Mashable: Latest 8 News Updates - including “Julian Assange to Receive $1.3 Million for Autobiography” |
- Julian Assange to Receive $1.3 Million for Autobiography
- 290+ Social Media Resources From 2010
- 7 Predictions for the Gaming Industry in 2011
- “Tron” Gaming Mouse Glows Like a Light Cycle [VIDEO & PICS]
- 7 Great Mobile Apps for Environmentally Friendly Eating
- XWave Lets You Control iPhone Graphics with Your Brain
- What Gadgets Did You Get as Holiday Gifts? [POLL]
- The Ultimate iPhone Guide: 60+ Essential Resources
- HOW TO: Land a Job at Microsoft
| Julian Assange to Receive $1.3 Million for Autobiography Posted: 27 Dec 2010 02:15 AM PST      WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has agreed to write an autobiography, which should net him around $1.3 million. In an interview with the Sunday Times (subscription required), Assange revealed that the book will be published in the UK as well as the U.S. He would receive $800,000 from U.S. publisher Alfred A. Knopf, a unit of Random House, and £325,000 ($502,000) from UK publisher Canongate Books Ltd. A spokesman for Random House confirmed the deal, but not the amount. “We are very excited to be publishing this book. The work that Assange has been doing at WikiLeaks has tremendous importance around the world,” he said. Assange’s motives for writing an autobiography are quite clear: he needs the money. “I don’t want to write this book, but I have to. I have already spent £200,000 for legal costs and I need to defend myself and to keep WikiLeaks afloat,” Assange told the Sunday Times. After WikiLeaks came in possession and started publishing over 250,000 secret U.S. government cables, the site and its founder have had a great deal of costly problems. The site has been battered by DDoS attacks and refused service by several companies, such as PayPal and Amazon. Assange is wanted in Sweden on charge of sex crimes, and has been denied service by the Swiss bank PostFinance. [via WSJ] More About: autobiography, julian assange, leak, trending, wikileaks For more Social Media coverage:
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| 290+ Social Media Resources From 2010 Posted: 26 Dec 2010 04:14 PM PST   We’ve provided you with nearly 300 in-depth features, galleries and how-tos in the past year to help you navigate the social media world. Here you’ll find a comprehensive list of all of those posts, covering everything from how to enhance your Facebook profile, find videos and music, contribute to a charity and just about any other topic you can think of. We’ve broken the posts into categories including the big ideas about social media, the most popular social sites, including Facebook and Twitter, music, videos and photos, geo-location services, education, privacy and safety, social good, activism and government, among others. If you’re looking to get caught up on — or re-read — Mashable’s social media resources from the past year, here’s your chance. About Social Media
Videos and PicsMusicGeo-locationEducationPrivacy and SafetyDiggCrowdsourcingSocial Good, Activism and Government Holidays & Major EventsManaging Your Social Media Time & Presence BloggingIndustry-Specific ResourcesOtherImage courtesy of iStockphoto, morozena Reviews: Facebook, Mashable, Twitter, iStockphoto More About: digg, facebook, geo-location, List, Lists, social media, twitter, year in review For more Social Media coverage:
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| 7 Predictions for the Gaming Industry in 2011 Posted: 26 Dec 2010 03:04 PM PST   The video gaming industry made great strides this year. What’s next? Here are my predictions for 2011. It’s been a hell of a year. In 2010, motion hardware such as Microsoft Kinect and PlayStation Move made their debuts, the Nintendo Wii stayed put but still held its own, and the first 3D handheld gaming system was introduced. And let’s forget that smartphone gaming took the market by storm. Against that promising backdrop, let’s polish up the old crystal ball and take a look at some predictions for 2011. My projections for the next year are based on news I’ve seen recently, gut feelings and even some wishful thinking. You’re invited to add your own predictions in the comments. Let’s take a look at what I think the new year will have in store for the gaming industry. 1. On the Road Again
Mobile gaming for smartphones and handheld devices will continue its explosive growth in 2011. Adding fuel to the Apple App Store fire will be Windows Phone 7, hitched up to Xbox Live and packing plenty of graphics punch. While Microsoft’s nascent platform won’t be able to hold a candle to the App Store yet, its inauspicious beginning is not going to predict what will happen in the long run. 2. Backfield in Motion
Motion gaming hardware will continue to fly off store shelves, but I’m not sure if the titles will be able to keep up. Meanwhile, the porn industry will continue parrying with Microsoft, trying to slip in racy games to the consternation of the Redmond giant (it has already started). It’s hard to hold back the pornmeisters, though, bellwethers of technology since VHS tapes. 3. Flash Crash
