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The "secret sauce" to Google's products is their engineers, algorithms, and more recently, AI - and of course, their vast and unparalleled collection of user data put-together helps. Not to mention collective user analysis to better predict users, their buying habits, and to ultimately influence them (e.g. filter bubble).

It wouldn't be strange if they sold portions of user data to any entity, as long as it doesn't give the complete picture about that person. e.g. they can sell all they know about your health issues to insurance companies, without exposing your risky behaviour or things you get up to in your time, such as your drinking/drug use, and looking for prostitutes every 2 days after midnight in x-radius area, etc.

Just as we know they likely sell a small subset of our data related to products we might be interested in, in the recent past, and other related data which shows your wealth and how affluent you are, to big buyers such as retailers so they can charge a different price to each individual.

We also know from Snowdon's revelations that Google is basically an arm of NSA, they work closely together, and in part, Google gives away vast sums and even user data to the government in exchange for relaxed laws that benefit themselves - i.e. Google is one of the biggest US Gov lobbyist (briber).

With FaceBook money, they can build their own OLED factory if need be.

Facebook are buying Oculus for $400M in cash plus some shares. The OLED factory LG just built cost $650M.

VR is not a Facebook killer, a Facebook killer will be a better version of Facebook. Google+ could have been if they hadn't screwed it up. Oculus relies on early adopter geeks, the antithesis of the Facebook supporter. Unlike Instagram and Snapchat, VR is not encroaching on the FB domain and won't be for many years. This is clearly not a good fit, hence the pundits predicting the demise of Occulus.

Phillip.

Impossible of course.

just as an interesting bit of history, Itanium port of OSF/1 did exist briefly in 1999 at Compaq, but project killed. http://www.tgdaily.com/technology/19507-compaq-tru64-unix-runs-on-intels-merced-simulator

The iPhone barely functioned as a phone when it was introduced. Remember: "You're holding it wrong."

Yes, I remember that quite well because it was mostly incorrect. It turned out that most other phones also suffered from Death Grip. Solution - don't try to squeeze juice from your phone.

But also, it applied to the iPhone 4 - which was a number of years after launch... The first iPhone was fine as a phone.

Now if they had a 3D printer, some gel and a latent finger print. They could make a finger with some hollywood technigues of making prosthetics. http://www.tgdaily.com/mobility-brief/79776-iphone-5s-haters-heres-how-you-steal-a-fingerprint having fun beating the system.

Sandy bridge processors have those cool cell phones built right in. But that kill switch will only be used in the event that your wonderful computer is stolen :D http://www.tgdaily.com/opinion-features/53108-analysis-intel-to-introduce-processor-with-remote-kill-switch

Ever since the Linux community forced Rob Enderle to quit his analyst job at Forrester over all that SCO nonsense I just can't take Forrester seriously. Hee hee. Heeeeeeheeeee.... ha ha ha ha HA HA HA!!!!!!!1 I'm sedated now.

This: (Did the NSA build a backdoor into a new elliptic encryption standard) http://www.tgdaily.com/security-features/34903-did-the-nsa-build-a-backdoor-into-a-new-elliptic-encryption-standard

The old ways are best:

This finding is relevant because it suggests the existence of a limited number of ephemeral particles per unit volume in a vacuum.

In other words, there is no nothingness; everything is something. Thus we're looking at vacuums being a variation of type of substrate of matter, not an absence of matter. Mind-blowing. Be sure to drop acid before reading this.

For a long time, AT&T was blocking the option to sideload apps on their Android phones. No Amazon Appstore or Swype for you!

"A long time"? As I recall, AT&T reversed this policy after about half a year when it realized that customers were likely to switch to another carrier over lack of access to certain applications that debuted on Amazon.

Look, the commercials show a Apple knock off that relies on technology people generally don't have yet. The surface side of it may be interesting, but how many of us have touch displays at home?

This is a great point. Unfortunately Apple seems to be going this direction as well with features from iOS creeping in. There's also a potential for an architecture change. ARM 64 might be a candidate.

