Crush Notifier Facebook app creates Love Connections between mutual crushers

The maker of the now-banned Breakup Notifier Facebook app has come up with something that should trigger a new ban. Instead of reporting when a "object of your affection's" relationship status changes, the new app, Crush Notifier, tells the object you're "crushing on them."

The new Facebook app, Crush Notifier, launched on Friday, Feb. 25. Breakup Notifier sent you an email if those you selected changed their relationship status, while Crush Notifier allows you to choose people that you are "crushing on" and sends them an anonymous notification email.

That email doesn't tell them who crushed on them, just that someone did. In order for the Love Connection to occur, the crushee has to crush the crusher back. Since the email is anonymous, it means there's no impetus for the crushee to get back to the crusher. Instead, it would have to be a truly mutual crush.

Crushes are purchased with Facebook Credits. Everyone gets two crushes for free.

The developer, Dan Loewenherz believes his predecessor Facebook app, Breakup Notifier, was automatically pulled because of its quick spike in usage: more than 3.6 million people signed up for it in the first three days.

Ironically, Loewenherz was about to start using Facebook credits to monetize Breakup Notifier when the hammer fell. So far, he's had no real response from Facebook, so he moved on to Crush Notifier.

Via: Crush Notifier Blog

RIM rep caught on video claiming PlayBook to run Android apps

Loose lips sink ships, they say, it appears that the loose lips of a RIM representative have confirm the rumors that have been going around of late. BlackBerry's QNX platform, which will run its PlayBook tablet and future smartphones, will run Android apps as well.

The video below is of a PlayBook demo from Mobile World Congress. There's a decent amount of background noise but if you listen carefully, you can here the person giving the demo say, "We'll also support Android apps" at the 14 second mark.

This isn't the equivalent of a press release, but it's been believed for some time that RIM would do this. This would give them access to an Android Market with six figures worth of apps, yet by doing it the way they have, BlackBerry maintains control over their own platform.

Recently, the Android app ShopSavvy noted via their flurry logs that some BlackBerry devices in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada (home base for RIM) were running their app, strengthening the case that this move would happen.

ePhoneTracker helps suspicious spouses check phone activity, and even listen in

If you have a Symbian, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, iOS, or Android smartphone, your phone even now could be infected with spyware. However, it might be spyware that your significant other or spouse intentionally installed on your phone.

The software is ePhoneTracker. Released last week,ePhoneTracker allows users to monitor everything one on an "infected" smartphone, including the following:

• Every text message sent and received, including the full text ... even if the phone's logs are deleted.
• All incoming and outgoing call numbers along with duration and time.
• GPS positions captured at an variable rate, including a link to a map.
• All contacts in the phone's Contacts list.
• All websites visited using the web browser.
• All inbound and outbound emails from the primary email account.

In addition, the software allows an end user to call the phone and listen to the surroundings.

However, ePhoneTracker has a huge list of legal caveats, and one has to wonder, reading them, if most users meet these requirements. They say:

Legal Terms and Policies

By purchasing ePhoneTracker you affirm and agree to all terms on this page.

It can be a federal and state offense to install surveillance software onto a phone which you do not have proper authorization in your region You are responsible for following all laws in your area.

We absolutely do not condone the use of our software for illegal purposes.

In order to purchase our software you MUST agree to the following conditions.

1. You acknowledge and agree that you own the mobile phone you will install the software onto OR that you have the expressed written consent of the owner to be an authorized administrator of the phone and its users.

2. If you install our software onto a phone which you do not own or have proper consent, we will cooperate with law officials to the fullest extent possible. This includes turning over requested customer data, and any other purchase/product related information.

3. You agree that you will check all local, state and federal laws to make sure you are complying with all laws in your region. It may be illegal in your region to monitor other individuals on your own device.

4. You agree to the conditions in our EULA (End-User License Agreement) below. This includes the fact that we are not liable for any type of damage, litigation, or legal predicaments that may arise due to use or abuse of ePhoneTracker or any other product.

The software costs $49.97 annually, and reportedly, it used to be called SpouseSpy. All the support documents found on the site seem to have the term in them.

How to watch the Oscars online, including official iPhone app

It's the age-old question, or at least it has become thus since the advent of the Internet. Where can I watch (event X) online? In this case, the question relates to the 2011 Academy Awards.

