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Friday, February 18, 2011

New Facebook status options applauded by gay users (AP) : Technet

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New Facebook status options applauded by gay users (AP) : Technet

New Facebook status options applauded by gay users (AP)

Posted: 18 Feb 2011 06:36 PM PST

By JOCELYN NOVECK, AP National Writer Jocelyn Noveck, Ap National Writer – 2 hrs 44 mins ago

NEW YORK – Jay Lassiter is no longer "in a relationship."

Let's clarify that: Lassiter, a media adviser for political campaigns who lives in Cherry Hill, N.J., is still with his partner of nearly eight years, Greg Lehmkuho. But since Thursday, when Facebook expanded its romantic-status options, Lassiter's profile there echoes his relationship's legal status: "Domestic partnership."

It may not be a life-altering change. After all, you can call yourself anything you want on a social network. And Facebook is merely that.

But, Lassiter notes: "I'm no different from all those other Facebook users whose identity is tied up with their Facebook pages, for better or for worse."

And so, he says: "It's high time. It's an affirming gesture. It's sort of one tiny step for gays, but a giant leap for gay rights."

Facebook's addition of civil unions and domestic partnerships to the list of relationships its users can pick from came after talks with gay rights organizations, including GLAAD, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

The social network has "sent a clear message in support of gay and lesbian couples to users across the globe," said GLAAD's president, Jarrett Barrios. "By acknowledging the relationships of countless loving and committed same-sex couples in the U.S. and abroad, Facebook has set a new standard of inclusion for social media."

He added that the new status options, available to Facebook users in the U.S., Canada, Britain, France and Australia, will serve as an important reminder that legal marriage is not an option for gay couples in most states.

Only Iowa, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Washington, D.C. allow same-sex marriages. Hawaii will soon become the seventh state to permit civil unions or similar legal recognition for gay couples.

Of course, there's also a Facebook option to say "It's complicated" — and that's exactly how some users felt about the new changes. Because, for people both gay and straight, more options mean more decisions to make: What exactly is my relationship, and what should I call it?

"You go into a store and there are 27 kinds of soda, and sometimes it would be easier if there were just Coke and Pepsi," explains Erik Rueter, who works in marketing at an educational nonprofit institution in Pittsburgh.

To Rueter, the essence of his relationship is crystal clear: He and his partner, Robb, will be together forever. "We complete each other's sentences," he says. "We'll be sitting there in the nursing home, gumming up each other's food, chasing each other in our wheelchairs."

Two years ago, Rueter, 34, proposed to his partner on bended knee, despite the fact that in Pennsylvania they cannot marry. They've been engaged ever since, and that's been his Facebook status — until Thursday, when he changed it to domestic partnership.

But Rueter is conflicted about the change.

"Part of me wants to go back to 'engaged' — because I still am," he says. "Part of me wants to say 'married,' as in, 'I don't care what the law says.' And part of me says, 'It's just Facebook!'"

And then ANOTHER part of Rueter tells him just how powerful and influential Facebook is, with well over 500 million users across the globe. "Just having the option to say, 'This is what my relationship is' is a really good thing," he says.

It can be a good thing for some straight Facebook users, as well. Michael Stimson, a Scot who lives in Marseille, France, is not married to his partner, Izzy (short for Isabelle), but they live together and have a young son. He's just changed his status from blank to domestic partnership.

For Stimson, it helps to clarify to other users with whom he's chatting that he is not, well, available. "People do flirt with you on the Internet," he says. "I like to put them in the picture a wee bit, so there's no confusion."

Izzy approves of his decision. "Most people that you speak with on Facebook are people you don't know," she says, speaking in French from home in Marseille. "This makes things more clear."

Of course, there are no political overtones to the couple's change in status. In the United States, though, there is a passionate debate over gay marriage. Lassiter, the campaign adviser from New Jersey, changed his status from "in a relationship" to "married" last year in an act of political defiance, he says, when the state legislature rejected a bid to recognize gay marriage.

But it just didn't feel right, and he changed it back to "in a relationship" months later. Besides the fact that "married" wasn't accurate, "I'm not really the marrying type," he says. "Me and my partner have an equilibrium as things are."

But "in a relationship" made it sound like a high-school relationship, rather than one that's lasted a number of years.

So the new status feels better, says Lassiter. And he's been encouraged by the positive feedback he's gotten on just the first day from Facebook friends — including people from as far back as high school — giving him a thumbs-up.

Lassiter also thinks the change is most important for gay people — especially younger ones — living in areas of the country where their sexual orientation is less accepted than in the liberal Northeast.

"For those people, it legitimizes being in a gay relationship," he says.

And so, maybe a social network can be something of an agent of social change.

After all, Lassiter says, "As Facebook goes, so goes the world."

____

Associated Press Writer Geoff Mulvihill in Philadelphia contributed to this report.

