Google news just made itself irrelevant

Too clever for its own good

Over the last few months Google news has become increasingly difficult for me to use, thanks to the most incredible dumb logic ever to come out of a so-called innovative company.

Only an American could think that a country speaks a single language, even a country which has a huge Spanish population. This arrogance has effectively stuffed up Google news.

Fudzilla's Rome office is multi-lingual. I speak and write English and Italian swearwords, however according to Google I should just be speaking Italian and only be interested in Italian news written in that language.

Google's Chrome helpfully translates the site from Italian to English for me, but in some cases it is translating English content into Italian and back to English. You should be able to configure the default so that it visits the region I want but according to Google I don't want that.

Justin Timberlake part of group buying MySpace

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Pop star Justin Timberlake is part of a group that said Wednesday it will buy MySpace from News Corp., a bid to add some cool to a social network that has been losing it for some time.

Timberlake will become a part owner and play "a major role in developing the creative direction and strategy for the company moving forward," according to Specific Media, the company that he will partner with.

The deal is for $35 million, mostly in Specific Media stock, according to a person familiar with the matter. The deal values MySpace at a fraction of what News Corp. paid for the site six years ago and paves the way for the layoff of about half of the 500 workers, the person said. As part of the exchange, News Corp. will receive a private equity stake in Specific Media.

With Timberlake's help, the buyers hope to revitalize MySpace and transform it into a destination for original shows, as well as bolster its already available video content and music.

What Myspace got wrong, and why nobody misses it

The once-great social network made a few critical errors that sent people running to Facebook

The tale of Myspace is a cautionary one. Between 2006 and 2009, Myspace was the place to be for millions of internet citizens all over the world. At its peak, it was valued at as much as $20 billion(yes, you read that right), and today it was sold for a measly $35 million.

So what happened? Where did Myspace go wrong, and why have countless social networkers flocked to its competitor, Facebook? No single factor triggered the site's downfall, but there were a few key choices that made Facebook seem like a much more appealing alternative.

Amazon to cut off California-based Web affiliates

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Amazon.com Inc. said Wednesday that it will stop working with online affiliates based in California since the state passed a new rule that forces online retailers to collectsales tax there.

In an email Wednesday to California-based affiliates — individuals or companies who run websites that refer visitors to Amazon and then get a cut of any resulting sales — the Seattle-based company said it would cut ties with those who reside in the nation's most populous state if the law became effective. Gov. Jerry Brown signed the law Wednesday as part of a larger state budget package.

The rule requires online retailers such as Amazon to collect sales taxes if they have in-state affiliates.

In its email, Amazon called the bill "unconstitutional" and "counterproductive."

Massage on the Nightly News

Dallas TV News33 reports on the recent scientific studies showing massage reduces stress hormones and strengthens the immune system.

A disturbing trend: Neo-Nazi codes

The swastika, unmistakable symbol of Nazi power, has been banned in Germany for some time. However, neo-Nazis are finding ways around that law, initiating alternate graphics and codes to promote their Hitler-inspired beliefs.

A new brochure titled "Hide and Seek," featured in German news magazine Der Spiegel, explains the troubling trend. Of course, the symbols appear innocuous so most people don't recognize them as anything hate-driven. The neo-Nazi signs can be seen on banners at sporting events, as tattoos, etc. Michael Weiss, author of the brochure, told Der Spiegel that its purpose is to raise public awareness of the current generation of neo-Nazi codes, especially among teachers and social workers and others with access to German youths.

Israeli innovators build new 'Silicon Valley'

With a concentration of start-ups just behind that of Silicon Valley and an impressive pool of engineers, Israel is becoming the new standard for high-tech, with a unique business model.

Internet-related activities contributed 9 billion euros (12.6 billion dollars) to the Israeli economy in 2009, representing 6.5 percent of GDP, according to a report from management consultancyMcKinsey.

The sector is worth more than the construction industry (5.4 percent of GDP) and almost as much as health (6.8 percent).

The web economy has also created a total of 120,000 jobs, accounting for 4 percent of the country's workforce, McKinsey says.

From Microsoft to Intel through Google, IBM and Philips, almost all the giants of the Internet and technology have set up important research and development centres in Israel, spawning products and systems used worldwide.

American tourist left on Great Reef by tour boat company

An American tourist fought off panic when an Australian tour boat company accidentally left him stranded near the Great Barrier Reef in his snorkeling gear.

