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Average Cellphone Data Usage Is 145.8 MB Per Month

Post time: July 31, 2010 15:26
destinyland writes "For the first time, the majority of cell phones are accessing data services — 53 percent, compared to only 42 percent last year, according to a new study by Validas. And each user downloads an average of 145.8 MB per month (the average was just 96.8 MB per month in 2009). The heaviest users are Verizon smartphone owners, averaging 428 MB per month (338 MB on average for iPhone users). In fact, Verizon users were twice as likely as iPhone users to exceed both 500 MB and 2 GB each month."

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TI Calculator DRM Defeated

Post time: July 31, 2010 14:23
josath writes "Texas Instruments' flagship calculator, the Nspire, was hacked to allow user-written programs earlier this year. Earlier this month, TI released an update to the OS that runs on the calculator, providing no new features, but only blocking the previous hack. Now, just a few weeks later, Nleash has been released, which defeats this protection. The battle rages on as users fight for the right to run their own software on their own hardware."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Who Is Downloading the Torrented Facebook Files?

Post time: July 31, 2010 13:20
eldavojohn writes "Gizmodo's got an interesting scoop on a list of IPs acquired from Peer Block revealing who is downloading the Facebook user data torrented this week: Apple, the Church of Scientology, Disney, Intel, IBM and several major government contractors just to name a few. The article notes that this doesn't mean it's sanctioned by these companies or even known to be happening, but the IP addresses of requests coming to one of the users' machines match to lists of IP blocks for each company."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Change of Address: 10 Tips to Cure Your Stinky House

Post time: July 31, 2010 13:04

5 iPad Apps for Travelers

Post time: July 31, 2010 13:00
Travelers have a variety of apps to choose from that will help them out during their travels. Here are 5 great iPad Apps that are great for travelers.


The Web's New Gold Mine: Your Secrets

Post time: July 31, 2010 12:50
One of the fastest-growing businesses on the Internet,is the business of spying on Internet users. Tracking of consumers has grown both far more pervasive and far more intrusive than is realized by all but a handful of people in the vanguard of the industry. Profiles of individuals, constantly refreshed, are bought and sold.


Fossil Fuel Subsidies Dwarf Support For Renewables

Post time: July 31, 2010 12:18
TravisTR sends word of research from Bloomberg New Energy Finance which found that direct subsidies for renewable energy from governments worldwide totaled $43-46 billion in 2009, an amount vastly outstripped by the $557 billion in fossil fuel subsidies during 2008. "The BNEF preliminary analysis suggests the US is the top country, as measured in dollars deployed, in providing direct subsidies for clean energy with an estimated $18.2bn spent in total in 2009. Approximately 40% of this went toward supporting the US biofuels sector with the rest going towards renewables. The federal stimulus program played a key role; its Treasury Department grant program alone provided $3.8bn in support for clean energy projects. China, the world leader in new wind installations in 2009 with 14GW, provided approximately $2bn in direct subsidies, according to the preliminary analysis. This figure is deceptive, however, as much crucial support for clean energy in the country comes in form of low-interest loans from state-owned banks. State-run power generators and grid companies have also been strongly encouraged by the government to tap their balance sheets in support of renewables."

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Top 10 Thesis Wordpress Theme Customizations | TechnoZeast

Post time: July 31, 2010 12:00
Thesis is best SEO optimized and most flexible and customizable theme framework for wordpress


Inside The Datacenters Powering Six Top Social Sites

Post time: July 31, 2010 11:40
With the news that Twitter will be building its own managed data center, this article looks a bit more at the data center technology behind some of the top social sites and how they are applying innovative techniques, energy efficiency, and managing information.


12 Social Media Monitoring Tools Reviewed

Post time: July 31, 2010 10:10

iPad makes powerful impact amongst businesses

Post time: July 31, 2010 09:30
Apple, known for courting consumers with sleek designs and easy-to-use software, is making inroads with corporations that say the iPad can make workers more productive without putting sensitive customer information at risk.


