"Going commando" on the TSA
On November 11, the relentlessly upbeat Transportation Security Administration (TSA) blog discussed the newly "enhanced" airport security pat-downs that would soon be coming to a groin near you. "It just makes good security sense," said TSA's "Blogger Bob." His commenters did not concur."The next time I fly, I'm wearing my trusty kilt," said one—and we're assuming that he's a true Scotsman.
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Google revamps DocVerse as new collaboration service for Office
Google is taking one more step into Microsoft's territory by allowing Office users to sync and access their documents through Google—without having to leave the Office interface. The service is being called Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office, and already works with Office 2003, 2007, and 2010 (no word on the Mac versions of Office, though).Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office used to be through DocVerse, a company that Google acquired in March of this year. DocVerse allowed Office users to edit their documents collaboratively on the Web, much like Google Docs. Office does (now) come with its own collaboration tools, but they work differently than Google and DocVerse, and some users prefer the real-time editing nature of Google's services.
Immediately following the acquisition announcement, Google rolled out a migration tool for Microsoft Exchange, showing that it was serious about going after Microsoft's customers. The reintroduction of DocVerse as Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office only furthers that goal—Google says it's meant for users who haven't yet migrated to Google Docs and prefer the Office interface.
"Once synced, documents are backed up, given a unique URL, and can be accessed from anywhere (including mobile devices) at any time through Google Docs," group product manager Shan Sinha said in a statement. "And because the files are stored in the cloud, people always have access to the current version."
Just like Google Docs, Office documents that are synced with Cloud Connect for Office can be shared and edited simultaneously among multiple users. It can be done within Office, too, so editing in a Web browser isn't necessary. Google keeps track of the revisions so that documents can be reverted if necessary.
Google says that the service is now available to "trusted testers" and for Google Apps for Business customers to preview. The company didn't give a date for when the final product will be available, but said that the product will be free to everyone (regular users included) when it launches.
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Apple releases iOS 4.2 with free Find My Phone for some
Apple on Monday said that it plans to release the promised update to iOS 4.2 for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch. The update brings a number of long-awaited iOS 4 features to the iPad and adds the new AirPlay and AirPrint features for all iOS devices. In somewhat of a surprise, owners of the latest iOS devices can now use the Find My iPhone feature for free.iOS 4.2 brings a slew of new or updated features to the iPad—features that iPhone and iPod touch users have been enjoying since June when iOS 4.0 debuted on the iPhone 4. This includes the iOS version of multitasking and fast app switching, the ability to organize apps into folders, a unified inbox and threaded messaging for Mail, and access to Game Center for keeping track of game achievements, scores, and challenges.
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Netflix intros $7.99 streaming-only plan, bumps DVD prices
Netflix has finally introduced its long-awaited streaming-only plan. Netflix VP of Marketing Jessie Becker wrote in a blog post Monday morning that the new plan would cost $7.99 per month—$1 less than the old one-DVD-plus-streaming plan—and that those who only want to stream will get no DVDs by mail. Those who still want to stream and get DVDs will have to open their wallets, though, because the company is raising prices on all of its DVD plans.Becker said that Netflix's selection of streaming TV and movies had "grown dramatically" and that the price increase on the DVD-plus-streaming plans would "allow us to continue to offer the popular plan choice of unlimited TV episodes and movies streaming instantly along with unlimited DVDs." That means the previous $8.99 1-DVD plan is now $9.99, the $13.99 2-DVD plan is now $14.99, and the $16.99 3-DVD plan is now $19.99, and so on.
"You might also wonder why we haven’t introduced a new plan that includes only DVDs by mail," Becker wrote. "The fact is that Netflix members are already watching more TV episodes and movies streamed instantly over the Internet than on DVDs, and we expect that trend to continue."
Netflix's streaming service has been available since 2007, but has always been an add-on to the traditional disc plans. Netflix has, however, been promising to roll out a streaming-only plan since early 2009 when the company's CEO said the company's goal for 2010 was to "be successful in streaming."