Obama says companies can help bottom line & nation (AP)

Posted: 18 Feb 2011 04:57 PM PST

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE, Associated Press Darlene Superville, Associated Press – Fri Feb 18, 7:57 pm ET

HILLSBORO, Ore. – Pushing his jobs agenda, President Barack Obama made the case Friday that companies can make money and build up the country at the same time, citing the giant Intel Corp. chip maker as his model of smart investing in education.

"We know what works. We know how to succeed," the president told employees here after getting an eye-opening tour of Intel's manufacturing facility. "We know how to do big things. And all across this nation, in places just like this one, we have students and teachers, local leaders and companies who are working together to make it happen."

Though Republicans in Washington are balking at Obama's call for more spending on education, Obama said Intel's example has shown that spending on education and worker training is a good investment — even in difficult financial times.

"You're not just a good corporate role model," Obama said. "You're a corporation that understands that investing in education is a good business model. It's good for the bottom line."

The president spoke during a West Coast swing designed to highlight his vision of making the U.S. more competitive globally. Before the visit, the White House announced that Obama had picked company CEO Paul Otellini, a sometimes critic, to serve on a presidential competitiveness council.

Intel last year announced a 10-year, $200 million commitment to promote math and science education; Obama was wowed by the projects of the students he met during his visit. The company is among those that are working to help meet Obama's goal of getting the U.S. to first place in science and math education in a decade.

The president is proposing a freeze on overall domestic spending for five years, but increases in select areas like education. "In today's economy, the quality of a nation's education is one of the biggest predictors of a nation's success," he said. "It is what will determine whether the American dream survives."

On Thursday night, at the Woodside, Calif. home of venture capitalist John Doerr, Obama dined privately with some of the top names in business innovation. They included Eric Schmidt of Google, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Steve Jobs of Apple, who is on his third medical leave as concern about his health mounts. Also present were the chief executives of Yahoo!, Oracle, NetFlix and Twitter, and the president of Stanford University.

Republicans say government spending without restraint is hindering job creation. They want to slash the budget. On Capitol Hill, the Republican-controlled House neared a vote on whether to cut $61 billion from government spending this year.

Hands-on review: Iomega’s SuperHero backup dock for iPhone (Ben Patterson)

Posted: 18 Feb 2011 08:46 AM PST

By Ben Patterson ben Patterson – Fri Feb 18, 11:46 am ET

Know anyone who goes for days, weeks, or even months without syncing their iPhone—not to mention all their contacts, photos, and other data—with iTunes? I know I do.

Personally, I try to perform a full iPhone sync with iTunes at least two or three times a week, meaning I'd only lose a few days of content should anything befall my precious handset. And if you're a regular reader of gadget blogs like this one, chances are you do the same.

But for everyone I know who's conscientious about syncing their iPhones with iTunes, there seems to be one or two more who rarely, if ever, bother to sync.

My lovely wife, for example, literally goes months without syncing her iPhone 4; instead, she just downloads new podcasts and apps over Wi-Fi, and charges the handset with the AC dock in our living room. When her iPhone does get synced—once in a blue moon, mind you—I'm usually the one who ends up doing it.

Now comes SuperHero, a new, $70 iPhone dock from Iomega that's aimed directly at those carefree, reckless iPhone users who charge, but don't sync. (You know who you are.)

No, the SuperHero won't back up everything on an iPhone; no apps, music or videos, nor any e-mail or call logs, for example (although apps can be re-downloaded, as can purchased iTunes song with help from Apple's customer support team, while e-mail can typically be retrieved from a server). But the dock will save content that may be irreplaceable, such as contacts and—especially—the unsynced photos sitting in your iPhone's camera roll.

Here's how it works: first, take the standard iPhone charger dock that your iTunes-allergic friend or loved one uses each night and stealthily swap it out with the SuperHero. You'll also have to install the free Iomega SuperHero app onto the target iPhone, and insert the included 4GB SD memory card into the slot on the back of the dock.

When it's time for the first sync, just unlock the iPhone (the home screen should be visible) and plug it into the Iomega dock; once you do, the SuperHero app will automatically open and prompt you with first-time setup options (such as whether you want to rename your backup profile or encrypt your stored data).

Once you're all set, you tap the "Backup" button, and make no mistake—the initial backup can take anywhere from a few minutes to all night, depending on how many photos are on the iPhone's camera roll. In my tests, a 1MB photo file took about two minutes to back up, so if you've got a couple hundred photos to deal with, well … you could be looking at 6 or 7 hours. On the other hand, the SuperHero dusted off my collection of more than 600 contacts in about five minutes.

While the intial backup may require some patience, subsequent backups should be relatively speedy, since only new (and updated) contacts and photos need to be transferred onto the SuperHero's SD storage card.

And while you'll still have to make sure your iPhone is unlocked before you dock it to the SuperHero, you won't have to tap anything else to initiate the backup; instead, a pop-up window appears, giving you 30 seconds to cancel before the automatic backup begins.

So, let's say the worst happens: your iPhone gets damaged, lost, or stolen. Now what?

