Mercedes told us its “goal is to offer an after market solution by the end of the year.”

Great news.

Apple:

There iTunes Festival has made a tradition of hosting some of the biggest names in music. The app has been updated to feature the iTunes Festival at SXSW.

If you aren’t lucky enough to attend the iTunes Festival at SXSW, the app is the next best thing.

Ars Technica:

I’m not shocked that the middle-aged me didn’t learn anything new in the first episode, at least not in terms of science. But the people involved in the show include some of the best in the business of communicating science, and I expect I will learn enough about the craft to make tuning in for more worthwhile.

I never saw the original Carl Sagan version (it wasn’t available to us in Canada when I was a kid) and the relentless promotion of it makes me squirm a little but I’ll certainly tune in to at least the first episode. How about you? Did you see the original? Will you watch this version?

CNNMoney:

“We’re very, very concerned about it,” said David Teater, senior director at the nonprofit National Safety Council. “The auto industry and the consumer electronics industry are really in an arms race to see how we can enable drivers to do stuff other than driving.”

This is the flip side of putting more and more technology within arm’s reach of the driver. I know I’m an outlier on this but, as a motorcyclist, these kinds of technologies scare the crap out of us.

MacStories:

The problem with iCloud Tabs is that they’re limited to Safari, so if you’re using Chrome or Firefox on OS X, you can’t access the tabs that you have open on your iPhone or iPad. For this reason, Josh Parnham has devised a simple and clever solution: CloudyTabs is a menu bar app that lists iCloud Tabs open on all your devices.

I’m surprised at how often I access them and how useful iCloud tabs are.

The Sweet Setup:

Between losing an iPhone, never-ending security issues, and the NSA, having an account accessed by an outsider is more likely than ever. While having a good password is critical, enabling 2-Step Verification is a great way to ensure data you’ve stashed in an online service like Gmail or Dropbox is limited to your eyes only.

Yes, 2-Step verification can be a PITA but trust me, “getting hacked” is a bigger one.

The Week:

According to a recent study by Ookla Speedtest, the U.S. ranks a shocking 31st in the world in terms of average download speeds. It falls behind countries like Estonia, Hungary, Slovakia, and Uruguay.

How did the country that literally invented the internet fall behind so many others in download speeds?

It’s the same situation here in Canada – little competition means no incentive to get better/faster.

Observatory:

Historically, Apple has been very smart about strategy, while Microsoft has been very … shall we say … un-smart.

Now that Microsoft’s new CEO Satya Nadella has appointed Mark Penn to the position of Chief Strategy Officer, it’s a whole new ballgame, right?

Not so fast.

From what we know of Mark Penn, the gap between the quality of strategy at Apple and Microsoft isn’t about to shrink.

Ouch. Ken Segall is very unimpressed with Mark Penn.

Unmark was just released today and I signed up. The interface is very nice and it’s really easy to use. If I had one complaint, it would be the window that pops up when you save something to read later—I don’t need that, but I don’t see a way to turn it off. An FAQ on the service has been posted too.

The wonders of CSS3.

As the web gets more commercial, more companies want to track and know the real you. The backlash against this — and the desire to have “ephemeral” interactions in the digital world — is why Andrew Busey, the creator of iChat 19 years ago, has built Banter, a chat app with no names and little storage. The app lets people sign up with any user name and discuss … well, anything they want.

Update: It’s important to note that the iChat name was purchased by Apple from Andrew Busey, but he did not build Apple’s iChat app. Jens Alfke built iChat at Apple.

I don’t disagree, but Google seems a little bitter.

Benjamin Mayo:

This means that in the future Getty could replace your image blocks with other images, advertisements … or well anything. It also means that your site now has a dependency on Getty’s CDN uptime. If their servers are down, your site has no images.

Good points.

Fascinating.

Kayla Montgomery, 18, was found to have multiple sclerosis three years ago. Defying most logic, she has gone on to become one of the fastest young distance runners in the country — one who cannot stay on her feet after crossing the finish line.

Her M.S. is blocking signals that cause pain in other runners, allows her to push through, extend her tolerances.

But intense exercise can also trigger weakness and instability; as Montgomery goes numb in races, she can continue moving forward as if on autopilot, but any disruption, like stopping, makes her lose control.

“When I finish, it feels like there’s nothing underneath me,” Montgomery said. “I start out feeling normal and then my legs gradually go numb. I’ve trained myself to think about other things while I race, to get through. But when I break the motion, I can’t control them and I fall.”

Fascinating and poignant story.

There are conditions, of course, but this is huge.

If you’ve got a one word or, even more to the point, a one letter Twitter name, there’s a good chance there’s someone who wants it even more and will do anything they can to get it.

There was a lot of press recently about Twitter user @N, the hijacking of his name and, ultimately, his Twitter account being returned to him.