Naturally, you can watch the Academy Awards on ABC, starting at 5PM PST, but there are some who have cut the "cable" and use only Hulu, Netflix, and other streaming sites to get their TV viewing. Since none of those will have the Oscars, where can people go for online viewing.

Interestingly, this year Oscar.com is going to monetize the event. Although that site will have a lot of live cameras that are freely accessible to all, if you want the full experience, Oscar.com will, for $4.99, provide an "All-Access Pass" to you for additional viewing, including multiple "360 cams," that end users can control, and cameras along the red carpet, backstage, and at the Governors Ball afterwards.

You can also watch via iDevice, although the $0.99 Oscar Backstage Pass app does not offer the "360 cam" technology. It includes the rest of the All-Access Pass features, however.

Additional coverage will come via LiveStream and the Associated Press (AP). They will provide live streaming of the red carpet. MTV will provide live-streaming of the red carpet, as well, and so will PopSugar.

Watch and vote: online trailers for all 2011 Oscar Best Picture nominess

If you haven't watched all 10 of the Best Picture nominees for the 2011 Academy Awards, with the Awards only a few hours away (Oscars 2011 time, in terms of the ceremony itself, will be 8PM ET / 7PM CT / 5PM PT on ABC, hosted by James Franco and Anne Hathaway), you probably aren't going to make it, unless you have only one or two to watch.

On the other hand, you can see all of the trailers for the Best Picture nominees for the 2011 Academy Awards, embedded below. YouTube has aggregated the results for all of the various trailers across its site, and come up with a ranking based on views, here.

"Toy Story 3" has the greatest number of views, which makes sense considering it is family-friendly fare. However, "Black Swan" is the second highest viewed trailer, which is probably a surprise, although possibly attributable to Natalie Portman and its billing a "psycho-sexual thriller."

Obviously, it's a little tough to decide on a Best Picture simply via a trailer, but we'll do it anyway.  You can vote for the Best Picture nominee of your choice below, along with viewing all the trailers.

Army plans Terminator-style bipedal robot, cheetah-like combat robot faster than a human

Stories like this inevitably lead to the Terminator theme rolling our head. The U.S. Army is looking to build two new robots, which will supplement the BigDog robot developed to help soldiers carry equipment over rough terrain as a robotic mule. One will be a quadrupedal robot that will be faster than a human, dubbed the Cheetah. The second will be a humanoid-type robot dubbed Atlas.

Both are being developed by Boston Dynamics, which also developed the $18 million BigDog. Cheetah builds on top of BigDog. While equally four-legged, it will have a flexible spine, much like a real cheetah, and an articulated head. It will also have other similarities to a real cheetah, in that Boston Dynamics say it will be able to make tight turns, stop on a dime, and zigzag in either chase or evade modes.

Atlas, on the other hand, reminds us of nothing less than the aforementioned Terminator robots (except that it won't have a head). It looks very similar to a defleshed T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger model).

Atlas builds on a prior Boston Dynamics bipedal robot, Petman. Petman is used to test chemical weapons protection suits for the Army. It is capable of walking at 3 MPH and can keep its balance and stand, even if pushed.

Watch a few vidoes, one on BigDog, one on Petman, and one on an actual cheetah. Pay attention to how flexible a real cheetah's spine is; that is part of the reason it can run so quickly (up to 70MPH).

Via: Daily Mail

It's the consumables that make the money, so why no free Kindles?

We've said it before, and we'll say it again: the real money something like printers is in the consumables. For printers, it's paper and ink (or toner). For the Kindle, it's e-books.

Thus, the idea of a free Kindle isn't out of the question. In fact, if one extrapolates the Kindle price drops to now, it leads straight to a free Kindle by Nov. of 2011. The Technium notes:

In August, 2010 I had the chance to point it out to Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon. He merely smiled and said, "Oh, you noticed that!" And then smiled again.

At that point, they slip up and think that an idea posted in February of 2010 was actually posted this year. That said, it's an idea that makes sense: giving free Kindles to Amazon Prime members.

Amazon Prime members recently received access to Instant Streaming on Amazon's video-on-demand service. Right now, Prime members have access to 5,000 movies and TV shows, and that will undoubtedly increase over time.

