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Google Acquires ITA Software, Regulators May Balk
marino02 tips news that Google has acquired ITA Software, a company who sells travel-related software and information, for $700 million. "Google said it plans to use ITA's technology in its Web search tools and to allow potential passengers to shop for tickets right from Google. Travel search makes up a huge portion of Google searches, but it's a complicated type of search to express in a query box, [said Marissa Mayer]." Analysts expect the deal to come under scrutiny from the FTC. "With this deal, Google will have transformed itself into one of the biggest power brokers in the travel industry. It will control the leading software for powering online airline reservations. It will be able to provide something in its own search results above and beyond what its competitors — who merely license the ITA software — will be able to produce. And it will become the leading online advertising buy for travel-related advertisers (assuming it wasn't already) if it doesn't butcher the rollout of user-friendly airline search tools within Google's already popular interface."
Apple To Issue a 'Fix' For iPhone 4 Reception Perception
Lisandro and several other readers let us know that Apple has just released a statement addressing the signal issues a lot of users are having with their iPhone 4. They claim to have discovered the cause for the drop in bars, which is "both simple and surprising" — a wrong formula used to calculate how many bars are displayed for a given signal strength. "Upon investigation, we were stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong. ... we sometimes display 4 bars when we should be displaying as few as 2 bars. Users observing a drop of several bars when they grip their iPhone in a certain way are most likely in an area with very weak signal strength, but they don’t know it because we are erroneously displaying 4 or 5 bars. Their big drop in bars is because their high bars were never real in the first place. ... We will issue a free software update within a few weeks that incorporates the corrected formula. Since this mistake has been present since the original iPhone, this software update will also be available for the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G." Wired notes that there is still a signal drop when the iPhone 4 is gripped in particular ways.
IBM Makes Firefox Its Corporate Browser
e9th writes "Ars Technica reports that IBM has adopted Firefox as its company-wide browser. Firefox will be installed on all new employee computers, and all 400,000 employees will be encouraged to use it. Speaking of encouraging Firefox use, IBM VP Bob Sutor blogs: 'We will continue to strongly encourage our vendors who have browser-based software to fully support Firefox.' I hope this means that if IBM can't navigate a vendor's site with Firefox, they'll just look elsewhere."
MS Design Lets You Put Batteries In Any Way You Want
jangel writes "While its strategy for mobile devices might be a mess, Microsoft has announced something we'll all benefit from. The company's patented design for battery contacts will allow users of portable devices — digital cameras, flashlights, remote controls, toys, you name it — to insert their batteries in any direction. Compatible with AA and AAA cells, among others, the 'InstaLoad' technology does not require special electronics or circuitry, the company claims."
In UK, Computer Science Graduates the Least Employable
"The BBC reports that in the UK, computer science graduates are now the least employable of students leaving with a degree, 17% of them being unable to find a job within six months of graduation. Unsurprisingly, medics, educators and lawyers do better, but even much mocked communications and creative arts graduates are finding work more easily."- Apple opens iBookstore to self-publishers
Apple has opened the floodgates for aspiring authors by revealing a system that allows for self-publishing on the iBookstore without having to sign up with a publishing service like Smashwords or Lulu. The new service, which was brought to our attention by the folks at MacLife, allows anyone to sign up through a Web portal as long as you are able to meet several fairly straightforward requirements. This is definitely good news for new, independent, or undiscovered authors. - KDE 4.5 beta brings window tiling, new notifications
May 26th, 2010. KDE has released the first beta version of what is to become KDE SC 4.5.0 in August. KDE SC 4.5.0 is targeted at testers and those that would like to have an early look at what's coming to their desktops and netbooks this summer. KDE is now firmly in beta mode, meaning that the primary focus is on fixing bugs and preparing the stable release of the software compilation this summer.
KDE SC 4.5 sports many improvements, among which are:
- A reworked notification area. Thanks to the new, D-Bus-based protocol that replaces the old "system tray", a uniform look and consistent interaction scheme can now be guaranteed across applications and toolkits.
- KWin-Tiling makes it possible to automatically place windows next to each other, employing the window management paradigm also found in window managers such as Ion. Advanced graphical effects, such as blurring the background of translucent windows make for a more pleasurable and usable experience.
- Users that prefer WebKit above the KHTML rendering engine currently used in Konqueror, KDE's web browser now can install the WebKit component and switch Konqueror to use WebKit as rendering engine for web sites. The WebKit component for Konqueror is available from KDE's Extragear repository, is based on the popular KPart component technology and fully integrates with password storage, content-blocking and other features users already know and love in Konqueror.
- A special focus of this release cycle is the stability of the software delivered with KDE SC 4.5. While there are many exciting new features, developers have spent considerable amounts of time finishing off features and polishing those that haven't come to full bloom yet.
- Privacy groups on Facebook updates: meh
Although Facebook's latest privacy changes elicited a positive reaction from some long-time critics, not everyone is enamored of the update meant to simplify how users share their information. The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), Center for Digital Democracy, the Privacy Rights Coalition, Consumer Watchdog, and numerous other privacy groups held a call Thursday to discuss the changes, reiterating their collective belief that regulation is still necessary in order to keep Facebook and others in check.
EPIC, with the help of 14 other privacy groups, has filed not one, but two complaints about Facebook with the Federal Trade Commission over the last six months. Among their concerns were the facts that Facebook made nearly all information opt-out instead of opt-in by default, and that the social network was regularly engaging in deceptive practices contrary to its own privacy policy.
- Android tablet prototypes not yet ready for prime time
The hype surrounding the iPad may have died down a bit, but if comments on Ars and the tech press coverage of Google I/O are anything to go by, the hype surrounding Android-based iPad competitors is just getting started. NVIDIA's Tegra 2 in particular is heavily anticipated as a chip that can elevate the nascent tablet gaming scene to new heights, and videos of a Tegra 2-based prototype tablet have been making the rounds online.
When I heard that Tegra 2 tablets would be at the Netbook Summit earlier this week, I made plans to drive down to Burlingame specifically to check them out. I wanted to see Tegra 2, with its dual-core Cortex A9 and NVIDIA-made GPU, in action. I've been a big booster of the idea that an Android- or webOS-based tablet could be superior to the iPad in a number of key respects, so I was prepared to be wowed by the demo units. And I was kind of wowed... but not in a good way.
- Microsoft Hohm home efficiency site slowly becoming useful
Microsoft's Hohm website, an online service designed to make it easier for people to figure out how energy efficient their house is (and how to make it better), has become a great deal more useful with the new addition of real estate data. Now, anyone in the US can enter their ZIP code and get an instant, if approximate, evaluation of their house's efficiency.
These evaluations use a combination of public housing record information and weather data to come up with a score. More dedicated users can sign in and describe their house's appliances and construction to get a more detailed assessment of their energy usage, and advice on what changes to make to reduce energy bills.
