(Tribune Media Services) -- When Eileen Mather lands in Mexico City on her way to Tapachula, Mexico, she learns her airline ticket isn't valid. Her airline forces her to buy a new one. Mather asks her online agency, Cheapoair.com, for a refund, but more than six months later, she's still out $879. Is she also out of options? Q: I need your help getting my money back for a plane ticket I had to pay for twice. Here's my story: I bought tickets online through Cheapoair.com from Philadelphia to Tapachula, Mexico. When we arrived in Mexico City, Aviacsa Airlines representatives told us that Cheapoair hadn't paid for the last leg of our trip. So I had to buy new tickets. Two members of our group also had to pay again. After I returned home, I faxed all of my documents to a supervisor at Cheapoair. That was six months ago. I've called her repeatedly and left messages, but no one has contacted me, and I'm out $879. Is there anything you can do? -- Eileen Mather, Glenside, Pennsylvania A: You shouldn't have to pay twice for your airline tickets. But you also shouldn't be too quick to blame Cheapoair for the mix-up. A lot can go wrong when you're dealing with a flight schedule that involves multiple carriers. Reservations can be lost, paper tickets and boarding passes can be misread. And, of course, there's the language issue. When you're traveling internationally, something can easily get lost in the translation. Cheapoair may -- or may not -- have been responsible for your non-working tickets. But as your online travel agent, it was responsible for helping you fix it. That's why you buy from an intermediary and pay a booking fee: so there's someone to turn to when something goes wrong. The online agency shouldn't have kept you in a holding pattern for more than six months. Cheapoair's "Golden Guarantee" promises "to provide all our customers with 24/7 toll-free number support because we understand the importance of critical last-minute client/traveler needs and requirements for changes to trips." I guess offering a toll-free number around the clock doesn't necessarily mean your questions will be answered quickly, but you can't blame me if I'm left with that impression. You could have avoided a lengthy dance with Cheapoair by taking this up with Aviacsa either when you were flying to Tapachula or returning home. If you had arrived at the airport a half-hour earlier, you might have been able to speak with a supervisor and straightened this out. Once you were home, and were running into a brick wall with Cheapoair's supervisor, I would have tried knocking on the front door again. Normally, starting a new query through an online form means your complaint will get reviewed again and may be assigned a new case number. A phone call doesn't work the same way. After you hang up, your case is basically closed. I contacted Cheapoair on your behalf. It apologized for the delay and said it contacted Aviasca, but couldn't determine why your ticket wasn't accepted. An airline representative told Cheapoair it would have to speak to the agent who was working at the ticket counter when you checked in, which was impossible. Cheapoair refunded the $879 you spent on your second ticket. Christopher Elliott is the ombudsman for National Geographic Traveler magazine. E-mail him at celliott@ngs.org.

What is the website called?
What happened to the ticket?
Where was the flight to?
What did Cheapoair do to the customer?

Answer: Cheapoair.com

Answer: wasn't accepted.

Answer: Tapachula, Mexico.

Answer: refunded the $879

Summary:
Customer booked an international flight through Cheapoair.com .
Ticket for one leg of her flight was not accepted, and she had to buy a new one .
The online agency did not know why her ticket was rejected .
Troubleshooter contacted Cheapoair, and it refunded the customer's money .


(WASHINGTON) -- The Federal Aviation Administration ordered U.S. airlines Thursday to replace a part that has come under suspicion in the crash of Air France Flight 447. U.S. air safety authorities have ordered the replacement of a part on A330 planes following the crash of Air France Flight 447. The FAA gave airlines 120 days to replace devices that could be giving false airspeed indications. All 228 people on Air France Flight 447 were killed when the Airbus A330 plane crashed June 1 en route to Paris, France, from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The U.S. air safety watchdog agency bypassed the usual process which allows for public comment on its orders. It said it could expedite the process because of the limited number of planes involved -- only 43 in the United States -- and because they say it is prudent to make the change as quickly as possible. At the same time, it said it did not feel the risk warranted grounding the fleet of aircraft. US Airways, one of only two American carriers who fly planes affected by the order, said Thursday they had already replaced the part. "The work was completed last week. We are scheduled to take delivery of three new ... A330s by year's end and those three will not require any ... changes," a US Airways spokesman told CNN via e-mail. Northwest is the other U.S. carrier that operates A330s, the FAA said. A spokeswoman for Delta airlines, Northwest's parent company, said affected Northwest planes are getting new parts. "We are well under way working closely with Airbus and Goodrich to install the Goodrich pitot tubes within the required timelines," Ashley Black told CNN. The devices under suspicion are the Thales Avionics pitot probes on some Airbus A330 and A340 aircraft. They measure "ram air pressure," the pressure exerted on the plane as it flies through the air, and are part of a system used to determine air speed. The FAA order requires aircraft operators to replace certain Thales pitot probes with certain Goodrich or newer-design Thales pitot probes. The FAA says the order is intended to "prevent airspeed discrepancies, which could lead to disconnect of the autopilot and/or auto-thrust functions and consequent increased pilot workload." French authorities are still investigating the cause of the Air France crash. But tests conducted since the crash have brought into question the performance of the pitot tubes and authorities say there have been reports of other malfunctions on flights. No U.S. operator flies A340s. There are 302 of the aircraft worldwide. The FAA action follows an announcement by European air safety authorities earlier this week to require pitot tube replacements by September 7.

What carriers are flying affected planes ?

What was ordered after Air France crash ?

What is the status of the work accordint to the spokeswoman ?

Answer: Northwest

Answer: replacement of a part on A330 planes

Answer: replace devices that could be giving false airspeed indications.

Answer: the replacement of a part on A330 planes

Answer: US Airways,

Answer: completed last week.

Summary:
NEW: Work "well under way," Northwest parent company spokeswoman says .
FAA orders U.S. airlines to replace part under suspicion in Air France crash .
The devices could be giving false airspeed indications .
Northwest and US Airways are only U.S. carriers that fly affected planes .


(WIRED)  -- Scofflaws could hack the smart cards that access electronic parking meters in large cities around the United States, researchers are finding. "Cities all over the nation and all over the world are deploying these smartcard meters," researcher says. The smart cards pay for parking spots, and their programming could be easily changed to obtain unlimited free parking. It took researcher Joe Grand only three days to design an attack on the smart cards. The researchers examined the meters used in San Francisco, California, but the same and similar electronic meters are being installed in cities around the world. "It wasn't technically complicated and the fact that I can do it in three days means that other people are probably already doing it and probably taking advantage of it," said Joe Grand, a designer and hardware hacker and one of the hosts of the Discovery Channel's "Prototype This" show. "It seems like the system wasn't analyzed at all." Grand and fellow researcher Jake Appelbaum presented their findings Thursday afternoon at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. The researchers did not contact the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency or the meter maker prior to their talk, and asked reporters not to contact those organizations ahead of their presentation, for fear of being gagged by a court order. At last year's DefCon hacker conference, MIT students were barred from talking about similar vulnerabilities in smartcards used by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority after the MBTA obtained a restraining order. They spoke with Threat Level about their findings prior to the presentation. "We're not picking on San Francisco," Grand said. "We're not even claiming to get free parking. We're trying to educate people about ... how they can take our research and apply it to their own cities if they are trying to deploy their own systems or make them more secure.... Cities all over the nation and all over the world are deploying these smartcard meters [and] there's a number of previously known problems with various parking meters in other cities." San Francisco launched a $35-million pilot project in 2003 to deploy smart meters around the city in an effort to thwart thieves, including parking control officers who were skimming money from the meters. The city estimated it was losing more than $3 million annually to theft. In response, it installed 23,000 meters made by a Canadian firm named J.J. MacKay, which also has meters in Florida, Massachusetts, New York, Canada, Hong Kong and other locales. The machines are hybrids that allow drivers to insert either coins, or a pre-paid GemPlus smart card, which can be purchased in values of $20 or $50. The machines also have an audit log to help catch insiders who might skim proceeds. To record the communication between the card and the meter, Grand purchased a smartcard shim -- an electrical connector that duplicates a smartcard's contact points -- and used an oscilloscope to record the electrical signals as the card and meter communicated. He discovered the cards aren't digitally signed, and the only authentication between the meter and card is a password sent from the former to the latter. The card doesn't have to know the password, however, it just has to respond that the password is correct. The cards sold in San Francisco are designed to be thrown out when the customer has exhausted them. But the researchers found that the meters perform no upper-bounds check, so hackers could easily boost the transaction limit on a card beyond what could legitimately purchased. They could also program a card to simply never deduct from the transaction count. "We're residents of San Francisco and our taxes are going towards a broken system that they could potentially be losing money on and we pay the consequences of that," Grand said. Subscribe to WIRED magazine for less than $1 an issue and get a FREE GIFT! Click here!

What did researchers program cards to do?

how many was losing the city before smart cards?

The city was losing how much money annually to theft?

What did Joe Grand and Jake Appelbaum present?

Who presents findings at Black Hat conference?

Answer: obtain unlimited free parking.

Answer: more than $3 million annually

Answer: $3 million

Answer: Thursday afternoon

Answer: their findings

Answer: Scofflaws could hack the smart cards that access electronic parking meters in large cities

Answer: around the United States,

Answer: Jake Appelbaum

Summary:
Researchers find smart cards that access parking meters can be hacked .
Joe Grand and Jake Appelbaum present findings at Black Hat conference .
Before smart cards, city was losing more than $3 million annually to theft .
Researchers programmed cards to never deduct from transaction count .


(WIRED) -- A computer virus has infected the cockpits of America's Predator and Reaper drones, logging pilots' every keystroke as they remotely fly missions over Afghanistan and other warzones.

