News
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Big City: Seeing How Far $100, and a Bit of Creative Generosity, Can Go8 February 2010, 4:06 pm
A writer in Brooklyn is celebrating four years of giving her friends a fistful of cash and challenging them to find interesting ways to donate.
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No Further Dead in Connecticut Blast8 February 2010, 12:24 pm
No one else was believed to be buried in the rubble of a power plant that exploded Sunday, leaving the death toll at five, the mayor said.
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Questioning Crime Data, and Other Data Behind Bloomberg Policy8 February 2010, 11:27 am
Results of a crime data survey have made critics and admirers of Mayor Bloomberg wonder about the reliability of data underpinning policy decisions on the budget, education and other issues.
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As Gillibrand Gathers Endorsements, Ford Calls It ‘Underhanded’8 February 2010, 9:11 am
Harold E. Ford Jr. said Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand was trying to dissuade him from running against her.
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A Parish Tested: Quake a Defining Crisis for Two Priests in Queens8 February 2010, 9:07 am
The Revs. Robert Robinson and Jean-Moise Delva of SS. Joachim and Anne parish strive to soothe the anguish and trauma among their parishioners.
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Desperate Search for Victims of Explosion in Connecticut8 February 2010, 8:46 am
Efforts to find survivors were hindered by an absence of information about how many people were working at the site.
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A Valentine's Day Sampler as Famous New Yorkers Kiss and Tell8 February 2010, 5:36 am
There are many ways to say "I love you,'' especially with Valentine's Day around the corner. But here's how some famous New Yorkers did it.
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Paterson Gives St. Vincent’s Hospital Another Loan8 February 2010, 1:40 am
It was not clear how long the cash would last, and the governor said that saving St. Vincent’s would require “shared sacrifice.”
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Officer Is Shot and Suspect Is Killed in Newark8 February 2010, 1:40 am
The police said the circumstances of the shooting, which left a sheriff’s officer in critical but stable condition, were not clear.
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Before Blast, Few Safety Problems as Energy Project Rose at Abandoned Mine Site8 February 2010, 12:03 am
The Kleen Energy Systems construction site had faced hurdles through the years, including the indictment of a partner in a price-fixing case involving trash.
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Rep. John Murtha dead at 778 February 2010, 4:16 pm
Rep. John Murtha died after gallbladder surgery complications, his office said. An ex-Marine who became an Iraq war critic, he was known as one of the "kings of pork."
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Haitian may have lasted month in rubble8 February 2010, 3:45 pm
A man pulled alive from the rubble of a building in Haiti's capital may have been trapped since the January 12 quake that leveled much of the city, doctors reported Monday.
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Jackson's doctor charged with manslaughter8 February 2010, 3:44 pm
Dr. Conrad Murray, personal physician to Michael Jackson, has been charged with involuntary manslaughter in connection with the pop star's death last summer.
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Elizabeth Smart kidnapper pleads guilty8 February 2010, 2:44 pm
A woman convicted in the 2002 kidnapping of Utah teenager Elizabeth Smart pleaded guilty in the attempted kidnapping of Smart's cousin a month later, court officials said Monday.
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Ripples of Dubai killing spread8 February 2010, 2:18 pm
A man was murdered in his Dubai hotel room by a hit squad that operated with European passports, police say. Sounds like the plot of a novel, but this is reality and the hunt is on for the killers of top Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.
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Sri Lanka opposition leader arrested8 February 2010, 2:14 pm
A former Sri Lankan general who ran against President Mahinda Rajapaksa in January has been arrested on charges of plotting to overthrow the country's government, authorities announced Monday night.
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Up to 20 more inches of snow for D.C.8 February 2010, 2:14 pm
A second round of snow is heading toward Washington, D.C., and surrounding cities, where residents are still digging out after a record-setting blizzard.
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Lawyer: Americans had Dominican OK8 February 2010, 2:05 pm
A group of Americans accused of kidnapping 33 Haitian children had authorization from neighboring Dominican Republic to bring the kids across the border, a lawyer for the group said Monday.
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Stop dementia with Mediterranean diet?8 February 2010, 2:01 pm
Eating a diet rich in healthy fats and limiting dairy and meat could do more than keep your heart healthier. It could also help keep you thinking clearly.
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3 shot during New Orleans celebration8 February 2010, 9:00 am
Three people were shot amid celebrations surrounding the New Orleans Saints' Super Bowl win, police said Monday.
