Category: News

BitTorrent has launched an app for sharing large files, but this time it is not the latest Hollywood release. Yes, I know the service is famous for being a source of piracy, but the peer-to-peer service is also a good way to share and distribute legitimate files — Linux distros, for instance. Now the distribution service wants to add a bit more legitimacy to the resume by adding a way for users to share large files in the course of everyday work life.

Today BitTorrent announced the beta release of SoShare, a service that users can access to share files with one another that are larger than those that the typical email service would permit. Quite a bit larger as a matter of fact. Catherince Meek says users can “send up to a terabyte of data in one transfer”.

She also explains that “Recipients get an email saying that the bundle is waiting for them. Don’t worry, they don’t need to create an account to access the file. You can also create a public link, if you want to share via chat, Twitter, or Facebook”.

Users will be able to pause and resume transfers and files will remain available online for 30 days. That is, of course, a way of BitTorrent keeping the storage space to a manageable level.

This is the very early stages of the service. Those interested can create a free account and begin testing it out as of right now. You will need to install a browser plugin to get started. My quick test with Chrome resulted in no problems, but I will warn you here and now — my last BitTorrent test, using the new Sync service, while being initially successful, resulted in a tremendously slower computer and eventuality in my uninstalling the app entirely.

Photo Credit: olly/Shutterstock

Two fifth-grade boys in Washington state are each being held on $100,000 bond after a conspiracy to commit murder was uncovered when weapons were found in one boy’s backpack.

The boys, aged ten and eleven, are expected to be charged with conspiracy to commit murder last week after a gun and knife were found in their possession. Classmates allegedly heard of their plans to kill an 11-year old girl who had “been mean to them” and went to school authorities. The boys also allegedly promised $80 to at least one student to keep quiet about their plans and, upon questioning as to why they had the weapons on school property, admitted they were planning to kill the girl and six other students. Details about their motives haven’t been released.

“These young men conspired to kill,” prosecutor Tim Rasmussen said. “It was interrupted by the bravery of a fourth grader who saw something and said something … and interrupted a murder.”

The story has shocked parents and residents in the Washington town of Spokane, including the school superintendent, who says he “can’t wrap his mind around it”. The boys also face charges of possession of a firearm and witness tampering; their court date is set for February 20th.

 

The Sony Xperia Z is scheduled to be launched as a general release at the end of February, but an announcement from Sony informs us that the phone will go on sale a little earlier than expected. The anticipated smartphone will debut at the Sony Store in Berlin, Germany on Thursday, February 21st, 2013. Those of you who want to get your hands on Sony’s newest release who do not live in Berlin or aren’t planning to travel there anytime soon, will have to wait for the general release scheduled on February 28th, 2013. Let us know if you’re going to be one of the lucky few who pick this phone up a week early.

Source: Facebook
Via: AndroidCentral

 

Come comment on this article: Sony Xperia Z to launch early in Berlin

A month after launching its vaunted Graph Search feature to much fanfare, Facebook is finally opening up a bit about how, exactly, it works. The product’s primary architect, Lars Rasmussen, took to Reddit yesterday in an Ask Me Anything session during which he elaborated (beyond what Om reported last month) on how Graph Search is built.

Of course, this being a Reddit discussion, Rasmussen answers a bunch of questions about the history of graph search, its privacy issues, his role with building Google Maps (and Wave) and his walks with Mark Zuckerberg. But here are some of the more-informative excerpts about the architecture itself.

I should point out, too, that we’ll be talking a bit about graph processing and graph databases at our Structure: Data conference next month, too. Graphs, as it turns out, are a great way to storing, processing and presenting a lot of data that has nothing to do with social connections.

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Bunnies are usually pretty docile creatures, so when you see a news story that begins with “Bunnies Attacking”, it either brings to mind cheesy horror movies or a terrifying image of cute animals rising up to take over.

But the bunnies at Denver International Airport are just trying to stay warm, apparently, and keep their teeth sharp while they’re at it. Officials say they’re dealing with a massive rabbit problem in the parking lot there now that the animals have discovered warm spots beneath the vehicles. Extended stays in their little hideouts lead to them chewing on the wiring beneath the cars, causing anywhere from hundreds to thousands of dollars worth of damage.

“I see at least dozens every morning. They go hide under the cars and the cars are warm,” said airport shuttle driver Michelle Anderson.

Airport authorities have taken to some unconventional means to get rid of the bunnies, including sending motorists to local mechanics to have the wiring coated in coyote urine. They say the smell of a predator will keep the little furry guys away. For those keeping their cars in the lot, it’s on their own heads if a rabbit destroys the wiring in their car; most insurance companies won’t cover it, and officials at the airport say that parking permits clearly state they aren’t responsible for damage done to the cars while they’re parked there.

Earlier this week, President Obama surprised a lot of people in the 3D printing community by namedropping the technology during his State of the Union Address as a way to spur innovation and manufacturing in the U.S. It was the first time the technology had been brought up on the national stage in such a positive light.

Here’s what the President said about 3D printers:

There are things we can do, right now, to accelerate this trend. Last year, we created our first manufacturing innovation institute in Youngstown, Ohio. A once-shuttered warehouse is now a state-of-the art lab where new workers are mastering the 3D printing that has the potential to revolutionize the way we make almost everything. There’s no reason this can’t happen in other towns. So tonight, I’m announcing the launch of three more of these manufacturing hubs, where businesses will partner with the Departments of Defense and Energy to turn regions left behind by globalization into global centers of high-tech jobs. And I ask this Congress to help create a network of fifteen of these hubs and guarantee that the next revolution in manufacturing is Made in America.

