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Hoping to grow its share of the of smartphone market, Sony is now taking pre-orders for its Xperia XL handset. Dubbed the “world’s most compact smartphone with a 5″ display,” the Xperia ZL ships on or around April 8. And on paper, it’s arguably the best smartphone Sony has created yet. But without a carrier partner in the U.S. to subsidize the cost, consumers will pay Sony outright for the phone, to the tune of $719.99.

What do you get for that kind of cash? In terms of hardware, the Xperia ZL rivals the flagship phones from any other handset maker these days. Sony’s Reality Display offers 5-inches of full high-definition resolution and uses the company’s Mobile BRAVIA Engine 2, bringing Sony’s television technology to the small screen. Even with the large display, Sony kept the phone dimensions relatively small at 5.18 x 2.7 x 0.39 inches.

The main camera is 13 megapixel camera with Exmor RS sensor and f/2.4 aperture. A range of photo modes, 1080p video support and HDR capture for both stills and videos are included.

Sony includes 2 GB of memory to run Google Android 4.1 — not Android 4.2, sadly — on Qualcomm’s 1.5 GHz quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro chipset. Internal storage tops out at 16 GB, but can be expanded by up to another 32 GB through removable storage. At this price, the handset only supports HSPA+ networks on down. An Xperia ZL model with LTE support is available for $759.99.

While the phone may be worth the price, I wouldn’t expect Sony to sell too many units here. The U.S. is only now just flirting with full price phones as consumers have been addicted to hardware subsidies for years. T-Mobile is the first of the big four to be making any headway towards a BYOD model, and as the smallest of the four, won’t have big traction to help Sony move the Xperia ZL.

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Jack Ma, the founder and long-time CEO of Chinese web company, Alibaba, recently announced that he is stepping down as CEO, and now we have learned that Jonathan Lu Zhaoxi will become chief executive of the company in May. Alibaba is an incredible success story. The company began in 1999 and last year had estimated revenues of $40 billion. By comparison, after its first 13 years, Apple had revenues of $8.9 billion.

I admire Ma and believe that he is an amazing leader. Those who have worked with him are lucky — but the man or woman that follows him faces a challenge ahead. How do you succeed someone so revered?

CEO transition has become a routinized activity — companies bring in a well-known consulting firm and follow a checklist to identify and onboard a new leader. And, overall, I’d say that most transitions done this way — with good people and due diligence — deserve a “B” grade. But what’s much more complicated, and harder to get right, is a transition when the CEO has grown to be larger-than-life. Like Ma. In these cases, it is up to the departing leader to help, in a way that only he (or she) can.

Ma knows this very well, and predicted his own quandary. He has written in an email to his employees: “Succeeding a founder CEO is a difficult job, especially taking over from a CEO with such a distinct personality….” Some might interpret this as the arrogance of a very successful man. Others might read it as the disarming honesty of a great leader (since the statement is, factually, 100% true). I’ve observed Ma and from what I know of him, I suspect the latter assessment is accurate: frank and open honesty, not chest pounding arrogance. And that brings us to a very important point.

We want the truth from our leaders. But we have become cynics, accustomed to twisted messages from politicians and company marketing communications so wordsmithed that they lack meaning. These things do not inspire us, or pull us toward someone in a leadership position, with an attitude of wanting to help. They do the opposite. Great leaders have the ability to surprise and reassure people with their direct and honest communication. This is an essential part of what makes them great. And it is especially important in times of big change and uncertainty — such as CEO transitions — where it can smooth the way for the incoming leader.

Will this be the case with Alibaba? I hope so. Ma has put reality on the table, stating clearly what the challenges are and what he wants, with the real authority that comes from his venerated position.

With Ma’s endorsement, I expect Alibaba employees will rally around Lu Zhaoxi. They’ll be less likely to sit back and wait for the new guy to prove himself, or to gossip continually about their new CEO as inferior. They will be more inclined to actively help, with some sense of urgency, around a huge challenge for the firm. And if they do — Alibaba competitors had better look out for them.

On Monday, the same day that it announced a strategic partnership with Germany’s Deutsche Telekom, Evernote rolled out a big update for its Android version, including enhanced photo features, shortcuts and document search for premium users.

