http://www.technewsworld.com TechNewsWorld -- "All Tech, All the Time" en-us Copyright 2009 2013-05-22T12:32:47-07:00 ECT News Network ECT News Network TechNewsWorld -- "All Tech, All the Time" hourly 1 2013-05-22T12:32:47-07:00 http://www.technewsworld.com/images/rss/tnw_100x36.jpg http://www.technewsworld.com http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/78093.html This week we take a look at the top five must-have social networking tools for the Mozilla Firefox desktop environment. Social networks have taken mobile by storm, but the PC is still a player -- particularly based on its copious screen real estate. Aggregation across social networks, one-click helpers, easy search, sharing, and detailed image viewing present themselves well in this field. Patrick Nelson 2013-05-22T09:27:03-07:00 Reviews This week we take a look at the top five must-have social networking tools for the Mozilla Firefox desktop environment. Social networks have taken mobile by storm, but the PC is still a player -- particularly based on its copious screen real estate. Aggregation across social networks, one-click helpers, easy search, sharing, and the killer app that is image viewing in detail all present themselves well in this field. Our five faves: Yoono, Facebook Toolbar Button, Twitter Address Bar Search, Thumbnail Zoom Plus and Add This. ]]> 2013-05-22T09:27:03-07:00 2013-05-22T11:27:43-07:00 http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/78104.html Despite cries from the Left, the Guantanamo Bay detention camp is still up and running. The same, however, can't be said for Guantanamo's WiFi. The U.S. military turned off wireless Internet service at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base amid threats from the hacker collective Anonymous. Officials have also nixed access to social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, a spokesperson for the prison said. David Vranicar 2013-05-22T11:22:30-07:00 Tech Blog Despite cries from the Left, the Guantanamo Bay detention camp is still up and running. The same, however, can't be said for Guantanamo's WiFi. The United States military turned off wireless Internet service at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base amid threats from the hacker collective Anonymous. Officials have also nixed access to social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, a spokesperson for the Guantanamo Bay prison said. Anonymous reportedly threatened to disrupt activities at the base, although no disruptions have been reported thus far. ]]> 2013-05-22T11:22:30-07:00 2013-05-22T11:23:11-07:00 http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/78100.html Yahoo has announced the overhaul of Flickr, its photo and video sharing site, after purchasing social microblogging website Tumblr. The new Flickr has "a beautiful, completely reimagined experience that puts photos front and center," Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer wrote in a blog post that is reminiscent of what Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg said when announcing his company's overhaul of NewsFeed. Richard Adhikari 2013-05-22T06:00:00-07:00 Web Apps Yahoo has announced the overhaul of Flickr, its photo and video sharing site, after purchasing social microblogging website Tumblr. The new Flickr has "a beautiful, completely reimagined experience that puts photos front and center," Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer wrote in a blog post that is reminiscent of what her Facebook counterpart, Mark Zuckerberg, said when announcing his company's overhaul of NewsFeed in March. Flickr has also increased the amount of free storage space for users to 1 TB. ]]> 2013-05-22T06:00:00-07:00 2013-05-22T09:13:40-07:00 http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/78095.html In space no one can hear you call out for pizza, but technology being developed in a NASA-funded project might let astronauts print one instead -- or any number of potentially delectable meals. Systems and Materials Research Corporation received a $125,000 grant from NASA to build a prototype device that prints food. Peter Suciu 2013-05-22T05:00:00-07:00 Emerging Tech In space no one can hear you call out for pizza, but technology being developed in a NASA-funded project might let astronauts print one instead -- or any number of potentially delectable meals. Systems and Materials Research Corporation received a $125,000 grant from NASA to build a prototype device that prints food. The project, led by mechanical engineer Anjan Contractor, is still quite a ways from the replicator technology of Star Trek, but it could be the next step in providing sustenance for those planning to leave the Earth's orbit. ]]> 2013-05-22T05:00:00-07:00 2013-05-22T12:03:45-07:00 http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/78090.html Midnight Commander is one of those original computing tools that keeps getting better with age. It may be old school, but its file managing capabilities keep it at the head of its class. Midnight Commander is a text-mode file manager that runs in a terminal. It uses a two-panel interface and a subshell for command execution. It is reminiscent of the Norton Commander file manager. Jack M. Germain 2013-05-22T05:00:00-07:00 Reviews Midnight Commander is one of those original computing tools that keeps getting better with age. It may be old school, but its file managing capabilities keep it at the head of its class. Midnight Commander is a text-mode file manager that runs in a terminal. It uses a two-panel interface and a subshell for command execution. It is reminiscent of the Norton Commander file manager that I used in my early DOS and Microsoft Windows days. It is also