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Hello and welcome again to the new Digital for Development blogging group. I am the head of the digital team here in DFID’s communications division in London. I work with a team of talented editors to produce and promote the online words, pictures, video, audio and graphics for the department. We also lead on DFID’s digital engagement which has grown from a germ of an idea many years ago, to a business as usual, day to day activity.

It’s an exciting time to be writing. With the advent of the UK government’s Digital by Default strategy, things are changing fast and changing for the better. As a former print and online journalist, I have lately been astonished by how willing the civil service is to adapt and grow with the changing times. There are many dedicated and switched on digital people across the UK government who are contributing daily to improving services for citizens.

At DFID, much of our digital communication is focused on demonstrating the impact of British support in developing countries. We work in 27 countries so there is a lot to show.

It will also be fascinating to read posts from the other digital teams in DFID, whose work on aid transparency and technology for development are breaking new ground in the global effort to eradicate poverty. I would also love to hear readers’ thoughts on what we could improve and what works well.

In this blog, I will write about social media initiatives, interesting articles, meeting citizen needs on the award-winning GOV.UK, digital trends and more. I will introduce colleagues who will – no doubt – write with zeal about what has worked and what hasn’t. While we are very established now on Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, YouTube, SoundCloud, not to mention this blogging platform, we are always exploring what else we can do, and what should be dropped.

My next post discusses the recent changes to Flickr. Let’s get the conversation started.

OpenStack is finally taking off in Europe, it seems. As with most cloud infrastructure, uptake has been somewhat behind the curve here, but it looks like things are changing.

OpenStack Foundation COO Mark Collier (L) and Executive Director Jonathan Bryce (R)

According to OpenStack Foundation Executive Director Jonathan Bryce (pictured at the first OpenStack DACH Day in Berlin on Friday), the last 6 months have seen adoption pick up all over the world. However, it’s a relatively new phenomenon in Europe and Asia, he added:

“There’s more tolerance for early adoption around this technology in the U.S. We’ve seen that not just in Europe, but in Asia as well. In the last few months we’ve definitely seen people picking it up in other countries, and in some cases it means they’re getting the benefit of all those early adopters.”

How about numbers? Well, that’s tricky – because OpenStack is open-source, there’s no way of nailing down precisely how many organizations and providers are using it. However, some big hitters are certainly getting publicly behind it.

Marquee adopters

CERN, the European nuclear research organization that runs the Large Hadron Collider, is one of them. Although it’s also involved with sort-of-OpenStack-rival (although less so these days) OpenNebula, CERN has been toying with OpenStack for a while and is now in the process of rolling out a 150,000-virtual machine private cloud using the platform.

Meanwhile, Deutsche Telekom has been involved with OpenStack for over a year now and has been using it to deliver a security service (along with fellow OpenStacker ClearPath) since March this year. This summer it will move more applications onto its OpenStack-based cloud, Kurt Garloff, head of cloud services engineering at the telco, said at Friday’s event.

And then we have the grand French clouds, Cloudwatt and Numergy, both of which are based on OpenStack.

Why now?

According to OpenStack Foundation COO Mark Collier, the technological requirements of European users are the same as those of U.S. users, but the drivers for adoption are often different, “particularly around data sovereignty.”

“For example, in France there are a lot of companies and policies that create an incentive to have local clouds where the data resides,” he told me, pointing out that the open-source nature of the technology and its resulting widespread take-up by variously-sized outfits meant there were “hundreds of cities where you can get OpenStack.”

Florian Haas is the co-founder of Hastexo, a professional services company that isn’t aligned with any vendor, but has found itself working a lot with OpenStack (it’s a heavy contributor on the high availability front). He reckons Europe has been a slow cloud adopter due to a combination of legal and privacy concerns and a general “degree of conservatism” but, now that cloud adoption is happening, it’s happening on OpenStack:

“Of the big four [stacks] we’re not seeing any OpenNebula, although interestingly there are a few German companies here [at LinuxTag] pushing it hard. We’re not seeing any Eucalyptus. We’re seeing a bit of CloudStack and a massive amount of OpenStack.

“Europe is late to the cloud party, but that creates an interesting situation, which is that much of Europe didn’t go through the AWS uptake cycle. Strangely enough, OpenStack is filling a void, rather than displacing something else.

“A lot of the people we talk to are actually using OpenStack to essentially reorganize their data center. They might have old-style iron-and-wires data centers, or they might be running on proprietary virtual solutions. They’re now considering public and private cloud, and OpenStack is the default.”

