zacharye writes "Apple's next-generation iPhone will feature an integrated NFC chip according to a new report, suggesting the Cupertino, California-based company may soon make its entrance into the mobile payment space. A report from 9to5Mac states that an analysis of code from Apple's latest iOS software includes references to an integrated NFC chip and antenna."
Esther Schindler writes "Last year, Danny Kalev — a former member of the C++ standards committed — explained the new features in C++. Now, in C11: A New C Standard Aiming at Safer Programming, he shares an overview of the changes in C — 13 years after the ratification of the C99 standard. Kalev describes the goodies in C11, including multi-threading support, safer standard libraries, and better compliance with other industry standards."
jfruh writes "You might be a bit jealous of Andrew Weiss: fresh out of college, he got interviews with both Microsoft and Google. He discusses (to the extent NDAs allow) the differences between the two experiences, ranging from the silly (Google's famous gourmet cafeteria vs. Microsoft's gaming room) to the serious (Google's technical emphasis vs. Microsoft's focus on explanatory and consulting skills.)"
ericjones12398 writes "It's beginning to feel like a TV series, a weekly patent war drama. Apple and Samsung have consistently been going back and forth with claims of IP infringement, to the point where who is accusing who of what is exhausting to follow. The question I would like to ask and try to answer is what the opportunity costs are of pursuing litigation versus just toughing it out? Would it be more economic for both companies to live and let live, or is there value to be captured in legal finger pointing? My best guess would be that this isn't about stopping sales this quarter or next, nor is it about defending the small-scale tech features that merely mildly differentiate. It's instead about momentum and branding. Winning these cases is PR that says, we are the leaders in smartphone technology, we are the innovators."
jdray writes "My wife and I own a mid-sized restaurant with a couple of Point of Sale (POS) terminals. The software, which runs on Windows and .NET, uses SQL Server on the back end. With an upgrade to the next major release of the software imminent, I'm considering upgrading the infrastructure it runs on to better ensure uptime (we're open seven days a week). We can't afford several thousand dollars' worth of server infrastructure (two cluster nodes and some shared storage, or some such), so I thought I'd ask Slashdot for some suggestions on enabling maximum uptime. I considered a single server node running VMWare with a limp-mode failover to a VMWare instance on a desktop, but I'm not sure how to set up a monitoring infrastructure to automate that, and manual failover isn't much of an option with non-tech staff. What suggestions do you have?"
An anonymous reader writes "Sandia Research Laboratory believes it has come up with a much more efficient solution than heatsink-fan cooling a CPU that simply combines the heatsink and fan components into a single unit. What you effectively get is a spinning heatsink. The new design is called the Sandia Cooler. It spins at just 2,000 RPM and sits a thousandth of an inch above the processor. Sandia claim this setup is extremely efficient at drawing heat away from the chip, in the order of 30x more efficient than your typical heatsink-fan setup. The Sandia Cooler works by using a hydrodynamic air bearing. What that means is when it spins up the cooler actually becomes self supporting and floats above the chip (hence the thousandth of an inch clearance). Cool air is drawn down the center of the cooler and then ejected at the edges of the fins taking the heat with it. And as the whole unit spins, you aren't going to get dust build up (ever)."
redletterdave writes "Apple quietly switched out a statement that claimed its Mac computers were completely immune to viruses with a less-forward statement: 'It's built to be safe.' The PR shift comes in the aftermath of the Flashback Trojan, which affected hundreds of thousands of Macs back in early April. From the article: 'Apple strives for perfection, but stating something is perfect when it isn't is ultimately bad for PR and company morale. Jobs used his reality distortion field to "rally the troops," so to speak, but "Mountain Lion" will ensure Apple can tout its closed, highly-secure operating system for the foreseeable future in a much more realistic sense. Just because a product isn't impervious to sickness doesn't mean it isn't "insanely great."'"
another random user writes "Mathematician Max Little discovered that Parkinson's symptoms can be detected by computer algorithms that analyze voice recordings. Now he is looking for volunteers to contribute to a vast voice bank to help the database to learn even more. He is aiming to record up to 10,000 voices and has set up local numbers in 10 countries around the world."
puddingebola writes in with a link to a New York Times article about how the militarization of the internet is changing contemporary warfare. "The decision by the United States and Israel to develop and then deploy the Stuxnet computer worm against an Iranian nuclear facility late in George W. Bush's presidency marked a significant and dangerous turning point in the gradual militarization of the Internet. Washington has begun to cross the Rubicon. If it continues, contemporary warfare will change fundamentally as we move into hazardous and uncharted territory. It is one thing to write viruses and lock them away safely for future use should circumstances dictate it. It is quite another to deploy them in peacetime. Stuxnet has effectively fired the starting gun in a new arms race that is very likely to lead to the spread of similar and still more powerful offensive cyber-weaponry across the Internet. Unlike nuclear or chemical weapons, however, countries are developing cyber-weapons outside any regulatory framework."
