Facebook Testing a “Stalker Button”

Facebook is apparently testing a new subscription feature that would allow users to receive alerts any time a specific friend takes certain actions on the social network.

AllFacebook reports that it has noticed the new feature popping up on friends’ profiles. Facebook told the blog, “This feature is being tested with a small percent of users. It lets people subscribe to friends and pages to receive notifications whenever the person they’ve subscribed to updates their status or posts new content (photos, videos, links or notes).”

http://mashable.com/2010/09/02/facebook-subscribe/

Twitter tightens grip on own firehose

Microbloggy thing tracks all links clicked

By Cade Metz

Posted in Music and Media, 2nd September 2010 19:18 GMT

Twitter is on a mission to regain control of its own firehose.

On Wednesday evening, the ballyhooed microblogging operation struck not one but two blows against third parties hoping to feed off its endless stream of self-serving mini-messages: The company said it's moving all users to its own url shortening service, and it took the wraps off its own iPad application.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/09/02/twitter_ipad_app_and_url_shortener/

Microsoft Patents Operating System Shutdown

By Wolfgang Gruener

Microsoft just received confirmation of a patent that hands the company the intellectual property of shutting an operating system down.

I can’t quite recall how often Microsoft has talked about a faster way to shut down its operating system. It is part of the pitch of virtually every new operating system and it has remained an annoyance that it can take quite some time until the software in fact closes running applications and the operating system itself.

http://www.conceivablytech.com/2530/products/microsoft-patents-operating-system-shutdown/

Scam Artists Use HADOPI to Steal Users Money

Written by Drew Wilson

News has surfaced that warning letters, allegedly from HADOPI, are being sent to an untold number of French citizens who are accused of copyright infringement. The problem? Neither HADOPI nor rights holders actually sent those e-mails.

It seems that HADOPI can’t catch a break. After a series of revelations ranging from questions over where the money is going to come from to being unable to wrestle with security questions to questions about the HADOPI trademark to name a few.

http://www.zeropaid.com/news/90531/scam-artists-use-hadopi-to-steal-users-money/

5 Reasons Why Apple TV Is (Still) Boring

By Eliot Van Buskirk

We know — the new Apple TV is really small, and it finally focuses on renting rather than purchasing television shows, integrates iOS devices as remote controls, has an optical audio output for surround sound, and costs just a hundred bones.

But it has

1. Paltry Selection of TV Shows

2. No iOS

3. No HD Antenna

4. No 1080p

5. No replacement for BitTorrent

Adam Philbin, in a widely echoed tweet offering speculation about this device’s target market, put it like this: “Apple TV … it’s like a shit, single-purpose Mac Mini for people who don’t know what BitTorrent is.”

String Theory Finally Does Something Useful

By Lisa Grossman

String theory has finally made a prediction that can be tested with experiments — but in a completely unexpected realm of physics.

The theory has long been touted as the best hope for a unified “theory of everything,” bringing together the physics of the vanishingly small and the mindbendingly large. But it has also been criticized and even ridiculed for failing to make any predictions that could be checked experimentally. It’s not just that we don’t have big enough particle accelerators or powerful enough computers; string theory’s most vocal critics charge that no experiment could even be imagined that would prove it right or wrong, making the whole theory effectively useless.

Now, physicists at Imperial College London and Stanford University have found a way to make string theory useful, not for a theory of everything, but for quantum entanglement.

New iPod crew: 'Phoney, futuristic, retro, doomed'

Apple admits error shock

By Rik Myslewski

Apple has revamped three quarters of its iPod line. Or, more accurately, it upgraded one quarter, redesigned another, took a step back in time with a third, and left the final, not-even-mentioned quarter alone.

iPod touch

The flagship of the iPod line, the iPod touch, is often derided as being merely an iPhone without the phone — a dig Steve Jobs turned into a plus in Wednesday's unveiling ceremony when he noted that "it's also an iPhone without the contract."

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/09/02/new_ipods/

Samsung: Galaxy Tab has leg up on Apple iPad

by Stephen Shankland

BERLIN--When Samsung debuted its Galaxy Tab on Thursday, it made a bold claim: the device is at least as good as today's dominant tablet, Apple's iPad.

"Honestly, I don't see anything [about the Galaxy Tab] that is weaker than the iPad," W.P. Wong, head of Samsung Mobile's product planning team, said at a press conference here at the IFA electronics show.

And in several ways, he said, the Galaxy Tab is stronger. It permits both picture-taking and video chat with front- and back-mounted cameras. Its weight of 380 grams (0.8 pounds) is considerably less than the iPad, which weighs 680 grams (1.5 pounds) without 3G and 730g (1.6 pounds) with it.

Samsung fires first Android-powered salvo at iPad with Galaxy Tab

By Chris Foresman

Apple became the biggest fish in the very small touchscreen tablet pond when it launched the iPad this past spring. But more fish will arrive starting mid-month when Samsung launches its Galaxy Tab mobile device in Europe (US and Asia will get it "in the coming months"). After being rumored and teased for weeks, Samsung officially unveiled its entry into the burgeoning market at the IFA show in Germany on Thursday.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab is a 7" widescreen touch tablet powered by Android 2.2. The Tab will use the same TouchWiz UI used on Samsung's line of Galaxy S smartphones, which gives it a very iOS-like look and feel. Also following the iPad's lead, the device has a metal back, black bezel, bottom speakers, and even a 30-pin connector.

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2010/09/samsung-announces-galaxy-tab.ars

Acer banks on Android for smartphone debut

Asher Moses

Computer maker Acer is entering the Australian smartphone market for the first time with a range of five phones based on the Google Android platform.

Android has exploded in the past year and analysts are predicting it will be the leading mobile phone platform globally by 2012.

The new Acer range joins a slew of other recent Android

http://www.theage.com.au/digital-life/mobiles/acer-banks-on-android-for-smartphone-debut-20100901-14n79.html

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Thursday, September 2, 2010