The virus, first detected nearly two weeks ago by the military's Host-Based Security System, has not prevented pilots at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada from flying their missions overseas. Nor have there been any confirmed incidents of classified information being lost or sent to an outside source. But the virus has resisted multiple efforts to remove it from Creech's computers, network security specialists say. And the infection underscores the ongoing security risks in what has become the U.S. military's most important weapons system.

"We keep wiping it off, and it keeps coming back," says a source familiar with the network infection, one of three that told Danger Room about the virus. "We think it's benign. But we just don't know."

Military network security specialists aren't sure whether the virus and its so-called "keylogger" payload were introduced intentionally or by accident; it may be a common piece of malware that just happened to make its way into these sensitive networks. The specialists don't know exactly how far the virus has spread. But they're sure that the infection has hit both classified and unclassified machines at Creech. That raises the possibility, at least, that secret data may have been captured by the keylogger, and then transmitted over the public internet to someone outside the military chain of command.

Drones have become America's tool of choice in both its conventional and shadow wars, allowing U.S. forces to attack targets and spy on its foes without risking American lives. Since President Obama assumed office, a fleet of approximately 30 CIA-directed drones have hit targets in Pakistan more than 230 times; all told, these drones have killed more than 2,000 suspected militants and civilians, according to the Washington Post. More than 150 additional Predator and Reaper drones, under U.S. Air Force control, watch over the fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. American military drones struck 92 times in Libya between mid-April and late August. And late last month, an American drone killed top terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki -- part of an escalating unmanned air assault in the Horn of Africa and southern Arabian peninsula.

But despite their widespread use, the drone systems are known to have security flaws. Many Reapers and Predators don't encrypt the video they transmit to American troops on the ground. In the summer of 2009, U.S. forces discovered "days and days and hours and hours" of the drone footage on the laptops of Iraqi insurgents. A $26 piece of software allowed the militants to capture the video.

The lion's share of U.S. drone missions are flown by Air Force pilots stationed at Creech, a tiny outpost in the barren Nevada desert, 20 miles north of a state prison and adjacent to a one-story casino. In a nondescript building, down a largely unmarked hallway, is a series of rooms, each with a rack of servers and a "ground control station," or GCS. There, a drone pilot and a sensor operator sit in their flight suits in front of a series of screens. In the pilot's hand is the joystick, guiding the drone as it soars above Afghanistan, Iraq, or some other battlefield.

Some of the GCSs are classified secret, and used for conventional warzone surveillance duty. The GCSs handling more exotic operations are top secret. None of the remote cockpits are supposed to be connected to the public internet. Which means they are supposed to be largely immune to viruses and other network security threats.

But time and time again, the so-called "air gaps" between classified and public networks have been bridged, largely through the use of discs and removable drives. In late 2008, for example, the drives helped introduce the agent.btz worm to hundreds of thousands of Defense Department computers. The Pentagon is still disinfecting machines, three years later.

Use of the drives is now severely restricted throughout the military. But the base at Creech was one of the exceptions,

What kind of virus hit Creech's computers?

Answer: the cockpits of America's Predator and Reaper drones,

Answer: multiple efforts to remove it from Creech's computers,

Answer: it may be a common piece of malware

Answer: Defense Department

Summary:
The virus has resisted multiple efforts to remove it from Creech's computers .
It may be a common piece of malware .
They're sure that the infection has hit both classified and unclassified machines .


(WIRED) -- Apple has traditionally held its ground as a premium computer manufacturer, but it might just be getting sucked into a recession-prompted price war.

A worker helps a customer with a MacBook Pro laptop at an Apple store in San Francisco, California.

The company's recent MacBook price cuts signify its reluctant conformity to the economic downturn.

At its Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday, Apple shaved hundreds of dollars off its MacBook models.

The high-end, 15-inch MacBook Pros dropped from $2,000 to $1,700. And the price of the unibody MacBook (now renamed the 13-inch MacBook Pro) fell from $1,300 to $1,200. Apple's most inexpensive MacBook, the lone white model, remains $1,000.

"For a while they've been ignoring what's been happening in the economy," said Richard Shim, an IDC analyst.

"This is an indication that they're realizing that the first quarter didn't go as well as it has for them historically. I think this puts them closer in mind about what's going on in the PC world."

Still, Apple has avoided making even deeper price cuts, thanks to the juicy profit margins already baked into its products, the availability of cheap components, and the fact that the company also makes money by selling apps and music to iPhone and iPod owners.

All of these factors mean that Apple has room to comfortably trim prices even further, if it deems it necessary.

For instance, the company dropped the price of its now low-end smartphone, the iPhone 3G, to just $100 with a two-year contract. But that cut doesn't cost Apple as much as it might appear, given that the company still gets a carrier subsidy of several hundred dollars for each iPhone.

Apple's computers have historically been priced well above the average PC. However, Apple's first quarter of 2009 market-share numbers suggest the company is struggling to compete as a premium brand name in the face of the economic recession. In the first quarter of 2009, Apple's U.S. notebook market share shrank 0.4 percent compared to the same quarter a year earlier, according to Shim. And in worldwide notebook market share, the company saw 0.3 percent growth compared to the first quarter of 2008, Shim said.

Additionally, Apple is likely hurting from its competitors' aggressive pricing, cast into relief by Microsoft's recent Laptop Hunters ad campaign, a BrandIndex survey indicates.

The pseudo reality-TV commercials denounce Apple computers as too expensive and even implies Mac users are simple-minded snobs who buy gadgets as a fashion statement. As a result, Microsoft is detracting from Apple's "value" score by convincing a substantial number of consumers that they get less for their money by buying a Mac, according to the survey.

By cutting its prices somewhat, Apple may also be seizing the opportunity to strike a blow against the netbook market. In 2008, low-powered, budget netbook PCs saw rapid growth, driven by value-conscious consumers looking for a good deal. Apple has no netbook in its lineup, and has said it has no plans to create a netbook.

Fortunately for Apple, netbook sales are seeing a significant slowdown in 2009. In April, netbook manufacturers Acer, Asus and Micro Star International each reported fewer netbooks were sold than expected. Their netbook shipments for the first quarter of 2009 fell considerably below shipments during the third quarter of 2008. Asus, for example, hoped to ship 1 million Asus Eee PC systems during the first quarter, but only 900,000 units sold.

Thus, Apple's MacBook price cuts are a strategic move to reclaim growth while the netbook market is shrinking. This move allows Apple to continue to avoid offering a netbook, which is wise, because an Apple netbook would have cannibalized MacBook sales, according to ThinkPanmure analyst Vijay Rakesh. With the reduced MacBook price tags, Rakesh expects Apple to see double-digit growth in notebook marketshare -- up to 20 percent -- in the third quarter of 2009.

Regardless, Apple's MacBook price tags are still well above the

What have Apple computers been priced above?

What has the company shaved dollars off of?

What might Apple be getting sucked into?

Which company might be sucked into a price war?

Answer: the average PC.

Answer: to reclaim growth

Answer: MacBook models.

Answer: Apple shaved hundreds of dollars off

Answer: a recession-prompted price war.

Answer: MacBook

Answer: a recession-prompted price war.

Answer: Apple

Summary:
Apple might just be getting sucked into a recession-prompted price war .
The company has shaved hundreds of dollars off its MacBook models .
Apple's computers have historically been priced well above the average PC .
Apple's MacBook price cuts are a strategic move to reclaim growth .


(WIRED) -- Apple is a powerhouse of ingenuity, patenting ideas as soon as an engineer can scratch them down on paper (or iPad). Around three dozen Apple patents made their way through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office this week alone.

Here we share three of the most notable -- one helps prevent cracked cover glass, another would deliver power to multiple devices with just a single adapter, and a third is a far-reaching location-based services patent that could keep Apple's competitors on their toes.

First off, Apple has come up with a solution for keeping the glass on the back of your iDevice from breaking in the event of a fall. Obviously, the simplest solution would be to avoid glass screens altogether, but if glass is going to stay, it should be made more resilient.

Apple dreamed up a tunable shock mount that would sit between the glass and the body of the device. This shock mount would inflate when the device's accelerometer senses that the phone or tablet is falling. An actuator within the device would suck in the cover glass as it accelerates toward earth, protecting it from damage. This technology could also be used to provide a water-tight seal.

The patent also describes using alumino silicate glass, better known as Gorilla Glass, instead of normal glass. Gorilla Glass is already used in the iPhone 4 and 4S. Future cover glass could be chemically treated in a solution including potassium to help strengthen it further. As K+ ions replace Na+ ions on the surface and edges of the glass, the glass would have higher compression thresholds in those areas, making it less susceptible to cracking.

Next up, Apple proposed an intelligent power adapter that could detect the varied power needs of different devices, and service them simultaneously.

Today's power adapters typically convert AC current from a wall outlet to a single DC current that can be fed to your device. Because different devices have different power needs, you currently need a different cable for each new gadget you use. (Well, that's the main reason. If power cords and adapters were universally interchangeable, manufacturers wouldn't be able to reap additional revenue when these accessories eventually need to be replaced.)

Apple's patent details an adapter that would have multiple, daisy-chained DC-to-DC converters (either in the adapter itself, or the cord or a connector), supplying power to more than one device. Alternatively, the adapter would have a relay that dynamically controls the power delivered to a device, and would only deliver juice to compatible devices.

The third major patent that rolled through the USPTO this week was innovative back when it was first filed by Xerox in 1998. The patent involves location-based services, and could potentially be another tool Apple could use to crush other mobile competition (or at least get them to pony up some royalties).