It prices me to an Apple system pretty quickly and what do I gain? Immature applications? Still the hassle of viruses and security? More lock in to a company that is shit? No thanks.

The Jury is still out on the benefits but if you move to another platform (you mentioned Apple) you'll need to include all the software, if it exists, too. The other thing windows has going for it is a massive library of software. Some vendors might be understanding and let you use your license on the other platform, others may not.

Consumers may generally be stupid, but they are not that stupid.

Are these the same consumers who are the voting public?

Now hopefully they actually write an app that uses Android properly instead of some stupid iOS port - I've seen so many that are hard to use on Android because of this.

Which version of Android would that be? Development often revolves around the least common denominator, which in Android's case is 2.2. In the real world ~15% of the market is still a significant figure. What new and useful features have been added since then? Are you aware of how many different implementations which are vendor specific, things like graphics, button functionality (interesting related blog post illustrating these points) which might hamper development? I know this isn't an end user concern but you're experiencing the symptoms of Android fragmentation. What version of Android are these handsets running? Take a look at the SDK usage and OS versions as of this month. Looks like Gingerbread, which is from December 2010, in handset terms that's nearly a generation or two.

At least with IOS you're dealing with pretty current hardware since Apple (love it or hate it) makes it a point to support only the last two releases, and over 2/3 of devices upgraded to the newest version within a month, wish it were the same for Andorid.

As of today, that is not true. See http://www.tgdaily.com/mobility-brief/56057-att-customers-can-finally-use-amazons-appstore

So no, today, AT&T stabbed Android isn't a walled garden either. And the vast majority of Android Phones were already not in a walled garden (AT&T sells what? less than 5-10% of Android Phones?)

Wow, I didn't even realize the cable had a chip in it.

And speaking of lightning cables... I'm not really one for silly aftermarket bling cases, cables, etc, but an electroluminescent cable that changes speed based on the battery charge? That's kind of cool :)

http://www.tgdaily.com/mobility-features/66737-apples-lightning-cable-cloned

"The FTC has been aggressive –and successful –in its pursuit of tech support scams," says FTC chairman Jon Leibowitz. "And the tech support scam artists we are talking about today have taken scareware to a whole other level of virtual mayhem." The six operations were mainly based in India, but their victims spanned the globe: most lived in the United States, Canada, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand and the UK. Five used telemarketing boiler rooms to call consumers, while the sixth placed ads with Google which appeared when consumers searched for their computer company’s tech support telephone number. The scammers then pretended to be working for legitimate companies such as Dell, Microsoft, McAfee and Norton, before claiming they'd found a threat on the user's computer that could cost as much as $450 to fix.

The six organizations concerned have been named as Pecon Software, Finmaestros, Zeal IT Solutions, Virtual PC Solutions, Lakshmi Infosoul Services and PCCare247. The FTC is pushing for compensation.

http://m.tgdaily.com/business-and-law-features/66620-ftc-nabs-more-scareware-scammers

Because the UK has nothing to nab him with until the US is willing to go public with a (presumably weak) case against him. As of now, that process in the US is still secret. http://www.tgdaily.com/security-features/64235-secret-us-grand-jury-stalks-wikileaks-founder

What the despots have to work with is whatever took place during that time he was in Sweden.

Assange is not a young man, and in the stark absence of other accusers from other chapters in his life stepping forward, the double-whammy he is getting for something that supposedly happened within a short time frame seems really suspicious. One of the accusers worked with a US-funded political group that is probably a CIA front.

There are also the (now erased) tweets from one the accuser's Twitter feed indicating she was really awake when she claimed to be sleep-raped by Assange.

As far as I can tell, this sh!t against him is all made up and notice it is being driven by the police, not the court system. It is probably a political maneuver by a Right-leaning political branch. These Swedish police are lying through their teeth: Saying they don't interview suspects remotely, when they do in fact, and that the 'case' has nothing to do with the US at the same time they are using Karl Rove as an adviser, there being no bigger lying scoundrel from the US with which they could choose to associate.

