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Zuckerberg confirms Facebook are not making their own phone
During TechCrunch's Disrupt event in San Francisco, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg talked of his disappointment in HTML5, announcing that the social networking is working on native code for an Android-based version of the Facebook app.
While there, Zuckerberg gave his first post-IPO interview, where he was pressed about the Facebook phone that has been rumored lately. Michael Arrington was the man to interview the social networking giant's CEO, where he teased "I've been bugging you about Facebook phone for months, you say there's nothing, but I don't believe you".
Zuckerberg didn't seem surprised about the question, replying with:
Continue reading: Zuckerberg confirms Facebook are not making their own phone (full post)
OCZ Vector Spotted, Barefoot 3 Lives
Not at IDF 2012 - While looking for a local watering hole to get our morning Dirty Martini we passed a familiar face from OCZ Technology. As we went to exchange business cards, a PCB fell out of his pocket. We could tell it was something new, that 'new PCB' smell filled the air. It was so strong we could smell it through the antistatic bag.
What you are looking at is the OCZ Vector, OCZ Technology's upcoming flagship SSD. This product will sit atop the OCZ SSD hill and move the Vertex 4 down a step.
OCZ tells us the new Vector will be a better-rounded drive than Vertex 4. In our testing, we saw OCZ push the IOPS to new levels but low queue depth sequential performance suffered because of it on the Vertex 4. Vector is OCZ answer to that achieving the best of both worlds.
Continue reading: OCZ Vector Spotted, Barefoot 3 Lives (full post)
Microsoft's latest patent for next-gen Xbox would project images from your game, around you in your living room
It looks like the next-generation Xbox is about to get a kick up the arse in terms of immersion within gaming, is a new patent submitted to the United States Trademark and Patent Office from Microsoft is anything to go by. The new technology would completely transform the room your next-gen Xbox is in, into a gaming environment. The patent reads:
This could work in a few ways, with either a projection of an image from the Kinect sensor, or wearable computing. I'd be leaning more toward wearable computing - as this would allow the Xbox and Kinect system to just send the information to the headset, where it would display a 2D graphic in front of the player. This would translate into you looking at your wall, and seeing a crushed wall for example, with an enemy behind it shooting at you. You would then turn physically, facing the wall, to shoot your enemy.
Google brings back power searching lessons, sign up now!
If you missed it the first time around, Google has brought back its online course "Power Searching with Google" to equip users with the knowledge to use Google effectively and efficiently. You can sign up for the class now for free and take the six 50-minute sessions over two weeks beginning September 24.
A description directly from Google:
Continue reading: Google brings back power searching lessons, sign up now! (full post)
Google releases new YouTube app for iPhone and iPod touch
Since Apple is removing the stock YouTube app from iOS 6, Google has been hard at work producing a new app to replace it with. Since Apple is expected to unveil the new iPhone tomorrow, which is expected to come with iOS 6, Google wanted to make sure they had a new app ready in case Apple releases iOS 6 to everyone tomorrow.
According to the Google Blog post, "The new app is built by YouTube engineers, to give our iPhone and iPod touch users the best mobile experience." The new app is sure to be better than the old stock one because they now can do more of what they want and don't need Apple to sign off on all the changes. With the new app comes the following features:
Of course, there are more changes than just that, but Google wants to tease you and says just this. They then let you know it's free to download on the Apple App store. Google also notes that they are working on an iPad optimized version, which should be ready in the coming months. Of course, you'll find out about that new app first here on TweakTown.
Continue reading: Google releases new YouTube app for iPhone and iPod touch (full post)
GoDaddy denies that it was a hacking, claiming "a series of internal network events" led to the crash
GoDaddy is rejecting the claims that they were hacked in a statement released today. The statement claims that "the service outage was not caused by external influences. It was not a "hack" and it was not a denial of service attack (DDoS). We have determined the service outage was due to a series of internal network events that corrupted router data tables."
