Apple job posts point to built-in NFC capabilities for iPad / iPhone

Ladies and gentlemen of the, ahem, jury, we intend to show -- through rumors and circumstantial evidence -- that Apple might very well be building Nexus S-like NFC capabilities into next-generation iPhones and iPads. We present for your consideration exhibits A, B, and C: three Apple job posts, seeking two managers of global payment platforms and one test engineer for iPhone hardware. According to the original post, the right engineer possesses a background in both ICT (information and communication technology) and RFID (radio frequency identification), which forms the basis for NFC. Suspiciously, Apple removed the "ID" in "RFID" sometime in the past 24 hours. Still not convinced of Apple's NFC involvement? Consider this: Apple's manager of global payment platforms is tasked with contributing "to the analysis and development of new payment types and processes." Okay, so there's not a smoking gun in sight, but a little innocent conjecture never hurt anybody.

Apple job posts point to built-in NFC capabilities for iPad / iPhone originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 Jan 2011 08:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/28/apple-job-posts-point-to-built-in-nfc-capabilities-for-ipad-ip/

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IDC: ZTE takes fourth in global cellphone rankings, leapfrogs Apple and knocks RIM out of top 5

ZTE takes fourth place in global cellphone rankings, leapfrogs Apple and knocks RIM out of top 5
You like numbers? Good, because it's the season and amid all these lovely financial reports we've been hitting there are some broader trends to look at. IDC has released its mobile phone report for 2010 and has concluded that, worldwide, the industry grew 18.5 percent over 2009, shipping a massive 1.39 billion units. That's nice and all, but check out this bit about ZTE. The manufacturer boosted its annual shipments by 94 percent, stealing Apple's recently-won fourth place position globally and, in doing so, knocking RIM straight into the dreaded "others" category. Can RIM make it back? Will Apple recover? Will Siobhan and Lucky ever reconcile their differences? Tune in next quarter to find out.

IDC: ZTE takes fourth in global cellphone rankings, leapfrogs Apple and knocks RIM out of top 5 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 Jan 2011 10:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/28/idc-zte-takes-fourth-in-global-cellphone-rankings-leapfrogs-ap/

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The Difference Between Hummingbird, Snapdragon, OMAP and Tegra 2 Smartphone Processors [Hardware]

There's been a lot of hype surrounding the newest smartphone processors out there, but if you're confused about the difference between them, tech blog Tested has a great explainer on their strengths and weaknesses. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/ELcHTOhS6MM/the-difference-between-hummingbird-snapdragon-omap-and-tegra-2-smartphone-processors

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News Corp and Apple holding ?The Daily? iPad newspaper launch on Feb. 2nd

TheDailyInvitation Both Apple and News Corp have sent out invitations to an event on February 2nd where News Corp Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch will be joined by Apple iTunes, App Store, and Internet VP Eddy Cue to launch “The Daily”, the long-rumored iPad-only digital newspaper. The Daily is expected to rely on a new iTunes-based subscription [...]

News Corp and Apple holding “The Daily” iPad newspaper launch on Feb. 2nd is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/BY2iuUz-jNo/

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Facebook Shares Dip 7% In Most Recent SecondMarket Auction

A week ago Facebook shares were being traded at $28.26 per share, a $70 billion valuation. In this week's auction at SecondMarket the per share price declined just over 7%, to $26.25, a $65.5 billion valuation with around 2.5 billion shares outstanding. That's a $5 billion decline in valuation. 670,000 shares were sold for a total of around $17.5 million. Did it peak? I have no idea. We still have to update our two week old chart showing a high valuation of $50 billion. Maybe things are just cooling down for a while. We'll know more after next week's super confidential Facebook share auction. Here's the email.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/gluci9UtMuk/

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Deadmau5 Brings Dance Music To The 'Masses,' Wolfgang Gartner Says

'He has a major role in the younger generation to this music,' producer/DJ tells MTV News of his collaborator.
By Adam Stewart


deadmau5
Photo: Charley Gallay/ Getty Images

It's no secret that 2010 was a pivotal year for electronic dance music here in the States. With deadmau5 and Swedish House Mafia becoming household names, the genre's momentum shows no signs of slowing down. Using a conduit of collaboration, artists such as deadmau5 (a.k.a. Joel Zimmerman) have paired up with various underground acts to further the rapid expansion of the genre.

