Monthly Archives: August 2011

HP TouchPad Joins MSFT Kin On Shoals Of Abandoned Products

Posted on by Kathy E. Gill

HP is “[discontinuing] operations for webOS devices, specifically the TouchPad and webOS phones.” The company slid this into its press announcement regarding possible purchase of Autonomy Corp (AU.L); with a market cap of $7 billion, it is the second largest pure software company in Europe.

The HP TouchPad tablet went on sale on July 1, 2011 and the Veer smartphone earlier in the year. Both run on HP’s webOS, which it acquired with Palm in April 2010 for $1.2 billion. HP has discontinued the TouchPad at 49 days.

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Welcome To The Brave New World Of Higher Education

Posted on by Kathy E. Gill

Introduction to Artificial Intelligence is being offered online this fall, free of charge, to “students” around the world. The introductory class is historically one of the largest at Stanford University, with about 200 students. In a YouTube overview of the online class, professor Sebastian Thrun explains that his goal is to have about 200,000 online students and make it “the largest online AI class ever taught.”

As of this writing, almost 90,000 people have signed up. The Stanford campus is home to about 15,000 students.

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U.S. Cellphone Use: Texting, Retrieving Information Top Activities

Posted on by Kathy E. Gill

On the same day that Google announced it was buying Motorola Mobility, Pew Internet told us that one-third of Americans now one a smartphone and that half of al cellphone owners use their phones to “get information they needed right away.”

Most of the headline writers focused on an inconsequential data point – people sometimes pretend to use their cellphones to avoid other people. Let’s look at the interesting data!

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LinkedIn Joins Facebook In “Personalized” Ad Push; Here’s How To Opt-Out

Posted on by Kathy E. Gill

To some of you, this may be old news. After all, LinkedIn announced the change via a blog post last month. But I learned about it today on GooglePlus.

First, there were announced changes in the LinkedIn privacy policy in June. (Missed those, too.)

Then last month, under the familiar guise of “deliver[ing] ads that are more useful and relevant to you,” LinkedIn opted-you-in to agreeing to let the company use your name and photo in social advertising.

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Facebook Adds eMail Addresses To “Download Your Info” But In The “Off” Position

Posted on by Kathy E. Gill

Facebook has quietly implemented a new feature as part of its “download your information” tool.

The company, which is notorious for introducing new features that force its customers to “turn off” default settings, has set up the “let my friends have my email” option … in the “off” mode. Yep, it is a nod to personal privacy. But it’s really a nod to Facebook’s attempt to have a stranglehold on all that personal data.

Before this announcement, it was possible to export your Facebook friends — at least a subset of them — using the import contacts feature at Yahoo mail and Hotmail. When I did this earlier this summer (post GooglePlus launch), the two sets were not identical (N was different). Clunky, though.

This new “opt in” feature seems to apply only to Facebook’s “download your info” tool. In other words, it is still possible to import Facebook contacts into Yahoo mail (I did not try Hotmail) … and this import/export process still doesn’t capture everyone. No, I don’t know why!

[Follow the jump for "how to" instructions and screen shots.]

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