Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Facebook Timeline mandatory rollout: You have 7 days to scour your past

Facebook is the virtual home to more than 800 million active users, so any change to how the network operates is a big deal. And nothing could be bigger for the social hotspot than completely revamping everyone's front-facing profile page, and that is exactly what is happening today. Starting this morning, the new Timeline feature — that up until now has been an optional switch — is now mandatory.

The Timeline differs from the default profile pages we know and love in several ways. Now, rather than showcasing only your most recent posts, your personal front page can be scrolled back months or years at a time. Most importantly, this change can offer visitors a glimpse at your entire social networking past, all the way back to the day that you joined up. The revamp can be both a blessing and a curse for seasoned social networkers, as it can produce a bit of pleasant nostalgia, but also drag up some of your less proud public moments.

Left untouched, your Timeline may remind of you of breakups, job troubles, or even a few unfortunate party photos that you have long since buried. Depending on your settings, these black marks on your digital past could allow new followers — including friends or business associates — to see a side of you that was better kept tucked away.

Privacy is already a hot topic for Facebook users and the network's litany of sharing options can be difficult to navigate, even for the most experienced users. The company isn't oblivious to how the Timeline may drag up some unwanted past events, so a short buffer zone is in place to allow you to modify your online persona before making its new debut. You now have until Tuesday, January 31 to erase any past Facebook scars you'd prefer to hide.

The mandatory Timeline rollout will undoubtedly catch some by surprise, but you don't have to fall victim to the ghosts of past updates. Take some time to review your social networking history and don't hesitate to prune anything that you wouldn't want on the front page of a local newspaper, because as of right now, the clock is ticking. Or, of course, you could always jump ship to Google+ instead.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang has resigned

Yahoo co-founder and former CEO Jerry Yang has resigned from the Sunnyvale Internet company's board of directors, Yahoo announced Jan. 17. Yang founded Yahoo in 1995 with David Filo, and the company soon became one of the greatest success stories in the early days of the Internet. Yahoo started off as a web portal with a web directory providing an extensive range of products and services for online activities. 

It is now one of the leading internet brands and, due to partnerships with telecommunications firms, has the most trafficked network on the internet. In 1999, Yang was named to the MIT Technology Review TR100 as one of the top 100 innovators in the world under the age of 35. He is currently on the Board of Directors of the Asian Pacific Fund, and Cisco, and is also on the Stanford University Board of Trustees

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Wikipedia's blackout protest

Wikipedia's English-language site shut down at midnight Eastern Standard Time Jan. 18 and the organization said it would stay down for 24 hours.

This screen shot shows the blacked-out Wikipedia website, announcing a 24-hour protest against proposed legislation in the U.S. Congress, intended to protect intellectual property that critics say could facilitate censorship, referred to as the "Stop Online Piracy Act," or "SOPA," and the "Protect IP Act," or "PIPA." (AP Photo/Wikipedia)

Friday, January 13, 2012

Phones that let you feel the world

Sure, today's phones can deliver the sound of a heartbeat. But how would you like to actually feel the throbbing?
A few companies want to replace the crude vibration motors in today's phones and tablets with something that provides a much wider range of sensations, allowing you to feel the rumble of a Harley or the reverberation of a shotgun blast. The new technology can even let you feel the outlines of a button on the screen.
At the International Consumer Electronics Show, the gigantic gadget conclave in Las Vegas this week, a company called Artificial Muscle Inc. demonstrated how it can make mobile devices shake and rattle with great realism, employing a technology that uses plastics that function like muscles.
The company showed off an iPhone it had modified by placing one of its Vivitouch "motors" inside. The phone shook as it ran a simple ball-rolling game. The plastic muscle provided the feeling not just of the ball hitting the walls of a maze, but of the slight vibration it made while rolling freely across the floor.
When it was used for typing, the phone gave a buzzing sensation that confirmed each press of the virtual keys.
In another demonstration, a Vivitouch motor shook a modified Xbox controller to allow the user to feel what it's like to hold a beating heart. In another instance, it let the user experience the signature rumble of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle starting up.
The vibration engines that go into today's phones and game controllers consist of an electric motor that spins a metal weight. They take time to start up and are effective at only one frequency. That means they are unable to provide varying sensations. It's pretty much the same rumble or buzz every time.
With Vivitouch motors, users will have "high-definition feel," says Dirk Schapeter, CEO of Artificial Muscle.
The company is owned by German chemical giant Bayer AG and is a spinoff from SRI International. (Another technology from this California-based research institute was integrated into the iPhone last year: Siri, the virtual personal assistant that talks to you.)
Artificial Muscle's motors contain strips of "muscle." When an electric charge is applied over the strips, they expand and contract at a frequency that can be precisely controlled.
The first product to use Vivitouch came out in September. It's the Mophie Pulse, a sleeve for the iPod Touch that's intended to make games more lifelike.
The next step for the company is to get the motor built into phones. Schapeter says there will be a couple of those on the market this year, from companies he wouldn't identify. He did not say how much the Vivitouch would cost.
Artificial Muscle isn't the only company trying to cause a sensation. Senseg OY of Finland has an exotic way of turning electricity into feeling. By applying a (non-shocking) electric field through the screen of a tablet, it can provide resistance to the movement of the user's finger. So a glossy, smooth screen can suddenly feel rough.
"The palette of effects that's available is enormous," says David Rice, vice president of marketing at Senseg.
The feature should be easy to add to tablets, since it consists solely of a chip and an additional coating on the screen, Rice says. The company is in talks with tablet makers. It might be included in products due late this year. He would not say how much it would add to the price.
The technology could help users "feel" a scroll bar, for instance, or the boundaries of an image. Each letter in a text message could register as a little "bump," making it easier to select parts of the text.
Or the slingshot you pull back to fire an angry bird could register more and more resistance the farther you pull it back, Rice suggests.
"It's little things. It's not something that's going to immediately blow you away," Rice says. But if it becomes pervasive, it'll be something "you'll recognize when it's gone."

Tuesday, January 03, 2012

LG to sell 55-inch TV using new ultra-thin tech

For flat-panel TVs, the choice for years has been between plasma and LCD. In the coming year, there'll be another choice, at least for those prepared to spend big.
LG Electronics Inc. says it's planning to sell a 55-inch set based on organic light-emitting diodes, or OLEDs. The Korean company is set to show it off at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, which starts Jan. 10.
Samsung Electronics Co., LG's Korean rival, will also reveal a nearly market-ready OLED TV at the show, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. They spoke on condition of anonymity because Samsung has yet to make an announcement. Its website says CES announcements will come Jan. 9.
Tim Alessi, director of home electronics development at LG's USA arm, said its set will likely go on sale in the fourth quarter. The company isn't revealing the price.
Paul Gagnon, an analyst at DisplaySearch, estimates that OLED sets will start out above $5,000.
The screen technology is in use in high-end smartphones and provides deeply saturated colors and high contrast. However, it's been very difficult to make larger screens with consistent results. In late 2007, Sony Corp. started selling an 11-inch OLED TV for about $2,500, but it never followed it up with a bigger model.
Since then, LG and Samsung have shown prototype OLED TVs at the annual CES show, but haven't revealed any marketing plans.
Apart from providing improved picture quality, OLED TVs can be very thin. LG's set will be 4 millimeters thick (3/16ths of an inch) and weight 16.5 pounds.