Before the President joined in the chorus praising 3D printers, Rodney Brooks spoke at Solve For X on the potential of 3D printers to revolutionize American manufacturing. He also touches upon how robotics will help decrease costs. Check out his talk below:

[h/t: 3ders]

I’m not sure if you know this, but actor Vin Diesel has a huge Facebook presence – over 39 million likes. It’s probably due to the fact that he posts well and often – a good combination of promotional stuff and personal stuff. For instance, last week he posted a picture of himself, holding his sister’s new baby. Cute.

Anyway, yesterday he posted a video for Valentines’s Day. It’s Diesel covering the Rihanna hit “Stay.”

And it’s everything you dreamed of and more.

With a company as secretive as Apple (AAPL), some of the best information on its upcoming projects often comes from its job postings. 9to5Mac now points us to a new Apple job posting that seeks an “experienced engineering manager to help deliver the next generation features for Apple TV” who will also “work closely with cross functional teams” while “representing Apple TV across Apple.” Since the job posting also says that the engineering manager will help “bring the Apple experience to the living room,” it sounds as though the new Apple TV features will more tightly integrate the platform with other Apple products based on iOS and OS X. Recent rumors have indicated that Apple will release an SDK for its Apple TV platform sometime this year, so it would make sense for Apple to hire an engineer for additional help making the company’s set-top box function more like a smartphone or a tablet with support for third-party apps.

Not everyone loves all of Facebook’s policies and practices, but one thing that’s hard to argue against is Founder/CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s entrepreneurial success.

Have you learned anything about business from the Facebook story? Let us know in the comments.

Think Like Zuck: The Five Business Secrets of Facebook’s Improbably Brilliant CEO Mark Zuckerberg is a Wall Street Journal bestselling book about a topic which is made fairly obvious by its title. While it was just published in December it could go on to be considered one of the major works dealing with entrepreneurship in the age of the social network. We had a conversation with author Ekaterina Walter, a “social media innovator” at Intel and board member of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, about what it means to “think like Zuck” and how doing so can help entrepreneurs build the best businesses possible.

“‘Think Like Zuck’ is an analogy of a leader who follows his/her passion, leads with purpose, builds great teams, and strives for continued excellence in his/her product (or services) and partners smartly,” Walter tells WebProNews. “It is a mentality that drives great leaders to build successful businesses and the approach they use to do so.”

The one trait Mark Zuckerberg holds that entrepreneurs should strive to emulate, Walter says, is “Long-term strategic outlook and the courage to stand up to the pressures (both internal and external) that would veer him away from his vision.”

“For example, everyone was saying NewsFeed was a bad idea and now it is the feature we can’t live without,” she says. “People were saying Facebook becoming a platform is not the right strategic and business decision and now 24.3 percent of the top 10,000 websites in the world have some form of official Facebook integration on their home pages.”

“It isn’t easy (especially when you are in your early twenties) to withstand those pressures,” adds Walter. “It is even harder to walk away from a billion dollar buy-out offer. But Zuck has a clear long-term vision of where he wants to go and where he wants to take this company and he is executing on that vision. Everything he does consistently supports his purpose of connecting the world and making it more open and transparent. Having a clear direction and focus is critical for a success of any company.”

For some, it’s become hard to remember what the Internet was even like before Facebook. Still, even today, Zuckerberg is only 28 years old, and he’s had far more success than most of us, including many entrepreneurs with years more experience, will ever see.

When asked what more experienced entrepreneurs can learn from Zuck, Walter says, “Creating the culture of urgency, staying in the state of permanent beta, not resting on [and] its laurels. That is something a lot of leaders are struggling with, especially once they reach some level of success. The hacker culture that Zuck created is the key to its continuous innovation and fluid adaptability.”

“Find and hire passionate people (independent of their age and sometimes experience) and offer them non-traditional career paths,” she suggests. “Zuckerberg understands the power of passion and the right attitude. Sometimes Facebook hires people just to have the right talent on board, and later on matches up their passions to the projects that they are best suited to work on.”

“Facebook runs hackathons where engineers can work on new ideas outside of their current projects and anything goes,” Walter notes. “A lot of traditional leaders a lot of times are afraid to give young and inexperienced a big chance and that’s where they are missing a huge opportunity to tap into passion and motivation of the entrepreneurial generation.”

As big and ubiquitous as Facebook has become, many wonder what direction the company would take, should Zuckerberg ever decide to step down from his role. Walter is not so sure Facebook could continue to thrive if someone else took over as CEO.

“Zuckerberg has always had this profound vision of where he wants to take the company,” she says. “He has made some unpopular decisions that ended up paying off big time. I believe the reason Facebook stayed so successful was because Zuckerberg maintained control over the company and a laser focus on his vision. How many leaders do you know have courage to stand up to the short-term pressures to create long-term value? And how many companies fell apart because they were bought out and/or changed leadership? More than we care to admit.”

Near the beginning of her book, Walter talks about how organizations need “intrapraneurs.” This is a term she credits Edelman Digital executive vice president David Armano with coining, and defining as “someone who has an entrepreneurial streak in his or her DNA, but choose to align his or her talents with a large organization in place of creating his or her own.”

