soup of the day...

Bad news for Craigslist users who like to peruse the Erotic Services Adult Services section of their site. It’s gone, replaced by a large black and white “censored” logo.

I’ve reached out to Craigslist for comment and await their reply. But the choice of words is significant – the section wasn’t simply removed, the censored word was used.

The site has been embattled as old press and state...

iOS 4.1 confirmed for September 8th on Apple's UK website

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 04:09:00 GMT

According to Apple's UK website, iOS 4.1 will hit on Wednesday, September 8th. The US website still displays the non-commital "Coming Soon" message, so we'll have to keep our eyes peeled. We're going to go ahead and guess that all those shiny new iPods will come to retail that day too... but don't hold us to that one. Like we said, it's only a guess.

[Thanks, Luca]

iOS 4.1 confirmed for...

Mary Roach: Death In Space

Sat, 04 Sep 2010 00:10:54 GMT

Electronista | Gadgets for Geeks

For some uplifting weekend reading, I suggest Mary Roach's excellent Boing Boing special feature "Death In Space." From the intro:

The U.S. has plans for a manned visit to Mars by the mid-2030s. The ESA and Russia have sketched out a similar joint mission, and it is claimed that China's space program has the same objective. Apart from their destination, all these plans share something in...

Google teases Sept. 8 event with possible image search hooks

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 23:55:00 GMT

Google sparked curiosity on Friday by sending out an invitation to Electronista and other members of the press for a special event on September 8. The invite is brief and teases a showing off of Google's "latest technological innovation" and an "inside look at the evolution of Google search." Somewhat unusually, the event is being held at San Francisco's Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) and will h...

Apple's Ping gains a million users in first two days

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 23:39:00 GMT

We're still trying to figure out exactly what Apple's new Ping social network is good for, but apparently quite a few people are curious about it: it's already racked up a million users in its first two days. That's just a third of the people who've downloaded iTunes 10, so we're sure the numbers are will grow even faster as more people snag iTunes and the network effect starts to kick in -...

Brazil Considering Legalizing File Sharing

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 22:56:00 GMT

An anonymous reader writes "It looks like Brazil may be the country to watch if you're interested in much more consumer-friendly copyright laws (assuming US diplomatic pressure doesn't interfere). As that country goes through a copyright reform process, among the proposals is one that would create fines not just for infringing, but also for hindering fair use and the public domain. Also, there ...

Adorable baby octopuses, living happy and free

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 22:20:38 GMT

To make up for the research kittens.

Note: This starts out somewhat depressingly, with the body of a female octopus that died after reproducing—as all octopuses, male and female, do. But it quickly gets past that, and on to the wee, baby octopuses, floating around the sea. Turn off the sound to block out the sad song, and focus on that.

From jenniel, via Submitterator

Google Music, The iTunes Killer?

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 22:10:33 GMT

Android Community

Sources are saying that Google really wants to have their music service up and running by this Christmas. The plans Google has are, to allow music downloads along with the streaming of music to rival Apple’s iTunes Store. Andy Rubin is said to be having conversations with the labels to let them know how the service will look and run. Talk was made at this years Google I/O conference about the s...

Game Publishers Using Stealth P2P Clients

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 22:10:00 GMT

An anonymous reader writes "TorrentFreak has shed some light on the dark practice of installing stealth-mode P2P clients during game downloads and using unsuspecting gamers' PCs as 'bandwidth slaves.' The clients operate in the background and largely go unnoticed until problems arise that are caused by overactive uploading/seeding. While the Akamai NetSession Interface and Pando Media Booster a...

DoubleClick Ad Planner’s Bestiality Bug (Screenshot)

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 21:27:36 GMT

Is Google serving up ads targeted at sites which categorize themselves as “extreme porn,” bestiality,” and “child porn”? Rest assured, it is not. But if you are a website publisher using DoubleClick’s Ad Planner to select categories to match your site to advertiser’s interests, you might think so. The screenshot at right and below shows what one publisher found when choosing...

Cannabis Catering

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 21:02:17 GMT

Cannabis Catering offers gourmet meals laced with pot. The delivery service isn't cheap, around $100/person, but damn those pot-atoes look tasty. And yes, you need a medical marijuana card to order. From Fast Company:

The idea for Cannabis Catering came to (Chef Frederick) Nesbitt when he learned that his friend's diabetic mother had been diagnosed with cancer. "I would bring back edibles [from ...

Jewelry made from laminated, polished cross-sections of books

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 20:27:28 GMT

UK designer Jeremy May makes jewelry by laminating and polishing pages from old books together to make striking pieces: "The beauty of the jewels extends within the piece: text and images pass all the way though the object, only exposed at the surfaces - giving a tantalising glimpse of the book within."

