2018 Wholesale Gold-Plated Jewelry blogs

Facebook could not be immediately reached for comment.

This post was updated at 6:42 PM PDT with comment from Facebook.

This is a pretty interesting move, and I’m not really sure why Facebook is going in this direction. Using Groups is a fine method of communication between people who share specific interests, but Network Pages, on the other hand, are great for seeing what’s popular in your network, which probably includes people with whom you would not otherwise be in a group. It is a good, consolidated view of things that are of direct concern and interest to people in that network.

Facebook plans to remove its Network Pages feature.

Bringing popular posted items, groups, and marketplace listings together in one place is reason enough to keep the feature, but when you add in a lively discussion board and Wall posts that really help solve a lot of connection problems, I just don’t understand the reasoning behind this decision.

“Facebook has decided to remove the Network Portals because we have found that most users tend to get network information from their feeds, such as News Feed and Mini-Feed, rather than navigating to the portals. Groups, Pages and users’ feeds continue to enable users to connect with the people in their networks and discover the most relevant information.”

Update (Facebook’s response):

In a warning message to users, Facebook has said it will soon be discontinuing Network Pages, through which members of a particular network can view and interact with a variety of data, such as Wall postings, marketplace listings, statistics on the most popular things in their network, and popular groups. In the same message, Facebook suggests the use of its Groups feature to connect with people around them.

But Zuckerberg lucked out on Friday with his keynote “fireside chat” at the Future of Web Apps conference. Interviewed onstage by conference organizer Ryan Carson, Zuckerberg wasn’t subject to any particularly difficult questions (after all, he answered the “profitability” one this week), heckling from the audience a la South by Southwest, or otherwise awkward moments. The point of the talk, really, was just about what it means to be a developer.

More than anything, he continually stressed, Facebook is about sharing information and content.

Carson’s questions were, for the most part, not particularly challenging for the PR-groomed Zuckerberg. But he did prod the young founder into mentioning the longstanding rumors that Facebook wants to institute a payment system for its users and has been working on it for some time.

In terms of advice for developers, Zuckerberg declined to really elaborate on what he’d do differently if he were starting the company now, or what mistakes he’s acknowledged he’s made along the way. But he did say that he prides himself on having a workforce that’s largely staffed by people with technical and engineering backgrounds. “A lot of the people (at Facebook), even if they’re not in technical roles, they have technical backrounds,” Zuckerberg said. He added that the company’s chief financial officer is one of them. “I think credibility is external but DNA is internal. I don’t know that having a CFO that has a more technical background gives us more credibility, but I think it could help us make better decisions.”

“With the new design we’re trying to do that with the profile,” Zuckerberg explained when talking about sharing. “When we launched (the) platform, a lot of apps just focused on getting a box to be installed on the user’s page. The issue with that is the app may never have been used by the user again,” he said. Facebook aims to “incentivize” apps that encourage real interaction.

He spoke much more concretely, probably because of the developer-heavy audience, about the “openness” issue. Standards like OpenSocial have been developed in the wake of Facebook’s generally closed-off policies with its code and platform, and so far, Facebook has declined to support these or other standards like OpenID. Zuckerberg still would not rule it out.

Zuckerberg, wearing sneakers and his trademark North Face fleece, said that it was his first trip to London since junior high and talked extensively about Facebook Connect, the data-portability technology that had just been demonstrated onstage by his colleague Dave Morin. “Facebook Connect is basically the next evolution of Facebook Platform, and the thing that I’m most excited about it is that it basically brings into parity what people can do on Facebook.com with the rest of the Web,” he said.

“Someone could build that, and there are definitely a lot of platform apps that have business models that are based on payments,” he said and then paused.

“The audience is packed with people who build Web apps,” Carson said as he kicked off the talk. “What’s it like to grow your company and build a popular Web app?”

“There are millions of people who are using Facebook just on mobile devices, and location is a big part of that,” was as specific as he would get.

Carson asked Zuckerberg what he does to unwind when he goes home.

But the company is releasing Facebook Connect, which is now in beta, more cautiously than with its platform predecessor, which had a wildfire debut that left the company “floored, in a positive way,” Zuckerberg said. “We’re having a little bit of a different process in terms of rolling it out because it involves people taking their information offsite. We want to make sure that the privacy and everything else is in order.”

“There is the rumored Facebook payment system,” he added with a bit of cheek. “Who knows when it’ll be ready…(There’s) definitely nothing to announce yet.”

