Excited for Nintendo’s new tablet-esque controller? So are the kids in TT Games’ QA department. An over-excited tester tweeted out an image of a slightly different Wii U slab than the one we laid hands on at E3 2011, teasing “look we what we have at work!” Answering the call does indeed reveal something worth looking at — a somewhat wider looking Wii U slate featuring two full-sized analog sticks (as opposed to 3DS-like circle pads), a pair of unmarked button-like squares, and a new starboard home for the controller’s plus and minus buttons.

The tweet was summarily pulled, of course, but not before our friends at Joystiq nabbed a screenshot. Naturally, the rumor mill started right up, churning out speculation of developer specific slabs, early prototypes and late redesigns. The truth? We’ll probably need to wait until E3 to find out, but we reached out to Nintendo for a comment all the same. We’ll let you know if we hear anything more than the usual “Nintendo doesn’t comment on rumors and speculation” line.

Alternative Wii U controller design makes brief appearance on Twitter, goes into hiding originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 20 May 2012 02:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Network and security vendors such as Cisco, Juniper, and Enterasys are lining up at Interop this week with products aimed at easing security admins’ <

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It was fun while it lasted. In a move that frankly surprised no one, Yahoo has replaced its resume-padding CEO Scott Thompson with interim CEO Ross Levinsohn, whom one presumes has a squeaky-clean CV, some four months after hiring the former.

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Every week iMore’s editors carefully cull through hundreds of thousands of iPhone and iPad apps and games, and countless accessories, to find the three most interesting, innovative, and attention worthy iOS products for you to check out. They might might be the latest and greatest or the most newly updated, or they might be classics or hidden gems. The only constant is, they’ll always be among our very favorites, and they’ll join the exclusive ranks of iMore’s picks of the week. This week we have an old social favorite with new social hook, the sequel to the sequel of one of the best shooters ever, and way to give your iPhone an incredible new set of eyes…

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I love it when someone takes an item that we all use everyday and reinvents it to make it more convenient. For example, when was the last time you thought to yourself that you love the design of the everyday ordinary keychain split ring? Probably never… More likely, you swear under your breath every time [...]

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In the battle for the title of Most Inept Tech Company, the competition is fierce. There’s of course Yahoo, which has been a contender since the mid-2000s when then-CEO Terry Semel tried to turn it into an online Hollywood studio before draining it of $300-plus million in salary. The soap opera there shows no sign of abating, with Résumégate still in full throttle as I write this.

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How does Google scan and digitize 20 million books? With a hidden army of workers. Andrew Norman Wilson's ScanOps aims to make them less hidden.

In 2007, Andrew Norman Wilson worked as a contractor producing video for Google, where he noticed a strange thing: In the building adjacent to his office, workers would stream out every morning, as he arrived. They had worked a long night shift. He also discovered that these workers had a different classification than other contract workers such as himself. They weren't allowed to touch any of the standard Google amenities that you hear about in every fawning business profile: the free food, bicycles, etc.

Wilson turned his video camera on the workers, who turned out to be Google Books digitizers. When Google found out, it fired Wilson and tried to destroy all of his footage. Despite fear of a lawsuit, Wilson put out a video (titled “Workers Leaving the Googleplex,” referencing early cinema’s “Workers Leaving the Factory” by the Lumiere Brothers) and it went viral.

The Chicago-based artist has continued to explore the mostly-unseen labor behind Google Books, the eight-year-old digitalization effort that has resulted in 20 million-plus scanned pieces of text. For his latest project, ScanOps, Wilson collected hundreds of examples of Google Books misfires, focusing on instances of scrambled up pages, the inevitable consequences of the fact that workers are photographing thousands of pages a day — and it's those mistakes that mark what they're doing as human labor.

Wilson does not want to simply collect examples of Google flubs. “I’m not really interested in putting this project online,” he told me, “I want to re-materialize them as prints and a book.” By that, he means taking the digital image and putting it on paper, with a frame, to be shown as a photograph. Besides adding colored frames, he has not altered the images. He is showing some of the prints in art galleries and his book, to be published this summer, will contain hundreds of misfires.