LITTLEFLY(Thanks, Irene Delse via Submitterator!)

Ubuntu 10.10 beta arrives with new netbook UI

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 20:25:00 GMT

Ars Technica

Canonical has announced the availability of the Ubuntu 10.10 beta release. The new version of the popular Linux distribution, codenamed Maverick Meerkat, is scheduled for final release in October. It brings some noteworthy user interface improvements and updated software.

The beta ships with GNOME 2.31, which introduces support for the new dconf configuration storage...

For Apple iOS is Key

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 20:03:32 GMT

SlashGear

Steve Jobs rattled off a lot of numbers at Wednesday’s event. As an analyst I like statistics and making sense of statistics. That’s why the platform strategy of iOS struck me when I thought about Apple’s product lineup, specifically iPads, iPhones, iPod Touches, and even Apple TV. Since these products run iOS, iOS as a platform is experiencing rapid growth and tremendous...

Google Music Available by Christmas This Year, Sources Say

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 19:07:25 GMT

SlashGear

Google’s answer to Apple’s iTunes is coming. Or, perhaps not an answer, but part of the conversation. When Google showed off the idea of Music at this year’s I/O conference, people were eagerly awaiting its official unveiling later in the year. Unfortunately, despite the fact it’s already September, we’re still waiting. But, if the sources speaking toReuters are indeed accurate, we don’t have m...

Felicis Ventures’ Aydin Senkut: The Next Great Mobile Company Is Not Here Yet

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 18:58:01 GMT

Aydin Senkut, founder of Felicis Ventures, has an enviable track record. Founded in late 2005, Felicis has made roughly 60 investments, with 16 successful exits, including Mint, Tapulous and Aardvark. As anyone in the investment community will tell you, that’s not a shabby hit rate.

Senkut, a former senior manager at Google, is getting ready to deploy even more capital, with the recent birth of ...

New official MeeGo screenshots show promise, influence

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 17:09:00 GMT

MeeGo's official user interface guidelines could easily end up determining whether the platform sinks or swims -- no one wants a phone whose UI looks like junk, after all. The minions at Nokia and Intel's little pet project have posted new OS shots as examples of how to properly implement the interface in third-party apps, and we've got to admit -- things are looking a lot cleaner, prettier...

Baby Lion Cam Launches

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 17:00:00 GMT

Wired Top Stories

This morning, the Smithsonian National Zoo launched a live webcam of the zoo's four new baby African lion cubs and their mother. The cubs were born during the late evening and early morning between Aug. 30 and 31 and will remain inside until late fall.

Google To Update, Shorten And De-Jargon Privacy Policies – Here’s What’s Changing

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 16:33:55 GMT

Mike Yang, Google’s Associate General Counsel, just published a post on the Google blog, informing users that the company is making its privacy policies shorter and easier to understand for non-lawyers. They are also making some other changes, but to be clear, the Mountain View company isn’t altering its privacy practices as such.

The updates will go into effect October 3, which is 30 days from ...

iTunes 10 hands-on: snappier performance, questionable UI choices

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 15:05:00 GMT

Ars Technica

By now, most iTunes users have already downloaded and installed iTunes 10. We've already given you the low-down on the biggest addition to the new version of iTunes—the Ping social network—but we also wanted to give our impressions on two "improvements" promised in the release notes: look-and-feel and performance. While we agree that iTunes is "faster and more...

A Merger Made In High Heaven: US Cannabis To Buy WeedMaps

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 13:53:00 GMT

Tim Draper of Draper Fisher Jurvetson fame may be too chicken to invest in WeedMaps (think Yelp for pot), but that isn’t stopping other companies from sniffing around the startup, looking to score.

In fact, a company called LC LUXURIES LIMITED, or rather its most recently established subsidiary, US Cannabis, is very close to buying WeedMaps. According to this press release, the Nevada...

Nokia pulls plug on Ovi Files – Mobile based file sharing service ditched after poor take up

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 11:07:10 GMT

Daily Mobile

Nokia is ditching Ovi Files, its mobile file-sharing service, from next month following poor subscription take up. A Nokia spokesman said: ‘Nokia is discontinuing the Ovi Files service, effective October 1, 2010. We want to explore broader horizontal offerings in mobile maps, email, messaging, media, social networks and music.’ The company has emailed users asking them to [...]

Typewriter key jewelry

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 03:18:45 GMT

Electronista | Gadgets for Geeks

Etsy seller Buster and Boo does a nice line in vintage, moderately priced jewelry and decorative art made from vintage typewriter keys from the 1920s and 1930s.

Buster and Boo

Apple only computer maker not lowering notebook orders?