When talking about the central importance of sharing to Facebook, Zuckerberg described how members are now willing to share much more than they were when the site launched four years ago. He compared it to Moore’s Law, suggesting that the “exponential” rate of sharing could be charted and predicted when it came to future features that Facebook could add. One of those things could be location-awareness, which Carson asked about and which Zuckerberg implied in his Moore’s Law analogy that the alleged exponential curve simply hasn’t reached yet.

But he had some critical words for Facebook’s open-source rivals. “For the developer platforms, in terms of the supposed ‘open’ stack and then the Facebook one, right now the feedback we get from developers is that people prefer a lot of our interfaces,” he said. Eventually, though, he said that Facebook would extend its APIs so that third parties could implement the massive amounts of data on the site in one form or another.

(Credit:
Caroline McCarthy/CNET News)

“I don’t know if I’d frame it as a concrete thing we haven’t chosen to do; I would maybe say that there’s a trend in terms of how things play out and we haven’t done it yet,” Zuckerberg said. “Openness is clearly a very good thing.”

“I don’t go home that often,” Zuckerberg replied.

He also talked more candidly than usual about the shortcomings of the platform, and how it soon became a hub for goofy viral applications that users quickly started to find annoying. The redesigned look of Facebook pages relegates many of those apps to a separate “boxes” tab, which has irked many developers, but Zuckerberg implied that if apps are seeing a decline in use because of the redesign, they probably aren’t the sorts of apps that Facebook envisioned as part of its platform in the first place.

It’ll launch in full in the “next few months,” he said.

Zuckerberg (right) speaks with FOWA organizer Ryan Carson.

LONDON–These are tough times for Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. The economy is in the tank, Madison Avenue still doesn’t have full faith in the social network’s ability to generate ad revenue, and entertainment-industry analysts estimate that in a few years the 24-year-old CEO could be in danger of losing his title of “world’s youngest billionaire” to pop singer Miley Cyrus.

AppleInsider reports that Finder, the ubiquitous file management application in Mac OS X, has been rewritten using Apple’s Cocoa development environment in advance of the release of Mac OS X 10.6, otherwise known as Snow Leopard. Finder remained a stubborn holdout tied to the Carbon programming environment as Apple encouraged internal and external developers to switch to Cocoa over the last several years.

(Credit:
Apple)

Apple has finally rewritten one of the most important applications in
Mac OS X in its preferred programming environment, according to a report.

(Credit:
Apple)

Apple hasn’t released a ton of formal information about Snow Leopard, but it has emphasized that the operating system will mark the completion of Apple’s march toward a 64-bit release. The company has also said that application developers won’t be able to write 64-bit applications in Carbon, which seems like Apple’s way of pushing Carbon holdouts onto Cocoa.

Snow Leopard is expected to arrive “about a year” after it was announced last June at the Worldwide Developers Conference, which gives Apple a lot of wiggle room to work out the kinks. The new version will also support the ability to create separate Mac OS X images on disk partitions or external drives, according to AppleInsider.

Finder, as shown in Mac OS X Leopard.

At long last, Apple has rewritten Finder using its Cocoa development environment for Snow Leopard, according to a report.

It’s not that easy, however, to switch large applications from one development environment to another: Adobe Systems thought it would be able to write a Carbon-based 64-bit version of Photoshop, but had to delay its plans for a 64-bit version of Photoshop for Mac OS after learning it would have to switch Photoshop to Cocoa.

The 75-employee Greenville, Texas-based company also seeks to promote robots in general. It maintains RobotEvents.com, a site that tracks news of educational robotic and technology projects for children and teens.

While the minirobot is geared toward kids, it’s easy to see the Hexbug Crab gaining a place alongside office stress balls in cubicles across the country.

(Credit:
HexBug/Innovation First)

Innovation First is releasing the Hexbug Crab, the latest in its line of Hexbug microrobotic toys that sell for about $9.99.

This August, you may be dodging something other than Frisbees at the beach or your boss at the office.

Like other Hexbugs, the Hexbug Crab can be left to roam around and respond to its environment. Think of it as a little pet that doesn’t need to be fed.

The Hexbug Crab has built-in light sensors that are programmed to run from light, just like a real crab does.

“Feelers” on the crabs legs are actually robotic sensors that help it avoid obstacles. It responds to loud clapping or banging sounds by running away. The Hexbug Crab, however, is slightly more advanced than Hexbug’s robotic bugs. This one will also have light sensors and be programmed to scurry to the darkest spot it can find, just like a real crab does.

