Turing's Enduring Importance - Technology Review

Check the full article for a synopsis of Turing’s life and work

Many histories of computing give the impression that it was a straightforward set of engineering decisions to use punch cards, then relays, then tubes, and finally transistors to build computing machines. But it wasn't. General-purpose machines required Turing's fundamental insight that data and code can be represented the same way. And keep in mind that all of today's computers were developed with the help of slower computers, which in turn were designed with slower computers still. If Turing had not made his discovery when he did, the computer revolution might have been delayed by decades.

Turing's Enduring Importance - Technology Review

Report: Google gets Drive cloud storage ready to roll (GigaOM)

It’ll be interesting (and ominous for Dropbox, Box.net, and others) to see if this perennial projection comes to fruition this time around; also see Google Is Painting A Big Fat Target On Dropbox (Business Insider)

Google is finally about to big-foot its way into the cloud storage business, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

With its “Drive” or “G-drive” service — which has been talked about for some time — Google would take on some very popular consumer-oriented cloud storage entrants, notably Dropbox and Apple’s iCloud. People use these services as virtual closets for their digital photos, documents and music. Once their material is in the cloud, they can access it from many devices.

http://gigaom.com/cloud/report-google-gets-drive-cloud-storage-ready-to-roll/

Android Phones Go on a Power Trip - State of the Art - NYTimes.com

Final paragraphs of a review of the latest high-end Android smartphones

Android still feels disjointed in spots. Why do we still have to use different apps for Gmail and all other e-mail? And there’s no standard connector in a standard spot, so there’s no universe of docks, alarm clocks, car adapters as there is with the Apple gadgets.

Still, Android is coming on strong; all manufacturers considered, it’s outselling the iPhone. Android’s latest surge toward power and polish should thrill almost everyone. The possible exception: anyone whose three-month-old Android phone is suddenly obsolete.

Android Phones Go on a Power Trip - State of the Art - NYTimes.com

LinkedIn Is Acquiring Contacts Start-Up Rapportive - Liz Gannes - Social - AllThingsD

LinkedIn rumored to be augmented with contextual Gmail communication/collaboration tools

Rapportive, which is still available only for Gmail, overlays an email correspondent’s social networking accounts alongside open messages and drafts. So, for instance, you can see a person’s most recent tweet and mention it in your email to them. Or you can realize that you’re not connected on LinkedIn to a person you just had a meeting with, and rectify that.

Rapportive hasn’t publicly disclosed how many people use it, but in September, Vohra was quoted as saying Rapportive users viewed more than 65 million contacts per month. He also said at the time that the company was preparing to sell premium products.

LinkedIn Is Acquiring Contacts Start-Up Rapportive - Liz Gannes - Social - AllThingsD

Yahoo’s Shakeup Puts Pressure on Directors to Sell Asian Assets - Businessweek

Looking likely further disintegration is in Yahoo’s near-term future

Under Bostock and co-founder Jerry Yang, who severed ties to Yahoo last month, the company has faced criticism for spurning a takeover offer by Microsoft Corp., losing search- market share to Google Inc. and failing to extract value from Asian assets, including a stake in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. The board, aiming to please investors, may make more of an effort to sell the Asian investments, said Herman Leung, an analyst at Susquehanna International Group in San Francisco.

“With Jerry gone and now Bostock gone, it’s kind of a changing of regime in its entirety -- something needs to happen with the Asian assets,” said Leung, who rates the stock “neutral.” “There are no more excuses.”

Yahoo’s Shakeup Puts Pressure on Directors to Sell Asian Assets - Businessweek

Google's Android and Chrome, Together At Last - Digits - WSJ

Some shiny new Chrome – but only if you have one of the latest Android devices

Followers of Google in recent years have wondered why the company was developing two separate computer operating systems—Android and Chrome—and whether the technologies behind them would converge.

[…]

Chrome is now available through the Android Market for mobile apps but only on newer devices such as the Galaxy Nexus or Xoom tablet. The vast majority of Android devices won’t have access to Chrome.

Lily Lin, a spokeswoman for Google, said the company was “evaluating bringing Chrome to all platforms,” including Apple and Microsoft mobile devices.

Google's Android and Chrome, Together At Last - Digits - WSJ

A Textbook Case of iPad Fun With Studying - Katherine Boehret - The Digital Solution - AllThingsD

From a detailed iBooks 2 review

This week, I tested a one-stop solution to much of that which ails textbooks: Apple’s iBooks 2. This redesigned iPad app offers enhanced educational textbooks that are, for now, focused on high-school students and cost no more than $15 each. Apple’s smallest and least expensive iPad can store roughly eight to 10 textbooks, along with other content. (High schoolers have an average of four textbooks a year, according to Apple.) The iPad itself weighs just over one pound.