With this pace of change — everyone keeps talking about the last 6 months — it will be interesting to see how much further things have gone by our Structure:Europe conference in London on 18-19 September, where we will of course be discussing issues such as stack choice.

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Serious Server Density: Packed racks of servers in an IT-PAC at the Microsoft data center in Quincy, Washington (Photo: Microsoft Corp.)

With this week’s unveiling of the new Xbox One gaming system, Microsoft is more talkative than usual about the infrastructure supporting its Xbox platform. The reason? Microsoft says the new console will be able to tap cloud resources to enhance the game experience. What will that mean for the infrastructure supporting the Xbox platform?

Servers. Lots of servers.

“When we launched Xbox Live in 2002, it was powered by 500 servers,” Microsoft’s Marc Whitten said in introducing the new platform. “With the advent of the 360, that had grown to over 3,000. Today, 15,000 servers power the modern Xbox Live experience. But this year, we will have more than 300,000 servers for Xbox One.”

Those servers will expand the Xbox network’s storage capacity to enable users to store their saved games and entertainment in the cloud. But how will these cloud servers work with the console to deliver the Xbox one gaming experience? General Manager of Redmond Game Studios and Platforms Matt Booty provides some answers in a discussion with Ars Technica. At the heart of the issue is “lag” or latency, the delay seen in online connections as data moves between the server and the hardware in your home.

Booty says cloud assets will be used on “latency-insensitive computation” within games. “There are some things in a video game world that don’t necessarily need to be updated every frame or don’t change that much in reaction to what’s going on,” said Booty. “One example of that might be lighting,” he continued. “Let’s say you’re looking at a forest scene and you need to calculate the light coming through the trees, or you’re going through a battlefield and have very dense volumetric fog that’s hugging the terrain. Those things often involve some complicated up-front calculations when you enter that world, but they don’t necessarily have to be updated every frame. Those are perfect candidates for the console to offload that to the cloud—the cloud can do the heavy lifting, because you’ve got the ability to throw multiple devices at the problem in the cloud.” This has implications for how games for the new platform are designed.

So how does Microsoft scale from 15,000 to 300,000 servers? More data centers. This year we’ve recently profiled major expansions at three of Microsoft’s data center hubs in Virginia, Ireland and Washington state. Check out these stories for a closer look at the “cloud end” of Microsoft’s online experience.

Well-known designer Paul Adams, who played an integral role in designing Google+ and then went on to Facebook, plans to announce on Friday that he is leaving Facebook and joining business collaboration startup Intercom as head of product design. Adams has been advising Intercom for about 9 months, and is leaving Facebook after just over two years.

In an interview this week Adams told me that he will be taking inspiration from some of his design work with Google+ and the Google’s circles concept while building product at Intercom. “Humans want to form groups. We don’t want to show everything to everybody — that’s not how human beings are hard wired,” said Adams. With Google+ and circles, Adams said his team was attempting to solve that grouping issue in order to make it easier to talk within various social groups that users wanted to connect with.

“The tricky thing to get right is that there’s a lot of effort involved with adding people to groups. That problem still exists; it’s not a solved problem yet,” said Adams. Companies like group messaging app Snapchat and photo sharing app Path are working on easier ways to solve these grouping constraints, he said.

Intercom has built tools that enable businesses to connect with their customers. An Intercom customer can use the service to see the behavior of their online customers and message them about customer service issues and new offers. Like with Google circles, Intercom can segment customers into various types — for example, customers that are using certain features, or customers that bought items in a certain time period — and then message those segmented groups. “It gives companies insights into specific user patterns in their product,” explained Adams, adding “I think it’ll be huge.” GitHub is a beta customer.

Intercom has around 20 employees and was incubated by 500 Startups. A little over a year ago the company raised a seed round from 500 Startups, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, Huddle founder Andy McLoughlin, Dan Martell and Digital Garage. The company was founded by Irish co-founders Eoghan McCabe, Des Traynor, Ciaran Lee, and David Barrett, who previously built startup Exceptional.

Adams is the latest designer to leave Facebook. The social network giant has been hard at work building up its design talent, bringing in key designers like Nicholas Felton, Ben Blumenfeld, Mike Matas, and Nate Bolt. Facebook has both acqui-hired and hired rockstar designers.