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Early Priuses may have braking issues8 February 2010, 4:10 pm
How far back do potential braking problems with the Toyota Prius go? The answer may be much further than believed, and could involve vehicles dating back to the 2005 model-year....
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McItaly burger controversial in home country8 February 2010, 3:28 pm
Italy's agriculture minister defended his sponsorship of McDonald's new all-Italian burger Monday amid criticism that he is selling out to a multinational corporation....
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Delay on Prius decision another Toyota gaffe8 February 2010, 3:27 pm
A week after brake problems surfaced with its Prius, Toyota still has yet to say whether it will recall the popular hybrid....
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Super Bowl goes into overtime, with the ads8 February 2010, 2:29 pm
Think Sunday night's Super Bowl seemed like it had a lot of ads? You're right. Commercials took up nearly 48 minutes of the game — the most for any Super Bowl....
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Dow industrials close below 10,0008 February 2010, 2:15 pm
Concern about mounting debt in Europe has pushed the Dow Jones industrials below 10,000. The Dow closed below the psychological barrier for the first time in three months....
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Toyota resale value, reputation take a fall8 February 2010, 2:05 pm
Recalls and a slow response to safety questions have put a dent in the market value of cars long seen as money in the bank for their owners....
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Magazine circulation falls 9 percent in U.S.8 February 2010, 1:26 pm
Purchases of magazines at newsstands fell 9 percent in the second half of 2009, a slight improvement from the 12 percent year-over-year decline in the first half of the year....
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Interactive: Five famous tax cheats8 February 2010, 12:43 pm
Investopedia: These five famous tax evaders found ingenious (and illegal) ways to avoid paying up. Read to find out how much they owed, and how they were caught....
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Newsweek: The case against layoffs8 February 2010, 10:11 am
Our overreliance on downsizing is killing workers, the economy—and even the bottom line....
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Restructuring CIT taps ex-Merrill chief as CEO8 February 2010, 9:48 am
Former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain is taking over as chairman and CEO of CIT Group as the commercial lender continues to restructure following a time in bankruptcy protection....
Gadgets
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1080p, 5.1 surround sound coming to Netflix Watch Instantly in 2010?8 February 2010, 4:12 pm
Netflix Watch Instantly fans could be due for a big upgrade, as CNET has heard the company will roll out 1080p and 5.1 surround sound later this year. No word on timing or any other details, but this could mean its moving to version 3 of Microsoft's Silverlight streaming platform with its additional tweaks for adaptive streaming and hardware graphics acceleration. Also unknown is how much bandwidth would be necessary, but considering Microsoft already uses very similar technology for its 1080p ...
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Microsoft says Windows 7 battery 'issue' isn't one8 February 2010, 3:38 pm
After Microsoft stated a week ago that it would look into reports of Windows 7 causing premature battery degradation, we've been staying up late at night with our frazzled lithium ion cells, reading them stories about Battery Heaven and generally trying to keep an upbeat tone around the Engadget HQ. Well, it turns out not everything is rosy in batteryville, but Microsoft says Windows 7 isn't the one to blame. According to the company's testing, the new tool, which reports when a battery is down ...
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Motorola: Droid update to Android 2.1 'will start to roll out this week'8 February 2010, 3:14 pm
We knew Android 2.1 was coming for the Droid, but we'll confess -- we didn't expect it to come this soon. Motorola is now reporting via its official Facebook page that it's "happy to relay the 2.1 upgrade to Droid will start to roll out this week," going on to tease that it "will have more information to share on other device upgrades later." There's no detail on what the Droid update will entail or whether it'll roll out to every user this week (we doubt it), but by all indications, this is a p...
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Google's Nexus One 'equipment recovery fee' slashed to $150, still a pain8 February 2010, 3:05 pm
So the good news here is that Google appears to have heard the cries for help, having taken a chainsaw to its brutal $350 "equipment recovery fee" that had been lumped on top of T-Mobile's $200 ETF for subsidized Nexus One contracts canceled in the first 120 days. The bad news, though, is that it still exists at all -- a hairy precedent for an industry being watched with eagle eyes by the FCC right now. The company has knocked $200 off the fee, bringing it down to $150; in other words, if you br...
