Here's What We Want Apple To Unveil At Their Big Conference In Two Weeks

Apple hosts its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) June 10-14. The tech juggernaut isn't expected to unveil any new devices at the event, which will instead focus on the software side of things, especially the iOS mobile operating system that runs on iPhones and iPads.

"As such, other than some refreshes for the Mac line, expectations for earnings-moving product releases appear to be appropriately muted heading into this event," writes a Goldman Sachs team of equity analysts led by Bill Shope. "Nevertheless, we continue to believe that WWDC could be a positive catalyst for the story, as the reveal of iOS 7 and enhancements to iOS services could begin to change the broad perception that Apple’s ability to innovate has been impaired."

Here is what Goldman wants to see from Apple:

User interface overhaul could greatly change the look and feel of iOS 7...

First, Apple’s preview of iOS 7 will demonstrate how its software design philosophy is changing under the leadership of Jonathan Ive and Craig Federighi. As has been widely reported by the press, the new iOS design is expected have a flatter appearance than prior versions, as Ive moves the company away from skeuomorphic design principles (digital interfaces that imitate the appearance of their non-digital counterparts). These changes are unlikely to dramatically alter the way users interact with their iPhones and iPads, but could greatly change the look and feel of iOS devices; indeed, as the front faces of most mobile devices are increasingly dominated by touch screens, the software UI (user interface) is likely to become paramount for aesthetic differentiation.
... but we also want to see more substantial updates and enhancements to iOS services.

A UI overhaul alone is unlikely to be enough to excite investors in our view, so we would hope to see some critical updates and enhancements for iOS services and the broader ecosystem. In particular, we believe iCloud and Siri are in need of an overhaul as competitors seem to be surpassing what were once novel enhancements to the iOS platform. In particular, we would hope to see that Apple has made it easier for third-party developers to leverage iCloud syncing, and believe it would be helpful to understand how many consumers are using iCloud’s paid services as opposed to just an update on the raw number of registered users. As for Siri, we had once assumed this would be a key enhancement for the platform and a powerful competitive advantage for Apple, but persistent technical glitches and limited integration with third-party services seem to be detracting from this feature’s promise. We believe updates to third-party support for Siri and performance improvements would be positive catalysts at the event.
We’re also hoping for some game-changing innovations in iOS services.

Although it’s always difficult to predict new iOS services, we hope to see some game-changing innovations on this front as well. In particular, while the introduction of a streaming music service (“iRadio”) appears to be facing some delays as Apple negotiates with key content providers, we are still optimistic that the company can strike a deal with the major music publishers and launch this service at WWDC. This would help Apple to regain a key source of its platform value that has shifted to third-party music sites, and it could greatly enhance iOS customer loyalty as well. There has also been some speculation that Apple is moving towards offering an iOS-centric payments service, and we could begin to see some hints of this at WWDC. While we suspect this is still an early-stage project for Apple, enhancements to the company’s Passbook service could provide some color on Apple’s intentions here. In addition, we believe the potential addition of a fingerprint sensor for the next version of the iPhone could be specifically targeted at supporting payment services on the new device.
The Goldman analysts have a "Buy" rating and a 12-month price target of $500 for Apple shares (which closed Friday at $449.73).
"Overall, we continue to believe Apple needs to launch a series of successful new iOS products this fall for the stock to fully begin its recovery," says Shope and his team, "but in the meantime, the software and services enhancements at WWDC should serve as positive catalysts and important indicators of Apple’s longer-term technology focus and direction."

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Samsung Galaxy S4 Vs LG Optimus G Pro

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Samsung Gave Away A Galaxy S4 To Anyone Who Could Stare At It For 60 Minutes

Samsung and wireless provider Swisscom created this charming "stare down" contest in the railroad station at Zurich. To promote the Galaxy S4's eye-tracking feature — you can scroll on the phone without touching it — the company installed a booth on a busy platform and offered any passenger a free Galaxy S4 if they could stare at it for a full hour without the phone detecting they'd looked away.
Sounds simple enough ... until the challenge begins. At which point Samsung's stooges begin distracting the contenders with hot dog carts, barking German shepherds, and a stunt motorcyclist. One guy does, eventually, make it through the hour:

It's not clear which ad agency created the spot, but it bears all the hallmarks of a Duval Guillaume Modem stunt (contact us if you know who the agency is).