To test out the SuperHero, I backed up an old iPhone with plenty of contacts and photos before wiping it completely, taking it back to its factory settings. Then I re-installed the SuperHero app onto the empty iPhone and plugged it back into the dock (remembering to unlock it first, of course). Immediately, the SuperHero app launched, and I tapped the "Restore" button.

Next, I got a choice of three different backup profiles to restore (yes, you can back up multiple iPhones with a single SuperHero, so I went ahead and backed up two other handsets for testing purposes). The SuperHero automatically assigns an 8-digit alphanumeric ID to each iPhone it backs up, but the naming convention isn't exactly friendly; expect a garble of numbers and letters, and you can only rename a profile using a 10-digit numeric keypad. So your best bet is to write down the ID number for each backed-up iPhone before disaster strikes. (Another option would be to use separate SD cards for each handset.)

Once I picked the correct backup file, I tapped restore … and the process began. Again, expect a long wait if you've got more than a few dozen backed-up photos—but hey, at least they'll be alive and in one piece. The videos in my camera roll, however, were neither backed up nor restored.

Does the SuperHero dock make for a perfect backup solution? Obviously not. Is it better than never syncing at all? Certainly. Is it worth $70? That's up to you, of course. Personally, I don't need one. My wife, however, says she's sold.

Full disclosure: Iomega supplied me with a loaner SuperHero dock for testing purposes—and yes, I'll be sending it back.

— Ben Patterson is a technology blogger for Yahoo! News.

Follow me on Twitter!

NYT shoots down “iPhone Nano” rumors, but bolsters MobileMe chatter (Ben Patterson)

Posted: 18 Feb 2011 06:16 AM PST

By Ben Patterson ben Patterson – Fri Feb 18, 9:16 am ET

So, what exactly do we know about the next iPhone? Not much, it would seem.

It was only about a week ago that Bloomberg News and the Wall Street Journal got the tech world whipped into a frenzy with word of a "smaller, cheaper" iPhone—one that, depending on who was doing the telling, would be anywhere from a third to 50 percent smaller than the iPhone 4, complete with cheaper internal components and a budget price.

The chatter of a smaller iPhone raised the possibility of Apple breaking with tradition and unveiling multiple iPhone models this summer: a smaller, cheaper iPhone and a new flagship, with Taiwanese tech site DigiTimes fanning the flames with talk of an iPhone with a larger, four-inch display.

Enticing stuff … maybe a little too enticing, and by Thursday night, the New York Times had arrived with a bucket of icy-cold water.

No, there will not be a smaller iPhone "any time soon," the Times report insists. The N97 code-name for the supposed pint-sized model? Actually, it referred to the Verizon iPhone, says the story, which also makes no mention of a larger version.

Instead, expect something that's "similar in size" to the current iPhone 4, perhaps with new voice-command features to "make it easier to operate" and new "innards" resulting in "a less expensive model."

The article also dredges up an old Steve Jobs quote, in which he slams Android as "very, very fragmented," with a senior Apple exec adding that it does "not make sense" to "make multiple iPhone models," particularly if it means forcing developers to retool their apps for different screen resolutions.

In others words (and with apologies to the makers of "Highlander"): there can only be one. Edit: What I meant to say was, "There can *be* only One!" (Thanks, Jeffrey.)

Still, the Times didn't dash all of the recent Apple rumors, with last night's story confirming the recent talk of a revamped MobileMe, minus the annual $99 subscription fee but plus the ability to store photos, music, and videos in a digital "locker."

The article also notes that free, cloud-based storage might allow Apple to sell cheaper iPhones with less storage, given that you'd be able to stream your media from MobileMe. It's an idea that may look good on paper, but sounds less promising once you consider carrier bandwidth caps, not to mention the fact that MobileMe streaming won't do you much good without a decent data connection.

Apple has yet to announce anything official about the next iPhone, and likely won't until this summer, when the company's annual Worldwide Developer Conference—typically the venue for new iPhone unveilings—kicks off.

Related:
Apple Is Weighing a Cheaper iPhone [NYT]

— Ben Patterson is a technology blogger for Yahoo! News.

Follow me on Twitter!

Apple Planning Major Product Launch Next Week (PC World)

Posted: 18 Feb 2011 02:23 PM PST

Jeff Bertolucci Jeff Bertolucci – Fri Feb 18, 5:23 pm ET

A refreshed lineup of MacBook Pro laptops may debut next week, according to a Friday report by AppleInsider. Citing the ever-chatty "people familiar with the matter," the Apple-oriented blog says that Cupertino is mulling whether to launch the updated notebooks before the end of February. If so, Apple is running out of time to issue party invites.

Rumors of revamped MacBook Pros have swirled for weeks, with some bloggers predicting an early-March ship date for Apple's latest laptops. Given that that last MacBook upgrade was nearly a year ago in April 2010 (aside from a firmware update in November), the series is certainly ripe for a refresh.