So how can an employer foster this kind of development within its staff?

“Hire for attitude, not just skills,” urges Walter. “Skills can be taught; passion can’t. You need to get the right people on board. The right people are those people who share your beliefs, live your values, and strive for the same purpose.”

“Zappos is considered to be the company that not only treats its customers right, but also treats its employees right,” she continues. “Zappos has a rigorous screening process and intense 3-week training for new hires. But even with that, Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, thinks bad hiring has cost Zappos more than $100 million. ‘This cost is a result of not only the bad hires we’ve made, but the decisions those people have made and how they have contributed to additional poor selections,’ he says. That’s why Zappos offers its new hires a substantial sum of money to leave the company if after the training they feel like this isn’t the right fit for them. You see, a great company not only has to focus on bringing the right people on board, but also make sure it leaves the wrong people behind.”

“Also, foster the environment of fearlessness, not fear,” she adds. “Empower your employees to innovate and execute on their ideas…passion, curiosity and sometimes naiveté prevail. Don’t dismiss ideas and believe in impossible.”

In the book, Walter says that when a company starts growing, it gets harder and harder to find employees who share the same bigger purpose or who fit perfectly into the unique environment created by its founders, but if building the right team around the values of the company is so important, how can employers overcome this challenge? How do you find the right people?

“First, look within,” says Walter. “Rally your employee base and involve them in finding the best candidates. Chances are if your employees are passionate about your brand and your mission, they connect with similar-minded people. In the early days every single employee at Facebook was serving a function of a recruiter. They were scouting their connections, universities, friends to see if they can find people who are passionate about what the company does and wanted to join them.”

Second, watch the industry closely,” she says. “Who are some of the people who write about the issues you are passionate about? Who are the ones that are being mentioned in the hallway conversations?”

“Third, invite the candidates in. Events like the Hacker Cup that Facebook puts together every year brings a lot of like-minded people together. That is an amazing (and elite) candidate pool to choose from.”

“Be creative in building communities internally and externally that would allow you to identify and single out the most passionate people,” Walter says.

That’s a handful of the things you can learn from Zuckerberg, but of course, there are enough to fill a book. On the other hand, as another book (and the film that adapted it) taught us, some have different views of Zuck’s principles.

Do you consider Mark Zuckerberg an inspirational figure? Let us know in the comments.

When it comes to malware and viruses regarding Android, a lot of people like to put fear in you. I am not here to do that, because I personally think it’s unlikely you will get anything serious as long as you’re dealing with the Google Play Store or Amazon Appstore. With that said, it doesn’t mean you should go without a mobile security app because they serve several purposes. Bitdefender has always been one of the leaders when it comes to PC security so it’s no surprise that they offer an Android app. It’s simply called Bitdefender Mobile Security & Antivirus and it’s has a lot of features for the money.

There is actually four parts to Bitdefender: Malware Scanning, Application Auditing, Web Security, and Anti-Theft Protection. Each area is highlighted by its own icon in the main page of the app, and they are very easy to setup and use. The Malware Scanner couldn’t be easier. Just choose if you want your microSD to be scanned or not and then hit “Start scanning”. It will scan your phone/tabet and your microSD card (if you selected yes) in quick fashion. Hopefully you will get “No malware was detected,” but if there is any issue, Bitdefender will alert you. Also, every time you install an app, Bitdefender will automatically scan it and alert you if there is any issue with it. Now as I mentioned, it’s unlikely you will get a malicious app from the Play Store, but there are still apps that push ads constantly or automatically install other apps that are a nuisance. These aren’t considered malicious and they won’t necessarily hurt you in anyway, but you may not want to deal with them either. Bitdefender will alert of you of these types of apps right after you have installed them to give you a chance to remove them right away. At the same time, if you install a lot of apps by sideloading APKs, you have a higher risk of something being malicious, so Bitdefender will help you stop trouble before it happens.

Next up is Application Auditing. Each and every app installed on your device has permissions. Most of them are for good reason, but most people rarely look at the permissions before they install an app. At anytime you can tap on Application Audit, and Bitdefender will give you a quick glance of each app. You can quickly see which ones have internet access, privacy control, or could cost you money (in app purchases). If any app looks suspicious to you, you can tap on the app and be taken to the app info page where you can get a better look at exactly what permissions were granted. If you don’t like what you see, you can easily uninstall from this page. It should be noted that you can find this information in your basic settings in Android without Bitdefender by going to Settings/Apps/Downloaded. Just tap on whichever app you want, and it will take you to the same App info page. If you have a lot of apps though, Bitdefender does make it easier to get a quick glance of what apps have the general permissions I stated above.

Web Security is the next section and it will make sure you don’t open websites that could be malicious. It’s just a matter of either turning Web Security on or off. If left on, it will run in the background and if a site you are trying to open is questionable, it will warn you. From what I can see, it will only work with the stock browser that came with your phone or tablet.

