More than 170 million people have upgraded to Google+, enjoying new ways to share in Search, Gmail, YouTube and lots of other places. It’s still early days, and there’s plenty left to do, but we’re more excited than ever to build a seamless social experience, all across Google.
Kyle Baxter on why he made Basil:
Simple: I love to cook, but couldn’t find the app I wanted, so I built it.
To me this is the perfect reason to build an app. You love to do something, but can’t find the perfect app to do it.
In response to Flashback malware that’s been in the news lately, Apple on Tuesday revealed that it is developing a tool to detect and remove it.
There is no date that the tool will be released, but considering it is Apple, it should be available on its support Web site or even the built-in software update in Mac OS X. The software is not the only thing that Apple is doing, however.
“In addition to the Java vulnerability, the Flashback malware relies on computer servers hosted by the malware authors to perform many of its critical functions,” Apple wrote on its Web site. “Apple is working with ISPs worldwide to disable this command and control network.”
Apple updated Java on April 3 to fix the Java security flaw for systems running OS X v10.7 and Mac OS X v10.6.
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.
Claudia De La Roca for Smithsonian magazine:
When I grew up, I realized it was just a fictitious name. I also figured out that Springfield was one of the most common names for a city in the U.S. In anticipation of the success of the show, I thought, “This will be cool; everyone will think it’s their Springfield.” And they do.
Go ahead and read the interview if you want to know which Springfield inspired him, though.
(Via the Washington Post.)
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.
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, is scheduled to occur between 10 and 11 a.m. EDT. NASA Television and the agency’s web site will provide live coverage.The aircraft is expected to fly near a variety of landmarks including the National Mall, Reagan National Airport, National Harbor and the Smithsonian’s Udvar-Hazy Center. When the flyover is complete, the SCA will land at Dulles International Airport.
If you’re lucky enough to live in the area, grab your camera and get some shots of this fly-over.
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.
Remember back in the day (last week) when RIM’s Vice President of Developer Relations Alec Saunders said the company was removing sideloading from the PlayBook.
Surprise, no they’re not.
It will be Cook’s first appearance at D, as well as his first time being onstage at an event not run by Apple or for investors since he was named CEO last August.
Carrie Cousins:
Pay attention to alignment, contrast, type effects and color because these items can make or break your website design.
Solid advice. It’s the small things that often kill us.
Jason Snell for Macworld:
The iTunes we’ve all come to know has had a good run, but it’s reached the point where it is a crazy agglomeration of features and functionality. If someone were to design it today, it wouldn’t remotely resemble its current state. And as a portal to iOS devices and the iTunes Store, iTunes is too crucial to Apple’s business to ignore or run on auto-pilot.When it comes to hardware, Apple is bold in replacing popular old products with something new that’s different, but better. It’s time for the company to do the same with iTunes.
I could not agree more. I’ve come to hate iTunes, partly because I’m required to depend on it to do so much. For a company so well-known for simple, effective design, Apple really needs to completely rethink iTunes’ “kitchen sink” approach.
Bare Bones Software has announced the release of TextWrangler 4.0, a new version of their free text editing software, based on the same core technology that powers their flagship BBEdit software.
TextWrangler 4.0 touts new editing and disk browser window layouts, switchable syntax color schemes and preservation of open documents on relaunch. A new Preferences window and new Setup window make it easier to customize and configure how to make TextWrangler work the way you want it to.
Filtering and automation has been streamlined, support for Verilog and VHDL has been added, and a new “Open File By Name” feature produces search-as-you-type results. Performance has been improved and user interface changes have been made as well.
What’s more, TextWrangler is still absolutely free. It’s available either through Bare Bones’ Web site or through the Mac App Store.
System requirements call for Mac OS X 10.6 or later.
Andy Greenberg for Forbes:
Locating and shutting down command and control servers is typical practice for a company trying to behead and cripple a botnet targeting its computers. Sharov says that Dr. Web has worked with Microsoft several times in the past on those efforts. But Apple, which has never dealt with a botnet the size of the Flashback infection, has fewer ties to firms like Dr. Web, Sharov says. “For Microsoft, we have all the security response team’s addresses,” he says. “We don’t know the antivirus group inside Apple.”
Dr. Web, a Russian software security firm responsible for discovering the size of the Flashback botnet, was operating a spoofed Flashback command-and-control server. Apple told Dr. Web’s ISP to shut it down, apparently not understanding the system was a “sinkhole,” a system used “to monitor the collection of hijacked machines,” according to the report.
