Tuesday, March 18, 2014

IT News Head Lines (CNET) 19/03/2014





Dropbox gets chatty and buys workplace chat service Zulip
(Credit: Dropbox)
Dropbox has quietly acquired a workplace chat service startup called Zulip, according to TechCrunch.
While the two companies are keeping mum on the buyout, an email that Zulip sent its customers was published on Pastebin Monday. In the email, the company confirmed the acquisition.
"We have some news for you, but you gotta keep it secret. Can you do that? Alright, sweet," the email said. "Here's the deal: Dropbox is acquiring Zulip. We're incredibly excited about working with an awesome group of people on a problem with huge scale, at a company that's as passionate as we are about helping people work together efficiently."

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Zulip was mostly founded by ex-Oracle employees like Jeff Arnold, Waseem Daher, Jessica McKellar, Tim Abbott, and others, according to TechCrunch. The service is still in private beta but has been working to build itself out as a workplace messaging service, like Yammer or Convo. Users can chat, share files, and search previous posts and messages.
Dropbox has snapped up quite a few startups over the past couple of years. In December 2012, it bought music streaming service Audiogalaxy and cloud-based photo organizer Snapjoy. In 2013, Dropbox acquired mobile-app maker Endorse and a company called Sold that aimed to make it easier for people to sell stuff online.
The terms of the Zulip acquisition are unclear, although in its email the company did say that the service would continue as "business as usual" for its customers.
When contacted by CNET, a Dropbox spokesperson said, "We have nothing further to share at this time."


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Discontinued iPad 4 may see return with 8GB iPhone 5C
Is Apple looking at an encore for iPad 4?
(Credit: Apple Inc.)
Apple is reportedly planning a couple of iOS product refreshes, one of which could see the return of the iPad 4 to retailer shelves.
After reports Monday that the company was planning to release an 8GB iPhone 5C as early as Tuesday, another report suggested that Apple would also reintroduce the discontinued iPad 4 with Retina display. A source told 9to5Mac that shipments of the discontinued tablet are arriving at Apple retail locations along with instructions that the boxes are not to be opened until Tuesday.

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KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicted last month that, in light of the iPhone 4's return to some markets, the iPad 4 would return to mass production as the company wound down production of the iPad 2.
Introduced in 2012, the iPad 4 came with a dual-core A6X chip, a rear-mounted 5-megapixel camera capable of capturing 1080p HD video, and a Lightning connector. But the fourth-generation iPad was discontinued with the launch of the iPad Air last October.
With retailers seeing tightening supplies of the $399 iPad 2, it appears that the encore of the more powerful iPad 4 is geared toward replacing the low-end iPad 2. The refresh would also allow Apple to officially transition away from its previous proprietary 30-pin connector as all of its current iOS device offerings would now be based on the 8-pin Lightning standard.


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Amazon's video streaming device debuting in April?
Amazon's rumored video streaming device could be a TV dongle like Roku or Chromecast.
(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)
While Amazon has yet to make any official announcement, word on the street is that the company's rumored video streaming device could be shipping as soon as early April, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Reportedly, the Amazon device could come with a variety of apps from other companies for streaming music, movies, and games, along with access to the company's own Video on Demand store and Instant Video service.

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Rumors of the video streaming device have floated since last year. In October, it was said that Amazon approached a variety of app developers and cable TV providers seeking partnerships for the rollout of a set-top box. Earlier on Monday, it was reported that the possible device will take the form of a thumb-sized TV dongle -- like Roku or Google's Chromecast -- rather than a set-top box.
Amazon's rumored streaming device could put the company in direct competition with existing devices like Roku, Chromecast, and Apple TV. The price of Amazon's possible TV dongle remains unclear -- but, the Journal reports it could come with deals for Amazon Prime members.
According to the Journal, the device will reportedly sell on Amazon's Web site, as well as at retailers like Best Buy and Staples.
CNET contacted Amazon for comment. We'll update the story when we get more information.


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YouTube enrolls 'super flaggers' to watch for offending videos
(Credit: YouTube)
YouTube has a team of staffers to review videos 24 hours a day seven days a week, but inappropriate content still slips onto the site. So, it appears Google is relying on an army of "super flaggers" to help pinpoint videos that violate its community guidelines.
Around 200 people and organizations have been given this flagging super power, according to The Wall Street Journal. Among this elite group is the British police unit, according to the Financial Times.
These special people and groups have the ability to flag up to 20 videos at once to be reviewed by YouTube staff. According to the Journal, 90 percent of the videos flagged by these people get pulled from the site or restricted to only adult users -- this is a far higher pull rate than videos flagged by the average YouTube user.
YouTube doesn't allow for sex and nudity, hate speech, copyright infringement, and a slew of other "violating" actions. According to its community guidelines, "predatory behavior, stalking, threats, harassment, intimidation, invading privacy, revealing other people's personal information, and inciting others to commit violent acts" are taken very seriously and could lead to someone being permanently banned from the site.

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According to the Financial Times, the British police unit is apparently looking for extremist propaganda and terrorism-related videos, which are also not permitted on YouTube.
"We have a zero-tolerance policy on YouTube towards content that incites violence," YouTube told the Financial Times. "Our community guidelines prohibit such content and our review teams respond to flagged videos around the clock, routinely removing videos that contain hate speech or incitement to commit violent acts. To increase the efficiency of this process, we have developed an invite-only program that gives users who flag videos regularly tools to flag content at scale."
Of the 200 super flaggers, Google said that fewer than 10 are either government agencies or non-governmental groups, according to the Journal. The vast majority of the trusted flaggers are individuals who have spent a lot of time identifying those YouTube videos that violate community guidelines.