Other signs signify a change is due. Supplies of 15- and 17-inch MacBook Pros are reportedly running low at Apple Stores and third-party retailers in Japan and the U.S. While the new laptops will feature Intel's new Sandy Bridge processors, they won't include the chipset's widely-reported design flaw, which could hamper performance of storage devices. (Intel has since repaired the chip glitch.)

Naturally, the new MacBook Pros' specs remain a mystery. That's no reason not to speculate, however.   Italian tech blog iSpazio says we can expect five new models with screens of 13, 15, and 17 inches. Other Apple-watchers believe the new Macs may sport solid-state drives rather than conventional hard disks.

This is all great, but where's the iPad 2?

Tablet Fever Rages at MWC (PC World)

Posted: 18 Feb 2011 06:00 PM PST

Melissa J. Perenson Melissa J. Perenson – Fri Feb 18, 9:00 pm ET

The tablet craze has reached fever pitch. Every day, a new iPad 2 rumors arise. At the annual Mobile World Congress, major players such as HTC, LG, and Samsung unveiled their respective Android tablet offerings. And Motorola has captured headlines with its confirmation that the full-strength 3G + Wi-Fi version of the Xoom will sell for $800--$130 more than the first-generation iPad.

Amidst the chatter, some solid trends have emerged regarding the tablets shown at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and MWC in Barcelona. Looking at them may help you figure out what to hope for from your impending tablet purchase. Come on...we know you want one.

Android Honeycomb vs. Android Froyo: Haves vs. Have-Nots

The upcoming Android tablet class appears to be split between those that will have Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) and those that will make do with something lesser.

With Google on the verge of widely releasing its Honeycomb SDK, Android 3.0 has clearly established itself as the operating system of choice for 10-inch Android tablets. And rightly so: Honeycomb was designed for the large-screen tablet experience, and from our early looks at the OS, it will support a more streamlined, user-friendly experience than today's Android 2.x permits.

The Motorola Xoom is the showpiece tablet--and Google's launch partner for Honeycomb. Perhaps in deference to it, some other tablets at MWC were not demoed with Android 3.0 on board; for instance, the Acer Iconia Tab A500, for example, is slated to ship--at least initially--with Android 2.3 (Gingerbread). But the vast majority of tablets coming at us sound as though they will use Honeycomb.

One odd exception to the 3.0 rule is the HTC Flyer, which will run a version of Gingerbread (2.4, in this case) with a single-core 1.5GHz processor. Granted, HTC has customized the Flyer's interface, porting its cell-phone-based Sense UI, with some changes to take advantage of the larger screen of tablets. Still the non-Honeycomb OS is a risky choice, since the Flyer must compete against the Honeycomb gang.

10-Inch vs. 7-Inch: Paperback vs. Hardcover

At CES, 7-inch tablets ruled the booths. At MWC, though, 10-inch models--a direct challenge to Apple's 9.7-inch iPad--have increased their visibility.

On 10.1-inch models, such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (introduced at MWC), the extra size permits the inclusion of widescreen displays, which are perfect for viewing high-definition video, as well as for viewing book and magazine content reproduced for electronic distribution.

But 7-inch tablets will persist, too. Like paperback books, they are lighter in weight, less expensive, and more portable--and significantly better suited for one-handed use. For their part, 10-inch models will remain pricier, less portable, and--for the foreseeable future--too heavy for one-handed use (though Samsung succeeded in delivering the Galaxy Tab 10.1 at 1.3 pounds).

Carrier Associations and Regionality

In the tablet universe, mobile carriers are front and center in the distribution process. Some tablets--even Wi-Fi-only versions--will sell without carrier affiliation. But the push is on for 3G- and 4G-enabled tablets, which will be sold with contract subsidies. As a result, you can pick up a Dell Streak 7 for $200--but you'll also be on the hook for two years of T-Mobile service.

We're also seeing a lot of products with regional tie-ins. I wouldn't be surprised, for example, if the Huawei and ZTE tablets shown at MWC never reached the U.S. market, instead focusing on Asian or European markets. The LG Optimus Pad, shown at MWC for the first time, is recognizable as the already-announced T-Mobile LG G-Slate.

Prices Aren't Dropping Yet

Apple remains firmly entrenched as the tablet price leader nearly a year after the iPad launched. The Motorola Xoom should come in at $600 for the Wi-Fi 32GB version, and $800 for the Wi-Fi+3G version, but the 32GB iPad Wi-Fi sells for $600 as well.

Things can go in two directions here. One possibility is that prices will tumble rapidly, as competition breeds the necessary price adjustments, as happened both with Android mobile phones and with the first-generation Samsung Galaxy Tab. Alternatively, prices may hold steady because of component shortages: The gold rush to make tablets, coupled with Apple's habit of locking up supplies of parts in advance of its launch, could create a perfect storm that will keep prices high for the foreseeable future.

