In the News Archive

What we learned from the ‘Nightline’ report on Foxconn factories

Thom Holwerda 2012-02-22 In the News 7 Comments

"Nightline has aired its report from Foxconn's factories on ABC. In the report, host Bill Weir speaks directly to factory workers as well as their managers. You would think that this unprecedented' look inside Apple factories would reveal much we didn't know, but the show was relatively light on information. Weir did extensively survey the places where iPads and iPhones are constructed, spent time interviewing both employees and their families, and talked to FLA president Auret van Heerden, though he uncovered mostly familiar information." Mind you, ABC is owned by Disney, which has close ties to Apple. Make of that what you will.

Hit men, click whores, and paid apologists: the Silicon Cesspool

Thom Holwerda 2012-02-14 In the News 15 Comments

"It's tough being a journalist, especially if you're covering technology and living in Silicon Valley, because it seems as if everyone around you is getting fabulously rich while you're stuck in a job that will never, ever make you wealthy. What's worse is that all these people who are getting rich don't seem to be any brighter than you are and in fact many of them don't seem very bright at all. So of course you get jealous. And then you start thinking maybe you could find a way to cash in on this gold rush. But how do you make gobs of money when your only marketable skill involves writing blog posts?" Absolutely brilliant down to the last letter. Coincidentally, I hold no shares, interests, or anything, in any company whatsoever. I'm a freelance translator by day. Not that anyone cares, but hey, full disclosure and all.

EU approves Google-Motorola Mobility acquisition

Thom Holwerda 2012-02-13 In the News 95 Comments

The first big hurdle has been taken by Google and Motorola Mobility. The European Union has given the green light for Google to proceed with its acquisition of Motorola Mobility. The EU will, however, monitor the deal and its outcome for potential patent abuse. Update: And there we go, the US DoJ has approved the deal as well. Update II: The just-linked DoJ report also approves the Nortel patent sale to Apple, Microsoft, and RIM. I'm hoping for lots of fireworks here so the patent system blows up in Google's, Microsoft's and Apple's faces, so we can point and laugh about all the money they wasted.

‘I have a bad feeling about this’

Thom Holwerda 2012-02-10 In the News 28 Comments

"Like any space opera, the story of information technology is a very simple one. It is played out in a myriad of different ways by a revolving cast of characters, but it always has its loveable heroes, its predictably nefarious villains, innocent civilians to be saved, and bumbling bureaucrats that aren't inherently evil, but begin every story aiding the forces of darkness out of a misplaced belief they are preserving law and order in their corner of the galaxy." He might use Star Wars as an analogy (I strongly dislike Star Wars - Trekkie here), but it sums up very well how I feel about computing today.

Facebook Does IPO

Thom Holwerda 2012-02-01 In the News 12 Comments

So, this is apparently a big thing, but because of my perpetual state of total boredom with regards to social networking, I really don't have the will to turn this into a proper item. So, here you go: Facebook is doing its IPO thing. Eh. In any case, lots of new rich people. Maybe the wealth will trickle down this time.

Copyright King: Why the “I Have a Dream” Speech Still Isn’t Free

Thom Holwerda 2012-01-17 In the News 21 Comments

"Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'I Have a Dream' speech is considered one of the most recognizable collection of words in American history. It's the rhetorical equivalent of a national treasure or a national park. The National Park Service inscribed it on the Lincoln Memorial and the Library of Congress put it into its National Recording Registry. So we might hold it to be self evident that it can be spread freely. Not exactly. Any unauthorized usage of the speech and a number of other speeches by King - including in PBS documentaries - is a violation of American law. You'd be hard pressed to find a good complete video version on the web, and it's not even to be found in the new digital archive of the King Center's website. If you want to watch the whole thing, legally, you'll need to get the $20 DVD." I'm probably too young and too non-American to really fully grasp just how important Mr King was to a segregated America, but the fact that his influential and world-changing speeches are locked up because of copyright, as well as the fact that EMI is actually actively pursuing its copyright, is downright insane. If anybody ever needed even more proof the content industry is a vile, rotting, stinking and utterly putrid clump of pure, concentrated evil, this is it. Absolutely unbelievable.

‘Rogue’ Attorney General Spreads MPAA-fed SOPA Propaganda

Thom Holwerda 2012-01-11 In the News 12 Comments

"Last weekend Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff wrote a column in the Salt Lake City Tribune supporting the pending SOPA and PIPA anti-piracy bills. In his article Shurtleff argues that the bills are a necessity if the US is to 'stop Internet thieves and profiteers'. An interesting take, but not very credible, as the Attorney Generally who may soon have the power to seize domains, simply passed off MPAA-penned propaganda as his own words." Unbelievable.

Guest post by snydeq 2011-12-15 In the News 28 Comments

A new study from UCSB finds significant increases in businesses hiring organized shills to push products online. These 'malicious crowd-sourcing systems' enlist dozens or hundreds of professional shills to orchestrate mass account creation, generate bogus ratings, and post canned cut-and-paste positive reviews -- with each 'task' costing between 13 and 70 cents. 'Unscrupulous crowd-sourcing sites, coupled with international payment systems, have enabled a burgeoning crowdturfing market that targets U.S. websites, but is fueled by a global workforce.'

