hope—and pray!—that Nawaz Sharif has learned something during his 14 years in the political wilderness.

Will Google Glass Cause You To Overlook Gorillas?

The New York Times ran an interesting piece about Google Glass written by University of Illinois professor of psychology Daniel J. Simons and Union College professor of psychology Christopher F. Chabris. The two authored “The Invisible Gorilla: How Our Intuitions …

Animal Crossing Really Is A Lot Like H.R. Pufnstuf

Animal Crossing: New Leaf hits the 3DS next month. Nintendo is preparing for the launch with a new advertising campaign that features a child visiting the weird world of Animal Crossing. It’s a little like H.R. Pufnstuf, but far less …

Cultural Sensitivity or Surrender?

Doug Bandow

One of the most important lessons one learns from traveling abroad is to be culturally sensitive. A self-professed sophisticate like myself would never want to be considered to be the prototypical “Ugly American.”

Yet as I’m visiting the Persian Gulf kingdom of Qatar I’ve been thinking about who gets to decide on culture.

Most of us believe that certain practices are beyond the bounds of tolerance. Consider the Indian practice of suttee—the burning of widows—which Britain banned. Set aside whether the British government should have shown up with soldiers, guns, and warships and claimed the Indian subcontinent as its own; once there, surely it was right to forbid murder.

In a story that may be apocryphal but should be true even if not, an Indian complained to a British colonial official that it was tradition to burn widows on their deceased husbands’ funeral pyres. The official replied, according to the story, that it was British tradition to execute those who burned widows on their deceased husbands’ funeral pyres.

Of course, nothing like suttee is going on in Qatar. Indeed, as Muslim societies go, it is a pretty liberal place. Observance of conservative Islamic tenets is routine but often not deeply held. Some younger Qatar citizens (and TV cameramen!) look a lot like their Western counterparts. I wasn’t the only person on my flight to arrive wearing shorts. Hotels that cater to Westerners serve alcohol and provide Western television stations. Men and women use the gym together.

Still, visitors are warned to be sensitive, especially of dress. People should be modest in all circumstances. Shorts are tolerated, but should hit the knee. Shoulders should be covered.

In response, I left my short red running shorts at home. They are unexceptional in America, but I figured my longer gray gym shorts would be more appropriate for my daily walk. (My marathon-running days ended with a knee implant more than seven years ago.) I wore a muscle shirt in the gym and was going to change to a t-shirt for my walk, but it was hot and sunny even at 6:30 am. So I figured, what the heck? My hotel is in an isolated area in the midst of multiple construction projects, so I doubted there were many fundamentalists around who would be upset to see my shoulders. I repeated the experiment on the second morning without incident.

But should I even care? If I was visiting Pakistan (as I did a couple months ago) or one of many other “real” nations with a Muslim majority, I would answer “Of course.” But citizens of Qatar, like most of the other Gulf sheikdoms, have effectively subcontracted their society to others. Oil wealth means the government, which essentially is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the al-Thani royal family, hires foreigners to fill most jobs except security.

Hotel staff, drivers, construction workers, sound and video personnel, airport workers, and most everyone else, skilled and unskilled alike, are foreigners. Qatar’s population is roughly 1.9 million. Barely 250,000 of them are citizens, less than 15 percent. In a contract sense, the 250,000 have a perfect right to hire whoever they want with whatever conditions they want. That could include respecting the local culture.

However, people do not come as empty vessels. They have beliefs and habits. Together they have communal practices that reappear when they congregate together. In Qatar one quarter of the population is from India. Another 25 percent comes from elsewhere in the Indian subcontinent—Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. One out of 10 comes from the Philippines. Some of these foreign residents are Muslim, but most are not. Add the many tourists and businessmen who visit and Qatar looks even less traditional. In sum, Qatar today is a different Qatar from yesterday. It is unreasonable to expect Qatar’s culture to be unaffected by the change.