Original CableCard setups were limited to just one tuner, so dual-tuner applications–such as picture in picture and the ability to record one show while watching another–were unavailable. (This issue was addressed with dual slots on the TiVo HD, as well as the multi-stream “M-card,” which allowed for dual tuning–it was rarely deployed by cable operators.)

Color us skeptical
The bottom line is this: Tru2way certainly looks to offer the potential for cable customers to return to the simple, halcyon days of “cable ready” TVs–just one wire, just one remote. But until we see the products hit stores in the real world, and see how–or if–they work as advertised on cable systems around the country, color us skeptical. In the meantime, we’ll be waiting patiently in the downstairs rec room, sitting on hold with tech support, trying to get the CableCard PC up and running.

(Credit: CableLabs)

If the industry press is to be believed, Tuesday’s announcement that Sony would be producing TVs with Tru2way compatibility was a watershed event–the electronics world equivalent of the Magna Carta or the Treaty of Versailles. But let’s step back a bit and examine what this really means.

What do you think: Will Tru2way make for a better cable TV experience? Or will it be the latest consumer electronics scheme to overpromise and underdeliver?

CableCard was incompatible with Switched Digital Video (SDV) technology, which more cable providers are–or will soon be–utilizing to deliver more HD channels despite bandwidth limitations. As a result, CableCard devices such as the TiVo HD DVR need an outboard tuner (basically, a second cable box) to receive those channels, which often include the newest and most desirable HD stations.

Tru2way is a digital cable technology developed by CableLabs that’s designed to be built directly into TVs, eliminating the need for an outboard set-top box. In theory, you’d be able to buy a Tru2way-compatible TV, bring it home, connect it to your coaxial cable, and instantly be able to receive your entire lineup of digital cable and high-def channels–including all the interactive video-on-demand and pay-per-view channels that currently require a cable box.

CableCard setups are notoriously finicky, and often require one or more follow-up visits from the cable technician.

Tru2way is designed from the ground up to be interactive, customizable (for the cable provider), and plug-and-play. Switched digital video, video-on-demand, pay-per-view, HD channels, dual-tuner support–it should all work without a hitch, and deliver an identical experience on your local cable system, no matter which Tru2way TV you’re buying.

Beyond the TV, Tru2way functionality could be built in to third-party DVRs (TiVo is already said to be working on a “Series4″ DVR that utilizes the technology) and accessories. Among the other possibilities: a Tru2way Slingbox with a built-in tuner; an adapter that turns the
Xbox 360 or
PS3 into a cable-ready DVR; true home theater PCs; and portable TV viewers (such as the Comcast/Panasonic player shown in January).

The electronic programming guide (EPG) interface on most CableCard TVs was either bare bones or nonexistent. That was bad for users who’ve grown used to increasingly sophisticated EPGs (on TiVo and satellite DVRs). It also frustrated cable providers who were used to controlling that interface on their own boxes, where–for better or worse–they could add advertisements, customized graphics, and other “branding” that so excites multimillion dollar corporations.

CableCard was effectively a one-way technology, so it was incompatible with any interactive services, including video-on-demand and pay-per-view services that customers have grown to like, and cable companies depend on as a major revenue stream.

There are plenty of other potential advantages. Tru2way TVs should be able to offer additional functionality, such as built-in DVRs. (A handful of CableCard DVR/TV combos were released, but they never took off, thanks largely to the problems outlined above.) And including the tuner inside the TV would offer the potential for better picture quality, since a TV signal native to the TV would no longer be reliant on the so-so video processing found on most set-top boxes.

TVs with CableCard support often charged a slight premium over their non-CableCard counterparts–meaning that consumers were often paying more, but (as evidenced by the laundry list of issues above) getting less.

Update (5/29/2008): Be sure to read the detailed comment below from reader MegaZone (who runs the Gizmolovers website). He offers some important corrections and expansions to my CableCard/Tru2way analysis.

If this sounds familiar, it’s because many of the same promises were made several years ago with a technology called CableCard. TVs that shipped with a CableCard slot were called “Digital Cable Ready” (DCR); they required a smart card, provided by your local cable operator, to receive digital and HD channels. The problem with CableCard was that it was an interim solution that satisfied nobody. Everyone–cable companies, hardware manufacturers, government regulators, and consumers–found CableCard technology lacking. Among the problems:

The CableCard installation and setup still required the cable companies to “roll a truck” to the customer’s home–so it didn’t save the company any time or money versus a cable box setup.