Pirate To Join European Parliament as Youngest Member

Thom Holwerda 2011-11-21 In the News 4 Comments

"In a few weeks Amelia Andersdotter will be the second Pirate Party member to take a seat at the European Parliament in Brussels. The 24-year-old Swede was voted in more than two years ago, but due to bureaucratic quibbles her official appointment was delayed. TorrentFreak catches up with the soon-to-be youngest MEP to hear about her plans and expectations."

Smart Cities Get Their Own Operating System

Submitted by Dale Smoker 2011-10-03 In the News 3 Comments

The idea is for the Urban OS to gather data from sensors buried in buildings and many other places to keep an eye on what is happening in an urban area. The sensors monitor everything from large scale events such as traffic flows across the entire city down to more local phenomena such as temperature sensors inside individual rooms. The OS completely bypasses humans to manage communication between sensors and devices such as traffic lights, air conditioning or water pumps that influence the quality of city life.

Whitman Expected to Be Named at HP

Thom Holwerda 2011-09-22 In the News 21 Comments

"Meg Whitman, eBay's former chief executive, will likely be named to lead Hewlett-Packard after markets close on Thursday, according to a person familiar with board decisions. The decision to replace Leo Apotheker, the company's chief executive, after only 11 months on the job is all but made, lacking only a final vote, said the person, who is not authorized to speak for the board. While Mr. Apotheker is going, his strategy, including consideration of spinning off H.P.'s personal computer business from other parts of the company, will remain in place."

HP To Spin Off PC business, Buy Autonomy Corp

David Adams 2011-08-18 In the News 16 Comments

Hewlett-Packard Co. , the world's largest computer maker, is in talks to buy Autonomy Corp. for about $10 billion and plans to spin off its personal-computer business, people with direct knowledge of the matter said. Is this an indicator of the Post PC Era?

Apple Now Has More Cash Than the U.S. Government

David Adams 2011-07-29 In the News 40 Comments

Apple is now more liquid than the United States government, the Financial Post reports. As the government struggles to resolve the debt ceiling debate, the operating balance in Washington is at US$73.768 billion and falling. Meanwhile, Apple has US$75.876 billion.

Anymode Copies InCase’s iPad Folding Cover, Chaos Ensues

Thom Holwerda 2011-07-19 In the News 14 Comments

So, there's a bit of a hubbub going on at Engadget, Daring Fireball, and other Apple blogs, about a Galaxy Tab case made by Anymode, a company with ties to Samsung (the story came from 9to5mac). It is claimed the case is a copy of Apple's Smart Cover. Of course, those of us without any special affinity for one single company remember full-well that Apple itself took the idea for the Smart Cover from InCase, while InCase's design was a massive improvement over Apple's original iPad case. Lo and behold, Anymode's case resembles the InCase design much more closely than it resembles the Apple design (no magnets). Weird that Engadget would leave InCase out of the picture (no surprise when it comes to Daring Fireball, of course, even though I pointed it out to Gruber), even though they reported on it when the Smart Cover was announced. Anywho, Samsung already denied that this product received the 'Designed for Samsung Mobile'-logo, and Anymode has removed it from sales. None have been sold.

Guest post by lucas_maximus 2011-07-07 In the News 27 Comments

"A payment system devised by online retail giant Amazon is too obvious to patent, the European Patent Office (EPO) has ruled. Amazon had hoped to patent the way its customers pay for products through the click of a single webpage button. The company was previously granted patent rights to the payment system in the US."

Submitted by Jennimc 2011-07-03 In the News 19 Comments

Apple is likely to replace Hewlett-Packard (HP) as the global number one notebook vendor in 2012 if tablet PCs are included in the calculation of global notebook shipments, according to industry sources.

The Origin of the Word Daemon

Thom Holwerda 2011-06-24 In the News 7 Comments

"I write a trivia column for a newspaper called The Austin Chronicle. Someone has asked me the origin of the word daemon as it applies to computing. Best I can tell based on my research, the word was first used by people on your team at Project MAC using the IBM 7094 in 1963. The first daemon (an abbreviation for Disk And Executive MONitor) was a program that automatically made tape backups of the file system. Does this sound about right? Any corrections or additions? Thank you for your time!"

The History of ‘App’ and the Demise of the Programmer

Thom Holwerda 2011-06-24 In the News 31 Comments

As we reported earlier this week, Apple is busy sending out cease and desist letters to small, defenceless projects to defend its trademark application (it doesn't actually own the trademark yet) for 'app store'. This has prompted many a discussion over the trademarkability of such a generic term, and over the origins of the abbreviation 'app'. Who came up with it? How old is it? To my surprise - the abbreviation is much older than you'd think, and in a way, it illustrates quite well the demise of the programmer. What? Read on.

Facebook Hired PR Firm To Secretly Smear Google

Thom Holwerda 2011-05-12 In the News 17 Comments

What about a little Nixonian intrigue? A respected public relations firm has been caught executing a secret smear campaign against Google to large media outlets, trying to make Google looks bad (or worse, depending on your point of view). Who hired this firm to do this? You'd think Microsoft or Apple, it's right up their alley - but no, it's actually Facebook.

Senators Press Apple, Google About Location Tracking

Thom Holwerda 2011-05-10 In the News 4 Comments

"Representatives from Apple and Google faced hard questions about their location and privacy policies when testifying in front of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law on Tuesday. Apple VP of Software Technology Guy 'Bud' Tribble and Google Director of Public Policy Alan Davidson both stood behind their companies' policies at the hearing, however, while continuing to insist that they take consumer privacy seriously."