19 new stories on The Next Web today |  |
- Scoop.it is Tumblr without the blogging [Invites]
- Myspace reportedly to lay off up to 50% of its staff
- HTC Thunderbolt specifications leak, seem almost too good to be true
- 2010: 7 Things We’d Rather Forget
- Apple in 2010: Major screw-ups turn into a banner year
- 10 Great Canadian apps for the iPhone & iPad
- Keep Thieves From Disabling Find My iPhone with Three Steps
- How to tidy up Twitter with Filters and Columns
- Game-on!: Social Network for Hockey Players
- Every Windows Phone 7 handset compared to its brethren [Infographic]
- The Future of TV, starring Social Media
- Ethical Robotics and Why We Really Fear Bad Robots
- The 10 Coolest Kickstarter Projects of 2010
- What Windows Phone 7 has to do in 2011 to survive
- Twitter’s User Demographics Visualised [Infographic]
- 10 Exciting European Startups from 2010
- Interesti.ng Nigerian domains go on sale, soon will be time to get registeri.ng
- Amazon now lets you “Lend” your Kindle books to others
- In 2010: The Wondrous and Weird Ways People Used Path for Photo Sharing
- Skype to be banned in China as regulators restrict VOIP services
| Scoop.it is Tumblr without the blogging [Invites] Posted: 31 Dec 2010 03:20 AM PST
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| Myspace reportedly to lay off up to 50% of its staff Posted: 31 Dec 2010 02:30 AM PST
There are currently 1,100 employees at Myspace, the large majority of them residing in the US, with it thought that the company will plan to layoff up to 50% of its staff as management looks at ways to cut costs after revenues and traffic have fallen. In June 2009, Myspace cut 300 jobs, shut four offices and lost its international Managing Director from its European operations, signifying what looked to be the beginning of the end for the once-popular social network. Over this Christmas period, nearly the entire Myspace staff were allowed to stay home from work over the holidays in a bid to save money. In a bid to reverse its fortunes, Myspace has changed its logo, redesigned the site, changed its profile layouts and has even linked up with Facebook to allow users to port their information over from Facebook to Myspace. All these new features have failed to make any difference. Sources have mentioned that Jack Kennedy, EVP of operations for News Corp Digital Media, has been given the task of looking for a potential buyer of the website, it’s even been rumoured that game creator Zynga could move to acquire the social network. Myspace must be looking at Facebook with envious eyes right now. Update: Robert Scoble interviewed Mike Jones, CEO of Myspace at LeWeb at the beginning of the month, asking him the all-important question of whether News Corp would sell Myspace. Jones notes that he feels supported by Rupert Murdoch and his company, that Myspace would be given time to change, suggesting a sale would not be on the cards. You can watch the full video here: Forward to 3:26 for the question on whether Myspace will be sold. |
| HTC Thunderbolt specifications leak, seem almost too good to be true Posted: 31 Dec 2010 01:54 AM PST
Yesterday we brought you leaked photos of the new phone from the world’s fifth largest mobile manufacturer, a device that is said to be Verizon’s first 4G LTE handset. Rumoured specifications suggest the Thunderbolt is to feature a dual-core 1.2 GHz Snapdragon (MSM8960), runs Android 2.3 (Gingerbread), has a 5MP front-facing camera, 8MP rear-facing camera and expandable storage up to 128 GB. The inclusion of the Qualcomm MSM8960 is interesting, particularly as there has been no word on its official availability or clock speeds. The processor was announced last year and it has been noted that Qualcomm will begin sampling the chip in 2011, with release in 2012. If the rumoured specifications are to be believed, that would mean Qualcomm will have already begun sampling and will soon be ready to roll out its dual-core processors to manufacturers. There is no evidence to suggest this is the case. Qualcomm’s rivals Nvidia are to power the world’s first dual-core smartphone, the LG Optimus 2X, with its dual-core Tegra 2 processor, the smartphone expected to launch in Europe next month. Qualcomm has some catching up to do it seems. Although the device quite clearly has Verizon branding, the leak also suggests the device will be heading to German operators O2, Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone, each one offering LTE networks in the country. We will be keeping a close eye on developments, part of us wants Qualcomm’s dual-core chips to be ready so we can witness some good old-fashioned competition.