Stock Android (Honeycomb) Rules

At MWC, none of the debuting Honeycomb tablets showed a unique interface overlay, à la Samsung's TouchWiz (found on the 7-inch Galaxy Tab and on company's phones), or HTC's Sense UI. Perhaps that's because no company besides Motorola has spent much time yet with the final Honeycomb SDK; the SDK entered preview mode just a month ago and has yet to be widely released.

On the other hand, Android 3.0 is Google's most polished effort yet, and it doesn't require the kind of overlays that Froyo does when that OS gets ported to a tablet. Also, overlays make performing quality assurance on a new version of the Android OS considerably more difficult--and that could delay rolling out OS upgrades as they become available.

Ultimately, software customization will be one of the few ways a manufacturer can distinguish its tablet from the pack. But such customization needs to avoid getting in the way of timely OS updates.

Headliners vs. Everyone Else

The vast majority of tablets worth talking about in coming months will be from the big-name players in mobile computing: Acer, Apple, Asus, HP, HTC, LG, RIM, Samsung, and Toshiba. But behind these heavyweights, numerous lesser companies will undoubtedly try their luck as well--and some of these may surprise us with their design, software, or price. I look forward to seeing what these wild cards have in store for us as 2011 unfolds.

HTC HD Mini Gets Hacked, Now Runs Android (PC World)

Posted: 18 Feb 2011 09:34 AM PST

Elizabeth Fish Elizabeth Fish – Fri Feb 18, 12:34 pm ET

The HTC HD Mini, also previously known as Photon, is pretty old as far as smartphones go--the Windows Mobile 6.5 phone was first released back in February 2010. So a XDA Developer member has given the cellphone a new lease of life by bringing Android and Linux OS to it.

Forum member "Cotulla" managed to get the HD Mini running Android via the Haret Launcher, a file used commonly to boot Android on Windows Mobile phones. The ROM for the hack was created from similar HTC handset HTC Aria, which can be booted from a SD card. Add the files (Cotulla made a developer file and a user file, so pick your camp), launch Haret, and Android for HD Mini is yours! Sadly, the Linux OS is far from complete.

Although the hack is up and running, it's not without it's problems. The battery driver doesn't work, and neither does the GSensor or WLAN. Some of the touchscreen buttons are also not perfectly aligned, so need a bit of work. Unfortunately, Cotulla is no longer working on the hack, leaving it to the rest of the developer community to complete it. If you are going to run this hack, it may be worth holding on until the hack is a little more reliable.

As Cotulla points out though, instead of hacking this phone to run Android, it might be easier to just pick up a newer handset, or his recommendation, the HTC Liberty. Still, at least old Photon gets Android now, right?

[XDA Developers Forum]

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Twitter cuts off UberMedia apps for tweets (AFP)

Posted: 18 Feb 2011 08:02 PM PST

– 1 hr 18 mins ago

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – Twitter suspended UberTwitter, UberCurrent, and Twidroyd applications in a clash with a startup that controls a fifth of the "tweets" at the hot microblogging service.

The UberMedia applications cut off from Twitter handled messages "tweeted" from Android, BlackBerry, or iPhone smartphones. Other software is available to "tweet" from those kinds of smartphones.

"We have suspended UberTwitter and Twidroyd for violating our policies," Twitter said in a post at the San Francisco firm's online help center.

"Every day, we suspend hundreds of applications that are in violation of our policies."

Twitter added that it was taking the unusual step of sharing the news because "today's suspension may affect a larger number of users."

California-based UberMedia is an Idealab company that has been gobbling up applications people use to synch Twitter messages to various devices.

UberMedia early this month added popular Twitter "client" TweetDeck to Echofon, Twidroyd, and UberTwitter in a stable of applications said to control 20 percent of "tweets" fired off on any given day.

UberMedia chief executive Bill Gross described his operation as the leading independent provider of applications for reading and posting to Twitter and other social Internet platforms.

UberTwitter, Twidroyd, and UberCurrent were cut of from Twitter early Friday and UberMedia was given notice that they were violating several provisions of terms of service, Gross said in an email response to an AFP inquiry.

"We were immediately in touch with Twitter, and the changes they asked us to make were very small," Gross said.

"As a result, we have completed the changes, and new apps are currently being posted to their respective stores," he said. "Twitter has assured us that as soon as those changes were complete, they would reactivate our applications."

Twitter also asked UberMedia to change the name of the "UberTwitter" application, according to Gross. UberMedia rechristened the application "UberSocial" on Friday.

An Accel Ventures led round of funding last week pumped $17.5 million into UberMedia in a move that some thought would spark concern at Twitter that the company might be growing into a competitor.

"Our goal is to enhance the Twitter experience with functionality in our clients and to be the best partner with Twitter in growing and enhancing their ecosystem," Gross said while announcing the Accel investment.

The funding came with the addition of Accel's Jim Breyer to the UberMedia board. Breyer also sits on the board of social networking titan Facebook.

The investment made it clear that UberMedia's plan is to make money from Twitter traffic as Twitter itself grapples with how to cash in on its popularity.

