Follow the Samsung Developer Conference with Android Central Live!

It's always good to keep a close eye on what the competition is doing, and we're on the ground this week in San Francisco for the Samsung Developers Conference with Android Central – the official community partner for the event. Our buddies Phil Nickinson and Andrew Martonik will be broadcasting the very best Samsung has to offer this week through the very wonderful Android Central Live! Think back to CrackBerry Live from Orlando earlier this year, and you'll get a sense of what to expect.

Things are about to kick off with the keynote address, so hit up the links below and join Android Central for all the best coverage of the Samsung Developers Conference!

• Samsung SDC Keynote livestream and chat
• Android Central Live at the Samsung Developers Conference

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/LZ0rnMfc2mw/story01.htm
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Vatican's 'culture minister' tweets Lou Reed song

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, the Vatican's 71-year-old culture minister, paid his own tribute on Monday to the late rocker Lou Reed, tweeting one of his best-known songs before clarifying he was not condoning any reference to drugs some have seen in the song.

Ravasi, an Italian who is the same age as Reed was when he died on Sunday, tweeted the third verse from Reed's song "Perfect Day".

"Oh, it's such a perfect day/I'm glad I spent it with you/Oh, such a perfect day/You just keep me hanging on".

There have been many interpretations of the song's meaning, ranging from drugs to a simple love story.

Just to make sure no-one thought Ravasi was condoning the use of drugs, he later tweeted a Bible passage that warns against "illusions" and noted that Reed quoted from the passage when he spoke in the song about reaping what one sows.

Ravasi is a Bible expert who represents the Roman Catholic Church to the worlds of art, culture, science and even to atheists and says he is a firm believer in the power of contemporary culture.

Reed, whose most famous hit, "Walk on the Wild Side" included themes such as transvestites and prostitution, died on Sunday in Long Island, New York from complications from a liver transplant.

(Reporting By Philip Pullella; Editing by Jon Boyle)

• Music
• Arts & Entertainment
• Lou Reed

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/vaticans-culture-minister-tweets-lou-reed-song-173602177.html
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New looks and a familiar favorite for NBA 2013-14

Houston Rockets' Dwight Howard, center, shoots over San Antonio Spurs' Tim Duncan. left, and Danny Green (4) during the first half of a preseason NBA basketball game, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2013, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Houston Rockets' Dwight Howard, center, shoots over San Antonio Spurs' Tim Duncan. left, and Danny Green (4) during the first half of a preseason NBA basketball game, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2013, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Miami Heat's LeBron James (6) shoots over Brooklyn Nets' Joe Johnson (7) during the second half of an NBA basketball game Thursday, Oct. 17, 2013 in New York. The Nets won the game 86-62. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose warms up before an NBA preseason basketball game against the Denver Nuggets in Chicago on Friday, Oct. 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Los Angeles Clippers power forward Blake Griffin, center, goes up for a dunk as Utah Jazz power forward Derrick Favors and point guard Scott Machado look on during the first half of their NBA basketball game, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Dwight Howard moved on and Derrick Rose came back, though Kobe Bryant won't quite yet. Nine first-time coaches are coming in and David Stern will soon head out.

With different looks all around the NBA in 2013-14, one familiar sight remains: LeBron James and the Miami Heat are entering another season as the team to beat.

The two-time defending champions will collect their rings Tuesday night, then open against the Chicago Bulls, who with a healthy Rose might be the team that can unseat the Heat.

Or maybe it's San Antonio or Indiana, both a game away last year — actually, the Spurs were just seconds away — from finishing off Miami. Perhaps it's the Nets or Clippers, after both picked up pieces of the old Celtics that had the Heat's respect but not their number.

If someone does dethrone King James, it won't be because he was satisfied with two titles and lost his edge.

"When the hunger is gone, I'm going to give it up," James said. "I've got a talent and I'm going to take full advantage of it. So I'm hungry.

"I love the game. There's nothing I would do more than play this game of basketball. So the championships are all great, but I'm playing for more than that. I've got a bigger calling than that."

If he means becoming the best ever, he might be on his way. With four MVP trophies and no noticeable weaknesses, the gap with his peers is getting larger and the one with the greats before him is shrinking.

"He's the best on the planet right now. I don't know what you can do, but just hope that he misses," said Nets coach Jason Kidd, one of the nine coaches getting his first opportunity. In total, 13 teams changed coaches.

James did miss in the closing seconds of Game 6 of the NBA Finals, but the Heat got the rebound to set up Ray Allen's tying 3-pointer, pulled it out in overtime and won Game 7 to deny the Spurs a fifth title.

San Antonio may get another chance to finish the job, or may not even be the best team in Texas after Howard joined James Harden in Houston.

Howard bolted after one unfulfilling season in Los Angeles, where he and Bryant never found a working partnership. The center already seems happier and healthier in Houston, where he and Harden can build a potent inside-outside tandem.

As for Bryant, he'll watch the Lakers' opener, and who knows how much more, while he continues to rehab from a torn Achilles' tendon. Questions over how well he can play at 35 after such a serious injury, along with Howard's departure, created unusually low expectations for the Lakers.