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Xbox Chief Product Officer Marc Whitten leaves Microsoft
Marc Whitten at the Xbox One reveal event in Redmond, Wash., last June.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)
Marc Whitten, the chief product officer for the Xbox division, is leaving Microsoft after more than 17 years.
Whitten is leaving the software giant to become the chief product officer at wireless company Sonos, the company announced in a statement Monday afternoon. Whitten's departure comes about four months after the release of the Xbox One, the long-awaited successor to the Xbox 360, and about a week after the high-profile launch of the first-person shooter game Titanfall on the new console.
"It has been the highlight of my career to work on a product so loved," Whitten said in a statement. "It's incredibly tough to leave but I am confident the best days are ahead for Xbox fans, in the capable hands of a very talented team."
Whitten also announced his career move on his Twitter account:
Will always love @xbox. Thank you for the well wishes everyone. Very stoked to join the great @sonos team as well. Many emotions today!
— Marc Whitten (@notwen) March 17, 2014
Whitten started working at Microsoft in 1997, serving as a software design engineer for Windows 2000 before becoming one of the founding members of the Xbox core platform team three years later. He later served as general manager of Xbox accessories and integration and vice president of Xbox Live, the company's online gaming service, before becoming Xbox chief product officer in 2010.


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Craving junk food or a smoke? Try Tetris instead
(Credit: Video screenshot by Amanda Kooser/CNET)
Looking for an excuse to play more Tetris? Good news: Engaging in just a few minutes of highly visual activities like the game appears to reduce the strength, frequency, and vividness of cravings for things like food and drugs.
Reporting in the journal Appetite, researchers at Plymouth University in the UK said that because imagery is so closely tied to cravings, they wanted to test whether highly visual activities -- in this case Tetris -- might decrease craving imagery and ultimately the cravings themselves.
Co-author Jackie Andrade said her team recruited 119 volunteers who, unlike in previous studies, were not artificially induced to crave something but instead reported whether they were craving anything at the moment. Of the mostly female volunteers, 58 said they were craving food or a drink, 12 nicotine, and 10 caffeine. Then half of the group played Tetris for 3 minutes, while the other half were told to wait for a screen to load, though it rather cruelly never did.
For all 70 participants who reported starting the test with a craving, the strength of their cravings diminished over time regardless of whether they were enjoying a game of Tetris or staring at a frozen screen. But the strength of cravings fell significantly more for the gamers than it did for their thumb-twiddling counterparts.

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"When we want something really badly, it is hard to think about anything else -- and the experience is a very sensory one," David Kavanagh, who has done similar research at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia, told Reuters. "It engages our imagination. That can be a real torture. But it also gives us a hint about how we can deal with cravings: If we can do something that engages the same brain functions, we can blunt the craving, and make it easier to resist the temptation."
But if you think you can con your way into playing a lot of Tetris as the sole way to deal with cravings, Andrade says that in reality any highly visual activity should do the trick. In fact, in another study she conducted, making shapes out of plastic produced a similar result.
Now if you'll excuse me, I've worked up quite an appetite for, ahem, Tetris.


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GitHub puts co-founder on leave after harassment claims
The GitHub team.
(Credit: GitHub)
GitHub is the latest tech company to be accused of turning a blind eye to ongoing gender discrimination in the workplace.
After last week's departure of engineer Julie Ann Horvath, who detailed the sexism she said she experienced at GitHub in an interview with TechCrunch, the company has put the alleged offenders on leave.
"This weekend, GitHub employee Julie Horvath spoke publicly about negative experiences she had at GitHub that contributed to her resignation," GitHub CEO and co-founder Chris Wanstrath wrote in a blog post on Sunday. "I would like to personally apologize to Julie. It's certain that there were things we could have done differently."
During the two years that Horvath worked at GitHub, she told TechCrunch, she tried to fit in with the "boys' club" but she had a hard time feeling welcome because of her gender. While GitHub was supportive of women on its staff, Horvath said, she still experienced sexism.
"I had a really hard time getting used to the culture, the aggressive communication on pull requests and how little the men I worked with respected and valued my opinion," Horvath told TechCrunch.
Horvath was considered a talented engineer and was in charge of creating GitHub's "Passion Projects," which "seeks to surface and celebrate the work of incredible women in our industry, as well as produce more female role models within the tech community."
Not only was it difficult for Horvath to fit in with her colleagues' bro-culture mentality, but she was also allegedly subjected to harassment by one of the co-founders' wives and another GitHub engineer who she said she rejected after romantic overtures. Despite Horvath working with human resources to right the situation, she said it was clear that the company's culture would not change -- which led to her resignation.
To address the situation, Wanstrath announced that the co-founder allegedly involved with the controversy has been placed on leave, along with the engineer. The co-founder's wife also has been barred from the office. Additionally, the company hired an "experienced HR Lead" in January.