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| 2010: 7 Things We’d Rather Forget Posted: 30 Dec 2010 10:52 PM PST Array
iTunes PingSure, the idea is cool. We all love music, and we like to talk about it. But for the company that seems to turn everything into gold, Apple has ended up with a giant lump of coal. The problems with the service are numerous, and no amount of Twitter integration will fix them. Apple should simply apply the reality filter here and make us forget that Ping ever happened. Eventually, Apple will figure out the magic of social. When it does happen, it’ll likely be huge and we’ll love it. But Ping? Ping just isn’t the answer. F8 and the Social GraphOh Mark, your intentions are probably good. We understand that. But many people in the world simply won’t. While we do appreciate the things that the Social Graph provided, we’d rather not have to remember the amount of privacy that we’ve chosen to give up in order to have them. Let’s face it — When other sites have to give entire posts to explain your privacy controls, things aren’t good. When an infographic can be made to show the dramatic, year-to-year decline of your users’ privacy, that’s just plain bad. Microsoft KINThey were small, they were cheap and they were ugly. Then, in only a few short weeks, they disappeared. Apparently Microsoft decided that it would rather forget about the KIN 1 and KIN 2 after abysmally bad sales numbers. How bad? Bad enough that Steve Ballmer would likely rather forget about them as well, after his bonus was slashed due in part to poor KIN sales numbers. Strangely, as if by some deeply-seeded masochistic force, the KIN came back from the dead. Headed to Verizon back in November, we’ve not heard a peep about sales numbers. Would anyone like to provide a guess as to why? AntennagateMaybe you’ve already forgotten, but we’re betting that you’ll remember the very next time that you drop a call on your iPhone 4. Maybe you have a bumper case, maybe you have managed to stop “holding it wrong”, but nothing really takes away the fact that the iPhone 4 has a pretty glaring design flaw where form absolutely ruled over function. The Valuation Bubble500 million! 6 billion! Can somebody loan us a few bucks to drink away our memories of massively-overvalued startups? Granted, it’s difficult to place a value on some things that have come under question this past year, but it seems as if valuations are coming from a random huge number generator rather than study and experience. But really, when you’re on night 26 of no sleep, grinding away on code, maybe the “bubble” is a good thing. It provides motivation, even if the numbers are way higher than we’d ever have guessed. TV NetworksTruth be told, we’d love to be able to sing the praises of Google TV. It should have been an amazing competitor to Apple’s newest offering and it could have been great. However, TV networks have decided that they are suddenly able to decide how much their product is worth. As such, since the networks don’t feel that we’re paying enough for the content, we’re just not allowed to watch it. Oh sure, the Apple TV has recently-aired shows, but so do many other sites. If there was one damper in this entire year for next-generation home entertainment, it was the networks. Maybe someday we’ll be able to convince a TV network that we’re really willing to pay for first-run content, but they simply don’t get to name whatever price comes to mind. Samsung FascinateNow before you go screaming about the merits of the Galaxy S line of phones, please note that this section is only talking about one. The Fascinate was a bit like the bastard child of the Galaxy S group. While every other Galaxy S phone that we tested felt exactly the same and was a pleasure to use, the Fascinate did the unthinkable — Removing Google from an Android phone. If you don’t care about Google, then the Fascinate is still a great device. However, many of us who love our Android phones love them because of how tightly-knit they are with Google services. Removing Google from an Android phone is a bit like eating a fried chicken salad. It just doesn’t make any sense. Anything Else?What’s on your list of forgettable events from 2010? See that big comments box? You should put it to use and let us know. |
| Apple in 2010: Major screw-ups turn into a banner year Posted: 30 Dec 2010 09:59 PM PST Array
The iPadLet’s back things up to the early part of 2010. Rumors were flying about the Apple tablet that would eventually become known as the iPad. Once the public finally saw it, the calls about it being nothing more than an oversized iPod Touch began. Even we here at TNW gave our list of what sucked about the device. For many, the hardware was heavy, underwhelming and under-capable. But then the Internet and app developers started playing the game, because Apple typically has the Midas touch when it comes to its devices. Between Gmail, Flipboard and Wired, it became quickly clear that the game of applications and web development had changed. Suddenly, it didn’t matter whether we thought that the name was goofy or if we already had an iPhone, everybody seemed to want Apple’s new toy. The iPhone 4
To begin, there was the issue of the battery. Somehow there was a rumor of a battery that managed to last 38 hours with heavy use. But simply, it wasn’t true. While a couple of respected tech journalists stuck by their story, our own Zee did his homework and found that the battery life was sadly no better than any previous version. Then, in case you missed it, Apple had a bit of an antenna issue. Calls were being dropped at ridiculous rates, spawning rumors of class actions lawsuits, new iPhone models and even a recall. Somehow, Apple managed to appease its customers by spending $175 million to provide free bumper-style cases for the crippled device. Now, some months later, we still hear whispers of the problems, but they seem to be largely forgotten. In fact, the demand for the iPhone 4 is still so strong, it seems as if the problems had never happened. iTunes CompromisedThe great part about iTunes is that it’s easy to spot most of the scams. The problem is that Apple doesn’t seem to like to do anything about problems once they’re spotted. Back in July, we noticed one scam that was apparently purchasing applications using in-app transactions and compromised accounts. What’s most interesting, though, is that Apple not only refused to own up to the problem publicly, it went so far as to provide a “fix” that seemed to be completely unrelated to the problem at hand. This isn’t an isolated issue, either. Over the next few months, we started to hear about more and more issues with the iTunes Store. Just this past November, we wrote about another such happening and we continue to get tips about fraudulent purchases on a near-weekly basis. It’s a problem that Apple needs to address publicly, moreso than just admitting that it has happened, and yet iTunes had a great year. And so I ask you, my TNW faithful — Is there another company in the world that can launch two products that get lambasted so heavily, yet end up managing to shift their industries? Could any other company get away with literally thousands of dollars in fraudulent charges without any explanation? Somehow, the Apple force field has managed to turn 2010 into a record-setting year for the Cupertino company. 2011 should be hugely interesting…but at what cost? |
| 10 Great Canadian apps for the iPhone & iPad Posted: 30 Dec 2010 09:43 PM PST We thought we'd give Canadian developers & app creators a shout-out so we've rounded up some iOS apps from various categories — all 100% Canadian made.
HootsuiteiPhone & iPad – Twitter app: Free
KiKiPhone & iPad – Messaging: Free iPhone are becoming rapidly more mainstream and it can't be that hard to get your buddies to download a free app. It supports push messages, landscape typing and it's super speedy.
CityTV VideoiPad – Media: Free
The Globe & MailiPad – News app: Free On a side note, The Globe and Mail also offers an e-paper version of their newspaper however it does require a subscription to the printed publication.