Instead, the buzz in Los Angeles is about the Clippers, who hired Doc Rivers to coach while Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett went to Brooklyn after Boston's breakup. That also could make both longtime losers not only the current kings of their cities, but also contenders to reach the NBA Finals — which are returning to the 2-2-1-1-1 format after 29 years of 2-3-2.

Here are five other things to watch around the NBA this season:

SITTING SPEEDSTERS: While Rose returns after sitting out last season with a torn ACL, Russell Westbrook and Rajon Rondo remain out recovering from knee surgeries. A healthy Westbrook makes Oklahoma City a title contender while Rondo could help the Celtics exceed expectations — or perhaps become the next player they trade.

UP AND COMERS: They're not ready to contend for a title, but keep an eye on New Orleans, Washington and Cleveland, all with dynamite young players who may be good enough to carry their franchises back to the postseason.

CHANGING COMMISSIONERS: Adam Silver replaces the retiring Stern as commissioner on Feb. 1, exactly 30 years after Stern took office. Silver has done much of the heavy lifting for years, but he'll be replacing one of the greatest executives sports has seen. "I'm excited for the league and for the future, and for the fact that having been at the league now for 36 years, we've reached this point and there's a really extraordinary executive in Adam ready to take it to the next level," Stern said.

SUMMER STORIES: Business will really pick up after the next NBA champion is crowned. Kansas freshman Andrew Wiggins, should he decide to enter the draft, could become the most sought-after prospect in years. Free agency will then open on July 1 with James and Carmelo Anthony perhaps set to top the class.

WHO WINS?: The Heat are the choice of everyone from odds makers to the executives who voted in the NBA.com GM survey. But they were enormous favorites last season after a 27-game winning streak during a 66-win regular season and almost fell. This time, there's even more teams capable of finally knocking them off. "They are the favorites, but I don't think they're the heavy favorites," Hall of Famer and TNT analyst Charles Barkley said. "Everybody's picking the Heat right now, but there's some teams, they're going to have some stiff competition."

___

Follow Brian Mahoney on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Briancmahoney

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-10-28-BKN-NBA-Overview/id-7b593f718a0546278374a57031061f25
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BlackBerry Z30 hits Verizon in November for $200

Verizon gave no details when it announced plans to offer the BlackBerry Z30, but it's finally narrowing things down... well, mostly. The 5-inch BB 10.2 flagship is now poised to reach Big Red sometime this November (the carrier isn't being more specific) for $200 on contract. It's billed as a US ...

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/3ExGfL8ymp0/
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Judge Rules Texas Abortion Restrictions Unconstitutional

New abortion restrictions passed by the Texas Legislature are unconstitutional, a federal judge ruled Monday in a divisive case the state has already vowed to appeal.

In an opinion issued Monday, District Judge Lee Yeakel said the state's effort to regulate abortions violated the rights of doctors who perform the procedure to do what they determine is best for their patients, and would unreasonably restrict women from accessing abortion clinics.

According to The Washington Post:

"Roughly a dozen abortion providers filed a federal lawsuit last month saying that the requirements, which were due to take effect Oct. 29, would end abortion services in more than a third of the state's licensed facilities and would eliminate services altogether in Fort Worth and five other major cities. Texas attorney general Greg Abbott had argued the new restrictions, adopted this summer, were aimed at providing better medical protections for both women and their fetuses.

"The provision requiring doctors to obtain hospital admitting privileges 'does not bear a rational relationship to the legitimate right of the State in preserving and promoting fetal life or a woman's health and, in any event, places a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion of a nonviable fetus and is thus an undue burden to her,' Yeakel wrote."

The newspaper describes Monday's ruling as "a legal victory for abortion rights providers," but NPR's Wade Goodwyn says "the state is not happy" about the ruling and "is already vowing an emergency appeal to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals."

Goodwyn says that the 5th Circuit is "one of the most conservative courts in the country," and if it overturns Judge Yeakel's ruling "it's very likely that Planned Parenthood and their allies would appeal it to the U.S. Supreme Court."

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/10/28/241444452/judge-rules-texas-abortion-restrictions-unconstitutional?ft=1&f=1001
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Asap54: A Mobile App That Lets You Snap, Automatically ID And Buy The Clothes You Like

Asap54: A Mobile App That Lets You Snap, Automatically ID And Buy The Clothes You Like

Fashion has been one of the most promising and most dynamic categories of e-commerce in the past several years. But it has also been one of the most problematic. Thanks to virtuality, we now have at our fingertips more choices for what to buy and wear than ever before. But that also means a predicament: with infinite variety on offer, how do you sift through that to find the things you really want to buy?

Asap54, an app and startup launching today as part of the Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt Europe in Berlin, is proposing an answer to that question: find clothes that you like around you in the physical world, take a picture of them with you phone, and let Asap54 find you that exact piece, along with a bunch of others that are similar, so that you can get started. Think of it as a Shazam for fashion.