Apple acquired this patent in 2009 from Xerox, and on Tuesday the patent was reissued. The patent predates the mobile app revolution, and even the rise of major social networks, and is worded uncomfortably broadly.

Here's the bulk of what it says:

"A location information system that displays location specific information, the location information system, comprising: a receiver that receives location identification information from at least one site specific object identifying a location.Iadd., where the at least one site specific object is a beacon.Iaddend.; and a transceiver that transmits the location identification information to a distributed network and that receives the location specific information about the specified location from the distributed network based on the location identification information, wherein the location specific information provides information corresponding to the location."

Yes, patentese is an obtuse dialect, but if you could decipher any of the above, you'll know the patent describes what tons of apps and mobile devices already do on a near constant basis. Apple could, theoretically, start pursuing companies like Foursquare or Facebook for performing location-based services that fall under the patent's very wide umbrella.

Is this patent really a threat to such companies?

"Apple gets interesting new patents all

what is the third patent for
the third patent involving?
What protects screens
Who filed the patent
what is the shock mount used for

Answer: a far-reaching location-based services

Answer: location-based services,

Answer: tunable shock mount

Answer: Apple

Answer: keeping the glass on the back of your iDevice from breaking in the event of a fall.

Summary:
One of Apple's most recent patents helps protect glass screens by using a shock mount .
Another patent filed by Apple is for an adapter for multiple DC-to-DC converters .
A third patent involves the use of location-based services .


(WIRED) -- Apple is the exclusive gatekeeper to its iPhone App Store, able to reject apps at will -- as it did July 28 with Google Voice. Some would-be iPhone developers, rejected by Apple, are turning to an unauthorized app store called Cydia. But some developers aren't taking the rejection lying down: They're turning instead to an unauthorized app store called Cydia, where forbidden wares continue to exist -- and even earn developers some money. That store is operated by Jay Freeman, more fondly known in the iPhone "Jailbreak" community as Saurik. Only five months old, his app store Cydia specializes in selling apps that Apple would reject or ban (or already has). To use Cydia or the apps available through it, customers need to jailbreak their phones -- hack them to work around Apple-imposed restrictions -- a process that Apple claims is illegal. Indeed, you can even get a Google Voice app, GV Mobile, through Cydia. After Apple pulled the app from its App Store, developer Sean Kovacs (who is not affiliated with Google) made it available for free through Cydia. It's difficult to get accurate data on how many customers have jailbroken their iPhones. But based on the number of unique device identifiers tracked on his server, Freeman claims that about 4 million, or 10 percent of the 40 million iPhone and iPod Touch owners to date, have installed Cydia. On a recent day, he said 470,000 people were connecting to the Cydia store, up from 350,000 per day just a few months ago. Among many free apps, there are also 15 paid apps in Cydia, and the store has earned $220,000 in overall sales in just five months. "People are so annoyed by Apple and their s---, and if you give them opportunity to go around it, then they'll even pay for it," said Kim Streich, a developer whose app 3G Unrestrictor earned $19,000 in sales in just two weeks through Cydia. Though Cydia is relatively young, the underground "Jailbreak" community has existed since the first iPhone launched in 2007. That year, Apple didn't yet have an app store for its iPhone, stifling the true potential of the device. This limitation inspired digital rebels to hack away at the iPhone's closed platform in an effort to free its mind. The result? An app called Installer, opening a door for early iPhone owners to add games, utilities and other third-party software coded by developers. It wasn't until 2008 that Apple offered a software development kit for third-party coders to make programs for its iPhone. That led to the opening of the official App Store in July 2008. Apple's store grew rapidly, accumulating 65,000 apps and serving over 1.5 billion downloads to date. Many developers abandoned Installer for the more popular App Store, leaving behind an underground space where unauthorized wares could continue to exist. Installer died and became reborn as Cydia, which evolved from an app library into a store in March 2009. To gain access to Cydia, iPhone owners must jailbreak their smartphones using some freely available tools courtesy of the hacker group iPhone Dev-Team. Given the nature of this procedure, it's clear Cydia's primary audience consists of nerdy rebels wishing to utilize the full power of their iPhones, restriction-free. Cydia's numbers appear small compared to the rare stories we hear about developers turning into millionaires with hot sales of their iPhone apps in the App Store. But the idea behind a store like Cydia is that you don't have to be huge to make money. With a smaller market, fewer competitors and a reasonably large customer base, each developer has a higher chance for making a quick buck, Freeman said. Plus, you get more personal attention: Developers submitting their app through Cydia need only contact Freeman, and their app can be made available almost immediately. That's an enticing alternative to Apple's approval process, which can take months and is notoriously opaque: Some App Store developers have faced difficulty getting answers to simple questions from Apple about their apps

What unauthorized new store are iPhone developers turning to?

Where are would-be iPhone developers turning t o?

What must a customer do in order to be able to use the unauthorized apps?

Answer: Cydia.

Answer: unauthorized app

Answer: jailbreak their phones

Answer: Cydia

Answer: Cydia.

Answer: jailbreak their phones

Summary:
Some would-be iPhone developers are turning instead to an unauthorized app store .
The new store, Cydia, specializes in selling apps that Apple would reject or ban .
To use Cydia or the apps available through it, customers must jailbreak their phones .
Cydia operator: Too soon to tell whether store could earn developers stable incomes .


(WIRED) -- Apple's decision to not include a camera in the new iPod Touch is somewhat surprising. After all, there is already a perfect camera for the job, and it sits inside the iPhone.

By not adding a camera to its iPod Touch, Apple may boost sales of its iPod Nano.

That Apple included a video camera inside the iPod Nano makes this more inexplicable still -- the Apple of today is clearly happy to put cameras into its media players (unlike the first iPhone, whose camera was so poor we thought it was just a petulant capitulation to cellphone norms).

Leaving the camera out is also a clear signal not to upgrade the Touch, as -- apart from a larger 64GB model -- the only hardware change is the juiced-up processor, making the iPod Touch run faster like its older brother the iPhone 3GS.

Perhaps Apple is putting the Touch on a two-year update plan like the iPhone, letting people keep their pocket computers for a little longer than usual.

Had the Touch included a camera, I would be knocking on the store doors right now to buy one, along with 64GB ready to be filled with photos and video.

So the excitement falls to the Nano, which, sports a new shiny coating, a 640 x 480 video camera (no stills) and a larger screen on the outside, and an FM radio on the inside with a Tivo-esque live-pause feature. The radio itself is odd enough, and the first to be included in any iPod. More on that in a moment.

The Nano's video camera was introduced with reference to Flip's own tiny, no-zoom camcorder. There are two Flip camcorders at the 8GB Nano's $150 price: the 2GB Mino and the 4GB Ultra. To get 4GB and 8GB you jump to $200. The 16GB Nano costs $180.

Why would somebody buy a Flip? The easy, one button recording, perhaps (with the Nano, you need to go to a menu item to open the video camera application), but that's it. Take a look at the sample videos at the Apple store and you'll see that the Nano's quality is easily "good enough."

There is another surprise in there, too. The tiny Nano frame has a chip big enough to add real-time effects to video. Gimmicky, but as we guess this is aimed at the teenage market, a nice feature.

The Nano is the fitness iPod, too, and in this guise it makes another piece of hardware obsolete: The shoe-mounted Nike+ dongle. The Nano comes with the Nike+ software, with workout history, power songs and the like, but the accelerometer now works as a pedometer, counting your steps to flab-loss. You can also connect it to a Nike + iPod compatible cardio-machine via the dock connector.

One mystery remains, though. Why would Apple put an FM tuner into an iPod, something it has refused for almost ten years? The answer comes with iTunes-Tagging. In addition to live pausing of the radio stream (and rewinding up to 15 minutes through the buffer) you can tag tracks by hitting the center button.

If a radio station supports it, the song info is saved and later you can see a list in iTunes alongside, you guessed it, the option to buy the song. Of course, the fact that the new Zune HD has an HD radio inside may also have influenced Apple's decision.

So now I'm torn. Do I buy a new Touch to replace my current model which has a loose headphone connection, or should I get the Nano, with its video camera and sport-friendly features?

If Apple had piled the features onto the Touch, the decision would be made, and Apple would have $400 of my money. As it is, I think I'll wait.

Subscribe to WIRED magazine for less than $1 an issue and get a FREE GIFT! Click here!

How many years is the iphone update plan?

What did apple upgrade with a video camera?

Answer: to not include a camera in the new iPod Touch

Answer: two-year

Answer: iPod Touch,

Answer: iPod Nano

Summary:
Apple upgraded its iPod Nano with a video camera, not its iPod Touch .
Nano's video camera is a direct challenge to Flip's tiny, no-zoom camcorder .
Nano has an FM radio with live pausing, rewinding and ability to tag tracks in iTunes .
Perhaps Apple is putting the Touch on a two-year update plan like the iPhone .