It’s really a matter of choice. If you submerge your society in foreigners who believe and act differently than yourself, can you really expect them not to act as they believe in your nation? Or should you accept the fact that you are inviting in their culture along with them? So don’t complain if they wear skimpy clothes, drink different liquids, follow other religions, and so on.

I still have the feeling that I’m a guest here and don’t want to act like the Ugly American. But I’m feeling a bit less sympathetic about local cultural sensitivities. Almost everyone I’ve met here in Qatar is from somewhere else. Who should get to decide what culture in Qatar should be?

Readout of Vice President Biden’s Call with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki

Vice President Biden spoke with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki today.  Discussion focused on Syria, and both leaders agreed on the importance of a negotiated end to the conflict.  The Vice President expressed concern about the security s…

Readout of Vice President Biden’s Calls with Iraqi Kurdistan President Masud Barzani and Iraqi Council of Representatives Speaker Osama Nujayfi

Vice President Biden spoke with Iraqi Kurdistan President Masud Barzani and Iraqi Council of Representatives Speaker Osama Nujayfi yesterday, Thursday, May 23rd.  With President Barzani, the Vice President commended the return of Kurdish ministers…

WSJ: Google developing wireless networks to boost Internet access in Africa, Asia

It is no secret that Google would like to be a wireless carrier. The company has long been rumored to be eyeing various partnerships to launch its own wireless network as soon as this year. The Wall Street Journal is now reporting that Google is looking to fund, build and help run wireless networks in emerging markets in Africa and Southeast Asia. The company is said to be interested in connecting people to the Internet who live outside of major cities, while at the same time improving speed in urban locations. Google will reportedly create the business model to support the networks in collaboration with local companies. Google is said to be trying to win over regulators to launch its

X marks the spot: TEDx on Mount Everest, for the second time

Call it TEDx from the mountaintop: This photo is brought to you by TEDxEverest, which was organized by Nate Mook and Eiso Vaandrager on the 60th anniversary of Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay’s first hike up the mountain. These ambitious organizers brought bold ideas to an audience of sherpas and climbers at an Advanced […]

Report: Google wants to connect the developing world with wireless

WSJ reports Google has ambitions of connecting a billion new people to the internet using a combination of white space, satellite and aerial technologies. Given those technologies’ limitations, though, a billion is a stretch.

VMware’s revolving door keeps on spinning

Javier Soltero, CTO of applications and SaaS for VMware and Kevin Henrickson, who worked on Zimbra, both signed on with Redpoint Ventures.

First Lady Michelle Obama: “I want to urge you guys to keep on working hard every single day.”

Today, the First Lady and actress Kerry Washington visited the Savoy School in Anacostia, one of eight schools selected last year for the Turnaround Arts Initiative at the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. Through the initiati…

Weekly Wrap Up: “You Will Not Travel That Path Alone”

Watch the West Wing Week here.

Responding to the Tornadoes in Oklahoma: On Monday, the President spoke with Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin to express his concern for those who have been affected by the tornadoes in Oklahoma. The President told Governor Fallin that the administration is committed to providing all the assistance it can to Oklahoma as the response effort unfolds, including approving a Major Disaster Declaration, making federal funding available to support affected individuals, and providing additional federal assistance to support immediate response and recovery efforts.

On Tuesday, President Obama delivered a statement on the devastating tornadoes and severe weather that impacted Oklahoma. He outlined the response efforts underway, and assured the people of Moore and all the affected areas that they would have all the resources that they need at their disposal.

“Americans from every corner of this country will be right there with them, opening our homes, our hearts to those in need.  Because we’re a nation that stands with our fellow citizens as long as it takes. We’ve seen that spirit in Joplin, in Tuscaloosa; we saw that spirit in Boston and Breezy Point.  And that’s what the people of Oklahoma are going to need from us right now. “

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Nokia brings up new patent suit against HTC in hopes to ban HTC One sales

Today Nokia has decided to file yet another patent suit against HTC claiming infringement with the HTC One its main target. According to Nokia, HTC hasn’t taken any action to prevent infringement and said the company “tried to shift responsibility to its suppliers.” Nokia’s obvious main goal here is to somehow stop HTC’s sales of the [...]