Among the new features, outlined in a blog post:

• Multi-shot camera mode “lets you take multiple photos in one sitting, then save them all into the note. If a particular photo didn’t turn out the way you like, then delete it before saving.”
• Page Camera mode is a scanning feature: Take a photo of a document or paper, and “the app will then find the edges of the page, remove any shadows and improve the contrast, so you’ll have the perfect photo in Evernote.”
• Shortcuts: Shortcuts, which let users “quickly jump to notes, notebooks and tags that you access frequently,” were already available on Evernote for Mac and are now on mobile for the first time.
• Enhanced document search for premium users: Search now includes documents, presentations and spreadsheets attached to notes, including “files created in Microsoft Office, iWork and Open Office.” (This feature is available for all versions of Evernote, not just Android.)
• The Android app now works with the Evernote Smart Notebook by Moleskine, which was introduced for iOS in August.

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As Lamar Odom can attest, child custody arrangements are often contentious and exhausting. The stress involved is enough to engender harsh feelings, but one Pennsylvania man has taken his hatred much further.

The Altoona Mirror is reporting that Kenneth Ayers of Petersburg, Pennsylvania shot and killed his two-year-old son before killing himself on Saturday, March 23. The shooting took place during a child custody visit and the boy’s mother, Hollie Ayers, was shot as well, but is expected to survive.

Kenneth arrived at his mother’s house on Saturday, where his supervised visit with his son was to have taken place. He allegedly shot Hollie in her leg and arm, then shot his son, Michael, before taking the boy’s body to his car. Hollie is reported by the Mirror to have followed and attempted to retrieve Michael before being shot once more in the face.

Kenneth drove off, switched vehicles, and was later found in the cab of his truck, dead from apparent suicide. The newspaper reported that the man was under a protection from abuse order, a type of domestic violence protection issued in Pennsylvania. Police stated that Kenneth may have planned the shooting.

We’ve known this was coming since reports emerged that Amazon had snatched up the rights back in January, but today the company officially announced that the new Zombieland TV series will land on Prime Instant Video.

Zombieland is the 7th comedy pilot greenlit by Amazon Studios. Eventually, all will make it to Prime Instant Video and LOVEFILM UK, at which point user feedback will determine which ones make the cut. Zombieland was originally rumored to be coming to CBS, but it will find its home on the subscription streaming service.

Zombieland the series is a continuation of the film of the same name, and it has some of the film’s original creative team working on it, including writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. The pilot is being directed by Eli Craig, who wrote and directed Tucker and Dale vs Evil.

“Zombieland will strive to break the rules—action, adventure, thrills, chills and laughs and all packed into a half hour format,” said creator Paul Wernick. “This is not your average show but Amazon is not your average network.”

The pilot stars Tyler Ross at Columbus, Izabela Vidovic and Little Rock, and Kirk Ward and Tallahassee.

“Zombieland is a fan favorite and we can’t wait to see where this story line goes in a serialized format,” said Roy Price, Director of Amazon Studios. “We’ve been announcing a lot of exciting exclusive content for Prime Instant Video, like Downton Abbey, Under the Dome, and Justified, and we think adding original shows to that lineup is going to make Prime even more enticing for customers.”

Yahoo announced on Monday that it is acquiring mobile product company Summly, which has an app (or had, at least) billed as “pocket sized news for iPhone”.

Summly Founder Nick D’Aloisio and his team will join Yahoo in the coming weeks, and the Summly app will close. Yahoo is acquiring the technology, and will use it in its own mobile experiences soon, a Yahoo spokesperson tells WebProNews.

Here’s a look at Summly:

Yahoo SVP, Mobile and Emerging Products, Adam Cahan, writes in a blog post:

At the age of 15, Nick D’Aloisio created the Summly app at his home in London. It started with an insight — that we live in a world of constant information and need new ways to simplify how we find the stories that are important to us, at a glance. Mobile devices are shifting our daily routines, and users have changed not only what, but how much information they consume. Yet most articles and web pages were formatted for browsing with mouse clicks. The ability to skim them on a phone or a tablet can be a real challenge — we want easier ways to identify what’s important to us.

Summly solves this by delivering snapshots of stories, giving you a simple and elegant way to find the news you want, faster than ever before. For publishers, the Summly technology provides a new approach to drive interest in stories and reach a generation of mobile users that want information on the go.