no stranger to the Linux desktop. ]]> 2013-05-22T05:00:00-07:00 2013-05-22T12:06:36-07:00 http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/78097.html IBM on Tuesday announced that it will offer Watson -- its artificial intelligence software package that won the <em>Jeopardy</em> game show -- as a customer service solution called "Watson Engagement Advisor," a cognitive computing assistant that rapidly learns, adapts and understands a company's data. Richard Adhikari 2013-05-21T16:01:00-07:00 Computing IBM on Tuesday announced that it will offer Watson -- its artificial intelligence software package that won the Jeopardy game show -- as a customer service solution called "Watson Engagement Advisor," a cognitive computing assistant that rapidly learns, adapts and understands a company's data. Watson's data-crunching capabilities will be offered as part of IBM's Smarter Commerce initiative for automating a business's marketing, sales, procurement, supply chain, and service functions. ]]> 2013-05-21T16:01:00-07:00 2013-05-22T12:08:23-07:00 http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/78094.html Microsoft has officially unveiled the Xbox One, promising it will usher in a new generation of games, TV and entertainment. The One comes a dozen years after the original Xbox video game console debuted, and eight years after its best-selling Xbox 360 proved that Microsoft was a serious contender in the gaming arena. The reveal took place at an event at its Redmond, Wash., campus on Tuesday. Peter Suciu 2013-05-21T14:31:42-07:00 Gaming Microsoft has officially unveiled the Xbox One, promising it will usher in a new generation of games, TV and entertainment. The One comes a dozen years after the original Xbox video game console debuted, and eight years after its best-selling Xbox 360 proved that Microsoft was a serious contender in the gaming arena. The reveal took place at an event at its Redmond, Wash., campus on Tuesday, three weeks in advance of the Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3, trade show to be held this June in Los Angeles. ]]> 2013-05-21T14:31:42-07:00 2013-05-21T14:32:25-07:00 http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/78085.html Interest in nanochemistry research and energy storage led 18-year-old Eesha Khare, a senior at Lynbrook High School in San Jose, Calif., to develop a supercapacitor that could potentially be used in flexible displays and fabrics. Her effort won her first prize at the Intel Science Fair and the Project of the Year award in the California State Science Fair's senior division for 2013. Richard Adhikari 2013-05-21T05:00:00-07:00 Science Interest in nanochemistry research and energy storage led 18-year-old Eesha Khare, a senior at Lynbrook High School in San Jose, Calif., to develop a supercapacitor that could potentially be used in flexible displays and fabrics. Her effort won her first prize at the Intel Science Fair and the Project of the Year award in the California State Science Fair's senior division for 2013. Khare created a nanorod electrode capacitor with increased electricity density that retained a supercapacitor's energy density. ]]> 2013-05-21T05:00:00-07:00 2013-05-21T09:53:11-07:00 http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/78092.html A series of subsidiaries spanning numerous countries have helped Apple avoid billions in United States taxes, congressional investigators reported Monday. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., head of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which is looking into Apple's suspected transgressions, said that Apple "sought the holy grail of tax avoidance." David Vranicar 2013-05-21T09:27:33-07:00 Tech Blog A series of subsidiaries spanning numerous countries have helped Apple avoid billions in United States taxes, congressional investigators reported Monday. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., head of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, said that Apple "sought the holy grail of tax avoidance." The company's offshore entities helped it avoid "tens of billions" worth of taxes, he added. Apple engages in schemes and gimmicks, lawmakers said, but they stopped short of accusing Apple of actually breaking any laws. ]]> 2013-05-21T09:27:33-07:00 2013-05-21T09:28:32-07:00 http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/78080.html As parents of children with peanut sensitivities well know, awareness of what's in their kids' food is of paramount importance. In order to detect this allergen -- and many others -- engineers at UCLA have created a system called iTube. It involves placing a small amount of food in a test tube, shining a light on it, and then using a smartphone's camera and a specially-designed app. Vivian Wagner 2013-05-21T05:00:00-07:00 Technology As parents of children with peanut sensitivities well know, awareness of what's in their kids' food is of paramount importance. In order to detect this allergen -- and many others -- engineers at UCLA have created a system called iTube. It involves placing a small amount of food in a test tube with chemicals, shining a light on it, and then using a smartphone's camera and a specially-designed app to analyze the light for signs of particular ingredients, such as peanuts, eggs, or other allergens. ]]> 2013-05-21T05:00:00-07:00 2013-05-21T08:35:12-07:00 http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/78086.html Designers of operating systems can't think of everything that should be in their programs. Utilities are a testament to that. Utilities are software programs that do things that should have been included in an operating system, but weren't. They can help you keep your system performing