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DIY photog creates laser trigger for remote DSLR snapping8 February 2010, 2:39 pm
There's just no two ways about it: the integrated self-timer is easily one of the most amazing technologies to ever be invented. Yeah, we said it. Unfortunately, beeping for ten seconds while a shooter races to get in position isn't always ideal or fun, and that's where isharq comes in. His Arduino-based mod is amongst the most flexible out there for DSLRs, enabling it to morph from a basic laser trigger hack to something that senses heat, movement or sound (just to name a few) and then makes y...
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zoomMediaPlus' zoomIt is the iPhone's long overdue SD card reader8 February 2010, 2:14 pm
Sorry if we're the sort of folks to look a gift SD card reader in the mouth, but while we're oh-so-happy that Apple finally opened up application-enabled hardware development in iPhone OS 3.0, we really wish an accessory like this had been available for the iPhone right from the start. The new zoomIt SD card reader from zoomMediaPlus adds a bit of external, swappable memory to the iPhone and iPod touch at long last, giving you the ability to store your iPhone's pictures on the card, or pull stu...
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Native Instruments Kontrol X1 impressions8 February 2010, 1:45 pm
We don't typically do a lot of coverage of music gear here at Engadget because, by and large, it's an entire world unto itself -- a universe of specialty products that require unique knowledge (and often, talent) to use, let alone review -- and ultimately, we're only writing for a limited subset of our readership. There are, of course, countless exceptions to the rule; mixing gear in particular has really come into its own, technologically, over the past several years as a whole new generation ...
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Analyst: Apple to be 'nimble' on iPad pricing, athletic on pommel horse8 February 2010, 1:21 pm
Apple's $499 starting iPad price tag is already lower than many people -- and a few competitors -- expected, but apparently Steve and company have left themselves a little wiggle room: Credit Suisse analyst Bill Shope says that Apple told him it'll remain "nimble" when it comes to iPad pricing, suggesting that the price could drop if sales don't meet targets. That's not a hugely surprising thing to say, considering Apple's trying to be the first to achieve real success with a 'tweener device an...
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Wisair-based wireless display adapters head to Macs8 February 2010, 12:57 pm
PC users have been able to take advantage of a range of Wisair-based wireless display adapters for quite a while now, and it looks like Mac users will soon be able to use them to cut a few cords as well. The first such device is a Mac-ready version of InFocus' wireless display adapter, which is designed specifically for use with InFocus' own DisplayLink-enabled projectors and should be available by the end of March. That looks to just be the beginning, however, as Wisair itself has also announc...
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Amazon job postings ask for display and wireless experts, hint at Kindle things to come?8 February 2010, 12:39 pm
So, we already assume Amazon's thinking touch for the Kindle, what with that recent Touchco aquisition and word of similar behind-the-screen touch tech being on PVI's roadmap. PVI owns E Ink, and is naturally bullish about its upcoming products, but what about E Ink in the new Kindle? If you're into reading the tea leaves of job postings, Amazon might be telegraphing its intentions. It's looking for a "Hardware Display Manager" who, among many other things, is supposed to have "Significant expos...
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Our Price of TV Loyalty: 20% Off the Top [Cable]8 February 2010, 4:20 pm
For a 20% savings, more than 50% cable and satellite subscribers are likely to jump ship to save money. But Telco TV (services like AT&T U-verse) have a much, much more loyal following. Anecdotally, would you agree? [Multiplayblog via engadgetHD]
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China Brings Down 180,000-Member Hacker Training Site [China]8 February 2010, 4:17 pm
Black Hawk Safety Net, an online hacker training resource with 12,000 paying members and another 170,000 free members, was brought down recently by Chinese authorities.Only three operators of the site were arrested, while the official site itself, 3800hk.com, was put out of commission when the company's 9 servers were seized. The site provided resources on hacking techniques and trojan software.
Black Hawk Safety net had been attributed with a 2007 attack on—wait for it—an internet c...
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Remainders - The Things We Didn't Post: Tricky Tricky Edition [Remainders]8 February 2010, 4:00 pm
In today's Remainders: tricks of all sorts. Wisair cuts some cords with their wireless display adapters; Netflix warns the FCC of potential loopholes in the Comcast/NBC merger; the inimitable BrussPup plays with our heads (and ping pong balls); and more.
Air Ball
I'm all for eliminating cords and wires whenever possible, so I was excited to hear that Wisair's wireless display adapters were coming to Macs by the end of March in products from at least four OEMs. My excitement evaporated when I loo...
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BirdBox Wakes You Up With the Sound of Hungry Birds On Your iPhone [IPhone]8 February 2010, 3:46 pm
I love little birds. They are so cute. And they taste delicious and crunchy fried in beer batter. If you want them to wake you up, however, try BirdBox.
