Most people in the dark about best ways to save energy
Many people are profoundly misinformed about how much energy they use and how much they can save, according to a study published in PNAS on Monday. A sampling of adults showed that most people incorrectly think that actions like turning off lights and unplugging idle cell phone chargers save more energy than using more efficient appliances, like compact fluorescent light bulbs. They also proved to be poor at estimating differences in energy use between various appliances, suggesting that the public needs a significant re-education on energy use.
The energy study had two parts: first, people were asked what was the single most effective thing they could do to conserve energy. Next, they were asked to estimate the energy use of nine household appliances, using a 100-watt light bulb as a reference point, and the amount of energy saved by six household activities, such as line-drying clothes instead of using an electric dryer.
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SBS beta and WHS Vail release candidate are out
Microsoft has released new previews of two of its server products: the first beta of the new cloud-based Small Business Server Aurora, and an updated beta of the second version of Windows Home Server, codenamed "Vail."The first beta of Vail was released in April. The new version of Windows Home Server provides more robust storage management and better backup options, including the ability to back up Mac OS X computers. Peculiarly, the initial announcement from Microsoft described this new build as Release Candidate 0, but this language has since been removed; this is just another beta after all.
This is just as well; this build contains several known data-loss bugs, so clearly has some way to go before being release quality. As always with a beta, Microsoft advises against using this in any production capacity, and with such flaws in this build, that's probably good advice.
Small Business Server Aurora is a new product that simplifies the configuration and installation, using cloud services for Exchange e-mail and SharePoint collaboration. A beta of Small Business Server 7, the next version of Small Business Server, is due by the end of the month. The new version includes among other things Windows Server 2008 R2, and Exchange Server 2010.
Both betas can be had from their respective Connect sites, Aurora here and Vail here.
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Data-gobbling Android users will likely see bandwidth capped
Fashionable though it may be to bash AT&T’s 3G data network, its performance is, to an extent, a victim of its own success. Subscribers with the AT&T-only iPhone consume way more data than people whose phones cannot run a wide variety of apps, and as a result, AT&T now limits the amount of data iPhone owners can use each month.The same approach is likely coming to competing cell networks and Android smartphones, now that two studies have found that Android users consume more data than iPhone users—and because Androids across various networks now outsell the iPhone.
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Solaris still sorta open, but OpenSolaris distro is dead
An internal Oracle memo that was released last week provides a detailed summary of the company's plans for the Solaris operating system, which Oracle obtained when it acquired Sun. The memo offers a mix of good and bad news for Solaris enthusiasts. It reveals that Oracle is strongly committed to advancing the Solaris platform and intends to increase the availability of resources for Solaris development. The bad news is that Oracle plans to discontinue Sun's community-centric OpenSolaris distribution.The OpenSolaris project emerged in 2007 with the aim of producing a downloadable distribution that includes a complete computing environment built around the open source components of the Solaris operating system. Sun brought in Debian founder Ian Murdock to orchestrate the endeavor in collaboration with contributors from the Solaris enthusiast community.
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Apple rejiggering support forums with social network bent
Apple is planning to change its current Apple Discussions support forums to adopt more of a social network vibe, according to several recent posts by Apple staff. The new service will be called Apple Support Communities and will include new options for custom landing pages, new profiles, and a focus on building a "reputation" for offering the best advice on solving support issues.The coming change was first announced last Wednesday by Apple staffer "Eric W." According to that post and several later ones which describe the new system in more detail, each user in the system will now have a customizable home page where they can add, edit, or remove "widgets." These widgets appear to be customizable views to access different parts of the support communities. One example described is a widget to list unanswered questions from community members, which can be further customized to only display unanswered questions about Intel-based iMacs. Your home page will also show any recent activity on topics in which you are participating.
In the new system, products will be divided into "communities," which appear to be roughly equivalent to the current forum's topics. Users can then ask "questions" which are then answered by community members. Users earn a "reputation" by offering helpful advice. Details about how this reputation system works have yet to be posted, but it appears to be a way for the community to rate the quality of answers offered for each question—answers from someone with a higher reputation could then be considered more authoritative or trustworthy.