Score MobileiPhone & iPad – Sports: Free
Timmy MeiPhone & iPad – Coffee Finder: Free
NatDecantsiPhone – Wine Pairing: Free
Rubik's CubeiPhone – Games: $2.99
KoboiPhone & iPad – Books, Newspapers & Magazines: Free
MoodFoodiPhone – Food Finder: Free |
| Keep Thieves From Disabling Find My iPhone with Three Steps Posted: 30 Dec 2010 06:58 PM PST
Here's all you have to do: enable Restrictions on your device to prevent changes to accounts or locations. Here's how you do it…
That's it, now in order to remove MobileMe or change the location settings for Find My iPhone (as in don't let the location be updated automatically), you'll have to know the passcode. I'd like to just remind you that having a passcode on your devices is a really good idea. I know, it can be annoying at times, but I've known several folks to later regretted not having a passcode for their protection. I set a delay between clicking the lock button and needing a passcode…it seemed that every time I clicked lock an email or text came in, so this little nod to convenience is the best I can do while keeping a little security. Protect your device with passcodes, Find My iPhone, and enabling Restrictions. Simple stuff, just do it.Mac OS X Hints, photo credit |
| How to tidy up Twitter with Filters and Columns Posted: 30 Dec 2010 04:44 PM PST Depending on how many people you're following on Twitter, the amount of tweets coming in can be overwhelming to say the least. And, if you are among us Twitterholics that follow hundreds/thousands of people on Twitter, you will be doing yourself a big favour by utilizing columns and filters. Slipstream Chrome Extension
Let's say you see a tweet that mentions LOL Cats and you feel you've had your fill and want to remove all LOL Cat content from the stream. All you do is simply hit "hide"on the tweet and then choose whether you want "all" LOL Cats tweets to be hidden or just from a specific user. And don't worry, if you have a change of heart and want the Cats back, Slipstream will allow you to delete the filter later. TweetDeck TweetDeck is another solid choice for managing a large horde of followers due to its use of columns and filters. Unlike Slipstream, TweetDeck is an app not a browser extension and it's available in both desktop and mobile form. This app has been vital in my personal Twitter process and I've found it highly effective in managing the 1400 people I follow. To ensure the tweets from my closest peeps aren't missed in my massive stream of 1400, I've added a group of friends to a private list I created within Twitter. By doing this, a stream of the private list can be added to its own column within TweetDeck. Columns are a fantastic feature to have and by utilizing them, users can make certain they don't lose those established friendships on Twitter. As we'd mentioned, both filters and columns can be added to TweetDeck to clean up your stream. Similar to Slipstream, any word or term can be filtered out (in settings) by individual users or by removing the unwanted term from the entire stream. There's also an additional option to filter the information coming into TweetDeck from your other accounts such as Facebook.
Columns and filters aren't exclusive to Slipstream and TweetDeck and can be found within a lot of different Twitter clients and browser add-ons out there. They might not be features you're using now but trust me, as your follower count grows these techniques and features are extremely helpful in reducing the chaos of the stream, a “nicer” alternative to a mass unfollowing.Image: Desk |
| Game-on!: Social Network for Hockey Players Posted: 30 Dec 2010 02:39 PM PST
Hockey-Community is a Canadian based service that offers a series of tools to help hockey players organize games, find rinks and locate players in their local areas. Rinks, drop-in games and goalies can be located from the website or through the mobile iPhone web app which uses GPS to find your location. This is great news for hockey players that have trouble convincing enough of their friends to play a game. With Hockey-Community, you can meet other players (that actually want to play) and you can join games that match your particular skill level. Instead of finding players on your own, Hockey-Community can also find people for you to play with. Players will receive recommendations based on their position, skill level and rinks that have been "followed". After searching my city, It was able to find all of the rinks in my area and it allowed me to follow them similar to the follow feature on Twitter. The heart of the service is social, hockey nuts have a place to swap game facts and a way to invite other users to play a game. Users can also earn reward "pucks" and notoriety for getting involved. Organizing a game, commenting on an ice rink or adding a new rink are all actions that will earn players puck badges. This is the first hockey-themed social community I've seen that connects players by skill level and enables users to find and follow rinks. I know a lot of guys here in Canada that play in private leagues and I'm certain they'll use this service. |
| Every Windows Phone 7 handset compared to its brethren [Infographic] Posted: 30 Dec 2010 01:45 PM PST
Trust us, we have a hard time keeping all the WP7 phones straight as well. That is why when we found the following infographic we just had to post it. It stacks up all the WP7 phones side by side so that you can get a good feel for each one and what it offers. Now, the question remains, did you get the one that you really want now that you have all the data? We hope so. You can find a high res version of the image here.