BlackBerry Gets the Gist for Contacts Apps (PC World)

Posted: 18 Feb 2011 02:41 PM PST

Bruce Gain Bruce Gain – Fri Feb 18, 5:41 pm ET

Over a decade ago, before becoming a mainstream phenomenon and about when "smartphone" first started to become a word, the BlackBerry was a novel device for those of us who were out of the office a lot but wanted to make it seem that we were at our desks (or in my case, while doing other things for fun, like playing basketball in northern New Jersey, or sailing while pretending to be at work).

But since the advent of the Android, the iPhone, and other smartphones that compete head-to-head with Research in Motion's now-fabled device, the Canada-based handset giant has been struggling to maintain market share and has been at odds to offer something completely new and must-have again.

Looking to offer some interesting features to its pre-loaded BlackBerry applications, RIM earlier this week said it has purchased Gist, a startup that offers software that aggregates e-mail contacts while helping you keep tabs on what they are doing. The purchase won't trigger a mad rush to buy next-generation BlackBerries or new tablets if the app comes preloaded, yet Gist might offer a promise of new types of applications RIM could offer in the future.

RIM did not communicate many details about the terms of its purchase of Gist. Without saying when Gist's app might be preinstalled on Blackberries, RIM posted this on its blog earlier this week:

"Today we are pleased to announce that Gist has joined Research In Motion (RIM). We're excited that the Gist team is joining RIM and bringing their expertise in providing customers with a contextualized, streamlined, and consolidated view of information about their contacts to the BlackBerry platform."

If you are mulling trashing your Blackberry for the latest iPhone, Android, or another smartphone but are curious about what Gist could offer, it's possible to try it for free with your Gmail account.

Among other things, Gist allows you to access information about your contacts as you enter their e-mail address. In a side window next to your e-mail list, a window offers a profile of each contact you specify, which includes information such as their importance on a scale of one to 100, a notes tab in which you make comments about the contact, and access to their latest Tweets. It's also possible to access a list of past Gmail and Facebook messages the contact has sent you, and a picture of the contact pops up if one is available.

At the very least, Gist can help you figure out whether you are e-mailing the right contact, or if you've forgotten who one of your contacts is. This is a useful Gmail feature. Maybe one day it could help prevent you from having to fumble around with the Blackberry's not-so-great folder search function. I wouldn't describe what Gist offers as a killer app by any means, but hopefully, Gist will be among many new and interesting apps to come pre-installed on next-generation Blackberries in the near future.

Bruce covers tech trends in the United States and Europe and tweets at @brucegain.

Lady Gaga breaks iTunes records, says on "drunk diet" (Reuters)

Posted: 18 Feb 2011 01:56 PM PST

– Fri Feb 18, 4:56 pm ET

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" has become the fastest-selling single ever on Apple's iTunes store worldwide, racking up more than one million downloads in five days, Apple said on Friday.

Apple said the song -- a Madonna-influenced dance track that the 24 year-old singer performed after "hatching" from a giant egg at the Grammy Awards -- had hit the No. 1 spot on iTunes in 23 countries.

"Born This Way", the title track of a new album to be released in May, also went straight to the top of the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 singles charts earlier this week.

The flamboyant performance artist also revealed her secret for staying so thin, and how she gets her creative juices flowing.

"I am on the drunk diet," she told Sirius XM radio on Friday.

"I live my life as I want to, creatively. I like to drink whiskey and stuff while I am working. But the deal is I've got to work out every day, and I work out hung over if I am hung over. And it's about the cross-training and keeping yourself inspired. I have to say, I do a ton of yoga," she added.

The singer said in a television interview last weekend that she also smoked marijuana while writing her songs.

After headline-grabbing outfits, live performance stunts and a best-selling tour, Lady Gaga may be turning her thoughts to a possible new career -- in movies.

Asked if she saw herself becoming an actress, she told Sirius XM ; "I think at some point, yes. I think I'm sort of destined for that screen at some point."

But if there was a movie of her life, Lady Gaga said she would like to be played by Marisa Tomei -- the Oscar-winning actress from "My Cousin Vinny".

"I am such a Marisa Tomei fan. All my friends call me Marisa when I get angry. Because my New York accent just flies out of my body and I start smacking my gum," she said.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant, editing by Christine Kearney)

Just How Offensive Is Your Facebook Profile? (Mashable)

Posted: 18 Feb 2011 03:18 PM PST

Sarah Kessler Sarah Kessler – Fri Feb 18, 6:18 pm ET

The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

Name: Socioclean

Quick Pitch: Socioclean crawls through your Facebook profile photos, groups and wall posts, and alerts you to anything inappropriate.

Genius Idea: In a 2009 Harris Interactive study for CareerBuilder.com, 45% of employers questioned had used social networks to screen job candidates. Thirty-five percent of them decided not to hire a candidate based on what they found.

When this study started to generate press, Priyanshu Harshavat started to think about a way to help job candidates get their social profiles in shape before they were virtually audited by potential employers. The result is Socioclean, a program that scans social profiles for 5,000 words and phrases that are racial, profane, drug-related or alcohol-related.