“Our vision is to simplify how we get information and we are thrilled to continue this mission with Yahoo!’s global scale and expertise,” says D’Aloisio. “After spending some time on campus, I discovered that Yahoo! has an inspirational goal to make people’s daily routines entertaining and meaningful, and mobile will be a central part of that vision. For us, it’s the perfect fit.”

“With over 90 million summaries read in just a few short months, this is just the beginning for our technology,” he says. “As we move towards a more refined, liberated and intelligent mobile web, summaries will continue to help navigate through our ever expanding information universe.”

The acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter. Terms of the deal are not being disclosed.

The San Francisco Chronicle announced over the weekend that it’s launched a new subscription site, SFChronicle.com. Much of the newspaper’s premium content — including columnists, editorials and op-eds, and arts and leisure coverage — will now only be available to paying subscribers. SFGate.com, which focuses on “what’s happening today,” will remain free.

Subscribers to the print edition of the Chronicle will get access to SFChronicle.com for free. Otherwise, an “Ultimate Access” digital subscription — which also includes access to the Chronicle iPad app and Kindle edition — is $12 per month. SFChronicle.com is built using responsive design, meaning it can be read on any device.

Chronicle president Mark Adkins listed the content going behind the paywall:

Subscribers also will have full access to The Chronicle’s most enduring legacy – its columnists. The list of premium content goes on, including The Chronicle’s award-winning coverage of sports and the outdoors, arts and cultural events, pop music and entertainment, architecture and urban design, the environment and climate change, business and technology, food and wine, health and fitness, politics and government, and editorials and opinion pieces.

The announcement of the paywall itself was originally behind the paywall, Jim Romenesko noted, but it can now be read for free.

The Chronicle is owned by Hearst. Last November, the Houston Chronicle became the first Hearst-owned paper to enact a paywall.

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It was nice to see the recent broadband meeting held in Hinckley get attention from the local press. I wrote about the meeting earlier – it was a great gather of several counties: Pine, Kanabec, Mille Lacs, Carlton and Aitkin. All came to make a plan to expand broadband in their area.

The Kanabec County Times picked up on the economic development opportunities that broadband could bring…

From an economic development perspective, [Bernadine] Joselyn said research shows that economic growth follows telecommunications investment.

“Companies seeking new locations quickly bypass communities without world-class broadband,” she pointed out. “Many of Minnesota’s highest earners, including retired or semi-retired professionals, would prefer to live next to a lake or on a hobby farm. Unconnected communities stand little chance of attracting or retaining these potential taxpayers, not to mention recent college graduates.”

Bill Coleman, president of Community Technology Advisors, serves as a catalyst to bring people together in support of regional broadband goals. “The future is already here,” Coleman observed. “It’s just not evenly distributed.” Coleman and Connect Minnesota’s Bill Hoffman encouraged people to visit the Connect Minnesota website to view an interactive map identifying broadband providers and connection speeds.

The exterior of the Yahoo Computing Coop buildings in Lockport, New York. The company is planning to expand its campus in Lockport. (Photo: Yahoo)

Yahoo’s ultra-efficient “chicken coop” data center in upstate New York is getting bigger. The Internet company has announced plans to invest an additional $168 million in the campus for its hydro-powered, wind-cooled server farm in Lockport, N.Y. The expansion will include an additional 7.2 megawatts of data center space, along with a call center. The projects are expected to create 115 jobs between them.

The expansion was expected, as Yahoo indicated last year that it would buy additional land at its property in Lockport. The company is seeking breaks on property taxes and sales taxes on servers and equipment for the project, according to the Buffalo News. The New York Power Authority will expand the site’s power capacity to support the new construction.

“We are happy to be a part of the Western New York community and are excited about our expansion plans,” said David Dibble, executive vice president of central technology for Yahoo. “We are appreciative of our close partnerships with local municipalities and are grateful to our outstanding workforce in Lockport. Yahoo is committed to being an environmentally responsible company, and we thank New York state and local authorities for working with us to ensure we continue to power our data center with clean energy.”

The Yahoo Lockport facility, which is optimized for air-cooling, is one of the world’s most efficient data centers, operating with a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of 1.08. The data center, which is supported by hydro-electric power from the NYPA, requires mechanical cooling for a handful of hours each year.