Perhaps one of the most notable movers and shakers of the year is now-Grammy-Award-nominated producer and DJ Wolfgang Gartner, who recently sat down to chat with MTV News about deadmau5 and dance music's rise to the top.

"He has a major role in the younger generation to this music," Gartner says, "but there have been certain artists that have been instrumental in helping it cross over and reach the mainstream — which I think is a good thing. I think rap artists using dance beats is a great thing. I think it just brings more people towards this music that we all love."

Thanks to several key moments, such as deadmau5 taking the helm as house DJ (well, technically "House Artist") for the 2010 VMAs, dance music has been thrown into the forefront of America's youth, a key demographic for any genre.

"Everybody knows who he is now and he's kind of exposing the masses to dance music. These little five-, six- and seven-year-old kids latch on to this 'mau5head' logo — they get into the music and he's bringing this tiny young generation into this music that probably wouldn't be exposed to it."

Gartner certainly doesn't mind the exposure either. Unless you were living under a rock for the past six months, you probably heard one of this past summer's hottest anthems, "Animal Rights," a collaborative effort brought forth by deadmau5 and Gartner.

"It was interesting because I kind of had a preconceived notion about how he would be to work [with]," said Gartner. "I think our sounds are really similar, so I figured he would work in a similar way to me, but the way that he writes music is actually completely different to me. But he achieves kind of the same sound through a completely different process."

Recorded in deadmau5's favorite Los Angeles studio — that would be rocker Tommy Lee's House — "Animal Rights" is a thumping progressive house anthem that melds Wolfgang's unmistakable harmonics and funk riffs with the driving bass line and wobbly synths that make deadmau5 one of the unique forces in the dance music world.

"[Deadmau5] writes these rich complex chord progressions and he does it by drawing these little bars on a grid, which is just amazing that you can do that and get that result," Gartner goes on to say. "It just proves you don't have to be able to play keyboards to write amazing music."

The two sound pioneers never cease to stop pushing the limits on what they are able to produce. Using drastically difference production approaches, deadmau5 and Gartner had the ability to play off each other's strengths while recording the track.

"I'd say the biggest thing is that I play everything in on a keyboard, like even my drums," says Gartner. "I play everything in live and he draws it in with notes on a mouse, which blew me away because his music is very musical."

What do you think 2011 will hold for deadmau5 and Gartner? Let us know in the comments below!

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1654857/deadmau5-brings-dance-music-masses-wolfgang-gartner.jhtml

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WriteMonkey bare-bones text editor now has "typewriter mode" and new syntax coloring

writemonkey
Version 2.0 of bare-bones text editor WriteMonkey has just been released. This release comes after a lengthy testing period (some of it covered on Download Squad), and adds several news features:
  • Text comments: When working on a manuscript, sometimes you may want to add comments and thoughts that should not be included as part of the final text. Now you can preface a paragraph with // (two slashes), and WriteMonkey will regard it as a comment. It would not be included in the word count, you could select not to export it, and its text would be slightly dimmed, using the new syntax coloring engine.
  • Typewriter mode: This mode carries WriteMonkey's typewriter metaphor to the extreme. It keeps the text insertion point in the middle of the line, and moves the text around it. So you type and the lines move back and forth. It's actually lots of fun, and can be toggled by hitting Ctrl+Shift+Alt+L.
  • More statistics: WriteMonkey's had text statistics for a while now (accessible using F12). These have been made more comprehensive, and they now show average words per sentence, estimated reading time, amount of "hard words" (words with more than 3 syllables), and more. There's also a list of word frequencies so you can avoid repetition. This feature has been around since version 2.0 preview 1, but if you haven't upgraded from 0.9 (the previous "Stable" version), it's a great addition.
There are quite a few other features - read all about them in WriteMonkey's release notes.