Not surprisingly, there was an immediate clamor for “CableCard 2.0″ to address all of those issues. And that’s effectively what Tru2way is: the next-gen CableCard, without the physical card. (You may have heard it mentioned during its years of development, when it was alternately referred to as “OpenCable” or “Open Cable Application Platform (OCAP)”.) And–on paper, at least–it seems as if CableLabs and its partners finally got it right this time.

And why will companies like TiVo bother developing Tru2way boxes if the consumer will be forced to use the drab cable company interface versus the far superior TiVo UI? Just imagine, for instance, if a future Apple TV offers Tru2way compatibility, but instead of its slick Apple home screen, you’re stuck with a Comcast/Time Warner/Cox EPG the minute you toggle to live TV. For most users, that would eliminate the whole reason for upgrading in the first place.

Sony joins Panasonic, Samsung, and RCA on the Tru2way roadmap, but whether any of these companies will actually deliver a real world Tru2way product before the end of the year remains to be seen. And even if they do, there are plenty of other questions. How much will cable companies charge you for the privilege of connecting a Tru2way product to their pipe? (Our guess: exactly the same fee they charge for renting the box you have now.)

So what’s not to like? Nothing–except that none of this yet exists in the real world. Until you can actually buy one of these Tru2way products at Best Buy, Circuit City, or Amazon.com, it’s all theoretical.

On Wednesday a federal appeals court affirmed that Qualcomm is infringing on two cell phone patents. It also upheld an injunction against Qualcomm selling products with technology that infringes the two patents.

But it wasn’t a total loss for Qualcomm. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that Qualcomm was not infringing on one of the three patents in question. This patent relates to video compression technology.

Chipmaker Broadcom has won the latest battle in a long patent war with Qualcomm.

That said, the court affirmed the judgment of infringement on two other patents. One patent has to do with walkie-talkie technology and the other one involves cell phones that switch between multiple wireless networks.

Qualcomm and Broadcom have been battling each other in court since 2005. In the past couple of years, the smaller Broadcom has aggressively defended its patents and won several victories. Last year, it won a major victory when the U.S. International Trade Commission ordered a ban on the import of all new models of 3G wireless handsets with Qualcomm chipsets that infringe Broadcom patents.

In May 2007, a jury found that Qualcomm had violated patents held by Broadcom that help cell phones process video and walkie-talkie conversations. And the judge in the case ordered Qualcomm to stop using the technology and to pay Broadcom royalties on existing infringing QChat products.

In August a federal judge ruled that Qualcomm was in contempt of an injunction that bans the use of patented wireless technology owned by Broadcom. Qualcomm appealed the decision.

The permanent injunction contains a sunset provision that allows Qualcomm to sell its products and pay royalties to Broadcom through January 2009. But Qualcomm has developed technology that circumvents the disputed patents, which means newer QChat phones, which use the walkie-talkie technology, aren’t affected.

Although the reproduction of copyrighted materials is permitted under fair use laws, it’s limited in the extent the materials that can be copied, such as excerpts verses chapters upon chapters, Rich noted.

Although the problem of copyright infringement is believed to be widespread among colleges and universities, the majority of those institutions contacted by publishers generally cooperate and take steps to remedy the situation, Rich said.

The publishers allege Georgia State University permitted its professors to reproduce vast amounts of copyrighted materials and combine them into course packets for students.

A group of academic publishers filed a lawsuit against Georgia State University officials on Tuesday, alleging a systematic abuse of copyrighted works in the online distribution of coursework reading materials.

“Our clients believe this is a widespread problem,” said Bruce Rich, an attorney with Weil, Gotshal & Manges, who is representing the plaintiffs.

Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, and Sage Publications allege the university “facilitated, enabled, encouraged, and induced” professors to upload the copyrighted materials to its online system for students to download, without first obtaining the necessary permissions or paying licensing fees.

The key issue for the publishers is harm to the market, Rich said. For example, he questioned whether professors would be able to continuing publishing their research, given the related costs involved, if their respective publishers were not compensated for providing the materials.

The lawsuit, filed in a U.S. District Court in Georgia, may mark the first time publishers have challenged universities over the electronic distribution of written copyrighted works, noted the plaintiffs’ attorney.

The problem first cropped up a couple years ago, noted Patricia Schroeder, head of the Association of American Publishers, of which the plaintiffs are members.

A spokeswoman for Georgia State University declined to comment, noting the institution and the parties cited in the lawsuit have not yet been served with the complaint.

“A couple years ago, we noted a drop-off in universities seeking copyright permission as they shifted to the digital world,” Schroeder said. “Even though technology changes, the law doesn’t.”