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The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) Mar 21, 2010 | 11:00 am PDT
Filed under: Apple, iPad
Apple's "Meet iPad" ad, which debuted during the Oscars, became the second-most viewed viral video ad last week. Michael Learmonth, writing for AdAge, points out...
Filed under: Apple, iPad
Apple's "Meet iPad" ad, which
debuted during the Oscars, became the second-most viewed viral video ad last week. Michael Learmonth,
writing for AdAge, points out that "Apple has had a
YouTube channel since 2005, but only recently started using it. In the past, they'd focused on driving views on Apple.com, but for the iPad, they allowed the video to be embedded across the web, and views were distributed across 100 different placements."
Those 100 different placements totaled a cool 2.5 million "Meet iPad" ad views last week. The only ad that beat "Meet iPad" was E*Trade's popular "Milkaholic" Superbowl ad, which had increased views due to interest from
Lindsay Lohan filing suit against E*Trade claiming the ad was a parody of her. "Meet iPad" was produced by the
TBWA/Chiat/Day ad agency.
TUAWApple's iPad ad goes viral originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 21 Mar 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sci/Tech - Google News Mar 21, 2010 | 10:48 am PDT
CBC.ca Viacom v. YouTube/Google: A Piracy Case in Their Own Words DailyFinance Just as the three-year-long Viacom (VIA) lawsuit against YouTube/Google (GOOG) has reached a crucial...
digg.com: Stories / Technology / Popular Mar 21, 2010 | 10:40 am PDT
Opera has always had a tough time taking on the big guys in the desktop browser market, but anyone who has given Opera Mini a try on their smart phone platform of choice would probably be pleasantly s...
Opera has always had a tough time taking on the big guys in the desktop browser market, but anyone who has given Opera Mini a try on their smart phone platform of choice would probably be pleasantly surprised


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Sci/Tech - Google News Mar 21, 2010 | 10:37 am PDT
PC World What does Google really know about advertising? CNET I'm not sure if I've made one inadvertent comment too many about my liberal lords and masters, but whichever...
Sci/Tech - Google News Mar 21, 2010 | 10:19 am PDT
PC Advisor Facebook has more loyal news reader than Google News The Money Times As the strength of social networking sites like Facebook is growing at a rapid pace, they can surel...
Sci/Tech - Google News Mar 21, 2010 | 10:17 am PDT
Boston Globe Miyamoto Focusing on Getting DS into Schools Escapist Magazine Nintendo's top designer wants the DS to be used for more than collecting coins and saving princesse...
MacNN | The Macintosh News Network Mar 21, 2010 | 10:15 am PDT
Lexmark has suffered from somewhat of a perceived quality issue in the marketplace over the past few years. The S605, however, promises to do everything: it's a photo quality 3-in-1 printer with a lo...

Lexmark has suffered from somewhat of a perceived quality issue in the marketplace over the past few years. The S605, however, promises to do everything: it's a photo quality 3-in-1 printer with a long list of added features included. We hope to learn in the full review if this all-in-one can repair LexmarkÃs sullen image....
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Slashdot Mar 21, 2010 | 10:12 am PDT
BanjoTed writes with a followup to news from February that the Swiss government was pursuing a ban on violent video games. He writes
"Sadly, Switzerland has now passed the law that paves the way for a...
BanjoTed writes with a followup to news from February that the Swiss government was pursuing a ban on violent video games. He writes
"Sadly, Switzerland has now passed the law that paves the way for an outright ban on violent video games in the country. The full implications of the ruling will not be known until the government reveals the exact requirements that will be laid down by the new legislation – a decision that has not yet been made. What is certain though is that the Swiss authorities have now obtained the power to introduce any measures they see fit. The likeliest outcome seems to be an outright ban on the production, distribution and sale of any games deemed to be unsuitable – most likely anything with either a PEGI 16+ or PEGI 18+ certificate."

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The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) Mar 21, 2010 | 10:00 am PDT
Filed under: Education
Apple, through the Apple II, served as the gateway to computing for me; my third grade classroom had two Apple IIs neatly tucked away in metallic lock cases. With th...
Filed under: Education