The new streaming-only plan is no doubt targeted at users who watch copious amounts of Netflix content on Rokus, Apple TVs, Boxee boxes, and Xboxes. Personally, I can go weeks without remembering to send back my one DVD to get a new one, but I will have a hard time deciding whether I want to save $2 per month and go all streaming. Some of the best movies are still DVD-only on Netflix (a long-standing complaint among prolific streamers), and the occasional DVD is sometimes nice to have. For those of you who subscribe to Netflix, will you cut discs out of your life for $7.99 per month?
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Microsoft claims Kinect left open by design (with bonus hacked vids)
The Kinect's open-source PC drivers allow coders to have their way with the hardware, and we've already begun to see interesting things coming from the community. On NPR last Friday, a company spokesman said that wasn't an accident: Microsoft left the USB connection open by design.That could be a retcon—or it could be the truth—but it's nice to hear Microsoft be so welcoming of third-party drivers on the hardware, especially since the announcement was made in such a public forum. And we already have a real-time lightsaber demo... and that's pretty much wicked.
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Catching bananas, throwing controllers: Ars reviews Donkey Kong Country Returns
Donkey Kong Country Returns is difficult and makes no apologies for it. You'll die often, you'll be surprised by enemies and circumstances, and you'll have to play certain levels over and over before you see the end. Bone-crushingly hard games aren't rare these days, but Nintendo brings a certain swing to the frustration. Playing this game is like sitting across from a friendly chess master who is also a skilled conversationalist; you'll lose way more often than you'll win, but at least the time you spend doing it is fun.Creating a game this hard that doesn't cause the player to walk away is tricky, but Nintendo nails it.
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Changing software, hardware a nightmare for tracking scientific data
We've gone into all the problems involved with preserving and sharing scientific data in some detail, but the challenges don't end there. Typically, data doesn't speak for itself; it has to be analyzed and interpreted. And, these days, that analysis generally involves computer tools. Even basic images of cells can end up being processed to look for things like signal intensity and total area of signal. The results of that analysis may end up plugged into a spreadsheet and subjected to a further analysis. This general approach—a pipeline of software tools—makes documenting and reproducing exactly what happened to generate a final result. We touched on some of these issues in our story on reproducibility in computer analysis, but they're worth emphasizing again.
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Worst gadget ever? Ars reviews a $99 Android tablet
It really says something when some of your customers ask the Internet whether they got the right thing when they received your product, or whether it got switched out with some joke Chinese knockoff that's not really supposed to work.
The Maylong M-150 TabletPC is an Android-based device sold by Walgreens for a mere $99 a pop. The obvious purpose for this tablet's existence is to appeal to bargain basement shoppers—grandmas, poor college kids, those on a tight budget—by claiming to offer a full tablet experience for cheap. I mean, it runs Android, right? That's a legit operating system nowadays. Unfortunately, the Maylong M-150 is the very epitome of "race to the bottom," and anyone looking to buy one would get more bang for the buck by setting it on fire for warmth.
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Feature: Ars reviews the OnLive microconsole, service
The idea of streaming video content is now commonplace, but streaming games? OnLive is doing it. By running the games on powerful computers and then streaming the gameplay to your PC or television via the microconsole, you can play even high-end games on low-end hardware.I've been using OnLive for over a year now, and I've seen the good times and the bad times. Now that the microconsole is here and we've had some time to play around with both the hardware and the service itself, it's time for our final thoughts.
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Legislation would give DHS some power over private networks
A new bill making the rounds on Capitol Hill will give the Department of Homeland Security some amount of regulatory control over private networks. HR 6423, "The Homeland Security Cyber and Physical Infrastructure Protection Act of 2010," will empower DHS to set cybersecurity standards for some private networks that are considered critical infrastructure. Among other things, the bill's sponsors claim that HR 6423 is aimed at the following goals:
- Creating a new Cybersecurity Compliance Division to oversee the establishment of performance-based standards that reflect the risks particular to the .gov domain and critical infrastructure networks.
- Requiring DHS to work with network operators, to develop tailored security plans that meet risk-based, performance-based standards, similar to the current chemical security law.
- Requiring DHS to share threat intelligence and protect proprietary information.
