Google is working to collect information about Internet users that it can't get from just monitoring its own browser, services, and Android devices. The company has set up... Read more

Google is working to collect information about Internet users that it can’t get from just monitoring its own browser, services, and Android devices. The company has set up a new program called Screenwise, which offers money to users who install a black box on their home network to “measure Internet use.” A smaller amount of money will go to those who install a browser extension on their computers that will do the same thing.

Google quietly started up the Screenwise data collection program Tuesday night, taking the e-mail addresses of people who are interested in “add[ing] a browser extension that will share with Google the sites you visit and how you use them.” For their participation, Google offers the extension users a $5 Amazon gift card for signing up and another $5 gift card for every three months they stay with the program. Less publicly, Google also started looking for people who would install a piece of hardware on their network to do more extensive monitoring.

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Nokia today announced it was killing 4,000 factory jobs to move smartphone assembly to Asia. The jobs will be moved from Nokia's facilities in Hungary, Mexico and Finland. Since Nokia... Read more

Google issued a beta release of Chrome for Android earlier today. The browser provides support for modern Web standards and includes a number of compelling features that aren't available... Read more

Google issued a beta release of Chrome for Android earlier today. The browser provides support for modern Web standards and includes a number of compelling features that aren’t available in the Android’s default browser. One noteworthy Chrome desktop feature that isn’t included in the mobile port, however, is the integrated Flash runtime.

Adobe has issued a statement confirming that Chrome for Android does not support Flash content. The company also indicated that it does not plan to work with Google to add Flash support to the new mobile browser. Adobe will, however, continue supporting Flash in the current default Android browser.

“Today Google introduced Chrome for Android Beta. As we announced last November, Adobe is no longer developing Flash Player for mobile browsers, and thus Chrome for Android Beta does not support Flash content,” wrote Adobe’s Flash Platform product manager Bill Howard.

Adobe struggled for years to make the Flash player plugin viable on mobile devices. Though it was able to make Flash work reasonably well on Android phones, results were mixed on other systems. Due to Apple’s unwillingness to allow the Flash plugin on iOS and the difficulty that Adobe faced bringing the Flash player to new devices, the plugin never achieved the same ubiquity on phones that it has historically enjoyed on the desktop.

These setbacks caused Adobe to abandon its mobile Flash player strategy last year. The company announced that it would phase out development of its mobile Flash player plugin and not support it on new platforms. Adobe instead focused its mobile Flash efforts on developing tools for deploying Flash content as native mobile applications. It also strengthened its commitment to native Web standards and acknowledged HTML5 as the way forward for building rich mobile Web experiences.

When Google eventually moves to replace the default Android browser with Chrome in future versions of the Android platform, devices that run the operating system will likely no longer be able to play Flash content in the browser.

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Much like flying cars and jet packs, wearable computing is one of those aspirational fields of technology where the current state of the art doesn't deliver the sort of experience... Read more

Much like flying cars and jet packs, wearable computing is one of those aspirational fields of technology where the current state of the art doesn’t deliver the sort of experience that people have imagined for decades. An experimental project that is reportedly under development in Google’s labs could raise the bar, however.

According to a report that was published today in the blog 9to5Google, the search giant is developing a product called Google Glasses that will have a built-in heads-up display. The device, which supposedly resembles a pair of Oakley shades, is said to have an integrated transparent display for one eye and a built-in front-facing camera. The latter could be used for augmented reality applications. The device would use speech and head tilting for text input and control.

9to5Google suggests that the Google Glasses product could soft-launch with a pilot program later this year, making the product available to a select number of testers. This would follow the model of the Chromebook launch, which was preceded by the Cr-48 test unit.

Although the reports are still highly speculative, the concept of smart glasses is intriguing. There are some existing products in this space, but they aren’t easy to purchase and are definitely not priced for a mainstream audience.

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Online dating has only become more ubiquitous and socially acceptable since the first sites launched in the mid-'90s: in a 2007-2009 study, 22 percent of couples surveyed formed... Read more

Online dating has only become more ubiquitous and socially acceptable since the first sites launched in the mid-’90s: in a 2007-2009 study, 22 percent of couples surveyed formed as a result of dating websites, and it’s now the second-most common way for people to meet. But a meta-analysis of online dating and psychological studies shows that while some people are successful using those services, the sites themselves oversell their benefit. There are also a number of downsides, from wrong impressions gotten from too much Internet interaction to unnecessary pickiness from an abundance of potential dates to choose from.