Via WMPoweruser, Top Image Credit |
| The Future of TV, starring Social Media Posted: 30 Dec 2010 12:49 PM PST
There's so much that I want social TV to do, and do well, because it has so much potential to vastly transform TV as we know it. I'll admit that I wasn’t always convinced that TV should be a social experience, believing that it distracted too much from what you were supposed to be watching. But if it's done in the right way, social TV could be absolutely huge and make TV a much healthier activity. Social viewingSo often I hear about something good that's on the telly after someone tells me about it. Catchup players go some way towards fixing this but you miss out on that social experience around watching the same thing and talking about it, especially online. There's such a big potential to easily access what your friends are currently watching, or to flick onto a TV program and see how many of your connections are watching it. Kind of like a big Like button, only on your TV. I welcome TV viewing becoming more active in this way. I've wondered about what happens to my brain when I sit and stare at the TV and if you add in a social aspect to this, it becomes a much healthier pastime because it adds social relevance. Change live TVThere's surely no bigger area of opportunity for social TV than in live broadcasting. There's something fascinating about live TV and being able to phone text or tweet to join in the event. If you add a real social layer into this it becomes incredibly interesting. What I'd like to see is a more clever integration of Twitter into live TV. The scenario of tweeting with your laptop on your knees while watching TV is so common now, and there's something exciting about tweeting while you're all watching the same thing. Broadcasters should now take all this tweeting and do something with it. It's not just about sticking a tweet along the bottom, but I'd like to see TV programmes be reactive to what's happening online. Think of a live news broadcast that utilizes polls through hashtags, asking questions through Twitter and adjusting the questions based on trending topics. Then it becomes a whole lot more relevant and interesting. Customised channelsBeing able to connect your social profiles with what you're watching on TV brings with it some really interesting things. I spend a lot of time catching up with TV online, switching between different sites, which is quite cumbersome. What we need through social TV is a completely personalised channel that presents you with a schedule based on what it's learned from your social activity. This channel would have to be independent of broadcasters and should be able to crawl through my public information to find the content that suits me best. Use Facebook interests, tweets, shared links and conversations with friends to pick up on the keywords for TV and films to give me more relevant content. This already happens online to an extent and it's now time for this to happen on the TV. With so much content to sift through, customised or personalised content will become the default across all media and TV is perfectly primed to take advantage of this. Social channelsWhat TV is currently lacking, is any real social integration that can enhance the content. The case for a social experience while watching TV has been proven to some extent, through the vast numbers that tweet while watching TV. But TV can be completely transformed through true social integration that enhances the content we're provided with. If I'm watching a documentary for example, then I want to be presented with a social window (that's completely optional) that offers me the latest tweets for that program, comments, discussion but most importantly of all – user generated content. Imagine if during or after that documentary or true story you can access people's real photos and videos from the event. The experience then becomes a whole lot more real and active – it's no longer about passively consuming what someone thinks you should. TV in the cloud
Some of this is clearly a bit further in the future but entirely plausible given the way that other media have gone, such as newspapers, entirely likely. Everything is moving towards becoming more social and inclusive and TV, although further behind, could really be a huge gamechanger.
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| Ethical Robotics and Why We Really Fear Bad Robots Posted: 30 Dec 2010 12:16 PM PST
CBM: Why do you think so many sci-fi movies are about robots behaving unethically? Why do you think humans are fascinated by evil robots? PL: I think that much of this is a reflection about ourselves, Homo sapiens. In important ways, robots are a replacement for humans: they can do many of our jobs better – usually described as the three D’s: dull, dirty, and dangerous jobs – and they can do some jobs that we can’t do at all, such as explore deep underwater or Martian environments. Thus, our fascination with bad robots is really that we are worried about the mischief we bring unto ourselves through technology, directly or by proxy. It’s like a backfire – a spectacular, violent event that happens when things go differently than planned. It’s also about the hubris we have in thinking that we can master our environment and in the faith we place in technology. But unlike, say, computers that crash, robotic errors can cause serious physical harm, which is more visceral than other harms. We trust that computer errors will eventually be fixed, such as restoring a bank account that was accidentally erased, but physical harm can’t be undone. Errors aside, we might interact with or employ robots in ways that lend themselves to serious injuries. Unlike computers, robots have been causing direct and immediate pain and harm in the course of their normal operation, with the first recorded death about 30 years ago. CBM: What are the main issues surrounding robots and ethics? PL: Today, the most urgent issues are related to military robots. First, the military has long been a key driver of technology research and development. They have also relaxed rules or standards that we would not have in a civilian setting. For instance, in a city, there would be rigorous testing and safeguards (we hope) to ensure that a robot doesn’t harm or kill a human being; but in the military, that could be the robot’s exact job—to kill the enemy. Therefore, robotics may naturally be used more widely in a military setting than a civilian one, and thus raising ethical issues earlier. The “Terminator” scenario isn’t plausible or near-term enough to be seriously discussed now, but it’s not unreasonable to worry now that the military would field a war-robot that autonomously makes life-and-death decisions as soon as it could. Other current concerns include the psychological effect of, say, a virtual pilot pulling the trigger to kill people with a Predator UAV remotely controlled half a world away as well as the legality of using such robots for missions we probably otherwise would not attempt, such as cross-border strikes in Pakistan. Apart from military uses, robots today are raising difficult questions about whether we ought to use them to babysit children and as companions to the elderly, in lieu of real human contact. Job displacement and economic impact have been concerns with any new technology since the Industrial Revolution, such as the Luddite riots to smash factory machinery that was replacing workers. Medical, especially surgical robots, raise issues related to liability or responsibility, say, if an error occurred that harmed the patient, and some fear a loss of surgical skill among humans. And given continuing angst about privacy, robots present the same risk that computers do (that is, “traitorware” that captures and transmits user information and location without our knowledge or consent), if not a greater risk given that we may be more trusting of an anthropomorphized robot than a laptop computer. CBM: How do Asimov’s 3 Laws of Robotics play into our current state of robot ethics? What about the way we program robots?