Come comment on this article: Nokia brings up new patent suit against HTC in hopes to ban HTC One sales

Presidential Proclamation — National Hurricane Preparedness Week, 2013

NATIONAL HURRICANE PREPAREDNESS WEEK, 2013

- – - – - – -

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A PROCLAMATION

Last year, devastating hurricanes upended coastal communities spanning the shores of New England to the Gulf of Mexico. Scenes from Isaac and Sandy shook us to the core — great cities plunged into darkness, homes swept away with the tide, families whose worlds were torn apart with the loss of a loved one. But in the aftermath, we also saw what is best in America. Heroic first responders rose far beyond the call of duty, working around the clock to rescue, recover, and rebuild. Ordinary citizens fought through tough times together, looking out for their neighbors and leaving nobody behind.

This week, we reaffirm that it is never too early to prepare for this year’s hurricane season. As my Administration keeps working with State and local partners to apply lessons learned and improve hurricane preparedness, all families can take simple steps to ensure that if disaster strikes, they are ready. These steps include building a supply kit with food, water, and medicine; taking time now to learn evacuation routes, and how workplaces and schools will respond in an emergency; and most importantly, discussing what to do in a disaster and developing a plan that everyone knows. If a hurricane is coming, always follow instructions from State and local officials, and heed evacuation orders if they are given.

The Federal Government also has an important role to play in hurricane preparedness. My Administration stands shoulder-to-shoulder with our partners in emergency management throughout the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, and we remain committed to getting them the resources they need to act quickly and effectively. Going forward, we will keep working to improve hurricane forecasting with the latest science and technology. And in the months and years ahead, we will continue to help communities stay resilient to severe weather threats and the consequences of climate change. To learn more and get involved, visit www.Ready.gov or www.Listo.gov.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim May 26 through June 1, 2013, as National Hurricane Preparedness Week. I call upon government agencies, private organizations, schools, media, and residents in the coastal areas of our Nation to share information about hurricane preparedness and response to help save lives and protect communities.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-fourth day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand thirteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-seventh.

BARACK OBAMA

Laptop Week Review: Samsung 700T Fly Or Die

In lieu of a formal review, Matt Burns and I sat down to take a look at the Samsung 700T AKA ATIV Smart PC Pro 700T, a convertible tablet that has a small button on the keyboard that pops out the Windows 8 tablet that forms the brains of the machine. The device is a bit chintzy – more pressed metal and injected plastic than I like to see on a laptop – but at about $1,000 retail it’s an acceptable compromise for Win8 users who are looking for a nicer tablet.

Sony Xperia S finally receiving Jelly Bean update

It took long enough, but it seems like the Sony Xperia S is finally going to be able to enjoy Jelly Bean. Numerous deadlines have come and gone without a Jelly Bean release, but Sony France has now confirmed on Twitter that the 4.1.2 update is being slowly rolled-out to users. Sony says that “many more [...]

Come comment on this article: Sony Xperia S finally receiving Jelly Bean update

Socialbakers Appoints James Bodha as CFO

Socialbakers, a four-year-old, Prague-based analytics platform company that helps brands measure and compare the success of their social media campaigns, has hired James Bodha as CFO. Bodha joins Socialbakers from Myriad Group AG, a leading provider of global social messaging services listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange.

The post Socialbakers Appoints James Bodha as CFO appeared first on peHUB.

Australian researchers get closer to scalable quantum computing

Researchers in Australia are making progress in executing on a vision for quantum computing involving a phosphorus atom, which means a new commercial product might not be so far off in the future.