Zothecula writes "For over 30 years, the $250,000 for the American Helicopter Society's Igor I. Sikorsky Human Powered Helicopter Competition prize has looked decidedly secure, but Gamera II has changed all that. Last week, Clark School of Engineering team pilots came close to breaking one of the competition's major milestones. Ph.D. candidate from Kyle Gluesenkamp from the School's mechanical engineering department, hand-cranking and pedaling like his life depended on it, managed to keep the huge quad-rotor craft aloft for 50 seconds, an impressive new world record that's currently awaiting validation by the National Aeronautic Association (NAA)." We previously covered their attempt to break the record last May.
judgecorp writes "Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has called on the UK government to stop the extradition of Richard O'Dwyer. O'Dwyer was accused of infringing copyright with his site TVShack, but charges were dismissed in the UK, Wales has set up a petition and calling this the start of a new 'Internet war' following the successful opposition to SOPA earlier this year."
An anonymous reader writes "Space Command creator Marc Scott Zicree just launched the Space Cadet Program. In the Cadet Program fans can sign up to be a part of a real life Space Command, be able to join a weekly conference call with Marc Scott Zicree, and get other perks."
Vulcan195 writes "Would you let your 3-yr play with a real saw? You would if you were a parent in Switzerland. Suzanne Lucas (a US mom residing in Switzerland) writes about the contrasts between the US and Swiss ways of instilling wisdom. She writes: 'Every Friday, whether rain, shine, snow, or heat, my 3-yr old goes into the forest for four hours with 10 other school children. In addition to playing with saws and files, they roast their own hot dogs over an open fire. If a child drops a hot dog, the teacher picks it up, brushes the dirt off, and hands it back.' She suggests that such kids grow up and lead the ones who were coddled (e.g. US kids) during their early years."
Google Maps may be finally feeling the pressure from open source mapping solutions like OpenStreetMap. Several high profile companies have recently moved away from Google's once-ubiquitous mapping service. Now, in what looks like an effort to stem the flow of defectors, the company has announced it will be charging its remaining high-traffic Maps API users less than it previously planned.
Dubbing its launch "another important step in the future of productivity in the post-PC era," Box today introduced its OneCloud service for Android, the world's leading mobile platform.
The guy behind Flash game hit is now creating an original game, and he's using Kickstarter to fund it.
Apple may have eliminated one more tie to its biggest competitor in iOS 6, but that won't keep Google or its Maps app off the iOS platform. Google executive Jeff Huber confirmed in a comment on a Google+ post that the company has big things in store for Maps on iOS.
Shed a tear for the executives at Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman and the rest of the sprawling defense industry. Yes, they benefit from billions in taxpayer dollars while millions of Americans struggle to make ends meet. But they're not getting the praise they deserve for killing Osama bin Laden. Wait, what?
In recent years, Google's "infinite infrastructure" has inspired much of the tech world to move in a similar direction. Several companies -- including Amazon, Microsoft, and Rackspace -- have introduced "cloud services" that offer the world this sort of scalable infrastructure via the internet. But Google isn't content to merely inspire. It wants to compete.
What happens when product designer Philippe Starck needs 1,500 books ? all with white spines ? to fill out the shelves in a posh new Miami hotel? He calls on Thatcher Wine (that's a name, not a varietal) to curate the collection.Now Wine isn't a book designer, but he does design with books. It started as a hunt for special volumes at thrift stores and estate sales to resell on eBay. But his efforts soon expanded into an entire outfit. Wine's Boulder-based company, Juniper Books, cleverly fills out shelves using both custom covers created for classic works as well as a curated selection of existing editions.
Microsoft has agreed to purchase Yammer, a San Francisco startup that offers a Facebook-like social network designed specifically for businesses. The acquisition had long been rumored, but on Monday, Microsoft confirmed that it had agreed to purchase the San Francisco startup for $1.2 billion in cash.
