iPhone Safari does NOT support Flash (of ANY flavor)

Source: http://developer.apple.com/iphone/designingcontent.html

scroll down to near the bottom

Unsupported Technologies

You’ll want to avoid using Flash and Java for iPhone content. You’ll also want to avoid encouraging users from downloading the latest Flash to their iPhone, because neither Flash nor downloads are supported by Safari on iPhone.

Safari on iPhone does not support:

• window.showModalDialog()
• Mouse-over events
• Hover styles
• Tool tips
• Java applets
• Flash
• Plug-in installation
• Custom x.509 certificates

http://picturesandbox.com

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Rubik's Cube solvable in 26 moves or less

from Boing Boing by David Pescovitz

David Pescovitz: No matter how scrambled a Rubik's Cube may be, it can be solved in 26 moves or fewer -- by a supercomputer anyway. The previous record was 27 moves, but Northeastern University computer science grad student Daniel Kunkle and his advisor Gene Cooperman developed new algorithms to save a step in the process and optimize the problem for a supercomputer. Their next step is to bring the magic number down to 25, which is still 5 more than the minimum number of steps that most researchers believe is possible. From Science News:

After 63 hours of calculation, the supercomputer found that it took no more than 16 steps to turn any random configuration into a special configuration that can be solved using only half-turns. And since those special puzzles can be solved in no more than 13 steps, this approach showed that 29 steps were enough to solve any Rubik's Cube.

But this answer wasn't good enough to set a new record. Last year, Silviu Radu of the Lund Institute of Technology in Sweden showed that any Rubik's Cube can be solved in no more than 27 steps. Kunkle and Cooperman realized that to set a new record, they would need to eliminate three steps.

Their existing method had established that all but about 80 million sets of configurations could be solved in 26 steps or fewer. By searching through all possible moves starting from those relatively few configurations, they succeeded in finding a solution for each one that took 26 steps or fewer.

Link

Previously on BB:
• Video of tot solving Rubik's Cube Link
• Table shaped like huge Rubik's Cube Link
• Michel Gondry solves Rubik's Cube with feet Link

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500 Web APIs

from ProgrammableWeb by John Musser

With this week’s addition of Google’s latest APIs we now have an even 500 APIs cataloged. Over the past two years this list has grown 10 fold from the original 50 we had listed in 2005. And connected to these are 2250 mashups built using hundreds of API combinations.

Using our Top APIs for Mashups pie chart you get a sense of which APIs have been mostly frequently used in our mashup sample with the top 10 APIs being Google Maps, Flickr, Amazon, YouTube, VirtualEarth, Yahoo Maps, eBay, 411Sync, del.icio.us and Yahoo. You can get a sense of this by viewing our directory of APIs by Mashup Count.

If you view them sorted by category here’s the breakdown of those categories with the most competing APIs (top 20 categories):

• Mapping: 48 APIs
• Internet: 28 APIs:
• Reference: 27 APIs
• Shopping: 23 APIs
• Search: 21 APIs
• Music: 19 APIs
• Photos: 16 APIs
• Messaging: 16 APIs
• Telephony: 14 APIs
• Security: 12 APIs
• Financial: 12 APIs
• Government: 11 APIs
• Email: 11 APIs
• Blogging: 10 APIs
• Bookmarks: 10 APIs
• News: 9 APIs
• Video: 9 APIs
• Chat: 9 APIs
• Office: 8 APIs
• Advertising: 7 APIs

If you want to get a sense of which major providers offer the most APIs, check API Scorecard.

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WEB OS RUNDOWN: 45+ Web Operating Systems

August 22, 2007 — 09:42 PM PDT — by Andrew Min — Share This

Facebook wants to be the operating system for the web, it says, and this week’s changes to its email system are a tiny part of that puzzle. But there are many more web operating systems hoping to bring all your usual desktop applications online in one place. Some replicate the entire desktop, while others are startpages with info from around the web - here are more than 45 of our favorites.