Apple is also taking criticism for the security community for not reacting fast enough to stop Flashback in its tracks – the Java security exploit that enables the malware to work was patched by Oracle in February, and Apple is only now getting around to distributing a patch for its own Java software.
This isn’t the first time Apple has egg on its face for mishandling a security issue. As Tim Cook remolds Apple to be more responsible and transparent on issues like its supply chain, this would be another good area for him to invest some effort into changing.
Yesterday we brought you news about Juan Leon’s downloadable tool to check to see if you have the “Flashback” malware installed.
Now comes word from anti-malware software developer Kaspersky Lab; they’ve set up Flashbackcheck.com – a Web site that can check to see if your Mac’s UUID is on a list of infected machines. If it is, Kaspersky offers a downloadable trial version of its Mac software to remove the infection.
(More details about Kaspersky’s efforts to stop Flashback – and the latest about what’s going on with Flashback – are available from the Kaspersky Lab Web site.
According to Kaspersky, incidents of infection from Flashback have dropped dramatically since last week.
Also make sure to apply any security updates available from Apple through the Software Update system preference. Apple released two Java updates last week to help prevent problems with Flashback.
James Floyd Kelly for Wired’s GeekDad blog:
If you’ve been wanting your own arcade cabinet and don’t to spend a fortune on it, you’ll be happy to know that geek dad Archie Jones has created a Kickstarter project that is offering up a custom arcade cabinet with all the right details…
This certainly isn’t the first DIY home arcade cabinet I’ve seen, but goodies for Kickstarter backers range from a pin to a complete system; you can spend as little as $40 and get a set of plans to build your own. If you’ve ever dreamed of having an arcade system in your man-cave or your entertainment room, for yourself or your kids, here’s a great opportunity. Check out the Kickstarter page for details.
My favorite rock bassist, Megadeth’s David Ellefson, released a new app for iPhone and iPad on Tuesday.
David Ellefson Rock Shop is more than just an amp and effects emulation app. While it does allows users to dial in guitar and bass tones, it also includes a number of extras for musicians and Ellefson fans.
An integrated Song Trainer lets you slow down songs to make it easier to learn how to play them. Trainer also includes controls for speed, pitch and looping a section of the song.
“With sales of hand-held’s dwarfing PCs, mobile apps and devices are the most important new tools for musicians,” said Ellefson. “At home and on tour, when I’m not on stage, the Rock Shop has my whole world right there.”
David Ellefson Rock Shop is available on the App Store for $9.99.
Zachary Lutz for Engadget:
The idea isn’t new to the aftermarket crowd, but Mopar has just announced the summer arrival of the industry’s first OEM wireless power mat, which is designed specifically for the 2013 Dodge Dart.
The wireless charging “bin” is a $199 accessory and it’s situated below the center console. The charging grid activates when you place a device on top of it. A phone case is required, and included.
The Dart itself is a new compact car based on a Fiat model. Dodge is resurrecting the name for the first time since 1976.
The Atlantic:
Don Johnson won nearly $6 million playing blackjack in one night, single-handedly decimating the monthly revenue of Atlantic City’s Tropicana casino. Not long before that, he’d taken the Borgata for $5 million and Caesars for $4 million. Here’s how he did it.
[Via Jim Coudal]
Brian X. Chen for the New York Times:
Last week, the Courtyard by Marriott hotel in Midtown Manhattan was discovered to come with some hidden extras: The free Wi-Fi connection inserted lines of code for serving special ads into every Web page a guest visited.On Monday, Marriott International said it had investigated the situation and disabled this feature at two New York hotels: the Courtyard by Marriott as well as its sister, the Residence Inn.
This was a lousy practice, apparently done without Marriott’s approval. Glad to see them put a stop to it. Hotel Wi-Fi usually sucks enough on its own; don’t need a greedy ISP making things worse.
Developer Juan Leon put together this app.
Jack Tramiel, arguably as important a figure to the early personal computer industry as Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, passed away on Sunday. He was 83 years old.
Born as Jacek Trzmiel in 1928, Tramiel came from Lodz, Poland. After the German invasion of Poland in 1939, Tramiel and his Jewish family were sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp, where his father died. Tramiel emigrated to the United States after World War II ended.
Tramiel founded Commodore International in Toronto, Canada, in the mid-1950s, manufacturing Czechoslovakian-designed typewriters, then adding machines. Ultimately, the company switched focus to calculators and then computers. In the early 1980s Commodore designed and sold the VIC-20, an inexpensive home computer, and followed that with the Commodore 64, a now legendary computer that ultimately sold more than 20 million units, significantly outselling Apple and other computer makers of its time.