Tech Execs That Smart People Are Following On Twitter

Other tech execs see Twitter only as a place to talk about how great their companies and products are.Yet there are some enterprise tech execs out there who've carved out names for themselves on Twitter with brainy, opinionated, funny and provocative tweets. These are folks who grasp the conversational aspects of Twitter. And they know how to package their tweets in entertaining ways. And they know how to keep people coming back for more.

There are lots of enterprise tech execs on Twitter. Not all of them are interesting to follow, though. Some tech execs are clearly working at companies with strict social media policies. They're not allowed to really let loose. (And frankly, who could blame them?)

What Steve Jobs And Bill Gates Really Thought About Each Other

Earlier this month, Bill Gates got emotional talking about Steve Jobs.
"He and I, in a sense, grew up together," Gates said. "We were within a year of the same age, and we were kind of naively optimistic and built big companies. And every fantasy we had about creating products and learning new things — we achieved all of it. And most of it as rivals. But we always retained a certain respect and communication, including even when he was sick." There's no relationship in history like that of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates.

As partners and rivals, they built the personal computing industry with two totally different styles. Jobs was a working-class kid from California who believed in tight control over all products, and put a premium on design. Bill Gates was an upper class kid from Washington who believed in open products, and didn't worry too much about great design. "Each one thought he was smarter than the other one, but Steve generally treated Bill as someone who was slightly inferior, especially in matters of taste and style," said early Macintosh employee Andy Hertzfield in Walter Isaacson's Steve Jobs bio. He added, "Bill looked down on Steve because he couldn’t actually program."
Gates quote inspired us to take a look back at some of the best quotes from Gates and Jobs about each other in Isaacson's book to get a deeper sense of what the men really thought of each other.
Click here to see what Bill Gates and Steve Jobs REALLY thought of each →

Jeff Gundlach Now Owns The Stock

Bond god Jeffrey Gundlach, who runs DoubleLine Capital, told TheStreet.com's Chris Ciaccia that he now owns Apple in his portfolio. Gundlach famously shorted Apple's stock last year and called it going to $425 a share on CNBC when it was trading around the $560 level in November.

From TheStreet:
"We bought it at $405 the first time, and I think our average cost is below $425. I said Apple would go below $425. I wasn't committed to buying it, but I think Apple is an interesting play," Gundlach said during the interview. Gundlach told TheStreet that the tech giant's stock is "sorta cheap" and that he "sorta" likes Apple.

Is This Apple's First Official Image Of The New iWatch?

Apple may have inadvertently (or deliberately, or not at all) given the world a clue to what the long-awaited iWatch might look like, according to 9to5Mac. At the 30-second mark in a new commercial for the iPhone, called "Music Every Day," a boy can be seen drumming on a table with his hands ... while wearing a chunky black watch with a simple, circle-in-a-square face. Does this mean the iWatch will use iTunes? Is this a design of which Apple approves?
Who knows. Here are some screengrabs of the mysterious watch. 

 

The Social Media Advertising Ecosystem Explained

The media constellation has become increasingly fractured. The Web produced the initial fissure, but mobile created new cracks in the landscape. Today, no single medium earns more than 45% of our media consumption. How can you solve this problem? Social media offers a solution. Social networks like Facebook and Twitter are daily destinations for millions of consumers. Increasingly, their ad products offer targeting according to specific demographics, social connections, interests, and habits.
In a new report from BI Intelligence, "we analyze the state of social media advertising and where it is heading, offering a comprehensive guide and examination of the advertising ecosystems on Facebook and Twitter, offer a primer on Tumblr as an emerging ad medium, and detail how mobile is an important part of this story as mobile-friendly as native ad formats fuel growth in the market."

