Wired: Top Stories (20 unread)
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Inside the Motion Picture Industry's Cuddliest Anti-Piracy Operation: DVD-Sniffing Canine Unit
Posted: July 11th, 2008, 9:00pm EDT by David Kravets
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John Malcolm, the director of anti-piracy for the Motion Picture Association of America was thinking "outside the box" when he envisioned a PR-friendly way to combat movie piracy. How about training dogs to sniff DVDs? Those dogs have recovered millions of counterfeited DVDs and have led to the arrest of dozens of alleged pirates.
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How to Install and Customize a WordPress Blog
Posted: July 11th, 2008, 8:00pm EDT by Webmonkey
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The simple open-source publishing engine WordPress is flexible, powerful and remarkably easy to set up and customize. Webmonkey shows you how to get a basic WordPress blog up and running, then offers advice for tricking it out to your heart's content.
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First Look: iPhone 3G Fires on (Almost) Every Cylinder
Posted: July 11th, 2008, 7:30pm EDT by Gadget Lab
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Wired.com's Gadget Lab takes a first look at the iPhone 3G. The verdict? This is a solid, if not groundbreaking upgrade, making the iPhone seriously competitive with other smartphones. But you may not need to buy one to get its most powerful benefits.
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Video: Hands-On With the iPhone 3G
Posted: July 11th, 2008, 6:45pm EDT by Gadget Lab
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The iPhone 3G is a worthy upgrade to Apple's groundbreaking smartphone. But is it worth $200 and a two-year contract? In the debut episode of the Gadget Lab videoblog, Wired editors Dylan Tweney and Joe Brown debate the atest features -- and the value -- of the summer's hottest handset.
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22 iPhone Apps for Science Geeks
Posted: July 11th, 2008, 3:44pm EDT by Alexis Madrigal
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We highlight 22 iPhone apps for the fancy phone-toting science lover.
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Review: 'Journey to the Center of the Earth' Pops in 3-D
Posted: July 11th, 2008, 3:30pm EDT by Lewis Wallace
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Brendan Fraser stars as a scientist on a classic subterranean adventure in this family-friendly romp.
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Ameritrade Hack Settlement: $2 Per Victim, $1.8 Million for Lawyers
Posted: July 11th, 2008, 2:55pm EDT by David Kravets
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A proposed settlement of a class action lawsuit representing as many as 6.3 million TD Ameritrade customers whose data was stolen by hackers last year equals about $2 in compensation for each victim and $1.8 million in fees to the lawyers representing them. The settlement, which requires the Nebraska brokerage house to increase data security, does not publicly state whether lax security controls allowed last year's data breach.
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Gadget Lab Video Productions Presents: The iPhone 3G Release
Posted: July 11th, 2008, 2:43pm EDT by Jose Fermoso
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The iPhone 3G was released today. So Wired.com unleashed its crack video team to document the event at the downtown San Francisco Apple Store. Take a ride with Wired.com Senior Editor Dylan Tweney as he interviews the good, the bad and the slightly wacky patrons in line to buy the iPhone 3G on opening day.
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Make an Outdoor Theater
Posted: July 11th, 2008, 2:00pm EDT by Terrance Russell
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Take advantage of the summer weather and project your movie outside. Making a theater outdoors is easy if you have the right equipment and a few white bedsheets. Invite a few friends and you'll have your own DIY backyard theater in no time.
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Will Sony, Microsoft Try to 'Out-Wii' Nintendo at E3?
Posted: July 11th, 2008, 1:52pm EDT by Chris Kohler
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Nintendo's motion-sensing controls have changed the way people play games. Makers of competing consoles would be stupid if they weren't planning to jump on the Wiimote bandwagon.
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Comcast Faces FCC Sanctions for Blocking Web Traffic
Posted: July 11th, 2008, 11:15am EDT by Sam Gustin, Portfolio.com
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Subscribe to Portfolio magazineComcast, the nation's largest cable company, violated federal guidelines when it blocked and degraded Web traffic, the head of the Federal Communications Commission will announce Friday.
The sanctions would be the first time the commission has come down on an internet provider for denying consumers the right to open, unfettered internet access. It may set a precedent on how the federal government oversees management of internet traffic flows in the future.
Last fall, Comcast reluctantly acknowledged that it had temporarily blocked certain peer-to-peer traffic (file sharing). The cable giant called its actions "reasonable network management."
But consumer rights groups and internet experts accused the company of violating the F.C.C.'s 2005 "Internet Policy Statement," which established four principles intended to guarantee consumers unfettered access to all legal Web content, applications, and services.
The chairman of the F.C.C., Kevin Martin, now agrees.
"The commission has adopted a set of principles that protects consumers' access to the internet," he told the Associated Press on Thursday night. "We found that Comcast's actions in this instance violated our principles."
The consumer advocacy group Free Press trumpeted Martin's decision as a victory for consumers.
"This is going to be a bellwether," said Ben Scott, federal policy chief for Free Press.
