Google to Shut Down Picnik SiliconFilter reports that Google is shutting down its Picnik photo editor. Picnik has an announcement about the closing here. The closing date is April 19, 2012.
Picnik says the photo-editing tools are already available on Google+ through the social network's Creative Kit. Picnik has created an app, called Picnik Takeout, that will help you transfer your photographs to a Google+ account.
CNET reported yesterday that Google planned to use its homepage to protest the horrible Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) bill. Bills like SOPA that give previously unheard of and unthinkable powers and controls to powerful media and entertainment companies seem to be on the rise these days. We already have laws in place to protect copyright. These news bills are unnecessary.
A Google representative told CNET, "Like many businesses, entrepreneurs, and Web users, we oppose these bills because there are smart, targeted ways to shut down foreign rogue Web sites without asking American companies to censor the Internet. So tomorrow we will be joining many other tech companies to highlight this issue on our U.S. home page."
Today Google blacked out its logo and posted a message about how millions of Americans oppose the SOPA and PIPA bills. Google says the bills "would censor the Web and impose harmful regulations on American business." They are encouraging Internet users to sign a petition urging Congress to vote no on PIPA and SOPA.
Google also says in a blog post that PIPA & SOPA will censor the Internet and will not stop piracy. Google writes, "These bills would grant new powers to law enforcement to filter the Internet and block access to tools to get around those filters. We know from experience that these powers are on the wish list of oppressive regimes throughout the world. SOPA and PIPA also eliminate due process. They provide incentives for American companies to shut down, block access to and stop servicing U.S. and foreign websites that copyright and trademark owners allege are illegal without any due process or ability of a wrongfully targeted website to seek restitution."
The White House has spoken out about the bill, which angered News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch. It is unclear if the White House would veto the bill if it gets through Congress. President Obama did recently sign a controversial bill that enables the military detention of American citizens without a trial, even though he opposed the legislation in a signing statement.
Some websites are also going dark to oppose the SOPA and PIPA bills. Websites planning blackouts include Reddit, Wikipedia, Craigslist and Boing Boing.
HowToWeb is Now on Google+
HowToWeb now has a Google+ page on Google+. Google+ is a new social network from Google. You can follow us on Google+ by clicking on the Google+ button below and adding us to one of your circles.
HP to Make WebOS Open Source
HP has announced it will make webOS open source. The operating system is used on the HP TouchPad, which became a hot item after HP discounted the tablet to just $99 last this summer.
Meg Whitman, HP president and chief executive officer, said in a statement, "webOS is the only platform designed from the ground up to be mobile, cloud-connected and scalable. By contributing this innovation, HP unleashes the creativity of the open source community to advance a new generation of applications and devices."
HP says it will engage the open source community to help define the charter of the open source project under a set of operating principles:
The goal of the project is to accelerate the open development of the webOS platform
HP will be an active participant and investor in the project
Good, transparent and inclusive governance to avoid fragmentation
Software will be provided as a pure open source project
A Guardianarticle about HP's open source move says HP believes there are currently 750,000 installed devices running on webOS.
PBS to Air Steve Jobs Special: One Last Thing
PBS will air a special look at Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, called Steve Jobs - One Last Thing, on November 2. The look at Steve Jobs includes interviews with Ronald Wayne, Steve Wozniak, Ross Perot, Walt Mossberg, Will.i.am, Robert Cringely, Robert Palladino, Bill Fernandez and many others.
It also includes footage from a never-before-broadcast interview from 1994 where Jobs says, "You tend to get told that the world is the way it is, but life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact; and that is that everything around you that you call life was made up by people no smarter than you ... Once you learn that, you'll never be the same again."
History of the iPhone Animation
Here is an entertaining and informative history of the iPhone from CNET UK. The animation also shares some facts about ARPANET, DynaTAC, the Internet, chip development and Apple designer Jony Ive. Take a look:
Text Through Your Pants With Microsoft's PocketTouch Through-Fabric Input Technology
This project from Microsoft, called PocketTouch, enables a person to use an input device through their pants or a jacket. Microsoft calls its research project "through-fabric capactive touch input." The input device can hook onto a smartphone. A downside to the PocketTouch is that you will have to get used to the alphanumeric texting language in order to use the device. You may also have to explain to people around you why you keep rubbing your pants. Take a look:
Technology Realistically Inserts Objects Into Existing Photographs
University of Illinois researchers, lead by Kevin Karsch, have developed an impressive technology that inserts objects into photographs as if they had been there all along.