The first two phases of the Lockport project, built in 2010 and 2011, featured multiple 120-by-60 foot prefabricated metal structures using the Yahoo Computing Coop data center design. The coops -modeled on the thermal design of chicken coops- have louvers built into the side to allow cool air to pass through the computing area. The air then flows through two rows of cabinets and into a contained center hot aisle, which has a chimney on top. The chimney directs the waste heat into the top of the facility, where it can either be recirculated or vented through the cupola. See A Closer Look at Yahoo’s New Data Center for more photos and video.

This approach to heat management allows the Lockport data center to operate without chillers, which provide refrigerated water for cooling systems and are among the most energy-intensive components of a data center. The facility uses an evaporative cooling system during those 9 days a year when it is too warm to use fresh air. The buildings were positioned on the Lockport property to allow Yahoo to bring in cool air from either side of the coop, based on the prevailing winds.

CNET’s early hands on with Google Glass prompted Republican Gary G. Howell to sponsor a bill banning such devices while driving in his state of West Virginia. I would expect to see more of these bills introduced in other areas since Google Glass and similar devices are likely to be a distraction for drivers. Howell stated the following:

“I actually like the idea of the product and I believe it is the future, but last legislature we worked long and hard on a no-texting-and-driving law. It is mostly the young that are the tech-savvy that try new things. They are also our most vulnerable and underskilled drivers. We heard of many crashes caused by texting and driving, most involving our youngest drivers. I see the Google Glass as an extension.”

The interesting thing is Google already has a solution to this…self driving cars. Unfortunately those won’t be around for another 5 years, while Glass should be available by the end of this year. So Google Glass might not be as emasculating as smartphones, but it doesn’t appear to be any less distracting. Do you agree with this bill?

source: TechCrunch

Come comment on this article: Say no to Google Glass while driving says West Virginia lawmaker

Snakes, and their total absence of limbs, make them some of the most terrifying creatures on the planet. Not to mention the variety of ways snakes can kill us. Why then must science create a robotic version of Satan’s avatar?

The Biorobotics Lab at Carnegie Mellon University has been hard at work on what they call a modular snake robot. Why would they create such a thing? Here’s how they explain it:

Snake robots can use their many internal degrees of freedom to thread through tightly packed volumes accessing locations that people and machinery otherwise cannot use. Moreover, these highly articulated devices can coordinate their internal degrees of freedom to perform a variety of locomotion capabilities that go beyond the capabilities of conventional wheeled and the recently developed legged robots. The true power of these devices is that they are versatile, achieving behaviors not limited to crawling, climbing, and swimming.

That actually sounds pretty useful. I’m sure a number of industries, including defense, could do some pretty amazing things with a robot that can move in and out of tight spaces. So why is this particularly robot so terrifying? Just watch this:

As you can see, our robot snake friend here can immediately constrict around a object after being thrown at it. Sure, it looks cool at first, until you realize that somebody (or some robot) may one day throw this thing at your neck. It’s hard enough already to fight off a Boa Constrictor. Just imagine how hard it would be to fight off a robot snake whose sole directive is snuffing out the life you hold dear.

[h/t: Wired]

When I was growing up one of my parents’ favorite expressions was “do as I say, not as I do”. The old adage likely rings true in this case as well. You see, as a rule I don’t recommend downloading files from BitTorrent, as you are just as likely to get a virus as a legitimate program, movie or song. That applies to leaked files especially.

But, there are legitimate reasons for the sharing service — upcoming artists share music, Linux shares distros, even producers have distributed movies in this way.

However, when a new build of Windows leaks out then I consider all bets off. That was the case over the weekend as Windows “Blue” build 9364 hit the interwebs with a major splash. I am a tech geek…how could I resist? I will not link to the torrent file here, but I am pretty sure that one of our faithful commenters may do exactly that. If you look around the web carefully enough, you can find it.

Setup

The download is 2.64 GB and the file comes as an ISO — ready for you to burn straight to a blank DVD and install (I actually used a USB thumb drive, but to each his own). Do not install this as your main operating system. It’s an early test build and just as likely to crash as it is to run. If you have a test machine then use that. If not, then use something like Virtual Box.

In my case, I opted for the virtual machine. I prefer VirtualBox from Oracle, though I prefer it mostly because it is free. With that said though, it works as well as any other I have tried. I used version 4.2.10.

