Apple Details iPhone OS 4.0

Today Apple announced details about the upcoming release of iPhone OS 4.0. We’ve heard a lot of rumors about just what it will include. Now it's coming and here are all the things you need to know about iPhone OS 4.0 (organized via techcocktail)

1. Multitasking - Finally! the new iPhone OS 4.0 will the ability for 7 multitasking services (APIs) on the iPhone. Some of these include:

• Background audio
• VoIP
• Background location
• Push notifications
• Local notifications
• Task completion

2. Folders - Users will be able to add folders to your home screen. Just drag two apps together and an folder is created with intelligent naming. Users will also be able to change their wallpaper background with ease.

3. Enhanced Email - The new mail offering will create a unified inbox pulling together all your account into one account. You can also now have multiple exchange accounts. Messages will be organized by thread which sounds very similar to Gmail.

4. iBooks - Just like the iPad the new iPhone OS will offer iBook with a bookstore where if you buy once you can read the book anywhere. Sync pages and bookmarks between devices. Users also get a free copy of Winnie the Pooh.

5. Enterprise features - The new OS will offer improved data protection, including data protection within third party apps as well as mobile device management which means that up until now companies would have to plug into iTunes to distribute apps but with the new OS they will be able to do it wireleslly from their own servers.

6. Game Center - Allows games players to challenge each other interactively and offers a leaderboard to track game play.

7. iAd - Apple announces the launch of a mobile advertising platform! The platform could serve 1 Billion ad impressions a day. Apple wants to offer amazing advertising experiences leveraging HTML 5. Apple will host and sell the ads and give 60% of the revenue to developers. This could be huge for Apple Developers of free applications. Ads will have access to many of the same Apple APIs as apps (i.e. like location and some level of accelerometer access, etc).

These “tentpoles” as Jobs called them, are going to be released to developers today and to iPhone users later this summer. and they will run completely on iPhone 3GS and iPod Touch 3rd generation models, won’t run completely on 3G and iPod Touch 2nd gen models. More than 100 user features are being added and developers will have access to more than 1500 new APIs. As for the iPad, iPhone 4.0 OS is coming to the iPad this Fall.

Rest in Peace, Jimmy "THE REV" Sullivan

 

It is with great sadness and heavy hearts that we tell you of the passing today of Jimmy “The Rev” Sullivan. Jimmy was not only one of the world's best drummers, but more importantly he was our best friend and brother. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Jimmy's family and we hope that you will respect their privacy during this difficult time.

Jimmy you are forever in our hearts.
We love you.

M Shadows, Synyster Gates, Zacky Vengeance and Johnny Christ

Big sadness, Avenged Sevenfold is my fave band. If you know my email address you'll see. It's very very sad when I heard TheRev died. In my book, Jimmy you are were the greatest drummer. a7x will never be the same without you... we'll miss you, Rest In Peace.

 - Seize The Day

How to Try Out Google Real-time Search

Today, Google launched real-time search integrated into search results pages. It updates as stuff is happening around the web, live tweets, news articles and blog posts, it works on mobile,too (at least iPhone and Android for now). That’s not all, they’ve inked partnerships with both Facebook and MySpace to pull in data in real-time.

The new features will be rolling out in the next few days and will be available globally in English. You can try them out today by visiting Google Trends and clicking on a "hot topic," which in most cases will bring you to a search results page with the new real-time feature.

Google says the features aren’t available to everyone yet. But, all users can see it now via a "Hot Topics", the most popular 10 keywords are available at Google Trends and they trigger a real-time search OneBox.

Well, it won’t yet show up by default when you search. However, this trick will help you trigger it easily: If you add &esrch=RTSearch to your the URL after you've done a google search, you get the feature.

Example: http://www.google.com/search?q=copenhagen&hl=en&sa=G&esrch=RTSearch&tbo=1&output=search&tbs=rltm:1

Pretty cool, huh?