The concept is actually a well-tested and popular one in the analog world: fashion magazines high and low love to present candid street style pictures with subsequent dissections for readers about how and where to “get the look.” Asap54 — a play on getting your information “as soon as possible” and the slick street style of legendary fashion-forward New York disco club Studio 54 — is taking that basic concept and applying tech smarts to take it into the 21st century.

Working with a PhD in photo recognition and machine learning called Daniel Heesch (who had also co-founded another image recognition company called Pixsta), and 20 other engineers, Asap54 has created algorithms that identify clothes as well as fabrics.

It then lets the user look specifically for the item in question, or change up some of the parameters — for example the colors; the article of clothing from, say, a shirt to a dress; the price; or selecting a specific designer. The results are presented in a picture-based list, and the user buys not directly from Asap54, but from specific online stores, with Asap54 collecting an affiliate fee in the process.

Then, if you are still not happy with the algorithmically generated results, you can also select an option to get a human fashion expert to analyse your picture and make suggestions; or you can turn to Asap54′s social network, a place where the Asap54 community can post pictures to crowdsource suggestions for pieces that are exactly the same or similar. “‘Never let the user down,’ is what we consider our motto,” founder Daniela Cecílio tells me.

There are a number of companies actively looking at ways of using image recognition to make fashion discover easier. They include startups like Pounce and Snapfashion but also established players like eBay. What sets Asap54 apart from the crowd is its very mobile-first approach — first as an iPhone app, then soon to come to iPad and Android. The other is the fact that it can be used on clothes on the go. (Pounce focuses on printed pictures in magazines and newspapers; eBay on its own site.)

On top of the companies that are already working on similar solutions, there are a number of others that you can imagine are probably looking at products like this, if not already developing them internally.

They include the likes of Pinterest, which just last week inked a deal with Getty Images to use its metadata to tag Getty pictures and then use that to provide other related pins to users. As the site looks further into commercialising its service, you can imagine how the company might use technology like this to lead users to more engagement and commerce via their platform.

Then you have Instagram. The company, now owned by Facebook, is going big on the fashion vertical, which has found a very natural affinity with the image-sharing network. Many designers already use it as a (free) marketing vehicle, Kevin Systrom pointed out in September, when he was in London for London Fashion Week. At the same time, he also pointed out that a big issue for the company will be to work out the best way to monetize that connection without annoying loyal and avid users.

While “Buy now!” buttons are probably not in the cards, could there be slick link between users’ candid snaps of cool clothes and then buying those pieces? It does seem much more plausible. It shouldn’t be forgotten that Facebook also owns some very powerful image recognition technology of its own, by way of Face.com.

Yes, this spells competition for Asap54, but also opportunity (and customers, and maybe even an exit somewhere). This is where execution will come into the game.

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Cecílio, the Brazilian founder of Asap54, is not your average fashionista entrepreneur. She is the ex-COO of the hip fashion portal Farfetch (a marketplace for boutiques and designers) where she helped build out the company’s business in key markets like her native country. And there is something else: she’s actually the wife of Farfetch’s founder, Jose Neves.

I asked Cecilio why she decided to go out on her own to start Asap54 rather than figure out how to develop it within Farfetch itself. The answer was simple: she wanted her own thing, and she also thinks that it’s not always best to work with your significant other (note: from personal experience, I agree). He seemed to like the idea of her going out on her own for business: he’s also one of her backers.

There is also the fact that Asap54 goes beyond what Farfetch does: it has the potential to become a portal for shopping across many sites. Quite a fashionable lady herself, Cecilio told me that she woke up one night consumed by the idea that she needed an app just like this one. I mentioned that it seems once you have texture and shape nailed, there is no reason not to take it to other areas, like home furnishings or for non-ecommerce purposes in areas like industrial design or other enterprise purposes. She says that she’s sticking to what she knows and feels most passionate about; but there may be plans down the line for white-labelling.

Cecilio says that initially, Asap54 will launch in a limited beta to 200 users to test drive the service before a proper launch later this year. For now, check back in a bit to see a demo of the service in a video embed.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/kfMHXiCBiGo/
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Syrian troops retake Christian town from jihadis

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, destroyed weapons and ammunitions carried by Syrian rebels like at the site after they were killed by Syrian government forces according to SANA, near the Otaiba area, near Damascus, Syria, Friday, Oct. 25, 2013. Syrian government troops on Friday ambushed rebels near the capital, Damascus, killing at least 40 opposition fighters, state media reported. The ambush was part of the military's offensive against rebel strongholds around President Bashar Assad's seat of power. (AP Photo/SANA)

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, destroyed weapons and ammunitions carried by Syrian rebels like at the site after they were killed by Syrian government forces according to SANA, near the Otaiba area, near Damascus, Syria, Friday, Oct. 25, 2013. Syrian government troops on Friday ambushed rebels near the capital, Damascus, killing at least 40 opposition fighters, state media reported. The ambush was part of the military's offensive against rebel strongholds around President Bashar Assad's seat of power. (AP Photo/SANA)

U.N. and Arab League envoy on Syria Lakhdar Brahimi listens to a journalist during a join press conference in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2013. (AP Photo)

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syrian government forces retook a Christian town north of Damascus from al-Qaida-linked rebels who seized control of part of it a week ago, touching off fierce clashes, state media and opposition activists said.