This claim refutes yesterday's claim by an Anonymous member that he was responsible for bringing GoDaddy down. The outage lasted for six hours, by GoDaddy's account, lasting from 10am PDT to around 4pm PDT. They have reiterated that since it wasn't a hack, at no time was any customer data at risk. They then proceed to admit they let customers down and apologize for doing so:
4,000 Boingo hotspots free for September, if you're not on iOS or Windows Phone
Google has partnered with Boingo to make 4,000 of its hotspots available nationwide for free for people accessing them with Android, OSX, or Windows. Interestingly enough, users of iOS and Windows Phone appear to be excluded from this offering, showing Google is really pushing Android with this latest stunt.
The hotspots are available across the United States in "high-traffic locations," coffee shops, hotels, and other areas. Google and Boingo are even offering this service at some of the major airports, including NY's JFK, O'Hare, and Seattle-Tacoma, along with the Boingo-enabled subway stations around Manhattan.
Dawn Callahan, vice president of consumer marketing for Boingo Wireless:
Intel's Haswell-based Ultrabooks get configurations teased
Intel are really pushing the Ultrabooks all over the world, but we haven't seen anything yet. We're beginning to hear about their 2013 models, which will include some pretty strict specs according to reports from TechEYE.net.
The site has seen some documents, where they cite that there will be some "serious difference in price and performance between the standard products and the top samples". Standard models will have a baseline Bill of Materials that most not exceed $699.
These machines at $699 BoM must contain all-day battery life at nine hours, voice command, HD video chat with a 720p resolution camera, wireless display, robust Wi-Fi, bundled anti-virus protection in the consumer model, and a multi touchpad. Minimum capacity of 16GB NAND for While Using functions, with a storage product capable of scoring more than 16,000 in PCMark Vantage's HDD Sub Score, and capable of receiving more than 80MB/sec on the same benchmark's video editing score.
Continue reading: Intel's Haswell-based Ultrabooks get configurations teased (full post)
Apple sues Polish online grocery store for using 'A.pl' domain, next stop Adam and Eve for eating the forbidden fruit
Alright, this is the stop for ridiculous - anyone who wants to get out and read this news, step off the train and onto the platform, joining Apple. The company who has more lawsuits going than there are stars in the sky are now suing a Polish online grocery store over the 'A.pl' domain.
The Cupertino-based company has asked the Polish patent office, the UPRP, to cancel a trademark belonging to the store. A meeting reportedly took place in August 29, but ended up being adjourned, and deferred to a later date. Polish site Telepolis, has said that if the dispute isn't settled out of court, it could take two to three years to resolve.
Considering that A.PL have absolutely nothing to do with technology, and are an online grocery vendor, Apple are really clutching at straws here. There's no Apple-like imagery on the website, and it's all in Polish, meaning that it really is only for people who can read the language, and I'm sure it doesn't beat against the door of any Apple-owned patents.
EA have tried to buy Valve "over the years"
The New York Times are reporting that "over the years", EA have tried to buy Valve. If these talks between the two companies ever reached negotiation, would've valued Valve at "well over $1 billion", the Times reports.
But, that $1 billion figure is a huge understatement, as no one truly knows what Valve are worth. Valve are a private company, controlled by founder Gabe Newell, who doesn't release any financial information. Wedbush Securities analyst, Michael Pachter, has estimated that Valve are worth $2.5 billion today.
Newell have said that Valve's employees would scatter, and that Valve would "disintegrate" before they'd be sold. Newell adds:
Continue reading: EA have tried to buy Valve "over the years" (full post)
HP revise their restructuring figures, more layoffs than expected
HP's global staff numbers are expected to get slashed nearly 10% more than previous reports, where up to 29,000 people will lose their jobs with the company. Previous figures pegged HP at cutting 27,000 jobs from their workforce, according to the company's 10-Q quarterly filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), where they said they will "eliminate approximately 29,000 positions in connection with the 2012 Plan through fiscal year 2014."
Back in May, HP said that they would cut roughly 8% of their global workforce, which would see 27,000 jobs cut, saving around $3-$5 billion which would then be thrown into R&D. The cuts would be done over a two-year period, but overall R&D spending will increase from the 3% of revenue which it stands at now. The filing note also touches on their multi-year restructuring plan, which HP call the "2012 Plan", and is aimed to "simplify business processes, accelerate innovation and deliver better results for customers, employees, and stockholders".