Michigan 28-year-old Ian Cole says he grew frightened when he surfaced and realized the Passions of Paradise tour boat was gone last Saturday. Since American couple Tom and Eileen Lonergan disappeared after being left behind by a boat in nearby Port Douglas in the 1990s, tour companies have followed strict head count rules, the AFP reports. You can watch an Australian TV news report on the incident in the video above.

"Panic kicks in, your heart rate goes up, and you don't know what's going to happen. I was sucking water back into my snorkel and was really trying hard to stay calm," Cole told the Sydney Morning Herald.

How much will our wars cost? Report says $4 trillion

A new report out of Brown University estimates that the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq--together with the counterinsurgency efforts in Pakistan--will, all told, cost $4 trillion and leave 225,000 dead, both civilians and soldiers.

The group of economists, anthropologists, lawyers, humanitarian personnel, and political scientists involved in the project estimated that the cost of caring for the veterans injured in the wars will reach $1 trillion in 30 or 40 years. In estimating the $4 trillion total, they did not take into account the $5.3 billion in reconstruction spending the government has promised Afghanistan, state and local contributions to veteran care, interest payments on war debt, or the costs of Medicare for veterans when they reach 65.

US bone-growth studies under fire for alleged bias

A US medical journal on Tuesday published a scathing critique of industry-funded studies on spine research, alleging that they failed to report adverse events to the journals that publish them.

The review study came days after the Senate Finance Committee launched an inquiry into whether doctors being paid by device giant Medtronic failed to report serious side effects from the bone-growth agent Infuse in clinical studies.

The product was introduced in 2002 to help bones heal after spinal surgery and has been used in about 500,000 patients. Since its arrival on the market, it has also been linked to some cases of cancer, male sterility, throat swelling and leg pain.

NYC football star killed in parking lot moments after graduation

One of the brightest stars of the 2010 PSAL football season in New York City was Isayah Muller, the Harry S. Truman (N.Y.) High running back who set a career rushing record while leading his team to a 23-20 PSAL Bowl title against Beach Channel (N.Y.) High in late November. Seven months later, he was pronounced dead hours after his high school graduation, following a shocking stabbing during an argument with parking attendants at the event.

Bank of America in $8.5B mortgage settlement

NEW YORK (AP) -- Bank of America and its Countrywide unit will pay $8.5 billion to settle claims that the lenders sold poor-quality mortgage-backed securities that went sour when the housing market collapsed.

The deal, announced Wednesday, comes after a group of 22 investors demanded that the Charlotte, N.C. bank repurchase $47 billion in mortgages that its Countrywide unit sold to them in the form of bonds.

The group, which includes the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Pimco Investment Management, and Blackrock Financial Management, argued that Countrywide enriched itself at the expense of investors by continuing to service bad loans while running up servicing fees.

Bank of America, which bought Countrywide in 2008 for $4 billion, has denied those claims.

Thunderbolt RAID dramatically faster than FireWire 800

The wait for Thunderbolt-ready peripherals is over. Four months after the debutof Thunderbolt in Apple’s revamped MacBook Prolineup, storage devices that support Intel’s new interconnect technology have finally arrived. And while these initial products carry a notable price tag, Macworld Lab’s first tests show Thunderbolt offering a great leap forward in terms of performance.

On Tuesday, Promise Technologies announced the availability of the Pegasus R4 and R6. These external RAID systems, with either four (Pegasus R4) or six (Pegasus R6) drive bays, feature two Thunderbolt ports and range in price from $999 for an R4 with four 1TB 7200-rpm hard drives, to $2000 for an R6 six 2TB 7200-rpm hard drives. The necessary Thunderbolt cable is not included with either unit, but is available from Apple for $50.

The No-Baby Boom

This summer, 28-year-old Anthony Shepherd and his wife of seven years, Cynthia, will fly from China, where they've been teaching English since 2009, to Wisconsin for a vacation. In addition to relaxing, catching up with friends, and attending her brother's wedding, they plan on stopping by a vasectomy clinic. The People's Republic may be notorious for its one-child policy, but the Shepherds' attitude toward reproduction is even more stringent. Call it the zero-child policy.

Shia LaBeouf: I Hooked Up With Megan Fox On 'Transformers'

Shia LaBeouf says the onscreen chemistry fans saw between him and former co-star Megan Fox on the first two installments of "Transformers" was the real thing - the 25-year-old actor claims he hooked up with the bombshell.

When asked by Details magazine in an interview for their August if he'd ever been intimate with Megan, Shia nodded in the affirmative.

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"Look, you're on the set for six months, with someone who's rooting to be attracted to you, and you're rooting to be attracted to them," he told Details. "I never understood the separation of work and life in that situation. But the time I spent with Megan was our own thing, and I think you can see the chemistry onscreen."