Glad you asked... http://m.tgdaily.com/space-features/65491-why-is-the-sun-so-round

I give up the ability to upgrade components, but on the plus side I have had this desktop for 5 years or so and it still meets all my computing needs including gaming.

I can't tell if you're kidding or not. Can a 5-year old iMac even run games like Portal 2 or Diablo 3, both of which had native OSX releases?

Anyway, I've had my current Windows 7 PC for about a year now and I have no plans on upgrading it any time soon. Up until now, everything has (to steal a phrase) "just worked."

As for drivers, the only ones I've installed myself were updated video drivers. nVidia even has a neat little program that tells you when new video drivers come out, although I tend to hold off on them for a few months in case they have another fan-speed debacle.

A recently drafted cyber strategy formulated by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) classifies digital sabotage as an act of war.

Here's a fact: The U.S. and Israel have started war against Iran. I don't remember congress ever approving this war, I don't remember the public ever being notified that our country is now at war with yet another country, despite being unable to pay for the half dozen other wars we're currently engaged in. This is completely unacceptable.

No, it's alleged that the "U.S. and Israel have started war against Iran." The claims are all by anonymous resources.

A recently drafted cyber strategy formulated by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) classifies digital sabotage as an act of war.

Here's a fact: The U.S. and Israel have started war against Iran. I don't remember congress ever approving this war, I don't remember the public ever being notified that our country is now at war with yet another country, despite being unable to pay for the half dozen other wars we're currently engaged in. This is completely unacceptable.

My big problems with this:

2) it is nearly twice as expensive as the Russian nuclear

Were that it were only twice as expensive. Your link points out the Russian vehicle is 580 mil. The enterprise is priced at a tril. This is roughly 1700 times as expensive. If my math is right.

My big problems with this:
1) it is slower than the proposed 39 day VASIMR trip to Mars proposed last year,
2) it is nearly twice as expensive as the Russian nuclear spacecraft
3) the non Saucer and body section parts are for... looks? Site is slashdotted, so I can't tell.
4) The rotational area isn't large enough to provide a consistent 1G, so head and toes will feel different gravities (I did the math on this once [for a spaced based game], and I believe it was around 35-37km/22-23 miles for a 1.8meter/6 foot tall person to feel a fairly consistent 1G - probably not practical for a spaceship). This can cause vertigo.

Looking at this different article on the same story http://www.tgdaily.com/software-features/63252-dell-touts-linux-laptop-for-android-js-devs, it seems more about Dell becoming Android friendly. Also targeted at Linux, Android, Ruby and JavaScript developers.

So Dells 'Project Sputnik' looks like another exploratory plunge into Linux specifically with an sharp eye out for Android.

So is this another solid indication that Android is going to be making a run at the desktop. A very subtle grab for developers and as they use the devices they will inadvertently tweak them for regular users, create that whole OS ecosphere, that Dell is obviously working to be a part of.

Every time Linux has gotten to this stage M$ has crippled it by dramatically reducing prices and, strong arming suppliers. Of course Linux now has the server market and Android has the mobile market, all that's left is the gap in-between, the desktop, 'CRUNCH'.

Rob Enderle, he may be a weenie but someone can be a weenie without being a shill. Enderle was never paid by SCO for his opinions he was given bogus information and based his flawed opinions on that infomation, and he admits that some of his opinions about open source were wrong. He actually likes BSD...who knew?

http://www.tgdaily.com/software-opinion/34004-sco-linux-and-rob-enderle-a-conclusion

It seems that Microsoft has become a good guy while Apple is rapidly becoming a goat. ... Or have I spoken too soon?

Microsoft didn't just do this to be a "good guy". Microsoft's been able to take this step by arguing that the botnet operators have been violating its trademarks and damaging its reputation .

android and not ios is heading towards the largest marketshare in the world (see india custom tablet for example).

Nah, it just isn't, in fact when apple releases a device it always clobbers android sales.