Coming Soon: Total Solar Eclipse 2009

This summer, those of us living in China have the spectacular chance to see a total eclipse of the sun, a truly rare opportunity because the moon completely covers the sun, leaving a colorful ring around it called a Corona (meaning crown). Thousands of people from the rest of Asia and all over the world will be coming to China to witness the phenomenon. If you have never seen a total solar eclipse, then this is your chance to see this China solar eclipse 2009 from several major cities. This 22nd July will be the only solar eclipse of this kind this year and remarkably, instead of the usual 200 Km spectrum of visible areas, there will be 254Km, providing a magnificent area from which to view the eclipse from Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou,Wuhan, Nanjing, Chongqing, Chengdu, Suining and Yichang. You have plenty of options to choose from if you want to go and see it yourself. The eclipse will also be visible for a full 6 minutes and 39 seconds, which is the longest visibility period of the 21st century.

pic via NASA

This coming 22nd July, (If the weather's good) I'll put some real pics and vids of the eclipse into my blog, and live tweet from my twitter account : @lyanghsueh, welcome to follow!

Warnings: Never view the sun with the naked eye!

Google Announces Chrome Operating System

Google has announced the development of an operating system (totally separate from Android) called Chrome OS, designed to be a fast, lightweight, kinda web-based system for mobile computing that we should see showing up netbooks in the second half of 2010.

Details from Google:

Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we're already talking to partners about the project, and we'll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve.

Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We're designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don't have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.

Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips and we are working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year. The software architecture is simple -- Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. For application developers, the web is the platform. All web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be written using your favorite web technologies. And of course, these apps will run not only on Google Chrome OS, but on any standards-based browser on Windows, Mac and Linux thereby giving developers the largest user base of any platform.

Google Chrome OS is a new project, separate from Android.

Google plans to release the open source code for Chrome OS later this year ahead of the launch next year. Don’t be surprised if this code drops around the same time as Windows 7. Google vs. Microsoft, it's on. Let us wait&see. ;)

Read more details from Google

QOTD: Steve Jobs is Back at Work

Rest in Peace, The King of Pop

Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American recording artist, entertainer and businessman. The seventh child of the Jackson family, he made his début to the professional music scene at the age of 11 as a member of The Jackson 5 in 1969, and began a solo career in 1971 while still a member of the group. Referred to as the "King of Pop" in subsequent years, his 1982 album Thriller is the world's best-selling record of all time and four other solo studio albums are also among the world's best-selling records: Off the Wall (1979), Bad (1987), Dangerous (1991) and HIStory (1995).

In the early 1980s, he became a dominant figure in popular music and the first African-American entertainer to amass a strong crossover following on MTV. The popularity of his music videos airing on MTV, such as "Beat It", "Billie Jean" and Thriller — widely credited with transforming the music video from a promotional tool into an art form — helped bring the relatively new channel to fame. Videos such as "Black or White" and "Scream" made Jackson an enduring staple on MTV in the 1990s. With stage performances and music videos, Jackson popularized a number of physically complicated dance techniques, such as the robot and the moonwalk. His distinctive musical sound and vocal style influenced many hip hop, pop and contemporary R&B artists. While Jackson was a member of Generation Jones, he had an impact on multiple generations.

Jackson donated and raised millions of dollars for beneficial causes through his foundation, charity singles and support of 39 charities. Other aspects of his personal life, including his changing appearance and behavior, generated significant controversy, damaging his public image. Though he was accused of child sexual abuse in 1993, the criminal investigation was closed due to lack of evidence and Jackson was not charged. The singer had experienced health concerns since the early 1990s and conflicting reports regarding the state of his finances since the late 1990s. Jackson married twice and fathered three children, all of which caused further controversy. In 2005, Jackson was tried and acquitted of further sexual abuse allegations and several other charges.

One of the few artists to have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, his other achievements include multiple Guinness World Records — including one for "Most Successful Entertainer of All Time"—13 Grammy Awards, 13 number one singles in his solo career — more than any other male artist in the Hot 100 era and the sale of 750 million records worldwide. Jackson's highly publicized personal life, coupled with his successful career, made him a part of popular culture for almost four decades. Jackson died on June 25, 2009, aged 50. The specific cause of death is yet to be determined. Before his death, Jackson had announced a 50 date sell-out This Is It comeback tour, in London, England.

- Wikipedia

Michael Jackson: The world pays tribute to King of Pop - CNN
Jackson dies, almost takes Internet with him - CNN
Shock and Grief Over Jackson’s Death - NYTimes
Michael Jackson: the wounds, the broken heart - LATimes
Quotes about the death of Michael Jackson - WashingtonPost
more...

