Reality Bites
You can say a lot about whether you should be shooting in JPG or TIFF or RAW, but ultimately, for most photographers, the argument is very simple indeed:
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We aren’t exactly lacking for digital bookstores, but Google’s eBooks offering is indeed one of the slickest around. And evidently, it’s not in nearly as many places as the marketers in Mountain View would like. The Goog just announced that iRiver’s Story HD would soon become the first Google eBooks-integrated e-reader, with the new model going on sale July 17th at Target. It’ll still sell for $139.99, and none of the actual hardware specifications will change from the existing model. Of course, the eBooks platform has been open to all publishers, retailers and manufacturers from the start; it’s just that iRiver has become the first manufacturer to heed the call. Naturally, Google’s teasing us by openly stating that more of these are on the way, and if you just so happen to be an e-reader maker… well, it’d certainly love to have a chat.
iRiver Story HD becomes first Google eBooks-integrated e-reader, won’t be the last originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Jul 2011 12:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The Aquarium of the Pacific has welcomed two male six-week-old Arctic Fox pups that are now on view in the Aquarium’s Molina Animal Care Center. The two brothers are part of the Aquarium of the Pacific’s new Arctic & Antarctic: Our Polar Regions in Peril exhibition, which gives the public the opportunity to see polar animals up close while learning about what can be done to protect their habitats.
Photo credits: Aquarium of the Pacific
Arctic fox babies are called either pups or kits. A litter usually has about seven kits but may contain up to fifteen. The Arctic fox is an incredibly resilient animal that can live in temperatures as low as -59° F and as warm as temperatures we experience in Southern California. They are found in the Arctic and alpine tundra regions, from coastal Alaska and Greenland to Scandinavia and Russia.
It survives in extreme temperatures thanks to its thick fur, furry soles, short ears, and short muzzle. During the winter months, white phase Arctic fox have white coats that serve as camouflage against the vast stretches of snow and ice in their native Arctic region. When the seasons change, their coats change to a brown or blue-gray appearance that allows them to blend in with the summer’s landscape. Blue phase fox, more common in the species’ southern habitat range, remain charcoal-colored year round. Young of each color phase may occur in the same litter.
These mammals have keen hearing and normally feed mainly on rodents along with birds, and even fish. When prey is scarce in the winter, these foxes often follow polar bears to eat their leftover scraps, sometimes traveling great distances. Their average lifespan in the wild is three to six years. As an adult, an Arctic fox can weigh up to seventeen pounds.
Climate change poses a threat to the Arctic fox, impacting their habitat and food sources. Consequently the International Union for Conservation of Nature has included them on their Red List of Threatened Species and on a list of ten species that are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
Windows: To get to the properties screen for Windows shell objects like files or folders you probably usually right-click and select “Properties.” A quicker and less well known way to get to that screen is to hold down the ALT key while double-clicking on the object. More »
The inspiration for this post came from Jason Huebel, having written about leaving FriendFeed behind for Google+ engagement.
Google+ is the new black.
So, is anybody else abandoning FriendFeed, Empire Avenue, Facebook, etc. for Google’s latest social effort? Do you see yourself decreasing the amount of time you spend on any other platform over the coming weeks? To me, I suppose, it’s a balancing act – and each silo has its merits. No doubt, I’m very happy with Google+ right now.
Twitter – “Everybody” is there, but every tweet is a flash in the pan. It’s always been next to impossible to establish a conversation there (and I’ve always resented people who called Twitter a conversation). It used to be a great way to drive attention, but that attention potential is watered down with every person who joins. You could have a million followers and less engagement than someone with a thousand.
Facebook – “Everybody” is there, but not all of your updates are seen by those who “Like” you. The privacy policy seems to change every other month. If you can look past the pokes and app invites, there’s nothing particularly agitating about Facebook (enough to drive millions away in droves). It’s also important to note that Facebook is like a data roach motel – you can get it in, but good luck getting it out.