Second, many issues in robot ethics are not about perfect programming. Imagine that we’ve created a perfectly ethical babysitting robot – it is still an open question of whether we ought to use them in the first place: Replacing human love and attention with machines to care for our children and senior citizens may be a breach of our moral responsibility to care for them. Perfect programming also doesn’t solve the issue of job displacement, hacking for malicious uses, and other worries. Third, even if all robot-ethics issues are about programming, we have yet to create a perfectly running piece of complex software or hardware, so why would we think that the right programming will solve all our problems with robots? Hardly a couple days go by without some application, including the operating system, crashing on my computer, and these are applications that have benefitted from years of development, field testing, and evolution. CBM: What are examples of technologies that got “too far ahead of our ability to manage them–as new technologies often do,” as you wrote in your Forbes essay? PL: Well, I also work in other areas of technology ethics. So in nanotechnology, for instance, there was a rush to bring to market products that used nanomaterials, because “nanotechnology” was a trendy marketing buzzword. Yet there were few studies done on, say, whether the body can absorb the nanoparticles found in some sunblock lotions or whether there is a negative environmental impact from nanosilver particles discharged by some washing machines. Companies just started selling these products with little regard of larger effects. As another example, Ritalin is being (ab)used by otherwise-normal students and workers looking to more focus and productivity in their studies or job – besides the unknown health risk, we haven’t really thought about the bigger picture, how cognitive enhancers might be disruptive to society, much as steroids are to sports. Also, consider that the Human Genome Project started in 1990, but it was only 17 years later that there was actual legislation to protect Americans from discrimination by employers or insurers who might have access to their genetic profiles. Finally, look at the modern world with networked computers – we’re still fumbling through intellectual-property issues (such as, music file-sharing) and privacy claims. All this is to say that there’s a considerable lag time between ethics or public policy and the development of a technology. My colleague, Jim Moor at Dartmouth, calls this a “policy vacuum.” CBM: How do researchers and academics study robot ethics? Can you actually perform experiments or is the field mainly speculative? PL: Scenario-planning is just one item in a larger toolbox for applied ethicists. And being speculative isn’t by itself an objection to these scenarios. For instance, counterterrorism efforts involve imagining “what-if” scenarios that might not have yet occurred and hopefully never will occur; nevertheless, planning for such scenarios are often useful and instructive, no matter how remote the odds are. But imagining the future must also go hand in hand with real science or what is possible and likely. Some scenarios, such as a robots taking over the world or the “Terminator” scenario, are so distant, if even possible, that it’s hard to justify investing much effort on those issues at present.
Other tools include looking at history for past lessons and analogues and even looking at science fiction or literature to identify society’s assumptions and concerns about a given technology such as robotics, and this means working with academics beyond mere philosophers. And of course we need to work closely with scientists to stay grounded in real science and technology. This could lead to interesting experiments, for instance, programming a robot to follow a specific ethical theory or set of rules to see how they perform relative to other robots following different ethical theories. CBM: Is it possible to program ethic behaviors into robots? And do you agree with that approach? PL: This could work for robots used for specific tasks or in narrow operating environments, but it’s hard to see how that’d be possible today or in the near time for a general-purpose robot that’s supposed to move freely through society and perform a wide range of tasks – what is ethical in the larger, unstructured world depends on too many variables and may require a lot of contextual knowledge that machines can’t grasp, at least in the foreseeable future. In other words, what is ethical is simply much too complex to reduce to a programmable set of rules. And even a “bottom-up” approach of letting the robot explore the world and learn from its actions and mistakes might still not get a general-purpose robot ethical enough where we can responsibly unleash it upon the world. But robots tasked with specific jobs, such as building cars or delivering classroom instruction, could certainly be programmed to avoid the obvious unethical scenarios, such as harming a person. Wendell Wallach at Yale and Colin Allen at Indiana University, Bloomington, discuss exactly these issues in their recent book. CBM: Do you believe that we can program emotional intelligence into artificial intelligence?
Even if we could make robots that feel emotions, how would we verify that their experience of pain or happiness is qualitatively similar to ours? In philosophy, this is called the “other minds” problem, which is that we can’t even prove that other minds exist, or that your experience of red is the same as mine. But maybe that doesn’t matter as long as your experience of red is functionally equivalent to mine, that is, we call the same things “red.” As it applies to robots, maybe it doesn’t matter so much that a robot actually feels happiness or fear, as long as it acts the same as if it did. CBM: What do you see happening in the future? Will robots have ethics built into their software? PL: I have no idea, and by the time that’s even possible, it would be so far off in the future that maybe no one today can really say. But one thing seems to be certain, which is that the future is never the way we had imagined it’d be. It could be that robotic autonomy isn’t reliable enough that we would trust it, and so predictions like self-driving cars (like flying cars forecasted half a century ago) never come to being. But if we ever do have robots that we would require to behave ethically – for instance, because they roam through society and interact with kids, humans, and property – then, yes, I hope there’s something in place to help ensure that happens. Ron Arkin at Georgia Tech is working on something similar, with his concept of an “ethical governor” which, like a car’s governor, limits the behavior of a robot. CBM: Then, why study robot ethics? PL: Because technology makes a real impact on lives and