Last but not least is Anti-Theft protection. For many of you, this just might be enough of a reason to install Bitdefender. We carry our phones/tablets with us everywhere, and since none of us are perfect, we can leave our prized possession somewhere by mistake. Someone could also steal it from us when we aren’t looking. Bitdefender’s Anti-Theft protection works like most other services in that it can track where your device is located and send you a SMS text message if the SIM card is replaced. You can also send commands to your lost phone via the Bitdefender website or by sending an SMS text message from any other phone. On the website, you can not only see the location of your device, but you can lock or wipe your phone. You can even send a written message to pop up on the device’s display. Did you ever misplace your phone in your house and can’t find it? You can also tell it to play an alarm so you can easily locate it. Lets say you don’t have access to a desktop, you can use a friend’s phone to send SMS text messages to your device to do most of the same things. You can wipe or lock you device, and you can send a message telling your lost or stolen phone to send a text back with the location. You can even tell your lost phone to call another number and turn on the speaker so you can hear the surroundings.

As you can see, Bitdefender Mobile Security & Antivirus offers a lot. Now lets talk price. You can use it for free, but you will only get the Malware Scanner, Application Auditor, and the ability to track the location of your device. For $9.95 per year, you also get Web security and complete Anti-Theft protection. That’s the same price as two Starbucks drinks. There are other apps similar to this, but I would say BitDefender is probably the best overall value. If you’re a first time user, you will get 15 days of the premium service to see what it’s like before you shell out your money. I would definitely recommend giving it a try since it won’t cost you a dime. So check out my hands on video below and hit one of the download links to get started. As always, let me know what you think.

FREE Features:

• The NEW Malware Scanner
• Application Audit
• Remote Geolocation

PAID Features, just $9.95/year:

• The NEW Malware Scanner
• Application Audit
• Web Security
• The NEW Anti‐Theft which inludes: Remotely locate, lock or wipe your device, Hear what’s happening around it, Send commands through SMS, SIM change alerts, and Password protected settings.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Play Store Download Link

Come comment on this article: Featured Android App Review: Bitdefender Mobile Security & Antivirus [Tools]

Last December, I asked what topics you’d like to see covered on the Inside BlackBerry Blog and you responded in a big way. While reading your feedback I saw a few trends emerge for topics you’d like to see covered. Here’s a glimpse on what you can expect from the Inside BlackBerry Blog:

Theme 1: BlackBerry 10 app of the week or featured app – I love this idea and I’m starting to research BlackBerry 10 apps to feature as we speak. Expect to see the first installment in the coming weeks.

Theme 2: BlackBerry 10 focus on features – Great idea! We’ve already begun focusing on features like the Time Shift camera, BlackBerry Hub and BlackBerry Flow, as well as the ability to peek into apps and into the Hub. Stay tuned for more in the future.

Theme 3: Media, media, media – Several readers asked if we could show some more of the multimedia capabilities of BlackBerry devices. We absolutely can, and we’re already in the process of developing new blog posts on how to use your BlackBerry device to take the best pictures and videos. In addition, we plan to bring more video interviews to explain how these technologies are developed.

Theme 4: What kind of user are you? – While we still want to use our Fan of the Month feature to give a nod to our Super Fans, we also think it’s a great idea to feature users of other types as well. The Road Warrior, the Busy Executive, the Creative Guru, the Social Butterfly, the Celebrity…we’ll talk to all of them and let them tell you how they use their BlackBerry devices.

What do you think? If the feedback you provided wasn’t included among the themes listed, don’t worry, you might see a new blog post on exactly your topic in the coming months. Buckle up, it’s going to be a wild ride!

Here’s another chance to make your voice heard; share your thoughts and suggestions in the comments below!

Games for the Weekend is a weekly feature aimed at helping you avoid doing something constructive with your downtime. Each Friday we’ll be recommending a game for Mac, iPhone or iPad that we think is awesome. Here is one cool enough to keep you busy during this weekend.

Sky Gamblers: Storm Raiders ($4.99 Universal, $4.99 Mac) is a World War II aerial combat game that lets you pilot vintage fighter planes from the late 1930s and early 1940s.  With several different games play styles to choose from, and a rich online multiplayer world to become a part of, this game has depth.

On both the iOS and OS X versions of the game, there are several different flight control configurations to choose from.  It starts out with minimal controls that allow you to drive the plane more like an automobile, and increases in complexity, giving you more control over the different aspects of a full-featured flight simulation experience.  On iOS devices you can choose the accelerometer to control your aircraft by tilting and turning your device.  For the OS X version of the game you can elect to use the keyboard, joystick or gamepad.

In general, when it comes to flying these vintage aircraft in an aerial combat situation, slower speeds are recommended for better maneuvering.  When you need to go fast, there is a booster that will overload your engine. Overload your engine for too long and you will stall. Releasing the controls will slowly stabilize the plane. There is even an autopilot mode that keeps the lane flying on course. To learn how to control your plane, there are a series of six tutorials that will teach you everything from the basic controls of flying in each of the different difficulty modes to how to take off and land and even how to issue commands as the leader of a squadron.

The hangar is stocked with seven plane types, two jets, a couple of bombers, and seven legendary aircraft, including my personal favorite, the Chance Vought F4U Corsair from the 1970s TV program Black Sheep Squadron.  The aircraft are true to the period, and when you get hot in aerial combat, you actually see bullet holes in the glass canopy of your cockpit.

Before you start each mission, each aircraft has three upgrade options to choose from.  The upgrades can increase the firepower, weapon types, speed and accuracy of the weapons.  As you play the game, more aircraft will be unlocked based on the success of your missions.  If you don’t want to wait, there is of course an in-app purchase that will unlock all of the planes and let you choose what you want to fly right from the start.  Also through an in-app purchase is the ability to paint your aircraft, allowing you to fly with a bit of personality.

