NHL Playoffs start tonight! Grab the free GameCenter 2011-2012 app

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NHL GameCenter 2011-2012:

The National Hockey League has an updated GameCenter app that adds new features and expanded coverage of the Stanley Cup Playoffs that start this evening. This update has round-by-round coverage of the playoffs and highlights of games.You can view playoff videos with commentary, highlights and top moments and even listen to live game radio during the playoffs. Game alerts are also available for each playoff series. NHL GameCenter 2011-2012 is available from the App Store as a free download.

Go Canucks!

New quarter features glow-in-the-dark Alberta dinosaur

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The Vancouver Sun:

The image of a dinosaur whose remains were discovered in Alberta’s Peace Country will be featured on our newest quarter — the first Canadian coin with a glow-in-the dark picture.The quarter, being released by the Royal Canadian Mint April 16, features Pachyrhinosaurus lakustai, a large herbivore whose bone fragments were discovered by Grande Prairie, Alta., science teacher Al Lakusta in 1974.

It’s a glow in the dark 25 cent piece that costs $30. Silly Canadians.

500px aims to take out Flickr

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The Next Web:

In a move that should be a surprise to nobody, technology darling 500px is moving to take out Flickr with a new Plus plan. The company had previously held a high-level plan that was priced at $50 per year, but the Plus membership’s $20 per year pricing is aiming to hit Flickr where it hurts against its own pro-level plan at $25 per year.As for the features? Here’s what you’ll get – unlimited uploads and storage, access to files, unlimited number of collections, market functionality included, and advanced statistics on engagement.Another, smaller announcement is coming today as well. The site is introducing a desktop uploader app, for the Mac only. It’s doing so in response to the 30,000 photos per day that are uploaded to the service via the manual process, with 25% of its users on Mac machines.

I was a big fan and user of Flickr but it hasn’t really moved forward. Lots of photographers are checking out what 500px offers.

Space Shuttle Discovery to fly over Washington, DC

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NASA: NASA’s 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) with space shuttle Discovery mounted atop will fly approximately 1,500 feet above various parts of the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area on Tuesday, April 17. The flight, in cooperation with the Federal Aviation Administration, … Continued

U.S. government, carriers plan a national database of stolen cellphones

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Wall Street Journal:

The nation’s major wireless providers have agreed to a deal with the U.S. government to build a central database of stolen cellphones—part of a broad effort to tame an explosion of thefts nationwide.The database, which the wireless companies will build and maintain, will be designed to track phones that are reported as lost or stolen and deny them voice and data service. The idea is to reduce crime by making it difficult or impossible to actually use a stolen device, reducing resale value.

Las Vegas missed out on a full sized Starship Enterprise

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Gary Goddard:

My concept was to do something so large and so epic, it would fire the imaginations of people around the world. After looking at how difficult it would be to bring people to the downtown core (from the Strip), I knew we had to have something really exciting, dynamic, and without equal. We kicked around a few ideas, and then I came up with something really unique. I went to Chuck Canciller, my lead designer then – and a genius as well – and said, “What if we built the STARSHIP ENTERPRISE – FULL SCALE – on the land at the end of the street. Imagine that…”

That would have been amazing….

While Apple is criticized for Foxconn, other companies are silent

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New York Times:

Apple’s rivals are quick to say how much better, faster, cheaper or more popular their smartphones, computers and tablets are.Yet when it comes to working conditions in the Chinese factories that build these competing products, Apple’s electronics rivals go silent.So why would these electronics makers be so reluctant? They won’t tell us, but Li Qiang, executive director of China Labor Watch had an idea: “Many companies, like H.P., Sony and Dell, don’t publish the full reports because they find violations and problems that are much worse than Apple, and they don’t want the media fallout from the reports.”

As the article says, while Apple may not be a “paragon of open communication”, they are certainly do more and doing it more openly than their competition.

The Titanic at 100

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The Big Picture:

The sinking of the RMS Titanic caused the deaths of 1,517 of its 2,229 passengers and crew (official numbers vary slightly) in one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history.The 1985 discovery of the Titanic wreck on the ocean floor marked a turning point for public awareness of the ocean and for the development of new areas of science and technology. April 15, 2012 will mark the 100th anniversary of the Titanic disaster.

The Big Picture, as always, has some amazing photos – including personal effects brought up from the site. Should those artifacts be left at what is, in effect, a burial site? Or is there more value to the living to actually see them?

New iOS app helps ships avoid whale collisions

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Wired Gadget Lab:

There are only around 400 North Atlantic right whales left in the world today, according to International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), one of the collaborators on the app. With such a small population, the right whales are one of the rarest large animals and are close to extinction. Collisions with ships is currently the leading cause of death for these remaining whales.To prevent ships from striking whales, Whale Alerts works by linking near-real-time acoustic buoys that listen for whale calls to an iOS device in a ship’s bridge. Using these whale calls, a GPS system and a vessel’s Automatic Identification System (AIS), the app displays a whale’s location in relation to a ship’s location on a digital nautical chart. The app also sends alerts with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration conservation measures when a ship enters a conservation area.

“Find My Whale” app?

Dropbox referral bonuses double to 500 MB

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The Dropbox Blog:

For every friend you invite that installs Dropbox, you’ll both get 500 MB of free space. If you’ve got a free account, you can invite up to 32 people for a whopping total of 16 GB of extra space. Pro accounts now earn 1 GB per referral, for a total of 32 GB of extra space. Have you already invited a bunch of people? Don’t worry. Within a few days, you’ll get full credit for every referral that’s already been completed. Boom!

Nice little bonus for those of us who use Dropbox.

Mac business sales grow

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CIO Journal:

About 46% of corporations now issue Macs to employees, up by half in just two years, according to a Forrester report. “The use of iPads and iPhones in the workplace is creating increased awareness and consideration of Macs,” said Frank Gillett, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester.Even though more companies are starting to issue Macs, the percent of workers using them is still fairly slim. About 7% of computers companies give to employees are Macs, he said.Macs are the de facto choice of many Silicon Valley startups, and many larger companies now let workers choose a Mac. For example, Cisco CIO Rebecca Jacoby told CIO Journal that about 25% of Cisco’s 63,870 employees use Macs.

The real leadership lessons of Steve Jobs

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Walter Isaacson:

Even though he will not be around to see them to fruition, his rules for success helped him build a company that not only will create these and other disruptive products, but will stand at the intersection of creativity and technology as long as Jobs’s DNA persists at its core.

“as long as Jobs’s DNA persists” may be the key to the future success or failure of Apple.