NASA Shares Earth's Nighttime Glamour Shots

In 1972, we marveled at the beauty of our planet in a photo taken by the crew of Apollo 17 on its way to the moon. Dubbed the "Blue Marble," the iconic image depicted a blue-and-white globe floating in the blackness of space. On Thursday, we were treated to a different view of Island Earth, one with the undeniable stamp of humanity on it. NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration unveiled what's being called the "Black Marble" -- high-resolution photos taken of the dark side of the earth.

Source: http://ectnews.com.feedsportal.com/c/34520/f/632000/s/26593048/l/0L0Stechnewsworld0N0Crsstory0C767880Bhtml/story01.htm

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Google Voice Search learns Latin American Spanish, Indonesian, and Malaysian

google voice search
Google Voice Search has just introduced localizations for Latin America, Indonesia and Malaysia, enabling native language search for hundreds of millions of users.

Google's official blog post offers some interesting insights into the process of collecting and analyzing the speech data needed to expand support. Thousands of hours were spent gathering voice samples and choosing key regional accents to analyze, and International Program Manager Linne Ha is clearly very appreciative of the Google users who helped the company complete the expansion. Without an enthusiastic base of users to lend a hand, Google Voice Search's polyglot powers would have been nearly impossible to deliver.

Google Voice Search learns Latin American Spanish, Indonesian, and Malaysian originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/31/google-voice-search-learns-latin-american-spanish-indonesian-a/

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Mobile Nations Survey: Do you use a car mount with your smartphone?

Mobile Nations Car Mount Survey

This Mobile Nations Survey comes to you via our accessories team. We're always putting new smartphone accessories to the test, and are often getting into debates over which are the best.

One topic where the team is 100% in agreement though is car mount docks. We think that car mounts are the absolute best way to take your smartphone with you on the road.

We're curious to know if you agree, if you own a car mount or not, if you like them or not and why. Thanks for sharing!

Take the Survey

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/O0klOuu4fdc/story01.htm

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T-Mobile USA to launch Apple products in 2013, likely including the iPhone

T-Mobile USA to launch Apple products in 2013, likely including the iPhone

Deutsche Telekom CEO Rene Obermann just stated in an investors' day meeting that T-Mobile USA will be launching Apple products in 2013, and speculation is heavy that that will include the iPhone.

No details are available yet, but in order to get the iPhone successfully up and running on T-Mobile USA, Apple would have to add support for HSPA on the AWS spectrum, or T-Mobile will need to greatly increase their 3G support on the non-AWS spectrum, or both. T-Mobile has been deploying iPhone-friendly 3G in several markets this year, so it could well be the latter.

And that's just 3G. They still haven't even left the gate when it comes to LTE. T-Mo's merger with MetroPCS could give them the resources they need to begin building out LTE, but Verizon, AT&T, and even Sprint certainly aren't going to make catching up easy.

So, there's a lot of work ahead. But hey, after 5 years and pretty much every other carrier, it's a start, right?

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/7xHW4zOovZM/story01.htm

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Getting These Hilarious Gag Gifts Will Ruin a Geek's Christmas

Sure you could buy an SSD or an iPad mini or a Samsung Galaxy S III but where's the fun in that? Those gifts would be great and if they're a self-respecting geek, they should get that themselves. These made up gag gifts by Joy of Tech though? Torturous comedic gold. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/4ZX8hQ6BsRQ/getting-these-hilarious-gag-gifts-will-ruin-a-geeks-christmas

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The Skies Have It: Affordable Broadband Internet for All

The rural broadband delivery business is rapidly changing. When Dish Network's super-cheap broadband-via-satellite service, dishNET, went live in October, it prompted a satellite Internet price-war. dishNET download speeds reach 10 Mbps. Service starts at $39.99 a month for 10 GB of data at 5 Mbps if you bundle it with Dish Network's television service. Satellite TV provider DirecTV has also joined the fray with newly priced satellite Internet bundles. DirecTV claims speeds of up to 12 Mbps. Base-level, promotional pricing is similar to the Dish offering, although DirecTV's prices are fixed for 12 months only.

Source: http://ectnews.com.feedsportal.com/c/34520/f/632000/s/264a6fb5/l/0L0Stechnewsworld0N0Crsstory0C767710Bhtml/story01.htm

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Apple/HTC cross licensing deal details revealed with scads of redactions

Apple/HTC cross licensing deal details revealed with scads of redactions

Last month Apple and HTC signed a ten-year cross-licensing agreement that saw the two companies agree to set aside their gangs of lawyers and get back to creating new and exciting devices. We didn't expect that we'd ever be made privy to the details of the agreement, but seeing as Samsung's lawyers and Apple's lawyers haven't yet managed to hammer out a similar agreement, Samsung found themselves curious about the details. And being that they pay their lawyers in wheelbarrows of won, they were able to make that happen, with some assistance from the court.