How to permanently delete Snapchat photos

Snapchat has taken the mobile world by storm. The application allows users to send pictures and videos to friends that will self-destruct after a maximum of 10 seconds. Even better, if someone tries to take a screenshot of the image, the sender is automatically notified. Although its founders may not be proud of it, the application has become rather popular among the “sexting” crowd, a practice in which you send naked pictures and videos to another person. The application isn’t perfect, however. As we saw earlier this year, SnapChat videos can be secretly saved. The truth of the matter is that while Snapchat deletes the images from its servers, they are still stored deep inside the receiver’s smartphone and can

Ray Lewis to Climb Kilimanjaro For Charity

Celebrities and athletes often hold events and donate their time for charity, but it’s not often that one will climb a mountain in the name of children. This week, Ray Lewis pledged to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro to raise money for …

Google Puts Out Weird Cartoon About Porn And AdSense

Google wants to remind you that it doesn’t allow AdSense ads on content containing: nudity or pornography, sheer clothing, strategically covered nudity, sexually gratifying “stuff,” fetish or adult toys, adult language links or comments, or extreme profanity (these are all …

No, Instagram Isn’t Deleting Accounts. It Was Just a Technical Issue

No, Instagram isn’t going to delete your account. Keep filtering and carry on. Thursday night, Instagram has some technical issues that caused some people to be locked out of their accounts. Rumors swirled that Instagram was deleting accounts – possibly …

Steering clear of the iceberg: three ways we can fix the data-credibilty crisis in science

Science has a data problem, There’s been a rash of experiments that no one can reproduce and studies that have to be retracted, But there are some nascent efforts to address this credibility crisis by changing the way the data is handled.

Report: Better Place to file for bankruptcy

If Better Place files for bankruptcy in a few days, as reported by Fortune, it would represent a sober end to a high-flying dream that raised hundreds of millions of dollars.

Xbox One Might Give You Achievements For Watching TV

The Xbox One announcement was all about one thing – TV. It’s clear that Microsoft is positioning its next console as more than just a game machine, but it might be bringing some game elements to television broadcasts. Gamesindustry.biz reports …

Stolen Beef: Dead Grandma Memories To Blame

A UK man claims he’s innocent of the charges of shoplifting leveled against him, and says he was simply “moving” a roast beef to get it out of his sight because it reminded him of his grandma. 51-year old John …

Statement by the Press Secretary on H.R. 360

On Friday, May 24, 2013, the President signed into law:
H.R. 360, which provides for the presentation of a congressional gold medal to commemorate the lives of the four young African American victims of the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Churc…

How Amazon’s cloud competitors are trying to find cracks in AWS’s armor

News flash: The public cloud “ain’t all that,” says every cloud provider except for Amazon Web Services.

Playing memory games on this week’s TED Radio Hour

How do you keep memories? And how much can you trust those preservations? This week’s TED Radio Hour, “Memory Games,” looks at recollections versus actual experiences, sorts through our tendency to create false memories, and unpacks how we can actually enhance our ability to remember. Forensic psychologist Scott Fraser starts the hour. He is the […]

President Obama Delivers the Commencement Address at the U.S. Naval Academy

Graduates toss hats in the air at conclusion of U.S. Naval Academy commencement at the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland, May 24, 2013.

(Official White House Phot…

AT&T’s GoPhone prepaid service can now connect to LTE

Starting Friday, if you buy an LTE or HSPA+ compatible device on GoPhone — or bring your own — you will be able to connect to AT&T’s fastest networks.