BirdBox is a $12.75 bedside bird home with a matching free application that turns your iPhone or iPod touch into a cuckoo alarm clock. You know, because nothing says good morning like "the sound and sight of nesting birds" eating regurgitated bugs and worms. [Luckybite via Boing Boing]
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The RFID Record Player Is a Real World Cover Flow [DIY]8 February 2010, 3:40 pm
I like this idea by Matt Brown: He tags 45rpm vinyl records with RFID stickers to play songs in a turntable that doesn't turn at all.
Inside the fake player he placed an RFID reader, which gets the information from the RFID-tagged record. Once it detects it—and the user moves the tonearm into position—the record player starts reproducing a playlists. Matt wanted to be able to touch the songs, like people used to do back in the day, when people wore funny shirts and pants and watched...
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AMD's Plan to Take Back Laptops: The Llano "APU" [Processors]8 February 2010, 3:32 pm
If you want a laptop with graphics and battery performance that isn't totally embarrassing, you're basically stuck with some combination of Intel and Nvidia gear. Now, finally, AMD's Llano, a CPU/GPU combo, or "APU", could give us a serious alternative.AMD running with the "Application Processor Unit" name isn't as gimmicky as it sounds, because the Llano is genuinely unique: It's four processing cores and a DX11-capable GPU on a single processor die. In simpler terms, this means that AMD has cr...
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Android 2.1 Update for Droid Will Begin Rolling Out This Week [Android]8 February 2010, 3:28 pm
We knew that the Droid's Android 2.1 update is on its way, but apparently we won't be waiting long: According to Motorola's official Facebook page, it's "happy to relay the 2.1 upgrade to Droid will start to roll out this week." [Engadget]
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Falling Down the Guggenheim Museum Hall [Architecture]8 February 2010, 3:00 pm
JDS Architects thought that this trampoline net spiral—which would allow people to bounce from the top floor to the bottom of the Guggenheim Museum rotunda—could be the funniest thing ever. I completely agree. And so do ambulance-chasing lawyers.
Unfortunately—or fortunately for the people who may have broken their necks—it is just a concept, part of the "Contemplating the Void: Interventions in the Guggenheim Museum" exhibition. The exhibition explores different formulas...
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Google Knocks $200 Off Nexus One "Equipment Recovery Fee" [Google]8 February 2010, 2:59 pm
It will no longer cost you more to cancel a Nexus One contract than it does to buy a Nexus One. But Google's still imposing a $150 "equipment recovery fee" on top of T-Mobile's $200 ETF.
The change comes on the heels of an FCC inquiry into out-of-control termination fees. Up until now, Nexus One owners were expected to pay $350 in the event of canceling or downgrading their T-Mobile contracts within 120 days. With the new Terms of Sale, however:
"You agree to pay Google an equipment subsidy rec...
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Netflix Streaming Getting a 1080p Upgrade [NetFlix]8 February 2010, 2:29 pm
Oh hey there, mixed messaging! As Netflix makes the case to Wii owners that they really aren't missing anything by not streaming HD, word from CNET is that Netflix instant streaming is making the jump to 1080p, with 5.1 audio.CNET doesn't have any info on which devices will support the upgrade, how much of their video library will be encoded in 1080p (only about six percent of their current catalog stream at 720p), or when exactly the new content will be available, though they can offer a vague ...
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Dante's Inferno interview: of marketing and Gods of War8 February 2010, 3:55 pm
Dante's Inferno has weathered its share of criticism for its aggressive marketing campaign, as well as its topical resemblance to the God of War titles. To be fair, much of that criticism came from us. Jonathan Knight, the game's executive producer, was kind enough to talk to Ars about the game before its release. We picked his brain on the marketing campaign, dealing with a property with as much history as Dante's Inferno, and why gaming can be a transitory art form.
It was...
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AMD reveals Fusion CPU+GPU, to challege Intel in laptops8 February 2010, 2:28 pm
SAN FRANCISCO—The "Llano" processor that AMD described today in an ISSCC session is not a CPU, and it's not a GPU—instead, it's a hybrid design that the chipmaker is calling an "application processor unit," or APU. Whatever you call it, it could well give Intel a run for its money in the laptop market, by combining a full DX11-compatible GPU with four out-of-order CPU cores on a single, 32nm processor die.