The decision, contained in an order to be circulated by Martin, brings the agency's nine-month investigation of Comcast close to completion. Martin, a Republican, is expected to gain support from the two Democratic F.C.C. commissioners for his position, which would ensure the order's passage when the commission meets on August 1.
Comcast has long maintained that the government's standard gives it the right to manage its digital traffic "reasonably" for the sake of "network management."
For almost a year, consumer rights groups have battled Comcast, after an Associated Press investigation discovered that Comcast was blocking legal peer-to-peer traffic.
Comcast faced further public outrage after it admitted to paying people off the street to sit at a public hearing at Harvard, while members of the public were prevented from attending. At the time, Comcast claimed it merely paid people to save spots at the hearing for Comcast employees, but the event's organizer disputed that claim.
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Same Time, Next Year: Queues Everywhere for the IPhone 3G
Posted: July 11th, 2008, 9:36am EDT
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It doesn't have the revolutionary cachet that the first gen model had just a bit more than a year ago but eager buyers of the iPhone 3G -- many current and former owners of last year's model -- are lining up to get one all over the world. Why? Everyone has a theory, it seems, including this one from a grad student in Atlanta: "Chicks dig the iPhone."
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IPhone Debuts in Japan To Cheers and Smoke
Posted: July 11th, 2008, 7:59am EDT by Associated Press
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Apple iPhone goes on sale in Japan for the first time to eager buyers who had waited in lines around a city block. The celebration Softbank's store in Tokyo had swirls of smoke and a digital clock ticking away over the entrance, part of a rollout in 22 Asia/Pacific nations, including Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong.
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News Corp 'Unlikely' to be in a Yahoo Deal: Murdoch
Posted: July 11th, 2008, 7:54am EDT by Associated Press
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Rupert Murdoch says it's "very unlikely" News Corp would get involved in any sort of Microsoft-led deal for Yahoo. He doesn't even think there will be a deal: "There are bad personal feelings ... In six months, Microsoft will walk away."
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Unbreakable Fighting Umbrella Splits Watermelons, Defends Presidents
Posted: July 11th, 2008, 7:36am EDT by Charlie Sorrel
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The entourage of the Philippine president employs an unusual defense weapon -- umbrellas. Not ordinary umbrellas, but unbreakable fighting umbrellas.
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Racing to Canada in a Hydrogen Car
Posted: July 11th, 2008, 7:00am EDT by Chuck Squatriglia
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The name of the race is the North American Solar Challenge, but the University of Missouri wants to prove hydrogen is the fuel of the future.
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MobileMe Falters on Eve of IPhone 3G Launch
Posted: July 11th, 2008, 2:35am EDT by Associated Press
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MobileMe -- formerly known as .Mac -- gets off to a rocky start on the eve of the iPhone 3G launch, preventing subscribers from logging on to their accounts.
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Photo Contest: First Day With iPhone 3G
Posted: July 11th, 2008, 12:45am EDT by Wired.com Photo Department
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The excitement over the new iPhone this Friday is global, but we want you to act locally and show us your photos of this highly coveted gadget. We want to see outrageous shots from the line, disappointed faces after the phones sell out and most of all, the star of the show itself. We'll award the best photo a subscription to Wired magazine and display the top 10 photos in a gallery on Wired.com.
Use the Reddit widget below to submit your iPhone 3G photo and vote for your favorite among the other submissions. Some of the submissions will later appear in a gallery on the Wired.com homepage.
The photo must be your own, and by submitting it you are giving us permission to use it on Wired.com and in Wired magazine. Please submit images that are relatively large, the ideal size being 800 to 1200 pixels or larger on the longest side. Please include a description of your photo, which may include exposure information, equipment used, etc.
We don't host the photos, so you'll have to upload it somewhere else and submit a link to it. If you're using Flickr, Picasa or another photo-sharing site to host your image, please provide a link to the image directly and not just to the photo page where it's displayed. If your photo doesn't show up, it's because the URL you have entered is incorrect. Check it and make sure it ends with the image file name (XXXXXX.jpg).
Vote on iPhone 3G photos submitted by other readers.Show entries that are: hot | new | top-rated. Submit your iPhone 3G photo.
Submit your iPhone 3G photo.(No more than one every 30 minutes. No HTML allowed.)
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July 11, 1979: Look Out Below! Here Comes Skylab!
Posted: July 11th, 2008, 12:00am EDT by Tony Long
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1979: The Skylab space station reenters Earth's atmosphere after six years in orbit. It is perhaps the most highly anticipated return of any spacecraft ever, save Apollo 13.
America's first space station, launched in May 1973 as a science and engineering laboratory, was not a success. Originally intended to remain in orbit as a shelter for crews from the new space shuttle program, Skylab was badly damaged during liftoff and plagued thereafter by a power deficit that played a significant role in its premature demise.
NASA's plan was for Skylab to remain in relatively low orbit until a space shuttle equipped with a reboost module could reach it in 1979 and boost it into a higher orbit. Subsequent shuttle missions would focus on overhauling Skylab, making repairs and replacing various components.