(WIRED) -- For the past three years some of the world's most resourceful software engineers and mathematicians have worked feverishly in the spirit of friendly, Darwinian competition -- and in pursuit of a $1 million prize -- to improve the Netflix movie recommendation system by 10 percent. Netflix says it will announce the winner of its $1 million Netflix Prize at an event September 21. It's been a long journey, but it's almost over. Netflix said Tuesday it would announce the winner at an event in New York on Sept. 21 -- where details about the Netflix Prize 2 sequel would also be unveiled. As things stand now, nobody outside of Netflix knows which team will win the million-dollar prize, but the winning entry will power Netflix's upcoming movie recommendation engine. Because nothing about the contest barred entrants from licensing their technology to companies other than Netflix, both qualifying teams could find plenty of licensees -- even if they come in second. And not much separates the two top teams. Teams Bellkor (AT&T Research), Big Chaos and Pragmatic Theory combined to form Bellkor's Pragmatic Chaos, the first team to qualify for the prize on June 26 with a 10.05 percent improvement over Netflix's existing algorithm. This triggered a 30-day window in which other teams were allowed to try to catch up -- and indeed, a team called The Ensemble, made up of lower-ranked contestants, submitted a higher score of 10.10 percent as time ran out -- a hair better than Bellkor's Pragmatic Chaos' final score of 10.09 percent. Before Sept. 21, Netflix must decide (assuming they haven't done so already) which of the two qualifying teams has the best algorithm based on how they score on various undisclosed tests. The company must also determine whether the winning team's results are reproducible, meaning that its algorithm handles new data as well as it did the test data. When we wrote about this last month, after the window for qualifying closed, Netflix declined to say whether it will reveal details about its methodology for picking the winner (whichever team loses, they're going to want to know how, exactly, that happened -- as will curious onlookers around the world). A Netflix spokeswoman told us, "We are definitely going to touch on the methodology in the press conference," and offered to let us interview Netflix executives to find out more about how they picked the winner. Netflix vice president of communications Steve Swasey told us last month that the company is pleased with the results of the contest, and apparently, it hopes there's more where that came from. At the same New York event where it will announce the Netflix Prize winner, the company plans to unveil details about Netflix Prize 2. Writing on Netflix message boards, chief product officer Neil Hunt already offered some hints: "The next contest will be a shorter, time-limited race, with grand prizes for the best results at 6 and 18 months. While the first contest has been remarkable, we think Netflix Prize 2 will be more challenging, more fun, and even more useful to the field." More than 40,000 teams from 186 countries competed for the first Netflix Prize. Some contestants doubted that any team would be capable of surmounting the 10-percent-improvement barrier, but two teams managed to do so. Clearly, Netflix has stumbled onto a winning formula here, and will walk away from the contest with a measurably improved movie recommendation engine -- and recommendations are a linchpin of its business. As the field of "prize economics" evolves, offering organizations increasingly efficient ways to solve their problems, we expect results like this to become more commonplace. Subscribe to WIRED magazine for less than $1 an issue and get a FREE GIFT! Click here!

When will Netflix announce the winner of its $1 million prize?

Answer: at an event September 21.

Answer: $1 million

Answer: $1 million

Answer: Netflix

Answer: $1 million

Answer: September 21.

Answer: Netflix

Answer: September 21.

Summary:
Netflix will announce the winner of its $1 million Netflix Prize on September 21 .
Prize goes to team that improves Netflix's movie-recommendation system .
Nobody outside of Netflix knows which team will win the million-dollar prize .
Details about the Netflix Prize 2 sequel will also be unveiled that day .


(WIRED) -- Forget relying solely on touch to control your Apple device. On future iPads, you may be able to control your tablet from across the room using 3-D gestures, such as a swirl or swipe of the hand.

As suggested by a newly uncovered Apple patent, you would be able to manipulate and control graphical elements on your display, such as icons, media files, text and images. The gestures themselves could take many forms: geometric shapes (e.g., a half-circle or square), symbols (like a check mark or question mark), the letters of the alphabet, and other sorts of predetermined patterns.

One interesting application the patent highlights is video annotation and editing via a gesture-based toolbar. The toolbar would provide pre-set options for beginners, but would also allow more advanced users to customize their own gestures.

A previously discovered patent indicates that Apple could be working on an integrated projector for iDevices that would incorporate physical gestures as a method to manipulate a projected image. This newer patent, however, focuses more on the gestures themselves and other ways they could be used to control onscreen images and video. There's no mention of Siri or combining voice control with physical gestures.

The 3-D gesture-capturing method would employ a device's front-facing camera. The iPad 2, iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S all include a front-facing camera, so if Apple, say, decided to integrate this feature in an upcoming version of iOS, it's possible that legacy iDevice models could employ the technology as well.

That said, the patent does suggest that older iPhones may not have enough processing power for the gesture-capturing workload, as it shows a way to transfer video from the iPhone to an iPad for more advanced editing options.

The patent pre-defines a number of gestures, such as ones for facial recognition, a selection gesture and a pointing gesture (to identify a specific section of an onscreen image).

The patent was originally filed in mid-2010.

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Will older phones have enough processing power?

will this be available on all ios devices?

What will users be able to do on future ipads?

What could be a problem for older iPhones?

which major phone company is making a projector for their devices/

would this process work on an older iphone?

Answer: Apple

Answer: swirl or swipe of the hand.

Answer: may not

Answer: it's possible that legacy iDevice models could employ the technology as well.

Answer: control your tablet from across the room using 3-D gestures,

Answer: an integrated projector for iDevices

Answer: may not have enough processing power

Answer: Apple

Answer: may not have enough processing power

Summary:
On future iPads, you may be able to control your tablet from across the room .
3-D gestures could be in geometric shapes, symbols, letters or patterns .
Apple could be working on an integrated projector for iDevices .
Older iPhones may not have enough processing power for the gesture-capturing .


(WIRED) -- Google's Maps team has made fantastic advances in surveying and mapping seemingly every square inch of navigable ground on the planet. But for mobile users, those maps have always stopped just short of indoor spaces -- until now.

Google Maps 6.0 for Android launched Tuesday with a bold initiative: indoor mapping. Partnering at launch with a selection of businesses and public service structures, the new mobile Maps version allows users to see the entire layout of a mapped building, switch between floor plans if the structure has multiple levels, and locate indoor points of interest like retail stores, bathrooms and ATMs.

Obviously, indoor mapping is only useful when the building you're navigating is big enough to warrant it.

To this end, Google has partnered with more than 25 major businesses that handle large crowds on a regular basis -- major travel sites like San Francisco International and Chicago's O'Hare airports, as well as giant retailers like Macy's and Bloomingdale's.

Considering the layers of thick concrete and steel holding up some of these buildings, it's been difficult for Google to get its location-aware technology up to snuff.

"GPS is unreliable and doesn't work well indoors," said Maps project manager Steve Lee in an interview. "We used similar information to how we've implemented the navigation 'blue dot' feature in the past, and we've been able to improve the accuracy indoors, at an accuracy of about 5 to 10 meters."

While half of the initiative begins in U.S. structures, Google is simultaneously launching in Japan, covering Tokyo's massive underground subway network and retail shopping centers (an area where new visitors definitely need a map).

While version 6.0 isn't covering U.S. transit, Lee says the Japanese transit coverage "can give us a sense for what's in store for the future."

While it's just a beginning, Google has also launched a beta tool that allows businesses to upload their own floor plans to the Maps database.

Slowly but surely, Google hopes to entice more businesses and major indoor areas of interest -- both small and large -- to opt in for indoor mapping. Of course, these are private spaces, not freely accessible public roads, so it's an initiative for the long haul.

The update is currently available in the Android Market for phones and tablets running Android version 2.1 and up.

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What launched Tuesday with indoor mapping?

How many major businesses has Google partnered with?

How many businesses have partnered with Google?

What does the new mobile Maps version allow?

Answer: Tuesday

Answer: Google Maps 6.0 for Android

Answer: Google Maps 6.0 for Android

Answer: more than 25

Answer: a selection of businesses and public service structures,

Answer: Google

Answer: more than 25

Answer: see the entire layout of a mapped building, switch between floor plans if the structure has multiple levels, and locate indoor points of interest like retail stores, bathrooms and ATMs.

Answer: the entire layout of a mapped building,

Summary:
Google Maps 6.0 for Android launched Tuesday with indoor mapping .
New mobile Maps version allows users to see the entire layout of a building .
Google has partnered with more than 25 major businesses .


(WIRED) -- Got a few grand to spare for a $3,000 phone? Yeah, we didn't think so. Nobody does -- and that's a problem for the makers of luxury phones, such as Motorola, Bang & Olufson, LG and Vertu. Vertu makes phones starting at $6,000 and going up in price. After years of chasing the ultra-wealthy with exclusive devices that carry designer logos and promise craftsmanship from materials such as sapphire and stainless steel, luxury phone makers are now pulling back. "The culture has shifted away from conspicuous consumption, so if you are going to have a super expensive product this may not be the time for it," says Avi Greengart, research director for consumer devices at Current Analysis. Motorola has already gotten the memo. Earlier this week, the company reportedly canceled the Ivory E18, a device tentatively priced around $3,000. The phone had met with lack of interest from telecom carriers. Motorola declined to comment. If that sounds like an obvious outcome, perhaps it shouldn't. In the last few years, luxury phones had turned into an attractive new business, as designer houses rushed to get a foothold in the tech sector. Prada collaborated with LG to launch two LG Prada phones in Europe and Asia. Last September, Samsung launched the M75500 Night Effect phone, which carried the Emporio Armani insignia. A month later, Motorola offered a $2,000 phone, called the Aura, which was fashioned out of stainless steel and sported a 62-carat sapphire crystal lens. And then there's Vertu, a company that makes true luxury phones, the cheapest of which costs about $6,000. The recession put a spoke in those plans. And it's not just the 401Ks of middle-class Americans that have been in peril. In Russia, many newly-minted billionaires saw their fortunes slip away with falling oil prices. By the first quarter this year, the U.S. economy had shrunk 5.5 percent. Even 50 Cent has complained about losing more than a few Benjamins on the stock market. And just like that, the crystal dominoes started to fall. Last October, Bang & Olufsen, whose phones retailed in Europe for more than $1,500, shuttered its cellphone business as it decided to trim its costs and get out of non-profitable ventures. Motorola is the latest to pull back its luxury line. Luxury phones have never been a big phenomenon in North America, says Greengart. Their manufacturers have had better luck in emerging markets. But now even in those countries, where once 8 percent GDP growth seemed conservative, wealthy consumers are feeling the pinch. "Super expensive, bling bling phones are big in markets where conspicuous consumption is a way to tell your countrymen you have arrived," says Greengart. "But now, it's a very different economy for everyone." Many of the troubles that the uber-expensive phones face are because they are created by companies whose main expertise is in targeting a mass market, says Frank Nuovo, former chief of design for Nokia and current head of Vertu. "I didn't start this business to soak the phones in diamonds and jewels," says Nuovo. "The concept is same as a fine watch or a fabulous car. To be a true luxury product, you have to look at making something that doesn't have an 18-month shelf life." True luxury, as Nuovo defines it, doesn't apply to a mere $2,000 phone: A Vertu device, soaked in platinum, can run up to $70,000. The company's one-off phones, designed in collaboration with luxury jewels house Boucheron, cost even more. Nuovo may have inadvertently hit on the real problem with luxury phones: Phones are still a very feature-driven products. They are products where the rapid advances in technology can rend older models obsolete very quickly. "Phones aren't like a handbag where the fundamental utility remains the same and the design changes all the time," says Greengart. But Nuovo isn't convinced. "Take watches and cars," he

What is the introduction price for a Vertu phone?

