5:09 PM
Georgia Tech researchers have developed techniques that allow a robot to determine whether or not it should deceive humans, where the robot selects the best deceptive strategies to reduce its chance of being discovered by people or other robots. On one hand this is a great accomplishment...on the other hand, I probably watched too many SciFi movies when I was a kid and this makes me worry a little:
http://www.gatech.edu/newsroom/release.html?nid=60881
The Phoenix Mars Lander has apparently discovered that liquid water has interacted with the Martian surface throughout Mars' history. The water has primarily existed at near-freezing temperatures:
http://uanews.org/node/34019
The FBI is concerned that Islamic extremists might attack and retaliate if the Florida pastor goes through with his Koran burning plan or if others decide to hold their own Koran burnings:
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Blotter/fbi-retaliation-koran-burning/story?id=11587779
Adobe demonstrates how the exact same code base can be used to build applications for *5* different environments (iPad, iPhone/iPod Touch, Droid, Desktop, web browser). The video shows that the application runs in all the different environments completely unchanged! This is actually *7* different environments because the Desktop environment is for Windows, Mac, and Linux:
http://blogs.adobe.com/cantrell/archives/2010/04/one_application_five_screens.html
Nokia replaced its CEO with Stephen Elop from Microsoft (he ran Microsoft's $19 billion business division and was responsible for the company's Office product suite). Elop will be President and CEO of Nokia, the first non-Finn to head Nokia:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-10/nokia-hires-microsoft-s-elop-as-chief-executive-to-reverse-losses-to-apple.html
Gartner projects that Android will pass both RIM's BlackBerry and Apple's iOS platforms sometime this year, with only Nokia's Symbian with more marketshare. Android went from 3.9% of the market in 2009 (less than a third of Apple's share) to 17.7% this year. Gartner projects that in 2014, 264 million mobile communication devices will be running Symbian, 259 million will be running Android, 130 million will run iOS, 103 million will run BlackBerry OS, and just 34 million will run Windows Phone:
http://www.businessinsider.com/android-will-blow-past-apple-and-rim-to-become-second-biggest-mobile-os-this-year-2010-9
IDC projects that Android will go from 16.3% market share now to 24.6% market share in 2014, behind only Symbian. I doubt their prediction about how Windows Phone 7 will almost equal Apple's market share in 2014, but having Android #2 behind Symbian seems like a safe bet:
http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS22486010
JD Power study found that wireless customers are using their phones less for calls, but still cite dropped calls as the primary reason for switching carriers. They found that Verizon and Sprint had the best call quality (which takes into account dropped calls, voice distortion, etc.) and T-Mobile and AT&T the worst. Interestingly, in the North Central region (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin), AT&T and T-Mobile were better than both Verizon and Sprint, but everywhere else in the country things were reversed:
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/wireless-call-quality-matters-and-thats-bad-news-for-at-t-good-for-verizon-sprint/39006
Even though there are dozens of Android tablets out or coming out soon, Google says that Android 2.1/2.2 are not optimized for tablets. The next Android version (3.0) is expected to be out late this year and is said to be tablet-friendly:
http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/google-android-not-optimized-for-tablets--715550
http://www.gatech.edu/newsroom/release.html?nid=60881
The Phoenix Mars Lander has apparently discovered that liquid water has interacted with the Martian surface throughout Mars' history. The water has primarily existed at near-freezing temperatures:
http://uanews.org/node/34019
The FBI is concerned that Islamic extremists might attack and retaliate if the Florida pastor goes through with his Koran burning plan or if others decide to hold their own Koran burnings:
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Blotter/fbi-retaliation-koran-burning/story?id=11587779
Adobe demonstrates how the exact same code base can be used to build applications for *5* different environments (iPad, iPhone/iPod Touch, Droid, Desktop, web browser). The video shows that the application runs in all the different environments completely unchanged! This is actually *7* different environments because the Desktop environment is for Windows, Mac, and Linux:
http://blogs.adobe.com/cantrell/archives/2010/04/one_application_five_screens.html
Nokia replaced its CEO with Stephen Elop from Microsoft (he ran Microsoft's $19 billion business division and was responsible for the company's Office product suite). Elop will be President and CEO of Nokia, the first non-Finn to head Nokia:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-10/nokia-hires-microsoft-s-elop-as-chief-executive-to-reverse-losses-to-apple.html
Gartner projects that Android will pass both RIM's BlackBerry and Apple's iOS platforms sometime this year, with only Nokia's Symbian with more marketshare. Android went from 3.9% of the market in 2009 (less than a third of Apple's share) to 17.7% this year. Gartner projects that in 2014, 264 million mobile communication devices will be running Symbian, 259 million will be running Android, 130 million will run iOS, 103 million will run BlackBerry OS, and just 34 million will run Windows Phone:
http://www.businessinsider.com/android-will-blow-past-apple-and-rim-to-become-second-biggest-mobile-os-this-year-2010-9
IDC projects that Android will go from 16.3% market share now to 24.6% market share in 2014, behind only Symbian. I doubt their prediction about how Windows Phone 7 will almost equal Apple's market share in 2014, but having Android #2 behind Symbian seems like a safe bet:
http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS22486010
JD Power study found that wireless customers are using their phones less for calls, but still cite dropped calls as the primary reason for switching carriers. They found that Verizon and Sprint had the best call quality (which takes into account dropped calls, voice distortion, etc.) and T-Mobile and AT&T the worst. Interestingly, in the North Central region (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin), AT&T and T-Mobile were better than both Verizon and Sprint, but everywhere else in the country things were reversed:
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/wireless-call-quality-matters-and-thats-bad-news-for-at-t-good-for-verizon-sprint/39006
Even though there are dozens of Android tablets out or coming out soon, Google says that Android 2.1/2.2 are not optimized for tablets. The next Android version (3.0) is expected to be out late this year and is said to be tablet-friendly:
http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/google-android-not-optimized-for-tablets--715550