the world, and how we develop and use them have practical effects, some positive and some negative. Think of all the great benefits from the Internet – but also think of the bad, like cyberbullying that has led to deaths in the real world. If we can reduce some of these negative effects by thinking ahead about the social and policy questions technology will give rise to, then we’re leaving the world in a little better shape than we found it, and that’s all any of us can really do. Personally, I’m interested in robot ethics because robots do capture the imagination, as I mentioned at the beginning. As Peter Singer puts it, they’re frakkin’ cool. And even though I went on to study philosophy in college and graduate school, I’ve been interested in science and technology as far back as I can remember. This includes programming computers before I was a teenager – which doesn’t sound like a big deal these days, but it was unusual 30 years ago. An Atari 400 or TI-99 4/A or Apple IIe might not have the processing power of an ordinary cellphone today, but they have personality and promise a sort of joyful discovery that only robots can dream of having. I first met Dr. Patrick Lin less than two years ago, when I had the pleasure of working with him on a piece titled “The Ethical War Machine,” for a report I put together on the state of artificial intelligence. To raise awareness of these issues, as well as chase down a few rabbit holes, Dr. Patrick Lin is publishing an edited volume called Robot Ethics, with MIT Press due out later in 2011, along with his colleagues at Cal Poly, philosopher Keith Abney and roboticist George Bekey. Bekey is also a professor emeritus at USC and founder of its robotics lab. So, together, they make a uniquely qualified research team to investigate robot ethics. Lin is now also working with such groups as Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society, which is also interested in robot ethics, and so we should have some interesting projects coming up. |
| The 10 Coolest Kickstarter Projects of 2010 Posted: 30 Dec 2010 11:58 AM PST
This year, Kickstarter brought a crop of creative projects, and even more creative people to our attention. We’ve picked our ten favorite projects of 2010, some with a slightly techy bent for obvious reasons and some that are just badass and rad in their own right. Be sure to check out each project’s Kickstarter page for full details and video. Projects Still Raising Funds: Tech Entrepreneurs and US Immigration: A documentary
Monster Maker
Derek Tonks makes monsters, really awesome monsters. For his recent Kickstarter project, he is building a full-size wearable monster suit. He’s already built ”Digitigrade” Stilts, which add 12″ and an unnatural leg angle to the suit-wearer, as well as mechanical hands that will give the creature long extended fingers. Tonks plans to use one of his friends to create a full body life cast for the suit, then he will make fiberglass molds of the entire sculpture that will later be filled with high-quality flexible foam latex. Once the foam latex is cured, it will be removed from the molds, seamed, painted, and fitted with animatronics. The animatronics will be used to articulate the face via remote control servo motors. The kid has talent. And funding for this project is still underway! So far he has raised just north of $500 of his $3,500 goal. Donate and check it out here. LUMI MaskLUMI is a sleep mask that simulates sunrise, combining two existing products- sleep masks and sunrise clocks. Before sleep, you set a wake up time on the alarm controller. Then put the LUMI on, fall asleep and in the morning a light unit inside the LUMI simulates a sunrise 30 minutes before you wake. Because most of our sleep benefits come from optimizing our dark and light cues, the LUMI mask is a great option to get a good night sleep. LUMI will be compatible with the iPhone and other mobile devices through a receiver that will allow you to set your wake up time from your mobile device. With 24 days to go, idea man Taylor Franklin Hide has raised $5,987 of his $10,000 goal.
Successfully Funded Projects: TikTok and LunaTik’s iPod Nano Watches
Power LacesRemember Marty’s power laces? As part of an art project for a contest, artist Blake Bevin created a demo version of the power laces from spare parts. With Kickstarter’s help, she plans to develop and finalize a marketable version and mass produce power laces. The next version will operate under a different, more efficient mechanism, and will be more suitable for everyday use. The project raised $25,024 out of her $25,000 goal. Delorean Hovercraft
Admittedly I, like most technophiles, have a soft spot for all things Back to the Future. It’s 2010, and California grad student Matthew Riese is rightfully asking “Where is my flying car, already?!” The fact that Riese wants to go into the custom hovercraft business is enough of a reason for me to help fund his project. Riese isn’t building a flying car exactly, but it is a step in the right direction. He is building a hovercraft that looks exactly like a Delorean. Two years ago, he started with a ”rough draft” version and plans to use the $5,500 for construction materials and labor costs. When it is done, the craft will be able to hover on anything flat such as asphalt, sand or water, but it will be mostly driven in the San Francisco Bay area. According to Riese, “The hovercraft is registered with the DMV in California as a boat and it is not street legal. The top speed should be around 45 mph, which is pretty impressive for a vehicle with no brakes (it’s not touching the ground, remember!). If you have never seen a hovercraft, the basic concept is that a fan pushes air underneath the middle of the craft and a “skirt” (basically a flexible inner-tube around the perimeter of the craft) traps that high-pressure air under the craft, which lifts it off the ground. Some air is escaping under the skirt at all points at all times, so in theory, even the skirt isn’t actually touching the ground/water. A second fan pushes air behind the craft, driving it forward.” The project raised $5,644 of its $5,500 goal. Riese’s Delorean will not include a flux capacitor but it will probably get him laid. ClockTHREE ClockTHREE is a heady open source Arduino built, LED array that features a multi-color word clock, similar to QlockTWO. ClockTHREE is different because the 192 LEDs are individually addressable and programmable so this device will support several languages as well as any number of other applications. ClockTHREE is a cool platform for anyone wishing to explore time and color. The geeks behind it are also planning to build a sun clock that displays where on the globe the sun is currently shining and a thermometer that tells the temperature with words and color. The project was successfully funded. It raised $3,656 of its $1,111 goal.