Developers of HTML5 will make great inroads in 2010, continuing its rise into eventual domination of browser-based gaming. Of course, Flash and Silverlight will still have a place in the online gaming universe, but HTML5 will continue its onslaught, especially into the mobile arena (new game engines like Impact are already leading the way). Hate HTML5 but love Flash? Thanks to Apple and its unstoppable power in the mobile marketplace, you might be standing on the wrong side of history. 4. Wii Want HD
Even though Nintendo emphasizes the quality of its gaming experience over the technical quality of its graphics, an HD gaming platform from the company is long overdue. Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata said that a Wii successor wasn’t in the offing yet, declaring last June that the company would announce a new console when it runs “out of ideas with the current hardware and cannot give users any more meaningful surprises with the technology we have.” In my opinion, one of the last surprises remaining is that Nintendo’s flagship gaming console is still running standard-definition video. 5. Bringing the Pain
Gears of War 3 will finally be released, but too bad it’s been pushed back from its originally announced spring 2011 release date (although there will be a beta version available in April). Now we’ll have to wait until at least September to play the real thing on the Xbox 360. Fenix, Dominic, Cole and Baird will bring the pain once again, maybe even eclipsing the grand debut of Portal 2, winner of a 2010 Spike Video Gaming Award for the most anticipated game to be released next year. Nevertheless, the Gears of War franchise is so valuable right now, its hoards of fans have enormous pent-up demand for the new first-person shooter. Its sales are practically guaranteed to break all records. 6. Apple Console
Apple will make an entry into the console market. The Cupertino company has nearly cornered the handheld market with its iPhone, iPod touch and iPad iOS-powered platforms. Why not parlay that dominance into a gaming platform that might be a simple evolution of its Apple TV “hobby?” How hard could it be to take a Mac Mini, install a serious graphics chip, get Apple’s ace iPhone/iPad designer Jonathan Ive to create the most beautiful handheld controllers in history, package the whole thing up with iOS and profit? For Apple, this should be easy. 7. Avian Anger
Those Angry Birds aren’t finished yet, even after continuing their steamrolling dominance over the App Store and Android Market with seasonal updates for Halloween and Christmas. Expect even more of those holiday refreshes with extra levels, taking on a love-dovey theme for Valentine’s Day and, of course, jumping all over that egg-strewn Easter holiday for all it’s worth. More Gaming Resources from Mashable:
Reviews: Android Market, Angry Birds, App Store, iPhone More About: angry birds, apple, Console Games, games, gaming, List, Lists, microsoft, mobile gaming, nindento wii, Nintendo, op-ed, Opinion, playstation, playstation move, predictions-2011, video games, Xbox 360, Xbox Kinect For more Entertainment coverage:
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| “Tron” Gaming Mouse Glows Like a Light Cycle [VIDEO & PICS] Posted: 26 Dec 2010 02:00 PM PST
Not only does this ambidextrous pointing device from Razer look like some sort of implement from the far-off future; it sounds like one, too. Tron: Legacy was the #1 movie in the U.S. last weekend, so this mouse is certain to attract the attention of fans. But will it measure up for gamers? Let’s get our hands on one. Besides the fact that this is a wired mouse — a controversial attribute for a gaming mouse among aficionados — the one spec gamers will care most about is this mouse’s fine 5600 DPI 3.5G sensor. Its sensitivity is excellent, and its two extra buttons on each side are programmable for any function. So yes, its specs are gameworthy, though not groundbreaking. It’s a shame that this $100 mouse has such a plastic feel to it. Its all-plastic construction feels just a little too light for my taste, and its left and right click sounds are slightly loud. Those quibbles aside, the mouse feels balanced in a medium-sized hand, and I got accustomed to it quickly. Its claim to fame is its Disneyesque lighting and sound effects. I especially like the way the rubberized mouse wheel resembles the wheels on those Tron light cycles. And that lighting stays on all the time, except for a light blue taillight that glows only when the mouse’s laser sensor is engaged. When you first plug it in, it makes whooshing sound effects and its lights flash, an odd routine that startled me a couple of times. Check out the video below to see and hear with that’s like. It’s fun to show that to your friends when you first get it, but thankfully, the noises can be turned off in the software controls as soon as the novelty has worn off. The Tron Gaming Mouse is available for $100, but if you want to get the full effect, you can spend $30 more to get a set that includes a bioluminescent mat. Its most unusual characteristic is the way it displays a blue glow for a few moments wherever the mouse’s laser has shown onto it. Besides its snazzy landing-pad appearance, it has just the right amount of friction to perform as a suitable complement to the Tron mouse. Sure, this is a Disney-licensed product that’s mostly a gimmick, but it’s a fun gimmick, and it looks way cool on the desktop. You might not want to whip this baby out at the office; but for your gaming center, it could be a suitable centerpiece for Tron fans. Razer Tron Gaming Mouse Razer Tron Gaming Mouse Razer Tron Gaming Mouse Razer Tron Gaming Mouse Razer Tron Gaming Mouse Razer Tron Gaming Mouse Razer Tron Gaming Mouse Mat Razer Tron Gaming Mouse Mat Razer Tron Gaming Mouse Mat More About: gaming, mice, peripherals, Pointing Devices, Razer, Tron Gaming Mouse, tron legacy For more Tech coverage:
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| 7 Great Mobile Apps for Environmentally Friendly Eating Posted: 26 Dec 2010 12:53 PM PST   The seemingly small eating choices that we all make every day can have a huge cumulative effect on the environment. Choosing in-season fruits and vegetables, local produce, less meat and foods that are grown with fewer pesticides can make your impact on the Earth a bit lighter. Keeping track of all the information you need to make the right choices can be a bit overwhelming, but these seven mobile apps store all you need to know in your pocket. Be sure to let us know in the comments which apps you found most helpful or what you plan to do start eating environmentally friendly. 1. Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch Nobody wants to destroy ecosystems when they go out for sushi, but trying to factor in where each species of fish was caught, what region it comes from, or how it was farmed can seem like a full-time job when picking where to eat. The people who do, in fact, dedicate themselves to full-time study of the planet’s water systems have mercifully created an iPhone app and mobile site to provide a guide for your seafood decisions. Search fish by name for the best choice (salmon, for instance, should be wild-caught in Alaska), good alternatives (wild-caught in Washington), and what to avoid (farmed, Atlantic-caught or wild-caught in California), and reference a best practice guide for your region. On Tuesday, the aquarium also added a new “Project FishMap” component to the app that helps you share restaurants and markets you’ve found that sell sustainable seafood. Eventually, the crowdsourced map will be a resource for finding ocean-friendly seafood wherever you are. 2. Locavore The modern-day grocery store has created a problem that would have been absurd to our ancestors. With produce being shipped from all over the world, it’s difficult to tell what is actually in season near you. Locavore ($2.99) tells you what is currently in season in your region so that you can make purchasing decisions that reduce your carbon footprint. It also provides recipes that use all in-season ingredients and shows you nearby farmers markets where you can buy those ingredients. If you connect the app to your Facebook account, you can share where you came across especially stellar local produce and read what other people near you have discovered. 3. True Food The jury is still out on the health and environmental impact of genetically modified food like the “botox apple,” but genetically modified (GMO) foods still go unlabeled and are difficult to avoid. The Center for Food Safety, which runs campaigns to halt the approval of GMO foods, has iPhone and Android apps that help shoppers identify genetically modified food. The app gives the low-down on the approval statuses of GMO items in major food groups and highlights tips for avoiding GMO foods in general. 4. What’s on My Food? As the title indicates, this app from the Pesticide Action Network helps you figure out what pesticides are on your food before you buy it. According to the app, an apple has a potential 42 residues, for instance. The app comes with a helpful chart if you want to know which ones are neurotoxins, hormone disruptors, carcinogens, or developmental or reproductive toxins. Though by that point, you might already be standing in the organic section. 5. Seasons Like the Locavore app, Seasons ($1.99) helps consumers buy products that are in-season in their region. In addition to fruits and vegetables, it also keeps track of herbs, nuts and mushrooms broken down by whether they’re in-season, at the start of their season, at the end of their season or produced year-round in your area. Each food includes a graph that shows both import and local seasons. 6. Label Lookup Because many consumers prefer environmentally conscious options when available, companies are eager to label their products as such. In some cases, however, the labels are more indicative of greenwashing than of reduced environmental impact. Shoppers can use Label Lookup to understand what 169 different green labels mean and how reliable they are. “GMO-Free,” for instance, is too vague to be reliable. “American Grassfed,” however, is thirdy-party verified and meets detailed standards. 7. VegOut Whether or not you’re a vegetarian, reducing the amount of meat that you eat can reduce the impact your diet has on the environment. And it doesn’t need to be painful; you can easily find great vegan, vegetarian and vegetarian-friendly restaurants using mobile app VegOut ($2.99). The app is powered by happycow.net, a vegetarian-friendly restaurant search engine with more than 13,000 listings around the world. It uses your location to show you the restaurants nearest you, but you can also search by zipcode if you’re planning to dine elsewhere. More Mobile Resources from Mashable:
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Jasmina007 Reviews: Android, Facebook, iPhone, iStockphoto More About: apps, environmentally friendly, Food, green, Mobile 2.0, mobile apps, sustainability, sustainable For more Mobile coverage:
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| XWave Lets You Control iPhone Graphics with Your Brain Posted: 26 Dec 2010 11:53 AM PST   What if you could visualize what your brain was doing on the screen of your iPhone? That’s the promise of XWave, a strange-looking contraption you clamp onto your head that reads your mind. You can see the results of its brainwave-reading magic on the free XWave iPhone app, displaying a graphical ball that you can raise by focusing your thoughts. Or so it seems. Because it costs $100, we had high expectations for this XWave headgear, yearning to be amazed. Plugging it into the iPhone’s earphone jack, I clamped its headband onto assorted noggins to see what would happen. This slightly uncomfortable plastic thingamajig with a little earlobe clamp has a sensor that presses against its user’s forehead. Flip the switch, plug it into an iPhone’s headphone jack, and that’s when the fun starts. The headband communicates with the free XWave iPhone app, and once it begins to receive the signal, it measures various brain waves. By changing your state of mind, you can affect the graphics on the screen. For instance, on one screen, if you focus your mind, you can make a graphical ball move higher and higher on the screen. Another screen helps you achieve nirvana, measuring your degree of relaxation using pulsating color. The more relaxed you get, the more the color shifts toward the blue part of the spectrum. Does it work? You can see the screens changing as you become more relaxed or focused. It feels like you’re making these things happen. In fact, one cerebral member of our group was able to bring both of the factors above 90%, far more than anyone else. It’s far from scientific proof, but that indicates there’s actually something going on here. This is not exactly a scientific instrument, but we thought it was a lot of fun as a parlor game, and its results coincided with the personalities of some of our informal test subjects. The iPhone app is not quite perfect — for example, it won’t let you sign up for the service to save your results — but if you have an extra $100 to blow just for fun, this might be a good candidate. XWave Sensor XWave Sensor XWave Sensor XWave Sensor XWave Sensor XWave iPhone App: Main Screen XWave iPhone App: Focus screen XWave iPhone App: Nirvana screen More About: brain waves, iphone apps, meditation, trending, XWave For more Tech coverage:
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| What Gadgets Did You Get as Holiday Gifts? [POLL] Posted: 26 Dec 2010 10:28 AM PST   A couple of the major gift-giving holidays have come to a close, which prompts the staff at Mashable to poke our readers in the ribs and awkwardly whisper, “Hey, what did you get?” We know it’s always better to give than to receive — and we hope you’ve been giving generously to causes you care about, too — but we’re also really excited to get the full show-and-tell about any new gadgets that might now be living at your house. Over at my house, we tend toward the Android persuasion when it comes to mobile devices. So my partner was pretty surprised to open up an iPad; in fact, he wasn’t even sure he’d like it. But the holidays are about unity and coming together, even when it comes to mobile operating systems, and I’m happy to report his Droid-loving fingers haven’t stopped mashing buttons on the iPad screen for a couple days. It’s a Christmas miracle. Please vote in the poll below to let us know what gadgets you and your household received as holiday gifts — multiple selections are fine! And in the comments, tell us all the fun stories about your experiences with your new toys so far and what you plan to do with them in 2011. Also, if you’re still searching around for good apps for your new phone or accessories for your e-reader, check out our quick-start guides for ten of the year’s most popular gadgets. Reviews: Android More About: android, gadgets, gift, Holiday, ipad, iphone, Kindle, poll For more Tech coverage:
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| The Ultimate iPhone Guide: 60+ Essential Resources Posted: 26 Dec 2010 09:25 AM PST   With software and hardware updates and improvements, the iPhone has gone from strength to strength during 2010, and we’ve been there to cover it all with news, features, galleries, tutorials and more. The Apple flagship mobile device has enjoyed an ever-increasing number of excellent apps and ace accessories, meaning we’ve had to work extra hard this year to bring you what’s below: a gigantic mega-list of Mashable resources for iPhone owners from 2010. Whether you want to make sure you haven’t missed out on any amazing apps, recap this year’s top iPhone accessories or take a break with some lighthearted iFun, we think you’ll be sure to find something of interest below. iPhone Apps Apps, apps and more apps. With a side of apps and a few apps sprinkled on top.
iPhone Apps for Business More apps, this time with a business flavor.
iPhone Games At the opposite end of the app scale, there is tons of fun to be had with the growing number of available iPhone games. These lists recap some of our favorites from this year.