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"We know we have to take action and have begun a full investigation. While that's ongoing, and effective immediately, the relevant founder has been put on leave, as has the referenced GitHub engineer," Wanstrath wrote. "The founder's wife discussed in the media reports has never had hiring or firing power at GitHub and will no longer be permitted in the office."
"We still have work to do. We know that," he continued. "However, making sure GitHub employees are getting the right feedback and have a safe way to voice their concerns is a primary focus of the company."
Gender discrimination in the tech industry isn't isolated to just GitHub. Over the years, the male-dominated tech world has experienced its fair share of sexism claims. In 2010, Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd resigned after an investigation into sexual harassment claims found he violated standards of business conduct. And, in 2012, junior partner at Kleiner Perkins Ellen Pao filed a gender discrimination complaint against the venture capital firm claiming unequal promotions and pay for female employees.
Corrected at 6:50 p.m. PT to amend Julie Ann Horvath's harassment allegations. Sexual harassment is not being alleged.


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Quadcopter captures footage of active volcano
(Credit: Video screenshot by Michelle Starr/CNET Australia)
Active volcanoes, for obvious reasons, are hard to study up close. They're dangerous to human-piloted aircraft -- as well as human bodies -- which means footage of active craters is difficult to obtain.
YouTuber Shaun O'Callaghan, however, figured out a way: with a quadcopter. He attached a GoPro action camera to a DJI Phantom and flew that baby right into the crater of Mount Yasur, an active volcano on Tanna Island, Vanuatu.

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Amazingly, the drone escaped unscathed -- even getting up close and personal with lava that can reach temperatures up to 1,200 degrees Celsius -- and O'Callaghan successfully demonstrated that volcanoes are awesome.
Also how effectively quadcopters can be used for research where humans can't go. But we'd like to think it's at least equal parts awesome.
Check it out for yourself in the video below.
(Source: Crave Australia via Dronehire.org)


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Cubli cube robot demonstrates incredible balance
(Credit: (Screenshot by Michelle Starr/CNET Australia))
Some robots do something useful, like ordnance disposal. Some robots do something artistic, like produce music. Some are more interactive. And some robots are just danged cool.
On that note, we've recently stumbled across Cubli, a little cube-shaped robot made by Gajan Mohanarajah, Ph.D. candidate and research assistant at ETH Zurich. Cubli isn't designed to build a wall or translate slime mold. Instead, it's based on a very simple idea: "Can we build a 15-centimeter-sided cube that can jump up, balance on its corner, and walk across our desk using off-the-shelf motors, batteries, and electronic components?"

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Balancing is not necessarily difficult to achieve (although it looks amazing); the trickiest part was in getting the cube to jump up from a resting position to a balancing position, since it releases a burst of energy to do so, and needed to be kept stable. The solution was to use momentum wheels, which are the same kind of flywheel used for altitude control in spacecraft.
These momentum wheels were then also used to help the cube balance by using the reaction torques' acceleration and deceleration.
"These torques are what the Cubli's structure 'feels' when the three motors attached to it accelerate or decelerate the wheels," Mohanarajah explained. "In fact, Cubli's controller tries to minimise wheel velocities in addition to keeping the structure upright. This method is more reactive to external disturbances and reduces vibrations and sensor noise."
The resulting robot is able to jump from a resting position to balancing on an edge, then a corner; and it can "walk" by jumping up, balancing on an edge and falling onto another side of the cube, effectively rolling along. It's really cool stuff, and we'd love to have one of our own just to play with.
(Source: Crave Australia via Robohub)


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Apartment owner freaks at Airbnb 'XXX Freak Fest'
One of the milder scenes from the Tomo News depiction of the tale.
(Credit: Tomo News/YouTube)
Should you swear by Airbnb, this story might make you understand what happens when you want to swear at Airbnb.
This is the tale of New York comedian Ari Teman, who rented out his apartment on the famous site.
The renter was a man called "David." He was a verified member. Sadly, by the end of this tale, you may not be able to think of the phrase "verified member" in the same way again.
Teman described his experience fully on a special Tumblr feed dedicated to the Airbnb team.
It begins: "Usually I am a fan of your service. However, I have a minor bone to pick with you, in that it appears my apartment was reserved for some major boning."
It seems that the verified "David" who rented Temas's apartment had some verifiably Goliathan entertainment in mind for it. Indeed, this was to be the venue for an 'XXX Freak Fest," as Temas dubbed the event at his apartment.
I Googled what this might entail and I understand that it involves voluptuous women being volupted and corrupted. Or, at least, something like that.
I am fairly sure it rarely involves hosting one's brother and sister-in-law, which "David" allegedly insisted he was doing.
One can imagine that there would be considerable exertion involved, which might upset things such as furniture and neighbors.
Indeed, the story goes that Teman went out to dinner in New York and returned to his building to pick up his luggage before heading out of town.
He overheard that something was being "shut down" in his building -- indeed, in his own apartment. It was only then that he went up there and noticed what he says were $87,076 worth of losses.
Oh, and he's being evicted.
His furniture had apparently been taken into a back alley and tossed onto wet tar. Other pieces had simply been overturned or disassembled. An XXX freak fest needs more than a compact parking spot.
I'm not even going to go into the condoms. Other people have done that already.
Airbnb was not slow to respond to Teman's big, beautiful freakout. As Gawker reports, the company sent a locksmith over, put him up in a hotel, and wired Teman $23,817. All within 24 hours.
This is very different from its attitude two years ago when a woman's apartment was wrecked by an Airbnb renter.
The company also issued a statement that said in part:
We were appalled when we learned about this incident and we took immediate action to help this host. The individual who rented this space has been permanently removed from our site. We've reimbursed the host for damages to his apartment and ensured he has a new place to stay. In the days ahead, we'll continue to work with the host to assist him with his additional needs and we will work cooperatively with any law enforcement agencies that investigate this matter.