But it hasn’t always been easy to keep those designers. Felton was hired back in April 2011, but he left after about two years: about the same stint that Paul Adams just did. After five years at Facebook, designer Ben Blumenfeld recently left for the Design Fund.

It seems like there’s only so long that a young ambitious designer wants to remain part of the machine that is Facebook.

GigaOM will highlight the web’s rockstar designers at our third annual RoadMap conference in November in San Francisco. Tickets will go on sale later this Summer, but to learn more about the event, and get access to the first tickets, go here.

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Even before I released the disc, I knew it was a long shot. And, unfortunately, it was a clumsy one too.

We were playing Ultimate Frisbee, a game similar to U.S. football, and we were tied 14-14 with a time cap. The next point would win the game.

I watched the disc fly over the heads of both teams. Everyone but me ran down the field. I cringed, helplessly, as the disc wobbled and listed left. Still, I had hope it could go our way.

Sam was on my team.

Sam broke free from the other runners and bolted to the end zone. But the disc was too far ahead of him. He would never make it.

At the very last moment, he leapt. Completely horizontal, Sam moved through the air, his arms outstretched. Time slowed as he closed in on the disc.

The field was silent as he slid across the end zone, shrouded in a cloud of dust. A second later he rose, Frisbee in hand. Our team erupted in cheer.

Sam’s catch won us the tournament.

It also taught me a great lesson: Never underestimate the value of a talented receiver.

I was reminded of Sam’s catch recently after broaching a sensitive topic with Alma*, a client. The conversation was about some concerns I had about an upcoming meeting she was leading as well as my own insecurity about how I could help.

Before I spoke with her, I was hesitant and worried. Was I overstepping my bounds? Was I exposing myself? Would she reject my thoughts? Would she reject me?

I entered the conversation awkwardly, apologizing, and offering too much context. Even once I broached the issue, I felt tentative, unclear. I cringed as I felt my words hang in the air.

Thankfully, though, Alma turned out to be a Sam-level receiver.

Alma listened without a trace of annoyance. She asked questions — not to defend herself or refute my thoughts — but to understand my perspective more clearly. She was gracious, skilled, and accepting.

Her ability to receive me, and my opinions, led to a deep and valuable conversation about her performance, my role, and the needs of her team. A few weeks later, she showed up powerfully and led a remarkable meeting.

Typically, we choose our leaders for their skill at conveying messages clearly and powerfully. But, in my experience, it’s their ability to receive messages that distinguishes the best leaders from the rest.

That’s because the better you are at receiving, the more likely people will talk to you. And that’s precisely what every one of us needs: to be surrounded by people who are willing to speak the unspoken.

So how do you become a great receiver?

1. Be courageous. We often attribute courage to the speaker, but what about the receiver? 
I may have been scared broaching topics with Alma, but I had the advantage of time and preparation. I could control what I said and how I said it. I was able to think about it beforehand, write down a few notes, and test my thoughts with someone else. 
The receiver has no such advantage. Like Sam, he has to receive my throw, however, whenever, and wherever it lands. He has to be willing to listen to something that might make him feel afraid or insecure or defensive. And if he is a great receiver, he will take in the information or message thoughtfully, even if the delivery is awkward or the message jarring. That takes tremendous courage.


2. Don’t judge. Receiving is as much about what you don’t do as it is about what you do. 

Resist the temptation — blatantly or subtly — to be critical of the speaker or what the speaker is saying. Don’t argue with her, poke fun at her, shame her, act aggressively, turn on her, become defensive, or act cold toward her. 


3. Be open. In order to receive a pass in any sport — and at work and in life — you need to be free, open, and unguarded. 
Yet we often guard ourselves. Powerful feelings like fear, anger, sadness, and insecurity do their best to block our ability to receive a pass. If you want to be a talented receiver, your task is to feel your feelings without letting them block or control you or your response. Breathe. Acknowledge what you’re feeling to yourself — maybe even to the other person — without dwelling on it. 

Reiterate what you’re hearing, ask questions, be curious. Not curious in an “I-will-find-out-enough-information-so-I-can-prove-you-wrong” way. Curious to understand what the person is saying and to understand what’s underneath what they’re saying.

If you can be courageous, avoid judging, and stay open — even if the toss is awkward and the message unsettling — then, like Sam, like Alba, you’ll be able to catch pretty much anything.

And when you’re skilled at that, you’ll be a most valuable player of any team you’re on.

*Names and some details changed

Leonard Mars, a co-founder of beverage company Snapple, has died at the age of 80.