Access The Full Report And Data By Signing Up For A Free Trial Today >>
Here's an overview of some major players in the mobile advertising ecosystem:
The lure of social media advertising is massive: As brands look across a fractured media landscape, social networks offer them an interesting proposition. Social networks have scale - enormous user bases and deep databases. They have high engagement - Americans were spending an average of 12 hours per month on social networks as of July 2012, with 18-24 year olds averaging 20 hours. And potentially, social media gives brands offer a uniquely captive audience for their content.
Guaranteed placement is getting advertisers to pay up: Brands are paying to get their content or copy in front of a quantifiable audience, an increasingly rare feat in an era of scattered consumer attention. This desire for guaranteed attention also helps to explain social media's move away from traditional display ads — like Facebook's right-rail ads — and toward so-called native ads that surface in a user's stream, either as a tweet or a Facebook post. A consensus seems to be forming around in-stream advertising as the most promising social advertising format.
Social media advertising is set to explode: Social media advertising is a young market and so far, it only represents 1% to 10% of ad budgets for a wide majority of advertisers. There's significant opportunity for that share to grow. BIA/Kelsey recently came out with a study that offers one view - forecasting $11 billion of social ad spend in 2017, up from $4.7 billion last year. That estimate is large - but still seems pessimistic, because...
Increased mobile usage will be a huge growth driver: The BIA/Kelsey prediction calls for mobile to account for only $2.2 billion of that in 2017 - a 20% market share. This could easily be surpassed. Both Twitter and Facebook have passed the 50% mobile usage mark and, given the continued growth of mobile devices, it will only rise. Mobile accounted for 11% of Facebook's ad revenue last year even though it didn't release mobile ads until the tail end of the second quarter. By the fourth quarter, it was up to 23%. And now, Twitter is reporting that its mobile ad revenue now regularly outpaces its desktop ad revenue. Social media advertising is therefore uniquely positioned to grab an increasing share of the fast growing mobile advertising market.
The report is full of charts and data that can be easily downloaded and put to use.
In full, the report includes:
The State Of Social Media Advertising And Where It's Headed
A Guide To The Facebook Advertising Ecosystem
A Guide To The Twitter Advertising Ecosystem
A Primer On Tumblr's New Ad Products

FUTURE OF SMARTPHONES; The Flexible OLED Screen

QUANTUM COMPUTING BY NASA WHICH MAY LEAD TO 3D FOOD PRINTING.

Once described as the hydrogen bomb of cyber wars, quantum computing is the most complex thing that i have ever come across. Even Neils Bohr, the once re-known nuclear physicists, admitted that "Anybody who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it."
Quantum computers process data in 'quibit' thus are more faster and efficient that normal computers. This is mostly necessary when dealing with data security and encryption.
Well, Samsung already sold more than 10 million devices and think $60 is too much for a video game? Then you probably can’t afford the ‘BAC Mono Edition’ of Codemasters' upcoming racer, Grid 2. Lucky for you the shipment is free. My homeland Kenya did it again, we recently unveiled our first computer tablet produced by Noris Technologies. And finally NASA has invested more money into building of a quantum computer. To confuse me even further they decided they can even Print food in 3D. this comes after Systems and Material Research Corporation (SMRC) in Austin Texas have been given a grant of $125,000 to develop 3D printed food for astronauts.
You could ask why, what’s wrong with dehydrated mac and cheese? Well there are numerous challenges to feeding and hydrating the residents of somewhere like the International Space Station. For one, there is limited space. There are also no refrigeration facilities. Currently shuttles are stocked with enough food to last the full length of the mission, plus extra should they encounter any emergencies. This is fine for short missions but it becomes more of an issue when the shuttle will be in orbit long term.The challenge for SMRC is to produce a prototype that can “synthesise” healthy and tasty food that will beat the dehydrated meals currently eaten by the astronauts. The plan is to use a combination of 3d printing, which will provide macronutrients (carbohydrates, protein and fat needed for calories or energy) and inkjet printing, which will provide the flavour, smell and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals).
In order to make sure the food actually tastes and smells of what it is supposed to be, SMRC are also working along with the food science program at North Carolina State University. Who knows maybe it will receive a Michelin Star! If this works, then there will be no need to take along full pre-packed meals. Instead they will be able to take just generic or basic ingredients which can then be printed into a meal.

For the Love of Samsung S4!