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A normal teenager noticed that people who weren't his friends were able to “like” his status and posted about it. Within 22 hours over 73,000 other people have liked his status, just to mess with him.

It's basically the “broken window theory” – when you see someone else in your feed liked this status, you want to join in and “like” his status too (I know that's why I did). It kept going and going and thousands of people joined in. Sort of like a chain letter of trolling.

Source: facebook.com

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Most every phone, tablet, MP3 player, and computer these days have built-in speakers so you can hear audio without having to use headphones.  Most of those built-in speakers are woefully inadequate for anything but listening while you’re within a couple of feet of your device.  There are a plethora of external speakers available to boost [...]

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As you probably know, Windows 8 connects with all sorts of networks, social and otherwise.

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There are nearly 4,000 different types of devices running Android, OpenSignalMaps has found. More than 1,300 of them have custom ROMs that tweak the android.build model. Android brands are almost as diverse as the models, OpenSignalMaps discovered. Further, the application programming interface level, meaning the Android version, has also become more fragmented over time.

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ScreenDIY is an iPhone app that lets you create unique Lock screens and Home screens with designer wallpapers, shelves, frames, icon skins and more.

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Facebook released the amount of shares allocated to each of its underwriters today, following its less-than-stellar IPO day.

The company went public on the Nasdaq to an EKG-like performance, ending in a .38 cent gain today. The update came in …

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Ever make a guess and you're convinced it should've been the right answer?

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Source: fuckyouiknowimright

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It was fun while it lasted. In a move that frankly surprised no one, Yahoo has replaced its resume-padding CEO Scott Thompson with interim CEO Ross Levinsohn, whom one presumes has a squeaky-clean CV, some four months after hiring the former.

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A group of hackers called The Unknowns claims to have hacked the systems of 10 prominent organizations worldwide, including NASA and U.S.

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Facebook’s march toward its IPO has put a harsh spotlight on the social network’s shortcomings, and one of the primary worries among prospective investors is that Facebook doesn’t have very sharp mobile chops. There are a million things it could be doing in mobile to draw in more revenue, they say, but it’s still an area in which the network moves painfully slowly.

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If the cloud is to become a viable platform for the enterprise, security is critical.

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Bellroy, a company that specializes in Better Ways to Carry, have developed a Travel Wallet that’s small enough to fit in your pocket.  The Travel Wallet is made of midnight or cocoa leather, and it has multiple pockets to organize your tickets, cards, and passport.  (Doesn’t hold the double-thickness passports, only standard ones.)  It holds [...]

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Instacast, Downcast, and Pocket Casts all bring podcasts directly to your iPhone and iPod touch, which is one of the best ways to enjoy them when you’re in the car, working out, sitting in the office, or simply lounging around the house. While all three allow you to browse and search for podcasts, which one has the best features geared towards the most users? Let’s listen and find out!

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If Apple changes to a 4-inch screen in the next iPhone (iPhone 5,1), how could they do it while minimizing impact on users and developers? Assuming everyone wants a bigger screen, how does Apple implement it without breaking existing applications, causing backwards compatibility problems, and otherwise fragmenting the platform and frustrating stakeholders? Let’s try to figure that out.

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Amazon is pitching companies on the idea of advertising on the welcome screen of its Kindle Fire tablet — except that it will cost a minimum of $600,000 to do so, according an AdAge report.

Even though Amazon has frustratingly …

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Apple has sent out an email to members of its Mac developer program reminding them that the deadline to implement sandboxing in their apps is still June 1st. As a…

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Eight years and hundreds of millions of devices later, Apple's weird, flat, ubiquitous plug might finally be signing off.

The oldest piece of tech I use is a cable. I'm fairly sure it came with my roommate's now-dead 4th generation iPod, the glowing blue click wheel one, which he would have bought in 2004, when Bush was in his first term and computer nerds were still excited about the Pentium 4. The only other eight-year-old gadget I have — a DVD player with a three-disc carousel — is sitting in a closet. I doubt it still powers up. The cable, though, snaps into the base of my iPhone 4S without a fight. It charges like new.