iPhone Accessories Moving from software to hardware, here’s a set of resources to help you find the most chic iPhone accessories.
iPhone Photography This past year has seen a huge rise in iPhotography, and we’ve been right there to bring you pics and peripherals.
iPhone How Tos Hints, tips, tricks and how-tos galore.
iPhone Misc Last but not least, two features that didn’t fit anywhere else but are still worth a look! Reviews: Apps, Mashable More About: apple, apple iphone, iphone, iphone accessories, iphone apps, iPhone games, iphotography, List, Lists, trending For more Apple coverage:
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| HOW TO: Land a Job at Microsoft Posted: 26 Dec 2010 08:04 AM PST   Everyone has a dream job. Whether it’s a company you’ve been pining to be a part of or a new product you’re dying to throw your creativity into, there’s always a line of work that seems like the perfect fit. Though recognizing your ideal position is easy, actually getting the job is the hard part. For those looking to start a career at tech giant Microsoft, the sheer size of the company makes the hunt seem even more overwhelming. Resumes can get lost in a sea of applications, and finding the right contact to reach out to can be like searching for a needle in a haystack. But that doesn’t mean you should give up on your dream of working at one of the most successful and dynamic corporations in the world. Here are some tips and resources from the company’s recruiters and employees for landing a job at Microsoft. Getting Started  With so many locations and products, the first step in starting your Microsoft job search should be deciding where you want to work and what you want to create. Visiting the Microsoft Careers website can help answer these questions. There you can look for a specific position in the navigation bar or choose a country from the drop-down menu. On the Find Your Fit page, details on the company’s various professions and technologies are laid out to help you explore opportunities. Once you apply by uploading your resume to a specific job posting on the site, it’s up for review. So how do you get that resume noticed? Standing Out  Many recruiters use keyword searches to pull up resumes — but that doesn’t mean every other word needs to be “motivated” or “team player.” Be sure to list the names of certain technologies and programming languages you’ve used in each project you include. This will allow a recruiter to see what you know and how well you know it. When putting together your resume, think about how you affected your environments and less about the basic facts of what you did. “Often, applicants write their resumes like a list of job tasks, but it's even more important to call out your major achievements and the difference you made: what you did, how you did it, and why it mattered,” said Gretchen Ledgard, communications manager for Microsoft Recruiting. Doing Your Homework Microsoft is known for its difficult interview process and obscure questions. The best way to nail it? “Do your homework on us,” Ledgard said. Candidates who come in with knowledge about the role, team and location tend to already have an idea of how to frame their answers and are ready to ask solid questions. Thom Mitchell, a Microsoft account technology strategist who was hired earlier this year, couldn’t agree more. He researched each person who was interviewing him and read up on the products he would be responsible for in the role and the competition for those products. He even prepared a short PowerPoint presentation about Microsoft products in case he was asked to present something on the fly (he wasn’t). When Mitchell asked questions, they were substantive and role-related — not “How are the health care benefits?” or “Is there a gym reimbursement?” More importantly, when he didn’t know an answer to a question he was asked, Mitchell simply said so and didn’t try to talk around the issue or come up with a fake answer. Following Up  If you have questions after submitting your resume, many Microsoft recruiters are open to being contacted via social media, Ledgard said. Microsoft Careers is also open to connecting through social networks and has resources for potential job candidates on its advice hub JobsBlog. But how do you strike a balance between keeping your name on the radar and being a nuisance? For Mitchell, the key was checking in as needed. He followed up with the recruiter after each screening interview and sent brief thank you notes to the hiring manager he interviewed with in person — but not to each person who interviewed him. Mitchell said his recruiter let him know what would happen every step of the way, so there wasn’t a need to over communicate. Finding a Fit There’s a big focus on not only job fit, but also company fit at Microsoft. Recruiters look for people who go above and beyond in everything they do, whether that’s taking the most difficult computer science courses or working on extracurricular projects, Ledgard said. Still, there’s no fool-proof formula for landing a job at Microsoft. Even though the position you’re applying for might feel like the perfect match, sometimes it’s just not. Microsoft’s recruiters and hiring managers are the experts on what type of person will be a good fit for both the job and the company culture. The best advice? Relax. If it’s meant to be, it will. Have you scored a job at Microsoft or are you trying to? What has your experience been like? Tell us in the comments below. More Job-Related Resources from Mashable:
Images courtesy of iStockphoto, Tomazl; Flickr, Pawel Niewladomski Reviews: Flickr, iStockphoto More About: advice, careers, hiring, how to, interviewing, job recruiting, jobs, microsoft, resume, social media For more Business coverage:
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