FriendFeed – “Nobody” is there anymore, but those who are sticking to it are really active. Google+ reminds a lot of people (myself included) of the FriendFeed heyday, and it didn’t shock me to learn that Jason’s finally putting this network behind him. I took this screen shot of a Google+ Hangout with Jesse Stay this afternoon – another fan of FF:
Google Buzz – If you think about it, Google Buzz is / was really close to FriendFeed. People pumped-and-dumped their feeds into it and then abandoned the platform when “nobody” was actively using it. That said, Buzz isn’t dead yet – it’s still there as a Google+ sub-tab at the moment.
Empire Avenue – I really think Dups and his team really need to adapt their model very QUICKLY. It’s been great for discovery and engagement, but to increase awareness, they need to surface the social media engagement intelligence they’re collecting in a more cohesive fashion (allowing people to see their scores without necessarily putting themselves on the Market). It’s done a lot for my engagement and discovery acceleration, but the learning curve is still too high for the average user (who really would fall in love with the underlying statistics that EAv can bring).
MySpace – Well, let’s just see what Timberlake does with it. 😉
Which brings us to…
Google+ – “Everybody” will be here, guaranteed. With the right integration, your resonance-prone activity will be seen by more people. They need to address the noise, accommodate conversation threading, eliminate content duplicates, and a lot more – but they’re off to a damn good start.
Your thoughts on where Google+ sits in today’s social media landscape?
Microsoft’s Touch Mouse? Yeah, you’ve heard of that. But have you caught wind of its Explorer Touch Mouse? Nah, we didn’t think so. In fact, neither had Pocket-lint, but they stumbled across this critter at the outfit’s London Christmas in July event. It’s positioned between the Touch Mouse and the Arc Mouse, boasting a blue hue, BlueTrack technology (for mousing on a pant leg) and the same kind of haptic scrollpad that's used on the aforesaid Arc. There's a grand total of five customizable buttons, which can be configured for left or right-hand use, and naturally, those good vibrations can be disabled if you simply aren't kosher with 'em. Microsoft didn't spill too many other details, but it's slated to land later this month (at least in the UK) for £69.99.
Update: Our pals over at WinRumors managed to snag an official press shot, too.
Microsoft Explorer Touch Mouse quietly revealed, touts BlueTrack and haptic feedback originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 10 Jul 2011 19:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Global population is expected to hit seven billion this year. July 11 marks World Population Day.
Canadian actor Dan Aykroyd, the grand marshal of the Honda Indy Toronto, said he was pulled over for speeding on his way to the race.
How much is social worth to Google? Investors added $20 billion to Google’s market cap the first week after the launch of Google+ on June 28. A Morgan Stanley downgrade on Friday, brought the total down to $15.8 billion because of doubts whether Google will indeed be able to capitalize on new products such as Google+. But somewhere in between there, give or take a few billion, is how much more the market thinks Google is worth than before the launch of Google+.
On June 27 (the day before the announcement), the stock closed at $482.80. It rose to a high of $546.60 on July 7, for a $20.6 billion gain to its market cap (with 322.25 million shares outstanding). Then the stock dropped to $532 at Friday’s close.
Of course there are other factors at play here (the health of Google’s core search business, the overall market, etc.). In the past week, however, the most important new event for Google was it’s latest foray into social. And even though Google+ is still in a limited beta, the market is already rewarding the serious focus on social that it represents.
Bravo, Larry Page. If he can deliver on the promise of social, Morgan Stanley will be tripping over itself to upgrade the stock. Anyone want to guess what will happen to Google’s market cap between now and then?
The Samsung 16GB Galaxy Tab 10.1 with Wi-Fi is one of the thinnest tablets that will be available in Canada and is packed with power (1GHz dual core processor). All major outlets have stated this stated in one way or another that the launch date is “estimated” to be July 22nd: Best Buy, Future Shop, Staples, The Source… but now, a quick look at all of them shows the date has been shifted to August 19th. No reason was the August launch, but most likely we’ll see the 3G version released at the same time with Rogers, Bell and TELUS.
Source: Best Buy
(Thanks tipsters!)
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