These electronic textbooks include interactive materials that seem like they should’ve been available long ago: multiple-choice questions that can be answered with taps on the screen, embedded videos, dynamic diagrams that change with touch gestures and flash cards for studying important terms in a book.

A Textbook Case of iPad Fun With Studying - Katherine Boehret - The Digital Solution - AllThingsD

What Wikipedia Won’t Tell You - NYTimes.com

Excerpt from a provocative information responsibility perspective piece by the chief executive of the Recording Industry Association of America

The hyperbolic mistruths, presented on the home pages of some of the world’s most popular Web sites, amounted to an abuse of trust and a misuse of power. When Wikipedia and Google purport to be neutral sources of information, but then exploit their stature to present information that is not only not neutral but affirmatively incomplete and misleading, they are duping their users into accepting as truth what are merely self-serving political declarations.

As it happens, the television networks that actively supported SOPA and PIPA didn’t take advantage of their broadcast credibility to press their case. That’s partly because “old media” draws a line between “news” and “editorial.” Apparently, Wikipedia and Google don’t recognize the ethical boundary between the neutral reporting of information and the presentation of editorial opinion as fact.

What Wikipedia Won’t Tell You - NYTimes.com

OneNote Blog - OneNote Mobile for Android is now available worldwide

This probably comes as a significant and very positive surprise to a lot of OneNote users; check the full post for details and screen shots

For all of you who've been asking (and patiently waiting) for a version of OneNote for your Android phones, we have great news: OneNote Mobile for Android is now available! Download it from the Android Market app store today!

Mobile versions of OneNote are currently available on Windows Phone, iPhone, iPad, and now Android. No matter which platform you prefer, OneNote Mobile lets you easily capture and access all of your notes and ideas on the go.

[…]

OneNote Blog - OneNote Mobile for Android is now available worldwide

CHART OF THE DAY: Apple Is Pulling In 40% Of All Mobile Industry Revenue, And 75% Of All Mobile Profits [Business Insider]

#StructuralCompetitiveAdvantage

The lines on the chart are trailing four quarters data to give you a look at the overall trend. Head over to Asymco for more on what it means for Apple and the industry →

CHART OF THE DAY: Apple Is Pulling In 40% Of All Mobile Industry Revenue, And 75% Of All Mobile Profits

Prey takes over your devices to keep thieves under surveillance - Chicago Sun-Times

Interesting times

Conventional spyware is a piece of code that invisibly tracks a user’s movements and habits without his or her knowledge, and silently reports what it learns back to an evil enterprise (which we can define as anything from “A Russian crime syndicate” to “Facebook”). Prey is a special kind of “white hat” spyware that lies dormant and never tracks a device’s legitimate user. But when your hardware is stolen, you can remotely activate Prey and it’ll begin to invisibly and regularly report the hardware’s location, and the thief’s activity, back to you. Prey isn’t designed to make your life miserable; it’s designed to help you get your gear back.

Prey takes over your devices to keep thieves under surveillance - Chicago Sun-Times

56% Of Time Spent On Social Is Wasted | Forrester Blogs

From a George Colony social reality check

Respondents to my one question survey report that 56% of the time they spend on social is wasted.

While hardly scientific, this result gives credence to the views I expressed at Le Web that we are heading into a Post Social (POSO) period. In POSO, a new wave of social tools will emerge that are: easier to use, more filtered, more efficient, more private, faster, and offer a better value/time proposition.

56% Of Time Spent On Social Is Wasted | Forrester Blogs

Brier Dudley's Blog | Apple, Samsung drive 61 percent smartphone surge | Seattle Times Newspaper

Check the full article for more details

Samsung and Apple are neck and neck for the leading market share, after a phenomenal year for Samsung.

Samsung's unit sales grew 310 percent to 94 million phones, while Apple's sales grew 96 percent to 93.2 million phones. That left Samsung with a 19.1 percent market share and Apple with 19 percent, according to IDC's report.

[…]

Brier Dudley's Blog | Apple, Samsung drive 61 percent smartphone surge | Seattle Times Newspaper

Kindle-wielding Amazon dips toes into physical world - Yahoo! News

Would the rest of the retail world complain about no longer being Amazon’s showroom?

At a conference in late 2011 run by the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts, some industry players hinted that Amazon might launch a retail store presence like Apple to let consumers test its gadgets, according to Cowen & Co. analyst Jim Friedland.

"The primary goal of the test is to determine if a physical retail presence can accelerate sales of Kindle devices and follow-on consumption of digital content at an attractive return on invested capital," Friedland wrote in a note to investors on Monday. An Amazon spokeswoman declined to comment.