After a user gives permission for the program to assess his Facebook profile (for now Socioclean is only offered for Facebook -- other social networks are on the way), he receives a letter grade and a list of inappropriate items from his profile. Each item has a link to that item on Facebook so that he can easily delete it.

As a generally inoffensive person, I was shocked at how many flagged terms that Socioclean dug up from my profile. Wall messages left by other people were my biggest offense (I got demerits for "beer," "booze cone" and "hell," among others). The program also reminded me about the "Aaron Burr, you son of a b**ch" group I had joined sometime during my freshman year of college. I posted one mildly offensive status message to my profile before testing the program, naively thinking that it wouldn't have much to find otherwise, and it found that as well. Most of my infractions were things that I would never have noticed, and many were innocent -- discussing about a bon "fire," for instance, was flagged as "aggressive." But it definitely didn't miss anything. There were enough flags to earn an overall grade of a "D."

Businesses like Reputation.com and Brand-Yourself also help polish online reputations, but these startups are taking an SEO approach that helps push down negative and pull up positive search results for your name. Socioclean is the only service we know of that focuses on deleting offensive items from your social profiles.

About 5,000 other people and I have run our profiles through the program at no cost. To help make it profitable, the company is currently courting job website and dating website partners. The hope is to offer a social profile scrub as an option to applicants and daters to make them more successful on their respective online services. Socioclean's developers also created a version of the product for employers who want their employees to self-monitor their social profiles.

Yet another potential revenue source is to sell site licenses to universities to use in their career services departments. Some universities have already expressed interest in helping spruce up their graduates' online resumes -- Syracuse University, for instance, purchased subscriptions to Brand-Yourself for 4,100 of its graduating seniors.

Even if schools decide to teach students to set their Facebook privacy settings instead of similarly embracing Socioclean, there are likely enough situations in which a squeaky clean profile is necessary -- college applications, job applications, dating and professional networking included -- to keep Socioclean in business.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, thesuperph.

Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark

The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.

Rumor says Google rolling out music service with Honeycomb (Appolicious)

Posted: 18 Feb 2011 01:32 PM PST

Your Smartphone: The Next Big Security Headache (PC World)

Posted: 18 Feb 2011 04:30 PM PST

Nick Mediati Nick Mediati – Fri Feb 18, 7:30 pm ET

2011 is the year that mobile security is going mainstream. Here at 2011 RSA Conference in San Francisco many of the security software companies I've spoken to have either released--or are planning to release a mobile security app of some sort.

And while smartphones aren't a major malware target in the United States yet, there are reasons to be concerned about the future of mobile security.

One of Android strengths is its openness. Just about anyone can write an app and distribute it without having to go through a sometimes lengthy review process. But as is the case on the PC, this sort of openness makes it possible for malware writers to infiltrate the smartphone. Security companies seem to think Android is the next big malware target, thanks to this openness, and the fact that it runs on so many devices.

Some of the vendors I spoke to also seemed concerned that the paranoia that users often carry when it comes to downloading and installing software on a PC might not carry over to when they use smartphones, even though the threats are there.

Mobile malware is already a problem in parts of the world. This past week, mobile security software company Lookout Mobile found a Trojan circulating via re-packaged versions of Android apps and being distributed on alternative app markets in China.

Raimund Genes, the Chief Technology Officer for Trend Micro, notes that mobile malware authors are creating their own app stores to distribute malware in China. He predicts that we in the United States see more proofs-of-concept mobile malware this year, and that it'll become a serious problem in 2012.

Smartphones carry additional information that you may not keep on your PC, like your contacts' phone numbers, photos you've taken with your smartphone, and so on. And, unlike a PC, a smartphone can be easily lost: You likely will remember to take your laptop with you if you get up and leave the Starbucks you're browsing the Web at, but it's much easier to leave behind a smartphone.

In fact, Patrick Kennedy, the Senior Director of Product Marketing with Webroot, sees this as the bigger threat toward smartphones right now. And not surprisingly, many of the smartphone security apps we've seen so far put a big emphasis on securing your personal data if your smartphone gets lost or stolen.

Smartphone malware is in its infancy, and it's hard to say what will happen next, but all indications point toward some serious problems in the not-too-distant future. In the meantime, keep your guard up, stay vigilant, and think before you install that next app.

Fresh iPhone Apps For Feb. 18: Vogue, ProShare, Tuner (Appolicious)

Posted: 18 Feb 2011 03:22 AM PST

Remains of the Day: Mr. CEO, tear down these walls! (Macworld)

Posted: 18 Feb 2011 04:50 PM PST

Lex Friedman Lex Friedman – Fri Feb 18, 7:50 pm ET

It's the end of the week, and Steve Jobs still hasn't been abducted by aliens—though he did finally tear his old house down. These are your remainders for Friday, February 18, 2011.