More Technically Incorrect

Gawker said it spoke to someone claiming to be "David." He insisted that he was allowed to have 50 guests (size immaterial, I assume). He also insisted there had been no party at all.
Naturally, Teman called the police. I don't believe strip searches were required.
Despite "David" being verified, Teman could, if he'd chosen, have researched his particulars and discovered details of previous XXX freak fests.
But that's the problem with verification. "David" already had a large number of positive Airbnb reviews. Some might now conclude these might have been largely concocted.
"David" himself, who has the last name Carter, told the NY Post: "I had six people, friends, and family. He is making a big to-do because he is being evicted." (Teman claims he saw 18 people there.)
Teman must now come to terms with knowing that his life and possessions have been besmirched.
"David," on the other hand, seems rather relaxed about the whole thing. He told the Post: "I was not arrested. I did nothing wrong."


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Fake Malaysia Airlines links spread malware
(Credit: Screenshot by Eric Mack/CNET)
Don't click on any link that says it has shocking video of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370. According to multiple reports, links promising resolution for the missing Flight MH370 are scams.
Videos with titles like "Malaysian Airlines missing flight MH370 found in Sea -- 50 people alive saved" have spread through social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, Wired U.K reports. Malware intelligence analyst at Malwarebytes Chris Boyd told Wired that links being spread through Twitter originally appeared on Facebook.

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The blog Hoax-Slayer.com warned of a fake news link claiming that the Malaysian plane has been found in the Bermuda Triangle. According to blogger Brett M. Christensen, the photos used to promote the video is from an April 2013 Lion Air plane crash near Bali.
Facebook users lured by shocking videos typically find that they must complete a survey before continuing. Christensen says the links are designed to look like a Facebook survey, requesting permission to gain access to your profile.
Giving permission to your profile could give hackers personal information, like phone numbers and e-mail addresses. Scam artists seek a payday from affiliate marketing schemes that pay money when a user participates in a survey.
A spokesperson for Facebook told CBS News that the company has removed the links. Phishing and spam are a violation of the social network's community standards.
This story originally appeared as "Malaysia Airlines MH370 found in the Bermuda Triangle? Not a chance" on CBSNews.com.


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Could selfies be pushing more Americans to plastic surgery?
A woman takes a selfie outside Rockefeller Center last year.
(Credit: Andrew Burton/Getty Images)
Plastic surgeons say they're seeing more patients who want facial surgery, and they attribute the rise to social media and the growing "selfie" trend.
In response to a survey conducted by the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, one in three plastic surgeons reported seeing an increase in requests for facial procedures by patients who wanted to look better online. The doctors reported that between 2012 and 2013, they saw a 10 percent rise in nose jobs, a 7 percent rise in hair transplants, and a 6 percent rise in eyelid surgery.
"Social platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, and the iPhone app Selfie.im, which are solely image based, force patients to hold a microscope up to their own image and often look at it with a more self-critical eye than ever before," Dr. Edward Farrior, president of the academy, said in a news release. "These images are often the first impressions young people put out there to prospective friends, romantic interests, and employers, and our patients want to put their best face forward."

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In part because of social media, surgeons reported that plastic-surgery patients are getting younger.
The annual poll queries a select group of the organization's 2,700 members to get a sense of the latest trends in facial plastic surgery. This year, 58 percent of the doctors surveyed said they saw an increase in patients under 30 coming in for plastic surgery and injections in the last year.
The study found that bullying is also a factor in young people deciding to get surgery, "but most surgeons surveyed report children and teens are undergoing plastic surgery as a result of being bullied (69 percent) rather than to prevent being bullied (31 percent)."
Women are still plastic surgery's primary customers, accounting for 81 percent of all procedures and injections, but men are increasingly becoming more interested in plastic surgery. Whereas women more often ask for facelifts and eye lifts, men are more interested in keeping their hair and combating wrinkles.
Meanwhile, in the under-35 category, the nose job remained the most popular elective surgical procedure for both genders, accounting for 90 percent of procedures in women and 86 percent in men.
Have your selfies ever made you feel self-conscious about the way you look?
This story originally appeared on CBSNews.com.


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Facebook opens access to early builds of Messenger for Android
Facebook said Monday that it has created a Facebook Messenger for Android beta program, meaning the social network will give anyone who wants to help bug-test its messaging app early access to a prerelease version of Messenger.
The company has promised its Messenger testers multiple updates per week and access to experimental features. Facebook even hinted that its Messenger for Android guinea pigs might get to test new types of sharing, though the company left out specifics.

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The Messenger beta program is similar to the company's Facebook for Android beta testing initiative, which the social network kicked off this past June. The program has 1 million active participants, Facebook said.
"As with the main Facebook application, our goals with this program are to expand our pool of testers and gain feedback across a more diverse set of devices," Luiz Scheidegger, an engineer on the mobile infrastructure team, wrote in a blog post.
Social networkers can opt in to the new program by joining the Google group, selecting to "Become a Tester" in the Google Play Store, and turning on automatic updates for the app.