Huawei is developing the Chinese Telepresence market with single screen and 3-screen 1080p/720p HD video Telepresence solutions

Many Huawei
T3006 systems 3-screen Telepresence solutions have been sold since
launch in April 2009

31 August 2009. China is the second largest market after the United States for videoconferencing systems. And now it is on the way to reaching that position for Telepresence systems.
The leading supplier is Chinese company Huawei with headquarters in Shenzhen best known for its telecom equipment sales worldwide.

Apple iPhone 5 - Top 3 new Android smartphones that can beat iPhone?

Apple iPhone has been ruling the smartphone jungle for quite some time and the launch of the next generation iPhone (dubbed iPhone 5) is expected to consolidate its position but could a slew of new Android smartphones set for launch later this year upset its dominance?

The first among them is HTC myTouch 4G Slide which will run on T-Mobile network. The myTouch 4G Slide smartphone offers support for T-Mobiles HSPA+ 4G network (as the name suggests). The myTouch 4G Slide boasts of impressive specs like Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) OS and HTC Sense 3.0, dual-core 1.2 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon, 3.7-inch WVGA display, 8-megapixel camera with 1080p video recording, front-facing camera for video chat, SWYPE support, slide-out Qwerty keyboard and pre-installed Netflixsoftware.

More details on myTouch 4G Slide are unavailable at the moment but T-Mobile promises that it is the "new best-in-class smartphone that allows our customers to leave their cameras at home."

According to Andrew Sherrard, senior vice president, marketing, T-Mobile USA, myTouch combines "high-quality smartphone hardware with features that customers would expect from a top-of-the-line digital camera."

The iPhone Effect: how Apple’s phone changed everything

Apple’s iPhone debuted four years ago, and we sometimes take it for granted how much has changed since then. The phone altered the smartphone landscape and ushered in the modern era of intelligent, connected devices. Apple has not cruised to the top and in fact continues to trail nemesis Google’s Android in smartphones sales. But it shook up the industry and forced changes and upheaval among many competitors.

Here’s a look at some stats on how things have changed over that period, both for Apple and for other companies operating in the same space.

Shifting stock fortunes:

• Apple’s stock price at the close of June 29, 2007, the day of the iPhone launch: $122.04 a share. Tuesday: $335.26 with a market cap of $310 billion.
• Research in Motion’s stock price on June 29, 2007: $66.66. Tuesday: $28.24 per share with $14.7 billion market cap.
• Nokia’s stock price on June 29, 2007: $23.63. Tuesday: $6.11 with $22.7 billion market cap.
• HTC’s stock price on June 27, 2007: 361.01 (Taiwan), Tuesday: 1040.

Apple Bewilders Final Cut Pro X Users - Refunding Disappointment

In the first week since its debut, Apple's Final Cut Pro X was met by a spectacular disappointment and a list of harsh reviews calling the software "disastrous."

Surprisingly, to dissatisfied customers Apple has candidly apologized and issued some refunds.

Released on June 21, Final Cut Pro X was touted as a "revolutionary new version" of its flagship professional non-linear video editing sotware. It has been completely rewritten, offering 64-bit support, a revamped interface, and a slate of new features. The software takes advantage of Mac OS X features like Cocoa, Core Animation, Open CL, and Grand Central Dispatch to speed up and refine performance. It also features a new floating-point linear color system, support for resolution-independent footage up to 4K in size, and full background rendering, reported MacWorld. 

However, the much-anticipated software was reviewed critically by many professional users, who complained for the lack of EDL, XML and OMF support, inability to import projects created in previous releases of Final Cut Pro, the inability to have more than one editing sequence in a project, removal of the multicam editing tool and the inability to use 3rd party IO hardware for capture and output. Many commented that the software crashes during editing or importing.

Symantec: Smartphones more secure than PCs

iOS and Android are better agains malware than Windows, but each has its own remarkable weaknesses.

Remember all those reports that showed handheld devices – smartphones in particular – would be so insecure that any company letting employees use them for anything more than drink coasters would be flushing their most valuable data down the toilet to be used for nefariously criminal (and revolting) purposes by slime monsters living in the sewers?

It turns out, according to a detailed report from Symantec, that smarphones pose less of a security risk than PCs. At least, Apple's iOS and Google's Android do.

Not because they're not susceptible to attack, as Apple aficionados said about machines running the OS that has become their fetish.

Both iOS and Android are susceptible to many forms of attack, just not as many as laptop or desktop computers (whether Windows or Mac).