According to a New York Times obituary, Marsh died on Tuesday, March 21 at his home in Long Island, New York. The cause of his death has not been released.

Marsh grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and began his career selling chicken eggs. Marsh founded the Unadulterated Food Products company in 1972 with his brother-in-law and a friend. According to the Times, the company sold fruit juice to health food stores. Marsh and his colleagues operated the business as a part-time venture while also holding down jobs as window-washers. The company changed its name to Snapple in 1980 and introduced its famous line of bottled iced tea in 1987.

In 1994, Snapple was bought by the Quaker Oats Company. Marsh stayed with Snapple as an executive vice president. Snapple is now owned by the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, based in Plano, Texas.

What’s black, white and flat all over? iOS 7 if some reports are to be believed.

Sources close to Apple told 9to5Mac that the next iteration of Apple’s iOS software will be getting a complete redesign. That redesign will predominantly sport black and white colors while toning down on the textured look that iOS has been known for since its inception in 2007.

Apple Senior Vice President of Industrial Design Jonathan Ive (aka the guy who designed the iPhone hardware) is now in charge of the iOS7 overhaul. He is expected to bring the simplistic design of his hardware to iOS 7. He reportedly feels that Apple’s iOS has become complicated in recent years with different visual designs for different apps. His design would unite all of Apple’s software under a common aesthetic principle while retaining the simplicity of use iOS fans have come to expect.

Ive’s new black and white approach to UI design will find its way into pretty much every facet of the next iteration of iOS. Some examples include a lock screen that’s no longer transparent, notifications that ditch the current leather look in favor of a white text on black background, and the home screen will be removing gradient textures from backgrounds and app icons.

Speaking of apps, all of Apple’s apps have reportedly been redesigned with the new black and white look in mind. One example is the Notes app, which currently features a yellow notepad look. The new design will likely feature a simplistic white look with black text.

Outside of design, the new mobile OS will also reportedly include integration with Flickr and Vimeo.

We’re likely to see if the above rumors are true at Apple’s WWDC keynote on June 10. The developer-focused event will likely not feature a lot of new hardware (sorry iPhone fans), but we’ll probably get our first look at iOS 7 and the next version of Mac OS X.

With former CEO A.G. Lafley returning to the helm of Procter & Gamble, I asked Rosabeth Moss Kanter for her analysis. She holds the Ernest L. Arbuckle Professorship at Harvard Business School. She’s an expert on strategy, innovation, and leading change. She is also Chair and Director of the Harvard University Advanced Leadership Initiative. She is a regular contributor to HBR and HBR.org. She’s on twitter @RosabethKanter.

In her latest book, SuperCorp: How Vanguard Companies Create Innovation, Profits, Growth, and Social Good, she analyzed how P&G (among other companies) achieved long-term performance. She wrote the HBS cases on the P&G/Gillette merger, and when she teaches those cases, frequently invites P&G executives to her class.

Why is P&G making this move, now? P&G is in the midst of a major restructuring, and has laid off thousands of people. Why switch horses midstream?

P&G’s board has been under a great deal of pressure from an activist investor who has made his views on the pace of the restructuring clear and vocal. Regardless of the merits, that begins to wear everyone down. If the current CEO is under attack, that becomes a distraction for the company and makes it harder to execute or gain credibility with certain stakeholders. Even if the performance improvement plan is on a good path, that noise becomes a distraction (and psychologically, it leads to dreams of escape or wishes for a bold dramatic move). Appointing a new CEO buys everyone time, and thus quiets the noise for a while. But note how P&G did it. Asking A.G. Lafley to return is a sign of how much the company values continuity and company knowledge.

Any time a former CEO returns to run the company after a brief absence, you have to ask about succession planning. Does this move suggest that P&G needs a better succession strategy?

The absence wasn’t so brief. Lafley has been out of P&G for 4 years, which in this age of rapid change can include several waves of volatile external change — economic, geopolitcal, technological (social media) etc. But it’s also important to note that A.G. Lafley and Bob McDonald worked as a team during the 2000s; when Lafley scored his major successes, McDonald was by his side as vice chairman and then COO. McDonald was intimately involved with the Gillette acquisition and oversaw a model merger integration process. The P&G culture was also important to Lafley’s success, and he emphasized the PVP (purpose, values, and principles) as a management guide at the same time that he pushed product innovation, accelerated growth in emerging markets, and used the Gillette merger (with McDonald’s full involvement and leadership) as a change catalyst, to adopt some faster Gillette processes. But with the culture still a bedrock of P&G’s success and endurance, it always seemed inevitable back then that the CEO successor would be an insider.