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3D-printed medical device rescues baby's breath
Garrett with his parents.
(Credit: University of Michigan Health System)
Garrett Peterson is only 18 months old, but he has been hooked to a ventilator just to stay alive. He suffers from a serious form of tracheobronchomalacia, which causes his breathing airways to collapse. Even slight movements can trigger the problem, so he has been unable to go home with his parents, Natalie and Jake Peterson. That's about to change thanks to the use of a 3D-printed trachael splint.
"Nothing would stop him from turning blue," said Natalie Peterson in a release from the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children's Hospital, where Garrett underwent surgery in January. "Just lifting his legs for diaper change would collapse his airways and that was it. There was nothing we could do to help him."

These 3D-printed splints were made to match Garrett. (Click to enlarge.)
(Credit: University of Michigan Health System)
Using a technique pioneered by researchers from the University of Michigan, Garrett was surgically fitted with a custom splint. It was printed based on a 3D model made from a CT scan of the baby's bronchi and trachea. The splint is now helping to keep his airways open, and he is being weaned from the ventilator.
Glenn Green is one of the doctors who developed the device, and he assisted in Garrett's surgery. "This is absolutely fabulous. We know that the splint's working. He's able to ventilate both lungs for the first time. I'm very optimistic for him," said Green shortly after the surgery.
The splint was printed using polycaprolactone, a type of biopolymer that will break down and be absorbed by the body over the course of a few years. By the time the splint is gone, Garrett's airways should be strong enough to stay open without assistance.

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This is only the second time the technique has been used. The first time was last year, when a baby with the same condition received the device. That child recently turned 2 and is doing well, with no lingering symptoms from the condition, according to the release. News of that successful first attempt prompted Garrett's parents to look to the 3D-printed splint as a solution.
Before the splint, Garrett would stop breathing up to several times a day and he wasn't getting better. Since 3D printers have grown in popularity, doctors and designers have used them for everything from casts to prosthetics. Garrett's case shows just how great an impact this burgeoning technology can have on a life. It's giving a child who couldn't even go home a ticket to a normal life.


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Microsoft's Nadella may reveal Office on iPad on March 27
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
(Credit: Microsoft)
It looks like Microsoft's new CEO himself may be taking the wraps off Microsoft's Office for iPad.
Microsoft has scheduled a March 27 press briefing in San Francisco with news "focused on the intersection of cloud and mobile computing." Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella will be providing the opening remarks.
According to several sources of mine, Microsoft's latest timetable calls for the company to finally introduce the long-rumored Microsoft Office for iPad suite of applications before the end of March 2014. This March 27 event sounds like it might be the time and place.
The suite for the iPad is rumored to include only Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote, and possibly no other Office client apps. It is expected to be downloaded from the Apple Store but most likely to require a Microsoft Office 365 subscription, similar to the way Office Mobile for iPhone works.
The recently announced Microsoft Office 365 Personal subscription -- which allows users to install Office on one PC or Mac, plus one tablet -- is expected to add iPads as one of the supported tablet types. (Right now, "one tablet" means "one Windows tablet," only.)

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Office for iPad, code-named Miramar, is looking increasingly likely to make it to market ahead of Microsoft's touch-first version of Office (code-named Gemini), as I've blogged previously.
Microsoft executives have acknowledged, in a somewhat roundabout way, that Office for iPad exists and is coming. Last we heard, it sounded from ex-CEO Steve Ballmer that it was going to arrive sometime after Microsoft's own touch-first, Gemini implementation of Office. Gemini is Microsoft's Metro-Style/Windows Store versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote.
But Ballmer and the senior leaders of the company may have had a change of heart toward the end of last year. According to one of my contacts, Ballmer OK'd the suggestion by the Office team that they'd bring Office for iPad to market as soon as it was ready, even though that would likely mean before the Windows 8.1 version. I'm hearing that new date for Office for iPad is sometime in the first half of calendar 2014. (My sources last summer were hearing Office for iPad wouldn't debut until fall 2014.)
Microsoft is planning to Webcast the March 27 event, which will kick off at 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET.
It'll be interesting to see what, if anything, Microsoft says about the coming Gemini suite of touch-first apps for Windows 8.1 at the upcoming event.
This story originally appeared as "Microsoft CEO Nadella may unveil Office on iPad on March 27" on ZDNet.


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Android games can play nice with iOS

CNET Update is waiting for Player 2:

Android games can play nice with iOS

In this episode of Update:
- Don't let different operating systems determine who can be your Player 2. Google gave Android game developers the power of cross-platform multiplayer support, along with other perks like Game Gifts.
- Change the Google Play Store password permissions if you worry about kids making purchases on your device.
- Download a free version of Microsoft OneNote for Mac and Windows.
- Have more choice in your Surface shopping, now that the Microsoft is selling an 4G LTE version of the Windows tablet.
- Leave a tip for your barista using the Starbucks iPhone app, beginning March 19. (And it won't be long before you can pre-order from the app, too.
CNET Update delivers the tech news you need in under three minutes. Watch Bridget Carey every afternoon for a breakdown of the big stories, hot devices, new apps, and what's ahead. Subscribe to the podcast via the links below.
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Our doom will come sci-fi-style, NASA-funded study says
In the movie "Elysium," the rich live off-planet while the poor sweat it out in squalor on Earth. It might not be that far-fetched scenario if a NASA-funded study is right.
(Credit: Screenshot by Michael Franco/CNET)
We've all seen movies depicting a dystopian future. Usually they envision a small group of elites living in sleekly designed homes wearing clean gray clothes, sipping pure water, and enjoying generally dust-free living while the rest of us schlubs reside in cardboard boxes beneath bridges. Now, a NASA-funded study is saying the collapse of civilization as we know it might not be all that different from what happens in movies like "Blade Runner," "Elysium," and "The Hunger Games."
The study, sponsored by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and first reported on in The Guardian, examined five key factors that led to the collapse of civilizations such the Roman Empire and Han Dynasty: population, climate, water, agriculture, and energy. It found that civilizations collapse when these factors coalesce in such a way that natural resources are stretched at the same time the gap between the rich (termed "Elites" in the study) and the poor (dubbed "Commoners") increases. Sound familiar?
In arriving at these conclusions, the study authors, led by applied mathematician Safa Motesharrei of the US National Science Foundation-supported National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center, applied something known as the HANDY (Human and Nature Dynamics) model of analysis. It was derived from previous predator-prey mathematical models invented in the early 20th century and assigns nature the role of prey and humans the role of predator. The study then goes one step further, assigning elites a wolf-like role. "We have also added a different dimension of predation whereby Elites 'prey' on the production of wealth by Commoners," the paper says.

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The study details just how this type of predation can lead an empire to collapse. "Even using an optimal depletion rate and starting with a very small number of Elites, the solution appears to be on a sustainable path for quite a long time, then Elites grow and consume too much, resulting in a famine among Commoners that eventually causes the collapse of society," it says. According to one model run during the research, there is a total collapse of society just 125 years after the elites reach their maximum size.
So the end will come, according to the study, not from running out of resources but from greed, pure and simple. Hear that, 1 Percent?
Actually, they probably didn't hear that. The report, which was penned in 2012, but recently accepted into the peer-reviewed scientific journal Ecological Economics, points out that the elites are typically blissfully unaware of society's eminent demise. It says that "historical collapses were allowed to occur by Elites who appear to be oblivious to the catastrophic trajectory (most clearly apparent in the Roman and Mayan cases)."
As in every good sci-fi flick, all hope is not lost. The study authors say that "collapse can be avoided and population can reach equilibrium if the per capita rate of depletion of nature is reduced to a sustainable level, and if resources are distributed in a reasonably equitable fashion."
Ah, so that's all it will take. A sudden change of heart among the elites to distribute their wealth amongst the rest of us, and people to stop using natural resources like free lives in a video game. Better start hoarding bottled water and batteries now.


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IBM: No, we did not help NSA spy on customers
IBM has denied any involvement with the US National Security Agency's surveillance programs, and the company claims it has never handed over any client data to governmental bodies.
In response to allegations concerning the NSA's PRISM surveillance program, Big Blue has posted a response in the form of a blog post written by Robert C. Weber, IBM's senior vice president of Legal and Regulatory Affairs. Weber writes that IBM has never handed over client data to any third party, and would send the US agency to the client rather than assist the governmental body:
IBM is fundamentally an enterprise company, meaning our customers are typically other companies and organizations rather than individual consumers. We serve some of the world's most successful global corporations, helping them achieve their business goals.
IBM has not provided client data to the National Security Agency or any other government agency under the program known as PRISM."
PRISM, which stands for "Planning Tool for Resource Integration, Synchronization, and Management," is designed to collect and process "foreign intelligence" that passes through American servers. Due to documents leaked by ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden, IBM is reportedly being probed by China over security issues, as so many of the country's systems are dominated by IBM, Oracle, and EMC. The document leak alleges that the NSA hacked into Chinese telecommunications companies in order to steal text messages and attack Chinese university servers for spying purposes.

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IBM says that while it complies with local laws in the countries in which it operates, it has not provided client data to "the NSA or any other government agency under any surveillance program involving the bulk collection of content or metadata," and "has not provided client data stored outside the United States to the US government under a national security order, such as a FISA order or a National Security Letter."
Furthermore, the tech giant says that you won't find any "backdoor" entry within its products, and nothing has been put in place to help government agencies spy on consumers -- and IBM also claims it does not provide source code or encryption keys to governments.
"In general, if a government wants access to data held by IBM on behalf of an enterprise client, we would expect that government to deal directly with that client," the company added. "If the US government were to serve a national security order on IBM to obtain data from an enterprise client and impose a gag order that prohibits IBM from notifying that client, IBM will take appropriate steps to challenge the gag order through judicial action or other means."
The company took the opportunity to make recommendations to surveillance-happy governmental bodies, stating that such entities need to "act to restore trust," and should "not subvert commercial technologies, such as encryption, that are intended to protect business data."
This story originally appeared as "IBM denies assisting NSA in customer spying" on ZDNet.


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Following Google and Roku, Amazon plans a TV dongle?
(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)
Amazon's video-streaming device is following the lead of Google, and more lately Roku, by going with a thumb-sized stick rather than a set-top box, according to a report from TechCrunch.
The Chromecast-like device is made by Lab126, the research and development arm of Amazon that produced the Kindle family of devices, TechCrunch reported on Monday, citing unnamed sources. It also cited a single source that it should have support to stream full PC games.