So, since the consumables are where the money is, could Amazon.com give out free Kindles to Prime members, perhaps by November of 2011? Can you imagine the rush of people who would sign up for the $79 annual Prime subscription, which gives users free two-day shipping on most items, cheap upgrades to one-day shipping, free video streaming, AND a Kindle?

Not only that, it would give Amazon.com such a huge number of Kindle users, the iBook store might never catch up.   A good idea? Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos just needs to pull the trigger.

Illinois man sends $200,000 over 2 1/2 years to fake Internet 'girlfriend'

A long-distance Internet-only relationship turned out to be a long-distance Internet scam, the Chicago Sun-Times reported on Friday.

A 48-year-old Naperville, IL man called Naperville police earlier this week. He believed his online girlfriend had been kidnapped. Unfortunately, police informed him his online girlfriend didn't really exist.

Obviously there was someone at the other end of the Internet connection. He told police he started the relationship 2 1/2 years prior, and over that time he had wired about $200,000 to "her" in several different bank accounts in Nigeria, Malaysia, England and the United States. The Nigerian bank alone should have set off red flags.

It turns out that the ID card that the "woman" provided him (after all, it could have been a man, or even a group on the other end of the relationship) was a sample driver’s license from Florida. Police said that when an officer told the man the “woman” he was sending money to didn’t exist, he was "in disbelief.”

Via: Chicago Sun-Times

The Nintendo 3DS 3D-gaming system debuts to long lines in Japan

Typical of Nintendo, the latest Nintendo video game system, the Nintendo 3DS has launched in Japan before elsewhere. The glasses-free 3D gaming system, Nintendo's follow-up to its DS and DSi, went live in Japan on Saturday, Feb. 26.

>

The Nintendo 3DS costs 25,000 yen (about $300) in Japan. On March 25 it goes on sale in Europe for 250 euros, and then arrives in the U.S two days later, on March 27, for $250. Games are expected to sell for about $40 apiece.It's expected to be a wild success.

The company estimated it would sell 4 million Nintendo 3DS units in the first quarter, with 1.5 million coming in Japan. Hiroshi Kamide, an analyst with J.P. Morgan in Tokyo, said:

"It is the most comprehensive handheld gaming device from Nintendo to date, with high-quality graphics and online features. I believe the 3DS will be the first mass-market 3-D device."

A Japanese website is posting Tweets from those who managed to get their hands on the Nintendo 3DS. Quite a few of the messages indicate users getting tired eyes after using the game in 3D mode, some of them after relatively short game play times.

The Nintendo 3DS uses a 3.53-inch widescreen display with parallax barrier tech to create the 3D illusion. That said, the company has placed warning labels on the device, saying that children under six should not play 3D games on it.

Reports of eye issues did not deter Toyohisa Ishihara, a 43-year-old engineer. He stood in line for two hours to get his 3DS.

"The images seem to pop out. There is a sense of a world spreading beyond. I can't wait to play it."

Via: PC World, Bloomberg, NPR

Content farms begin to see results of Google's search algorithm tweaks

Earlier this week, Google made changes to its search algorithm which would downgrade the rankings of so-called content farms. Now that some time has elapsed, which Web domains took the biggest hits?

A content farm is defined (according to Wikipedia) "a company that employs large numbers of often freelance writers to generate large amounts of textual content which is specifically designed to satisfy algorithms for maximal retrieval by automated search engines." To simplify things, it's a company that employs folks who output content that uses SEO methodology to try to hit high on search engines. The obvious lure is advertising revenue.

The goal, from Google's perspective, is higher quality search results. It's not simply the fact that a content farm produces a lot of content tailored to search engines, it's that a lot of that content is of poor quality.

While Google obviously won't go into details on its changes, the company said:

"You can expect sites with shallow or poorly written content, content that's copied from other websites, or information that people frankly don't find that useful, will be demoted as a result of this change."

Google said the changes would affect about 12 percent of queries. Two of the prime examples given when "content farms" are referred to are Associated Content and Demand Media. Demand Media operates a number of sites, like eHow and Trails.com.