The linked article digs into the motivations for theft of Twitter handles, talks about the people who take them.

We usually think of name and reputation being tightly coupled. To steal your good name is to steal your reputation. But on Twitter, name and reputation are separable – and both, for different reason, are targets for thieves.

An account is valuable for its following – the people its reputation has gathered. By hijacking an account, you can get a message out to a particular audience. The Syrian Electronic Army, for example, has been known to take control of high-profile accounts like those run by CNN, The Onion, and FC Barcelona among others. Once in charge, the group sends out messages relating to its agenda, such as: “DON’T FORGET: Al Qaeda is Al CIA da. Funded, armed and controlled.” That way, it can reach audiences of millions, many of whom will not have heard of the SEA before and certainly don’t follow its Twitter account.

Hackers who steal Twitter usernames have very different motivations. They don’t want the account – they have their own account, with their own friends following them. Their interest is in having a cool new username to show off.

Interesting read.

Yesterday, we posted a story about a student’s tweet that cost him $105,000. Reader Christopher Lloyd sent along a story about a girl whose “SUCK IT” Facebook post cost her family $80,000. Wow.

That’s it, no more internet for my kids.

> Today at Dx3, Canada’s largest digital marketing, advertising and retail event here in Toronto, I got a look at the iPhone and iBeacon-powered future of shopping courtesy of a few companies about to launch a number of innovative mobile solutions for retailers. The show floor consisted of a full-size concept store powered by iBeacon technology and mobile retail app platform ThirdShelf as well as some interesting new products that could soon completely revolutionize the way we shop using our mobile devices. On top of that, a friend recommended web20ranker service to me, which could help me stay on top of the latest digital marketing trends and improve my online presence.

To really get a sense of how iBeacon technology works, take a look at the video below. Lots of good ideas, though your experience may be totally different, as different as the app built by a particular venue. Obviously, a stadium will offer an experience completely different from that of a luxury goods store.

I love the iPad display that recognized the shopper and brought up a custom welcome message (about 2:20 in the video). Clearly, the store has to think about security concerns (revealing a shopper’s identity just from their strolling by) and data locking (what to do if two shoppers are at the same kiosk). I’m confident these things will work themselves out over time.

Great to see this tech in the wild.

According to a series of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings on Wednesday, Apple awarded top executive leadership nearly 36,000 restricted stock units each, which at current prices would net over $19 million.

Receiving the RSUs were Apple SVP of Operations Jeffrey E. Williams, general counsel and SVP of Legal and Government Affairs Bruce Sewell, SVP of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller, SVP of Hardware Engineering Dan Riccio, SVP of Software Engineering Craig Federighi and SVP of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue.

Well earned.

Apple filed a patent whereby a mobile device can automatically summon help when it detects that a user is in distress.

A mobile communication device can be placed into an “attack detection mode.” While the device is in attack detection mode, certain events can cause the device to summon assistance automatically. For example, while the device is in attack detection mode, if the device’s user ceases to interact with the device, then the device can automatically place a telephone call to emergency services (e.g., by calling 911). For another example, while the device is in attack detection mode, if an accelerometer contained within the device detects a sudden shock, then the device similarly can automatically place a telephone call to emergency services. After detecting a probable emergency situation, the mobile device can responsively and continuously emit a loud audible alarm through the device’s speakers at maximum volume regardless of the device’s current silence or volume settings, in an effort to attract help from other people who may be nearby.

This is a fascinating idea. Seems to me this would be incredibly useful if I was wearing some sort of device that could measure my heart rate or glucose level (if I was diabetic) and call for help if I went down. If this does turn out to be a use case, I hope the license terms are reasonable so everyone can use this.

[Via AppleInsider]

I like it—the site is minimal, but shows a lot of information in an easy to read site. I have some issues with the fonts used, but overall, a good job.

This is so great.

You could see this coming. Surprised it took this long.

Ballmer’s relations with the board hit a low when he shouted at a June meeting that if he didn’t get his way he couldn’t be CEO, people briefed on the meeting said. The flare-up was over his proposed purchase of most of Nokia Oyj (NOK1V), and part of an ongoing debate: Should Microsoft be a software company or a hardware company too?

Several directors and co-founder and then-Chairman Bill Gates — Ballmer’s longtime friend and advocate — initially balked at the move into making smartphones, according to people familiar with the situation. So, at first, did Nadella, signaling his position in a straw poll to gauge executives’ reaction to the deal. Nadella later changed his mind.

This is certainly not the first clash Ballmer had with the Microsoft Board, but it had to be a contributing factor to the splintering of that relationship.

The Winklevoss twins — Tyler and Cameron — have bought tickets on Virgin Galactic using bitcoins, according to a blog on the Winkelvoss Capital website.

Or, to put it another way: Rich twins buy tickets on unproven spaceship using suspect virtual currency.

This has to be the cruelest product ever invented.