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Amazon has been said to be on track to unveil a TV-streaming product, possibly with gaming, this month. Last week, images of an Amazon video-game controller said be linked to the media-streaming device heightened speculation about the company's gaming ambitions.
Earlier this month, Roku detailed its Streaming Stick -- a refresh of its dongle that's a clear response to the popularity of Chromecast -- slated to arrive in April.
In addition, Apple is said to be prepping a long-awaited revamp of Apple TV for April, and Google, following the popularity of Chromecast last year, has resurfaced in the rumor mill, with some speculation of a Nexus TV set-top box.

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The 404 1,446: Where we feel a draft (podcast)
(Credit: Bruce Monro)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:
- "Naked and Afraid" is the craziest show on TV.
- The stress of being a computer programmer is literally driving many of them crazy.
- Another AirBnB horror story -- will these ever get old?

Ep. 1446: Where we feel a draft

Episode 1,446

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Evidence of the Big Bang found in a cosmic 'double rainbow'
It might not look like much, but this is the evidence of where we came from.
(Credit: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)
While you were thinking about where you'll be spending St. Patrick's Day on Monday night, the hard-working folks at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics were sharing the first direct evidence of a concept first put forward by Albert Einstein almost a century ago that helps explain where we -- and everything else in the universe -- come from.
If your list of to-dos and projects doesn't suddenly seem a little less impressive by comparsion, then congratulations! You're a narcissist.
If you want to cut right to it, scientists have spotted the remnants of the until-now-theorized massive, mind-melting exponential expansion of the universe that occurred in the one trillionth of a trillionth of a second after the Big Bang. This evidence comes in the form of gravitational waves that Einstein predicted back in 1916 as part of his theory of general relativity.
These waves, also often described as "ripples in space-time," were detected using a specialized instrument located at the South Pole called BICEP 2 that basically stares into the vast nothingness of space and measures the polarization of the faint background radiation believed to be left over from the Big Bang.
"Our team hunted for a special type of polarization called 'B-modes,' which represents a twisting or 'curl' pattern in the polarized orientations of the ancient light," co-leader Jamie Bock of the California Institute of Technology and the Jet Propulsion Lab said in a release.
To think of it another way, imagine being able to spot and measure the subtle difference between the two arcs of the most crazy full-on double rainbow ever, which just happens to be left over from the super-intense thunderstorm that created the universe.

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If you're still thinking this isn't a big deal, consider that there's already plenty of chatter about a Nobel Prize for what's just been announced. And, of far greater existential importance, consider where these gravitational waves come from. If they were generated by an event during which the entire universe suddenly burst forth from a point that was smaller than an atom, that means the waves we now have evidence for not only originate from the beginning of space and time, but also from a moment in which quantum mechanics (the branch of physics that describes how things work at a sub-atomic scale) and general relativity (which deals with the universe at a much larger scale) must have been working together at the same scale.
In other words, further study of gravitational waves could help resolve the conflicts between relativity and quantum physics you may have heard other physics geeks talk about -- it's sometimes described as a "theory of everything."
At a press conference on Monday, researchers from the team involved in the discovery also pointed to the potential for further research into gravitational waves and the intense cosmic inflation that occurred after the Big Bang to create a "new regime of physics" that could provide new insight into "what is possible at extremely high energies."
"This has been like looking for a needle in a haystack, but instead we found a crowbar," said co-leader Clem Pryke of the University of Minnesota.
There is, of course, the possibility that this research doesn't hold up under the heightened scrutiny it's bound to face in the coming weeks and months, but for the moment, everyone involved seems pretty confident. For a quick visual primer on the discovery, check out the video below.



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Could bionic plants save our lives one day?
The leaf of a plant embedded with carbon nanotubes is examined under a near-infrared microscope.
(Credit: MIT/Bryce Vickmark)
Bionics, such as this device invented to replace the functionality and feeling of a man's hand lost in an accident, are steadily finding their way into human lives. Thanks to new research conducted at MIT, such devices may soon be infiltrating the plant world as well -- leading to plants that could monitor their surroundings, communicate via cell phone signals, act as living streetlamps, and create more robust crops.
To engineer their bionic plants, the researchers applied a solution containing carbon nanotubes to the underside of the leaves on a Arabidopsis thaliana plant. The plant sucked up the tubes through its leaves using a process known as vascular infusion, incorporating them into its chloroplasts, the structures responsible for photosynthesis. The researchers found that the energy subsequently produced by the plant increased 30 percent, as measured by the amount of electrons that got flowing during the photosynthetic process.