>Among a list of sites that have taken hits in their Google rankings compiled by SISTRIX, Associated Content was hit hard, as was Demand Media's Answerbag and Trails.com. The top ten losers were:

1. wisegeek.com
2. ezinearticles.com
3. suite101.com
4. hubpages.com
5. buzzle.com
6. associatedcontent.com
7. freedownloadscenter.com
8. essortment.com
9. fixya.com
10. americantowns.com

SearchEngineLand has started to collect data from different measurements of affected sites. It's clear, however, that the top affected sites are pretty consistent across the measurements. 

Here's what Larry Fitzgibbon, a Demand Media vice president, wrote in a blog post:

"As might be expected, a content library as diverse as ours saw some content go up and some go down in Google search results. It's impossible to speculate how these or any changes made by Google impact any online business in the long term -- but at this point in time, we haven't seen a material net impact on our Content & Media business."

Via: Quora, SISTRIX, SearchEngineLand

iPhone 5 part surfaces in China; points to upsized display

The iPhone 5 is about 3, 3 1/2 months away if the annual refresh cycle runs true to form, and rumors are beginning to ramp up, just as production will in a few months. The latest appears to have shown up on a Chinese site that resells iPhone parts, as of Feb. 24.

The purported part shows what looks to be the iPhone 5's digitizer panel. From the appearance of the part, it looks like Apple is reducing the size of the bezel in such a way that the screen would extend nearly to the edge of the iPhone 5. Assuming this is a real part, this could lend credence to earlier rumors that Apple was moving the iPhone 5 to a larger, 4-inch screen. However, there's no way of knowing if the part is real, or what the actual screen size would be.

The iPhone 4 comes with a 3.5-inch screen, which has become somewhat undersized in comparison to the 3.7-, 4.0-, 4.3- and even 4.5-inch screens of current Android phones. Of course, most people are perfectly OK with the current-sized iPhone displays.

That said, the trend is for larger screen sizes, as they make it easier for a larger audience to read. Apple would, of course, want to maintain the iPhone's "retina display" resolution, and thus would have to increase the number of pixels on the new iPhone.

Via: 9 to 5 Mac

Mobile apps can help you find cheaper gasoline

With the unrest in the Middle East, as well as with a burgeoning economy, gasoline prices have spiked. In your question for cheap gas, don't forget something you might have with you all the time: your smartphone.

There are a number of apps on both iPhone and Android that can help lead consumers to cheap, or rather, cheaper gas. Most of them use location-based services to determine the nearest stations to a user.

The caveat is, of course, that if prices change rapidly, the app may have incorrect information, but it will at the very least give you a sense of comparative pricing between gasoline stations. Here is a list of a few of them. 

Both Android and iPhone:

Where. Where is an application that helps users discover "nearby places." That includes gas stations, and when looking at gas stations, Where will list the price of regular at that station. The app also supports BlackBerry OS, Palm webOS, and Windows Phone, as well. Where is free.Android, iPhone

GasBuddy. GasBuddy has its own site, as well as a mobile app. GasBuddy supports Windows Phone, as well. Interestingly, Where uses (or at least used to use) data from GasBuddy.com. Android, iPhone

Poynt. Ponyt is pretty much like Where. It is free. Android, iPhone. 

iPhone Only:

iGasUp. This one costs you $0.99 in the app store, and focuses on gasoline only. One thing to remember is this is a subscription-based app, so you will have to renew it (and pay for it) every year. Nicely, iGasUp uses OPIS data, which is compiled automatically from actual credit card transactions, so it is very accurate.

GasBag. Free in the App Store, there is also a Pro version that costs $1.99. The Pro version offers faster load times and no ads.

Naturally, this doesn't help those who are smartphone-less. Of course, if you can browse the web at all on your cell phone, you can use GasBuddy's website, instead. Take a look at these apps and see what you think. Odds are gasoline prices aren't headed down, at least for a while.

Xoom teardown shows few surprises; easy access to internals

iFixit has torn down the Motorola Xoom. The Xoom, launched on Feb. 24, it said to be the first real iPad rival with a 10.1-inch screen and Honeycomb, also a first --- the first tablet-optimized version of Android.

As we already knew, the Motorola Xoom sports NVIDIA's Tegra 2 dual-core system-on-a-chip (SOC). It has an Atmel touchscreen controller capable of receiving 15 inputs at once, and a Qualcomm MDM6600 chip which is the same as in the Verizon iPhone 4. That means that, sans a modification, on GSM carriers, the Xoom would be capable of 14.4Mbps HSPA+ speeds.