Setup takes about 30 minutes. Once Windows Blue begins you will receive the usual prompts to login to your Microsoft account, pick a screen color and more. Screen color options have been expanded in this new build.

Yes, you will get the usual email and text messages prompting you to approve the computer that has just been added to your Microsoft account. As the install is preparing the colors change on the screen in a rather psychedelic fashion.

Internet Explorer 11

Microsoft seems to be going all Firefox/Chrome on us lately by updating its web browser at a faster pace. The latest iteration of Internet Explorer is version 11.

This build of the web browser is not tremendously different from 10, which is built into Windows 8 and now can be installed on Windows 7 as well. I found nothing particularly different here, but there are likely changes in the backend.

SkyDrive

SkyDrive is now a part of the basic Control Panel in the Metro Modern UI interface. When you open the Modern UI version of the Control panel, you will find SkyDrive integration built right in.

There are options for Storage Use, Device Backups and Files.

Snap to It!

Are you bored with the old Snap feature? Only two apps? Now you can snap more programs into place. The next version of Windows allows for 4 apps to be “snapped” into position.

These are, of course, long and thin across your monitor. However, it is a much better way to switch around between multiple apps. Users can navigate back and forth between all without need of the old-fashioned alt-tab option that we have all grown rather accustomed to.

There is More

Windows Blue build 9364 just leaked yesterday morning. I’ve only mentioned some of the main changes, but in the coming days we will get down into the more in-depth stuff — the real nuts and bolts of what is included in this release that we all knew was coming later this year, but were taken unexpectedly by over the weekend.

I plan to delve more into this build in the coming days and add to the knowledge base as my understanding of Blue grows. For now, I suspect that this is enough to make most heads spin, including my own.

While Windows Blue is not technically the next version of Windows, it is also not exactly a service pack either. The reality lays somewhere in between the two.

Kevin Dean is Chief Marketing Officer at Interxion

KEVIN DEAN
Interxion

The number of data centers may be shrinking, but their capacity is growing. Current market calculations show disruptive technologies like server virtualization and cloud computing are effectively consolidating servers enough to actually shrink the United States’ vast data center footprint. In fact, IDC predicts that the total number of U.S. data centers will fall from 2.94 million in 2012 to 2.89 million in 2016. However, while new data center facilities themselves may be on the decline, the data they house certainly isn’t, given that 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are created every day.

With fewer facilities, but more data than ever, what can companies do?

While the shift to more virtualized and cloud-based environments means that companies will build fewer data centers overall, it also means many will look to specialized, third-party data centers to support their data-intensive needs. Further predictions from IDC reveal that data center capacity will grow from 611.4 million square feet in 2012 to more than 700 million square feet in 2016, so colocation facilities that have the capacity to handle cloud and virtualization requirements are well suited to support this data boom.

Statistics aside, today’s information explosion is proof enough that data is the lifeblood of any business and, therefore, how it’s contained is a top concern. As more enterprises put their internal servers under scrutiny, they are noticing that legacy enterprise data centers are becoming increasingly ineffective, no longer able to provide the space, power and security requirements necessary to support a company’s transition to the cloud. As a result, companies are optimizing their data through outsourcing options, such as data center colocation facilities. By choosing to colocate, enterprises benefit from a wide range of power connections with full backup, multi-layer security to protect data, lower maintenance expenses and more cost-effective cooling.

Beyond these colocation benefits, however, one big advantage remains: communities of interest. These communities located within such colocation facilities are one of the biggest draws for companies to choose colocation in the first place. For instance, cloud communities offered by carrier-neutral colocation providers allow service providers across cloud markets to scale their resources and match fluctuating customer requests. Similarly, businesses that are part of communities of interest within finance and digital media content hubs benefit from colocation facilities’ interconnection with leading cloud platforms, which enable community members to take advantage of cloud computing and its cost efficiencies.

Cloud Communities Make Gains

Cloud service providers in particular benefit from multi-tenant colocation facilities’ communities, which enable members to connect with each other and with partners over near-instantaneous connections. The traditional selection criteria for data center facilities such as power, space, security and cooling capacity are now topped by the requirements of close proximity to end users with unbeatable connectivity and performance speeds – speeds that are achieved in such highly-connected industry hubs. Since these hubs host a variety of service providers, CDNs, carriers and ISPs and Internet exchanges under one roof, enterprises and cloud service providers have access to a marketplace of a variety of cloud-based services at their fingertips.