WriteMonkey bare-bones text editor now has "typewriter mode" and new syntax coloring originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 17 Jan 2011 08:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/01/17/writemonkey-bare-bones-text-editor-now-has-typewriter-mode-and-syntax-coloring/

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Daily Crunch: Bounce Edition

Split Strap Quickly Hits Kickstarter Goal, Still Time To Get In On The Fun SmallWorks BrickCase Lets You Brick Your iPhone. In A Good Way. As In LEGOs Watch This Amazing GE Video Kind Of Explain Regenerative Train Braking NZXT?s Bunker Locks Down Your USB Devices So LAN Rogues Won?t Steal Them Universal Donates 200,000 [...]

Source: http://www.crunchgear.com/2011/01/11/daily-crunch-bounce-edition/

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Internet Explorer 9 to bolster security with ActiveX content filter

Sure, you can wade through Internet Explorer 8's security settings and flip a number of radio buttons to change ActiveX permissions in its many zones, but it's kind of a pain in the butt. It's also not also flexible a system as it could be -- but Microsoft appears ready to change all that in Internet Explorer 9.

Over at WinRumors, Tom Warren has received information that IE9 will include an improved ActiveX filtering mechanism. As you can see in his screenshot, both ActiveX filtering and IE9's new Tracking Protection feature will be available via the browser's Information Bar -- making it easier to block or allow controls. Rogue ActiveX controls have been a common attack vector against Internet Explorer, so it's good to see Microsoft doing its part to help bolster the browser's defenses.

Internet Explorer 9 to bolster security with ActiveX content filter originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 19 Jan 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/01/19/internet-explorer-9-to-bolster-security-with-activex-content-fil/

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Katy Perry Praises Lady Gaga, Ke$ha In Maxim

The 'Firework' singer reveals, 'I've known Ke$ha forever. She's actually in the 'I Kissed a Girl' video.'
By Jocelyn Vena


Katy Perry on the December 2010 cover of <i>Maxim</i>
Photo: Maxim

Everyone knows that Katy Perry is besties with Rihanna, so it might not be too surprising that Perry has only the kindest words for fellow female pop contemporaries Ke$ha and Lady Gaga, even if she has been critical of one of those women's artistic choices in the past.

"I love what Gaga is doing, and I love what Ke$ha is doing," Perry says in Maxim's new issue, for which she also serves as the cover girl. "I've known Ke$ha forever. She's actually in the 'I Kissed a Girl' video."

But, Perry isn't just dishing on her fellow lady celebrities, she's also showing some love for the fellas, one of whom she married in the fall. "I've said Justin Bieber [was my celebrity crush] quite a few times, but I think I'm over it now. I think it's probably safe to say I married my celebrity crush," the singer shares about husband Russell Brand. "Don't barf on this magazine."

Earlier this year, Perry was chosen to top Maxim's 2010 Hot 100 list, and she admits that the honor has really given her cred all over the place.

"It's a worldwide thing — the rest of the world makes it their standard," she says. "It's one of the questions they ask me in all interviews now, even in places where Maxim doesn't exist. I'll go to Timbuktu, and they'll be like, 'You're the #1 hottest,' and I'm like, 'Maxim said so, but thank you so much for saying so in Timbuktu.' "

So, what does Perry think makes ladies sexy? A fun-loving attitude, obviously.

"The way she presents herself and the air she has about her. You can feel her power and her confidence," Perry explains. "Also, the way she uses her ability to communicate, her brain and personality. I think that's really sexy because you all know the hottest woman can be the biggest bitch, and that's not cool."

Still riding high on the success of her Teenage Dream album, Perry shows no signs of slowing down, with a 2011 tour and a role in the "Smurfs" film on the way.

"You know, I wasn't allowed to watch 'Smurfs' growing up, ever. I grew up in a sheltered household, and my parents would keep us from certain things they thought were too much for us and our eyes," she recently told MTV News regarding her role as Smurfette. " 'Smurfs' had what my parents said was a lot of sorcery and magic."

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1653905/katy-perry-praises-lady-gaga-keha-maxim.jhtml

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