Apple, through the Apple II, served as the gateway to computing for me; my third grade classroom had two Apple IIs neatly tucked away in metallic lock cases. With them, I was exposed to word processing, printing and, most importantly, Carmen Sandiego.
Education is deeply ingrained in the Apple ethos. During his keynote at Macworld 1997 -- where he made his return -- Steve Jobs, in a not so understated way, said that "Apple is the largest education company in the world" and that this provided the company "an incredible foundation...and legacy to build off of." This legacy lives on, as Apple, through its retail stores, offers a variety of mediums to teach kids about and expose them to computing and content creation.
Last week, Apple opened up spring registration for field trips to its retail stores. Breaking with the tradition that students are to bring apples to their teachers, Apple provides a way for teachers to their students to the Apple...store, that is. During these field trips, K-12 students can create a variety of digital masterpieces: a photo album using iPhoto, an edited video using iMovie, or a song in GarageBand, among them. When complete, students can showcase their creations with others in the store. Now that's a class act.
[hat tip to
The Loop]
Field trips to the Apple store are offered every fall and spring, and registration is currently open for weekday events February 22 through May 1. Apple states that field trips are limited to 25 students (if you have more, you can make arrangements with the store), and can last anywhere from an hour to 90 minutes.
Unlike field trips, in which those up to 12th grade can participate, Apple Youth Workshops are geared toward a younger crowd and toward specific applications. Kids ages 6 to 13 can participate in workshops in which they can work on photos, music, movies, and even presentation skills. You can check which workshops that are being offered at a particular retail store at the Apple Youth Workshop page. From my checks of various stores in California, there were no upcoming workshops scheduled at this time.
Lastly, there's Apple Camp. Like Apple Youth Workshops, Apple Camp is geared toward younger audiences (8 to 12 year-olds). Campers get to make movies, put together iPhoto photobooks, and compose songs at the Apple Store. At the end of the day, their keepsakes include a spiffy free t-shirt and a DVD of their creations. The Apple Camp site is currently not up, but Apple says that it will open up registration beginning in May.
To learn more about Apple's youth programs, visit the Apple Youth Program site here.
TUAWApple preps 2010 school field trips originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 21 Mar 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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digg.com: Stories / Technology / Popular Mar 21, 2010 | 9:10 am PDT
Novell's CEOÂ on Saturday notified customers that the open source software company has rejected hedge fund Elliott Associates' roughly $2 billion bid to take it private
Novell's CEOÂ on Saturday notified customers that the open source software company has rejected hedge fund Elliott Associates' roughly $2 billion bid to take it private


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The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) Mar 21, 2010 | 9:00 am PDT
Filed under: iPhone I just tried out PhotoNest, a cool new way to view just the images posted to your Twitter stream. It picks up just the photos, and presents them in a slide format, captioned w...
Filed under: iPhone
I just tried out PhotoNest, a cool new way to view just the images posted to your Twitter stream. It picks up just the photos, and presents them in a slide format, captioned with the tweet they were posted with. You can quickly flick through and see what your friends are up to (based on the photos they post).
Given that Twitter doesn't have a genuine photo-posting mechanism, this seems like a grand idea to me. I've done something similar to collect and expand just the links posted to my stream, but this app does a great job of pulling photos posted with multiple services and presenting them in an easy-to-navigate format.
The only trouble I ran into with PhotoNest was a login issue: when I mistyped my password on the first try, it gave me an error and took me back to the login screen. After that, though, a correct password just kept landing me back at that screen without any message. However, quitting the app and starting it again logged me in automatically without a hitch, so I assume it's a small bug that will be squashed in the next update.
The app will also let you post photos (with a tweet) to your Twitter account, and you can filter your view based on favorite contacts. PhotoNest is available on the App Store for $1.99US. If your Twitter friends post a lot of photos (and people with iPhones tend to), it's a fun way to keep up and worth checking out.
TUAWPhotoNest: your Twitter stream, in pictures originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 21 Mar 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Slashdot Mar 21, 2010 | 8:56 am PDT
alphadogg writes "Users of the BitDefender antivirus software started flooding the company's support forums Saturday, apparently after a faulty antivirus update caused 64-bit Windows machines to stop...
alphadogg writes "Users of the BitDefender antivirus software started flooding the company's support forums Saturday, apparently after a faulty antivirus update caused 64-bit Windows machines to stop working. The company acknowledged the issue in a note explaining the problem. 'Due to a recent update it is possible that BitDefender detects several Windows and BitDefender files as infected with Trojan.FakeAlert.5,' the company said. The acknowledgment came after BitDefender users had logged hundreds of posts on the topic. Some complained of being unable to reboot their systems."

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Sci/Tech - Google News Mar 21, 2010 | 8:42 am PDT
PC World National Broadband Plan Gets Down to Business PC World There is a good reason for this since the newly-unveiled plan is primarily focusing on boosting broadband adoption...
Sci/Tech - Google News Mar 21, 2010 | 8:33 am PDT
BBC News The rise of the app entrepreneur BBC News The soaring popularity of smart phones has created a new type of entrepreneur - the "app developer". Whether it is fin...
Slashdot Mar 21, 2010 | 7:36 am PDT
An anonymous reader writes "Apparently feeling generous this week, Google has released for free another of their internally developed tools: this time, a nifty web security scanner dubbed skipfish. A...
An anonymous reader writes "Apparently feeling generous this week, Google has released for free another of their internally developed tools: this time, a nifty web security scanner dubbed skipfish. A vendor-sponsored study cited by InformationWeek discovered that 90% of all web applications are vulnerable to security attacks. Are Google's security people trying to change this?"