Answer: sapphire and stainless steel,

Answer: designer logos and promise craftsmanship from materials such as sapphire and stainless steel,

Answer: $6,000

Answer: Luxury phones

Answer: "The culture has shifted away from conspicuous consumption,

Answer: phones starting at $6,000

Answer: Vertu makes phones starting at $6,000

Answer: Motorola

Summary:
The luxury phone market is in decline because of the recession .
Uber-high-end phones are more popular outside the U.S.
Vertu makes luxury phones that start at $6,000 and go up in price .
Some phones pair with designer brands or are made from rare materials .


(WIRED) -- Hackers who commandeer your computer are bad enough. Now scientists worry that someday, they'll try to take over your brain. Scientists can use brain signals to control computers -- hands free. In the past year, researchers have developed technology that makes it possible to use thoughts to operate a computer, maneuver a wheelchair or even use Twitter -- all without lifting a finger. But as neural devices become more complicated, and go wireless, some scientists say the risks of "brain hacking" should be taken seriously. "Neural devices are innovating at an extremely rapid rate and hold tremendous promise for the future," said computer security expert Tadayoshi Kohno of the University of Washington. "But if we don't start paying attention to security, we're worried that we might find ourselves in five or 10 years saying we've made a big mistake." Hackers tap into personal computers all the time. But what would happen if they focused their nefarious energy on neural devices, such as the deep-brain stimulators used to treat Parkinson's and depression, or electrode systems for controlling prosthetic limbs? According to Kohno and his colleagues, who published their concerns July 1 in Neurosurgical Focus, most devices carry few security risks. But as neural engineering becomes more complex and more widespread, the potential for security breaches will mushroom. "It's very hard to design complex systems that don't have bugs," Kohno said. "As these medical devices start to become more and more complicated, it gets easier and easier for people to overlook a bug that could become a very serious risk. It might border on science fiction today, but so did going to the moon 50 years ago." Some might question why anyone would want to hack into someone else's brain, but the researchers say there's a precedent for using computers to cause neurological harm. In November 2007 and March 2008, malicious programmers vandalized epilepsy support Web sites by putting up flashing animations, which caused seizures in some photo-sensitive patients. "It happened on two separate occasions," said computer science graduate student Tamara Denning, a co-author on the paper. "It's evidence that people will be malicious and try to compromise peoples' health using computers, especially if neural devices become more widespread." In some cases, patients might even want to hack into their own neural device. Unlike devices to control prosthetic limbs, which still use wires, many deep brain stimulators already rely on wireless signals. Hacking into these devices could enable patients to "self-prescribe" elevated moods or pain relief by increasing the activity of the brain's reward centers. Despite the risks, Kohno said, most new devices aren't created with security in mind. Neural engineers carefully consider the safety and reliability of new equipment, and neuroethicists focus on whether a new device fits ethical guidelines. But until now, few groups have considered how neural devices might be hijacked to perform unintended actions. This is the first time an academic paper has addressed the topic of "neurosecurity," a term the group coined to describe their field. "The security and privacy issues somehow seem to slip by," Kohno said. "I would not be surprised if most people working in this space have never thought about security." Kevin Otto, a bioengineer who studies brain-machine interfaces at Purdue Universty, said he was initially skeptical of the research. "When I first picked up the paper, I don't know if I agreed that it was an issue. But the paper gives a very compelling argument that this is important, and that this is the time to have neural engineers collaborate with security developers." It's never too early to start thinking about security issues, said neural engineer Justin Williams of the University of Wisconsin, who was not involved in the research. But he stressed that the kinds of devices available today are not susceptible to attack, and that fear of future risks shouldn't impede progress in the field. "These kinds of security issues have to proceed in lockstep with the technology," Williams said

Who can use thoughts to operate computers?

Answer: "brain hacking"

Answer: "Neural devices are innovating at an extremely rapid rate and hold tremendous promise for the future," said computer

Answer: Scientists

Summary:
Scientists can use thoughts to operate computers, wheelchairs and Twitter .
As tech develops, risk of "brain hacking" become more real, scientists say .
Neurosurgical Focus article says risks are slim now .
But security "should proceed in lockstep with the technology," expert says .


(WIRED) -- In less than a week, Google announced an operating system to compete with Windows, while Microsoft announced that Office 10 will include free, online versions of its four most popular software programs -- a shot at Google's suite of web-based office applications. The fight between Microsoft and Google is over who'll be seen as the world's most important tech company. And not more than a month and a half ago, Microsoft unveiled its new search engine Bing, which it hopes will steal market share from Google and finally make it real money online. From the news of it, it's a full-blown tech battle, complete with behind-the-scenes machinations to sic government regulators on each other. It is, however, not a death match -- it's more of an fight to see who will be the King of Technology, since both companies pull in their billions through completely different siphons and are unlikely to severely wound one another any time soon. Google pulled in $22 billion in revenue in 2008, 97 percent of which came tiny text ads bought by the keyword and placed next to search results or on pages around the web. Google makes a negligible amount of money bundling its online apps for businesses, charging $50 a head annually -- but mostly it just gives its online text editor, email and spreadsheet programs away. By contrast, Microsoft sold $14.3 billion worth of Microsoft Word and PowerPoint and other business applications over the last nine months, making a profit of $9.3 billion. It made a further $16 billion in revenue in 2008 through sales of its operating systems, which range from XP installations on netbooks, to Vista, to Windows Mobile to its server software. Google now plans its own range of operating systems, starting with Android, an open-source OS for small devices like smartphones, and Chrome OS, a browser-focused, open-source OS that will run on notebooks and desktops. Clearly top executives at each company look over at the others' pots of gold and dream of ways to steal them, or at least make it harder for the other guy to make money. In fact, they even dislike each other enough to spend money to make the other one lose revenue -- take for example, Microsoft's behind-the-scenes campaign to scuttle last year's proposed Google-Yahoo advertising deal or its ongoing attempts to derail the Google Book Search settlement. But in reality, the competition is really about creating universes or ecosystems that it hopes consumers will want to live their technology lives inside. And it's about ego -- a fight to be recognized as the world's most important technology company. Microsoft would love for everyone in the world to be using its Internet Explorer browser to search through Bing to find a story from its MSN portal to email via Hotmail or Outlook to a friend. Add in a smartphone running Windows Mobile and an Xbox in the living room for the kids, and you have a Microsoft family. And though it is much joked about, Microsoft is the dominant platform for software developers of all types, whether they are making small business software, massive online role-playing games or photo-editing utilities. Google's ecosystem looks different. It starts with a Google Chrome browser (oddly running only on Windows) with a default homepage set to Google News or a customized Google homepage. From there you might go to Gmail and then click on a Word document sent to you as an attachment which Google will quickly -- and safely -- open for you in its online word processor. But most importantly, Google wants you to search and travel around the web, hitting web pages that run Google-served ads and Google tracking cookies. You might think that Google is a really cool company to give away all this free technology, while never thinking about the persistent and silent data collection Google is undertaking to profile you in order to deliver you to advertisers for a premium. So how do the two stack up in four key areas of competition? Browsers: Internet Explorer in all its variations

Who dreams of ways to steal the others' pot of gold?

How many areas of competition are  there?

What do top execs at each company dream of?

Answer: top executives

Answer: Google

Answer: four key

Answer: least make it harder for the other guy to make money.

Answer: free, online versions of its four most popular software programs

Answer: Google

Answer: look over at the others' pots of gold and dream of ways to steal them,

Summary:
The escalating Google vs. Micosoft battle is mostly over who'll be King of Tech .
Top execs at each company dream of ways to steal the others' pots of gold .
Chrome OS will compete with Windows, while Office 10 will include free online versions .
Here's how the two tech giants stack up in four key areas of competition .