Tramiel had mixed success in his later career. Tramiel resigned from Commodore in the mid-80s after heated price wars with other PC makers led to financial problems; he ended up acquiring the assets of then-struggling video game console maker Atari from Warner Communications and founded Atari Inc., releasing the Atari ST personal computer. Tramiel would remain involved with Atari’s operations through though the mid-90s.
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes for ZDNet:
Yesterday AT&T began to offer customers who have an off-contract iPhone the opportunity to unlock the handset so that it can be used on other carriers. It seems that quite a few of you jumped on the chance to have this done and have reported back to me with your tales of success (and woe).
Adi offers a few anecdotes about customer experiences getting AT&T to unlock their iPhones; it’s a new trend, but it’s not universally understood by AT&T customer service representatives, so you may need to exercise some patience.
Why unlock an off-contract iPhone? Going to T-Mobile might be one reason. Another is to travel internationally; you can use local GSM carriers without having to pay AT&T a dime in exorbitant international calling rates.
Nicholas Carlson for Business Insider:
“There was one guy who used to work for OMGPOP who was facing a deadline on whether or not to exercises his options. He couldn’t decide, and [OMGPOP CEO Dan] Porter didn’t want him to lose out, so he hired him as a contractor to extend his vesting as well. He made money too. “Every single employee got something from the deal, even new employees who hadn’t reached their cliff. Porter made sure it happened.”
It’s a pretty remarkable story in this day and age, but it appears that OMGPOP’s CEO really made a concerted effort to try to take care of the people who had made it possible for his company to be sold to casual games giant Zynga for $210, largely on the strength of a single great idea – the popular iOS game Draw Something.
Chris Gallagher for Reuters:
Japan’s Sony Corp <6758.T> is cutting 10,000 jobs, about 6 percent of its global workforce, the Nikkei newspaper reported on Monday, as new CEO Kazuo Hirai looks to steer the electronics and entertainment giant back to profit after four years in the red.
Kaz Hirai led Sony’s computer entertainment division – responsible for the PlayStation 3 – until earlier this year, when he was appointed CEO.
Trevor Gilbert:
In light of this increase of attention, it’s apparent that the record needs correcting and that someone needs to show that while jingoistic posts may be enticing, they aren’t based in reality.
I have said this before and agree with Trevor.
I like this.
Just in time for the start of the new baseball season, OOTP Developments has announced the release of Out of the Park Baseball 13, a new version of their popular baseball sim for Mac, Linux and Windows. The game costs $39.99.
Out of the Park Baseball is a simulation sports game that lets you manage your own baseball franchise. Featuring online and solo play, OOTP Baseball lets you set lineups and pitching rotations, determine strategy and make game-time decisions that can affect the outcome of a game. You also budget scouts, make trades, handle drafts, sign free agents, negotiate contracts and more. If you’ve ever dreamt of running a pro baseball team, this is the game to get.
The game features real player data and team information from Major League Baseball. You can play any historical season from 1871 to present.
New features in this edition of the game include 2012 major league teams and rosters, and rule changes; minor league rosters and international leagues, including Japan’s.
A new real-time simulation mode gives you a general manager’s perspective on what’s happening in the league, including scores of games in progress and notifications of important events. You can also experience interactive storylines. A reworked pitching system more accurately reflects pitching in the “real world,” including the rotation of starters to relievers and so on. Custom playoff options, the ability to create associations with multiple leagues that share rules, agents, draft pools and playoffs, and an overhauled interface.
OOTP Baseball 2013 follows the release of iOOTP Baseball 2012, a new mobile version of the game that debuted last week. It costs $4.99.
Facebook announced today that it has reached an agreement to acquire Instagram, a fun, popular photo-sharing app for mobile devices.The total consideration for San Francisco-based Instagram is approximately $1 billion in a combination of cash and shares of Facebook. The transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to close later this quarter.
Rockstar Games has announced plans to release Max Payne Mobile on iOS this week. It’s coming April 12. An Android release will follow later this month.
Max Payne is a popular third-person action shooter video game franchise developed by Finnish firm Remedy Entertainment. The story depicts a renegade DEA agent avenging the death of his wife and child. He uncovers a plot involving the Russian mob and a secret society with deep ties to the government. The gameplay included the use of “bullet time,” a slow-motion technique that enables players to perform special moves during gunfights.
The first installment of the game was released in 2001 for multiple platforms including Mac OS, and this mobile release is based on that content. Remedy says the game has been reworked for iOS with HD graphics, high-resolution textures, social network connectivity and customizable controls.