There are nine single-player modes to choose from. In the campaign mode you can choose from fighting the Battle of Britain or the Asia-Pacific War. There are six missions you must complete in each of the two campaigns. With each mission you can expect to be assigned the task of destroying an enemy target, escorting bombers on their mission, or protecting a land of sea-based strategic assets. Once you complete all of the missions, you can tackle an additional 13 dogfight missions and ultimately see how long you can last in survival mode. Also in single player, you can choose one of six different settings as you play capture the flag, defend the base and team death match.  The best part is that gameplay is not linear.  If you tire of the campaigns, you can elect to play quick game of capture the flag, or see how long you can hold out in a survival challenge.

When you think you are ready and have earned your wings in single-player mode, you can enter into the online world of multiplayer gaming. You can elect to play locally over Wi-Fi, online against a global force of players, or by using Game Center to challenge your friends.  Most of the gameplay styles of the single-player mode are also available as game types when playing online multiplayer games.

The skill of the artificial pilots in single-player mode is sufficient enough to pose a real challenge and get you ready to take on your friends online.  The different styles of controlling your aircraft will appeal to novice and more experienced flight simulator aficionados alike.  As a novice flyer, once you master the game’s basic controls, you can change the configuration and learn to control your aircraft with more of a simulator experience.  With so many different game styles, missions, planes and scenery to choose from in both single- and multi-player modes, there is more than enough to keep you occupied defending the skies this weekend.

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The U.K.‘s Food Standards Agency (FSA) today revealed that horse meat was found during the DNA testing of beef products. The beef products tested would have been found in school and restaurant meals.

The DNA testing, so far, covers 2,501 samples. Of these, 29 of the samples were found to be positive for presence of horse DNA at or above the level of 1%.

“Since this incident began on 16 January, businesses have been carrying out a large number of tests,” said Catherine Brown, FSA Chief Executive. “We said that industry should share those results with us, and the public, and we asked for the first results to be with us today. The results so far date from when businesses began their testing four weeks ago. They include results which were received by companies up to around 10am this morning.”

Companies were asked to test composite beef products, such as burgers. The FSA report shows that horse meat was found in beef burgers, beef lasagne, and spaghetti bolognese.

Though those 29 positive samples make up less than 2% of all the samples tested, that’s still too much for the FSA.

“We’ve asked industry to test for horse DNA down to a level of 1%,” said Brown. “There are two reasons for this. First, that’s a pragmatic level above which we think any contamination would be due to either gross incompetence or deliberate fraud; it’s not going to be accidental. Second, some laboratories can only test accurately down to a level of 1%.

“But that does not mean that we’re not concerned with, or that we accept, levels below 1%. In terms of faith groups, there remains a significant issue about trace levels of other species below 1%. So we have a separate programme of work under way with Defra to look at the issues around that, too.”

The horse meat scandal in the U.K. began in January, when horse meat was found in beef products sold in Ireland.

Though the cases were not explicitly linked to the horse meat scandal, police this week have arrested several individuals from the Peter Boddy Slaughterhouse in Todmorden, West Yorkshire. Police have also conducted related raids in Hull and Tottenham, where they collected “computers and documentary evidence”, as well as “meat samples.”

Canonical announced last week that Ubuntu Mobile would be launching across certain markets in October. The company didn’t say if the U.S. would be included in the initial launch, but U.S. based developers can start developing apps for the platform next month. There is a catch though – you must have one of Google’s Nexus smartphones.

The Ubuntu Touch Developer Preview will be launched on February 21, and will initially support Google’s Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 4 smartphones. The preview is intended for enthusiasts and developers who want to get a sneak peek at what Ubuntu has in store for mobile devices later this year. It will also be advantageous for developers who want to test Ubuntu Mobile apps on a real smartphone instead of an emulator.

There will be two ways for developers to get a hold of the Ubuntu Touch Developer Preview next week. The first will be a set of tools that Canonical will release on its Web site next Thursday that will allow you to flash your Nexus phone to Ubuntu. The other will involve meeting up with Canonical team members at Mobile World Congress on February 25. They will flash your phone to the latest version of the Developer Preview at their booth.

Those who don’t own a Nexus smartphone will be understandably saddened by the limited breadth of the first developer preview, but worry not, as new devices will be continuously added to the list of supported devices. There’s also a pretty big chance that developers will just build support for their own devices once the ROM is released. You can keep on top of developments at the Ubuntu Wiki.

[h/t: engadget]

Genome sequencing is becoming more affordable than ever before – several companies in the industry say the $1,000 personal genome is just around the corner. But, even if you can afford it, is mapping your genes worth it if you don’t have a specific medical condition to consider?

Despite the whole “knowledge is power” argument – it could help with early diagnosis and prevention or lead a doctor to better treatment options for an existing condition – sequencing skeptics raise valid concerns and questions when it comes to gene sequencing for healthy people. How precise is it? How well will consumers be able to interpret the results? Will it just lead to needless hand-wringing about conditions that people won’t be able to do to much to address or that won’t surface until much later in life?

For now, those are questions for people with only the deepest pockets. But it won’t be long before the conversation becomes more relevant for more of us and, in the Wall Street Journal this week, two doctors weigh in with the pros and cons of the debate over whether healthy people should have their genomes sequenced.

Dr. Atul J. Butte, division chief and associate professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine and director of the Center for Pediatric Bioinformatics at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital in Palo Alto, Calif., takes the pro position. And Dr. Robert Green, a medical geneticist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, argues against it.