It also appears that the new Communities will allow users to build a more thorough profile, including custom avatars, background information, and more. Users are encouraged to include details about their background to help build trust relationships. "Say hello to your fellow Apple Support Communities members and help them get to know you by completing My Profile and your biography," reads a post about the new profile system.
No information has been posted about exactly when the new system will go into effect, and Apple did not respond to our request for additional information as of publication time.
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Verizon hits 1Gbps in real-world FiOS test
Verizon has completed a real-world field test of its fiber-optic FiOS system in which it pumped nearly a gigabit of data per second from one lucky customer's business out across the Internet. According to the company, the test "was intended to demonstrate in a live network setting that currently deployed FiOS equipment can support higher bandwidth services and can deliver 1Gbps without major change to the network."In theory, this should be a cakewalk. Verizon's GPON (gigabit passive optical network) technology currently provides a 2.4Gbps download pipe—though it's one split between all the subscribers on a local node.
To test the system's ability to push 1Gbps, Verizon ran a second fiber line from its local office in Taunton, Massachusetts to one lucky business user who already had FiOS. The new line was connected to a separate fiber optic terminal and setup for a 1Gbps speed tier. The new link was then speed-tested using both a local server and one 400 miles away that required a journey over the Internet.
Verizon claims that the link topped at a 925Mbps to the local server and 800Mbps to the remote server. The 1.4Gbps of bandwidth remaining on the fiber meant that the existing FiOS users on the local node didn't have their own bandwidth affected.
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Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is explosive co-op fun
There is a section early in Guardian of Light where my friend and I juggled a large stone structure by timing our bomb blasts, causing it to rise into the air. He then rolled under the falling structure to grab the item we were searching for. Only after that did we notice the switch on the side of the wall that would have raised the structure without the acrobatics. Sure, we did it the hard way, but it felt awesome to turn what was designed to be simple into something out of an action movie.This is why Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is so successful: the mechanics all feel perfect, the puzzles have multiple ways to solve them, and the characters work together in ways that make sense. Even for games designed around co-op, this is a high point... especially for a $15 downloadable title. Taking Lara Croft and putting her in an isometric puzzler-platforming title may sound crazy, but it paid off in a big way.
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Carbon "onions" make for rapid-discharge capacitor
We tend to focus on charge storage in terms of the batteries that power our electronic devices and, increasingly, our cars. But charge storage devices now make an appearance on scales ranging from tiny implanted medical devices to on-grid electrical storage. No single technology performs well across that range of applications, so scientists have continued to experiment with different kinds of batteries and capacitors. A paper that was released by Nature Nanotechnology describes a new kind of capacitor, built from onion-like shells of graphene, that may give us another option for specific needs: discharge rates of up to 200V per second, "three orders of magnitude higher than conventional supercapacitors."Capacitor technology isn't suitable for all use cases since, at the moment, it simply can't store as much power per unit volume as a battery can. They do, however, have some very useful properties: capacitors retain their performance through an indefinite number of discharge cycles, and energy stored in a capacitor can be mobilized much more quickly than that in a battery. The new work takes this last feature, already a strength, and improves upon it.
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Lawsuit: Disney, others spy on kids with zombie cookies
Disney, Ustream, SodaHead, Warner Bros., and a number of other websites are spying on kids' Internet use, according to a lawsuit filed recently by a group of parents and their children. The suit accuses ad widget company Clearspring Technologies of enabling these sites to track kids all over the Internet, and not just on Clearspring partner sites, leaving them in violation of numerous federal and California state privacy laws.According to the complaint, each of the Clearspring affiliates independently and knowingly authorized the company to track users, even on non-Clearspring affiliated sites. A Flash-based tracking cookie was allegedly installed by the affiliate sites without users' knowledge, and would recreate itself by digging into the Flash storage bin for the same user information if deleted. Essentially, users who were trying to remain privacy-conscious by regularly deleting their cookies were not able to rid themselves of the cookies deposited by Clearspring.
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AT&T adds a big amen to Verizon-Google net neutrality pitch
Amen, AT&T is loudly proclaiming in response to Verizon and Google's call for a federal net neutrality policy that exempts wireless broadband from non-discrimination rules. "Wireless is different," insists AT&T Vice President Joan Marsh on her latest blog post. The good news is that data traffic on AT&T's networks "continues to explode."