Details on the highly parallel vector hardware—t...
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All that user-generated content? 95% is malware, spam8 February 2010, 12:52 pm
The latest research from Websense Security Labs paints a dreary but familiar picture of the state of online security threats. Echoing the bad news of other such recent reports, it seems the vast majority of the Web consists of malware and spam. Worse yet, even legitimate, well-known sites are being used to pump malware, SEO poisoning, or phishing attacks.
Websense uses a global network of systems to scan and analyze over 40 billion websites every hour, tracking malware and o...
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Amazon puts out one e-book pricing fire as others flare up8 February 2010, 12:08 pm
Just as it looked like Amazon was about to achieve an iTunes-style lock on the e-book marketplace, the impending arrival of Apple's iPad seems to have emboldened book publishers. After a pricing dispute caused all Macmillan titles to disappear off Amazon's virtual shelves, other publishers joined the pricing revolt, demanding greater flexibility in setting prices on their wares. According to the Wall Street Journal, Amazon has apparently settled the first of these disputes by capitulati...
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Hacker training site backup lives after takedown by China8 February 2010, 11:25 am
Chinese authorities are making a cursory effort to crack down on hackers as of late, and have shut down hacker training website Black Hawk Safety Net. According to state-run news organization Xinhua, police in the Hubei Province made three arrests associated with the massive recruiting site and have confiscated numerous assets, including cash, servers, and a Honda Accord. With all eyes on China thanks to the Great Google Scandal of 2010, a move like this may calm fears that C...
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Microsoft loses ads on Facebook, expands Bing search deal8 February 2010, 10:33 am
Microsoft and Facebook have ended their advertising deal in which the software giant sold display ads on the social network, while at the same time expanding their search relationship. The announcement comes as a major Facebook redesign is being rolled out gradually to users.
Microsoft will continue to sell search advertising for Facebook, but the social network will take over the selling of its own display advertisements in the US (it began taking over international sales in the last...
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feature: Daddy's Home: Ars reviews Bioshock 28 February 2010, 10:01 am
The world of Rapture has a lot in common with Jurassic Park. Both fictional places tried to create a sort of closed paradise, playing with nature to fulfill the needs of their respective creators. Both experiments went horribly wrong, making a point about the will of man. In popular culture, when reach exceeds grasp, people die terrible, action-packed deaths.
Bioshock 2 takes place ten years after the events of the first game. I'll keep this review spoiler-free for both...
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FBI still wants two years of ISP Web logs8 February 2010, 9:12 am
Largely at the behest of the European Union, search engines like Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo have cut their data retention periods over the last few years. Now, all those sensitive search queries you make will be anonymized in a matter of months—Yahoo will do so after 90 days, Microsoft will remove all IP addresses after six months, and Google anonymizes IP addresses after nine months. Europe has decided that six months should be the limit.
But the US continues its p...
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Contextualizing the copyright debate: reward vs. creativity8 February 2010, 8:31 am
In a post on the declining revenues of the record business, progressive blogger Matt Yglesias wrote last week, "It is, of course, possible that at some point the digital music situation will start imperiling the ability of consumers to enjoy music. The purpose of intellectual property law is to prevent that from happening, and if it does come to pass we’ll need to think seriously about rejiggering things."
Is that the purpose of copyright law? Sonny Bunch at Am...
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Hubble's portrait of everybody's favorite ex-planet8 February 2010, 7:52 am
While the Hubble space telescope has provided the world with some of
the most amazing images ever taken of the very edge of our universe, it has now revealed details of
something much closer. The newest images, set to appear in the
March issue of the Astronomical Journal, are of everybody's favorite
ex-planet—now dwarf planet—Pluto. The images reveal an "icy and
dark molasses-colored, mottled world that is undergoing seasonal
changes in its surface color and brightness."
The ch...
Apple
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Today Is National PC Cleanup Day, So Let's Tidy Up Your System [Computers]8 February 2010, 4:00 pm
The Web Worker Daily blog reminds us that today is National Clean Out Your Computer Day. Want to do some serious PC cleaning but not sure where to start? We've got your back, so let's get with the purging.Photo by karindalziel.
Clean Out Your Inbox
One of the first places you'll probably find bogged down with a bunch of junk you don't need is your email inbox. If you use Gmail to manage your email, follow these simple steps to free up loads of space without losing important emails. Once you've w...