NM blaze threatening nuclear lab, sparking fires

LOS ALAMOS, N.M. (AP) — Firefighters worked through the night and into Tuesday hoping to put out spot fires erupting ahead of a wildfire in the mountains above the northern New Mexico town that is home to a government nuclear laboratory.

"That's the biggest threat we have right now to homes in the community," Deputy Los Alamos County Fire Chief Mike Thompson said late Monday of the fires that left hillsides above the town of Los Alamos glowing.

‘Adios’ to Star Wars Galaxies

The Dark Side has won.

It was never as popular as World of Warcraft, but Star Wars Galaxies had something that the king of MMORPGs didn't: The Force.

Galaxies used the power of the Star Wars brand for eight years, an eternity in the games space. Unfortunately, those days are almost at an end. In December, the game will suffer the same fate as Princess Leia's home planet of Alderaan. It will be terminated.

Now before you start writing an angry letter to George Lucas, remember that this sort of thing happens all the time. Eventually, even the most beloved online games go to that great arcade in the sky. Such is the fate of Galaxies. The game, which launched in 2003, has seen its share of success and problems (many of them technical).

Inflatable Shark Among 300 New Species Discovered in Philippines

A treasure trove of hundreds of new species may have been discovered in the Philippines, including a bizarre sea star that feeds exclusively on sunken driftwood and a deep-sea, shrimp-eating shark that swells up to scare off other predators.

America's First Zero-Packaging Grocery Store to Open in Austin

Ever feel a pang of guilt throwing away glass bottles, plastic containers, and loads of other completely reusable packaging materials? If that's you, then the zero-waste grocery storein.gredients coming to Austin, Texas will be your new favorite store.

Americans throw away 1.4 billion pounds of waste every day, and 40% of it comes from one-time packaging. But it's hard trying to be a conscious recycler after a while because of the double or triple wrappings for every product.

Brothers Lane, LLC (of the three brothers Christian, Patrick, and Joseph) and Christopher Pepe are hoping to solve that problem and save the environment as well as consumer health. Their new grocery shop in.gredients will sell 100% package-free products. This means shoppers have to think ahead and bring their own containers. (The store will kindly offer disposable bags in case they forget.) The store plans to sell everything regular grocery stores do - grains, seasonal produce, spices, daily products, meat, beer, wine and cleaning materials - minus the junk food.

America's Top State for Business: Virginia is Victorious--Again

The Old Dominion State returns as America's Top State for Business in 2011, and we're starting to detect a pattern here.

Yes, Virginia.

The Old Dominion State returns as America's Top State for Business in 2011, and we're starting to detect a pattern here.

Virginia topped our inaugural study in 2007 with Texas at number two. In 2008, they switched positions and Texas took the title. In 2009, it was Virginia/Texas. In 2010, Texas/Virginia.

This year, Virginia powers back to the top spot with the best overall score in the history of our study — 1,660 out of 2,500 points. Texas slips back to number two with a respectable 1,578 points.

The creepiest trees on Earth

This terrifying screaming tree was captured in Hither Hills State Park, Montauk, New York. (Photo: brothergrimm/environmentalgraffiti.com) PHOTOS

‘WarGames’ remake coming from ‘King of Kong’ director

Global thermonuclear war is coming back to a theater near you. And, fittingly, a gamer is helping make it happen.

Deadline reports that the 1983 film ‘WarGames' is getting rebooted by MGM, who have tapped Seth Gordon -- the man behind the acclaimed video game documentary ‘The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters' -- to direct.

It's great news for fans of the original. Starring Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy, ‘WarGames' tells the story of a young computer geek who hacks into a government network to play some games and accidentally triggers World War III.

Bridge Comes to San Francisco With a Made-in-China Label

SHANGHAI — Talk about outsourcing.

At a sprawling manufacturing complex here, hundreds of Chinese laborers are now completing work on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

Next month, the last four of more than two dozen giant steel modules — each with a roadbed segment about half the size of a football field — will be loaded onto a huge ship and transported 6,500 miles to Oakland. There, they will be assembled to fit into the eastern span of the new Bay Bridge.

The project is part of China’s continual move up the global economic value chain — from cheap toys to Apple iPads to commercial jetliners — as it aims to become the world’s civil engineer.

The assembly work in California, and the pouring of the concrete road surface, will be done by Americans. But construction of the bridge decks and the materials that went into them are a Made in China affair. California officials say the state saved hundreds of millions of dollars by turning to China.

Muslim woman sues Abercrombie & Fitch over hijab

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A former stockroom worker for Abercrombie & Fitch Co. sued the clothing retailer in federal court Monday, saying she was illegally fired after refusing to remove her Muslim headscarf while on the job.