Windows has been on a gigantic decline

200 million iOS devices sold since 2007, 200 million android devices activated since the project began, even if you went to the ridiculous point of doubling that for devices that for whatever reason aren't activated through google and you still fall short of the approximately 650 million Windows 7 licenses sold since late 2009, a much shorter timespan than the lives of iOS and Android.

but has pushed hard to not have studies that mix mobile and desktop OS marketshare as windows is heading towards irrelevant whereas ios will remain relevant.

Nope and the reason why is that most people aren't replacing PCs with tablets and smartphones, they are augmenting PCs with tablets and smartphones. Otherwise we would see a marked decline in Windows sales - corresponding to a rise in mobile device sales - which quite simply is not happening.

http://www.tgdaily.com/opinion-features/59187-tsa-deploys-on-tennessee-highways

http://www.newschannel5.com/story/15725035/officials-claim-tennessee-becomes-first-state-to-deploy-vipr-statewide

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57318666/tsa-expands-from-airports-to-tenn-highways/

Since almost all stars in The Milky Way have planets..

http://www.tgdaily.com/space-features/60744-almost-all-milky-way-stars-have-planets

So there you go then ...

Commodore didn't. The C64 had the "VIC-II" (video interface chip II). The Amiga had Agnus and Denise and later the AGA.

I'm don't think Atari did either. Sure they had a Blitter chips and there was graphics accelerators and so on. But I don't think the term "GPU" was used.

I don't recall anyone arguing with it at the time either: http://www.tgdaily.com/hardware-brief/18947-nvidia-launches-worlds-first-gpu.

Still PU was common enough already.

http://www.tgdaily.com/mobility-features/55717-bottleneck-blamed-for-asus-transformer-shortage

ââBS on the Apple outsells, sorry.
http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/248150/20111112/htc-market-share-apple-u-s.htm
"HTC was able to ship a total of 5.77 million smartphones in the U.S. which accounts for 43% of the total smartphone shares in the market. Samsung placed second with 4.9 million smartphones which was led by its Galaxy-class products while Apple claimed the third spot with 4.6"

So their the number three manufacturer.

http://www.tgdaily.com/mobility-features/60210-android-takes-53-of-us-smartphone-market
"The popular OS captured an impressive 53% of smartphone sales from January-October 2011, while Apple's iOS increased to a 29%" market share.

Some operators also lock that feature out

Which? AT&T relented on this half a year ago in response to overwhelming customer demand for Amazon Appstore and issued a firmware update reenabling "Unknown sources".

so you have to jailbreak it

Even on devices that have no "Unknown sources" checkbox, a user can still connect the phone to a PC with a micro-USB cable and sideload with adb install or with a GUI wrapper around adb install. Google requires that a device let the end user access to Android Debug Bridge before Google will allow the device's manufacturer to install the Android Market application. You just can't run other app stores like AppsLib, Amazon, Soc.io, and SlideME without the checkbox.

For Windows phones, there's an $5 app that does let you run any app you want.

Does it expire, or does it work for the useful life of the phone?

Which is good for him (CEO's can say the darndest things, can't they?), but the last set of headlines I saw for WinPhone market share figures was that they were dropping, fast. A quick Google search gives me this:
http://www.tgdaily.com/mobility-brief/57750-windows-phone-market-share-falling-fast

Market share fallen by 38%- with Nokia being held up as the night in shining armour.

I'm not a habitual MS-hater- I wish them well with their mobile OS, and would be pleased to see more competition in a space so dominated by Apple and Android- but I'd hardly say they've been a roaring success so far. And relying on Nokia as a life-boat seems like a dire approach for both MS and Nokia, both of which will need more than just each other if they're going to survive in this market.

Are you joking?
http://www.tgdaily.com/security-features/51469-dhs-fails-cyber-security-audit

The NSA may know something about security, but the government as a whole certainly doesn't.