The recapture of Sadad came as the U.N.-Arab League envoy arrived in Syria on his first trip to the country in almost a year.

Lakhdar Brahimi is trying to prepare a peace conference on Syria supposed to take place in Geneva next month. But it's unclear if the gathering will take place as planned, since Syria's warring factions refuse to face each other at the negotiating table.

The United States and Russia have been trying for months to convene the conference to negotiate a political solution to Syria's civil war. More than 100,000 people have been killed and some 2 million have fled the country since the conflict erupted in March 2011.

After his last trip to Syria in December 2012, Brahimi had angered Syrian authorities when he said that 40 years of rule by the family of President Bashar Assad was "too long." Syrian officials then accused him of being biased.

This time, Brahimi visited several countries in the region, including Iran. He said Saturday that the participation of Tehran — a key backer of Assad — at a Syria peace conference was "necessary." On Monday, Brahimi travelled from Tehran by private jet to Beirut, then continued by road to Damascus.

In the Lebanese capital, he would not speak to reporters. "I will speak when I return," he said.

Brahimi was received in Damascus by Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad. During his visit, expected to last several days, Brahimi will meet Syrian officials as well as members of local opposition groups. It is not clear if he will meet Assad.

Assad told the Lebanon-based Al-Mayadeen TV last week that Brahimi "should abide by his mission and not go out of this framework." Assad added that Brahimi "is a mediator and the mediator should be neutral and stand in the middle."

Assad added that Brahimi, during one of his visits to Syria, "tried to convince me about the necessity of not running in the coming presidential elections in 2014. This was at the end of 2012. My answer was clear, that this is an internal Syrian affair and is not negotiable with any person who is not Syrian."

Arab League's chief Nabil Elaraby recently said the Geneva conference would be held on Nov. 23. Brahimi, however, has stressed that no date has been set but that the United Nations hopes to organize the gathering in late November.

A U.N. diplomat, speaking only on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussions, said Monday Syrian deputy prime minister, Qadri Jamil, met with U.S. officials in Geneva over the weekend to discuss the possibility of holding a second Geneva peace conference, but no breakthroughs were reported to have come out of the talks.

The fighting in Syria, meanwhile, has continued unabated. The state-run SANA news agency said the army "restored security and stability" to the town of Sadad, 120 kilometers (75 mile) north of Damascus, early on Monday.

It said "a large number of terrorists" were killed and their weapons seized, adding that the army dismantled scores of roadside bombs planted by gunmen around the Christian town.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the government had retaken the town but that rebels had successfully withdrawn.

Much of Sadad had been in opposition hands since last week, when al-Qaida-linked groups captured a checkpoint that gave them control of the western part of the town.

The rebels appear to have targeted Sadad because of its strategic location near the main highway north of Damascus, rather than because it is Christian. But hard-liners among the rebels are hostile to Syria's Christian minority, which fears the radicals and tends to favor Assad. Other al-Qaida-linked fighters have damaged and desecrated churches in areas they have seized.

SANA said the army was still pursuing opposition fighters who fled Sadad for surrounding farms. It also reported that the rebels had vandalized the town's Saint Theodore Church and much of Sadad's infrastructure.

Meanwhile, the Observatory said, hard-liners torched an Armenian church in the northern town of Tel Abyad along the border with Turkey late on Sunday.

___

Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue in Beirut and John Heilprin in Geneva contributed to this report.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-10-28-ML-Syria/id-d0d9f20e7d384fb891affcc85bda6c7d
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This Simple Accessory Blinds Kinect and Solves Your Privacy Concerns

The Xbox One's original requirement for the Kinect 2.0 sensor to always be connected and active led many gamers to raise concerns about their privacy. Microsoft eventually caved in on that requirement, but anyone upgrading to the new Xbox One now has an absolute guarantee that the Kinect 2.0 sensor won't keep tabs on them with this new accessory from PDP that completely blocks both of its cameras.

Read more...

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/AGiZbhum1-8/this-simple-accessory-blinds-kinect-and-solves-your-pri-1453313414
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What's A 'Glitch,' Anyway? A Brief Linguistic History

Not all glitches are unintentional and problematic. Glitch art introduces, on purpose, digital typos that would otherwise be edited out in an image.

Kevin Wong/Flickr

Not all glitches are unintentional and problematic. Glitch art introduces, on purpose, digital typos that would otherwise be edited out in an image.

Kevin Wong/Flickr

HealthCare.gov, the faulty website where people can sign up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, has become nearly synonymous with the word "glitch" — sometimes defensively, sometimes mockingly.

The linguistic firestorm probably was sparked, or at least fanned, by HealthCare.gov's champion, President Obama himself. As he said on Oct. 1, the first day of the HealthCare.gov rollout:

"Now, like every new law, every new product rollout, there are going to be some glitches in the sign-up process along the way that we will fix. I've been saying this from the start."