Although iFixit found the Xoom very easy to tear down and take apart, meaning repairs would be easy, they also commented that some of the ease was likely to be related to the upcoming (free) LTE 4G upgrade for the device. The device has a unique two-piece rear case design that makes accessing the internals of the device easier.

However, the device has some 57 screws. At least they are using Torx screws and not the pentalobular screws Apple uses to keep folks out of its iDevices.

On the front side of the motherboard, iFixit found:

• Broadcom BCM4329 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, and FM Tuner. There's also a Broadcom BCM4750 Single-Chip AGPS (located nearest the top right corner).
• Hynix H8BCSOQG0MMR 2-chip memory MCP
• AKM 8975 Electronic Compass
• Qualcomm MDM6600 supporting HSPA+ speeds of up to 14.4 Mbps
• Nvidia Tegra T2 dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 CPU and ultra-low power GeForce GPU.
• Texas Instruments 54331 Step Down SWIFT DC/DC Converter with Eco-Mode
• Samsung K4P4G154EC DRAM

On the rear of the motherboard, iFixit found:

• Qualcomm PM8028 RF Power Management IC
• Atmel TINY45 8-bit RISC-based Microcontroller with 4KB in-system programmable flash
• Toshiba THGBM2G8D8FBA1B NAND Flash
• ST Ericsson CPCAP 2.2TC22 DC Power Management
• According to Chipworks, the CPCAP 2.2TC22 is a single chip SoC that integrates analog and mixed signal functions, including power management, energy management, audio, and interfaces.
• Check out the die photo of the CPCAP 2.2TC22, courtesy of Chipworks.

It will be interesting to see how iSuppli's teardown matches up in terms of cost of the Xoom. It will also be interesting to compare the Xoom with the iPad 2, once that is launched and torn down.

Via: iFixit

Dev roots Motorola Xoom in less than 2 hours

Honeycomb (Android 3.0) didn't get in the way of a quick root of the Motorola Xoom. It's actually not a surprise, as lately XDA Developers and others have been getting their "root on" very quickly.

In fact, just a few days ago, the Motorola Atrix 4G was rootedbefore it even hit the stores.

The Motorola Xoom was rooted in two hours, apparently. Om fact, it probably took less time than that, as the personinvolved in the root had to go pick one up and announced the root two hours later.

This means Xoom owners can taste the pleasure of root-only apps such as Titanium Backup. It also opens the door for custom ROMs, as it was already announced that the Xoom has an unlockable / relockable bootloader.

Meanwhile, those concerned about the fate of the person who picked up the Motorola Xoom in the earlier "Verizon Motorola XOOM Vendetta Preview" can rest easy. The second part of the "ad" has been released, and he's fine. Watch both parts below (although the second part is in Spanish, only, for now).

Should CBS permanently cancel 'Two and a Half Men' after Charlie Sheen's rant (listen)?

The Charlie Sheen rant that resulted in a "Two and a Half Men" cancellation, at least for the rest of the 2010 - 2011 season, has hit the Web. At the same time, some people are saying that the show should be cancelled --- permanently.

Charlie Sheen ranted about several topics on Thursday's Alex Jones radio show. It's perhaps fortunate for Sheen that we only heard him, and didn't see him. His verbal antics were strange enough.

One of the parts of the "interview," such as it was, that probably earned Sheen the denial of his checks for the remainder of the year was his comments on the Vanity Card that producer Chuck Lorre ran after the Feb. 14 episode of Men, saying he will be pissed if Sheen outlives him. Lorre said:

I exercise regularly. I eat moderate amounts of healthy food. I make sure to get plenty of rest. I see my doctor once a year and my dentist twice a year. I floss every night. I’ve had chest x–rays, cardio stress tests, EKG’s and colonoscopies. I see a psychologist and have a variety of hobbies to reduce stress. I don’t drink. I don’t smoke. I don’t do drugs. I don’t have crazy, reckless sex with strangers.

If Charlie Sheen outlives me, I’m gonna be really pissed.

