Feature: Hands-on: getting work done with Google's new Aura interface for Chrome OS
Google attempted to introduce a new approach to computing when it first launched Chrome OS in 2010. The operating system consists of little more than a fullscreen Web browser perched atop a rigorously-hardened Linux environment. The platform makes some unusual trade-offs, eschewing conventional native applications in exchange for bulletproof security and low-maintenance stateless computing.
Although the unique approach that Google is pursuing with Chrome OS offers some intriguing benefits, the platform hasn’t inspired enthusiasm in consumers. It offers limited functionality and a poor user experience compared to more conventional alternatives. Chrome OS in its current state is simply too alien and too restrictive to appeal to a mainstream audience. But that’s about to change in a major way.
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Oracle's IP war against Google finally going to trial: What's at stake
Nearly two years ago, Oracle went to court and accused Google's Android team of infringing patents and copyrights related to the Java programming language. After about 900 motions and filings, and legal fees that are undoubtedly mind-boggling, the trial will finally get started this week. Android has faced many legal challenges, but this is easily one of the most significant, and one of the only ones targeting Google itself rather than the company's hardware partners.
With Oracle demanding royalties from Android revenue, a ruling in its favor could raise the price consumers have to pay for Android devices. An Oracle win could also force Google to design around the patents asserted by Oracle, perhaps limiting Android's functionality.
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Government trying to deny Megaupload fair legal representation
The United States government has adopted a take-no-prisoners attitude in its prosecution of Megaupload, seeming to raise every conceivable objection to Megaupload's efforts to defend itself. We've already covered the government's attempts to block Megaupload from spending money to preserve servers that the company says contains data needed for its defense.
Now, the government has adopted a new tactic: making it as difficult as possible for Megaupload to obtain legal counsel. The prominent law firm of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart and Sullivan has sought permission to represent Megaupload in the case. But in a legal document filed on Wednesday, the government raised several objections to freeing up money to allow the law firm to represent Megaupload in court.
As Quinn Emanuel noted in a Thursday response, the government's objections are so broad that they would effectively prevent Megaupload from hiring any lawyer with experience litigating major copyright cases. Indeed, they could could make it impossible to hire any lawyer at all. It's hard to see how Megaupload could get a fair trial if the government's objections are sustained by the court.
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Why are video game sales looking so weak lately? Blame Nintendo.
If you're the kind of person that pays attention to the monthly reports on new retail video game hardware and software sales from industry tracking firm NPD, then 2012 has looked like a bloodbath. Industry-wide software sales were down 37 percent, 24 percent, and 26 percent for the first three months of the year, respectively, when compared with the same period in 2011. Hardware and accessory sales have seen similarly massive declines so far in 2012.
But the suffering is not being borne equally across the industry. In fact, if you had to distill the root cause of the downturn in NPD's reported numbers into a single word, that word would be the company that very recently helped the industry grow to new record heights: Nintendo.
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Weird science learns the more exotic, the better, when it comes to dung
Dung beetles have no customer loyalty: This paper just grabs you with the first sentence: "Although the preference of dung beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) for specific types and conditions of dung has been given substantial attention, little has been done to investigate the potential effects of exotic mammal introduction." It both calls you to look through its references to past work (who were these people who gave dung beetle preferences substantial attention, and what conditions of dung did they test?), it also begs you to read on, and discover whether the dung of exotic animals is, well, exotic. Apparently, the beetles are hot for primate dung, with humans and chimps coming out ahead in the taste test.
The press release is also worth a read, earning bonus Weird Science points for the title, "Exotic manure is sure to lure the dung connoisseur." It points out that the dung beetles may just be seeking variety, as "native Nebraskan dung beetles which coevolved with bison showed little attraction to bison dung compared with waterbuck, zebra, donkey, and moose dung."
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Five OS X security threats that fizzled
Macs have been relatively safe from the kind of viruses that plagued Windows users through the last couple decades. But once it was revealed that a variation of Flashback was able to create a botnet of more than half a million Macs thanks to an unpatched Java vulnerability users stood up and took notice. OS X has largely been free of viruses and worms up to this point, but that still doesn't stop unsuspecting users from being tricked into typing an admin password into a cleverly (or, sometimes, not-so-cleverly) disguised installer.
It should be noted that Flashback originally required an admin password as well, but eventually shed that requirement. But the recent Flashback hubbub wasn't the first indication that malware could affect Mac users—not by a long shot. In fact, the first versions of the Flashback trojan itself appeared as early as September 2011, so the latest outbreak wasn't even the first we've heard of this particular malware.
As Apple continues to increase its share of the PC market, Macs are becoming a viable target for malware authors, sprouting a handful or two of trojans in the last decade. Here are five in particular that were considered (by some) to be harbingers of a great malware infestation for OS X that instead proved to be more bark than bite.
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LinkedIn leak points to Xbox Live "monetization" changes for holiday season
Where would we be, as journalists and news consumers, without LinkedIn and its members' penchant for listing upcoming projects and pending accomplishments well before the public relations gatekeepers are ready to officially announce them. This time around, we have Microsoft group product planner Praveen Rutnam's LinkedIn page to thank. Rutman's profile contained word that the company is apparently "develop[ing a] strategy to further monetize Xbox LIVE subscriber base that will be implemented for holiday 2012."
It's impossible to say what exact form this monetization strategy will take, and Microsoft hasn't immediately responded to a request for comment. That doesn't mean we can't start speculating wildly about it.