Even though Dr. Butte acknowledges that gene sequencing isn’t perfect, he believes the positives outweigh the negatives. He says:

• Identifying DNA variants that are early indicators of disease can lead to early diagnoses and preventative strategies.
• Couples planning families can learn whether they carry genetic risks for serious disorders.
• Doctors can better figure out the most effective drugs for a patient or what to avoid
• It can help in the diagnosis of illnesses that haven’t yet been identified.

On the flip side, Dr. Green believes that while affordable genomic analysis opens the door to personalized disease prevention and treatment options, there are still roadblocks. For example:

• Medically dangerous gene mutations are rare in healthy individuals but it would still be very expensive to find them – less than 2 percent of healthy people have a dangerous DNA mutation that would spur a doctor to monitoring or treatment. Assuming sequencing costs $5,000 now, it could cost $250,000 to find one person with a mutation.
• Known mutations may or may not carry the same risk without a family history, so sequencing alone can’t always lead to action.
• Geneticists don’t always agree on whether gene mutations are dangerous.

When it comes to health, I tend to fall on the side of information – the more of it we have, the better off we are. And the rise of consumer-ready medical technology that gives us clearer windows into our bodies – from Fitbits (see disclosure) to the AliveCor iPhone-compatible heart monitor – is setting the stage for an era in which people are armed with even more data about their health. 23andme doesn’t do full gene sequencing but its genotyping services already let people explore their DNA for just $99.

But as we move into this new bioinformation-filled future, it’s important to keep the skeptic’s voices in mind because gene sequencing doesn’t just have personal implications but public health consequences. One of Dr. Green’s most haunting concerns is the rise of “patients in waiting” who spend their lives in anxiety, undergoing unnecessary tests and potentially doing themselves more harm than good. But as others have noted, sequencing could take its toll on the health care system with unessential screenings and procedure, tax the patient-doctor relationship and lead to other biotethical questions.

Disclosure: True Ventures is an investor in Fitbit and the parent company of this blog, Giga Omni Media. Om Malik, founder of Giga Omni Media, is also a venture partner at True.

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For thousands of passengers on the Carnival cruise line that had to be towed to shore this week, a vacation turned into a miserable, stinky experience that ended after five long days when the ship made it to shore in Mobile, Alabama.

But for some, the horrible week just won’t end. Passengers from the ship were given the option to either board a bus to be ferried to New Orleans or Houston–where they could find a hotel room if necessary–or to be put up in a hotel in Mobile to wait for friends or family to come pick them up. Those who chose to go to Houston were not happy early this morning when their bus broke down on the side of the road for nearly an hour.

“My son Jacob and I, when we pulled over and realized the bus was broken, we just started laughing,” passenger Clark Jones said. “People were giggling. Other people were not happy at all. I don’t know what you can do about that. Buses break down all the time, probably more often than ships do.”

Jones also tweeted a photo from aboard the miserable bus.

Twitter

The ordeal was over after a new bus came along to pick up the stranded passengers, but for most, it couldn’t have come soon enough. Carnival has reportedly reimbursed each passenger for their trip and handed out free vouchers for another cruise, although it’s doubtful many will take them up on the offer.

Image: Rian Tipton/People

A key private equity and venture capital index measuring returns in Australia rose by 2.90% in the third quarter of 2012, according to a report from the Australian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association. For the 12 months ending September, the index rose by 6.44%, but trailed the S&P/ASX 300 Index’s gain of 14.46%.

PRESS RELEASE

Australian Private Equity Continues to Post Steady Returns in Q3 2012

BOSTON, MA and SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA–(Marketwire – February 06, 2013) – The Cambridge Associates LLC Australia Private Equity and Venture Capital Index (C|A Australia Index) rose by 2.90% in the third quarter of 2012, according to the latest quarterly report released by The Australian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association Ltd (AVCAL) today.

For the 12 months ending 30 September 2012, the C|A Australia Index rose by 6.44%. Over the same period, the S&P/ASX 300 Index surged to record a return of 14.46%.

However, over the longer 3- and 5-year horizons the C|A Australia Index outperformed the public equities index, rising by 8.33% and 2.97% respectively on an annualised, net of fees basis compared to the S&P/ASX 300 Index’s 1.69% and -3.61% annualised returns over the same horizons.

In the twelve months leading to 30 September 2012, a total of AU$2.2B was distributed back to LPs while $2.3B was drawn down.

Australian Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (AVCAL) CEO Dr Katherine Woodthorpe said, “The Index continues to demonstrate how private equity as a whole has consistently generated stable returns over the long term compared to the more volatile listed markets, on an after-fee basis.”

Eugene Snyman, Managing Director at Cambridge Associates’ office in Sydney, Australia, said: “While the strong performance of both public and private indices in the third quarter is good news to investors overall, we continue to see Australian private equity and venture capital offering greater stability long term.”