On Alex Jones' show, Charlie Sheen ranted the following:

“I didn’t care about that vanity card, I went straight home and dispelled that, that was actually one of the few compliments that clown has paid me in frickin’ almost a decade. I embarrassed him in front of his children and the world by healing at a pace that this un-evolved mind cannot process. I’ve spent, I think, close to the last decade, I don’t know, effortlessly and magically converting your tin can into pure gold. And the gratitude I get is this charlatan chose not to do his job, which is to write."

It was later in the day the that same "clown," Chuck Lorre, announced the suspension of the "Two and a Half Men" series for the rest of the season.

Charlie Sheen also went off on Alcoholics Anonymous. He said,

"I have a disease?.“Bulls—. I cured it… with my mind… it’s all good guys. Quit panicking. No panic, no judgment… You can kill me but you do not have the right to judge me… I can’t use the word sober because that’s a term from those people, and I have cleansed myself. I have closed my eyes and in a nanosecond I cured myself from this ridiculous… It’s just the work of sissies. The only thing I’m addicted to right now is winning. You know? This bootleg cult arrogantly referred to as AA now supports a 5 percent success rate. My success rate is 100 percent. Do the math!"

The "interview" with Charlie Sheen was far-reaching and rambling. That wasn't the end of it, either. After the "Two and a Half Men" was cancelled for the rest of the season, Charlie Sheen continued to rant, this time in open letter form. Hesaid

What does this say about Haim Levine [Chuck Lorre] after he tried to use his words to judge and attempt to degrade me. I gracefully ignored this folly for 177 shows ... I fire back once and this contaminated little maggot can't handle my power and can't handle the truth. I wish him nothing but pain in his silly travels especially if they wind up in my octagon. Clearly I have defeated this earthworm with my words -- imagine what I would have done with my fire breathing fists. I urge all my beautiful and loyal fans who embraced this show for almost a decade to walk with me side-by-side as we march up the steps of justice to right this unconscionable wrong.

Remember these are my people ... not yours...we will continue on together...

Charlie Sheen

If the "Two and a Half Men" show wasn't raking in big bucks for CBS, it would have been permanently cancelled long ago. What do you think? Should it be cancelled? You can vote below, and listen to the Charlie Sheen rant, too.

2011 MacBook Pros launch with Intel's Thunderbolt (Light Peak) and Sandy Bridge

Apple updated its MacBook Pro line on Thursday, Feb. 24, as expected, with (also as expected) Intel's new Sandy Bridge processors and Intel's new Light Peak (dubbed Thunderbolt by Apple) I/O technology. Those were the major updates expected to arrive on Apple's MacBook Pro line.

In addition, NVIDIA's graphics are out of the picture, so to speak, with the new MBPs having switchable intergrated graphics combined with a discrete AMD GPU (except for the 13-inch model; it has only integrated graphics). As expected there are five new models, 2 13-inch models, 2 15-inch models, and a 17-inch model.

Apple includes Facetime on the new MBPs. At the same time, the program has exited beta in the Mac App Store and is now $0.99 there.  The new MacBook Pros feature FaceTime HD cameras.

The new Light Peak (Thunderbolt) Intel technology promises up to 100Gbps transfer rates (in the future) with 10Gbps for now, twice that of USB 3.0. The port shares duties as a mini DisplayPort interface, as well. Aside from that, and the SD card slot now supporting SDXC, connectivity options are unchanged.

Base RAM levels remain the same, but Apple has upgraded them to using 1333MHz chips instead of the 1066MHz chips from the last generation. Base pricing also remains the same, for the 13-inch and 15-inch models at least, at $1,199 and $1,799 respectively. The 17-inch model's base price returns to the $2,499 level of 2009, up $200 from 2010.

You can read Apple's full press release below.

Google's Cloud Connect MS Office file syncing service goes live for all

Google's Cloud Connect, which allows users to sync and share their Microsoft Office 2003, 2007, and 2010 files to the cloud, has gone live for all. Specifically, it works with Excel, Word and PowerPoint files, and syncs the files to Google Docs.

>Google calls Cloud Connect a way of improving Microsoft Office. Using a simple plug-in (Windows only), it adds cloud sync, simultaneous collaboration, revision history, unique URLs and simple sharing to the the aforementioned Microsoft apps.