If the word choice was intentional, it could have been a way to normalize potential problems, says Robert Terrill, associate professor of rhetoric and public culture at Indiana University.

"People are used to it. They're used to having glitches on software and websites," he says. "It seems to connote something small and easily repairable."

Some have argued that the problems with HealthCare.gov are too large to qualify as mere glitches. But that depends, of course, on where you place "glitch" on the hiccup-to-catastrophe spectrum. And a little digging around old dictionaries and newspapers shows that its place on the spectrum has changed over time.

Spacecraft 'Abnormalities'

To complicate things, the origins and etymology of "glitch" are unknown, according to the Oxford English Dictionary.

But it seems to first come into the vernacular in the 1960s and '70s — in the context of small, unforeseen technical errors in space travel.

Astronaut John Glenn used the word in his 1962 book, Into Orbit: "Another term we adopted to describe some of our problems was 'glitch'. Literally, a glitch ... is such a minute change in voltage that no fuse could protect against it."

In 1965, The St. Petersburg Times reported that a glitch ("as technicians call such abnormalities," it clarified) had altered the computer memory inside the U.S. spacecraft Gemini 6. Six years later, The Miami News talked about a failure in Apollo 14 that almost prevented a successful moon landing:

"Nobody knows yet why the mechanism failed. Engineers were unable to make it fail in hundreds of tests on the ground. Such 'glitches' worry engineers — they can't cure a disease if they are unable to diagnose it."

Uses like that may have led a 1978 thesaurus to include the word as a synonym for catastrophe. (In comparison, modern thesauruses often equate it to a flaw.) If then-President Jimmy Carter was introducing a new program, his speechwriters probably would have steered clear.

The Golden Age Of Glitches

Little by little, as computers became more widespread in society, so did glitches.

One was blamed for causing Social Security to underpay hundreds of thousands of recipients in 1994. Another, in 1997, stopped customers of America Online from logging on for 2 1/2 hours (a problem that actually was given space in the newspaper).

And it was the perfect word to describe a computer bug that many feared would cause an apocalyptic crisis: Y2K. Remember that? "Glitch" found linguistic fame as people speculated about what would happen when computer clocks turned to Jan. 1, 2000.

Some folks stocked up on water bottles and canned food in case the electricity went out; the U.S. and Russia feared a nuclear warhead might be accidentally launched; and airlines and air traffic controllers reportedly spent $2.5 billion "to assure that their computers could read the year 2000 correctly," according to The New York Times.

Despite all warnings, as the clock struck midnight, nothing much actually happened. Perhaps that's the association Obama was trying to make, too.

"The pre-hype to [Y2K] was that this was going to be something catastrophic, and it turned out to be merely a glitch," says Terrill, from Indiana University. "If that's the most common use of a term, I can see why it carried over to the Obamacare website."

Terrill notes that words are often the battleground of politics, as leaders try to "grab hold of language and define terms in particular ways." So the meaning of the word may change as the HealthCare.gov conversation continues.

Obama, for one, may already be distancing himself from it. He had many words to say about his frustrations with the site in a speech Monday, but "glitch" was not one of them.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/10/24/239788307/whats-a-glitch-anyway-a-brief-linguistic-history-meaning-definition?ft=1&f=1019
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Japanese Telco NTT Makes A Big Bet On Silicon Valley With Launch Of Its Innovation Institute

Japanese telecom NTT is the latest multi-billion dollar company to embrace Silicon Valley with the opening of a new Innovation Institute there. In doing so, it’s following companies like Samsung, Huawei, and Comcast in mimicking the local startup culture in an effort to build creative new applications.

One of the reasons that innovation centers have become all the rage these days is that few really large organizations are well-equipped to keep up with the pace of innovation happening in the startup world. Given the amount of bureaucracy that creeps in, not to mention the need to justify each decision based on a P&L sheet, it can be difficult to drive imaginative new development in that environment.

As a result, these companies are building outposts that recruit local talent and carry the same general ethos as their Silicon Valley brethren: Small teams, agile development, minimum viable product, all that stuff. The goal is to strip away all the corporate bullshit and GET SHIT DONE.

NTT is no different. Through the R&D center, the company is looking to incubate new application ideas and partner with other local developers in the area … all in the name of sponsoring innovation.

The NTT Innovation Institute is focused specifically on developing applications and solutions that can be commercialized in the next 12-18 months. It’ll be working on stuff like machine learning and managed services security technologies — you know, real have enterprise applications that can be sold to NTT clients.

The idea is to have the best of both worlds, giving NTT the ability to build technology quickly in Silicon Valley, and then leverage its massive distribution network to get it widely deployed.

Not only will that help its own internal development, but it could also prove valuable to local startups who have already built technology that the NTT finds useful. One reason for being based in Silicon Valley is that the Innovation Institute is at ground zero for tech innovation. Rather than re-invent the wheel, NTT plans to partner with and possibly invest in local startups it works with.