HP also expects charges of around $3.7 billion through the end of the company's fiscal 2014 calendar, with $3.3 billion of this coming from workforce reductions, and $400 million on "other items", including datacenter consolidation. HP have already slashed 3,800 jobs by the end of July 2012, which represents around 7% of the now revised 29,000 figure.
Continue reading: HP revise their restructuring figures, more layoffs than expected (full post)
Hustler founder, Larry Flynt, offers $1 million reward for Mitt Romney's tax information
There are some people who think that potential future President of the United States, Republican nominee Mitt Romney is hiding something. There have been various reports, and you can Google (or Bing) it yourself for some more information.
Last week we reported that hackers had gotten their hands on Mitt Romney's previous tax returns, and are asking for $1 million Bitcoin's or they'd release them. Now we have founder and publisher of Hustler magazine, Larry Flynt, hitting the wire that he is offering $1 million as a reward to anyone who can give him Romney's tax information.
Flynt took out a full-page ad in the Sunday's edition of The Washington Post, promising "up to $1 million" for the dirt on Romney's "unreleased tax returns and/or details of his offshore assets, bank accounts and business partnerships." When money is being thrown around like this, someone might step forward. But, if you had this type of information, and it did involve, and prove that Romney has something very sinister to hide, that is completely provable, would you really want to share it?
Steam's Big Picture mode is now open for business, wants to be on your big-screen TV
Valve's first real big push into gamers' lounge rooms is with "Big Picture" mode, which makes Steam much more TV and controller friendly. Valve are known to not really agree, or like the state of PC hardware and console technology, where they've even been rumored to be working on their own console, Steam Box.
Big Picture is looking to compete on the TV with consoles, with Valve's attempt to make their Steam UI look great on the big screen. Big Picture is designed for your PC to be connected to your TV, you can still use the new mode with your keyboard and mouse. At the moment, Big Picture mode is only available on the PC version of Steam, with the Mac-based version coming soon. In order to enable Big Picture mode, you'll have to go into Settings:
Opt-in to the beta, and update your client:
Alibaba set to sell more merchandise this year than Amazon and eBay combined
Alibaba Group is China's largest e-commerce firm, which is looking to have a massive year for 2012. The group expects to sell more merchandise than competitors Amazon and eBay, combined. This is according to Alibaba's chief strategy officer, Zeng Ming.
The group is aiming for around 3 trillion yuan ($473 billion) in annual transaction value from their Taobao e-commerce units in the next 5 to 7 years, says Ming. Jack Ma, Alibaba's founder, said that in 2011, Taobao's transaction value for 2012 would reach 1 trillion yuan. Alibaba have not revealed what percentage of online sales come from Taobao, but it seems to be the number one source of the company's profit engine.
Zeng talks of Amazon and eBay, America's top online retailer and auction site, respectively:
HP unveils four new all-in-one Windows 8 desktops one of which looks very Apple iMac-like
HP unveiled four new all-in-one PCs on Monday, starting with the SpectreOne. The SpectreOne is jut 11.5mm thin, making it HP's thinnest all-in-one PC yet. Sporting a 23.6-inch flush-glass Full HD display with a curved back, the SpectreOne looks swish.
Together with its wireless trackpad with multi-touch technology, with the ability of easily scrolling, swiping and tapping through Windows 8's tile-based OS, it is very, very Apple iMac-like. The SpectreOne is filled with an NVIDIA GPU, optional SSD and optional ExpressCache, two USB 2.0 ports and two USB 3.0 ports.
It also, surprisingly, sports NFC technology, where you can transfer pictures, videos and other goodies to the PC just by tapping a smartphone or NFC tag to its base. HP has also said that the SpectreOne sports "the latest Intel processors", but has left out any specifics. HP's SpectreOne desktop will be made available across the US in November, with a starting price of $1,299.