If you buy an ARM tablet with Android instead of an ARM tablet with Windows 8, you can "run something else" because pretty much every Android device out there supports "Unknown sources" now.

Dictatorship: You have a pre-made "app-store" which only lists programmes which went through some sort of censorship process. There is typically only one to choose from and typically you have no way to influence the rules or decisions. This is the way it's now typically done on newer smartphones, for example on iOS/Blackberry/WP7/Android.

All Android phones with Android Market have adb install, which lets the user install apps outside of Android Market over a USB cable. Almost all also have "Unknown sources", which lets the user install additional app stores. Even AT&T phones nowadays allow this.

Communism: (in the sense of community) You have list of recommended programs which can be easily installed.

I take it you're referring to the process used by GNU/Linux distributions' repositories. But the criteria for those tend to include being licensed as free software and free cultural works, which typically means no high-production-value video games and no tax return preparation software.

Just look at how quickly Apple's iPhone took off, with its walled-garden app store. And then Android came along, with the exact same concept, and it's been doing great too.

Unlike iPhone, Android phones don't lock out applications obtained outside the Market. AT&T used to hide the "Unknown sources" checkbox until earlier this year when popular demand for Amazon Appstore forced AT&T to either reconsider or lose customers at contract renewal. But even AT&T phones still supported and continue to support adb install.

In the world of imagination the iPad is the only real tablet that dominates all the crappy Android tablets. In the real world the Android tablet share is 30% and rising rapidly, while the iPad share is 60% and plummeting. If you include e-readers in the calculation then the iPad share drops even more. This is the exact same process that occurred for smart phone OSes over the past couple of years. iOS came out and took a lead but was pummeled once decent Android phones were widely available. The iPad will soon be relegated to a niche just like RIM.

http://www.tgdaily.com/mobility-brief/57396-surprising-report-reveals-androids-30-tablet-share

Sensors embedded in clothing? *shrug* Let me know when they've got contact lenses with embedded displays.

The hands-free issue is moot:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/2008/10/17/cellphone-handsfree.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2012393/Distracting-hands-free-devices-dangerous-mobile.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
http://www.tgdaily.com/mobility-features/57097-hands-free-calls-could-be-just-as-dangerous-on-the-roads
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2006/jun/30/mobilephones.uknews
http://socialtimes.com/distracted-driving-dangerous-but-no-evidence-hands-free-laws-help_b69790
http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/hands-free-cell-phone-usage-equally-dangerous-while-driving/
http://news.yahoo.com/hands-free-cell-phone-usage-equally-dangerous-while-170124007.html
http://www.infoniac.com/offbeat-news/hands-free-phones-more-dangerous-for-drivers-than-alcoholic-drinks.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2012393/Distracting-hands-free-devices-dangerous-mobile.html
http://www.iol.co.za/motoring/industry-news/hands-free-phoning-just-as-dangerous-1.1096622

Seems it was published everywhere except mainstream US media, which strongly indicates that it's true but contrary to corporate interests. I guess more accidents translates to more car sales. Ideally cars should be as safe as possible for the driver and passengers, but difficult to drive (i.e. small windows, confusing/distracting features, controls, and meters), and most importantly more likely to be written off from even minor collisions. Sounds about right. Too bad about the bad wrecks that kill people, but hey, business is business.

Last I checked android phones needed "rooting" thanks to carriers locking the phones

Due to customer demand for Amazon Appstore, AT&T has started to enable "Unknown sources" on its phones. (See for example this article.) Other carriers have left it enabled from the beginning.

Thanks for letting us know?

I'm sure they were just trying to make us aware that it's going to be hard for Win Phone 7 to trounce the iPhone by 2015 if the carriers keep hiding it under the rotting corpse.