Hani Khan said a manager at the company's Hollister Co. store at the Hillsdale Mall in San Mateo hired her while she was wearing her hijab. The manager said it was OK to wear it as long as it was in company colors, Khan said.

Four months later, the 20-year-old says a district manager and human resources manager asked if she could remove the hijab while working, and she was suspended and then fired for refusing to do so.

Dear Photograph

Pictures from the past merge with the current. PHOTOS

Telenovelas get hot as soaps fizzle out

As viewers around the country are mourning the cancellation of two of the most iconic soap operas to hit daytime television, they are tuning in at record numbers to check out the soaps’ Latino counterparts, telenovelas, which are gaining audiences and surpassing the competition. So what gives?  Low ratings from soap operas are pointing towards a younger generation in addition to a growing Hispanic market. 

In recent years, Latin telenovelas have left stale storylines behind for more current and risky programming, while maintaining elements of the popular love stories.  The innocent heroines of our abuelitas’ shows have been replaced by female drug lords, controversy, violence and complex dramas.  Telemundo’s hugely successful “La Reina del Sur” is an example of the power behind the directional changes being taken in the production of these shows.  “We don’t believe that the typical model is reflecting the society that we live in anymore, and we are looking for these new stronger characters,” says Borja Pérez, Integrated Solutions and Digital Media Vice-President for NBC/Telemundo. 

Microsoft puts Office in the cloud, confronts Google

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp is making its biggest move into the mobile, Internet-accessible world of cloud computing this week, as it takes the wraps off a revamped online version of its hugely profitable Office software suite.

The world's largest software company is heaving its two-decade old set of applications -- including Outlook email, Excel spreadsheets and SharePoint collaboration tools -- into an online format so that customers can use them on a variety of devices from wherever they can get an Internet connection.

It wants to push back against Google Inc, which has stolen a small but worrying percentage of its corporate customers with cheaper, web-only alternatives, which remove the need for companies to spend time on installing software or managing servers.

Hacker group says Apple developer site susceptible to phishing hacks

A group that calls itself YGN Ethical Hacker Group has identified potential security holes in Apple's website for Mac and iOS developers. Those security holes could allow malicious hackers to use the Apple Developer Connection in phishing attacks to gain access to users' login and password information.

According to information supplied to Networkworld, the group identified three potential security issues on the site, including arbitrary URL redirects, cross-site scripting, and HTTP response splitting. In particular, the ability to arbitrarily redirect to other URLs could make phishing attacks against developers login credentials more likely to succeed.

A little house of secrets on the Great Plains

HELL GAMES: A Reuters Investigation

Articles in this series are exploring the extent and impact of corporate secrecy in the United States.

CHEYENNE/ATLANTA (Reuters) - The secretive business havens of Cyprus and the Cayman Islands face a potent rival: Cheyenne, Wyoming.

At a single address in this sleepy city of 60,000 people, more than 2,000 companies are registered. The building, 2710 Thomes Avenue, isn't a shimmering skyscraper filled with A-list corporations. It's a 1,700-square-foot brick house with a manicured lawn, a few blocks from the State Capitol.

Neighbors say they see little activity there besides regular mail deliveries and a woman who steps outside for smoke breaks. Inside, however, the walls of the main room are covered floor to ceiling with numbered mailboxes labeled as corporate "suites." A bulky copy machine sits in the kitchen. In the living room, a woman in a headset answers calls and sorts bushels of mail.

A Reuters investigation has found the house at 2710 Thomes Avenue serves as a little Cayman Island on the Great Plains. It is the headquarters for Wyoming Corporate Services, a business-incorporation specialist that establishes firms which can be used as "shell" companies, paper entities able to hide assets.

Report: Apple is building two (!) iPhones for September release

An analyst expects Apple to launch both an iPhone 5 and a mid-range iPhone 4S

Click to enlarge. Source: Deutsche Bank

For much of the spring, the reporters who cover Apple (AAPL) have been arguing among themselves about what to call the new iPhone they expect the company to introduce in September.

Some call it the iPhone 5, to match the iOS 5 operating system Apple unveiled to developers three weeks ago.

Some, anticipating that the new device will be a sped-up iPhone 4 rather than a major re-design, have been calling it the iPhone 4S, echoing the nomenclature Apple used two years ago when it introduced the iPhone 3GS.

In a note issued early Monday, Deutsche Bank's Chris Whitmore is telling clients to expect both -- an iPhone 5 and an iPhone 4S.