The R&D center opened in May, and it already has more than 35 employees on board, according to CEO Srini Koushik, who has run similar efforts for organizations like IBM. Koushik plans to increase that to 50 by the end of the year and adding even more in 2014. The team is currently working out of a 6,500 square foot office in San Mateo, but will soon be finalizing construction on a 28,000 square foot office in Palo Alto that it plans to move into early next year.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/mzLWnKS2G7o/
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A Churchill 'Quote' That U.S. Politicians Will Never Surrender

Winston Churchill opens the new headquarters of a Royal Auxiliary Air Force squadron at Croydon in 1948.

Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Winston Churchill opens the new headquarters of a Royal Auxiliary Air Force squadron at Croydon in 1948.

Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

This week, Congress dedicates a new bust of Winston Churchill in the U.S. Capitol's Statuary Hall. The sculpture is meant to honor the British statesman's legacy of determination and resolve.

It's also a salute to Churchill's friendship with the United States — summed up in a oft-quoted line that Maine Sen. Angus King used during the recent congressional debt-ceiling debate.

As King put it: "Winston Churchill once famously observed that Americans will always do the right thing, only after they have tried everything else."

While there are whole volumes dedicated to Churchill's famous sayings, it's that backhanded compliment to America that's especially popular among politicians on this side of the Atlantic.

Reps. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., Tom Cole, R-Okla., and Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Wash., are just a few of the many American lawmakers who have borrowed that line to add gravitas and a bit of humor to their speeches.

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., often turns to the Churchill quote to provide a light-hearted conclusion to an otherwise gloomy message about the U.S. debt burden.

Warner used the line so often, in fact, his staff decided to put it on a plaque or some other memento. But when they went to research the origins of the line, they came up empty, despite blood, toil, tears and sweat.

"I wish I could substantiate that he said it. But so far, I cannot," says Richard Langworth, editor of the journal Finest Hour, published by WinstonChurchill.org.

Langworth has combed through millions of words written by and about Churchill and found no evidence the former prime minister ever said that about America.

But Langworth says that's not unusual. Like Mark Twain or Yogi Berra, Churchill didn't say half the things he's supposed to have said — including the famous comeback to Lady Astor, who supposedly told Churchill if they were married, she'd put poison in his coffee.

"And Churchill supposedly responds to Lady Astor, 'If I were married to you, I'd drink it.' But that turned out to be F.E. Smith, Lord Birkenhead, Churchill's very, very dear friend, who was much faster off the cuff than he was," Langworth says. "But, of course, because Birkenhead is forgotten, it's been ascribed to Churchill."

Nigel Rees, the host of the long-running BBC quiz show Quote... Unquote, found so many examples of this oratorical identity theft that he coined a phrase for it: Churchillian Drift.

"What I meant by that was, people — if they don't know who came up with a remark originally or if they can't be bothered to look it up — they automatically ascribe the quotation to somebody who likely said it," Rees says. "And obviously Winston Churchill is a very quotable person. He did say some marvelous things in a very special way."

Thanks to the Internet, Rees says, it's easier these days to check the validity of famous quotations. But it has also gotten easier to spread misinformation.

"If but one person puts on the Internet that Churchill said something — well, then it gets repeated by about 200 other people," he says.

When Warner's staff informed him that Churchill never uttered those words about America reliably doing the right thing, eventually, Warner was only a little bit sheepish.

"If Churchill didn't say it, he should have," Warner says.

That's because the line reflects an underlying optimism in the way Americans see themselves, Warner says.

"Sometimes it takes us stumbling around a little bit, but we ultimately get to the right place," he says. "And Lord knows, we've done an awful lot of stumbling around in the last few years."

So even if this particular line wasn't Churchill's finest hour, don't expect American politicians to stop quoting it. They'll quote him on the beaches. They'll quote him in the streets. And they'll never, never, never, never, never give in.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2013/10/28/241295755/a-churchill-quote-that-u-s-politicians-will-never-surrender?ft=1&f=3
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With 3D printing, HP could go back to its tech roots

When was the last time we loved HP for making a piece of hardware that wasn't just a notebook? Too long, it seems.

The company that once made the best laser printers (and calculators and scientific equipment) may have found something new to sink its teeth into: 3D printing.

As originally reported by The Register, HP CEO Meg Whitman spoke in Bangkok at the Canalys Channels Forum about how the company wanted to enter the 3D printing market in 2014 and "lead this business."

Her comments hinted at how 3D printing could be made far less time-consuming: "To print a bottle can take eight to 10 hours. That's all very interesting, but it is like watching ice melt."

Given the venue, many of her comments were clearly aimed at businesses rather than individuals. But having a company the size of HP sink its teeth into a technology problem like 3D printing is a way to all but guarantee it'll become a commodity technology.

HP produced a 3D printer back in 2010 under the Designjet brand, a label HP normally uses for their wide-format printers and plotters. But with its $17,000 price tag, it was clearly aimed at the corporate and high-end industrial market. It didn't stand to make much of a splash with the same crowd that could pick up a MakerBot Replicator 2 for $2,199.