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 01:55:00 GMT

Apple appears to be the only company immune from a falloff in notebook shipments for the month of July, according to a report from Digitimes Research senior analyst Joanne Chien. HP is said to be the hardest hit, with notebook shipments expected to reach only 39.5 million units by the end of the year. The company had set a goal of 45-47 million units....

Apple - Macintosh - IPhone - Articles - ...

Google planning music store to take on Apple

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 00:40:00 GMT

AppleInsider

Google is negotiating with music labels to secure licensing for a music download store and "digital song locker" that would challenge Apple's digital music reign, a new report claims.

Harvard Ditching Final Exams?

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 00:37:00 GMT

itwbennett writes "According to Harvard magazine, Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences voted at its meeting on May 11 to require instructors to officially inform the Registrar 'at the first week of the term' of the intention to end a course with a formal, seated exam, 'the assumption shall be that the instructor will not be giving a three-hour final examination.' Dean of undergraduate...

In The Coming HTML5 Browser Wars, The Markup Should Remain The Same

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 22:39:10 GMT

On Monday, Google made a big splash with a customized Arcade Fire video page that showed off all the cool things HTML5 can do, from video, animations and 3D rendering to gorgeous fonts and choreographed windows. It’s all cutting edge stuff as far as what is possible with a Web browser goes, but there is one very big problem. It doesn’t work so great in all browsers, even browsers that...

German "secure" ID cards compromised on national TV, gov't buries head in sand

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 21:31:51 GMT

A German TV programme showed hackers from the Chaos Computer Club using off-the-shelf equipment to extract personal information from the government's new "secure" ID card, which stores scans of fingerprints and a six-digit PIN that can be used to sign official documents and declarations.

In an interview with the show, Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière said he saw no immediate reason to act...

Happy Birthday Chrome, You’re About To Overtake Firefox On TechCrunch

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 20:45:19 GMT

As we pointed out earlier, today is Google Chrome’s second birthday. Since it launched in beta on September 2, 2008, it has come a long way (it’s already 6 versions deep). Back then, it was Windows-only, with official Mac and Linux support only coming late last year. But now it’s on the verge of another milestone: becoming the top browser coming to this site.

I’ve checked out our logs over the p...

Canon's 4k Multipurpose Camera concept weakens knees, shoots video. We go hands-on! (Video)

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 19:17:00 GMT

You're looking at Canon's new 4k "Multipurpose" concept, a wondrous amalgamation of still and video cameras pumping 60 frames per second at 4k resolution out of an 8 megapixel 2/3-inch CMOS sensor. Yep, we said 4k video, approximately quadruple the resolution of 1080p. We had a chance to go hands-on with the prototype at Canon Expo 2010, and believe us when we tell you that it's really, really ...

Samsung: 'we are prioritizing our Android platform'

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:51:00 GMT

Samsung may be one of the big players that Microsoft is pinning its hopes on for Windows Phone 7, but you wouldn't know that from listening to the company at IFA. Speaking to Reuters at the show, Samsung's head of marketing for its mobile division, YH Lee, said flatly that "we are prioritizing our Android platform," adding that, "Android is very open and flexible, and there is a consumer...

Sony Beats Apple in Sheer Numbers, Walkman Outsells iPod for One Month

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:47:43 GMT

SlashGear

Even in Japan, where Sony’s name is synonymous with many different gadgets and pieces of technology, as well as people’s lives in general, Apple plays a huge roll. So, when news breaks that Sony has officially managed to outsell Apple in their Personal Media Player line, even for just a month, our ears perk up. According to researchers at BCN, that’s exactly what has happened. But, of course...

New German Government ID Hacked By CCC

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 17:53:00 GMT

wiedzmin writes "Public broadcaster ARD's show 'Plusminus' teamed up with the known hacker organization 'Chaos Computer Club' (CCC) to find out how secure the controversial new radio-frequency (RFID) chips were. The report shows how they used the basic new home scanners that will go along with the cards (for use with home computers to process the personal data for official government business) ...

Sony Ericsson Just Wants to be Successful; Aims to be Largest Android Supplier in the World

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 17:00:04 GMT

Android Phone Fans

Any Drake fans out there? No? Anyway, I always scoff at reports like these because they seem quite useless. Sony Ericsson wants to become the biggest supplier of Android-based products around the globe, says the company’s CEO Bert Nordberg. It’s quite an ambitious goal, but I call it useless because isn’t that the point of any business? To be the best?

I’m sure it’s not a realistic goal for ...

Cisco Planning To Acquire Skype

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:56:00 GMT

rexjoec writes "Cisco is making a bid for Skype. The deal, if successful, would derail a planned initial public offering from Skype and redraw the battle lines in the lucrative market of video communications." The rumored price is $5B.

HMS Beagle: Awesome geeky science store in Kansas City

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:54:22 GMT