They just confirmed that they are going to launch it next week, it's Samsung S4. Pricing and availability vary a bit from carrier to carrier, but here's what we know so far:

• T-Mobile will begin selling the Galaxy S4 on April 24. It'll cost $149.99 up front, plus $20 per month for 24 months.
• AT&T is now accepting pre-orders for the Galaxy S4, starting at $199.99 with a two-year contract. We're still waiting for a launch date.
• Sprint will sell the Galaxy S4 on April 27 for $249.99 with a two-year contract. New customers switching from another carrier can get the phone for $149.99.
• Verizon has not announced pricing or availability for the Galaxy S4, but has confirmed it will sell the device. Verizon recently tweeted that the phone would be available in May, but that's all we know.
• U.S. Cellular has not announced pricing or availability for the Galaxy S4, but has confirmed it will sell the device.

Read more:

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It's from an interview Jobs did in 1994.

This YouTube video of Steve Jobs is making the rounds again and for good reason. It's less than two minutes long and it encapsulates one of the best bits of advice Steve Jobs ever offered on how to succeed.
In it, he tells of the story of being a 12-year-old kid who picked up the phone and called legendary tech founder Bill Hewlett to ask him for spare parts. Hewlett wound up giving him a job and that's where Jobs became friends with Woz and the inklings of Apple were born.
Check it out.

Critical Difference Between Creativity And Innovation

There’s a lot of confusion surrounding creativity and innovation. “Creative types,” in particular, claim that creativity and innovation can’t be measured. Performance, however, demands measurement so you can identify what success looks like. In a world that changes every two seconds, it’s imperative that companies figure out the difference between creativity and innovation.

You better believe they’re different.

Creativity vs. Innovation

The main difference between creativity and innovation is the focus. Creativity is about unleashing the potential of the mind to conceive new ideas. Those concepts could manifest themselves in any number of ways, but most often, they become something we can see, hear, smell, touch, or taste. However, creative ideas can also be thought experiments within one person’s mind.

Creativity is subjective, making it hard to measure, as our creative friends assert.

Innovation, on the other hand, is completely measurable. Innovation is about introducing change into relatively stable systems. It’s also concerned with the work required to make an idea viable. By identifying an unrecognized and unmet need, an organization can use innovation to apply its creative resources to design an appropriate solution and reap a return on its investment.

Organizations often chase creativity, but what they really need to pursue is innovation. Theodore Levitt puts it best: “What is often lacking is not creativity in the idea-creating sense but innovation in the action-producing sense, i.e. putting ideas to work.”

Managing Innovation

Because creativity and innovation are often confused, it’s long been assumed that you cannot force innovation within an organization. It’s either there, or it isn’t. The introduction of a common language for innovation — design thinking — enables organizations to better measure milestones in their innovative efforts. 

In order to employ design thinking, it’s necessary to understand it as a system of overlapping spaces, rather than a set of process steps to move through. Those spaces are: inspiration, during which the problem that motivates solution-finding is identified; ideation, the process of generating and developing ideas; and implementation, the activities that enable a creative idea to move from the drawing board to the marketplace. Any design thinking-based project may loop back to an earlier space more than once as a team explores, develops, and implements its idea.

Design thinking provides a consistent approach to defining challenges. It helps organizations identify problems before they even begin the brainstorming sessions most associated with creativity. Now, organizations can actually see what they were missing when previous ideas didn’t reach market sustainability.

Using design thinking, organizations can capitalize on creativity by paying attention to the life of the idea after its initial development. To be of value, applied creativity must always lead to innovation — linking a great idea with an actual customer need (or, better yet, the needs of a whole market!). The use of design thinking in this manner also demands the guidance of engaged leadership.

Leaders are critical to the success of any group’s long-term innovation strategy. It’s their job to ensure that innovation is consistently pursued and their employees don’t settle into business as usual. They set the tone for what is, and is not, possible in the business through their attention and action.

Companies to Model

Organizations serious about fostering innovation have to wrestle with two main issues: risk-taking and failure aversion. All innovation involves risk, and all risks include the possibility of failure. Failure should never be seen as a black mark; it is a learning experience. Leaders and their organizations cannot be afraid of failure — or they will never incorporate the innovation they need to truly meet customers’ needs. Design thinking offers a path to risk-taking that’s manageable, repeatable, and driven toward maximizing the effectiveness of the new idea.