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The Majority of You Aren't Interested in Paying More than $10 for an E-Book [What You Said]8 February 2010, 3:30 pm
Last week we asked you how much you would pay for an e-book, and just shy of 10,000 votes later, it looks like most of you (70%) aren't interested in paying any more than $10 for an e-book. The basic voting breakdown, from top to bottom, looks like this:
45% would pay $5 to $10
25% would pay $1 to $5
15% say it depends on the book
7% never plan to buy e-books
5% are willing to pay $10 to $15
It's worth noting that the $10-to-$15 range is exactly what Macmillan is aiming for with their e-book p...
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AudioBox Puts Your Music Library in the Cloud So It's Accessible Anywhere [Media Players]8 February 2010, 3:00 pm
When you bop between your work and home computers all the time, it's tough keeping your favorite music at your fingertips ("Which computer has my Once More, With Feeling soundtrack on it?") AudioBox lets you listen to your music from anywhere.(Click the image above for a closer look.)
AudioBox is a web-based media player that puts your music (and, eventually, movies) in the cloud so you can access it from any computer with an internet connection and standard browser. Just upload your favorite me...
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UltraDefrag Is a Portable and Open-Source Disk Defragmenter [Downloads]8 February 2010, 2:30 pm
Windows: If you like your software open-source you'll definitely want to check out UltraDefrag a snappy open-source Windows disk defragmenter.UltraDefrag is available as a portable application and in a GUI and ultra lightweight command-line only version—the lightweight version is designated as "micro" in the download list and is at the top of the screen, make sure to scroll down for the GUI version if you want to interact with the program like in the screenshot above.
With UltraDefrag you ...
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Quickly Backup Your Firefox Profile with about:support [Firefox Tip]8 February 2010, 2:00 pm
Navigating to the directory where Firefox stores your profile has always been a bit of a pain, but the recent release of Firefox 3.6 makes finding that folder—and from there backing up your bookmarks, extensions, or entire profile—a breeze.That's because Firefox 3.6 added a helpful new about page for support and troubleshooting. Just type about:support in your Firefox address bar to give it a look. The new page separates a ton of useful troubleshooting information into sections, incl...
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Google Wave in Action: Real-World Use Case Studies [Use Cases]8 February 2010, 1:30 pm
A week ago we asked readers to tell us how they're using Google Wave in their daily lives, and despite a bit of "ha! no one's using Wave!" snarking on the Twitter, we got lots of interesting responses.
Unsurprisingly, most Wavers use it as a real-time wiki, but some take advantage of features unique to Wave, like inline and private replies, public tags, and gadgets. I featured the most unique use cases I got in a brand new chapter just added to The Complete Guide to Google Wave. The following is...
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StorageFront Catalogs and Compares Self-Storage Facilities [Storage]8 February 2010, 1:00 pm
You'll find no shortage of self-storage facilities in most US locales but it's tricky figuring out which one is the best value and has the best amenities. StorageFront lets you sort and compare storage facilities.StorageFront searches thousands of listings—nearly 4,000 listings for the state of California alone—to help you find the perfect match. You can search by address, browse by state and city-region, and then further narrow your results by using by amenities. You can specify whi...
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PwnageTool 3.1.5 Jailbreaks iPhone 3.1.3 [Downloads]8 February 2010, 12:30 pm
Mac OS X: Last week Apple pushed out a minor update to the iPhone OS, and, naturally, the update re-jailed any jailbroken devices. Yet again, the iPhone dev-team is back with a new version of PwnageTool that's compatible with the latest update.Take note that the dev-team's official stance on the iPhone 3.1.3 OS update is "skip it" unless you've had battery problems (the update offers little more). If wanted to go ahead with the update anyway, this new version of the PwnageTool (3.1.5) will help ...
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Google Adding Social Feature to Gmail? [Rumors]8 February 2010, 12:28 pm
Google may unveil a new social feature to Gmail as early as this week, according to the Wall Street Journal. The feature would closely mimic status updates like those popularized by Facebook and Twitter, and while Google hasn't confirmed anything at this point, we'd guess such a feature would also tightly integrate with your Google Profile—in much the same way as they used Google Profiles to integrate your friends' social content in your search results. From the WSJ:
The change is a new m...
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How to Separate Stuck Drinking Glasses [Cleaning]8 February 2010, 12:00 pm
If you dumped all your glassware into a sink full of water last night and went to bed after the big game, you might find some of the glasses nested tightly together this morning. Here's how to get them unstuck without breakage.Photo by evelynishere.