But $2,199 is still a lot of money. A big part of what could further drive down the cost of 3D printing wouldn't just be cheaper printers, but a larger net of support for them. Color printing has gone from a costly luxury to casual availability for the end-user, in big part thanks to a whole subindustry that provides the inks.

HP could follow a similar route and supply not just the printers, but create a whole ecosystem to support them and further drive down costs. That would include the raw materials, the designs (especially those that require licensing), and so on. It's not a feat HP could accomplish casually, but it would show a commitment to driving down prices across the ecosystem.

There's little question HP is entering a market that may already be dominated from the bottom up, though. The sheer number of 3D printing devices that are crowdfunded is proof of that: the QU-BD One Up, the Helix, and the Asterid. But there's always room for competition: MakerBot, one of the few household names in the space, was recently purchased by another 3D printer maker, Stratasys, for some $403 million in stock.

If HP decides to make this a major commitment, it'll be a pleasant surprise to those who still want to associate that venerable company with its hands-on high-tech roots. The company's recent line of good-to-great Ultrabooks (the Folio, the Revolve) was one step in that direction, and showed HP still has the engineering chops to make great hardware. Now let's see what else it can make.

This story, "With 3D printing, HP could go back to its tech roots," was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Get the first word on what the important tech news really means with the InfoWorld Tech Watch blog. For the latest developments in business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.

Source: http://www.infoworld.com/t/printers/3d-printing-hp-could-go-back-its-tech-roots-229534?source=rss_infoworld_top_stories_
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YOUTUBE drops needle on iRadio, Spotify -- GOOGLE flies banner ads -- WOZ doesn't need Air -- HP entering 3D printing -- 'Cloud Corridor'? Really?

October 24, 2013 06:00 PDT | 09:00 EDT | 13:00 UTC

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>> COMING ATTRACTIONS: YouTube close to launching subscription music service, by Alex Pham: "YouTube is preparing a premium on-demand music service -- akin to a Spotify, but with video -- to launch later this year... designed with mobile listening in mind, will have a free component and a premium tier that offers unlimited access to a full catalog of tracks similar to what's already available via YouTube's parent company, Google Inc., via its All Access subscription music service. Premium features would include the ability to cache music for offline listening and removing ads. The free tier is likely to be unlimited, on-demand access to full tracks on all platforms, including mobile... In that sense, the paid tier is more of a 'soft sell' as YouTube's primary goal is to continue to amass ears and eyes to its mobile platform to sell ads." Billboard

>> STAT DU JOUR: Apple has sold 170M iPads to date, implying sales near 15M in Sept. quarter, by Neil Hughes: "Though many customers were waiting for Tuesday's announcement of new iPads, Apple still managed to ship near 15 million units in the September quarter, new data provided by the company implies." Apple Insider
>>>> Why would anyone buy an iPad 2 now? The Verge
>>>> Whither liberal arts? The missing iPad story Stratechery
>>>> Steve Wozniak bashes iPad Air: "I don't want one" Macworld UK
>>>> T-Mobile goes tablet crazy: Offers free 200MB monthly data, $0 down for all tablets (including iPad Air) Venture Beat
>>>> How to get the most money for your old iPad TechHive

>> THE FLAK DOTH PROTEST TOO MUCH: Microsoft exec scoffs at talk that Apple's free iWork threatens Office, by Gregg Keizer: "Microsoft's head of communications took shots today at Apple's decision to give away its iWork productivity software, calling the move 'an attempt to catch up... Seems like the RDF (Reality Distortion Field) typically generated by an Apple event has extended beyond Cupertino,' [Frank] Shaw wrote. 'So let me try to clear some things up.'" Computerworld
>>>> Apples and oranges, by Frank Shaw Official Microsoft Blog
>>>> Microsoft tries to discredit iWork as competition, but ends up looking desperate Cult of Mac
>>>> "Non-standard" Any gains in iWork usage are just icing on the cake for Apple -- but any corresponding loss in Office ... is very bad news for Microsoft. Daring Fireball
>>>> Apple's free software is the ultimate fragmentation fighter Time
>>>> Apple's new iWork apps are great, but iCloud sharing has some serious flaws CITEworld

>> TROLL TRAP: Finally, a bill to end patent trolling, by Joe Mullin: "The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, has introduced a bill that directly attacks the business model of 'patent trolls.' The bill has a real chance at passing, with wide backing from leadership in both parties." Ars Technica
>> Stop patent trolls. Support the Innovation Act of 2013 EFF

>> RICKROLL: Google testing huge banner ads for branded queries, by Barry Schwartz: "In 2005, Google promised that banner ads would never come to web search, saying: There will be no banner ads on the Google homepage or web search results pages. There will not be crazy, flashy, graphical doodads flying and popping up all over the Google site. Ever. Eight years later, it seems Google may be ready to break that promise." Search Engine Land