The iPhone dock connector has been a remarkably persistent standard in an industry defined by a lack of persistent standards, and kept alive by a company known for flaunting them. The first dock connector appeared in the 2003 iPod — before that, iPods used Firewire — and has been there ever since, in almost every iPod, every iPhone, and every iPad.

Via: ifixit.com

Since 2004, when Apple switched the dock connector's power rail from Firewire to USB, it hasn't changed much — a few of its 30 pins have assigned or reassigned new jobs, like video transfer, but a cable from 2004 can still charge and sync a device sold today, at the very least. The biggest change has been feel: the early dock connector had a mechanical locking system to prevent the plug from slipping out, which gave it a satisfying CLICK. The last few generations of dock connector operate more smoothly, but the action is still unique: less resistant than a USB port, yet more mechanical.

Every big gadget company has tried a proprietary port at some point, but nearly all have given up. They've since congregated around the same standard — and in Europe, legally mandated — MicroUSB port for charging and syncing. MicroUSB ports are almost apologetically small, and placed on smartphones as if as an afterthought, often on the side or top, near the headphone jack. Sometimes they even get a small plastic flap, ostensibly for protection from dust but, spiritually, I think, as a human-like expression of modesty. Ports, mechanical or otherwise, are unseemly.

Apple's port, on the other hand, dominates half of the bottom face of the iPhone, a lone, gaping reminder that this otherwise seamless device is still just a messy bundle of copper, steel, plastic and wires. A peek into an iPhone or iPod's dock connector is the easiest way to guess its age — dust and scum accumulates gradually, like floating trash in the phone design's only eddy. In form, the cable harks back to Apple's long-passed white plastic era, and can almost look out of place strung between a brushed aluminum MacBook and a black glass iPhone. (Apple's once-total white aesthetic lives mainly in wire form, in sync cables, laptop chargers, and earbuds.)

Now, for the first time, it looks like it's going to change. The next generation of iPhone is rumored to have a much smaller dock connector that would fully break compatibility for the first time in eight years. The dock connector as we know it is on deathwatch.

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At the end of April, Iain Mulholland, director of the VMware Security Response Center, announced that some of VMware’s confidential source code for the ESX hypervisor had been leaked and a single file had been posted online.

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Say you’re a misanthrope and you’re afraid of humans. What to do? Well, you could cower in the dark when people ring your doorbell or you could laugh derisively at their smug faces in the screen of your iPhone. I’m going for the derisive laughter. This DIY Arduino project involves a simple circuit, a webcam, and a few API calls to PushingBox to enable a truly enjoyable derisive experience. The system works by pushing images grabbed by the webcam through PushingBox to an app like Prowl or Pushme.to. When the doorbell is pressed, it sends a serial signal to the Arduino board which in turn notifies the various services. The webcam picture then gets sent over to you so you can decide whether to let whoever is outside in. It’s probably a little more complex than it needs to be, but if you’re totally into watching the world pass you by it’s a great solution and a fun weekend project. Project Page

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Delaware courts have have called for delegates from HTC and Apple to meet on August 28 to talk about settling the patent dispute that has blocked the U.S. import of some HTC handsets.

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Just because your home theater can handle lossless audio doesn’t mean the sound is as good as it could be. Dolby is now giving Blu-ray producers using Dolby Media Producer Encoder v2 the choice of premastering TrueHD surround sound at an upsampled 96k. Along with just squeezing the most possible clarity and depth out of 48kHz audio, the encoding purportedly eliminates some of the harshness of digital sound through an apodizing (signal altering) filter. At least three projects have already been given the 96k treatment, and authoring firms like Technicolor have upgrades in place to give that noticeable boost to your next Blu-ray movie.

Continue reading Dolby ups TrueHD lossless audio on Blu-ray to 96k, says every upsampled bit is amazing (video)

Dolby ups TrueHD lossless audio on Blu-ray to 96k, says every upsampled bit is amazing (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 May 2012 07:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Firewalls need to go away. I’m just saying what we all already know. Firewalls have always been problematic, and today there is almost no reason to have one.

Computer firewalls have been with us since the 1980s. Even early on it was pretty clear that they didn’t really work; if they did, we would have defeated malicious hackers and malware a long time ago. But at least back in the day there was a decent reason to need them.