DIY Life's Diane Rixon recommends first drizzling some vegetable oil or dish soap in between the two drinking glasses and wiggling gently to see if they'll pop apart. If that doesn't work, try a hot and cold one-two punch:
Hot water and ice water. S...
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Claimed Fourth-Generation iPhone Parts Surface Revealing Taller Form Factor8 February 2010, 11:31 am
iPhone 3GS on left, claimed fourth-generation iPhone on right
iPhone repair site iResQ has posted photos of what it claims are parts for the fourth-generation iPhone presumably due for launch later this year. Among the most notable fe......
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Apple Open to iPad Price Cuts if Demand Lags?8 February 2010, 8:53 am
The Wall Street Journal reports on a research note from Credit Suisse analyst Bill Shope based on meetings with Apple executives revealing that the company has apparently left the door open to future price cuts on the iPad should customer demand not ......
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Austrian Wireless Carrier Preparing to Offer Subsidized iPad8 February 2010, 8:41 am
TamsIJungle reports (via Engadget) that it received word from wireless carrier Hutchison Austria that the company is planning to offer subsidized iPads for users willing to commit to a two-year data contract with the company. According to Hutchison ......
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Macworld San Francisco 2010 Kicks Off This Week7 February 2010, 6:29 pm
Macworld Expo 2010 kicks off this week at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California. The significance of this year's Macworld Expo has been significantly reduced due to Apple's decision not to participate. Apple cited the diminished i......
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Intrinsity (Formerly Exponential Technology) Now Speeding Up ARM CPUs7 February 2010, 9:23 am
One of the major announcements alongside the Apple iPad launch was the fact that Apple is now in the chipmaking business. The Apple A4 is a system-on-chip that includes an ARM based processor that is believed to have been designed by the engineers A......
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Make Your Own (Paper) iPad and iPad Sighting at NYC Starbucks6 February 2010, 2:55 pm
While the iPad was officially announced in January, the iPad will not be available for purchase until late March. However, it seems some iPads have been seeded into the wild as David Vogler claims to have seen one in a New York City Starbucks (phot......
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Unreleased Core i7 MacBook Pro 6,1 Benchmarked? Supplies Constrained6 February 2010, 12:38 am
A Geekbench result posted to their site on February 4th has generated a lot of excitement in our forums. The report seems to reveal the results for an unreleased Arrandale MacBook Pro running at 2.66GHz. Intel officially unveiled the new l......
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Apple Seeds Mac OS X 10.6.3 (Build 10D548)5 February 2010, 6:43 pm
Apple has seeded a new version of Mac OS X 10.6.3 to developers today. The last seed was released on January 22nd. According to reports, the newest version provides a number of enhancements and bug fixes for QuickTime X, 64-bit Logic, printing and ......
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FCC Pointing to iPad as Harbinger of Increased Wireless Spectrum Needs5 February 2010, 1:35 pm
MacNN points to a blog post written earlier this week by Phil Bellaria, a director in the National Broadband Task Force at the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC), expressing concern over increasing cellular network congestion and citing App......
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Sling Media Denies Collaboration With AT&T on 3G Streaming5 February 2010, 9:30 am
Yesterday, AT&T announced that it had finally decided to allow Sling Media's SlingPlayer Mobile to stream video over the carrier's 3G network. As part of the announcement, AT&T claimed that it had "worked with" Sling Media to develop a version of th......
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Top 25 iPhone Blogs8 February 2010, 9:00 am
I’m often asked what I think is the best iPhone blog. It’s hard to tell because most iPhone blogs have their own specific topic or their own “voice”. While I do not have one favorite blog (except mine, hehe), there are few I read on a regular basis.
The following is my selection of what I think are top iPhone blogs.
Mac Rumors
Gizmodo
Just Another iPhone Blog
Simple Reviews
Apple Insider
The Unofficial Apple Weblog
iSmashPhone
Apple iPhone School
TiPB
iPhone Atlas
iPhone...
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How to Unlock iPhone 3.1.37 February 2010, 9:29 pm
This guide and tutorial will show you how to unlock iPhone 3.1.3 using UltraSn0w or BlackSn0w, depending on your iPhone baseband.
The first step is to jailbreak your iPhone 3.1.3, either with RedSn0w or with PwnageTool. Note that PwnageTool is the preferred method as it helps preserve the baseband.