Perhaps Microsoft is planning a new, higher-priced premium tier for Xbox Live membership; one that offers subscribers discounted or free access to Xbox Live Arcade games, downloadable content, and online passes. Or maybe Microsoft will go the other way, offering a lower-priced tier below the current $59.99 annual Xbox Live Gold subscription that offers access to popular services like Netflix, Facebook, and Twitter without the online gaming capabilities. The change could even simply clear the way for Xbox Live to start offering those microtransaction-fueled free-to-play titles the industry seems so crazy about these days.
Whatever the change, Microsoft had better be careful not to make its current customers feel ripped off. When the company increased the annual fee for Xbox Live Gold by roughly 20 percent in the summer of 2010—the first such price increase since the system's launch in 2005—many gamers were quick to complain about price gouging and unreasonable fees.
(Tip via veteran Internet-scoop-finder supererogatory)
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I am SEO and so can you: tool helps tweak content for search, Twitter
If you’ve ever wondered how some website that looks like it was an early draft from the proverbial infinite number of monkeys on infinite keyboards managed to get to the top of a search result page instead of something you actually want to read (or something you’ve written), you’ve been victimized by the dark art of search engine optimization (SEO). In the never-ending battle for the top of the Google search results page, and for advertising click-throughs, marketers and bloggers enlist an ever-changing bag of tricks to game search engine algorithms, often with the help of SEO consultants and a collection of tools that track the best tactics of the moment.
I recently got an advance look at the latest version of a tool that helps bring SEO to the masses. InboundWriter, a web-based software-as-a-service offering, coaches bloggers and other writers for the web on how to tweak their content based on best practices tuned to the user's site strategy. The latest version, due out next week, adds a feature that tracks topics on Twitter to find similar material—giving bloggers potential new sources, and marketers an eye on their competition.
Whether giving the masses the power of SEO is a good thing or not is another question entirely—while InboundWriter can optimize pages for search, following its advice to the letter doesn't make you a better writer (though the new Twitter research tool certainly can make you a better-informed one). But like the honey badger, Google doesn't care if you're no Raymond Carver. To get a feel for what SEO experts think determines a "high-quality" page from the standpoint of a search engine, I used InboundWriter to search-optimize this story. I'll let you be the judge of the outcome; InboundWriter gave it a score of 99 out of a possible 100.
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Hands on with Galaxy Player 3.6, Samsung's answer to the iPod Touch
When Apple debuted the iPod a decade ago, it redefined mobile audio technology. Other companies had already launched "MP3 players," but Apple propelled portable digital music hardware into the mainstream. Sony and Creative Labs struggled to compete, but ended up with fail on their faces.
And now we have Samsung, the latest to throw its hat into the portable media player ring with the release of the Galaxy Player 3.6. This hardware is aimed at anyone considering the iPod touch, and emerges in a long line of copycat devices—Samsung has followed Apple’s lead into phones, tablets and ultrabooks.
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Weekend Ar(t)s: The time is now for revisiting Freaks and Geeks
During the weekend, even Ars takes an occasional break from reflecting on rugged phones or experiencing the Pirate Party. Weekend Ar(t)s is a chance to share what we're watching/listening/reading or otherwise consuming this week.
Teen romance to relate to...
There's almost too much great TV currently running in its later seasons—see heavyweights like Mad Men or Game of Thrones for instance. For longtime fans, it's phenomenal. But for anyone who catches wind of the buzz and wants to join, it's almost... daunting.
Retroactively investing in a TV series comes with a higher barrier to entry now in TV's Golden Age (and that doesn't even count the hate you'll get from David Simon). Stories are more layered, less serialized. Characters undergo real growth through major experiences that you need to consume chronologically. Jumping in on S4 of Seinfeld was OK, but today's titles have no shortcuts. Sure, streaming services make it possible to cram and catch up to the up-to-date masses. But that's a lot of time to dedicate. There's also something unsatisfying about having story arcs unravel in a timely fashion during your Netflix binge, only to be forced back into snail's paced week-to-week routine.
So for anyone in need of a happy medium (high content without the tremendous investment), there is a solution. The AV Club recently sat down with Paul Feig—writer/director/actor who most recently worked on Bridesmaids—to have him provide an insanely thorough and indulgent walkthrough for TV's perfect blend of quality and access: Freaks and Geeks.
Freaks and Geeks was a turn of the century series with equal parts drama and comedy, focused on a brother and sister that ran with two distinct but interconnected crowds at their high school. You had the geeks with their (ironic) AV Club and D&D tendencies, then the freaks with their drug use and low-level criminal mischief. These relateable youth stories were set against 1980s Detroit, allowing for some kickass soundtracking and sly pop culture references. It was Feig's brainchild, with the help of friend Judd Apatow. It launched the careers of people like James Franco, Seth Rogen and Jason Segel. You can infer the quality on this alone.
What makes this particular series so accessible? Freaks and Geeks was a show birthed in the wrong era, when a TV series needed to attain unrealistically high numbers by today's standards in order to live on. It's as if Community existed 10 years earlier—no Internet battle grounds existed for diehards to build critical buzz and swarm a network with vocal support. The only indicator of success was a show's rating and Freaks and Geeks didn't do it.
It's a one season commodity, ranked among the best of its kind though. You can find it on Netflix and now you even have its creator providing the episode-by-episode insights required in the age of the Internet TV critic. If you missed Freaks and Geeks during its air days (or when IFC and Nick have smartly reaired it), that's OK. There are more resources than ever and the current TV landscape is filled with shows asking for more of a commitment while providing only equal (at best) payoff. The time is now to meet the Weir family and finally experience the Freaks.
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Available Tags:Chrome OS , Chrome , Google , security , Xbox , Twitter , Galaxy , iPod ,
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