The Glif
SADbot
SADbot, or the Seasonally Affected Drawing Robot, is a solar-powered, interactive drawing machine created by Eyebeam artists and former ITP students Dustyn Roberts and Ben Leduc-Mills. In the photo above, two women pause to see a pen doodling across a canvas behind a window. When they touch little circles on the glass, the pen changes direction. SADbot uses an Arduino microcontroller, four photocell sensors, a battery, and two stepper motors to control two cables attached to a pen. The electronics receive power from solar panels on the building's roof. But not only light powers the installation — it also affects SADbot's behavior. Because it is solar powered, at night SADbot stops doodling and "goes to sleep." But when the sun is out, SADbot lets people interact with it and doodles across a large canvas. ”People are only happy when it's sunny," says Roberts. "Just like our robot." SADbot was displayed this summer at New York City's Eyebeam studio, an artist's hub dedicated to the convergence of art and technology. SADbot raised $1,175 of its $1,000 goal on Kickstarter. Roberts, who also teaches at NYU’s ITP school included SADbot in her recently published book, titled Making Things Move. DiasporaI hesitated to include this on the list because when it launched in beta, I wasn’t impressed. In the aftermath of the Facebook privacy meltdown, Diaspora aimed “to be a distributed network, where totally separate computers connect to each other directly, will let us connect without surrendering our privacy. We call these computers 'seeds'. A seed is owned by you, hosted by you, or on a rented server." Since Diaspora won't have access to user data, they can't infringe on users' privacy. The alpha product, released in late November failed to impress because it seemed like the kids had spent three months learning how to program more than anything else. But their story on Kickstarter was unbelievable. They launched their idea with a $10,000 goal to cover summer expenses to develop the app. By June 1st, Diaspora has raised a total of $200,647 collected from a total of 6,479 backers including Mark Zuckerberg himself. For now, I think that it’s going to take a lot of work to get it really right, but it’s a commendable start. The project in itself is groundbreaking. The question will come in keeping enough money to keep it running long enough to get more help in the door. See a screenshot of the app here:
What other projects on Kickstarter did you love this year? |
| What Windows Phone 7 has to do in 2011 to survive Posted: 30 Dec 2010 11:50 AM PST
So far, it has been a success. But with Microsoft using its checkbook to buy momentum for the platform, and it still being so new that it retains its ‘new car smell,’ we wonder if the phones can keep pushing forward as they have so far in the coming new year. After collecting all of our thoughts, we have complied a list of two milestones, and two general points that outline what we feel are the benchmarks that Windows Phone 7 has to meet in 2011 if it wants to be treated as a serious platform, on par in terms of respect with Android and iOS. Let’s get started. 15 Million Handsets SoldThis is a simple 10x multiple off the phones that Microsoft last reported sold. Why 10x? Microsoft sold 1.5 million phones in the first 6 weeks of the platform’s life, but that included a rush from fanboys. We anticipate a slight slowdown of sales in January, but expect Microsoft to keep moving around a million phones a month. With moderate growth, that puts 15 million handsets sold within reach. Also, 15 million handsets would create a comfortable pool for developers to sell to, a crucial aspect. In short, Microsoft needs to keep pushing promotions on WP7 handsets to keep sales strong. 50,000 AppsAgain, we are going 10x from current numbers. There are 5,000 applications in the WP7 application marketplace right now. As developer momentum has been somewhat steady thus far, even with slow initial sales numbers, Microsoft needs to ensure that new developers are brought on board to keep the platform growing. If there are less than 50,000 applications in the market by the end of 2011, it will show a general softness in developer interest which will imply low or merely moderate app purchases, which in turn hints at low handset sales. As we have long known, developer interest is a sign of health. 50,000 or bust. More Carriers/CountriesMicrosoft did an excellent job getting WP7 slots and spots around the world on various carriers in many countries, but it needs to push even harder. Want proof? When WP7 hit Thailand it flew off the shelves and quickly sold out. Result for Microsoft? More handsets in the market, more apps downloaded, and so forth. Microsoft should try to add more than one country every month in 2011. Of course, the addition of Verizon to the WP7 carrier lineup will be a big boon and boost, but there need to be more like it in the pipeline. Killer New HardwareWP7 handsets are good, if a bit boring. There is not killer phone that everyone wants to have, regardless of its OS, that runs WP7. Sure, Microsoft is a software company and should be happy that their work has been well received, but WP7 needs something more: an explosive phone. If WP7 had a handset built for it that was so over the top that it wowed the world, it would become a halo product for the rest of the WP7 line, making the entire platform more appealing to consumers. That is our list. Microsoft has had a very strong start, but that is not enough. It needs to push harder now more than ever to keep strong in the post-holiday season, when sales might begin to lag. |
| Twitter’s User Demographics Visualised [Infographic] Posted: 30 Dec 2010 11:46 AM PST Twitter continues to boom, millions of new users are flocking to the service every month. Recent studies have shown that whilst the numbers are growing, the actual number of active accounts is surprisingly low. Flowtown has produced this really slick infographic to detail who is using Twitter and how they are using it, you can find it embdedded below:
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| 10 Exciting European Startups from 2010 Posted: 30 Dec 2010 11:31 AM PST Europe’s had a bumper year for interesting European startup ideas. The Next Web’s Hermione Way and I put our heads together to come up with this list of ten small tech companies from across the continent that have excited us most in 2010. Brainient
The company launched its developer tools at The Next Web Conference in April this year and announced the first of a fresh wave of commercial partnerships, allowing video site SeeSaw to transplant Hulu’s “Choose your own ads” format to the UK for the first time. Tastebuds
It’s a simple idea that the site carries off incredibly well and as a niche dating idea we love it. Music taste can often say a lot about a person’s outlook on life and if nothing else, it’s an excellent conversation starter. The service may be a little too reliant on Last.fm from a business point of view, but as a concept it’s beautifully realised. Skimlinks
It's a model that has won Skimlinks major worldwide publishing clients. This year the London-based startup launched Skimkit, a product that makes it easy for writers to add affiliate links to their articles, even suggesting items that might be suitable to link to. Shutl
The service works by aggregating capacity across local courier companies into a single web-service that retailers can use to speed up deliveries. A GPS tracking facility in partnership with Bing Maps allows shoppers to track their deliveries in real-time via the Shutl website. The UK startup is currently trialling its service with certain Argos stores in the London area. Paper.li
This annoyed some Twitter users, who found their reply stream filled with announcements that they featured in their followers’ Paper.li publications each day. Still, the service is still growing at a reported 1000 papers per day, with plans to expand beyond Twitter and Facebook and offer users the chance to make money from their newspapers in 2011. Nuji
As it builds a network of tastemakers, Nuji plans to monetize by offering relevant shopping deals to users based on their interests. Flattr
After adding money to their Flattr account, users click the ‘Flattr’ button on pages that they like around the Web. At the end of the month, the money in their account is divvied up to the publishers of the content the user ‘Flattr-ed’. Thus far the service’s most high profile signup has been Wikileaks, which added the button to its Afghanistan war logs page as a way of accepting donations. The service remains one of the few income sources that hasn’t been closed off to the controversial whistleblowing website in recent weeks. Moshi Monsters
The virtual world has seen real-world spinoffs galore. A deal with Penguin Books was followed by toys, mobile apps and video games in what is set to be a highly profitable year. Stupeflix
Stupeflix also offers an API to automate the processing and generation of video content for third parties. Screach
At present there’s little to try out Screach’s mobile app on, but that should change next year when the UK start-up is set to announce commercial partnerships.