Of course, the very term “innovation” connotes something new and different. Still, paying attention to companies that are consistently innovative in their industries is always a good practice. Consider these companies that use the principles of design thinking to achieve their strategic goals:

• Proctor & Gamble embraced innovation under former CEO A.G. Lafley. During his tenure, P&G’s value increased by more than $100 billion. In 2000, it had 10 billion-dollar consumer brands; today, it has 22.
• Kaiser Permanente is the largest not-for-profit health provider in the USA. Kaiser’s National Facilities Services group has, for over five years, been working on the Total Health Environment, a program applying design thinking to every aspect of Kaiser’s operations, from medical records to color palettes. The results speak for themselves: improved patient health, satisfaction, soundness of sleep, speed of healing, and cost control.
• Square is particularly associated with innovation since its plugin device helps millions of mobile vendors and small business owners. No longer are they confined to cash payments or expensive credit card machines. Square noticed that the economy was quickly becoming paperless and provided customers a way to keep up.

Creativity is important in today’s business world, but it’s really only the beginning. Organizations need to foster creativity. Driving business results by running ideas through an innovation process puts those ideas to work — for companies and their customers. Creativity is the price of admission, but it’s innovation that pays the bills.

Mind map.

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Hijacking airplanes with an Android phone.

An extremely well attended talk by Hugo Teso, a security consultant at n.runs AG in Germany, about the completely realistic scenario of plane hijacking via a simple Android app has galvanized the crowd attending the Hack In The Box Conference in Amsterdam today. Teso, who has been working in IT for the last eleven years and has been a trained commercial pilot for a year longer than that, has combined his two interests in order to bring to light the sorry state of security of aviation computer systems and communication protocols.
By taking advantage of two new technologies for the discovery, information gathering and exploitation phases of the attack, and by creating an exploit framework (SIMON) and an Android app (PlaneSploit) that delivers attack messages to the airplanes' Flight Management Systems (computer unit + control display unit), he demonstrated the terrifying ability to take complete control of aircrafts by making virtual planes "dance to his tune."



Image coutesy of  Net security.org

 One of the two technologies he abused is the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B), which sends information about each aircraft (identification, current position, altitude, and so on) through an on-board transmitter to air traffic controllers, and allows aircrafts equipped with the technology to receive flight, traffic and weather information about other aircrafts currently in the air in their vicinity.
The other one is the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS), which is used to exchange messages between aircrafts and air traffic controllers via radio or satellite, as well as to automatically deliver information about each flight phase to the latter.
Both of these technologies are massively insecure and are susceptible to a number of passive and active attacks. Teso misused the ADS-B to select targets, and the ACARS to gather information about the onboard computer as well as to exploit its vulnerabilities by delivering spoofed malicious messages that affect the "behavior" of the plane.Based on his own research, Teso developed the SIMON framework that is deliberately made only to work in a virtual environment and cannot be used on real-life aircrafts. His testing laboratory consists of a series of software and hardware products, but the connection and communication methods, as well as ways of exploitation, are absolutely the same as they would be in an actual real-world scenario.

Since it's nearly impossible to detect the framework once deployed on the Flight Management System, there is no need to disguise it like a rootkit. By using SIMON, the attacker can upload a specific payload to the remote FSM, upload flight plans, detailed commands or even custom plugins that could be developed for the framework. To make things even more interesting - or easier - Teso showcased an Andorid application that uses SIMON's powers to remotely control airplanes on the move. The application, fittingly named PlaneSploit, sports a clean and simple interface, but is packed full with features. This is a remarkable example of technology evolution - ten years ago we barely had phones with a color screen, today we can use them to hack aircrafts.PlaneSploit uses the Flightradar24 live flight tracker and you can tap on any airplane found in range. When talking about the range, please keep in mind that we are talking about a proof-of-concept application used in a virtual environment. In real life, the range would be limited depending on the antennas used (if going directly for the plane), or global (if misusing one of the two big ACARS players such as SITA or ARINC).
The user interface is divided by its main functions which are self-explanatory: discovery, information gathering, exploitation and post exploitation. The attacker can click on any active airplane and is receives its identification, current location and final destination. In case a nearby airplane system is exploitable (a number of vulnerability vectors mentioned, not much details provided), the application alerts the user via an in-application alert or a push message. The payload can be uploaded with a tap of a button and from that point on, the flight management system is remotely controlled by an attacker. There are a number of other systems connected to FMS, so further exploitation is possible. Here are some of the functions Teso showed to the HITBSecConf Amsterdam audience:

•Please go here: A way of interacting with the plane where the user can dynamically tap locations on the map and change the plane's course.