But the company faces the "ever-constant struggle between capacity and demand."
"Pitted against this insatiable demand are wireless networks of finite and shared resources. Wireless networks simply cannot provide the same amount of capacity as wireline networks (i.e., DSL and cable). Fiber is to a wireline network what spectrum is to a wireless network, and as a transmission medium, the two simply do not compare."
AT&T's Marsh estimates the "theoretical top speed" of a LTE 4G carrier at 100Mbps. "By contrast, theoretical transmission speeds on fiber can reach as high as 25,000,000Mbps. The 5 extra zeros tell the story."
The carrier insists it's doing all it can to manage this explosive situation, including rolling out 4G and building up its backhaul facilities.
But the post also calls upon the government to get more spectrum licenses to the wireless industry (which the FCC is indeed trying to do) while sparing AT&T any "onerous new net neutrality regulations."
"Perhaps what might help most of all is for agreement to be reached on net neutrality so we can finally satisfy concerns and put that issue behind us," Marsh concludes. "Then we could focus all our attention on a more urgent matter struggling for oxygen right now, and that's the National Broadband Plan."
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PSP ad mocks iPhone gaming, promotes older games
It's odd to see a gaming company as large as Sony admit that it's battling Apple—or any cell phone manufacturer—for gaming dollars. A new ad for the PSP mocks the games found on a device that looks very much like an iPhone, and hypes Sony's collection of older PSP games that are being sold for $10 as a better solution than cell phone gaming.Read the comments on this post
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Radio, RIAA: mandatory FM radio in cell phones is the future
Music labels and radio broadcasters can't agree on much, including whether radio should be forced to turn over hundreds of millions of dollars a year to pay for the music it plays. But the two sides can agree on this: Congress should mandate that FM radio receivers be built into cell phones, PDAs, and other portable electronics.The Consumer Electronics Association, whose members build the devices that would be affected by such a directive, is incandescent with rage. "The backroom scheme of the [National Association of Broadcasters] and RIAA to have Congress mandate broadcast radios in portable devices, including mobile phones, is the height of absurdity," thundered CEA president Gary Shapiro. Such a move is "not in our national interest."
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Apple iAd control freak tendencies take advertisers aback
Apple's new mobile advertising effort, iAd, is getting off to a rocky start for some advertisers thanks to Apple's tight control of the system. Only a handful of the initial 17 launch partners have rolled out campaigns thus far, and, according to unnamed ad executives speaking to the Wall Street Journal, it's because of Apple's unusual input in the creative efforts and slow turnarounds—something most companies are not used to. Apple first introduced iAd to the world in April, allowing developers to integrate it into their apps in June during WWDC. The service officially launched on July 1 with 17 ad partners, but as the WSJ notes, only Unilever PLC and Nissan had campaigns going for most of the month. J.C. Penney, Disney, and Citigroup have launched their campaigns since then, but that still leaves more than 10 that have yet to get off the ground. And Chanel, one of the initial launch partners, has apparently dropped its iAd plans.
The executives speaking to the WSJ said that, thanks to Apple's involvement in the process, brainstorming to completion can take eight to 10 weeks, which is "longer than normal for most mobile ads." Additionally, Apple can occasionally take two weeks longer than expected to turn around the final product, and some advertisers (namely Citigroup) are taking baby steps because the platform is so new.
(As someone who used to work in the ad agency world, part of the reason the clients are not used to that kind of turnaround is because most agencies prioritize mobile ads so low that they're willing to give them to an unpaid intern to churn out in two hours. I ran the story by a former colleague who has since moved onto much bigger and better agencies, and he said 8 to 10 weeks for a high quality ad is "a realistic timeline.")
Apple's "slow" turnaround time doesn't come without rewards, though; Nissan told the WSJ that iAd "has driven exceptional results to date." This sentiment is mirrored by some members of the Mac developer community (who can now take advantage of Apple's "iAd for Developers" program); several developers told Ars that they have generated impressive income through iAd so far. Of course, the developers don't benefit from weeks' worth of Apple's creative efforts, but it's clear that the ads are making an impact—once they run.
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