Lafley won’t just be the CEO, he’ll be the President and the Chairman of the Board. That’s been a hot topic this week. Will having one person in those three roles make P&G more agile? Or run the risk of them not having independent board oversight?

Among other things, if a turnaround is needed, then the new CEO also needs full support and authority — and probably wouldn’t take the job without it. It wouldn’t send a great signal if Lafley returned but had one hand tied behind his back. Since he previously held all three roles successfully, why restrict him now? Also, I would hazard a guess that the Lafley return is an effort to accelerate progress on things already underway in McDonald’s plan, although Lafley could certainly add creative twists, and that Lafley won’t stay very long, just long enough to ensure investor and customer confidence, strategic priorities, and a good succession plan.

McDonald became CEO in the 2009 recession, a time when the middle class continued to shrink. That proved challenging to all the major consumer goods companies, but some (like Unilever) adapted by introducing lower-priced products. How should P&G adapt to a shrinking middle class in the US?

P&G began a portfolio of lower-priced but high-quality products in emerging markets and brought some of the concepts to the U.S., e.g., a laundry variety. It might have been slower than Unilever but wasn’t asleep at the switch. The challenge has been not in brand extensions, whether lower price points or additional features. The challenge has been creating new categories entirely. Under Lafley, there were category innovations such as Swiffer and Febreeze, and the addition of men’s shaving via the Gillette acquisition. McDonald did shift the portfolio, e.g., sell Pringles and emphasize beauty which is a growth category that is less price-sensitive. But new products or categories that might be in the pipeline don’t spring up overnight. The categories introduced under Lafley built on earlier R&D. I wouldn’t be surprised if Lafley again gets credit for products underway under McDonald. Also, social media have come on strong since Lafley handed the reins to McDonald, causing shifts in marketing strategies from TV to other media; Lafley will need to be on top of that.

There’s also the issue of emerging markets — some have accused McDonald of being overly aggressive in expanding there. Do you think Lafley will need to alter their approach?

It’s ironic. Lafley was credited with opening emerging markets as a virtue, but when McDonald built on this, he has been accused of expanding too aggressively. Of course a company should never neglect its largest developed markets. But with Europe as a drag, it seemed wise at the time to invest where there was still growth potential. Brazil has been a major success.

There are clearly no shortage of challenges on Lafley’s plate. How can he get people to take creative risks in a climate of turbulence and uncertainty? And what’s the number one priority for him right now?

Lafley will have to explain this to the executive team and the company in a way that ensures them that the path they’ve been on can be productive, especially if they accelerate innovation. He should scrutinize the entire portfolio and product/country mix to identify the most and least profitable and promising for growth, and then to make any needed people changes or adjust investments, such as marketing or product extensions. That’s immediate, along with any financial quick fixes. It’s not a bad idea to stress accountability. Maybe some of the improvement plan underway was happening too slowly because one area or unit or part of the world dragged their feet and made changes too slowly.

If Lafley accelerates progress on the operational and financial improvements underway, and people see success as reflected in profitability and stock price, then he can look for the creative ideas for innovation, large and small. Also, he can then look at the balance between Cincinnati-centricity and the recent distribution of brand global functions out to the regions, such as beauty in Singapore.

A strategic challenge is not only getting the product and category mix right, but also attracting talent (one reason for moving these brand HQs out of Cincinnati) while also integrating people across the portfolio as “one enterprise” that can find synergies and leverage learning, resources, and talent mobility. When Lafley first became CEO, P&G was struggling with how to become a more global and globally-integrated company; that is still a challenge.

Tim Curry, the beloved British actor who rose to fame in campy style with “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”, is recovering from a stroke in his Los Angeles home.

Curry reportedly suffered a “major” stroke but is said to be in good spirits despite rumors that he was having trouble speaking.

“Tim is doing great,’ said his longtime Los Angeles agent Marcia Hurwitz. “He absolutely can speak and is recovering at this time and in great humor.”

At 67, Curry has had a long and fruitful career; however, in 2011 he backed out of a role in “Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are Dead” due to ill health.