Additionally, cloud hub participants benefit from partnership opportunities and additional revenue streams made possible through member interaction.  Furthermore, as the market shifts to more dynamic, hybrid cloud environments, the connectivity between private infrastructure and public cloud servers is more essential now than ever before. To ensure that these connections are performing as fast as possible for their customers, many colocation participants have the ability to establish private connectivity between a public cloud platform and their existing dedicated IT infrastructure. This interconnectivity allows members to take control over their hybrid environment while reducing network costs, increasing bandwidth and providing a more consistent network experience than Internet-based connections.

9 times out 10, when we see a Lamborghini Diablo on the street, we’re looking at some cobbled together kit-car that’s based off of a Pontiac Fiero. This one however is the real deal. A 2001 Lamborghini Diablo 6.0 VT that’s currently on eBay and, according to the ad is a one owner car. VT stands for viscous traction (seriously, it does) as the Diablo used a version of the 4WD system that was found in their LM002 SUV. Power comes from a 6.0-liter V12 that makes 575 hp and 457 lb·ft of torque. Outstanding numbers even by today’s standards. Located in Columbus, OH and with only 23,825 miles on the clock, this Diablo has liberal carbon fiber and an interior that looks to be in fabulous condition. You can check out more images after the jump or go directly to the eBay ad below.

Source: eBayMotors.com

Yahoo is the new owner of news-reading iPhone app Summly, the companies announced Monday. Founder Nick D’Aloisio and his team will join Yahoo, and the company will close the app.

In its official announcement of the acquisition, Yahoo says that ”Nick and the Summly team are joining Yahoo! in the coming weeks. While the Summly app will close, you will see the technology come to life throughout Yahoo!’s mobile experiences soon.”

Summly, which was founded by D’Aloisio at the age of 15 (he’s now 17), was an iOS app that offered up short summaries of news stories for reading on the go. Reviewing the app last year, Om Malik wrote that it was “simple, initiative, fast, clean and extremely well designed” — though he wasn’t sure it provided enough “constant craving and gratification” to entice him to return to it several times a day.

In an announcement posted at Summly, D’Aloisio writes, “We will be removing Summly from the App Store today but expect our summarization technology will soon return to multiple Yahoo! products — see this as a ‘power nap’ so to speak. With over 90 million summaries read in just a few short months, this is just the beginning for our technology.”

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Will Facebook’s Graph Search become a major piece of successful online marketing strategies? It’s still in its infancy, and does only a small fraction of what it promises to do at this point, but just given the fact that it’s the search feature of Facebook (over a billion users), it seems like something that should play a significant part.

Not only does Graph Search not currently have all the functionality that Facebook has planned for it, but it’s also still in the process of slowly rolling out. And I do mean slowly. Any notions you have about Graph Search thus far are simply incomplete. What’s available now is nothing compared to what will be available.

Even still, some have big hope for Facebook’s revamped search and its potential effects on small businesses. Consider this infographic from Advantage Capital Funds:

Infographic by Advantage Capital Funds

That’s all fine and good, but online marketers need data. When it comes to search marketing, keyword data is obviously of the utmost importance (though it’s getting harder to come by thanks to the whole “not provided” ordeal), but this isn’t something that’s readily available from Facebook. You can’t just look at your search data in Google Analytics and see the Graph Search referrals, because Graph Search is part of Facebook, which Google considers social rather than search, even though Graph Search sends users to Bing results in cases where Facebook’s own data doesn’t match the query.

It’s entirely possible that the situation will get better for webmasters and marketers in the future, but for now, there is a workaround, which Glenn Gabe discusses in a blog post (via Search Engine Land).

Facebook does have keyword data available via referral strings. As Gabe noticed, the keyword is being passed along int he referrer. He shows this example:

“As you can guess, I jumped into Google Analytics to see how this was being picked up,” Gabe writes. “Since Facebook isn’t an official search engine in GA, it was still showing up as a referring site (without the keyword showing up). But, since the q= querystring parameter was being passed in the referrer, I knew I could surface those keywords via advanced filters. So, I quickly set up a new profile and added a filter that would capture graph searches from Facebook. And it works.”

Gabe goes on to provide step-by-step instructions for doing this, so check out the post if this is something you want to do.