The report is published on the AVCAL website www.avcal.com.au.
Cambridge Associates LLC Australia/AVCAL Index Returns for the period ending 30 September 2012

—————————————————————————-
Index (A$)          1-Quarter  YTD   1-Year  3-Year  5-Year  10-Year
—————————————————————————-
Cambridge Associates LLC
Australia Private Equity
& Venture Capital Index
(A$)(1)                      2.90     4.12   6.44    8.33    2.97    7.06
—————————————————————————-
Cambridge Associates LLC
Australia Private Equity
& Venture Capital Index
(US$)(1)                     4.34     5.51  14.00   14.23    7.14    12.90
—————————————————————————-
S&P/ASX 300 Index             8.75    16.52  14.46    1.69   -3.61    8.57
—————————————————————————-
S&P/ASX Small Ordinaries
Index                        7.25     5.97   3.83   -0.91   -7.50    7.84
—————————————————————————-
UBS Australia Bank Bill
Index                        0.90     4.15   4.34    4.55    5.12    5.40
—————————————————————————-
UBS Australian Composite
Bond Index                   1.98    10.09   9.55    8.64    8.28    6.60
—————————————————————————-

The Cambridge Associates LLC indices are an end-to-end calculation based on data compiled from 61Australia private equity and 22 Australia venture capital funds, including fully liquidated partnerships, formed between 1997 and 2012. 
(1) Pooled end-to-end return, net of fees, expenses, and carried interest.
Sources: Cambridge Associates LLC, Bloomberg L.P., Standard & Poor’s, Thomson Reuters Datastream, UBS AG and UBS Global Asset Management.

About Cambridge Associates

Founded in 1973, Cambridge Associates is a provider of independent investment advice and research to institutional investors and private clients worldwide. Today the firm serves over 900 global investors and delivers a range of services, including investment consulting, outsourced portfolio solutions, research services and tools (Research Navigator(sm) and Benchmark Calculator), and performance monitoring, across all asset classes. The firm compiles the performance results for over 5,000 private partnerships and their more than 65,000 portfolio company investments to publish its proprietary private investments benchmarks, of which the Cambridge Associates LLC U.S. Venture Capital Index® and Cambridge Associates LLC U.S. Private Equity Index® are widely considered to be among the standard benchmark statistics for these asset classes. Cambridge Associates has more than 1,000 employees serving its client base globally and maintains offices in Arlington, VA; Boston; Dallas; Menlo Park, CA; London; Singapore; Sydney; and Beijing. Cambridge Associates consists of five global investment consulting affiliates that are all under common ownership and control. For more information about Cambridge Associates, please visitwww.cambridgeassociates.com.

About AVCAL

AVCAL is the voice of venture capital (VC) and private equity (PE) in Australia. Our membership includes 54 domestic and international VC and PE managers active in Australia as well as pension/super funds, service providers and other stakeholders. AVCAL is active in communicating, researching and advocating the significant contribution that VC and PE makes to the broader Australian economy. Australian VC and PE firms manage over $29bn in funds under management. They provide capital and expertise to companies in a range of business life-cycles: start-ups, SMEs and large organisations. AVCAL VC and PE members focus on enhancing innovation, productivity, entrepreneurial activity and sustainability in the companies they invest in. Australian VC and PE firms back more than 500 companies which employ over 100,000 full-time equivalent jobs. Since records began in the late 1990s, the industry has distributed around AU$16 billion to its limited partner investors which include pension/super funds, institutions and governments.
www.avcal.com.au www.twitter.com/avcal1 www.linkedin.com/in/avcal

The post Australian Private Equity & Venture Capital Returns Advance appeared first on peHUB.

Fifteen days using Surface Pro as my primary PC, I must say that I really, really like the tablet. Windows 8, the same. Ditto for Bing and Internet Explorer. I’m no stranger to using Microsoft products or services. But I am new to them being presented and consumed the way the company intends. The experience is refreshing and exhilarating, yet depressing. Who will know, with so much attention going to Android and iOS devices, or nimbler competitors offering more compelling products or services at faster pace?

Microsoft’s problems aren’t new, and that is the problem. This morning I reread my December 2009 post: “Microsoft isn’t losing its consumer edge, it was game over long ago“. I’m disturbed how little has changed, so much that, except for the lead paragraph, I could repost with new headline and the content would still be relevant. I will lift some parts here, as I offer, for the umpteenth time, remedies to Microsoft’s woes.

Microsoft in Context

I sympathize with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s plight. He assumed duties during two antitrust investigations, ran operations during two major recessions and had the misfortune of inheriting a company at the pinnacle of dominance, when the major business was reselling to existing customers rather than rapidly expanding. During his tenure, Microsoft tried to open new categories, like HailStorm web services or Tablet PC early in the century, only to fail but see competitors like Apple and Google succeed.

Meanwhile the stock is stuck at 2000 levels and there is perception that Microsoft is a has-been incapable of competing in the so-called post-PC era. Perception can be fixed by marketing, and post-PC is a lie — a fiction created by analysts, Apple and Apple apologists. We are at the start of the contextual cloud computing era. Rather than be the central hub, the PC becomes one of many devices connected to the cloud. The PC doesn’t disappear.

Microsoft execs and product managers understand context very well. For example, the company made defining work and home usage a product development and marketing priority more than a decade ago. How you use the tech changes based on context and role.

Something is lost in all the PC Armageddon chatter: Microsoft is still one of the most-profitable companies in the world, and products like Azure, hosted server software and Office 365 are rightly primed for delivering meaningful contextual and cloud solutions. Microsoft’s big problem is mobile, where competing operating systems rack up share and cut out the company’s platform. Ballmer should never have let it come to this. He needs to stop living in La La Land and act, or step aside and find someone who will. I still believe in him.

Sadly, much of the advice that follows, I’ve offered before. Many times. Will someone finally pay attention?