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For today only the iMore iPhone Accessory Store has the Seidio Desktop Charging Cradle for iPhone 4S and iPhone on sale for only $19.95! That’s 33% off! Get yours before they’re gone!

• Shop Seidio Desktop Charging Cradle for iPhone 4S and iPhone now!

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Just hours before Facebook opened on the public market today, a group of Facebook users sued the company in a $15 billion class-action lawsuit over privacy, according to Bloomberg.

Facebook has attracted scrutiny for quite some time when it comes …

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Amazon is reportedly pitching Kindle Fire welcome-screen ads. If they can pull it off, it could lead to an even cheaper Kindle Fire.

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Steve Jobs had dreamed of one day taking Apple onto our public roadways with a sleek, well-designed car — so said J.Crew CEO and Apple board member Mickey Drexler at a recent business conference.

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I usually hold my nose at Apple rumor stories since 99 percent are simply made up or otherwise false. As Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) in mid-June approaches, we’re getting the obligatory rumors of an iOS 6 reveal, as well as the perpetual rumors of both a 7-inch iPad and a completely new design for an “iPhone 5.”

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Note: This story has been updated. Please see clarification below.

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Today in international tech news: The BBC unveils plans to stream all 2,500 hours of the Summer Olympics. Elsewhere, Apple has reportedly engaged in talks with China Mobile, the world’s biggest phone company, about teaming up to offer the iPhone; a criminal gets busted in Columbia for failing to log out of Facebook; and a report suggests most computer users in the world have acquired pirated wares.

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Verizon’s CFO Fran Shammo mentioned at the J.P. Morgan Technology, Media, and Telecom conference recently that anyone migrating from 3G to 4G devices won’t be able to grandfather in their old unlimited plan and will have to instead take a data share plan scheduled to launch this summer.

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When your phone breaks, do you bother trying to sell it on eBay, or just toss it out? Here are some prices for completed listings in “for parts or not working” condition on eBay that might surprise you.

A flight of stairs. The cement of the sidewalk. A toddler. The toilet. A bottle of diet Pepsi not capped tightly enough in your purse. What do these have in common? They're silent gadget-killers, lurking in wait for the right moment to fry your phone, camera, or other electronics. It's not a matter of “if”, it's a matter of “when”.

And when your gadgets break – and oh yes, they shall – do you bother trying to resell it or say your goodbyes and give it its proper Viking funeral in the East River (not recommended by FDNY)? Is it actually worth the hassle of listing it on eBay, waiting for a buyer, waiting for them to PayPal, and shipping it off?

Apparently, it actually might be worth the hassle.

eBay allows you to list electronics in the condition “For parts or not working”. I searched for completed listings that were specifically listed this way, and the prices were fairly surprising for items with sometimes very serious defects.

The prices on these pieces of junk might make you consider putting up with waiting in line at the post office.

$1,065.00 – MacBook Pro 17″ (missing 3 keys and doesn't turn on)

Original price: about $2,799.99

$416.11 – Nikon D90 SLR Digital Camera (cracked screen after dropping)

Original price: $1,299.99

Source: ebay.com

$199.99 – Lot of 6 Canon PC1472 POWERSHOT cameras

Original price: $250.00 each

Source: ebay.com

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If there’s something on Facebook that won’t stop pinging you with Notifications, tell it to shut up instantly with Facebook’s new granular, in-line notification controls. Hover over an alert in the Facebook.com homepage’s globe icon drop-down and click the ‘x’ for the option to turn off notifications from that app, group, event, or post you commented on. The whole drop-down has a slick new look, and you can scroll down to much older notifications too. Previously you had to dig your way to the dedicated Notifications Settings page to make these changes, and there was no way to turn off a specific source of alerts — you had to silence all your events or all your posts. Facebook has confirmed with me that most of the changes to notifications will be rolled out to everyone by tonight, except for app alert controls which are still in testing. As we accumulate more friends and apps, Facebook’s notifications can turn from delightful pointers to annoying distractions that interrupt our lives. These new controls mean if you want a more zen Facebook experience, you can make it so.

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