Microsoft To Issue Emergency Fix For Windows<nobr> <wbr></nobr>.LNK Flaw

Post time: July 31, 2010 09:14
Trailrunner7 writes "Microsoft will issue an out-of-band patch on Monday for a critical vulnerability in all of the current versions of Windows. The company didn't identify which flaw it will be patching, but the description of the vulnerability is a close match to the LNK flaw that attackers have been exploiting for several weeks now, most notably with the Stuxnet malware. The advance notification from Microsoft on Friday said that the company is patching a critical vulnerability that is being actively exploited in the wild and affects all supported Windows platforms. The LNK flaw in the Windows shell was first identified earlier this month when researchers discovered the Stuxnet worm spreading from infected USB drives to PCs. Stuxnet has turned out to be a rather interesting piece of malware as it not only uses the LNK zero day vulnerability to spread, but it had components that were signed using a legitimate digital certificate belonging to Realtek, a Taiwanese hardware manufacturer."

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360 Panorama: Panoramic iPhone Photography Made easy

Post time: July 31, 2010 08:40
Today, 360 Panorama was released for the iPhone, and it brings auto real time stitching into the practical realm of panoramic photography.


Will Facebook Ever Be Replaced?

Post time: July 31, 2010 08:40
Much to its credit, Facebook (which may not even qualify as a start-up any longer) has stood firm in the rapid river that is the modern social web and has grown into one of the most powerful web properties online. Could it be that Facebook has found a unique formula that protects them from obsolescence and makes it irreplaceable?


"Jersey Shore" Premiere's Social Media Impact [INFOGRAPHIC]

Post time: July 31, 2010 07:50
For those of us living in the U.S., it was nearly impossible to avoid the hype surrounding last night’s season two premiere of MTV’s Jersey Shore.With the premiere come and gone, we can now analyze the impact of the show on our favorite social media sites


12 Useful CSS3 Tutorials And Techniques For Web Designers

Post time: July 31, 2010 07:25

Twitter Rolls Out New 'Follow Suggestions' Feature

Post time: July 31, 2010 07:10
In comes a brand new Twitter feature (Tweature!). Starting today, Twitter will extend a hand by offering tailored suggestions of whom to follow.


The 5 (Really) Cool Windows Tools You Might Need

Post time: July 31, 2010 06:50
There are so many software available out there that can make your windows PC performs better, getting by free and good ones is not that easy. That is why I am sharing few great freeware tools for you to make your lives easier than ever. Read each entry in the list and see which tool suits your needs best.


Cool and Fun Online Video

Post time: July 31, 2010 06:23

UK Government Rejects Calls To Upgrade From IE6

Post time: July 31, 2010 06:15
pcardno writes "The UK government has responded to a petition encouraging government departments to move away from IE6 that had over 6,000 signatories. Their response seems to be that a fully patched IE6 is perfectly safe as long as firewalls and malware scanning tools are in place, and that mandating an upgrade away from IE6 will be too expensive. The second part is fair enough in this age of austerity (I'd rather have my taxes spent on schools and hospitals than software upgrade testing at the moment), but the whole reaction will be a disappointment to the petitioners."

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Twitter Now Suggests People You Might Want to Follow

Post time: July 31, 2010 06:00
Twitter Will Now Suggest People You Might Be Interested In StalkingIt can be tough to find fascinating people to follow on Twitter, but now and then you'll find someone whose tweets perfectly match your interests and you'll wish there were more people like that. Well, now Twitter will help you find those folks—if they exist.


Top 9 Energy Contests with Big Payouts

Post time: July 31, 2010 05:51

The Canadian Who Holds the Key To the Internet

Post time: July 31, 2010 04:17
drbutts writes "The Toronto Star has an interesting story on how they are securing DNS: It's housed in two high-security facilities separated by the North American landmass. The one authenticated map of the Internet. Were it to be lost — either through a catastrophic physical or cyber attack — it could be recreated by seven individuals spread around the globe. One of them is Ottawa's Norm Ritchie. Ritchie was recently chosen to hold one of seven smartcards that can rebuild the root key that underpins this system' called DNSSEC (Domain Name System Security Extensions). In essence, these seven can rebuild the architecture that allows users to know for certain where they are and where they are going when navigating the Web."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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FBI rings up Defcon organizers over contest

Post time: July 31, 2010 02:40
A Defcon contest that invites contestants to trick employees at U.S. corporations into revealing not-so-sensitive data has rattled some nerves.