Microsoft Must…

1. Make influencing standards top priority. Microsoft has abandoned the fundamental principles that made it the most successful software company of the last two decades and ensured its software would be the most widely used everywhere. The company established Windows as a technology platform that became the standard around which developers and other partners supported products. In the early days, the approach was one of necessity: Maintaining standards compatibility with the IBM PC.

Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates understood early on the importance of controlling standards and also file formats. In the early 1980s, Gates put Charles Simonyi in charge of productivity applications development. Early work done by the father of Microsoft Office achieved two important goals by the mid 1990s:

• Established format standards that resolved problems sharing documents created by disparate products
• Ensured that Microsoft file formats would become the adopted desktop productivity standards

Format lock-in helped drive Office sales throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s — and Windows along with it. Businesses needed Office to share documents and to maintain backwards compatibility with a growing amount of their valuable information being stored in Microsoft file formats.

In a surprisingly short span of time, Microsoft has lost control of standards and formats outside the enterprise. The company has reached a critical juncture that executives seem unable to comprehend. Under Ballmer, standards aren’t high-enough priority. Microsoft has lost leverage, while rivals like Google dictate web standards that favor its products and services.

2. Become THE middleware company. Microsoft should shift some, even a large amount of its focus, from platforms to glue — products and services that bind any platform to its server and datacenter software and services and major applications, principally from Office System. That’s how Microsoft solves the mobile problem.

Middleware dominance can help preserve Microsoft products that are adopted standards and establish new ones. The company should start by ramping up mobile app development for competing platforms — meeting Google feature for feature and go beyond. Google successfully pursues such strategy now, and with tight integration across products. The best mobile apps on Android or iOS should be from Microsoft, not Apple or Google, and leverage the established enterprise stack. Microsoft already offers some existing excellent mobile apps. They need to be exceptional, like those for Windows 8 Modern UI, on Android and iOS.

At the same time, Microsoft should seek to make its software the defacto standard for managing BYOD. The company already owns the enterprise. Leverage that by providing the best applications and tools for managing devices, like smartphones and tablets, that employees bring to work or IT deploys. If Microsoft doesn’t, competitors will. Google’s decision to stop licensing Exchange ActiveSync is all about influencing synchronization standards and inserting its services into BYOD middleware management.

3. Redefine search. Microsoft’s failure in search should be a CEO-sacking offense. The Yahoo deal didn’t dent Google’s overwhelming search share lead. Now that a Googler runs Yahoo, early termination of the Microsoft agreement is nearly certain. Divorce will cut Bing’s effective search share nearly in half. Ballmer and team must act to preserve Yahoo or go beyond it.

Engage Bing search deals everywhere, and pay to get them. Wherever Google goes, like Firefox or iOS, Bing should be instead. The Facebook relationship is hugely important. Bing should be the glue for all search on the social network.

Meanwhile, Microsoft, which was a pioneer in so-called New User Interface technologies, let Google leap ahead. Google Now and voice search are killer apps. Microsoft has talked about search as answers to questions for a decade, but Google gives them instead and where they are needed most — mobile. Microsoft needs a “Bing Me” service pronto that is available for all operating systems, using NUI.

4. Cut deal with Apple for Office, but cut out Google. Microsoft and Apple have a long history. Word started out on Macintosh, for example. Office 2013/14 — or optimized-Office 365 — for iPad is a must. But not for Android. Microsoft should get something in return: Bing replacing Google as iOS search engine.

Apple needs Office to get iPad into the enterprise, so there is mutual need to make search part of the deal. Microsoft is better off with iPad encroachment than Android tablets. Google has fierce enterprise ambitions, while Apple is more ambivalent (interest is more selling devices). Office app and/or cloud would give more enterprises reason to choose iOS over Android, acting as floodgate to adoption of the latter.

5. Encourage internal startups. Microsoft product development cycles are too long and they feel even longer with Google cranking out new stuff every day. Look how far and fast Android, Chrome and Chrome OS have come since Windows 7 started beta testing four years ago. Meanwhile Apple and Google create new categories, while Microsoft has none.

But look back. Many of Microsoft’s best, mid- to-late-Noughties products or services came from incubation projects. Some are mainstream today, like SkyDrive. But Microsoft killed off most internal startups following the September 2008 stock market crash.

Microsoft must bring them back and focused on mobile and the cloud. Incubation groups should operate like mini-startups, free to develop unfettered by any requirement to connect any of their work to any other Microsoft product, particularly Office or Windows. Let them run free, run wild, wildly innovate. Reward innovation, with pay incentives and other goodies. Appoint a chief startup officer, to whom employees can submit their projects, getting them outside stifling bureaucracy and mid-managers’ self-preserving priorities. Empowered employees will produce. Microsoft just needs to let them.

Microsoft needs someone internally responsible for encouraging internal incubation projects and bringing them to market — outside the normal management structure.

There needs to be a fairly free-flowing process allowing employees to bring ideas to the CSO and get funding for proof of concepts, at the least. The CSO, answering to Ballmer, should have authority to spin-off new product groups as well. But more immediately he or she needs authority to create small product groups within Microsoft, focused on getting new innovations to market faster and without obligatory ties to core products like Office or Windows.

However, Microsoft should encourage, and reward, innovative middleware projects that make existing applications stack, cloud, datacenter and server software more valuable and those that are contextually relevant.