Exclusive Shots of Steve Jobs' Demolished House (Gizmodo)

You'd expect Gizmodo, the Website that will cross any journalistic line to get at Apple's latest secrets, would celebrate whenever Apple tears down its walls. This time, the walls weren't metaphoric, as the site showcased exclusive photos of Apple CEO Steve Jobs's demolished home. Jobs had longed to tear down the house since before the first iPod was born.

The President toasts… (Twitter)

When The White House isn't busy working, it tweets—just like all of us. The President's home tweeted a photo from Thursday's powwow with Mr. Obama and various tech industry leaders, including Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and, of course, Steve Jobs. The presence of Mr. Jobs—or, at least, his back—in the photo would seem to discredit the latest tabloid reports that he has been abducted by aliens resembling Jamie Farr.

Apple Talks Up Smart Bezels + Live & Reconfigurable MacBooks (Patently Apple)

Another day, another newly discovered Apple patent. This "Smart Bezel" patent application details a Home button-less iPad, along with a reconfigurable touch interface for MacBooks. You would use swipes and other gestures to control your devices, and wonder how we ever suffered through the atrocity that is tactile keys.

Waiter, There's an iPad in My Soup (The Motley Fool)

The founders of a chain called BJ's Restaurants are now looking to put an iPad on every restaurant table. They want to use iPads to take food orders, with no waitstaff involved. In the battle of burger grease versus the iPad's oleophobic coating, I'm giving the edge to the burger.

Champions shaping up for browser battles (AFP)

Posted: 18 Feb 2011 11:54 AM PST

– Fri Feb 18, 2:54 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – Google on Friday released a revved-up version of Chrome as rivals Microsoft and Mozilla beefed up their own champions for the competitive Internet browsing software arena.

In keeping with the arrival of the lunar year of the rabbit, Google product managers Jeff Chang and Li Chan touted the latest test version of Chrome as "quick as a bunny."

The latest Chrome release came a week after Microsoft fielded an Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) "release candidate" boasting improvements in speed, security, privacy, and website graphics capabilities.

IE9 had been downloaded more than two million times as of Friday, according to Ryan Gavin, the senior director of the IE team.

"We are especially excited to see the number of partners and developers embracing IE9 and taking advantage of the performance capabilities," Gavin said in a blog post.

Mozilla last week released a test version of its Firefox 4 web browser with enhancements that included a "Do Not Track" feature people could use to signal websites that they don't want their online activities recorded.

"We've continued our work to improve performance and stability, while also implementing a 'Do Not Track' privacy feature to provide more control over online behavioral tracking," Mozilla said.

Firefox debuted in 2004 as an innovative, communally crafted open-source browser released as an option to Internet Explorer.

Google last month released extension software for its Chrome browser that lets users opt out of being tracked by a growing set of companies adopting industry privacy standards regarding online advertising.

"Keep My Opt-Outs" lets people opt out of having snippets of code referred to as "cookies" installed on their computers to track online behavior for the purpose of targeting ads.

Microsoft "Tracking Protection" was built into IE9, but users need to be savvy enough to activate the feature and create lists of the third-party websites that they do not want to track their behavior.

Internet Explorer is the most widely used Web browser in the United States followed by Firefox, Chrome and Apple's Safari.

IBM's Watson gets job in health care (Digital Trends)

Posted: 18 Feb 2011 12:13 PM PST

Geoff Duncan Geoff Duncan – Fri Feb 18, 3:13 pm ET

It didn't take long for IBM's demonstration of the question-answering prowess in the Jeopardy-winning Watson system to find some backers: IBM has announced a deal with Nuance Communications to apply Watson's Deep Question Answering technology the healthcare field. The research partnership will also address one of the key shortcomings Watson demonstrated on Jeopardy, combining Watson's analytical skills with speech recognition technology so the system can understand what people say, rather than having to have queries posed to it as pure text.

"Combining our analytics expertise with the experience and technology of Nuance, we can transform the way that healthcare professionals accomplish everyday tasks by enabling them to work smarter and more efficiently," said IBM senior VP and director of research Dr. John E. Kelly III, in a statement. "This initiative demonstrates how we plan to apply Watson's capabilities into new areas, such as healthcare with Nuance."

The Columbia University Medical Center and the University of Maryland School of Medicine will also work on the project. Nuance and IBM hope to have the direct products based on the technology ready to come to market in 18 to 24 months. The project will also leverage Nuance's Clinical Language Understanding solutions to improve Watson's understanding of medical vocabulary and terminology.

The healthcare industry's interest in Watson comes from the system's seeming ability to quickly process information available in natural language—rather than deliberately encoded for computer processing—and make rapid, high-level connections between key items of information from disparate sources. The technology could be applied to help healthcare professional keep up with the vast amounts of clinical data and scientific research being published in the healthcare field every day; looking forward, Watson technology could be applied to some of the applications that have along been envisioned for so-called "strong AI" systems, like drug interactions and real-time diagnoses.

[Image: IBM]

at 9:31 PM

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