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The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) Mar 21, 2010 | 7:00 am PDT
Filed under: App Store Earlier this week, Wired posted a story about what they call "App Store Payola" -- the practice of sites that solicit cash payments (or other compensation) in order to expe...
Filed under: App Store

Earlier this week,
Wired posted a story about what they call "App Store Payola" -- the practice of sites that solicit cash payments (or other compensation) in order to expedite or publish app reviews. This isn't anything new. Ever since the App Store first went online, there have been sites that have offered developers a chance at the spotlight in return for behind-the-scenes payment. Apparently, it is still going on, and Wired's piece takes a good look at what's under the table.
It should go without saying, but for the record: TUAW isn't involved in this practice, and never has been. We
will use promo codes for reviews rather than buying the apps directly, but a promo code doesn't guarantee a review and it definitely doesn't influence our stated opinions on the products we cover. Informally, our editorial team gives a
thumbs up to the OATS standard, although TUAW hasn't officially joined the sites promoting the 'code of conduct' for app reviews.
Nevertheless, this is an interesting issue. My main question actually revolves around whether or not this practice actually "works" for the developer -- do devs who pay the $25, or whatever these "Reviews R Us" sites are charging, actually see returns in their product's sales or downloads?
We know (based on detailed reports from multiple developers) that apps we review or mention here often see boosts in sales and performance in the App Store. We presume that's due in part to the fact that we
don't do "payola" -- our readers trust us to post about worthwhile apps, and thus give their business to the ones we cite. Do these App Store review sites that are charging for their services see the same effect? Are these developers that are pouring $25 into "Joe's Review Shack" for an "expedited review" getting their money back in sales and/or downloads?
If they are, something is wrong -- either there's just not enough trusted outlets for apps out there, or even the App Store just isn't big enough for its own demand. If people are downloading and buying apps just because they see them mentioned anywhere (even on a site that they can't trust), then maybe there just aren't enough quality apps to go around. Payola doesn't work in the case of film reviews, because there are enough trusted reviewers and enough good films that you have the option to pick and choose the ones you like, paying attention to reviewers you agree with. But it does work in the case of old-school radio, where you only had one station to choose from, and you listened to (and bought) whatever songs they played.
Of course the first question is whether these sites work or not. If the $25 invested in one of these payola sites actually pays off for an app that clearly doesn't deserve it, then there might be a bigger issue with the App Store ecosystem as a whole.
TUAWApp Store payola, and what it means for the app ecosystem originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 21 Mar 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Slashdot Mar 21, 2010 | 6:17 am PDT
An anonymous reader writes with a story about Wang Jianwei, a grad student in China who recently released a paper detailing a vulnerability in the US power grid. Despite the paper being rather typical...
An anonymous reader writes with a story about Wang Jianwei, a grad student in China who recently released a paper detailing a vulnerability in the US power grid. Despite the paper being rather typical for security research, its origin set off alarm bells for military strategist Larry M. Wortzel, who testified before Congress that the student was a threat, despite the fact that the published attack wasn't really feasible. Quoting:
"'We usually say "attack" so you can see what would happen,' [Wang] said. 'My emphasis is on how you can protect this. My goal is to find a solution to make the network safer and better protected.' And independent American scientists who read his paper said it was true: Mr. Wang's work was a conventional technical exercise that in no way could be used to take down a power grid. The difference between Mr. Wang's explanation and Mr. Wortzel’s conclusion is of more than academic interest. It shows that in an atmosphere already charged with hostility between the United States and China over cybersecurity issues, including large-scale attacks on computer networks, even a misunderstanding has the potential to escalate tension and set off an overreaction. 'Already people are interpreting this as demonstrating some kind of interest that China would have in disrupting the US power grid,' said Nart Villeneuve, a researcher with the SecDev Group, an Ottawa-based cybersecurity research and consulting group."

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digg.com: Stories / Technology / Popular Mar 21, 2010 | 5:40 am PDT
Ten years ago this week, online music pioneer Justin Frankel released a little application dubbed Gnutella that enabled file sharing through a distributed P2P network.
Ten years ago this week, online music pioneer Justin Frankel released a little application dubbed Gnutella that enabled file sharing through a distributed P2P network.


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Sci/Tech - Google News Mar 21, 2010 | 5:34 am PDT
The Grand Rapids Press - MLive.com Google Traffic Dominates the Internet PC World Like a giant gravity-bending star, Google has grown so massive it is starting to have a measurabl...
Slashdot Mar 21, 2010 | 5:23 am PDT
Milo_Mindbender writes "I've recently gotten ahold of an old Altos 586 Xenix system (a late '80s Microsoft flavor of Unix) that has one of the first multi-user BBS systems in the US on it, and I want...
Milo_Mindbender writes "I've recently gotten ahold of an old Altos 586 Xenix system (a late '80s Microsoft flavor of Unix) that has one of the first multi-user BBS systems in the US on it, and I want to salvage the historical BBS posts off it. I'm wondering if anyone remembers what format Xenix used on the 10MB (yes MB) IDE hard drive and if it can still be read on a modern Linux system. This system is quite old, has no removable media or ethernet and just barely works. The only other way to get data off is a slow serial port. I've got a controller that should work with the disk, but don't want to tear this old machine apart without some hope that it will work. Anyone know?"

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