Very sad to hear. RT @usatodaylife Tim Curry is recovering after suffering a major stroke at his home in Los Angeles. usat.ly/16T8xKq

— Josh Spiegel (@mousterpiece) May 24, 2013

Damn. Wishing him the best. MT @usatodaylife: Tim Curry is recovering after suffering a major stroke at his home usat.ly/16T8xKq

— Eric Goldman (@EricIGN) May 24, 2013

Oh no! “Rocky Horror star Tim Curry ‘suffers major stroke’ – (good thoughts) independent.co.uk/arts-entertain… @independent“

— Bethan Jones (@memories_child) May 24, 2013

Keep him in your thoughts: “ROCKY HORROR star Tim Curry ‘suffers major stroke’.” @theindyarts: ow.ly/lmqZt

— Howard Sherman (@HESherman) May 24, 2013

Epy Guerrero, the famed MLB scout in the Dominican Republic who is credited with dozens of high-profile signings, has died. He was 71.

Guerrero began his career with the Houston Astros, where he famously signed Cesar Cedeno out of his home country.

“He was a good friend and great scout, great ambassador for baseball and a great evaluator of talent,” Smith said. “He and Pat Gillick were responsible for signing Cesar Cedeno, one of the finest players in the history of the franchise, and other players. Just a great person and a great baseball man. I’m really, really saddened to hear of his death,” said former Astros president Tal Smith.

Guerrero spent a large part of his career with the Toronto Blue Jays (1978-1995), and is credited with helping to load the franchise with great players in the 80′s and 90′s. He signed influential players like Tony Fernandez, Alfredo Griffin and Carlos Delgado. He also played a big part in the drafting of George Bell.

He served as a coach for the team in 1981.

On Thursday night, The Toronto Blue Jays held a moment of silence before their game with the Baltimore Orioles in honor of Guerrero.

In his illustrious career, Guerrero signed over 40 MLB players for four teams – the Houston Astros, New York Yankees, Toronto Blue Jays and Milwaukee Brewers.

He was inducted into the Dominican Sports Hall of Fame in 2008. Guerrero died in his birth city of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

[Image via TheStar]

The de-facto standard for small Android tablets is arguably Google’s own Nexus 7, which debuted last May. I was expecting to see the popular $199 slate get a refresh at last week’s Google I/O event, but that didn’t happen. Instead Google focused on software: Unifying the services and APIs between Android and Chrome. That opens up a window of opportunity for other Android tablet makers. Take, for example, the Hisense Sero 7 Pro, announced Thursday and now available at WalMart.

On the surface the Sero looks just like the Nexus 7 and it shares many of the same hardware specifications: a 7-inch 1280 x 800 IPS touchscreen, a quad-core 1.3 GHz Nvidia Tegra 3 chip, 10 hours of battery life and 1 GB of memory. The device also runs Android 4.2 out of the box, so the software is up to date. The Sero has a few extras though, when compared to the higher priced Nexus 7.

Hisense’s new tablet includes a mini-HDMI port and a microSD expansion slot; neither of which exist on Google’s tablet. The latter port may come in handy, mainly because the Sero only has 8 GB of internal storage. In this area, the Nexus comes out on top with the $199 tablet offering double the capacity. But the Nexus doesn’t have expandable storage, so that 16 GB is all you get.

If you want to output the Nexus 7 display to an external monitor you’re out of luck as it has no HDMI output nor does it support MHL adapters for that purpose.

The Sero 7 Pro has a front-facing camera like the Nexus 7 but it uses a 2 megapixel sensor as compared the 1.2 megapixels on the Nexus 7 camera. Hisense also added a rear camera — not found on the Nexus 7 — with a 5 megapixel sensor.

I may sneak over to my local WalMart to get a quick hands on with the new Hisense slate. If it’s essentially as good as the Nexus 7 with a few extra features included, I think it will be a hot seller at the large retailer. Of course, when Google eventually does give the Nexus 7 an overhaul, it could offer the current model for $149 or less.

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Kate Upton was kind enough to check her schedule after a Los Angeles teen boldly asked her to prom, but it turns out she won’t be able to make it. Nina Agdal, Sports Illustrated‘s “Rookie Of The Year”, is going to fill in for her.

Jake Davidson made his proposal in a video back in March and it quickly went viral; luckily for him, because it made its way to Kate.

“You can call me Katie if you want! How could I turn down that video! I’ll check my schedule (wink),” she wrote on Twitter.

Her full schedule is Jake’s gain, however, as Agdal has confirmed she will be attending the dance with him and even went dress shopping on “Inside Edition”.