Now we have 2 options for unlocking, and it all depends on your baseband model:
If your baseband is still at 04.26.08, then you may use UltraSn0w.
If your baseband is at 05.11.07, you may use BlackSn...
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Jailbreak iPhone 3.1.3 with PwnageTool7 February 2010, 9:05 pm
The Dev Team released PwnageTool 3.1.5 just a few hours ago. In this guide and tutorial, I will show you how to use PwnageTool to jailbreak iPhone 3.1.3.
Before we get into the details, please make sure you read this article by the Dev Team. It will explain to you what you can and cannot do. It is a very important piece of information that you should not overlook.
If at any point in time you updated your iPhone to firmware 3.1.3, then you also updated your baseband to 05.12.01. If that’s ....
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iPhone News You Missed This Week7 February 2010, 11:00 am
In case you missed any of this week’s articles, here is a summary of what was posted on the blog within the last few days. As usual, if you like any of these articles, please share them, tweet them, email them or whatever’s clever.
RedSn0w 0.9 is out
Installous is dead
ContactFlow brings coverflow to your contacts
RedSn0w 0.9.3 jailbreak allows tethering of iPhone 3.1.2
499 reasons to buy an iPad
iPhone OS 3.1.3 is out
Traveling with an iPhone: my experience in Bali
Geohot not worki...
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How to Downgrade iPhone 3.1.3 to 3.1.27 February 2010, 9:00 am
As always when a new firmware is being realeased, there is always a few unlucky people who “accidentally” update or restore to the latest firmware, thus losing their jailbreak and unlock.
In this case, you’d usually want to downgrade your iPhone from 3.1.3 to 3.1.2 simply by downloading 3.1.2 and SHIFT + Restore in iTunes so that you can choose your own firmware to restore to.
The problem is that Apple recently stopped signing all previous firmware versions making it impossible...
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Jailbreak & Unlock iPhone 3.1.3 with Sn0wBreeze? No, Thank You6 February 2010, 8:27 pm
The almighty Sn0wBreeze has been recently updated to version 1.4 and although it claims to help jailbreak and unlock iPhone 3.1.3, I recommend to stay away from this tool.
The problem with Sn0wBreeze is that only a very small amount of people actually get it to work. It’s such a small amount that I’ve come to think that it’s the creator himself who leaves comments here and there to make people believe Sn0wBreeze actually works.
In a Sn0wBreeze tutorial I wrote about a week ago,...
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AndroidLock: A Better LockScreen to Protect Your iPhone6 February 2010, 9:00 am
There are several ways to protect your iPhone by restricting access to it from the lockscreen. You can use the stock feature that allows you to set a password containing 4 numbers. You can use this hack to add an alphanumeric password, or you can use AndroidLock.
AndroidLock is a new application available in Cydia that brings Android’s lockscreen protection to the iPhone. After installing the app, you have to activate it in the Settings.app. To do so, you first have to create a pattern an...
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Adobe Flash and the iGeneration5 February 2010, 9:00 am
This is a guest post by Polemicist, a loyal blog reader and commenter. If you’d like to guest post on the iPhone Download Blog, please see the guidelines.
What ever happened to this guy?
Developer Jonah Grant submitted an “Adobe Flash mobile” plug-in for the iPhone and iPod Touch’s Safari browser on Friday, April 24 2009.
Maybe Jonah’s plug-in was only an urban legend but I do recall Adobe saying they were working on a new version of Flash for the iPod and iPhone and no...
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My Thoughts About the iPad4 February 2010, 9:00 am
After giving you 17 reasons why the iPad sucks and 499 why you should buy one, I wanted to share with you what I really think about the iPad.
Underwhelming is the word
All throughout Steve Jobs’ presentation of the iPad, I was waiting for the time I would be amazed and excited. Jobs always does a great job at giving me the chills for his products but this time, he failed to.
When the presentation was over, I really felt underwhelmed. I thought to myself: is this it? There had to be ......
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GeoHot Says “No Jailbreak For You”3 February 2010, 9:36 pm
When GeoHot talks, you listen because you never know what he’s up to. Earlier today he gave some pretty disappointing news on Twitter by basically saying that there was no way to jailbreak the latest iPhone 3GS and iPod Touch models on OS 3.1.3, and that there was not much hope for an untethered jailbreak.
But we all know GeoHot and how he likes to be challenged. I’d bet you that he’s dissecting OS 3.1.3 as we speak and looking for some exploit. That’s what I think anyway...
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