Remotely Hosted WebOS

• AstraNOS - Picture Windows 98. Then picture an OS X dock. Then picture a night sky. Then throw them all together. You now have a pretty good picture of AstraNOS.
• BeDesk - Basic wrapper for other online tools.
• cmyOS - Free hosted webtop powered by eyeOS.
• Desktoptwo - Not only do you get 1GB of space, you get a fully-featured OpenOffice.org suite. No, not a basic online editor that has simple formatting options. The full OpenOffice.org 2.0 suite from Sun, converted into a Java applet.
• DoxBoard - Slick WebOS with some basic features.
• GCOE X - Nice WebOS with a powerful terminal and support for the iPhone.
• eyeOS - Beautiful webtop powered by the eyeOS software.
• Glide - Online operating system with support for BlackBerry, Palm, Windows Mobile, Symbian and iPhone users.
• G.ho.st - With 3GB of space, FTP access, and Zoho Office support, what’s not to like?
• goowy - Great webtop with your own email account (@goowy.com), IM, 1GB of space (via Box.net), and much more.
• jooce - Slick invite-only online OS.
• mybooo - Invite-only webtop with a ton of features.
• myGoya - Nice WebOS with PIM features, a media player, and much more.
• OOS - Basic online operating system that offers a personal webpage.
• Parakey - Not much is known about Blake Ross’s newest invention, but we do know that Facebook liked it enough to purchase it for an undisclosed sum.
• Psych Desktop - GPLed webtop with a powerful UNIX-like console.
• Purefect Desktop - Web desktop with a powerful IDE.
• SSOE - Flash-based webtop a lot of features.
• StartForce - Powerful WebOS with tons of apps and features makes the descendant of Orca Desktop a hit.
• Xindesk - File sync, a powerful API, and much more are included in this great WebOS.
• Webdesk - This Indian webtop includes 1GB of space, POP3 client, PIM, and a nice modules API.
• Webdows - We don’t know how long it will take Microsoft to sue these guys, but it’s a real enjoyment in the meantime. It has XP and Vista styles (including a few Vista effects), FTP, file sharing, IM, and much more.
• Widgets Gadgets - AJAX desktop with tons of apps and a working API.
• YouOS - File sharing, powerful shell, and 700+ applications are all available with this wildly popular operating system.
• ZimDesk - Slick WebOS with tons of apps.

Self-Hosted WebOS

• eyeOS - One of the most popular webtops on the planet, eyeOS boasts tons of apps, a booming community, and a lot more features.
• Fenestela - There’s still quite a few bugs to be ironed out in this French WebOS, but you get a cool XP interface and basic PHP apps.
• Psych Desktop - GPLed desktop with a powerful UNIX-like console.
• Purefect Desktop - Web desktop with a powerful IDE.
• Virtual-OS - Includes powerful API, web server sync, forum integration, and offline AJAX support.
• ZKDesktop - Powerful open source Java-based WebOS.

Remote Desktops

• DesktopOnDemand - A fully featured Linux-based desktop with Gnome, Gaim, AbiWord, Evolution, GIMP, WebDAV, VNC, web login, and much more.
• Free Live OS Zoo - Java applet
• Nivio - Subscription-based ($12.99/month) service that offers Windows XP, Adobe Reader, iTunes, Google Talk/aMSN/Windows Live Messenger, OpenOffice.org, Thunderbird, Nvu, and much more. All through a Java-based web interface.