US News | Weird News | More ABC News Videos

Image: GQ Magazine

Ji-Hae Park rocks out on the violin at TED2013. Photo: James Duncan Davidson

At age 14, violin virtuoso Ji-Hae Park was accepted to a prestigious music conservatory in Mainz, Germany – even though the school only accepted students 16 and older. By the time she was 17, a German foundation had lent Park a rare Guarneri violin to play, worth millions. But Park’s early fame took its toll.

Ji-Hae Park: The violin, and my dark night of the soul “The violin which once meant everything to me became a grave burden,” she says in today’s talk, given at TED2013.

Park found herself deeply depressed. And so she put down the violin, moved home to Korea and contemplated other career paths. It was her deep love of composition that brought her through this difficult time.

“In the midst of hardship, it was the music that restored my soul,” says Park. “The comfort the music gave me was indescribable … It set me free from the pressure of becoming a successful violinist.”

To hear how this experience led Park to rethink her career — and to focus as much on playing hospitals, churches and prisons as on playing vaunted concert halls – watch this moving talk. And here, more talks that incorporate the magic of the violin.

Andrew Bird's one-man orchestra of the imaginationAndrew Bird’s one-man orchestra of the imagination The incredible Andrew Bird intricately loops whistles, glockenspiel and vocals along with the violin – both plucked and played with a bow – in this beautiful performance from TED2010.

Sirena Huang: An 11-year-old's magical violinSirena Huang: An 11-year-old’s magical violin What makes this pre-teen such an incredible violin player? In this adorable talk from TED2006, Sirena Huang gives the credit to the design of the instrument itself – which she says counts as Technology, Entertainment and Design.

Robert Gupta: Music is medicine, music is sanityRobert Gupta: Music is medicine, music is sanity Violinist Robert Gupta, a TED Senior Fellow, tells a story about the brilliant, schizophrenic musician Nathaniel Ayers, who ended up on the streets of LA’s Skid Row. A beautiful talk on music’s power to transform a troubled mind.

Ahn Trio: A modern take on piano, violin, celloAhn Trio: A modern take on piano, violin, cello At TEDWomen in 2010, three sisters — Maria, Lucia and Angella Ahn – bring intense energy to classic trio pieces and show that the piano, violin and cello don’t need to be staid.

Shane Koyczan: "To This Day" … for the bullied and beautifulShane Koyczan: “To This Day” … for the bullied and beautiful Spoken-word poet Shane Koyczan had already given the audience at TED2013 chills as he explained why he wrote his viral-video poem, “To This Day.” And then violinist Hannah Epperson stepped on stage to back his fast-flung words — to tremendous effect.

Michael Tilson Thomas: Music and emotion through time Michael TIlson Thomas: Music and emotion through time Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas shares a lesson from his dad: What matters in music is what and how. In this talk from TED2012, he takes a personal look at the heritage of classical music. One of the pivotal moments in its development: Beethoven’s Violin Concerto.

Robert Gupta: Between music and medicineRobert Gupta: Between music and medicine Violinist Robert Gupta, of the LA Philharmonic, wasn’t always sure about what he wanted to do. At TEDMed 2012, he shares the moment he had to choose between playing music and pursuing a career in medicine, and reveals how what he chose falls in the middle.

Apparently, lots of people have dreams of being just like Spock. On Wednesday, health electronics startup Scanadu launched an Indieogo campaign for its Scout “tricorder” that, much like the medical hand-held device in Star Trek, can determine a person’s vital signs from a simple scan. And according to the crowdfunding site, Scanadu set a new record for the fastest funding velocity on the platform.

The campaign reached its goal of $100,000 in two hours (and doubled the goal within five hours), making it the fastest campaign to reach its goal on Indiegogo (of campaigns with a goal size greater than $20,000). Through Indiegogo, supporters could contribute at various levels for a range of perks, including early access to features and visits to NASA for a space medicine workshop. Early funders were able to pre-order a device for $149, while the amount went up to $199 for subsequent contributors. As of Friday, the campaign has raised more than $350,000 from funders in 65 countries.

While Indiegogo declined to share the average funding velocity of campaigns on its site or the last campaign to set a record of this type, back in August, The Oatmeal’s campaign for a Tesla museum grabbed headlines for raising $27,000 an hour.

