Safe for another year or so.
One of the cornerstones of Amazon’s business has been avoiding sales taxes; because their transactions are online, you don’t have to pay Uncle Sam with every purchase. And now, thanks to some maneuvering around a proposed California law, you’ll remain off the hook for another year…
Continue reading… “Amazon staves off the tax man for another year”
Google Takeout, the recently launched “data liberation” service that lets you export files, photos and data from Google services like Picasa and Buzz, now includes support for Google Voice.
With the update, users of Google’s Internet-telephony service Google Voice are able to export call history, voicemail messages, greetings, call recordings, phone numbers and text messages…
Continue reading… “Google now lets you export Google Voice data”
What will hit Groupon next?
A private, Chicago-based institution will be the first to put forth a deeply discounted deal on tuition via Groupon.
In an effort to bolster interest in its graduate teaching program,National Louis University will offer would-be teachers a Groupon for nearly 60% off tuition of an entry-level graduate teaching course…
Continue reading… “Groupon offers discount on University tuition”
A New Wooly Rhino Discovery.
A new paper published in the journal Science reveals the discovery of a primitive woolly rhino fossil in the Himalayas, which suggests some giant mammals first evolved in present-day Tibet before the beginning of the Ice Age. The extinction of Ice Age giants such as woolly mammoths and rhinos, giant sloths, and saber-tooth cats has been widely studied, but much less is known about where these giants came from, and how they acquired their adaptations for living in a cold environment…
Opera TV Store offers a new option in the market.
Opera continues to show why it’s the little browser company that could, unveiling an HTML5 platform for bringing web browsing and apps to televisions and set top boxes at IFA 2011.
Though it’s not the household name Firefox and Google Chrome are when it comes to desktop browsers, Opera has a long history of big-time integration deals. It’s the only web browser for the Nintendo Wii and DS, and it was picked by Ford for in-dash browsing back in 2009.
With the Opera TV Store, the company is offering television and set-top box manufacturers an easy-to-integrate solution for delivering web apps and standards-compliant browsing to their customers. The system’s dashboard and speed dial pages are built using standard web code and displayed using the Opera browser engine…
Continue reading… “Opera TV Store brings HTML5-powered web apps, browsing to TVs and set top boxes”
Scott Beale says: “Cornell Creative Machines Lab wanted to see what would happend if two Cleverbot AI ChatBots had a conversation with each other.”
I think I’ve just seen the beginning of the end…
Continue reading… “Two AI chatBots attempt to have a conversation with each other”
One of the many growing demands in China.
For the first time ever, China has just become the biggest consumer of PCs, surpassing the United States who has dropped to second. According to new market research by IDC, computer makers shipped about 18.5 million PCs in China in the second quarter with the US receiving 17.7 million. China shipped 22 percent of the PCs sold worldwide, which shows a staggering 14 percent quarter on quarter growth…
Continue reading… “China’s PC market surpasses US for the first time”
Dolphins are very smart creatures.
Researchers from Murdoch University have been watching bottlenose dolphins in Shark Bay, Australia develop an ingenious way to fish. First witnessed by researchers in 2007, a dolphin will use a conch shell to trap and scoop up fish. The dolphin will then proceed to pour the fishies into its mouth as if they were the bottoms of a chip bag. The remarkable part is that this behavior seems to be becoming more widespread, marking it as a trend learned…
Continue reading… “Dolphins now conch fishing”
QR Codes are being embraced by Fox Searchlight Studios.
Fox Searchlight is shunning traditional promotional opportunities for its upcoming film Martha Marcy May Marlene.
Instead, the studio is rolling out an elaborate QR code campaign for the movie, which hits theaters on October 21.
Rather than go the traditional route of releasing teasers and trailers, Fox Searchlight opted to go digital…
Continue reading… “Movie Trailers released exclusively via QR Code for the first time”
Brazil is set to start gathering oil in new places.
Want to get a feel for how crazy the post-peak oil fossil fuels industry is getting? Here’s as good an example as any: Brazil’s state-owned oil company Petrobras is about to embark on an unprecedented oil-gathering mission. It’s about to attempt to extract 30 billion barrels of oil from reserves that are locked in deepwater sub-salt fields at least 60 miles off the coast and up to five miles underwater. In order to get at the incredibly hard-to-get oily good stuff, Brazil is spending an estimated $226 billion — and $127 billion will be spent on exploration and production alone.
The product of that venture is already taking shape: a veritable floating “offshore city” has sprung up over 100 kilometers (62 miles) off the coast of Brazil, and it will lead the effort to drill into the deep sea sub-salt…
Continue reading… “Brazil builds $127 billion “Offshore City” to harvest oil in the deep sea”
Facebook is gaining momentum in the video realm.
Facebook is already the largest photo site in the U.S., and now it is climbing up the charts for online video. Facebook now ranks as the third largest video site on the Web in terms of unique viewers according to comScore, with an estimated 51.5 million people on Facebook watching a video during the month of July. The month before it was No. 6. It passed Microsoft, Yahoo, and Viacom. Only Vevo (with 62 million monthly viewers) and YouTube (158 million) are bigger.
It is only a matter of time before Facebook passes Vevo, but can it ever take the crown from Google/Youtube?
Continue reading… “Facebook climbs to no. 3 video site in US”
Trecking down the Amazon on your computer thanks to Google.
Google has teamed up with Amazon for a new project. Well, not Amazon, as in the company that sells the Kindle. No, we’re talking about the great, untamed wilderness of the Amazon rainforest. In a partnership with the Sustainable Amazon Foundation, Google aims to use its Street View technology to raise awareness of the world’s largest rainforest and its important ecosystems.
To do this, Google is mapping the byways of the Amazon River…
Continue reading… “Google Street View is using canoes and tricycles to map the Amazon”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.