US Ability To Identify Source of Nuclear Weapons Decays

Post time: July 31, 2010 02:19
Hugh Pickens writes "The NY Times covers a report released by the National Research Council, which says the ability of the US to identify the source of a nuclear weapon used in a terrorist attack is fragile and eroding. The goals of the highly specialized detective work, known as nuclear attribution, is to clarify options for retaliation and to deter terrorists by letting them know that nuclear devices have fingerprints that atomic specialists can find and trace. 'Although US nuclear forensics capabilities are substantial and can be improved, right now they are fragile, under-resourced and, in some respects, deteriorating,' the report warns. 'Without strong leadership, careful planning and additional funds, these capabilities will decline.' The report calls on the federal government to take steps to strengthen its forensic capabilities and argues for the necessity of better planning, more robust budgets, clearer lines of authority and more realistic exercises."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Internet Explorer 9 Beta to Arrive in September

Post time: July 31, 2010 02:10
Microsoft today disclosed that version nine of its Internet Explorer Web browser will have a beta release in September.


New PS3 Firmware Causing HDD Upgrade Problems?

Post time: July 31, 2010 01:28
Channard writes "While there have been occasional reports of previous PS3 firmware upgrades causing system crashes and so forth, Sony's new firmware upgrade for the system, 3.41, is apparently stopping PS3 owners from upgrading their hard disks. This problem has been encountered by many users on Sony's forums and occurs when you try to put a new hard disk into a PS3 that already has the firmware upgrade installed. The general course of action for upgrading a PS3's drive is that you download the latest PS3 firmware onto a memory stick and, after swapping the hard drive in the PS3, plug the stick in, allowing the PS3 to properly prepare the disk for use. But as of upgrade 3.41, the PS3 fails to recognize the firmware on the stick, complaining that it can't proceed until you insert the correct firmware. Repeating the process and re-downloading the firmware does not fix the problem, as I can confirm, having encountered the problem myself. Users can put the old hard disk back in, provided they've not reformatted it for some other purpose, so all is not lost. Sony have apparently told gaming website CVG that 'The information available to our Consumer Services Department does not suggest that this is a problem PlayStation owners are likely to experience when upgrading the HDD with 3.41 update.' This seems to fly in the face of the currently available information — although whether or not this statement was issued by Kevin Butler is unclear. Either way, PS3 owners encountering this problem will likely have to wait a few days for a fix and use their old HDDs for now."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Students finally wake up to Facebook privacy issues

Post time: July 31, 2010 00:30
College students do care about Facebook privacy, it turns out, and their use of the service's privacy settings has skyrocketed between 2009 and 2010, according to two researchers.


FCC Gives Thumbs-Up To First LTE Phone

Post time: July 31, 2010 00:25
eagledck tips news that the FCC has "finally approved the first 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) phone for sale in the US." The Samsung device will use MetroPCS as a carrier, but tech specs, software details and a launch timetable are still uncertain. Meanwhile, Verizon is ramping up testing of their own LTE infrastructure, hoping to launch in 25 to 30 markets by the end of the year. An anonymous reader notes that LTE rollouts could be hampered by a confused and conflicted patent situation. "It is impossible to know where all the patents are but we have identified more than 60 companies holding essential patents. It is a very large landscape and fragmented. If there was one major patent pool and a handful of individual companies to deal with, that would be possible. But signing license deals with 40 plus [entities] is not. A unified patent pool is best," said a representative for one of three patent pool organizations trying to accomplish that.

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The Web's New Gold Mine: Your Secrets - WSJ.com

Post time: July 31, 2010 00:18