Startpages

See also: 14 Personalized Homepages Compared, Feature by Feature

• Favoor - Basic startpage with a nice folder option.
• iGoogle (formerly Google IG) - Great startpage with the most amount of apps I’ve seen for a portal.
• iStyled - Simple startpage with basic customization.
• ItsAStart.com - Customizable page with basic features.
• Live.com (formerly Start.com) - Basic news page backed by Microsoft.
• My Yahoo! - Yahoo!’s entry into the startpage market isn’t bad: it offers news, Yahoo! Mail notification, podcasts, videos, and photo galleries to your startpage.
• Netvibes - There’s a reason everyone uses Netvibes. It has tons of apps, tabs, skins, and a great interface.
• Pageflakes - Popular, easy-to-use page with a simple interface.
• Schmedley - Powerful startpage with tons of features.
• Webwag - The main appeal here isn’t the widget on demand feature (a quick way to build a widget for the site of your choice), the toolbar, the apps, or the content directory. It’s the External widget feature, which allows you to convert and add Netvibes and iGoogle widgets to your Webwag page.
• Widgetop - Nice looking AJAX start page.
• yourminis - Great start page with tons of apps and a bunch of skins by the creator of goowy.

–

For more in-depth reviews, check out 10 Web Operating Systems Reviewed over on FranticIndustries.

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Design Concept: Tilting Vase Lets You Know When It Needs Water

from Gizmodo by Charlie White

If you have trouble remembering when to water your plants, you might be interested in this self-tilting vase design concept that gets horizontal when its plant gets thirsty. Once it's properly hydrated, this pewter container stands up—albeit at a somewhat tilted angle—held up by the weight of the water within. Simple, yet elegant. [Yanko Design]

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NEW Zune for $149 on Woot, took a disappointing 21 hrs to sell out

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VideoEgg SNIPES At YouTube: Who Thunk It First? Maybe Old TV Guys

from GigaOM by Om Malik

YouTube last night said it’s offering a new kind of embedded in-video advertising that’s going to help its parent company, Google (GOOG), and its media partners make money off what has thus far been a fallow field — online video.

YouTube’s in-video advertising techniques have resulted in many pointing out that VideoEgg, a San Francisco-based startup that goes through identity changes more often The Talented Mr. Ripley has already offered these kinds of ads. (It’s a Facebook-ad network now!)

VideoEgg is “welcoming” YouTube to the party, pointing out that Google’s YouTube is imitating them. That’s nothing new, however. The text-links-as-ads were someone else’s idea, too, but Google ended up making billions off of it. Nevertheless, it is interesting to point out that the source of inspiration for the in-video ads of both VideoEgg and YouTube is actually a business they are both trying to take to the cleaners: broadcast and cable television.

If you watch baseball games on Fox or some of the cable networks like TBS, they use a technique (known as “snipes” in broadcast lingo) in which a promotional ad is overlaid on top of the regular broadcast stream. GE Co. (GE), parent of NBC, has a patent (United States Patent 20070143786) that talks about advertising based on this methodology.

A technique is provided for advertising. The technique includes a combining of two or more video streams to form a unified video stream and broadcasting the unified video stream. At least one of the two or more video streams is a program content stream comprising program content that is filmed by a camera and at least one of the two or more video streams is an advertisement material stream comprising advertisement material.

Does this patent apply to Internet video? I am not sure, but if it does – oh boy, have we got trouble. Wired News’ Epicenter blog also points to patents filed by VideoEgg. Interestingly, this whole issue might end up becoming a patent nightmare

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Stade de Suisse becomes "world's largest" solar stadium

from Engadget by Donald Melanson

Bern's Stade de Suisse stadium was already a pretty impressive example of solar power, with 7,930 solar modules soaking up the rays, but a recent addition of 2,808 more solar modules from Japan's Kyocera looks to have been enough to earn it some new bragging rights as the "world's largest stadium-integrated photovoltaic system." With the new modules up and running, the stadium now boasts an overall power output of 1,346.774 kWp, or 1,134,045 kWh per year, which is apparently the equivalent of 350 four-person households. While that's certainly impressive as far stadiums go, it's far from the largest solar power project around, some of which are even aiming to power entire cities. [Via MetaEfficient]

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Anonymous Chinese Bloggers May Become Extinct Very Soon

from Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal

"Don't spread rumours online. Delete bad comments immediately. Don't write about porn. Be sensitive to other nationalities, races, religions and cultural customs." - if you agree to all these conditions, you are welcome to write a blog in China.

