Link Collection

Houses in Lake County, California are sinking into the ground and the engineers have no idea why.  The situation has deteriorated to the point that the mail is no longer delivered to the community and the sewage line had to be changed to an overland pipe:
http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/dr20130516-california-community-sinking-into-the-ground-and-engineers-are-baffled


Recently declassified documents from the CIA, NSA, KGB, and senior officials reveal that the US and Soviet Union nearly started a nuclear during 10 days in November 1983.  The conflict arose due to a military exercise that NATO ran that changed its readiness condition to DEFCON 1 after a simulated release of nuclear warheads against the Soviet Union.  The Soviets thought that the military exercise was a way for NATO to hide a first strike and got their nukes ready to be launched:
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2013/05/able-archer-scare/


Retailers are sniffing cellphone WiFi signals at the mall to track every where shoppers go inside their stores.  Home Depot and Nordstrom were two of the early adopters of this technology:
http://www.infoworld.com/d/the-industry-standard/new-privacy-low-retailers-sniffing-cellphone-wi-fi-signals-the-mall-218630


Samsung's Galaxy S4 has become the first smartphone to meet TCO standards for environmentally friendly and socially responsible manufacturing.  TCO is focused on sustainability in IT products and creates standards for environmentally-friendly, economically viable and socially resonsible manufacturing.  The Galaxy S4 also was awarded UL's ECOLOGO certification:
http://www.androidcentral.com/samsung-galaxy-s4-gets-tco-certification


Evernote, Twitter and Facebook have official apps for Google Glass:
http://www.androidcentral.com/twitter-and-facebook-google-glass-announced


AT&T is blocking video chat features that Google just released for Hangouts for Android.   Video chat can be used over WiFi but not over AT&T's network.  AT&T says that they block preloaded video chat apps...but Hangouts is NOT preloaded, it has to be downloaded from the Google Play Store.  AT&T also allows preloaded video chat services from Apple's FaceTime and BlackBerry Messenger:
http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/att-blocks-google-hangouts-video-chats-android/2013-05-16


Google demanded that Microsoft remove the YouTube from their Windows Phone store because the Windows Phone app blocks all ads and violates the terms and conditions for YouTube.  Microsoft has responded by saing they are happy to include advertising:
http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/google-orders-microsoft-kill-youtube-app-windows-phone/2013-05-16


Microsoft's Windows Phone passed BlackBerry for the #3 smartphone OS, with their 133% increase in sales being the largest year-over-year increase of any smartphone OS.  To put things in perspective, there were 7 million Windows Phone units shipped worldwide during the first quarter, with Nokia shipping 79% of all Windows Phones.  BlackBerry shipments dropped to 6.3 million.  162.1 mil Android smartphones were shipped in the first quarter, up 80% from last year, and Android had 75% of all smartphone shipments (last year they had 59.1%):
http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/idc-windows-phone-shipments-vault-past-blackberry-q1/2013-05-16


Samsung makes about 95% of the global profits from Android smartphones:
http://blogs.strategyanalytics.com/WSS/post/2013/05/15/Samsung-Captures-95-Percent-Share-of-Global-Android-Smartphone-Profits-in-Q1-2013.aspx


Apple makes more from game sells in their App Store than all dedicated handheld consoles *combined* (Nintendo DS, Sony Playstation Portable, etc.).  For the first time, more games were downloaded from Google Play than the App Store, with Google Play revenue projected to pass the entire handheld industry soon.  The combined games revenue from Google Play and the App Store were almost triple that of gaming handhelds...and this does not include any of the advertising revenue that Android/iOS games make.  This also does not include the money that Amazon's Android Appstore makes:
http://thenextweb.com/mobile/2013/05/16/game-spending-on-ios-and-android-tripled-that-of-dedicated-gaming-handsets-in-q1-2013-app-annie/


Article discussing how the Florida law targeting Internet Cafe gambling might also apply to Chuck E. Cheese--the law says that illegal gaming uses dollar bills or swipe cards, are games of chance, and award cash or gift cards as prizes.  Any prize worth more than 75 cents is illegal...and some of the prizes Chuck E. Cheese provides are worth around $20 and they have games of pure chance.  Dave and Buster's games also offer prizes worth more than 75 cents and their games are operated by smart cards and people swipe.  I didn't realize that in 2011 a San Diego mom sued Chuck E. Cheese for $5 mil because their "casino-style gambling devices" could put children on the road to gambling addiction:
http://business.time.com/2013/05/14/chuck-e-cheese-where-a-kid-can-gamble-like-an-adult/