(WIRED) -- Last month, when Zack Ajmal was planning a vacation to Italy, he set out to find the first thing that a traveler would need in a foreign land: a map. But digital maps of Rome and Venice for his Garmin GPS device cost almost $100. So instead, Ajmal turned to OpenStreet Map, a community-driven maps database. A user-edited map of cycling routes in Perth, Australia, available on OpenStreetMap's site. "It worked out pretty well," the Atlanta-based engineer says. "I found Open MTB, which had outdoor hiking and cycling maps with not just roads information, but also trails, short cuts and little known routes." Ajmal is among roughly half a million users who are eschewing proprietary maps information from GPS companies and instead going with crowdsourced versions, which they then load onto their GPS devices and smartphones. The key to these map hacks is OpenStreetMap. Founded in 2004, OSM is to maps what Wikipedia is to encyclopedias. The site offers maps that can be edited, customized and loaded on to devices for free. Want to go whitewater rafting but need to know where the rapids are? There's a map for that. Or to know all the interesting points along the river Nile? There's a map for that. And it's all based on the OpenStreetMap data. "The value is that it is a richer map with more up-to-date information because anyone can fix things," says Steve Coast, one of the founders of OpenStreetMap. "Users get access to the underlying data and not just a picture of the maps." Consumer map data is currently a duopoly split between two mapping providers: Nokia's Navteq and TomTom's Tele Atlas. The two provide the mapping data that powers almost all commercial map applications and devices. But maps from these providers are extremely restrictive in how they can be used. Want a map of the best hiking trails in the country or a walking tour of Rome? Traditional GPS services can't offer that. For adventurous geeks that calls for a DIY fix. "OSM maps are a little new on the scene," says Rich Owings, who runs the GPStracklog.com website and is the author of the book GPS Mapping. "Most people in the U.S. were not using them until recently, but now there are iPhone apps based on it." Getting OpenStreetMap is easier on some devices than others. In Garmin systems, it's as simple as taking one of the available maps and dropping it into a folder on the device. "It's really hard to mess up your GPS doing this," says Owings. "And if you have questions you can always ask the community to help you out." Owings says he loaded maps of Ecuador on his Garmin unit in about 30 minutes. "It's not as clean of a map as one you can get from the Garmin store but they are pretty wonderful and have very good coverage." For TomTom systems, getting OpenStreetMap can be a more difficult process. TomTom uses a proprietary mapping format, says Coast. That means a tricky process of converting OpenStreetMap into a TomTom-compatible format. OpenStreetMap has also been used to create iPhone apps such as MotionX, which is targeted at hikers, skiers and bikers; B.iCycle, a cyclometer that shows burned calories, trip distance and trails; and ATM@UK, which shows all ATM locations in Great Britain. The OpenStreetMap project is a cartographer's dream come true, says Randal Hale, who has a GIS consulting business. Hale has created custom maps for a few clients using OpenStreetMap and has put OSM-generated maps on his Garmin unit. "With the professional mapping software, I have to purchase a license to use their version, which is expensive and I can't use the data for analysis," says Hale. "With OpenStreetMap, I download it, make cartographic edits and hopefully I have made it better for the next user." Meanwhile, traditional navigation companies are also reaching out to users for help on data. For instance

What app offers maps that can be customized and loaded to GPS devices?

What other features does crowdsources maps show?

Answer: user-edited map of cycling routes

Answer: OpenStreetMap.

Answer: not just roads information, but also trails, short cuts and little known routes."

Answer: OpenStreet Map, a community-driven maps database.

Answer: OpenStreetMap.

Answer: community-driven maps database.

Summary:
About half a million users are embracing crowdsourced versions of digital maps .
OpenStreetMap offers maps that can be customized and loaded to GPS devices .
Crowdsourced maps can show hiking trails, whitewater rapids and other features .
Developers are creating iPhone applications based on these maps .


(WIRED) -- Microsoft released an Xbox Live app for iOS devices on Wednesday, bringing features of Microsoft's gaming service to Apple devices for the first time.

My Xbox Live lets users edit their 3-D avatars, chat with Xbox Live friends and revel in their achievements. You can also check out more information about the newest apps and games on Xbox, as well as gaming tips and breaking news.

Windows Phone users have had Xbox Live services packaged into their mobile experience for a while now, but now iOS users can get a piece of the action. And whether they like it or not, iOS users who download the app are also getting a screen similar to a Windows Phone-style user interface.

The iPhone app features the horizontal bar across the bottom of the screen that houses the same sort of circular icons you'd find in a Windows Phone 7 app. Also included: a clever browser-based demo that lets you virtually explore the UI of a Windows Phone from your Android or iPhone handset.

While you may already be on a phone of a different OS, it has potential to lure potential defectors over to Microsoft's mobile platform.

It's been a good week for Microsoft. On Tuesday, the company unveiled the details of its upcoming Windows Store for Windows 8, the newest version of the world's most popular desktop platform.

And on Monday, the company announced that the Xbox was getting a user interface refresh, with dozens of new content channels and the addition of a Windows Phone app you can use to control your Xbox. Microsoft's iOS apps are now icing on top of the cake.

Now when are we going to get those Microsoft Office apps on the iPad?

My Xbox Live is available free for download on the iPhone and iPad in the App Store.

Subscribe to WIRED magazine for less than $1 an issue and get a FREE GIFT! Click here!

iOs user who download the app get a screen similar to what?

Answer: My Xbox Live

Answer: the App Store.

Answer: free

Answer: lets users edit their 3-D avatars, chat with

Answer: getting a screen similar to a Windows Phone-style

Answer: Xbox Live app

Answer: interface.

Summary:
My Xbox Live lets users edit their 3-D avatars, chat with Xbox Live friends .
iOS users who download the app get a screen similar to Windows Phone-style interface .
My Xbox Live is available free for download on the iPhone and iPad in the App Store .


(WIRED) -- Say hello to your latest personal navigation device: a netbook. Dell plans to introduce a GPS and Wi-Fi card that can be integrated into the company's netbooks to turn them into gizmos that can offer turn-by-turn direction as well as any Garmin or TomTom. Dell will introduce a GPS and Wi-Fi card that can be added to its netbooks to offer turn-by-turn direction. "Smartphones already have GPS capabilities," says Alan Sicher, senior wireless product manager at Dell. "We are now bringing it to netbooks so the devices know where you are and can help you where you want to go." Customers will have the option to buy the $69 card called the Wireless 700 when ordering their Dell Mini 10 netbook. Dell's move comes at a time when navigation devices makers are looking beyond the traditional standalone GPS gadget and are offering their software on other devices. Last month, TomTom announced that its turn-by-turn directions app would be available on the iPhone. TomTom will also offer accessories such as a car mounting dock and power charger. Meanwhile, Dell is hoping to capitalize on the explosive sales of netbooks. Dell netbooks with the integrated GPS cards will allow consumers to pop open a netbook and get directions and also also make their netbook location aware. For instance, buyers can geo-tag photos on Flickr or check weather information customized to their current location. The Wireless 700 card combines Broadcom's GPS technology and Skyhook Wireless' Wi-Fi positioning solutions. As for the navigation software, it offers 2D and 3D map views, save addresses for a trip and route optimization-- pretty much all the things that a standard GPS devices does. Netbooks are petite devices. Still, it is difficult to imagine consumers carrying it around as a GPS navigation device or using it their car to find their way around--especially when smaller-sized cellphones could do the job. Sicher says Dell's GPS-capable netbooks will come in handy for international travelers. "If you are traveling to Europe roaming costs can be pretty pricey for your cellphone," he says. The GPS netbooks could also be handy in areas where cellphone coverage is weak, says Sicher. But there's fine print to the turn-by-turn directions navigation software on the netbook. Though it will be free for buyers of the card and the netbook, the maps will be updated yearly and customers could be charged for the updates. Dell plans to offer accessories such as car charger and a dock for the netbooks, but they won't be available until later this month. The GPS cards will be available starting July 7. Subscribe to WIRED magazine for less than $1 an issue and get a FREE GIFT! Click here!

What can the GPS and Wi-Fi cards be added to?

What will be able to add turn-by-turn directions?

Who will be introducing GPS and Wi-Fi cards?

Dell's netbooks will be able to offer what directions?

Who will introduce a GPS and Wi-Fi card?

Users will be able to do what to photos on Flickr?

Answer: GPS and Wi-Fi card that can be integrated into the company's netbooks to turn them into gizmos that can offer turn-by-turn direction as well as any Garmin or TomTom.

Answer: pop open a netbook and get directions and also also make their netbook location aware.

Answer: netbooks

Answer: a GPS and Wi-Fi card

Answer: Dell

Answer: turn-by-turn

Answer: Dell

Answer: geo-tag

Answer: GPS

Summary:
Dell will introduce a GPS and Wi-Fi card that can be added to its netbooks .
The company's netbooks will be able to offer turn-by-turn directions .
Makers are looking beyond traditional GPS gadgets to offer software on other devices .
Users will be able to geo-tag photos on Flickr or check customized weather info .


(WIRED) -- The U.S. Marine Corps has banned Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and other social media sites from its networks, effective immediately. The Marine Corps fears that social media sites such as Facebook could pose a security risk. "These internet sites in general are a proven haven for malicious actors and content and are particularly high risk due to information exposure, user generated content and targeting by adversaries," reads a Marine Corps order, issued Monday. "The very nature of SNS [social network sites] creates a larger attack and exploitation window, exposes unnecessary information to adversaries and provides an easy conduit for information leakage that puts OPSEC [operational security], COMSEC [communications security], [and] personnel... at an elevated risk of compromise." The Marines' ban will last a year. It was drawn up in response to a late July warning from U.S. Strategic Command, which told the rest of the military it was considering a Defense Department-wide ban on the Web 2.0 sites, due to network security concerns. Scams, worms, and Trojans often spread unchecked throughout social media sites, passed along from one online friend to the next. "The mechanisms for social networking were never designed for security and filtering. They make it way too easy for people with bad intentions to push malicious code to unsuspecting users," a Stratcom source told Wired.com. Yet many within the Pentagon's highest ranks find value in the Web 2.0 tools. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has 4,000 followers on Twitter. The Department of Defense is getting ready to unveil a new home page, packed with social media tools. The Army recently ordered all U.S. bases to provide access to Facebook. Top generals now blog from the battlefield. "OPSEC is paramount. We will have procedures in place to deal with that," Price Floyd, the Pentagon's newly-appointed social media czar, said. "What we can't do is let security concerns trump doing business. We have to do business... We need to be everywhere men and women in uniform are and the public is. If that's MySpace and YouTube, that's where we need to be, too," Floyd said. The Marines say they will issue waivers to the Web 2.0 blockade, if a "mission critical need" can be proven. And they will continue to allow access to the military's internal "SNS-like services." But for most members of the Corps, access to the real, public social networks is now shut off for the next year. Subscribe to WIRED magazine for less than $1 an issue and get a FREE GIFT! Click here!