Once the Cloud Connect plug-in is installed, users see a new ribbon near the top of the Office UI, which indicates the Google Docs link for the document you’re currently working on. It will also tell you when the document has been synced with Google’s servers.

Documents can be edited in either Google Docs or Microsoft Office. Obviously, collaboratos don't need Microsoft Office to edit the cloud-based versions of the files.

Cloud Connect came from technology acquired via Google's acquisition of DocVerse in March of 2010. Earlier, Cloud Connect was in beta and available for Google Apps for Business customers who signed up for a preview program.

Microsoft responded to news of the public release of the software with a statement. The company said,

"We're not sure Google's heart is in the productivity business. Their revenue and market share have been miniscule after four years of trying, and services like Cloud Connect appear to be more targeted at getting your data onto their servers, than helping you get things done."

Via: GoogleWatch a Cloud Connect video below.

Xoom 4G LTE upgrade in 90 days; Verizon confirms no service plan changes when updated

Verizon's Motorola Xoom LTE upgrade information page has just gone live (as of just a few minutes ago, in fact, on Feb. 24, its launch day). It has some interesting information about the upgrade process for the currently wi-fi and 3G only device, including the fact that once upgraded, your data plan will not change.

There was concern that the change to 4G would mean that users would see a similar upgrade to the pricing on their data plan. Verizon's website says:

you will not have to change your plan when the 4G LTE upgrade is complete.

The bad news, however, is that end users will be without their Xooms for about six business days. The upgrade will be free, and shipping will be free.

Although Verizon didn't detail the date of the upgrade on their public website, Droid-Life has a leaked internal document which states that the timing should be 90 days after launch. That "should" be in late May, therefore.

The Motorola Xoom, the world's first Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) tablet, went on sale on Feb. 24. Honeycomb is the first tablet-optimized version of Android. Verizon is selling the device for $800 with no contract and $600 on a two-year contract.

Verizon has been criticized for requiring users to buy at least one month of data. However, Verizon reached out to us to tell us that the requirement is no longer that. Still, when attempting to "buy" a Xoom we still see it.

On the other hand, why would anyone buy this device and not attach 3G to it? After all, a $600 wi-fi only version is coming, according to Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha.

In addition, people have criticized the device for its price, basing it on comparisons with the lowest-cost iPad. In addition to the fact that the Xoom far outclasses the (admitted, first-gen) iPad, the correct comparison would be against the $729 3G iPad, not the $499 wi-fi only model.

It is a decided negative that the Xoom has very few tablet-optimized apps for it, at launch. That's a result of Google only releasing the Honeycomb SDK to all just this week, and will likely be remedied as quickly as developers can code.

Ready for Launch

The space shuttle Discovery is seen shortly after the Rotating Service Structure was rolled back at launch pad 39A, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2011. Discovery, on its 39th and final flight, will carry the Italian-built Permanent Multipurpose Module, Express Logistics Carrier 4 and Robonaut 2, the first humanoid robot in space, to the International Space Station.

Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

This snippet was sponsored by Police Technology.

It's official: sex.com domain name sale certified as world record by Guinness

It's now been certified: the sale of the domain name sex.com last year was a record. So says the Guinness Book of World Records, according to a report by the TechRadar issued on Wednesday, Feb. 22.


Clover Holdings, based on the Caribbean island of St. Vincent, bought the sex.com domain name from bankrupt Escom LLC. Escom, in turn, previously bought sex.com in 2006 for between $11.5 and 14 million (depending on thereport). Escom declared bankruptcy in early 2010.

Although Clover purchased the domain name, it hasn't really done anything with it. A quick trip over to sex.com shows a domain name parking page, with links to other sex-related sites and the tagline "Just what you're looking for."

Germany-based domain name marketplace Sedo.com negotiated the deal between Escom and Clover Holdings. Sedo.com was quite proud of the announcement, saying,

"The sale of Sex.com was truly a team effort. We spent about two years with the domain, establishing the relationships, researching and finding the right buyer and managing the domain's transfer. We're honoured that Sedo was trusted with such a high-value and high-profile sale, and we're ecstatic that it is now being recognized by Guinness World Records as a record-breaking deal."

Sedo probably saw the announcement by Guinness as a nice birthday present. Sedo turned 10 on Feb. 12.