•Define area: Set detailed filters related to the airplane, for example activate something when a plane is in the area of X kilometers or when it starts flying on a predefined altitude.

•Visit ground: Crash the airplane.

•Kiss off: Remove itself from the system.

•Be punckish: A theatric way of alerting the pilots that something is seriously wrong - lights start flashing and alarms start buzzing.

By showing a sample scenario of a drunk pilot flying over Berlin, Teso mentioned that the Android application also uses the benefits of the accelerometer and therefore a remote attacker can transform the motion of its smartphone into physical changes in the plane's movement. It's amazing to discover that aviation - an industry where safety is of vital importance and every physical element has one or even two fail-safe mechanisms - is failing to secure the onboard computer, the heart and brain of the plane.
Teso has not shared too many details about the tools he used to effect the attack, as the vulnerabilities have yet to be fixed. He says that he was pleasantly surprised by the reaction of the industry to his research and discoveries, as the companies didn't try to deny the existence of the problems and have vowed to aid him in his research.
He says that older, legacy systems harking back to the 1970s will be difficult, if not impossible, to fix, but that modern ones will easily be updated with patched and modified firmware and software. The vulnerabilities, of course, differ from system to system and from plane to plane, but it's easy to discover just which ones are present once the attacker identifies the type, model of the plane, and the airline for which it flies.There is a solution for pilots to regain the control of the plane and land it safely, he says. Attacks of this kind work only when the auto-pilot is on, so the trick is to switch it off, then fly the plane by using analog instruments.
The bad news is that there aren't that many on modern planes, and that the pilots have to detect that the plane's computer is being hacked in order to effect these maneuvers, and that is no easy feat.

It will be the same pattern we've seen from Apple.

 

The early rumors on this year's iPhone have been pretty dull.
For the most part, all we've heard is that Apple is working on an iPhone 5S which will be just like the iPhone 5, except with a bump in performance.
It will be the same pattern we've seen from Apple. The iPhone 3G led to the iPhone 3GS. The iPhone 4 was the predecessor to the iPhone 4S. And this year, the iPhone 5S will follow the iPhone 5.
However, today, Brian White at Topeka Capital is injecting some life into the iPhone rumor mill. He says Apple could release a new iPhone with multiple screen sizes this year.
"After our meeting with a tech-supply chain company, we walked away with the view that Apple will release the iPhone 5S in at least two screen sizes this summer and possibly three," says White. He's on the seventh day of a tour of technology suppliers in China and Taiwan.
Apple has been criticized for not making the iPhone's screen bigger. It made it taller last year, expanding the screen to 4-inches, up from 3.5-inches, but it's not enough. Compared to Samsung and HTC which make phones with 5-inch, and 4.7-inch screens, the iPhone feels pretty tiny.
For some people, that's great. For other people, it would be nice to have a big iPhone.
"Essentially, we believe Apple is coming around to the fact that one size per iPhone release does not work for everyone and offering consumers an option has the potential to expand the Company’s market share," writes White.
Apple's policy of only releasing one iPhone size at a time doesn't really make sense. It has two iPad sizes. It makes MacBooks in three different sizes. Doing the same with the iPhone wouldn't go against its DNA.
There is a risk of fragmentation for developers, but we assume Apple is smart enough to figure out how to deal with that.
All that said, we're skeptical about this report because it's the first we've heard, and it's fairly light on specific details. We'll see if anyone else follows this report, or if there are any other leaks from the supply chain.

The new HTC One can act as a universal remote for your T.V.

HTC's new flagship phone, the One, is easily the most beautiful Android phone we've ever used. It even rivals the iPhone 5's design.
You can read our full review of the HTC One here, and check out gorgeous photos of the phone in the gallery below.

 

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Infotainment

That is not a criticism of the automakers; they are fighting against a pace of innovation that is exceedingly fast – far faster than the development cycle of an automobile. Apple releases a new version of its iOS platform every year, and new version of Google's Android may arrive at double that pace, saying nothing of all the security updates and bug fixes in between.

By 2017, more than 60% of new cars in the US and Western Europe will have some sort of network connectivity, making it imperative to have cohesive, streamlined telematics systems that can be upgraded at minimal cost. Aware of this, auto companies are making some unlikely alliances to ensure their infotainment platforms stay fresh.