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In addition to the plant getting a boost in energy production, the researchers believe the nanotubes could act as a kind of micro antenna. In such a capacity, the tubes would allow plants to soak up certain wavelengths of light they can't currently use, such as ultraviolet, green, and near-infrared.
The scientists published their findings on "plant nanobionics" Sunday in the journal Nature Materials.
Michael Strano, an MIT professor of chemical engineering and leader of the research team, told Crave that "increasing photosynthesis within plants and chloroplasts is the first step to enhancing plant growth, increasing crop yields, etcetera. Growth is a complex process with many rate-limiting steps, potentially. But there is merit to helping the plant capture more light, especially if our vision is to use some of this energy to do other exotic functions."
Strano and research partner Juan Pablo Giraldo, a plant biologist, have already incorporated one such "exotic function" -- plants that can communicate with humans, and not just to tell us when they need to be watered via Twitter, or or phone calls. These plants could actually help save our lives one day.
Send us a sign, leaf Strano and Giraldo injected a plant with carbon nanotubes that could sense nitric oxide, a pollutant caused by combustion, in effect turning it into a living gas detector. According to Strano, when the plant senses gas, "the nanoengineered leaf emits a near-infrared light signal, like in a TV remote control, that can be read by an external detector. This type of scheme can be used for stand-off detection from the plant, with say a camera or imaging array."
"We could someday use these carbon nanotubes to make sensors that detect in real time, at the single-particle level, free radicals or signaling molecules that are at very low-concentration and difficult to detect," Giraldo added in a statement. Just imagine if all those plants at the airport were doing double duty as sensors for toxic airborne particles, or if your potted ficus started glowing if there was a gas leak in your home.
Next up for the researchers? "We are also interested in bionic versions of self actuating plants -- like the Venus flytrap," Strano told Crave.
Uh-oh. Bionic Venus flytraps? I want in on the movie rights. Who's with me?


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WhatsApp CEO: We won't compromise your privacy for Facebook
WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum.
(Credit: LLUIS GENE/AFP/Getty Images)
WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum reiterated in a blog post Monday that his hit messaging application will not bend to its soon-to-be overlords at Facebook. With the note, the messaging chief tried to assuage fears that his application would become lax in its approach to member privacy.
Last month, WhatsApp agreed to be acquired by Facebook for $19 billion in cash and stock. When the deal was announced, Koum promised the app's 465 million monthly active users that nothing would change. Some members, however, are understandably skeptical given Facebook's history of collecting and sharing member data with advertisers.

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"Respect for your privacy is coded into our DNA, and we built WhatsApp around the goal of knowing as little about you as possible: You don't have to give us your name and we don't ask for your email address," said Koum, who will be joining Facebook's board of directors when the deal closes. "We don't know your birthday. We don't know your home address. We don't know where you work. We don't know your likes, what you search for on the Internet or collect your GPS location. None of that data has ever been collected and stored by WhatsApp, and we really have no plans to change that."
Koum's words echo his previous statements and Facebook's commitment to let WhatsApp govern itself autonomously.
"Make no mistake: our future partnership with Facebook will not compromise the vision that brought us to this point," Koum wrote. "Our focus remains on delivering the promise of WhatsApp far and wide, so that people around the world have the freedom to speak their mind without fear."
The promise also comes as WhatsApp readies the release of voice calling, which is expected in the second quarter of this year.


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Madonna cosplays as the Mother of Dragons
This is a much more dangerous form of voguing.
(Credit: Madonna)
If Emilia Clarke is ever unable to continue in the role of Daenerys Targaryen on "Game of Thrones," the producers could always call Madonna to step in. The pop singer shared an image of herself on Instagram, all kitted up as the Mother of Dragons, to celebrate the Jewish festival Purim. It wasn't just some half-baked effort either, she's really rocking the cosplay.

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The photo came with the caption "Happy Purim!!!!! All Hail All Queens! ##certainty." Madonna sports leather, buckles, partially braided blond hair, bangles, and (best of all) two baby dragons clinging to her shoulders. We can surmise this is supposed to be shortly after the dragons hatched, back when they were still cute and helpless.
With the "Game of Thrones" fourth season premiere approaching in early April, it's no wonder Madonna has the Khaleesi on her mind. The only thing that would have made this better is if the dragons were sporting some cone-bras. Perhaps this will lead to someone redoing the "Game of Thrones" soundtrack with Madonna songs. "Don't Cry for Me, Westeros," indeed.


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Line goes live with calls to cell phones, landlines
(Credit: Screenshot/Jennifer Van Grove/CNET)
Line, the Japan-based mega messaging app, said Monday that it's giving its audience in eight countries access to a new product called "Line Call," a service that lets people dial landlines and cell phones from the application for a fee.
Line Call, meant to be an affordable alternative to prepaid mobile service, is being released as part of the latest version of the company's Android application, and will be available shortly in the iOS version. The service is available to members with a registered phone number, and the company promises that its app-to-phone calling service provides "clear, uninterrupted, high-quality" calls.

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The new service expands on Line's voice communications offerings, which let people make free VoIP and video calls to other application users. Line Call is offered as a 30-day subscription service or on a pay-as-you-go basis. Calls to land and mobile lines in the US and China are priced at 2 cents per minute.
"The ability to make calls directly to mobile and landline phones has been one of our most requested features," Line Euro-Americas CEO Jeanie Han said in a statement.
The news makes Line even more of a threat to Microsoft-owned Skype, and comes as messaging opponent WhatsApp readies the release of voice communications options for its 465 million active users. The messaging application, which is being purchased by Facebook for $19 billion, expects to release its VoIP features in the second quarter of this year.
Unlike WhatsApp, Line does not report active users, but the company has nearly doubled its registered user base from 200 million people in late July 2013 to 370 million people in mid-February.
Line Call is currently available to application users in Japan, United States, Mexico, Peru, Columbia, Thailand, Philippines, and Spain.
Update, 12:05 p.m. PT: With additional pricing info.


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