Tracking this data is bound to make Graph Search a lot more helpful to your business. And wait until the product really gets into full swing.

When you think about upcoming Google technologies that state legislatures may be looking to regulate on their roadways, the first thing that pops into your head is likely self-driving cars.

But it’s another upcoming Google product that you may want to use in your car that one U.S. state is trying to ban.

H.B. 3057, introduced in the West Virginia legislature a few days ago, looks to add language to existing rules on traffic safety to include a ban on “using a wearable computer with head mounted display,” described as “a computing device which is worn on the head and projects visual information into the field of vision of the wearer.”

Sound like anything that Google is preparing to launch?

Although the bill doesn’t actually mention Google Glass by name, it’s fairly obvious what the lawmakers are referring to in their language.

Plus, one of the bill’s authors explicitly told CNET that it was a response to Google Glass. But it appears that at least one the bill’s authors, Gary Howell (R), doesn’t hate the technology – he simply sees it in the same way he sees texting.

“I actually like the idea of the product and I believe it is the future, but last legislature we worked long and hard on a no-texting-and-driving law. It is mostly the young that are the tech-savvy that try new things. They are also our most vulnerable and underskilled drivers. We heard of many crashes caused by texting and driving, most involving our youngest drivers. I see the Google Glass as an extension,” he says.

Fair point, but Google Glass’ possible applications while driving have already been tested – by Sergey Brin nonetheless. Last summer, Brin tested a new feature of Glass while driving. The feature automatically snaps a photo every 10 or so seconds, documenting your life (or more specifically, road trip) as you go. Here’s a picture from that test:

If the legislature is serious about passing this bill, they’ll have to do it sooner rather than later. Google Glass should be popping up on the market later this year. Although, if the bill’s authors are concerned about teenagers hitting the road with Google Glass strapped to their faces, they may want to reconsider their motivations. When Google Glass launches, it’s likely to cost nearly $1,500.

The editors managing the Visualizing Data Insight Center have asked us to submit visualizations that we find compelling or effective. Mine won’t win any design awards, but I was so struck by it that I passed it along.

A Quartz article on the IPO of hipster journal company Moleskine included this chart that comes from the company’s prospectus.

Now, if I had read a paragraph of text Moleskine marketers had written that said, “Moleskine is not a stationery company — in fact it’s the opposite of a stationery company!” I likely would have rolled my eyes and glossed over the rest of the positioning.

This simple 2×2 chart, though, conveys that idea better than any text ever could, without any marketing jargon, and in a way that leaves an impression with me. There is some craft here as well, despite the artless design. For example, the two axes could be positioned any other way, with Identity on the right, or bottom, or left, but by positioning the axes as they have, Moleskine ends up by itself in the top right — the classic position for success on charts.

I’m not saying I’m going to run out and buy share, but this example struck me immediately when I saw it.

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Some Silicon Valley leaders, led by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, are looking to form their own SuperPAC to tackle a variety of issues in Washington.

According to sources quotes by the San Francisco Chronicle, Zuckerberg has already pledged as much as $20 million into the new group – and has already gotten others to pledge a few million dollars of their own.

The group looks to be leaning heavy to the right (at least in its initial leadership), according to the reports. The group will include a well-known Republican strategist, Jon Lerner, who is tied to Grover Norquist (of the no tax pledge) as well as Rob Jesmer, who previously worked with Republican Senator John Cornyn. Apparently, the whole thing was set into motion by Zuckerberg’s old Harvard roommate Joe Green (co-founder of Causes and NationBuilder).

As you may remember, Zuckerberg was among 100 tech presidents, CEOs, and chairmen who penned a letter to President Obama and Congressional leadership earlier this month asking for them to move on comprehensive immigration reform. They argued that immigrant entrepreneurs have founded thousands of companies, and that our outdated system is forcing out highly-skilled, great minds. Basically, better immigration policy is good for business.

The letter was also signed by Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, HP CEO Meg Whitman, and Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer.

This new SuperPAC won’t be an immigration-minded entity, however. Sources say that the group’s focus will be “more far-ranging and deal with an agenda of topics related to economic growth and vitality.”

Zuckerberg, who up until recently had not made huge waves in the political arena, hosted a big fundraiser for Republican Governor of New Jersey Chris Christie as his Palo Alto home.