at top speed or solve irritating problems. John P. Mello Jr. 2013-05-21T05:00:00-07:00 Reviews Designers of operating systems can't think of everything that should be in their programs. Utilities are a testament to that. Utilities are software programs that do things that should have been included in an operating system, but weren't. They can help you keep your system performing at top speed, solve irritating problems or just keep valuable information at your fingertips. For example, you might want to have the windows on your desktop placed just so when you're working. ]]> 2013-05-21T05:00:00-07:00 2013-05-21T08:25:29-07:00 http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/78079.html Graphs are everywhere. You find them on websites adding social capabilities. Telecommunications companies use graphs to personalize customer services. Innovative bioinformatics researchers, and other organizations are adopting graph databases to model and query connected data. Neo Technology has pioneered graph databases since 2000. Jack Germain 2013-05-21T05:00:00-07:00 Exclusives Graphs are everywhere. You find them on websites adding social capabilities. Telecommunications companies use graphs to personalize customer services. Innovative bioinformatics researchers, and other organizations are adopting graph databases to model and query connected data. Neo Technology has pioneered graph databases since 2000 and has been instrumental in bringing the power of the social graph to customers such as Adobe, Cisco and Deutsche Telekom. ]]> 2013-05-21T05:00:00-07:00 2013-05-22T01:31:45-07:00 http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/78084.html Yahoo confirmed on Monday that it was acquiring Tumblr for US$1.1 billion -- perhaps further propelling the flight of Tumblr bloggers that began when rumors of the sale intensified last week. While the deal has implications on many levels and for many players, at least one group appears to have weighed the transaction and come to a conclusion about its merits. Erika Morphy 2013-05-20T15:21:17-07:00 Blogosphere Yahoo confirmed on Monday that it was acquiring Tumblr for US$1.1 billion -- perhaps further propelling the flight of Tumblr bloggers that began when rumors of the sale intensified last week. While the deal has implications on many levels and for many players -- starting with Yahoo and its shareholders and including the youth segment Yahoo intends to target -- at least one group appears to have weighed the transaction and come to a conclusion about its merits. Tumblr bloggers reportedly have been leaving in droves to join Wordpress. ]]> 2013-05-20T15:21:17-07:00 2013-05-20T15:22:16-07:00 http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/78078.html Jolla on Monday launched the first smartphone to run its Sailfish operating system. The handset, which is now available for preorder, will come with a removable back plate designed to let the phone user customize its interface. Jolla was founded by former Nokia employees who wanted to continue the development work the company had started with the MeeGo OS. Peter Suciu 2013-05-20T14:29:42-07:00 Smartphones Jolla on Monday launched the first smartphone to run its Sailfish operating system. The handset, which is now available for preorder, will come with a removable back plate designed to let the phone user customize its interface. Jolla was founded by former Nokia employees who wanted to continue the development work the company had started with the MeeGo OS. Nokia dropped MeeGo and tied its fortunes to the Windows Phone OS instead. "This is an experimental strategy," said Ian Fogg, mobile phone analyst at IHS Screen Digest. ]]> 2013-05-20T14:29:42-07:00 2013-05-20T16:45:02-07:00 http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/78073.html Chances are you've never heard of the tiny Pacific island nation of Palau, but you may be familiar with its former Internet domain: PW. That's because the domain, now owned by Directi, has become a favorite of spammers. According to Fort Systems, Directi -- which christened PW "Professional Web" -- began offering the top-level domain to all comers at rock-bottom prices. John P. Mello Jr. 2013-05-20T06:00:00-07:00 Security Chances are you've never heard of the tiny Pacific island nation of Palau, but you may be familiar with its former Internet domain: PW. That's because the domain, now owned by Directi, has become a favorite of spammers. According to Fort Systems, Directi -- which christened PW "Professional Web" -- began offering the top-level domain to all comers at rock-bottom prices, which attracted spammers. Symantec spotted a big spike in spam URLs containing the PW domain at the end of April. ]]> 2013-05-20T06:00:00-07:00 2013-05-19T20:15:27-07:00 http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/78082.html After a three-month lull, China's People's Liberation Army has resumed hack attacks against United States companies and government agencies. Despite a ballyhooed February report from private security firm Mandiant, and despite public complaints from the Pentagon, Unit 61398, the PLA group made famous by the report, is again back to its hacking ways. David Vranicar 2013-05-20T10:08:10-07:00 Tech Blog After a three-month lull, China's People's Liberation Army has resumed hack attacks against United States companies and government agencies. Despite a ballyhooed February report from private security firm Mandiant, and despite public complaints from the Pentagon, Unit 61398, the PLA group made famous by the report, is again back to its hacking ways. Mandiant put the volume of the attacks at 60 to 70 percent of that seen prior to its February report. ]]> 2013-05-20T10:08:10-07:00 2013-05-20T13:13:55-07:00