Technobriefs
October 20, 2007
iPhone unbound: when first released, iPhone was locked up in two important ways. As a business model, the phone was tied to AT&T wireless service. Much more fundamentally, iPhone was closed to new software from non-Apple developers. Workarounds ("jailbreaks") soon appeared for both of these issues, some of which were defeated by Apple's first software upgrade, which has subsequently been re-circumvented. Apple's lame public stance had been that developers should create browser-based web apps as an alternative to native iPhone apps. Finally Apple has announced what everyone has been waiting for (what we must assume was their original intention but was left out of the initial release of iPhone to meet an aggressive roll-out schedule) an SDK to allow creation of third party native apps. A sampling of news and commentary: Developers Rejoice! Apple to Release SDK in February, iPhone, you'll be a computer, soon, Apple's Coming SDK Means A Larger Audience For Mac Developers, Developers on iPhone SDK: OMG! ABFT!, What the iPhone SDK means for open source and What iPhone apps do you want to see?
Critters: as per my policy of covering any apparent new species: Possible new marine species found in Celebes Sea and New Species Found in Remote Asian Sea? This is an interesting story about moose changing their behavior to take advantage of disruptions from human activity. Bears do not like highways which provides a novel survival strategy: Moose Moms Prefer Traffic to Grizzly Bears. Woolly bear caterpillars: U.S. weather watchers turn to furry forecasters. Biomemetic adhesive: Patterns on Tree-Frog Feet Inspire Glue and Frogs inspire new super sticky tape. Closing in on the "top down" approach to artificial life wetware: Creating life in the laboratory. OK, this is just goofy fun: Snowball the Cockatoo.
RIAA nitwits: more from their lawsuit against the single mom: Jammie Thomas: 'I'm no puppet' for RIAA foes and Defendant knocks Web illiterate juror in RIAA case. Evidence of their diminishing relevance: Take That, RIAA!
Biofuels: National Geographic on the right and wrong way to make them: Green Dreams. Can there be a carbon-negative fuel? Lets hope so because Oceans are 'soaking up less CO2'.
Old tech: Tracing computer history from "ancient" times to the latest technology and Dinosaur Sightings: 1970s computers. Remember this 1950's space technology?: The Satelloons Of Project Echo.
Technobits: consumers love iPods and dislike music subscription services, but Universal thinks they know better: Universal Music Takes on iTunes --- Google and I.B.M. Join in ‘Cloud Computing’ Research --- Taiwan's Asustek launches 'low-priced' laptop --- Broadcom introduces 3G on chip --- 62 Days + Almost 3 Billion Pings + New Visualization Scheme = the First Internet Census Since 1982 (I like that this was inspired by a presentation in comic form) --- Fruit compound fights head and neck cancer --- Couple swarmed by SWAT team after 911 'hack' --- StupidFilter: Bayesian filtering for "stupidity".