We propose a method to realistically insert synthetic objects into existing photographs without requiring access to the scene or any additional scene measurements. With a single image and a small amount of annotation, our method creates a physical model of the scene that is suitable for realistically rendering synthetic objects with diffuse, specular, and even glowing materials while accounting for lighting interactions between the objects and the scene. We demonstrate in a user study that synthetic images produced by our method are confusable with real scenes, even for people who believe they are good at telling the difference.
It will become increasingly difficult to trust photographs as this type of technology continues to improve. Take a look:
Throwable Ball Camera Takes Full Spherical Panoramas
This throwable ball camera takes full spherical panoramas. The researchers embedded multiple cameras into a ball-shaped enclosure, which was then padded with foam. Take a look:
Loss of Steve Jobs Animated
The animators at NMA TV have animated the career of Apple innovator Steve Jobs, 1955-2011. Jobs died at his home on October 5th. The animation shows Apple fans and business leaders saddened by the loss of the Apple co-founder. It also shows Jobs arriving at the Pearly Gates, which may have been referencing the New Yorkercover. Take a look:
US Air Force Can't Figure Out Key-logging Bug Infecting Drone Fighter Planes
U.S. drone fighter planes are being infected by a key-logging virus. The U.S. cannot figure out where the key-logged messages are being sent, if anywhere. Wiredreports that a military source tells them they think the virus is benign, but they are not positive. They also say they keep deleting the virus, but it keeps coming back. Take a look:
Deleted City Contains a 640 Gigabyte Archive of Geocities
The Deleted City contains a 640 gigabyte archive of the defunct Geocities website. Geocities was the third most popular website during the 1990s. Yahoo actually paid a staggering $3.5 billion for Geocities, but ended up having to close it down in 2009. MySpace and Facebook could become the next Geocities if something better comes along and people decide to move their information. Geocities was known for its overuse of stupid animated gifs and poor designs. Most of today's social networks avoid this problem by forcing people to use the same layout for their profiles. Take a look:
Amazon's software engineers explain the company's new Silk browser, which is used to power its recently announced tablet, the Kindle Fire. Amazon uses its powerful Amazon Web Services technology to speed up web browsing with Amazon Silk. Part of the browsing data (images, javascript, css) is stored in Amazon's cloud as you surf. Amazon has says the data it collects while users browse the Internet will be anonymized. Take a look:
Gartner Expects Apple to Dominate Tablet Market This Holiday Season
Gartner reported in a press release that it expects Apple's tablet dominance to continue this holiday season. That's a good bet. They project tablet sales are on pace to total 63.6 million units, a 261.4% increase from 2010 sales of 17.6 million units. Gartner projects tablet sales will soar to 326.3 million units in 2015.
Gartner says Apple's iPad tablet will account for 73.4 percent of worldwide media tablet sales in 2011, down from 83 percent share in 2010.
Carolina Milanesi, research vice president at Gartner, says, "We expect Apple to maintain a market share lead throughout our forecast period by commanding more than 50 percent of the market until 2014. This is because Apple delivers a superior and unified user experience across its hardware, software and services. Unless competitors can respond with a similar approach, challenges to Apple’s position will be minimal. Apple had the foresight to create this market and in doing that planned for it as far as component supplies such as memory and screen. This allowed Apple to bring the iPad out at a very competitive price and no compromise in experience among the different models that offer storage and connectivity options.”
Amazon is expected to announce an Android tablet soon. If the tablet takes off and does really well over the holidays it could put a major dent in Apple's tablet dominance. The main issue holding back tablet sales is the economy is still terrible. Consumers are looking for tablets priced less than manufacturers can afford to make them.
Cornell Creative Machines Lab Has Two Chatbots Talk to Each Other
Researchers at the Cornell Creative Machines Lab had two chatbots talk to each other. Automaton notes that chatbots are computer programs designed to fool people into thinking they are human. The 2011 Loebner Prize Competition in Artificial Intelligence is an annual contest that challenges people to create programs that can fool judges into thinking it is human.
In Cornell Creative Machines Lab's chatbot to chatbot conversation both of the chatbots correctly identified each other as being a bot, although they sometimes lied about being a bot. Take a look:
SiliconFilter 
HP has 