The Chinese Government has asked blog companies to sign a "self-discipline pledge" that encourages bloggers in China to register using their real name, email, phone number and other contact information.

This directive is likely to become effective very soon as most blog providers in China have already agreed to sign the pledge meaning if any blogger in China were to use their service for writing a blog, he or she will be have share his contact information.

Surprisingly, China already has over 30 million registered bloggers.

© 2007 Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal

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Seagate patent decision could prompt more settlements

Source: Financial Week

By Andrew Osterland

August 21, 2007

The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, which hears most of the country's appeals of patent litigation, provided a new precedent for attorney-client privilege in patent lawsuits late yesterday. The decision is likely to make it more difficult for plantiffs to prove infringement and thus lead to more settlements, according to patent attorneys.

The ruling came in a closely watched intellectual property case involving a suit filed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and private technology company Convolve against disk-drive manufacturer Seagate Technology in 2000 for patent infringement.

The decision was not about the underlying patent and whether or not Seagate infringed on it, but rather the definition of willful infringement and the extent of attorney-client privilege in patent cases.

When the court agreed to take the case in January, it announced that it would hear it "en banc." In other words, all ten judges on the appeals court would hear the case as opposed to the customary panel of three. "The court recognized that this was a very important issue, and they had to consider it as a full court," said Charles Barquist, a patent litigation partner with Morrison & Foerster, based in Los Angeles. Mr. Barquist, along with several colleagues, filed an amicus brief in support of Seagate's position.

The issue was whether Seagate should be forced to hand over communications with its trial lawyers to the plaintiffs in the case. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District ruled that the company did have to, which prompted Seagate to file its appeal.

The appeals court indicated it would also review its 1983 decision in a case known as Underwater Devices that established a standard for individuals and companies regarding patent infringement. That decision stated that parties had a duty of care to make sure that they weren't infringing on a patent. If they didn't meet that duty of care, they could be charged with willful infringement, which carries treble damages. In practice, that meant getting a legal opinion.

In the Seagate case, plaintiffs argued that Seagate waived its attorney-client privilege by turning over the opinion from separate counsel on the matter in question. It demanded that all communications between the company and its trial lawyers on the matter should also be disclosed. The district court agreed, at which point Seagate appealed.

The appeals court not only overturned the lower court's decision on the waiver of privilege issue, it also raised the bar for proving willfulness on the part of the defendant. Plaintiffs must now prove "objective recklessness" by defendants rather than just a failure to take due care.

"The new standard won't change the frequency with which willfulness is alleged, but it will be harder to prove," said Mr. Barquist. "It may facilitate more settlements too, as plaintiffs develop more moderate expectations."

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Google Adds Embedding To Google Maps

from TechCrunch by Duncan Riley

Google announced the addition of YouTube style embedding to Google Maps this morning.

Google Map mashups have been popular for a long time now, however for the non-programming inclined including a Google Map on a blog or website hasn’t always been easy. The new embed feature (as above) now provides an easy way for anyone to include an active map on their site.

Embedded maps can be customized in terms of size and can also include driving directions, search results, or a user generated map.

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BlogMusik To Go Legit; Launches Free & Legal Music On Demand

from TechCrunch by Ouriel Ohayon

Back in September last year Michael suggested everyone check out BlogMusik quickly before it was shut down. BlogMusik is a service born in France that lets you search for mp3 files on the web and listen to them in streaming mode for free. At the time the service was young and had no particular licensing agreements. A few months later, the SACEM, the organization in charge of collecting payments for artists’ rights sent them a cease and desist letter with a view to stop the service. A lot has happened since (beyond a rather nice site redesign and addition of sharing features).