 

Read more:

12 Useful 'Easter Eggs' Hidden In Your iPhone

 

There are so many features packed into the iPhone that one demonstration from Apple couldn't possibly cover them all.

We put together a few of our favorite hidden tips and tricks on the iPhone.

Click here to see some great tips and tricks for your iPhone >

This Actor's Upcoming Movie Has The Hong Kong Stock Market Spooked

His name is Adam Cheng Siu-chow.
And whenever Cheng's films hit movie and TV screens, the Hang Seng index tends to collapse.
Cheng's next movie — Saving General Yang — comes out on April 4.
CNBC's Deirdre Wang Morris points us to this story in the South China Morning Post.  Here are some of his film stats via the SCMP:

• "The Greed Of Man," 1992: The Hang Seng fell 13 percent while the show was on.
• "Legend of Yung Ching," 1997: The Hang Seng sunk below the below 10,000 while the series was running.
• Cheng had shows airing during the Asian financial crisis of 1998 and the tech bubble burst of 2000.
• The market fell during 11 of 17 of his television shows since 1992.
• CLSA analysts say the markets do worse when the series are more tragic.

It's called the "Ting Hai effect," named after one of Cheng's characters who makes money by shorting derivatives and stocks.
File this one under bizarre stock market indicators.

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Anyone Who Thinks Apple Will Rule The World Forever Should Look At This Picture.

Know what this is?

 

It's one of the first mass-produced mini-computers--the PDP 8. 

The PDP-8 was made by Digital Equipment Corporation in 1965.

It cost $18,000.

It was much less powerful and vastly harder to use than a cheap smartphone is today.

The PDP-8 and similar machines made Digital Equipment Corporation the leader in the mini-computer revolution. Mini-computers provided a vast price-performance-and-usage improvement over mainframes, so they quickly took over the corporate computing world. Digital Equipment Corporation, meanwhile, became one of the world's most dominant technology companies.

For two decades, the company's stock soared. Nothing would ever stop Digital Equipment Corporation.

When the personal computer appeared, DEC's founder famously ridiculed it.

No one, Ken Olsen said, would ever want a computer in their home.

You know what happened next.

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How To Make Cash Money? | Make Money with Social Media: 5 Ideas For How To Make Money Online From Home

How To Make Cash Money? | Make Money with Social Media: 5 Ideas For How To Make Money Online From Home: Let's go over 5 ideas to make money online from the comfort of your own home.  The task of making money on the internet is not that ha...

The Facebook phone.

Along with Apple's fabled television set, it's the one rumor in tech that just won't die.

Those rumors picked up again this week after Facebook invited the press to an Android-themed event on April 4 at its Menlo Park headquarters. 

According to multiple reports, Facebook will introduce a tweaked version of Google's Android operating system that has a lot of Facebook features like the News Feed and photos baked into the home screen. HTC will reportedly be the first manufacturer to sell a phone running Facebook's version of Android and Facebook is looking for others to get on board too.

So it's not exactly a Facebook phone, but an Android-based platform with a bunch of Facebook stuff tacked on.

Read more: 

A Revolutionary Idea Needs A Loyal Group Of Followers

Technology pioneer Alan Kay famously said that “the best way to predict the future is to invent it.”  It’s the kind of inspiring quote that can completely change your outlook on things.

That is, until you remember the sorry plight of failed geniuses, from Gregor Mendel to Vincent Van Gogh to thousands of others who are long forgotten and whose ideas only took hold long after their death. Inventing the future, it seems, is no panacea.

The truth is that ideas don’t change the world, people do. From the American Revolution to Civil Rights Movement to the Arab Spring, most of their names are lost to history, but their accomplishments stand testament to the power of what can happen when people act as one.  It’s not the nodes, but the network that makes great things possible. 

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2013 May Be The Year For Smartwatches

Amid much speculation on the future of the "smartwatch," the consensus is growing: the time is right.

In recent weeks, reports have surfaced about plans for smartwatches from tech giants Apple, Samsung and Google, with launches possible later this year.

"I think we have reached a tipping point," said Avi Greengart, analyst on consumer devices at the research firm Current Analysis.

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