If you've still got an unlimited AT&T data plan that you're holding onto for dear life to stream gigs and gigs of Spotify and Netflix and god knows what else, your life is about to suck a lot more. More
In this four-minute clip from 1995, the intrepid MTV News team takes on The Internet. Their coverage is wonderfully dated, showing the state of the art at the time: animated GIFs, Netscape, CompuServe, and blurred-out nudie pictures. Yes indeed, the coverage is primarily about online porn (this is MTV, after all), though a few nods are given to sites about Twinkies, Godzilla, Star Wars, music (a teeny tiny QuickTime video), and they guess email is cool too. The whole piece uses a CB radio metaphor to explain the World Wide Web, at one point describing websites as “truck stops.” Enjoy this blast from the not-too-distant past:
A partial list of celebrities weighing in on the matter: Billy Corgan, Michael Jackson, Sandra Bullock, Coolio, Ozzy Osbourne, Mike Heidorn (of Son Volt), David Bennahum (“Cyber Journalist”), Newt Gingrich, Perry Farrell, Dave Matthews (“It’s gratifying as hell…it’s a little weird”), Moby, and David Bowie (“I got so tired of the rubbish [online] that I dropped out”).
(Via Waxy.)
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MTV News Coverage from 1995: The Internet
oxide7 writes “Since the advent of cellular phones, researchers have pondered whether a connection exists between cell phone usage and brain cancer. New evidence always seems to emerge to support or refute such a link. On Wednesday, another study was added to the list. A European study involving nearly 1,000 participants found no link between cell phone use and brain tumors in children and adolescents. This marks the 3rd study this month and the 4th major one this year, all with different conclusions”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
twoheadedboy writes “The level of aggressive, polymorphic malware intercepted by Symantec doubled in July, when compared to figures from six months ago. This kind of malware has been typically found inside an executable within an attached ZIP file disguised as a PDF file, and is pretty darn good at getting around traditional anti-virus products. ‘There are powerful Darwinian forces acting on the development of malware by criminals,’ said Martin Lee, senior software engineer at Symantec. ‘Those who look to innovate and improve their malware tend to infect more computers and acquire the resources to reinvest in further development and innovation.'”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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The Rise of Polymorphic Malware
Nielsen reports on market share for smartphones in the US, with an interesting split between domination for OS and domination by actual device. Google Android is currently the top operating system, at 39 percent, with Apple’s iOS at 28 percent, and the RIM Blackberry at 20 percent. “However, because Apple is the only company manufacturing smartphones with the iOS operating system, it is clearly the top smartphone manufacturer in the United States.” iPhone has 28% of the market. All of this is based on June, 2011 data.
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Smartphone wars: In US, iPhone is top device, while Android is top OS
Cars have already come such a long way since the Model-T days, but if you think Google’s driverless cars were fancy, wait until you hear about Toyota’s heart attack-detecting sensors, that will steer a car if you lose control. More
Windows: If you want to create a network plan and need an inventory or just want to see all the devices using your Wi-Fi, Wireless Network Watcher from Nirsoft is a free utility that can help. It scans your network for connected devices and lists their network properties. More
As far as internal corporate-sponsored parody videos, I would actually have expected a lot worse out of Microsoft than this three-minute takedown of Gmail. Nerd fight! More
iPhone fans, start drooling. Skeptics, have your grains of salt at the ready. An iPhone 5 — or at least something closely fitting the rumored description of the iPhone 5 — has just been spotted… on a train, of all places.
The shot up above (and the ever-so-slightly-different one below) comes from 9to5Mac, who received them from a tipster who claims to have spotted the device on his way home from work.
Alas, these two just-too-far-away glimpses are as good as it gets for now. While most news reporter-types out there would run through a pack of angry charging bulls and scale a building covered in butter for a shot of the iPhone 5, the tipster seems to have practiced at least a bit of caution in their undercover photography session. The person holding the device was supposedly being quite cautious to keep it at least partially covered, masking the Apple logo behind their fingers throughout.
Fortunately, their eyes worked a bit better than their camera. Here’s what they had to share about the purported prototype:
Could this be the real deal? It’s plausible. The iPhone 5 is said to be coming in just over a month (sometime in September), which means there absolutely are iPhone 5s out there, right this second, being field tested. Apple can install as many cell towers on their campus as they want, but it’s nearly impossible to release a phone without testing its signal attenuation and performance in the real world. After Antennagate, you can bet that Apple is going to make damned sure that the iPhone 5 has rock solid signal performance.
With that said, think back to the lost iPhone 4 prototype. At first glance, it looked just like an iPhone 3GS — because Apple had disguised it as one. A special case was made just to mask the new hardware as something not worth a second glance. Would Apple really let an iPhone 5 prototype lurk about in public in the nude? Maybe in the back of a blacked out van — but on what looks to be something like CalTrain? Doubtful.
Also doubtful: where the heck is the camera flash? While my geek side would love for this to be an iPhone 5, my skeptic side is saying it’s a 3GS shot from a strange angle.
What say you? Real? Photoshop? Just a really fancy fake from China? Weigh in down in the comments.
See the article here:
Is This The iPhone 5?