BlogMusik will announce tomorrow that they came to an agreement with the SACEM, clearing the service of copyright infrigement accusations. The details of this agreement are not are not being disclosed, but other deals suggest it is based on a revenue sharing mode. BlogMusik’s business model is relying on advertising and affiliate revenue coming from the sales of songs on iTunes and Amazon. This agreement should cover BlogMusik for any music they host wherever the music is listened from. However they still have to come to an agreement with organizations representing majors and labels (Pandora had to face new webradio rates imposed by the RIAA). This is being taken care of according to the CEO of the company and new agreements should be announced soon.

All in all this is a good news for BlogMusik The company now has an opportunity to become a true free legal alternative to listen to music on the internet. Unlike Pandora this is a music on demand service where you choose the titles you want to listen to (although you have a smart playlist option to generate automatically radios out of a song or an artist).

BlogMusik.net will also change name and become Deezer.com. This is a good thing i had a hard time getting the UR/nameL right with this “k” in the middle (not mentionning the .net). RadioBlogClub, another popular french service was forced a few months ago to change hosting provider following a complaint sent by the same SACEM. The service was interupted a few days and opened again as fresh as new. To date no official licensing agreement was made with the company.

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It's Full Of Stars: Google Conquers the Stars After Fully Invading Earth

from Gizmodo by Jesus Diaz

After taking over planet Earth Google is all over the stars like James T. Kirk on blonde alien chicks: they just added a new option to watch the skies in Google Earth. We tried it and it's quite good, even if some of the photos don't smoothly blend into each other. The search works great and they even have a time lapse mode to watch planet movements in relation to the stars. Go get it at Warp 9. [Google Earth]

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gBox: Give The Gift Of DRM-Free Music

from TechCrunch by Nick Gonzalez

gBox is a new take on selling digital content. Instead of emphasizing sales directly to consumers, gBox is encourages you to create wish lists and buy gifts for your friends and family. To kick-start the service, they’ve sealed a pretty big deal with Universal to be the retailer for their new “Open MP3″ experiment into DRM free music. In a move that’s a snub to Apple’s iTunes, Universal will be buying Google AdWords for their music, linking people to the gBox site to buy their artists’ music. gBox will be expanding to other forms of digital content in the future.

gBox is not only a destination retail site for digital content. It also has an embeddable gift box widget to show off what you want to your friends. Your friends can then buy it for you directly from within the widget. It will be available as a general embed or specialized for 7 of the big social networks (no Facebook). Their current offering, music, will go for 99 cents per track and $9.99 per album (to stay competitive with iTunes). You have to have a gBox account to receive a gift, but not to buy one.

Considering people already pay 99 cents to send their friends virtual gifts on Facebook, I’d expect buying a real song to be an attractive proposition. It also seems like a missed opportunity for a network like MySpace, which runs on Snocap.

You can download the content after its bought for you, but need a special gBox plugin to control the downloads since some content partners (Sony, Iota) will be selling music with DRM. This makes the offering somewhat disappointing, because the plugin will only work for IE (FF on the way) and not on the Mac.

gBox was started in June as an angel funded spin-off from Navio systems. They’re a 20 person company based in Cupertino, California.

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Toshiba's 320GB 2.5-inch hard drive: a world's best for laptops

from Engadget by Thomas Ricker

Step aside Fujitsu, there's a new 2.5-inch hard disk champ on the block by way of Toshiba. A world's first 320GB 2.5-inch drive, in fact. The MK3252GSX drive spins a pair of 160GB platters at 5,400rpm with an 8MB buffer and 12ms average seek time over a 3Gbps SATA interface. So yeah, it's just 20GB more data that the Fujitsu 300GB disk but that HDD spins at just 4,200rpm. Better yet, The Tosh drive stands just 9.5-mm tall -- a full 3-mm less than Fujitsu's 300 gigger; that's about as thin as it gets in these 2.5-inch laptop drives. Look for the 320GB disk as a factory shipped option around November when Toshiba starts turning 'em out for mass production.

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