Moonwalking in heaven. Rest in peace, Michael The King Of Pop...

YOU ARE NOT ALONE

Microsoft Banishes Memcpy()

Microsoft plans to formally banish the popular programming function that's been responsible for an untold number of security vulnerabilities over the years, not just in Windows but in countless other applications based on the C language. Effective later this year, Microsoft will add memcpy(), CopyMemory(), and RtlCopyMemory() to its list of function calls banned under its secure development lifecycle. [more]

Pirate Bay 被判有罪

近日互联网上最令人关注的一场官司有了最新的消息.瑞典斯德哥尔摩地区法庭裁定著名BT文件共享网站Pirate Bay(海盗湾)的四名创办人违反版权法罪名成立.各被判处有期徒刑一年,罚款240万英镑.

海盗湾是世界最知名的文件共享网站.可能国内的朋友不太了解它,因为该站被GFW长期屏蔽.2003年由反版权机构Piratbyran成立,但在过去的5年中由个人经营.网站每天都有数以百万计的文件进行着交换.这次的判决无疑将重创海盗湾,甚至是整个互联网文件免费共享服务.但海盗湾的四名被告从开始就否认被起诉的罪名.他们认为事实上海盗湾并没有储存任何侵权档案,网站本身也没有存储过任何违法侵权内容.该站只是一个搜索引擎,只提供内容索引,他们是无法控制其他人的所作所为的.被告律师说,他们对有罪裁定和处罚的严重程度感到震惊,并表示将会上诉.

那么,民众是如何认为的呢?此次判决引发了瑞典斯德哥尔摩当地一个名为海盗党的组织的抗议活动,抗议人群头戴头巾,高举海盗旗,走上街头来支持海盗湾.海盗党主席及创始人Rickard Falkvinge周六在斯德哥尔摩市中心的Medborgarplatsen广场发表演说,要求法庭改判海盗湾无罪.他表示,这一判决表明当局正在向一代人“宣战”,而瑞典的政客都是“数字文盲”.这不是一场刑事审讯而是政治审讯.把四个只是提供基本架构的人判刑是难以形容的呕心.他的演说获得围观民众的支持.除斯德哥尔摩以外,瑞典Goteborg,Karlstad和Lund等城市也发生抗议事件.

虽然目前还看不出这个判决对全球性的BT下载有何影响.由于BT协议与生俱来的开放性.所以哪怕最终“海盗湾”关门歇业,BT下载服务在网上依然将随处可得.

也许正如宣判前,Peter Sunde在 twitter上所说的:

Stay calm - Nothing will happen to TPB, us personally or file sharing what so ever. This is just a theater for the media.

偶并不支持盗版行为.但是偶支持知识分享.相信网络上有不少人也会这么认为的.现在的版权制度并不完善.妨碍了知识的传播.成为垄断者的利益来源.
这不禁让偶想起了很久以前,音乐P2P的发起者Napster.呵,多么相似.只要是触动了垄断者的利益领域,高调且令人追捧的话,那麻烦也就如影相随了.但即使这样,偶们始终坚持着,生存着.哈佛大学某位教授就曾指出目前版权问题形式就好比猫和老鼠的游戏."有时候老鼠会被猫抓住吃掉,但大部分老鼠都很幸运活着.”

PSP 3000 Finially Cracked!

近日wololo放出消息,称TIFF漏洞被证实已经可以在5.02及5.03版本中被执行.并且测试HW成功.简单地说,PSP3000离完全破解已经近在咫尺了.想当年1.5版的时候就是通过测试HW成功后涌现了许多自制软件.对破解PSP有兴趣的朋友可以下载破解文件通过下面的方法尝试.

1. 系统版本5.02或5.03,其他版本效果未知.
2. 在放置SLIM.TIFF的文件夹下放置几张照片,注意SLIM.TIFF要显示在最底下.
3. 系统语言为英语或德语,据说西班牙语也可以.
4. PSP菜单进入照片查看时,让其他图片的缩略图都显示出来(不要显示那个SLIM.TIFF的),并且不断的上下移动那些缩略图,注意不要移动太多而让SLIM.TIFF缩略图显示出来,没多久,就可以看到HW(不上下移动缩略图好像也可以…) 

注意:需要一个干净的启动,启动以后不要用浏览器和听MP3.