American Airlines pilots receiving iPads after FAA approves them for use
The FAA has cleared iPads for takeoff, at least for use in the cockpit. The iPad will be used by pilots as part of their "electronic flight kit" and will replace paper manuals which currently weigh in at 35 pounds. Apple's tablet is the only one approved for use as the electronic flight kit and has now been approved for use in "all phases of flight."
The reduction in weight, which ends up being pretty sizable due to no longer carrying 35-pound flight manuals, will save American Airlines an estimated $1.2 million in fuel costs annually. That figure is based upon current fuel costs, which are only set to go up.
This is a very exciting and important milestone for all of us at American Airlines as we work to modernize our processes and best meet the needs of our people," said Captain John Hale, American's Vice President of Flight. "With this approval from the FAA, we will be able to use iPad to fully realize the benefits of our Electronic Flight Bag program, including improving the work environment for our pilots, reducing our dependency on paper products and increasing fuel efficiency on our planes. We are equipping our people with the best resources and this will allow our pilots to fly more efficiently."
GoDaddy hacked, sites down as result, Anonymous takes credit
A member of Anonymous has claimed responsibility for the hacking of GoDaddy today, which has affected sites across the web. GoDaddy's site has been down today, along with sites hosted with the service. Other sites that use GoDaddy for DNS or other services have also been affected, though not all are down for everyone.
GoDaddy has acknowledged the problem with a Tweet:
Continue reading: GoDaddy hacked, sites down as result, Anonymous takes credit (full post)
Rumor TT: Toshiba cuts NAND prices 20 to 25% today
On the eve of Intel Developers Forum San Francisco, we received word from a SSD manufacture that Toshiba just slashed the price of Toggle Mode NAND Flash by 20 to 25%.
If you recall, just a few months ago Toshiba announced a 30% reduction in manufacturing. Toshiba expected other NAND flash manufacturers to follow suit to increase the cost of flash. Micron took the opportunity to gain market share and either held flash production or increased output. We've seen Micron gain some market share because of it. Companies are even making special Micron flash versions of existing products, like the new OCZ Vertex 4 512GB M (M for Micron) SSD.
With the massive price drop, we can only assume that Toshiba is backing off their reduced output strategy. This is good news for consumers looking for even lower priced SSDs. How good is this for consumers? Well, this is a quote from one of my inside sources:
Continue reading: Rumor TT: Toshiba cuts NAND prices 20 to 25% today (full post)
Blue Toad admits responsibility for leaked UDIDs
Remember those 1,000,000+ Apple UDIDs that were leaked last week? Well, it turns out that they probably didn't come from an FBI laptop after all. The CEO of Blue Toad, a small, Florida-based publishing company has issued an apology as the data was taken from their servers about two weeks ago.
The data originated from the company's servers, though this doesn't completely rule out that the data made its way to the FBI. It does, however, contradict the story that went along with the leak as the data was taken just two weeks ago, not back in March as claimed. Blue Toad was alerted to the likelihood of it being their data by security researcher David Schuetz.
Schuetz noticed that several of the device names included in the leak made reference, or contained, "Blue Toad." The numerous references seemed to indicate development devices, so he contacted the company. They ran a comparison between the leaked data and their database and found a 98 percent match.
Continue reading: Blue Toad admits responsibility for leaked UDIDs (full post)
Instagram is coming to Windows Phone 8
Fans of Instagram and Windows Phone rejoice, the app will be coming to the new Windows Phone 8 platform. According to The Verge's sources, Instagram will be made available on Windows Phone 8. A slip-up in a promotional video tipped them off, though the video could possibly be showing a Vimeo live tile.
The Verge then went and independently verified that Instagram is indeed coming to the platform. As you can see in the video above, at 0:52, the tile on the right, second from the top appears to be Instagram likes and comments. An image is provided below for your viewing pleasure.
Now, you no longer have to make a decision on buying a phone based on needing Instagram as it should make its way onto Windows Phone 8 before the end of 2012. Now you can use Nokia's PureView camera to take even better grainy 600x600 sunset or meal pictures. Won't all your friends be impressed?
Continue reading: Instagram is coming to Windows Phone 8 (full post)


