Google plans to invest in a German Solar power plant, John Legend and Samsung team up for an awesome tech contest, Apple’s Top 3 imperfections, ESPN’s iOS Sports-on-the-go app, iPhone 4 is giving some customers too much FaceTime, Youtube is revamping their entire site, and much more in today’s Tech Round-Up!
1. Google goes to Europe for its first green investment project. [TechCrunch Euro]
Google sets it sights on its first clean energy project investment in Europe. The Internet giant is pumping 3.5 million euros (roughly $5 million) in a solar photovoltaic power plant in a town near Berlin, Germany.
2. Samsung and John Legend’s “Solve for Tomorrow” contest for math & science enthusiasts. [CNN]
“Solve for Tomorrow”, a collaborative effort of Samsung and Grammy award winning artist John Legend, is to help boost the math and science pioneers of tomorrow. The contest requires video submission with a winning prize of 1million dollars USD.
3. Apple’s 3 biggest weaknesses. [CNN Tech]
Not a lot of people like to admit it or even come to terms with Apple’s imperfections. Apple’s version of the “cloud”, social gaming and the Apple TV project have been snoozers so far. The techies at CNN puts together a list of Apple’s top 3 flaws that most of us probably tried to forget.
4. Bizarre FaceTime bug terrorizing some iPhone 4s users [Wired]
For a small number of iPhone 4G users, their FaceTime app is giving too much face time without their knowledge. The bug also freezes video calls. Some staffers at Wired were not able to replicate the glitch after several attempts on both iOS 4.3 and iOS 4.3.1. They are the versions of the operating system that reportedly suffer from the problem. Hopefully, it hasn’t caught anyone in a compromising position.
“Sounds like Apple has a potentially serious privacy leak,” said Jonathan Zdziarski, an iPhone security researcher, regarding customers’ reports of the front-facing camera bug. “I guess the moral of the story is don’t let your iPhone see you naked.”
5. YouTube plans to redesign its site around its “Channels” [WSJ]
In Youtube’s plan to compete with cable and broadcast television, they are planning to conduct major site overhaul organizing it’s content around its channels. With $100 million funded into redesigning the site’s interface, the underlying purpose would be for viewers to stay on the site longer than they already do. This is due to seeing a great increase in unique visitors to the site in 2010. Google also hopes its new plans will sprout an increase in loyal viewers by executing creative and professionally produced web video programming a week. Netflix can’t have all of the video-streaming glory can it?
6. Atari’s greatest hits collection gifted to all iOS devices [Engadget]
Do arcades even exist anymore? Thanks to Atari they can on your iPhone, iPad and iTouch. They released its greatest hits collection, includes 18 classic arcade games and 82 Atari 2600 games. Perfect for those days when you want to escape into gaming nostalgia.
7. The YouTube kid who cried to be govenor. [Mashable]
The crying kid who gained YouTube and Internet fame by yelling out his frustrations of not being governor already got his wish. Gov. Chris Christie signed a proclamation Wednesday appointing Jesse Koczon, 5, honorary governor of New Jersey for a day. At least he’s crying about wanting to be New Jersey’s governor and not about wanting to be part of the “Jersey Shore.”
8. Watch ESPN SportsCenter and Live Sports anywhere with their iOS app. [Complex]
Thanks to Cablevision and TimeWarner, ESPN has launched its WatchESPN iOS app. Its only available currently for Time Warner Cable, Verizon Fios and Bright House Networks subscribers. The iOS app is free and will run on the iPhone and iPod Touch. The iPad-optimized version is reportedly coming out in May.
9. The Guide to iPhone 5 Rumors [The Huffington Post]
The good folks over at Huffington Post Tech put together a iPhone 5 rumor guide containing 10 predictions for the device so far.
10. Rescue robots trek through the ruins at Japan’s Fukishima plant. [Gizmodo]
Japan has released 23 of its rescue robots to dig through the waste materials at Fukishima nuclear plant. Since there is already immense levels of radiation within the uninhabited area already, the bots can go where man can no longer go.
The bots, recently introduced by Japan’s International Rescue System Institute, will be deployed to measure radiation levels and take video of the plant. They’re significantly smaller than the Monirobo robots, 1,300 pound monsters that had been sent in previously to excavate and monitor the situation.
11. If you don’t get dub-step and want something funny, watch this. [The Daily What]
Dubstep U’s Dean of Dubmissions Dom Mazzetti explains dubstep essentials. NSFW!
12. LinkedIn announces its new platform will be similar to Facebook [CNN]
LinkedIn plans to align itself as the older, more mature sibling to Facebook as a business-focused social networking site. Judging by the site’s new plans, you’ll soon be able to like your friends’ new job status.
According to WIRED, the new tools rely on JavaScript APIs and the OAuth 2.0 system for logins (the same as used by Yahoo, Google and Twitter, among others).
Below are some of the new features:
- A Share button that posts a link to a page or news story to the user’s feed on LinkedIn.
- A Recommend button to give a vote to a product you like.
- Member profile widgets that show the LinkedIn profile of a company executive or website owner. LinkedIn’s Share button joins a growing number of plugins that try to get users to spread the news about a site or news story, a pantheon that includes Facebook’s Like, Twitter’s Tweet button, and social voting and submission widgets from Digg and Reddit.
- For those who run their own blogs or websites, LinkedIn is making it simple to show off a snippet of your LinkedIn profile and for visitors logged into LinkedIn, they’ll see thumbnails of connections they have in common.