Kindle-wielding Amazon dips toes into physical world - Yahoo! News

Wolfram Alpha Pro democratizes data analysis: an in-depth look at the $4.99 a month service | The Verge

Also see Wolfram, a Search Engine, Finds Answers Within Itself (NYT)

On Wednesday, February 8th, Wolfram Alpha will be adding a new, "Pro" option to its already existing services. Priced at a very reasonable $4.99 a month ($2.99 for students), the new services includes the ability to use images, files, and even your own data as inputs instead of simple text entry. The "reports" that Wolfram Alpha kicks out as a result of these (or any) query are also beefed up for Pro users, some will actually become interactive charts and all of them can be more easily exported in a variety of formats. We sat down with Stephen Wolfram himself to get a tour of the new features and to discuss what they mean for his goal of "making the world's knowledge computable."

Wolfram Alpha Pro democratizes data analysis: an in-depth look at the $4.99 a month service | The Verge

Apple's iPhone Business Alone Is Now Bigger Than All Of Microsoft [Business Insider]

Signs of the times

Tech writer MG Siegler just noted a remarkable fact:

Apple's iPhone business alone is now bigger than Microsoft.

Not Windows. Not Office. Microsoft.

[…]

The iPhone also appears to be considerably more profitable than Microsoft.

In the December quarter, Apple's iPhone business generated $24.4 billion of revenue. Microsoft's whole company, meanwhile, from Windows to Office to servers to XBox, generated $20.9 billion.

If we assume that Apple generates the same operating profit margin on its iPhone business that it generates on its overall business--38%--the iPhone business generated about $9.3 billion of profit in the December quarter.

All of Microsoft, meanwhile, generated only $8.2 billion.

Apple's iPhone Business Alone Is Now Bigger Than All Of Microsoft

Facebook: The Revenge of the Nerds | Monday Note

Excerpt from some insightful Facebook analysis

The Washington Post’s Wonkblog put Facebook’s performance in graphic perspective:

Take a look at the number of employees: a mere 3,200. With 3.7B in revenue, that works out to $1.2M per worker. Turning to cash per worker ($3.9B / 3,200 = $1.2M), Facebook is about as rich as Uncle Apple’s $1.3M cash per “full-time equivalent” employee. It’s a remarkable achievement for any company, and unheard of for one so young.

Facebook: The Revenge of the Nerds | Monday Note

A New Net - Technology Review

Aiming high

A startup called Nicira is launching a product today with the audacious goal of making all Internet services smarter, faster, and cheaper

[…]

Ben Horowitz, a partner in the investment firm Andreessen-Horowitz, says he and his partner Marc Andreessen, a cofounder of Netscape, quickly realized that Nicira was delivering something long overdue in computing. "The total lack of innovation in networking compared to operating systems or storage had been bothering us for a while," he says. "It was holding back the industry." After meeting Casado, Horowitz invested in Nicira and joined its board. He saw in Nicira echoes of VMware, a company that helped set off the cloud computing boom and has a market capitalization of $40 billion. VMware's software creates virtual computers inside a server, boosting the efficiency of data centers and driving down the cost of servers. Nicira's software promises a similar instant upgrade to what a data center can do, by removing the efficiency bottleneck imposed by networks.

A New Net - Technology Review

Hide From Google - Wired How-To Wiki

Some useful tips, if you’re inclined to limit Google’s view of you/your activities

"If you're not paying for something, you're not the customer; you're the product being sold." —blue_beetle, Metafilter discussion.

Google started off the new year by announcing that they will be changing their privacy policies so that they can create more detailed profiles of their users. Starting March 1st, 2012, Google will combine information from user’s Gmail, Google Search history, YouTube, and other services. Prior to this change, Google profiled their users, but restricted the profile data use to the service from which the data was collected.

Because we have come to rely on web services so much in our day-to-day activities, it simply isn't an option to stop using search, webmail, and social networking. But there are ways for heavy users to keep a low profile so that, should Google turn decidedly evil, you won't be completely at their mercy. If you are concerned about the amount of information that Google knows about you for whatever reason, here are some techniques you can use to guard your privacy online.

Hide From Google - Wired How-To Wiki

What was the true genesis of Craigslist? - Quora

Check the first answer to this Quora question for Craig Newmark’s summary

There are a number of different stories of why (and how) Craig Newmark started Craigslist. Seeing Craigslist today, you can tell that it's a massive marketplace but it's not optimized for profit & revenues. So what was it that Craig wanted to build? How did he go about laying the foundation?

What was the true genesis of Craigslist? - Quora