App Camp For Girls is a non-profit organization with the goal of raising interest and awareness for software development to girls and women. The organization is currently based in Portland, but co-founder Jean MacDonald hopes that with this  funding round they will be able to 1/ prove that the concept works 2/ expand outside of Portland.

As a former developer, I’ve worked with a small number of talented female engineers but to put it mildly, software development isn’t always a career option that comes to mind for many girls and women. This happens for many reasons, including the fact that this is not an activity that has been traditionally associated with women (not so long ago, it was unthinkable that a “doctor” could be female, and not so long ago some European architecture or engineering schools simply forbid women from applying…). It’s also not hard to imagine how one could feel that she or he “does not belong” when the gender ratio is extreme.
Read full post →App Camp For Girls Exceeds Funding Goal, With Time Left To Gather More Support

For a couple of months now we have been covering rumors related to Nokia’s alleged 41 megapixel EOS smartphone. The company’s Conversations blog has now all but confirmed that this device is indeed going to be unveiled at the event on July 11th. This Windows Phone 8 powered smartphone, which will reportedly ship with GDR2 update pre-installed, touts a mammoth 41 megapixel camera that’s reportedly backed by optical image stabilization, a LED focus light and a Xenon flash.

A subtle reference was made to this camera on the Nokia Conversations blog, which said that there are “41 million reasons” to zoom in to this blog on July 11th. Its going to be pretty hard now to deny that this smartphone is not coming, though the EOS moniker hasn’t exactly been confirmed. Nokia could end up calling it something else. It would be interesting to see if its just one device or an entire range of devices. Production line shots of an alleged aluminium based EOS were recently leaked, which many believe are actually of the EOS phabets. We’ve seen polycarbonate shells as well, which are believed to belong to EOS smartphone. All this will be cleared up on July 11th. Who’s excited?

We reported yesterday that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was in South Korea meeting with Samsung, they were discussing potential partnerships between the companies. One such partnership, we speculated, could be related to a HTC First like Samsung ‘Facebook Phone.’ The Korea Herald reports that Mark did float the idea at this meeting, but it was apparently rejected by Samsung.

Facebook partnered with HTC to create the First, a smartphone that ships with Facebook Home pre-installed. It has been branded as a flop, being available for $0.99 from AT&T at one time, while its UK launch has been postponed indefinitely. Facebook Home too is said to be losing popularity. Samsung seems like the perfect partner for next generation ‘Facebook Phone’ but apparently the company isn’t excited about the idea. The company doesn’t reportedly want to make any more rivals in the mobile arena, so that’s why it shot down the idea. The report claims that Facebook has “every intention of becoming the second Google” and that based on this aim they want Samsung as a partner. Samsung reportedly does not see any symbolic or monetary significance in such a partnership.

This basic privacy question popped up in almost everyone’s mind when Google first unveiled Glass, its much hyped wearable gadget, how exactly will our privacy be affected considering that a Glass user can easily snap or record anyone without even hinting at it. Privacy officials from six countries have written to Google, requesting privacy information related to Glass. Privacy commissioners from Canada, Israel, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand and Mexico have asked Google exactly what it will do with the data collected by Glass.

Capturing or taping someone without their consent is one of the primary concerns related to Glass, even though the device hasn’t actually been released, it has already been banned in a bar. Other similar establishments are likely to ban it as well once it publicly releases. However Google says that this product is still in its early development stages, and that they’re thinking “very carefully” about how they design Glass. Even though Google Glass looks mighty cool, there are some serious privacy implications. It will be interesting to see how Google puts everyone’s mind at ease, particularly those of the privacy officials. One thing is certain though, we can’t expect it to remove the camera.

At the ongoing G8 Summit in Ireland, both U.S. and Russia have agreed to install a “cyber-hotline” which will be used to prevent an accidental cyber-war between these two global superpowers. A joint statement issued by President Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin said both countries recognize that threats “to or in the use of ICT *information and computer technologies) include political, military and criminal threats as well as threats of a terrorist nature.” It is in response to those threats that both countries are working together to “increase transparency and reduce the possibility that a misunderstood cyber incident could create instability or a crisis” in the bilateral relationship, this according to a White House spokesperson.

The White House has said that there will be a “direct secure voice communications line” connecting US cybersecurity coordinator and Russian deputy secretary of the security council, should need arise of diffusing a crisis situation that is related to ICT security, as long as threats originate from either country. This reminds me of the “hotline” that U.S. and Kremlin had back in the days of the Cold War to prevent a nuclear war.