Early Google Glass user describes it as ‘creepy-looking,’ says it’s likely to fail

The common knock on Google Glass has been that it’s far too dorky-looking for normal people to want to wear. David Pogue, writing at Scientific American, says that he got a chance to play around with Google Glass recently and came away with a somewhat different take: Google Glass is too creepy. In particular, Pogue says that people who are wearing Google Glass instantly make everyone else around them uncomfortable if they’re not also wearing the headset. Pogue came to this realization after he “ran into a Google employee wearing it in public” and had a “screamingly uncomfortable” conversation with her. “There she was, wearing this creepy-looking, faux-futuristic forehead band — with a built-in video camera pointed at my face,”

Tim Duncan Divorce Could be Put on Hold For Playoffs

San Antonio Spurs basketball star Tim Duncan is reportedly in the midst of a divorce. According to a report from a local San Antonio news station, Duncan and his wife Amy are getting divorced after 13 years of marriage. The …

How Big Is The Latest Google Penguin Update?

Webmasters have been expecting a BIG Penguin update from Google for quite some time, and a couple weeks ago, Google’s Matt Cutts promised that one was on the way. Finally, on Wednesday, he announced that Google had not only started …

Support for School Choice Tax Credits Grows Once Implemented

Jason Bedrick

The unanimous decision of the Iowa legislature to expand the state’s scholarship tax credit (STC) program yesterday once again demonstrates that school choice programs grow even more popular once implemented.

Iowa’s STC expansion bill raises the credit cap from $8.75 million to $12 million and expands the types of corporations eligible to receive tax credits for donations to scholarship organizations. The bill adds no new regulations.

Six of the seven states with STC programs enacted before 2010 have subsequently voted to expand those programs. The chart below shows the legislative support and opposition in four of those states. (The expansions in Indiana and Pennsylvania were part of legislation covering other issues so they were excluded from this analysis. The chart includes information for Arizona’s corporate-donor STC program but not its individual-donor STC program, for a similar reason.)

The most dramatic shift was in Georgia’s State House, which moved in just a few years from a fairly even divide to overwhelming support. Support in Iowa went from overwhelming to unanimous. While Florida’s Senate barely moved, support has grown considerably in the House. Arizona has also had modest increases in support for school choice in both chambers.

A survey by Harvard University’s Program on Education Policy and Governance found that 72 percent of the American public already supports scholarship tax credit programs. The survey found even higher support among parents, African-Americans, Hispanics, and registered Independents and Democrats.

There have not yet been any studies measuring whether support in a given state increases after enacting an STC program, but if legislative support is a reliable proxy then the answer appears to be in the affirmative.

This Week On The TechCrunch Gadgets Podcast: So Many Laptops, But Only One Xbox

Thank the old gods and the new that it’s Friday, AMIRITE? You know what that means right? Friday is Gadgets Podcast day, and boy do we have a show for you!

In this episode, John Biggs, Matt Burns and Darrell Etherington discuss Microsoft’s just-announced Xbox One, complete with voice commands, a brand new Kinect, a slew of new entertainment/social features, and the best specs yet.

Plus, Laptop Week is coming to a close, so the fellas discuss some of their faves, like the Dell XPS 13 Developer’s Edition with Ubuntu and the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina.

Games for the weekend: Dude Perfect

Inspired by the real world YouTube sensation of the same name, this game uses clouds, buildings, trucks, balloons, fences and even flying saucers as obstacles to sinking the perfect shot.

Laptop Week Review: Google Chromebook Pixel

The Chromebook Pixel is the Chromebook I’d pick as my personal Chromebook – if money was no option, and if I felt I really needed a Chromebook. It’s an impressive beast, like a Bird of Paradise, but in the end a trained falcon would be a way better winged thing to own, since it could catch you some wild game, instead of jut prancing around with its mesmerizing but fairly useless mating displays.

Juniper Delivers Big Data Analytics Solution

Juniper develops new network analytics products, Splunk and Hortonworks combine products to move and analyze big data, and Blue Coat acquires Solera Networks.