Here are a couple articles describing some times when Microsoft has sued different companies over patents:

TomTom:

http://www.techflash.com/seattle/2009/02/Microsoft_sues_TomTom_over_patents_in_case_with_Linux_subplot_40305732.html Salesforce:

http://www.tgdaily.com/business-and-law-features/49826-microsoft-sued-over-patents-for-a-change

Motorola: http://www.osnews.com/story/23860/Microsoft_Slaps_Motorola_with_Patent_Lawsuit_over_Android

Barnes & Noble:

http://mashable.com/2011/03/21/microsoft-sues-barnes-noble/

Just a few of the companies being sued by Microsoft. Most companies don't wanna get sued by Microsoft - so they often settle. But Microsoft will sue if they don't get their way.

How are any of these links supporting this very specific claim (complete with snarky comments about others needing to do research): "Lindows, Android, Apple. You might actually want to do some research"

Here are a couple articles describing some times when Microsoft has sued different companies over patents:

TomTom:

http://www.techflash.com/seattle/2009/02/Microsoft_sues_TomTom_over_patents_in_case_with_Linux_subplot_40305732.html
Salesforce:

http://www.tgdaily.com/business-and-law-features/49826-microsoft-sued-over-patents-for-a-change

Motorola:
http://www.osnews.com/story/23860/Microsoft_Slaps_Motorola_with_Patent_Lawsuit_over_Android

Barnes & Noble:

http://mashable.com/2011/03/21/microsoft-sues-barnes-noble/

Just a few of the companies being sued by Microsoft.
Most companies don't wanna get sued by Microsoft - so they often settle.
But Microsoft will sue if they don't get their way.

Aside from the occasional must-have exclusive title, Its the large studios that make games that everyone wants to play. They know this, so they publish for anything and everything with a controller. To do this, they'll include enough game content to satisfy the lowest common denominator. A recent title that felt this sting is Rockstar's new baby "LA Noire." According to an interview with Bondi Games developers the title fit on 6 discs at one point. It has been compressed to 3 discs, so I wonder what was left on the cutting room floor aside from things mentioned in that article.

Im not a content developer, nor do I play one on slashdot. I'd imagine that the methods to put discs on differ between platforms, and the storage medium affects things like compression. More storage means more content, right?

You'd be surprised how close to the mark you are. A couple of services have been proposed (rather lame link here http://www.tgdaily.com/sustainability-features/52886-team-touts-underground-physical-internet) that would deliver goods to UK homes with a series of tubes (I kid you not).

I would assume that maybe groceries could be delivered to you in less than the time it takes for the preview button to work here.

> As soon as they stick Kinect in a smartphone they'll have a hit on their hands.

WTF? This is totally wrong for at least two reasons:
1) What in the world would you use Kinect for on a phone?
2) MS stuck another dominant product (Office) onto a phone and it didn't do them much good.

Besides, the Kinect came out of the gate strong--6 million in the first two months--but it has only sold 2 million more in the next two months. Apple, on the other hand, has sold about 18 million iPhones, 4.5 million iPod touches, and 4 million iPads in the first quarter of 2011.

China isn't claiming that they dont censor, just that the US does it too.

At least they do it in an effort (however wrong and immoral) to protect their citizens.
The US does it over greed.

http://www.tgdaily.com/business-and-law-features/53884-us-doj-and-ice-seize-additional-domains

darkComet (aka darkComet-RAT) is the name of a remote administration tool, which BlackHoleRAT's control functionality is derived from. The trojan is actually called BlackHoleRAT, but regardless, here's an article link.

And, while I'm going, the distortion of the term "trojan" is starting to test my patience. A trojan horse is a piece of software that is deceptive in nature, one which appears to perform a desirable function, but, in fact, steals information or harms the system its occupying. This application, darkComet-RAT, is referred to as a trojan itself all over the web in news articles relating to this beta of "BlackHoleRAT," which is NOT the case. darkComet-RAT is a legit remote administration tool, similiar in functionality to VNC, and should be treated as such.

I understand this butchering of the acronym "RAT," between its use as "Remote Administration Tool" and "Remote Access Trojan" may be confusing, as with all acronyms that use the same letters, but please, for the love of god, do some damn fact checking, and this would be less likely to happen.

Grumble grumble grumble.

Well that changes everything!