It's not surprising that the Obama administration's Democratic allies in the House are taking this approach to critical infrastructure, given all the talk about deeper public/private cybersecurity collaboration in the president's cybersecurity plan, unveiled earlier this year.
Utility companies, with their local monopolies, may feel that they can afford to skimp on security, and so they may benefit from greater oversight. But it's hard to imagine that many of the other private sector entities that would face new DHS oversight will be any more incentivized than they already are to keep bad actors from bringing down their systems. The idea that DHS will have something to teach a major national bank about keeping its networks from being taken out by a cyberattack seems tough to imagine..
Will the threat of fines from DHS really make them work harder than the threat of being put out of business by a cyberattack?
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Rovio's Angry Birds won't fly on slow Android devices
Rovio recently brought Angry Birds to the Android platform, but the popular (and oddly addictive) physics game is suffering performance problems on certain handsets with slow processors. In a blog entry published on Thursday, the company announced plans for a new "lightweight" version that will work better on legacy hardware.The need for two separate versions of Angry Birds on Android looks a lot like a symptom of platform fragmentation, but it is actually a consequence of hardware fragmentation. The handsets that can't run Angry Birds all have relatively weak CPUs, many clocked at 528mhz. It shouldn't surprise anyone that the T-Mobile G1 and other first generation Android phones can't run the latest computationally-intensive Android games, but there are also a few relatively recent handsets that also landed on Rovio's list of bad birds.
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MP3Tunes safe harbor challenge a legal test for cloud storage
A key test of digital copyright law will soon be heard in New York federal court over whether online music storage services and search engines can be held liable when users upload copyrighted material. The outcome could have far-reaching implications for so-called “cloud-based” services, which allow users to store their content on remote servers accessible via the Internet.Among the key issues is the “safe harbor” provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which protects Internet service providers like Google, Yahoo and Facebook from copyright liability if they promptly remove infringing content upon notification. Last Tuesday several influential digital rights groups filed a brief supporting the defendant in the case, MP3Tunes, urging the court to uphold the “safe harbor” provision, lest online innovation be stifled.
For MP3Tunes CEO and founder Michael Robertson this case is personal. He is named as a defendant and if he loses, he could be personally be held liable for massive monetary damage.
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Weird Science flings poop at the primate family tree
Feeling evolution in your guts: Evolutionary biology can benefit from a bit of fecal matter, as it gets the Weird Science treatment this week thanks to the primary component of those samples, namely gut bacteria. It's possible to compare DNA sequences of all the great apes, including us humans, and figure out what their evolutionary relationships are. But you don't need to use the animal's DNA. It seems that the gut bacteria of the species started diverging at the same time the species did. So, at least within primates, you can sequence the DNA in a fecal sample and figure out what the evolutionary relationships are. Is it better to scrape or cut a used diaper?: That's just one of the many questions answered by a paper that describes the use of infants' diapers in order to define the timecourse of hormonal surges in infants. It turns out that, with the exception of a single burst of activity, we don't really know how the hormones of newborns change over the first few months of their lives. Since jabbing them for blood samples daily probably isn't a good idea, a group of researchers decided that fecal samples were the way to go, and they collected them from used diapers. For the curious, it doesn't matter whether you scrape the sample off or just gently cut around it.
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"Put up or shut up" time for US Copyright Group
The US Copyright Group (USCG) has sued more than 16,000 people this year for sharing movies online, with the lawsuits all based on anonymous IP addresses—but it has yet to actually name a single defendant. When an ISP looks up the subscriber name associated with an IP address, USCG doesn't immediately add that name to its lawsuit; it sends out a settlement letter, asking the person to pay a few thousand dollars in order not to be sued. How long can this go on before the lawyers either have to sue or stop threatening to sue? Not long. Federal Judge Rosemary Collyer, who oversees several of these cases in the DC District Court, wants to see action. In March 2010, USCG brought cases for the films Far Cry and The Steam Experiment, and Collyer set an initial deadline to name defendants in July, later extended to November 18. When November 18 came along, USCG asked the judge to extend their time again… for nearly five years.
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