At the Reuters Global Technology Summit, NVIDIA’s CEO Jen-Hsun Huang as confirmed that his company wants to license its graphics technology (IP) to other mobile chip vendors, thus opening a new business for NVIDIA. This is an idea that we first heard about during the GTC conference in March 2013. Although it has occasionally sold its IP for others to build chips (like the RSX graphics chip for Sony’s PlayStation 3), NVIDIA’s current business model is to sell “chips” rather than IP.

This is a model that has served NVIDIA very well in the past decade. Since PC components are standardized and mostly interchangeable, the company could focus on “performance” or other metrics important to its customers, and when the benchmarks warranted a victory, NVIDIA would get the contract. Little by little, the PC graphics industry went from more than 50 companies down to essentially three on PC and 5-6 if you include mobile graphics companies. During that time, NVIDIA terminated the PC business of companies like Imagination Technologies which has then successfully re-invented itself as a mobile graphics IP provider by scoring contracts with most mobile chip makers.
Read full post →Licencing NVIDIA Tegra Technology: Good Decision

I am not quite sure about you, but I have quit using the Internet Explorer browser for more than a decade already, first moving on to Firefox before Google’s Chrome came along. As for the remnant (and a rather large one at that) Internet Explorer users, you might be pleased to hear that the extremely popular ad-blocking browser add-on known as AdBlock Plus is now available on Internet Explorer, and this is made possible thanks to a preview version that has been published by the AdBlock team.

The software is not polished just yet, as it comes with a tiny amount of features or settings, but at the very least it is capable of removing those pesky ads from around the web. Expect AdBlock Plus to play nice on Internet Explorer 8 and above, but do take into consideration that after installation, it will be disabled by default, so you will need to do some minor tinkering before it works smoothly without any hiccups.

There has been plenty of buzz surrounding the Sony Xperia Z Ultra in the past few weeks, where the most recent bit of this upcoming smartphone touched on a rather massive 6.44” display (relatively speaking, of course) being leaked online. This is certainly a phablet that would be challenging to use with just a single hand for sure! We now bring you alleged screenshots of the Sony Xperia Z Ultra, also known as Togari if you prefer to address upcoming devices by their codename. The screenshots are said to hail from a prototype device, where the display has been listed at 6.21” with 1080p resolution, so how does that jive with the previously mentioned 6.44” size?

Well, chances are this can be explained in such a manner – the display size would most likely be just for the screen real estate sans the navigation bar, so the chances of the final product rolling out with a 6.44” display is as real as Usain Bolt’s 100 meter dash world record remaining for the next couple of years at the very least.

I guess it is not enough to roll out just any other ordinary smartphone in this day and age, as those are dime a dozen. What if you were to take another step forward by introducing a rugged smartphone that is also easy on the eyes? That is what NEC had in mind, when they designed the NEC Terrain while making it available via AT&T. This smartphone will be able to deliver dedicated enhanced Push To Talk as well as a QWERTY keyboard for business-minded folk who still have a soft spot for physical keyboards when it comes to their smartphones.

The NEC Terrain would retail for $99.99 a pop, where it is accompanied by a 2-year agreement. You can also use NEC Terrain over Wi-Fi, allowing U.S.-based customers to enjoy improved in-building coverage and access to the service courtesy of compatible Wi-Fi networks. Since this is a rugged smartphone, expect features such as water- and dust-proof design, a scratch-resistant Corning Gorilla Glass screen and sturdy core construct which exceeds military specifications (MIL-810G) for shock distribution. Not only that, you can enjoy speedy 4G LTE connectivity to boot, while a 5-megapixel rear shooter and a VGA front-facing camera alongside 8GB of internal memory that can be expanded by a microSD memory card slot rounds off the list of features. The leaked image that you see above is courtesy of the folks over at @evleaks. [Press Release]

AT&T officially announced the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active over a week ago. This variant of the Korean manufacturer’s latest flagship is water and dustproof. AT&T said that the device will be launched on June 21st for $199.99 coupled with a two year contract. Pre-orders begun on June 14th. It appears that AT&T has already started shipping the device, two days before the scheduled launch. AT&T’s web page for Galaxy S4 now reads “Your Samsung Galaxy S 4 Active will be shipped on June 19, 2013.”

Now there’s no guarantee that everyone will be receiving their devices today. For example if you made your pre-order yesterday, the device might not arrive today. If pre-order was made on June 14th, perhaps your unit might be shipped today. There’s really no yardstick here to judge this, its mere speculation. The device itself doesn’t feature any major changes as opposed to the conventional Galaxy S4. It ships with Android 4.2.2 pre-installed, has a 5 inch full HD 1080p display, 1.9GHz Snapdragon 800 processor with 2GB RAM. Just yesterday AT&T announced that it will also launch Galaxy Note 8.0 on June 21st as well.