Here’s What Tumblr Would Look Like If It Were a Person

Here’s what Yahoo just bought…as a real life person. Yes, Tumblr as a real person is just as annoying as you would expect. To be fair, this representation of Tumblr is really a representation of the more-annoying parts of Tumblr. …

STOP: Twitter two-factor verification can be hacked in less than 140 characters

Fans of social media were reassured this week as Twitter finally rolled out two-step verification, ostensibly making the service more secure for its millions of customers. This is a feature that other major companies like Microsoft, Google, and Facebook have already implemented and, on the surface, seemed a victory. Not so fast. Security researchers at F-Secure are taking a closer look and deem the implementation “not great”. The problem, according to Sean Sullivan, is that “an attacker could use SMS spoofing to disable 2FA if he knows the target’s phone number”. “The STOP command removes the phone number from the account –… [Continue Reading]

Sen. Rand Paul Introduces Online Privacy Protection Bill

There’s not a lack of online privacy protection bills floating around Congress at the moment, but it can’t hurt to have one more. On Thursday, Sen. Rand Paul introduced the Fourth Amendment Preservation and Protection Act, or S. 1037, to …

Where are they now (Fisker edition)? The story gets even weirder

The long disturbing tale of electric car maker Fisker Automotive keeps on going, and keeps getting more weird.

Galaxy S4 camera found to outperform iPhone 5, Lumia 920

A French firm that specializes in camera optics and image sensor analysis has found the camera on Samsung’s latest flagship smartphone outperforms the iPhone 5 and Nokia’s Lumia 920. DxO Labs ranked the Galaxy S4′s camera as the second highest rating among smartphones it tested. The firm praised the 13-megapixel camera for its fast and accurate autofocus, good auto-exposure, rich colors in different lighting conditions and impressive detail preservation in bright light. The Galaxy S4 scored a total of 79 points out of a possible 100, ahead of both the iPhone 5 and Lumia 920, which scored 74 points and 64 points, respectively. The iPhone 5 scored higher when it came to video, however. The Galaxy S4 was found to shoot

8.2 Quake Hits Eastern Russia, No Deaths Reported

A magnitude 8.3 earthquake struck in the Sea of Okhotsk of Friday. According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the epicenter of the quake was located just off the coast of Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula, in the far eastern part …

This Memorial Day: A Simple Act of Kindness

Ed. note: The full text of the op-ed by Dr. Jill Biden is printed below. The piece is published today on The Huffington Post, and can be found here.
The year my son Beau was deployed to Iraq with the Delaware Army National Guard, my family learned how …

Target the IRS—and the Abusive Administrative State

Doug Bandow

The IRS scandal has appropriately tarred the Obama administration. But IRS abuse is not new: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John Kennedy, and Richard Nixon all shamelessly used the tax authorities against their political enemies.

Thus, the problem is nonpartisan. More important, to paraphrase Rahm Emanuel, this scandal will be wasted if we don’t use it to advance the cause of liberty. The real issue is the expansive, expensive bureaucratic state, which threatens any system of limited government, rule of law, and individual liberty.

As I wrote in my recent article on American Spectator online:

the broader the government’s authority, the greater its need for revenue, the wider its enforcement power, the more expansive the bureaucracy’s discretion, the increasingly important the battle for political control, and the more bitter the partisan fight, the more likely government officials will abuse their positions, violate rules, laws, and the Constitution, and sacrifice people’s liberties.

One response to the scandal would be tax reform. But failing to address the broader underlying causes of the scandal would set the stage for a repeat performance in some form a few years hence. At the very least the latest IRS abuses should derail the Obama administration’s efforts to ever-expand the federal government.

The response should not be merely defensive. Americans should insist on abolishing the IRS as we know it. Ending tax-based social engineering would help. Moreover, government–and especially the national government–should do less.

Americans must decide if they want to live in a truly free society. Government increasingly attempts to run our lives at our expense. And now, we see yet again, public officials use their power to reward friends and punish enemies. Firing a couple of mid-level IRS employees isn’t enough. People must insist on real change in Washington.

Data Direct Networks Powers a 100-Petabyte Cloud

Data Direct Networks is selected by University College London to begin a massive scale object storage project that will scale up to 100 Petabytes.