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The controversial website WikiLeaks collects and posts highly classified documents and video. Founder Julian Assange, who’s reportedly being sought for questioning by US authorities, talks to TED’s Chris Anderson about how the site operates, what it has accomplished — and what drives him. The interview includes graphic footage of a recent US airstrike in Baghdad. WIKILEAKS
What’s new
• Front-facing video chat camera
• Improved regular back-camera (the lens is quite noticeably larger than the iPhone 3GS)
• Camera flash
• Micro-SIM instead of standard SIM (like the iPad)
• Improved display. It’s unclear if it’s the 960×640 display thrown around before—it certainly looks like it, with the “Connect to iTunes” screen displaying much higher resolution than on a 3GS.
• What looks to be a secondary mic for noise cancellation, at the top, next to the headphone jack
• Split buttons for volume
• Power, mute, and volume buttons are all metallic
What’s changed
• The back is entirely flat, made of either glass (more likely) or ceramic or shiny plastic in order for the cell signal to poke through. Tapping on the back makes a more hollow and higher pitched sound compared to tapping on the glass on the front/screen, but that could just be the orientation of components inside making for a different sound
• An aluminum border going completely around the outside
• Slightly smaller screen than the 3GS (but seemingly higher resolution)
• Everything is more squared off
• 3 grams heavier
• 16% Larger battery
• Internals components are shrunken, miniaturized and reduced to make room for the larger battery The Full Gizmodo
In an impact that would make Ronnie Lott want to cut his entire arm off, one of the largest and most expensive experiments in the history of mankind, the Large Hadron Collider, performed successfully in Europe. Geeks around the world buzzed like a new Olivia Munn pictorial release. The experiment involves blasting high energy particles around a 17 mile track and smashing them together to form the cosmic jizz that was present milliseconds after the Big Bang (i.e. moment of Creation for all the Easter egg hunters). The jizz will hopefully provide insight into what makes up the 96% of the Universe that this planet’s “intelligent life” has no clue about.
- Google yesterday announced a bug-bounty program that will pay researchers $500 for each vulnerability they report in the Chrome browser and its underlying open-source code. Chris Evans, who works on the Chrome security team, said the base bounty would be $500, but that “particularly severe or particularly clever” bugs would reap rewards of $1,337 each. – Google
- Mozilla has officially introduced Firefox for Maemo, the first officially launched version of Firefox () for Mobile. It’s been in testing for some time, but now it’s available for download for those of you who own an N900 smartphone. The new mobile browser comes equipped with an array of quite awesome features: the awesome bar, weave sync (sync your bookmarks, passwords, tabs, and history between mobile and desktop), tabbed browsing, and location-aware maps are all part of this launch. – Mozilla
From Slate.com:
SAN FRANCISCO—An Apple product unveiling is usually a bit of a letdown. That’s the downside of the company’s iron-fisted secrecy: The entire press gets so worked up that when the new device finally makes it to the stage, it inevitably seems far less grand than you’d imagined. (MacBook Air? Yawn.) But I won’t lie: I’ve been waiting for the Apple tablet for a long time, and in the moments before CEO Steve Jobs takes the stage this morning, I’m positively giddy. Rumors of the tablet’s existence go back at least to 2002; in all that time, the company hasn’t said a single solid word about it. So when Jobs finally spills the beans after about 10 minutes of wind-up, I’m floored. iPad? After all that time, you’re going to call it that, really? First, the features: It’s an aluminum-and-glass touch-screen machine that’s about the size of a Kindle. The iPad is extremely thin, and it weighs just a pound and a half. It runs on a proprietary Apple microprocessor, can hold 16 to 64 GB of data (depending on which model you get), and its battery (allegedly) lasts up to 10 hours. The device goes on sale in two months. (Apple didn’t say the exact date.) Prices range from $499 (16 GB, Wi-Fi only) up to $829 (64 GB and a 3G wireless modem). A cellular data plan through AT&T costs $15 a month for up to 250 MB of bandwidth and $30 a month for unlimited data. There’s no contract—you can cancel your data plan at any time without any fee. (When I asked an Apple rep whether iPhone owners could use the same plan for both devices, he didn’t know the answer.)
After decades of false starts, planners are finally beginning to make headway on what could become the largest, most complicated infrastructure project ever attempted in the US. The Obama administration got on board with an $8 billion infusion, and more cash is likely en route from Congress. It’s enough for Florida and Texas to dust off some previously abandoned plans and for urban clusters in the Northeast and Midwest to pursue some long-overdue upgrades. The nation’s test bed will almost certainly be California, which already has voter-approved funding and planning under way. But getting up to speed requires more than just seed money. For trains to beat planes and automobiles, the hardware needs to really fly. Officials are pushing to deploy state-of-the-art rail rockets. – More
Sports broadcasting will enter a new dimension in 2010 … the third dimension, as ESPN will unveil the industry’s first 3-D network.
ESPN 3D will showcase a minimum of 85 live sporting events during its first year, beginning June 11 with the first 2010 FIFA World Cup match, featuring South Africa versus Mexico, ESPN and ABC Sports president George Bodenheimer announced.
Other events to be produced in 3-D include the 2011 BCS National Championship Game, college basketball and football contests, up to 25 World Cup matches and the Summer X Games. Additional events will be announced at a later date.
“ESPN’s commitment to 3-D is a win for fans and our business partners,” Bodenheimer said in a statement. “ESPN 3D marries great content with new technology to enhance the fan’s viewing experience and puts ESPN at the forefront of the next big advance for TV viewing.”
ESPN has been testing ESPN 3D for more than two years, even showing a USC-Ohio State college football game in select theaters and to 6,000 fans at the Galen Center on USC’s campus.
“This is a turning point for 3-D,” Consumer Electronics Association CEO Gary Shapiro told USA Today.
The Nexus One not only runs Android, but is the first “Google phone” to grow up and remain in-house. While built by HTC, the Nexus One is available through google.com/phone, may be purchased without a carrier, reflects the company’s design aesthetic, and sports the newest version of Android. The phone marks a surprising step for Google, even if reviewers aren’t blown away by the device itself. Most agree the new phone is great, but so are many of its rivals.
Here’s what CNET has to say about the Nexus One.
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After decades of false starts, planners are finally beginning to make headway on what could become the largest, most complicated infrastructure project ever attempted in the US. The Obama administration got on board with an $8 billion infusion, and more cash is likely en route from Congress. It’s enough for Florida and Texas to dust off some previously abandoned plans and for urban clusters in the Northeast and Midwest to pursue some long-overdue upgrades. The nation’s test bed will almost certainly be California, which already has voter-approved funding and planning under way. But getting up to speed requires more than just seed money. For trains to beat planes and automobiles, the hardware needs to really fly. Officials are pushing to deploy state-of-the-art rail rockets. – 
Sports broadcasting will enter a new dimension in 2010 … the third dimension, as ESPN will unveil the industry’s first 3-D network.
The Nexus One not only runs Android, but is the first “Google phone” to grow up and remain in-house. While built by HTC, the Nexus One is available through google.com/phone, may be purchased without a carrier, reflects the company’s design aesthetic, and sports the newest version of Android. The phone marks a surprising step for Google, even if reviewers aren’t blown away by the device itself. Most agree the new phone is great, but so are many of its rivals.