>> MASHUP: LinkedIn Intro embeds professional profiles into Mail for iOS, by Susie Ochs: "... places a strip of LinkedIn profile information on every email you receive in the default Mail app for iOS. So if you get an email from someone you don't know, you can see at a glance their headshot, company, and title, with a handy button to let you add them to your LinkedIn network with one tap... You can link Intro to your Gmail, Google Apps, Yahoo Mail, AOL Mail, and iCloud -- no Exchange support at the moment." Macworld
>>>> Intro, an email-based stalking tool VentureBeat
>>>> LinkedIn releases revamped iPad app one day after iPad Air launch SlashGear
>>>> "The new LinkedIn iPad app is a godawful mess. Bizarrely organized, junky design, hard to parse. Unusable and unhelpful. Deleted." @MobileGalen

>> ENTER GORILLA: HP to enter 3D printer market in mid-2014, by Simon Sharwood: "HP CEO Meg Whitman has told the Canalys Channels Forum in Bangkok that the company will enter the 3D printer market in the middle of 2014. 'We are excited about 3D printing,' Whitman said, adding that it is a natural business for HP to enter given its heritage in printers. 'We want to lead this businesses. HP labs is looking at it.'" The Register

>> THEY'VE GONE TO PLAID: The fastest Internet ever is encased in a laser beam pipeline to the moon, by Becky Ferreira: "Now, the lunar orbiter has helped set a new record for high-speed Internet. Starting on October 17, scientists at the Goddard Space Flight Center have been running NASA's very first laser communication tests. They've successfully transmitted data over the 239,000 miles between their ground stations and LADEE at a record-breaking 622 megabits/second download speed. That's right: the fastest Internet connection in the world right now is actually not in this world. It's encased in a laser-beam pipeline between the moon and Earth." Motherboard

>> BUBBLE WATCH: Pinterest does another massive funding -- $225M at $3.8B valuation, by Kara Swisher and Liz Gannes: "While comScore showed Pinterest had 24.9 million unique monthly users in September, that is only in the United States and is desktop only. As AllThingsD previously reported, in March alone, after mobile and international is added, it had close to 50 million unique monthly users worldwide." AllThingsD

>> DEPARTURE LOUNGE: Dadi Perlmutter to leave Intel early next year, by Arik Hesseldahl: "Perlmutter, who heads up Intel's Architecture group, the business unit that designs and manufacturers its chips that go into personal computers, servers and other devices, will leave the company in February... had been a leading but unsuccessful contender in the race to succeed former CEO Paul Otellini." AllThingsD

>> Tech companies are trying to rename downtown San Francisco the "Cloud Corridor" Buzzfeed

>> Former Apple CEO Sculley mulls BlackBerry bid The Globe and Mail

>> Deathmatch review: Windows 8.1 vs. OS X Mavericks InfoWorld

>> Windows 8.1: The key security improvements InfoWorld

>> Microsoft keeps the Azure hits coming InfoWorld

>> Scott Berkun's open letter to new Microsoft CEO & the problem with competitive advantage Business of Software

>> Analysis of new Mac Pro video shows how it's assembled in the US 9to5Mac

>> HP Chromebook 11: Pretty, cheap, and incredibly frustrating CITEWorld

>> China's Alibaba to expand U.S. reach with new investment group PCWorld

>> ICANN starts rolling out new generic top-level domains in Arabic, Chinese, and Cyrillic scripts PCWorld

>> Secrets and lies: A coding cover-up InfoWorld

>> HP said to be seeking to sell Mobile patents Bloomberg

>> Use MongoDB to make your app location-aware InfoWorld

>> AngularJS dumps old browsers, cozies up to new frameworks InfoWorld

>> Coursera partners with 13 institutions to pass 100 total, sees over 5 million students and over 500 courses too TNW

>> TWEET O' THE DAY (BROGRAMMER EDITION): "Event supposed to be for entrepreneurs, VCs, but these heels (I've seen several like this) ... WTF? #brainsnotrequired pic.twitter.com/Z1vBKxlLzo" @jorgecortell

FEED ME, SEYMOUR: Comments? Questions? Tips? Shoot mail to Trent or Woody. Follow @gegax or @woodyleonhard.

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Source: http://podcasts.infoworld.com/t/technology-business/youtube-drops-needle-iradio-spotify-google-flies-banner-ads-woz-doesnt-need-air-hp-entering-3d-printing?source=rss_business_intelligence
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Medium opens its social publishing platform to all Twitter users

Twitter's Ev Williams started Medium to simplify and socialize online article writing, but the service's invitation-only nature has kept many folks on the sidelines. Today, things are opening up: Medium's now accessible to anyone willing to sign into Twitter and verify an email address. Would-be ...

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/85qnH0dN7ng/
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How Many Electric Car Charging Stations Are Actually Out There?

Hybrid and electric cars have gone pretty mainstream. But it's hard to get a sense of whether the charging infrastructure is keeping pace. Especially since there are lots of proposals for how we could transition away from the gas station model.

Read more...

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/mnZOCgqTGEM/how-many-electric-car-charging-stations-are-actually-ou-1453078235
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