The US marines Corps have ban what type of internet sites

For what reason where the sites to be banned

Answer: Monday.

Answer: Twitter, Facebook, MySpace

Answer: The U.S. Marine Corps

Answer: all U.S. bases to provide access to Facebook.

Answer: security risk.

Answer: next year.

Answer: has banned

Summary:
U.S. Marine Corps bans Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and other social media sites .
Order, issued Monday, states that information on the sites poses a security risk .
The Marines' ban is effective immediately and will last a year .
U.S. Army recently ordered all U.S. bases to provide access to Facebook .


(WIRED) -- The iPhone 4S is available on three major carriers, leaving potential buyers to wonder whether AT&T, Verizon or Sprint is the better network choice.

Pricing plans aside, carrier quality is a significant factor in anyone's purchasing decision, and now consumers have hard data to help them choose: A just-released study reports AT&T is tops for fast data speeds, while Verizon is the most reliable when it comes to making phone calls.

Sprint's main draw is that it offers unlimited, albeit slow, data.

The study was performed by Metrico Wireless, a mobile device performance analytics firm. To test network performance, Metrico made 6,000 voice calls, conducted 8,000 data download/upload tests (both moving and stationary), and downloaded more than 21,000 web pages.

The tests found that Verizon dropped calls 2.1 percent of the time, while AT&T dropped 2.8 percent of calls and Sprint lost 3.7 percent of calls. The average dropped-call rate for the entire mobile industry is 1.4 percent. Although Sprint dropped the most calls, it had the highest call quality on the uplink (outbound calls), while AT&T had the best downlink call quality (inbound calls).

With regard to maximum data speeds, AT&T led the pack at 6,047Kbps, with Verizon a distant second at 2,371Kbps, and Sprint crawling in last with only 1,767Kbps. It's unclear, however, exactly where Metrico tested data bandwidth, and as any iPhone-toting San Francisco resident will tell you, data quality can be terrible in areas with high concentrations of tech geeks.

The original iPhone launched exclusively with AT&T, which was the sole carrier of the iPhone until Apple announced that Verizon would also begin carrying the iPhone 4 in January 2011. Prior to the launch of the iPhone 4S, rumors swirled that the phone would land on Sprint, and ultimately proved true. Of the three carriers, Sprint is the only one that provides a true unlimited data plan.

Metrico's results are consistent with what we found back when Verizon began offering the iPhone 4: AT&T offered better download speeds, while Verizon had better coverage.

Another important stat Metrico found was that the iPhone 4S performed perfectly across all three networks when it came to data task reliability. In short, 100 percent of the time, the phone was able to complete web-page loads, stationary downloads, and stationary uploads. This contrasts with an earlier Metrico study from March 2011 that found Verizon had a higher download success rate when the phone was stationary, and AT&T had a higher rate while the phone was moving.

So what's the bottom line? It looks like you're going to get a relatively positive data-downloading experience no matter which carrier you choose, if only because you will be able to download data. But if you value downloading material quickly, you should go with AT&T. If call reliability is paramount, stick with Verizon, and if you want to use a lot of data but don't care about speed, go with Sprint.

Subscribe to WIRED magazine for less than $1 an issue and get a FREE GIFT! Click here!

What company dropped the least number of calls?

Who led the pack in maximum data speeds?

Who lead the way in maximum data speeds?

Answer: Verizon

Answer: web-page loads, stationary downloads, and stationary uploads.

Answer: AT&T

Answer: network performance,

Answer: calls

Answer: AT&T, Verizon or Sprint

Answer: AT&T

Answer: Verizon

Summary:
A new study compares AT&T, Verizon and Sprint for iPhone 4S service .
Verizon dropped calls the least at 2.1%; Sprint dropped the most at 3.7% .
AT&T led the pack in maximum data speeds, with Verizon a distant second .
Phone was able to complete data tasks on all three networks 100% of the time .


(WIRED) -- The wind blowing through the streets of Manhattan couldn't power the city, but wind machines placed thousands of feet above the city theoretically could. A prototype of a high-altitude wind turbine made by Magenn Power. The first rigorous, worldwide study of high-altitude wind power estimates that there is enough wind energy at altitudes of about 1,600 to 40,000 feet to meet global electricity demand a hundred times over. The very best ground-based wind sites have a wind-power density of less than 1 kilowatt per square meter of area swept. Up near the jet stream above New York, the wind power density can reach 16 kilowatts per square meter. The air up there is a vast potential reservoir of energy, if its intermittency can be overcome. Even better, the best high-altitude wind-power resources match up with highly populated areas including North America's Eastern Seaboard and China's coastline. "The resource is really, really phenomenal," said Christine Archer of Cal State University-Chico, who co-authored a paper on the work published in the open-access journal Energies."There is a lot of energy up there, but it's not as steady as we thought. It's not going to be the silver bullet that will solve all of our energy problems, but it will have a role." For centuries, we've been using high-density fossil fuels, but peaking oil supplies and climate concerns have given new life to green technologies. Unfortunately, renewable energy is generally diffuse, meaning you need to cover a lot of area to get the energy you want. So engineers look for renewable resources that are as dense as possible. On that score, high-altitude wind looks very promising. Wind's power -- energy which can be used to do work like spinning magnets to generate electricity -- varies with the cube of its speed. So, a small increase in wind speed can lead to a big increase in the amount of mechanical energy you can harvest. High-altitude wind blows fast, is spread nicely across the globe, and is easier to predict than terrestrial wind. These properties have led inventors and scientists to cast their hopes upward, where strong winds have long been known to blow, as Etzler's dreamy quote shows. During the energy shocks of the 1970s, when new energy ideas of all kinds were bursting forth, engineers and schemers patented several designs for harnessing wind thousands of feet in the air. The two main design frameworks they came up with are still with us today. The first is essentially a power plant in the sky, generating electricity aloft and sending it down to Earth via a conductive tether. The second is more like a kite, transmitting mechanical energy to the ground, where generators turn it into electricity. Theoretically, both approaches could work, but nothing approaching a rigorous evaluation of the technologies has been conducted. The Department of Energy had a very small high-altitude wind program, which produced some of the first good data about the qualities of the wind up there, but it got axed as energy prices dropped in the 1980s and Reagan-era DOE officials directed funds elsewhere. The program hasn't been restarted, despite growing attention to renewables, but that's not because it's considered a bad idea. Rather, it is seen as just a little too far out on the horizon. "We're very much aimed these days at things that we can fairly quickly commercialize, like in the next 10 years or so," said National Renewable Energy Laboratory spokesperson George Douglas. Startups like KiteGen, Sky Windpower, Magenn, and Makani (Google's secretive fundee) have come into the space over the last several years, and they seem to be working on much shorter timelines. "We are not that far from working prototypes," Archer said, though she noted that the companies are all incredibly secretive about the data from their testing. Magenn CFO Barry Monette said he expects "first revenue" next year when they sell "two to four" working prototypes of their blimpy machine, which will

How many times over is there enough energy to meet global demand?

What is the device like that could transfer the energy to generators?

What kind of energy could meet global demand 100 times over?

How many times over could wind energy sustain the world?

who could transmit energy to generators that turn it into electricity?

When do you think the prototypes for these turbines will be commercially available?

What kind of device could transmit energy to generators?

Answer: thousands of feet above the city

Answer: wind machines

Answer: hundred

Answer: kite,

Answer: Up near the jet stream above New York,

Answer: wind

Answer: a high-altitude wind turbine

Answer: a hundred

Answer: Manhattan

Answer: wind power

Answer: next 10 years or so,"

Answer: high-altitude wind turbine

Answer: high-altitude wind turbine

Answer: wind

Summary:
Study: Wind machines placed thousands of feet above New York could power the city .
Enough wind energy exists at high altitudes to meet global demand 100 times over .
A kite-like device could transmit energy to generators that turn it into electricity .
Startups are developing turbines, although they are still in the prototype stage .