Scanadu, which is participating in the Qualcomm Tricorder X PRIZE competition, first revealed a prototype of its device six months ago. By holding the small hockey puck-shaped device to a person’s head, this slightly updated version can determine a user’s heart rate, blood pressure, temperature, respiratory rate and oxygen levels in the blood. It can then send the information to an iOS or Android smartphone, via Bluetooth.

Scanadu founder and CEO Walter de Brouwer said he believes interest in the device stems from a desire know more about our own health and the health of the people we care about.

“It’s the sense of empowerment and the sense that we are data and some how we have to measure that data,” he told me. “And if we are data, we can change because we can set goals to improve that data.”

In addition to providing market validation for the Scanadu, Indiegogo supporters will be able to offer feedback on the devices through usability studies, which the company will use as part of its submission for FDA clearance.

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BBC’s popular iPlayer app has just gotten a new update bringing more support and increased functionality to a wider array of Android tablets. First off the bat is new-found support for 10-inch tablets, so users won’t need to rely on having to go to the BBC website to view all that cool content anymore. On top of that, BBC has also announced some interface tweaks to the smartphone and 7-inch tablet variations of the app— while additional optimizations will be arriving on the app for 10-inch devices at a future date.

All of you 10-inch tablet owners out there are itching to grab this app can hit the Play Store link below and get in on all that fun BBC goodness.

Play Store download link

Come comment on this article: BBC iPlayer app now adds support for 10-inch tablets, refined UI for smartphones and 7-inch tablets

As it typically does with many major Google algorithm updates, Searchmetrics has released of the top losers from the Google Penguin 2.0, which the search engine rolled out this week. Based on this list, some big brands like Dish and Salvation Army were hit, as were some porn sites, travel sites and game sites. Even the Educational Testing Service was hit.

“My first analysis shows that many thin sites, sites with thin links and especially untrusted links face the problem,” says Searchmetrics founder and CTO Marcus Tober. “In addition, some small business sites were hit because they haven’t taken SEO serious enough.”

Here’s the list:

Back in April of 2012, after Penguin 1.0, Searchmetrics put out one of these lists. Google’s Matt Cutts spoke out about it, saying it was inaccurate, because there had also been a Panda update, and the list was likely more indicative of that. The fact is that Google puts out algorithm changes every day, and any of these can potentially play into analysis like this.

In fact, Google recently transitioned Panda into a rolling update, meaning it is being pushed out regularly, rather than coming in big waves like it used to. We’re not trying to discredit Searchmetrics’ list here. It’s just always best to take these things with a grain of salt.

It’s worth noting that Searchmetrics put out an updated list after Cutts’ comments.

A&E is canceling its award-winning documentary series Intervention this year. The 13th season, which is set to start airing on June 13, will be it last.

Intervention’s final season will be comprised of five episodes that feature “fan favorites” from the series’ long history. Some of the addiction specialists tapped to return include Jeff Van Vonderen, Candy Finnigan, Donna Chavous and Ken Seeley. A&E says the final season will feature some rather intense episodes.

“As Intervention comes to an end, we’re proud to have paved the way for such an original and groundbreaking series,” said A&E and BIO Channel’s executive vice president of programming David McKillop. “We’re honored to have been a part of the 243 interventions since its premiere in March of 2005, leading to the 156 individuals that are currently sober to this day.”

You may have never watched the series, but one episode from the A&E series became a short lived Internet sensation on the Internet a few years ago when the emotional climax was auto-tuned:

[h/t: Reuters]

Amanda Seyfried has become a breakout star in recent years, with roles in movies such as Chloe, Lovelace, and Les Misérables. This week, the actress went on The Ellen DeGeneres Show to talk about her dog and her breasts.

On the topic of her dog, Seyfried stated that she is a bit obsessive about her dog, Finn.

“I got him cast in his first movie,” said Seyfried. “I can’t really talk about his character, but it’s gonna shoot in September and I’m really excited about it, he’s really excited about it.

On the topic of her breasts, Seyfried commented that she thinks she looked better when she was a teenager, before coming to Hollywood and losing weight, a good portion of which apparently came out of her boobs.

“I looked way better when I was 15,” said Seyfried. “I had beautiful huge breasts and then I came to Hollywood and I was like, ‘I gotta lose weight, I gotta look thin and fit,’ and I lost ‘em a little bit.”

Seyfried’s breasts were a joke in her first movie role, in the Tina Fey movie Mean Girls. Her character, Karen Smith, believed that her chest could predict the weather.