In the majority of cases, those who allowed their Blackberry, Android, iOS6 beta and Windows Phone 8 beta phones to sync their contacts with Facebook, have had the originally stored email addresses overwritten. The lucky ones had their contacts duplicated – with the new ones containing the @facebook email addresses.
via Facebook API bug deletes contact info on users’ phones.
At least it was the user’s choice allowing Facebook to write stuff onto their devices.
Use Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) to transfer files asynchronously between a client and a server. There are three types of transfer jobs. A download job downloads files to the client, an upload job uploads a file to the server, and an upload-reply job uploads a file to the server and receives a reply file from the server application.
via About BITS.
Caught a Microsoft BITS agent uploading some stuff to my laptop from google.com. It seems Chrome related yet I don’t have Chrome installed. Might need to track this down.
Voyage Linux is Debian derived distribution that is best run on a x86 embedded platforms such as PC Engines ALIX/WRAP, Soekris 45xx/48xx/65xx and Atom-based boards.
It can also run on low-end x86 PC platforms. Typical installation requires 128MB disk space, although larger storage allows more packages to be installed. Voyage Linux is so small that it is best suitable for running a full-feature firewall, wireless access point, Asterisk/VoIP gateway, music player or network storage device.
via Voyage Linux | { x86 Embedded Linux = Green computing }.
Mozilla said Monday that mobile network operators Deutsche Telekom, Sprint, Smart, Telecom Italia, Telenor and Etisalat are backing the Firefox platform.
via Telecoms get behind Firefox smartphone platform – chicagotribune.com.
Hewlett-Packard has given a twist to the traditional all-in-one PC design with a new thin client it calls an “Internet monitor” that started shipping on Thursday and is designed to access services on the Internet.
via HP Gives Thin-client Treatment to Passport Internet Monitor | PCWorld Business Center.
The Passport has no internal storage or high-end processor, limiting its use to Internet access. The Linux-based operating system is locked down, so users cannot upload or install programs. The device has a Texas Instruments OMAP4430 smartphone chip, five USB ports, a media card reader and an Ethernet port. The monitor displays images at a 1366-by-768-pixel resolution.
It’s priced at $259.
Our focus is on the application and development of cutting-edge simulation tools to understand, predict, and design novel materials with applications in energy conversion, energy storage, thermal transport, surface phenomena, and synthesis.
via The Grossman Group.
Graphene. It can be stronger than steel and thinner than paper. It can generate electricity when struck by light. It can be used in thin, flexible supercapacitors that are up to 20 times more powerful than the ones we use right now and can be made in a DVD burner. It’s already got an impressive track record, but does it have any more tricks up its sleeve? Apparently, yes. According to researchers at MIT, graphene could also increase the efficicency of desalination by two or three orders of magnitude. Seriously, what can’t this stuff do?
via Graphene Improves Desalination Efficiency by Factor of 100 | Geekosystem.
With its Google Compute Engine launched Thursday, Google is offering an IaaS (infrastructure as a service) cloud for running Linux virtual machines on the same infrastructure that powers the company itself.
From: Where Google Computing Engine fits in
But how will customers decide whether to use Google Compute Engine, Rackspace Cloud, Windows Azure, HP Cloud, or another IaaS provider? For an informed answer to that question, InfoWorld turned to Michael Crandell, CEO and founder of RightScale, the cloud-management services company that helps customers work with everything from Amazon EC2 to Microsoft Azure.
Today’s first big theme: Chrome. Tim reports: “Brian Rakowski VP for (and inventor of) Chrome, shows device transferability among devices of tabs, bookmarks, with a multi-part contrived story, looking at his opened tabs from home and work, etc. from a phone running Chrome. Not only can open tabs from there, but (and this is cool), ‘we’ve made sure the back button works as well.’ So you can open a page from a different computer, and have the browsing history of that tab as well. This Chrome syncing affects settings, bookmarks, etc. Also, for those transferred tab pages, pre-loading! So when you click on a tab, it’s been loading and now should be read, BAM.” As before we’ll be updating the story live (below the fold) with his updates as they stream in.
In January, Google mentioned in its earnings call that it had about 350 million monthly active users on Gmail; six months later, about 75 million more users had flocked to Gmail, growing the total number to 425 million monthly active users. By this measure, Gmail has dethroned Hotmail.