(WIRED) -- Two cable powerhouses have announced an ambitious pilot program that aims to convince their customers that, actually, TV on the web should not be free. Jeffrey Bewkes, chairman and CEO of Time Warner, speaks at the NCTA conference in Washington. With a service called TV Everywhere, Comcast and Time Warner will give cable subscribers access to "premium" television content via broadband, and later cellphone connections. To begin with, 5,000 Comcast subscribers will begin testing the system next month, giving them access to Time Warner's TBS and TNT channels on their computers, and the same channels' video-on-demand catalogs on their cable boxes. If you made peace long ago with the idea of paying a monthly cable bill, this probably sounds great. It means watching your existing subscription on new screens without paying additional fees or buying more hardware. (Of course, as consumers adopt TV Everywhere, they can probably expect price increases.) But if you prefer to watch your television for free on ad-supported sites like Hulu while paying only for the internet connection that delivers it, you could be in for a rude awakening. TV Everywhere represents an alternative -- and possible threat -- to the popular Hulu model. If the pilot program impresses the group -- and proves to other networks that its user-authentication system is secure -- Comcast and Time Warner expect the other television programmers, ISPs and mobile providers to join, giving all cable subscribers a way to watch the content they pay for on their televisions using any broadband-connected computer or authenticated cellphone. Already "at least 92 percent of Americans qualify to watch this for free online," according to Jeff Bewkes, chairman and CEO of Time Warner. For these subscribers, TV Everywhere represents a potential win. The only question is whether they will keep paying for the old cable subscription model as their viewing habits shift online. There's nothing to stop television networks from putting their content on both Hulu and TV Everywhere, because TV Everywhere's contract will be non-exclusive, according to Bewkes. However, given the choice between Hulu and TV Everywhere, television programmers have an incentive to go with the latter. Only the TV Everywhere model promises to port yesterday's lucrative business model onto today's platforms. And that, according to some critics, is exactly the problem. "[TV Everywhere] raises substantial anti-competitive issues by restricting the availability of programming to the favored distribution methods," said Gigi B. Sohn, president and co-founder of the public interest group Public Knowledge. "Under the TV Everywhere plan, no other program distributors would be able to emerge, and no consumers will be able to 'cut the cord' because they find what they want online. As a result, consumers will be the losers. "In addition, we are concerned that this program violates the open nature of the internet. By adding this additional toll lane, Comcast and Time Warner want to create their own 'managed channel' within the internet and turn the internet into their own private cable channel." So, what about Hulu? Will its deals fall through given this new option? "There will be some part [of Time Warner's content] that will be out there [on Hulu], said Bewkes."Short-form content, I think, will continue to be available -- promotional content will continue to be available." However, only cable subscribers will be able to access other content online -- through officially licensed avenues, anyway. Bewkes added that some other television programmers have avoided Hulu "for security concerns and because they didn't like the model," but that they will give TV Everywhere a chance. "Consumers vote every single month with their pocketbook," he added. "They don't have to subscribe to cable. They don't have to pay for these services, yet they do. The number of people paying for subscription television has gone up and up and up every single quarter that we've been in the business." Subscribe to WIRED magazine for less than $

Where will some of Time Warners content remain?

Which company is threatened by this change?

Answer: Comcast and Time Warner

Answer: Hulu

Answer: TV Everywhere,

Answer: cable subscribers

Answer: online

Answer: TV Everywhere,

Answer: TV Everywhere,

Answer: TV Everywhere,

Answer: next month,

Answer: Comcast and Time Warner

Answer: Hulu],

Answer: Hulu

Answer: Comcast and Time Warner

Summary:
Comcast and Time Warner will give cable subscribers online access to tv content .
Program is called TV Everywhere and will begin testing next month .
TV Everywhere represents alternative -- and possible threat -- to popular Hulu model .
Some of Time Warner's content will remain on Hulu.com .


(WIRED) -- What did you do this summer? Flat World Knowledge stayed busy on campus and now has 40 times as many students and more than 10 times the colleges using their freemium, open-source digital textbooks as they did spring semester. And they did it the old-fashioned way -- one professor at a time. A company is offering digital alternatives to traditional college textbooks. After a sort of beta earlier this year, Flat World was set to announce Thursday that more than 40,000 college students at 400 colleges will use their digital, DRM-free textbooks fall semester, up from 1,000 in 30 colleges in the spring. Digital textbooks remain a nascent business and a tough market to enter. At an average cost of $100, textbooks command the highest cover prices in publishing, outside of only some art and coffee-table books. Demand is artificially inelastic as students are indentured to cost servitude at the whim of college professors who blithely assign titles a student must own if she hopes to do well in a given course. Now, multiply that by four, five or even six courses a semester and you are talking big bucks. By comparison, Flat World has a pricing scheme that starts at zero for online access using a browser, and $20 for a PDF, which they believe will be the most popular format. Printed versions of their textbooks cost up to $60. Perhaps best of all: Textbooks are available a la carte, chapter by chapter. But the key buy-in has been from teachers who make the assignments and who, in my college days, could not care less how much the textbooks cost. What's changed? "There has been a mind shift," co-founder Eric Frank told Wired.com. A tipping point came a couple of years ago when faculty began to consider the financial burden on students because many of them (Frank estimates a third) didn't bother to get the textbook at all. Perhaps more to the point, open-source textbooks -- which are Creative Commons-licensed to allow unencumbered non-commercial use -- make it possible to graft supporting material to the curriculum, rather than the other way around. "Faculty are notorious for wanting to do things their way," said Frank. "But they always had to cut the foot to fit the shoe. Now, with open source, they can cut the shoe to fit the foot." There is virtually no friction involved. A professor can register on Flat World's site and let students know that the book is available there. No cooperation from a school district or college administration is required. "Every single class is a fiefdom, and they are kings and queens of their domain," Frank jokes. Like any freemium retailer, Flat World depends on enough people buying something, because clearly the business cannot be sustained if everyone just opts for free web access. "What we're counting on is that people will be willing to pay for different packaging." And it will come down to the price points, Frank acknowledges, even when the company develops formats for the Sony e-book reader and Amazon Kindle, as they hope to this year. It makes as much sense to equip students with a device that makes all their reference materials available on demand as to offer a casual reader a complete portable library -- perhaps more. This is a classic chicken-and-egg scenario in which a device-dependent culture needs to evolve alongside new content formats. For this and a variety of other reasons, including the cost of e-readers and for the media they serve up, Frank thinks the PDF will remain the format of choice for students for some time to come (and the ubiquitous and DRM-free Portable Document Format is readable on the Sony and Amazon devices, anyway). "They'll move forward," Frank says of device-specific e-reader formats. "But there is so much irrational pricing right now that they'll move forward much more slowly than they probably should." For now, expect a

How many colleges will the service be at this year

How many colleges will have the service this year?

How many colleges are using the service?

How much does the company charge for downloadable PDF-format books?

Answer: PDF,

Answer: 400

Answer: 400

Answer: up to $60.

Answer: digital alternatives to traditional college textbooks.

Answer: 400

Answer: college textbooks.

Answer: $20

Summary:
Flat World Knowledge offers free access to digital textbooks online .
The company charges $20 for downloadable PDF-format books .
Interest in the company is rising; the service will be at 400 colleges this year .
Still, the digital textbook business remains in its infancy, author says .


(WIRED) -- What's hot off the presses this week? Want an out-of-print book? With the help of Google, a machine may be able to print one for you. Any one of the more than 2 million books old enough to fall out of copyright into the public domain. Over the last seven years, Google has scanned millions of dusty tomes from deep in the stacks of the nation's leading university libraries and turned them into searchable documents available anywhere in the world through its search box. And now Google Book Search, in partnership with On Demand Books, is letting readers turn those digital copies back into paper copies, individually printed by bookstores around the world. Or at least by those booksellers that have ordered its $100,000 Espresso Book Machine, which cranks out a 300 page gray-scale book with a color cover in about 4 minutes, at a cost to the bookstore of about $3 for materials. The machine prints the pages, binds them together perfectly, and then cuts the book to size and then dumps a book out, literally hot off the press, with a satisfying clunk. (The company says a machine can print about 60,000 books a year.) That means you can stop into the Northshire Bookstore in Manchester, Vermont, and for less than $10, custom-order your own copy of Dame Curtsey's Book of Candy Making, the third edition of which was published in 1920 and which can only be found online for $47.00 used. Dane Neller, On Demand Books CEO, says the announcement flips book distribution on its head. "We believe this is a revolution," Neller said. "Content retrieval is now centralized and production is decentralized." Neller said the deal was clearly about the long tail of books, a reference to Wired magazine's Editor-in-Chief Chris Anderson's theory that hits become less important when distribution costs drop. One of the main benefits, according to Neller, is letting local book stores compete with Amazon.com by reducing their need to have expensive inventory. Other current retailers include the University of Michigan Shapiro Library Building in Ann Arbor; the Blackwell Bookshop in London; the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Alexandria, Egypt; the University of Alberta Bookstore in Edmonton, Canada; and Angus & Robertson Bookstore in Melbourne, Australia. The company hopes to sell 60 more printers in the next year, bringing the number of machines globally to about 90. On Demand Books suggests that book stores price the books at about $8, leaving retailers with a $3 profit after both Google and On Demand Books collect a buck-a-book fee. Google plans to donate its share to a yet-unspecified charity, which might be a reaction to its messy legal and public policy fight over a copyright settlement that covers books that are still in copyright. (All the books that are being added to On Demand Books repertoire in this agreement are out of copyright in the country where it will be printed.) Starting Sept. 29, Bostonians can stop in the privately owned Harvard Bookstore in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and have their books printed in front of them. Or they can order it over the phone and have the store deliver it -- by bicycle. There's a certain irony to that, too, according to Google spokeswoman Jennie Johnson, since the bookstore is right next to Harvard's library, one of the libraries that partnered with Google to turn its millions of books into an online library of the future. "Most people can't get into the Harvard Library, but you can print their books next door," Johnson said. Or put another way, On Demand Books is betting that in the future, every old book will have 15 readers. What's of interest in these old books? Plenty, according to Google. One knitter discovered a long-lost book about knitting, and recreated the heirloom pieces and even built a loom from a long-lost design. Another reader, who works with subsistence farmers in Africa, currently uses PDFs of old farming techniques to teach

How long does it take the books to be printed by the special machine?

How long it takes to pass a book to the network?

Answer: individually printed by bookstores around the world.

Answer: 4 minutes,

Answer: millions

Answer: about 4 minutes,

Summary:
Google Book Search is letting readers turn digitized texts back into paper copies .
Google scans millions of books and turns them into searchable documents .
Books can be printed on demand by a special machine in about 4 minutes .
The machine is only in a few dozen bookstores so far .