It was intended that Skylab remain in orbit throughout the 1980s. It fell well short of that, but there were some achievements, especially in the areas of solar research and the adaptation of astronauts to longer periods in space.
Three crews traveled to Skylab aboard Apollo spacecraft -- spending a total of 171 days aboard and returning by splashdown -- and some repairs were made. The space station was placed in a parking orbit after the third Apollo crew departed, to await the eventual arrival of the first space shuttle. But delays in getting the shuttle program off the ground, coupled with Skylab's deteriorating orbit, compelled NASA to consign its space station to a fiery death.
With Skylab out of control, NASA ground controllers were unable to conduct the routine reentry procedures.
As they prepared to bring Skylab down, the world watched in an atmosphere that can only be described as circus-like. Skylab news coverage was amped up and sensationalized, merchandise was hawked everywhere, and bookmakers took bets on when and where the 77.5-ton space station would hit the Earth's atmosphere.
The San Francisco Examiner, in one of its loopier promotional campaigns (disclosure: I was on the paper's editorial staff at the time), even offered $10,000 (about $30,000 in today's money) to the first person who could deliver a chunk of Skylab debris to the paper's newsroom.
That person turned out to be Stan Thornton, a 17-year-old from Esperance, Australia.
Ground control had struggled to coax Skylab into a position that would cause the spacecraft to break up over the Indian Ocean. Most of it did, but parts of it came down over Western Australia. It also hit the atmosphere at a shallower angle than intended, resulting in bigger pieces, a number of which managed to fall to Earth intact.
A small piece landed on Thornton's roof in Esperance and the kid was off to San Francisco to claim his 10 grand.
Source: NASA, Space.com
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A Day in the Line: Queuing Up for the iPhone 3G Launch
Posted: July 11th, 2008, 12:00am EDT by Danny Dumas
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: Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.comSAN FRANCISCO, California — It's finally here. After months of waiting, salivating and prognosticating, the iPhone 3G finally became available worldwide today.
Lining up in front of the San Francisco Apple store during the wee hours on Friday morning, Wired.com correspondents talked to a litany of fascinating iPhone fans, geeky tech-heads and even some cynics. Here's a smattering of some interesting faces we encountered from that crowd, plus a few glimpses of other queues from around the world.
Left: The line outside the downtown San Francisco Apple store stretched around the block by 7 a.m. While Apple claimed its mandatory in-store activation would only take 15 minutes, technical problems caused the morning's early setups to drag on for 45 minutes or more.
: Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.comMany patrons who got in line early for the iPhone 3G came prepared with hammocks, sleeping bags and tents. Here, an unidentified member of the queue grabs a few winks before the phone went on sale at 8 a.m.
: Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.comJT, a web designer from San Francisco and his dog, Chaya, literally cheese for the camera, simultaneously showing off their love for Apple communication devices and partially hydrogenated cheddar-flavored products spewed from pressurized cans.
: Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.comLane, an Alameda, California, resident and iPhone line holder exercises some capitalist muscle, offering his spot near the front of the queue for $100. Lane had no takers at the time this photo was taken at 7:30 a.m.
: Photo: Emily Lang/Wired.comIn the space of an hour, the line outside the AT&T Wireless store in downtown San Francisco nearly tripled before doors opened at 8 am.
: Photo: Ed Ou/Associated PressA customer, right, purchases a new Apple iPhone 3G in New York's Apple Store. IPhone buyers had waited in lines around a city block and happily counted down the final 30 seconds before launch.
: Photo: Alexander Zemlianichenko/Associated PressFuture iPhone owners wait in the line outside Japanese mobile carrier Softbank's flagship store in Tokyo's Omotesando shopping district late Thursday, July 10, 2008, before the first sales of Apple's iPhone in Japan Friday.
: Photo: Sang Tan/Associated PressCustomers queue inside the Apple retail store on Regent Street, London, for the phone's launch.
: Photo: Emily Lang/Wired.comAngelique Guillermo, left, assistant manager of the downtown-S.F. AT&T store, explains to Mark Hogenson, right, and Ellen Davis, center, that after a long morning of waiting in line, they may not get an iPhone due to dwindling supplies. "It's probably not looking too good," Davis commented on her chances of getting a new phone today. "I really have to pee, so I'm debating what's more important at this point."
: Photo: Kin Cheung/Associated PressModels hold the new iPhones today in Hong Kong. Dealers and buyers said it's only a matter of time -- maybe as little as a few days -- before the popular device hits the region's thriving underground marketplace.
: Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.comTechnology "evangelist" Robert Scoble (center, wearing pistachio-colored shirt) showed up at San Francisco’s iPhone 3G launch, documenting the event digitally, of course.
: Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.comDominic Sagolla, organizer of iPhoneDevCamp, literally takes a whiff of his new iPhone 3G. Sagolla was the first customer to emerge from the Apple store in San Francisco with the new device in hand.