It looks like NFC technology could finally find itself a home, and a wider user base, in the iPhone. Prototype iPhone models that appear to support NFC suggest Apple's next iPhone will be NFC-enabled, according to a code dump explored by 9to5Mac.
A man accused of typosquatting is being sued for $1 million by a law firm that alleges he set up a domain that mimics the law firm's name in order to intercept email communications intended for the firm.
For the Army, using Android smartphones now would be the equivalent of driving a soft-skinned Humvee through the mountains of Afghanistan. That's why the Pentagon wants to strengthen its soldiers' mobile devices security with a program called "Mobile Armour," which will protect against cyber-threats like enemy breaches, virus infections, spear-phishing attempts or malicious apps.
If you're the type of gamer who harbors a secret, unspoken wish that the polygon had never been invented, you may be just the audience for .
Facebook seemed to be taking a step in the location-based app direction with the launch of "Find Friends Nearby." But only hours after releasing the new -- yet very unofficial -- feature, the company reeled it back in, pulling it from its iOS and Android apps and disabling the mobile page.
At 5:22 p.m. on June 19, 2010, William Flint, 41, was in Tilden Park, in the Berkeley hills, when he braked to avoid a car and flipped, sustaining fatal injuries. Last week, the family?s lawyer, Susan Kang, filed a negligence lawsuit against social fitness website Strava, arguing that the company bears responsibility for Flint?s death.
Here?s a question. What if your computing needs outgrow the horsepower and features of your current stable of PCs and servers? Simple. You go buy better ones. Maybe try a different brand.?And if you hate the new ones? No problem. Simply try another option.?Or go back to the original. You always have a choice with ...
Customized drones capture images from unseen parts of Dublin, including the inside of the tech powerhouses' headquarters, for , a film about the "democratization of surveillance."
Obama and his successors in the White House would be banned from using false claims of national security to conceal ?embarrassing or unlawful conduct? by the government, under new legislation proposed by lawmakers on both sides of the House.
BlackBerry 10 looms on the horizon as RIM's last chance to get the company back on track. Both the operating system and the handsets that will accompany them could bring the company back from the brink, or sink it further into financial difficulty. A leaked slide of new devices could hold a clue to the company's future.
A cheek swab of your DNA can do more than test your genome for ancestry, defects or predisposition to disease. Now it can be turned into a beautiful piece of art for your wall.
In anticipation of autonomous vehicles hitting the road ? and with advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) such as adaptive cruise control and collision avoidance already taking some control from drivers ? the federal government and General Motors worked with the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) to conduct a study of driver behavior when they aren?t actively driving.
A team of high school students and their volunteer mentors have successfully electrified a 1977 Lotus Esprit and driven it from San Diego to Jacksonville, Florida. But that's the least amazing thing about this story.
The newly proposed 451 error code would let you know when a webpage has been censored. The homage to Ray Bradbury is clear, but whether or not Error 451 will ever be used is not.
We're suckers for clever and elegant construction, so when London-based designer Sam Weller created a shelving system that relies solely on tension and friction instead of screws and nails, we took notice. It's called Holdfast.
It's the first full week of summer, which most of us are probably thinking about how to get away to escape the heat, relax, and maybe hit a wave or two. Well, it turns out that Somali pirates take a summer break, too ? but for different reasons.
Broadway scenic designer Kacie Hultgren's Queens apartment and workspace takes shape-like layers in an archaeological dig showcasing the evolution of behind-the-scenes stage craft. Place of honor goes to the MakerBot 3-D printer, which churns out tiny pieces of plastic furniture for set models that visualize stage productions on a miniature scale.
Whirling of arms and legs is all that's required to hover in a new lightweight helicopter. But as Dot Physics blogger Rhett Allain shows with physics equations, getting the contraption off the ground is harder than it looks.
Russia's doughty little "Progress" spacecraft has proven its worth for nearly three decades now.
When Greg Marra built @Trackgirl, he designed her as an experiment to see if an automated program could worm its way into online networks of real people. What he didn't expect is that people would actually care.
Education non-profit Khan Academy has become a hot destination for top programmers in Silicon Valley, despite a complete lack of stock options or IPO prospects.
If ultrabooks had a 15-inch category, the 2012 edition of Samsung's Series 9 would be the leader of the pack.