The heavily-redacted 140 pages documents were made part of the public record by way of Samsung for today's hearing in their patent trial against Apple in California. AllThingsD's Ina Fried dug into the stack of documents, and while a lot of the nitty gritty details were covered up with thick black lines (many Sharpies were killed in the production of this document), we were able to get an idea of the broad strokes of the deal between Apple and HTC.

As you might expect, Apple's design patents on devices like the iPad and iPhone are not part of the deal, as Apple takes their design patents very very seriously (see: Apple vs. Samsung, parts 1-∞). In keeping with that, the agreement sets up an 'arbitration process' for Apple and HTC should the former believe the latter has released a "cloned" product. Seeing as HTC's recent designs have taken a decidedly unique approach to design, we wouldn't consider that clause likely to be invoked any time soon.

Apple has also agreed not to sue HTC over a certain list of their products, but those are redacted. Also redacted are nine patents HTC has not licensed to Apple, otherwise it appears that everything else in Apple's and HTC's patent portfolios are getting shared to prevent further litigation. Unsurprisingly, how much HTC is paying in royalty rates to Apple was also blacked out, though HTC's said before that they don't expect the agreement to have "to have an adverse material impact" on their bottom line. That's what happens when you swap paying for lawyers with paying licensing fees.

Ina Fried was also in the courtroom as Samsung and Apple's lawyers went back to sparring over patents and the like in San Jose today (The Rumble In The Valley™), providing excellent blow-by-blow coverage as United States District Judge Lucy Koh presided over the proceedings. Before things even got started at 1:30 Pacific time, HTC was already involved, arguing that their excessive redactions were within the letter of the order, with HTC having redacted "terms and details irrelevant to this case"; Samsung contends that the agreement with HTC "is proof that Apple was willing and in fact has entered into license agreements concerning at least some of the patents at issue in this case."

In fact, Apple had offered a licensing agreement to Samsung back in 2010. The terms would haven been mighty expensive for Samsung, amounting to around a quarter of a billion dollars annually. Instead, we've been treated to the driest and nerdiest courtroom drama ever. They spent forty-five minutes arguing about damages over the Samsung Prevail today. Yeah, exciting stuff.

Source: AllThingsD (HTC agreement, Trial coverage) via Android Central

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/thqKWQjOOdc/story01.htm

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Mac OS X Lion Preview 2 released, introduces mega exciting leather bound iCal skin

This is one of those posts that could probably be condensed into a tweet: Apple has released the second Preview of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion. If you're running Preview 1, it looks like you'll first receive a small update via Software Update, and then you can download Preview 2 from the Mac App Store.

There has been some speculation that Apple is getting close to a release or Golden Master build, but judging by 9to5 Mac's initial findings there's definitely some way to go. The Golden Master will probably appear at, or just before, the Apple WWDC in June.

So far, it's looking like the only changes in Preview 2 are the leather bound iCal skin that you can see above, and the main iChat window now combines your AIM, Bonjour and Jabber contacts, like Adium. We're sure that more details will emerge throughout the day, though, and there's bound to be lots of invisible changes, too. We'll update this post when we find out more.

Mac OS X Lion Preview 2 released, introduces mega exciting leather bound iCal skin originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 05:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/31/mac-os-x-lion-preview-2-released-introduces-mega-exciting-leath/

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Libra for Android helps you track your weight using The Hacker's Diet system

libra
I'm getting fat; that's what you see on the screenshot to the right -- my gradual move from chubby to portly. But never mind the numbers, look at the pretty graph!

If you've ever read The Hacker's Diet, this graph should be instantly recognizable. Each point shows the weight for a given day, while the trend line lets you see if you're gaining or losing weight.

When I use my "main" PC, I have a homebrew solution for creating and maintaining this graph. But I've had to find a temporary solution for Android, and Libra is it.

It's a beautifully simple app, very true to the spirit of The Hacker's Diet. You can create a shortcut on your homescreen that brings you right into the data entry screen, so you just tap the shortcut every morning, feed in your weight for the day and hit OK, and then you get to see your progress (or lack thereof) on the graph.

The app remembers the previous day's weigh-in, which makes it easy to enter today's weight (as they're usually not too different). The graph is zoomable and scrollable, and most importantly, you can export the data to CSV so you're not locked into the app.

If you ever need to track your weight using an Android device for any period of time, Libra is one excellent solution.

Libra for Android helps you track your weight using The Hacker's Diet system originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/31/libra-for-android-helps-you-track-your-weight-using-the-hackers/

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