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| Interesti.ng Nigerian domains go on sale, soon will be time to get registeri.ng Posted: 30 Dec 2010 10:51 AM PST Array
Nigerian news group ThisDay registered thisday.ng, posting up a holding page that states a new website will launch on January 3 2011. Whilst it will be great for companies within the country to advertise shorter domains and work with an easy suffix, the real value is going to come from internet startups and established internet services that which to turn their company names into verbs. Oo Nwoye, a Nigerian entrepreneur, spotted the domain registration, proposing that companies like Facebook and Google will move quickly to register domains like Googli.ng and Facebooki.ng. According to the Nigerian Internet Registration Association (NIRA), there are 27 Nigerian domain registrars, all capable of registering domains for customers. The TLD is so new, none of the companies listed have updated their websites to show the new domain option – it’s not even available on the official NIRA website. The domain could prove very lucrative for its Nigerian owners, if it becomes available to buy publicly. We are sure Ning and a number of other companies are watching proceedings with a keen eye. |
| Amazon now lets you “Lend” your Kindle books to others Posted: 30 Dec 2010 09:10 AM PST
The feature is available to registered users of the retailer’s Kindle devices and apps in the USA. Simply visit the Manage Account page, scroll to your ‘Orders’ list, click ‘Loan This Book’, enter the “borrower”‘s name, email address and an optional message… and you’re done. Of course, this isn’t “lending” in its true sense, it’s just opening up a title to a free trial for another user. Still, as a viral way of spreading word about the Kindle ecosystem, now covering multiple mobile platforms as well as Windows and OSX, it’s a great idea. It’s not an original one though, Barnes & Noble offers a similar feature in the US already for its Nook e-reader although that platform simply can’t match the reach and accessibility of Kindle. Not all Kindle titles are lendable, it’s down to individual rights holders to decide whether they want their publications to be included in the scheme. There’s no word as to when the feature might be enabled outside of the United States.
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| In 2010: The Wondrous and Weird Ways People Used Path for Photo Sharing Posted: 30 Dec 2010 08:36 AM PST
Path, the new photo service that launched on the scene this year differentiated itself by offering a degree of privacy in a more controlled way than other photo sharing services like Flickr, Instagram, Facebook, Twitpic, etc. Path limits your sharing to 50 people, so it’s an app for you to exclusively share photos with a curated list. I like it for many of the same reasons I limit the amount of friends I have on Foursquare versus the more liberal constraints I put on Facebook and Twitter. There are some social networks that are great to use, just not with everyone. My current location and pictures of what I’m doing are two aspects of my life I’d like to try and keep relatively personal, which is why Path is a bright idea.
1. OooLaLa. “I really think that photos on services like Path are this generation’s love notes. Just a quick ‘I’m thinking of you, I miss you. I wish you were here,’” says Morgan Brown, the Director of Social Media for ScoreBig.com. A large number of Path users use the service to share photos with their significant other that they don’t necessarily want to publish to the rest of the world. This works particularly well for long distance lovers who want to share little moments of their day. 2. Family Photo Albums. If you can get mom and dad on board, Path is great for posting cheesy, look at me, it’s your pumpkin! photos that you wouldn’t post to Facebook in a million years.
3. TV Spotting. Michael S. Galpert, one of the co-founders of Aviary, a popular free suite of photo-editing tools, uses Path to capture TV shows. Why? “It’s a personal moment that I’m logging since I dont watch TV often,” he says. “I really am excited by Path’s mission and have faith that the team will execute the vision of creating a personal network.”
4. Food photography. In April, The New York Times wrote about the rising trend of food photo diaries. Foodspotting then capitalized on this, so it’s no surprise that a large number of users (mostly high school girls) use Path as a food log to share what they’re eating with fellow dieting pals.
5. Sticker Collecting. Through a friend, I learned about a group of American guy friends who live in Argentina and are obsessed with sticker collecting. They use Path to share photos of sticker collection with their amigos.
6. Beard-Spotting. Enough said. Last week, Path added 10 second video sharing, and I can only imagine the stories I’ll hear about from the more eccentric folks in my life. And just a personal gripe, Path needs a new logo. What are ways you’ve heard of people using Path? Please share! |
| Skype to be banned in China as regulators restrict VOIP services Posted: 30 Dec 2010 05:37 AM PST
The news comes just hours after Skype after it announced 3G video calls on iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices, somewhat unrelated to the blocking of the VOIP service but restricting the company from forming a real presence in China. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has ruled that all VOIP services are now illegal on the Chinese mainland, a move that is thought to protect the the state-owned telecom carriers from any outside competition but also ensure that the government is able to keep a keen tabs on calls between citizens. FastCompany reports Skype’s response isn’t likely to be cut and run, its suggested that the company will work with regulators behind closed doors to work out an agreement. It is not known when the ban will come into place or how it will be enforced - China’s great firewall will play its part in proceedings when it does. As soon as more information becomes available, we will keep you updated.Image Credit |
If German blog 
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PL: By pointing to 
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The Glif, which 
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Since 
The Chinese government has moved to block VOIP services offered by any operator outside of China Telecom and China Unicom, banning Skype and any third-party VOIP service from operation within China.| You are subscribed to email updates from The Next Web To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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