The front-facing parts of dating websites often namecheck science, math, and other quantitative disciplines when describing their methods, throwing around high percentages of people matched and married, large numbers of dimensions of compatibility, and surprisingly even numbers of male and female users. Based on their iffy science, the services claim their methods are superior to offline dating. Despite the fact that “news agencies frequently parrot these claims uncritically… in awed tones,” the meta-analysis says, its investigation suggests that “dating sites have failed to produce compelling evidence” for them.

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Google is finally bringing Chrome to the Android platform. A beta release of the increasingly popular Web browser was published this morning in the Android Market and is available... Read more

Google is finally bringing Chrome to the Android platform. A beta release of the increasingly popular Web browser was published this morning in the Android Market and is available to users who are running Android 4. The port includes Chrome’s advanced HTML rendering engine and many of the browser’s popular features.

The Chrome beta is designed to run on both phones and tablets. The tablet version of the user interface is nearly a perfect match of Chrome on the desktop, including the distinctive slanted tab design. The phone version has a more compressed interface, suitable for smaller screens, and includes the standard Chrome features such as the Omnibar and application shortcut pane.

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If history is a good indication of the future, by the time HP sends its Windows 8 tablet into the world, Apple will have sold about $9.5 billion worth of iPads to businesses. So HP... Read more

The Motorola Droid 4 will be available on Verizon's network for $199.99 with a two-year contract, Motorola announced in a press release today. The smartphone carries on the keyboard... Read more

The Motorola Droid 4 will be available on Verizon’s network for $199.99 with a two-year contract, Motorola announced in a press release today. The smartphone carries on the keyboard tradition of its predecessor, the Droid 3, but with a much-improved design.

The Droid 4 has a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, and a 4-inch qHD display. An 8-megapixel camera that can record 1080p video is on the back of the phone, and an “HD” camera is on the front. The phone has a 1785mAh battery and will launch with Android 2.3 Gingerbread, “to be upgraded to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich,” according to Motorola.

We handled the phone a bit at CES, and while it’s still on the thick and heavy side, the sliding action was smoother and easier than the Droid 3, which had a stiff mechanism. The keyboard keys also had more travel and were easier to press, which should make for a better typing experience.

The Droid 4 will be available in stores and online starting February 10.

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Nikon on Monday announced the D800 digital SLR camera, the newest addition to its professional DSLR line up. Boasting a 36.3 megapixel full-frame CMOS sensor, high ISO shooting... Read more

Nikon on Monday announced the D800 digital SLR camera, the newest addition to its professional DSLR line up. Boasting a 36.3 megapixel full-frame CMOS sensor, high ISO shooting capabilities, and a variety of high definition video modes, the D800 leapfrogs well beyond its predecessor, the D700, as well as anything else in the 35mm format, to offer resolution approaching that of $10,000+ medium format cameras.

Like the flagship D4 announced in January, the D800 uses a 51-point autofocus system that is sensitive down to -2EV. It also has the new 91,000 pixel 3D color matrix metering and Advanced Scene Recognition System that compares the image in the viewfinder with a database of previously captured images and their exposure settings. The D800 retains the standard DSLR size of the D700, wrapped in magnesium alloy, but its corners and curves have been rounded in line with the design of the D4.

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The first model of the Raspberry Pi Foundation's low-cost Linux computer will likely be available for purchase later this month. The organization announced today that manufacturing... Read more

The first model of the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s low-cost Linux computer will likely be available for purchase later this month. The organization announced today that manufacturing on the first batch is set to complete on February 20.

The $35 computer, which is a bare board the size of a deck of playing cards, has a 700MHz ARM11 CPU and 256MB of RAM. A second model with lower specs will eventually be released for $25. According to a statement issued today by the Raspberry Pi Foundation, the $35 model will probably be available for purchase by the end of the month unless there are additional production delays.

We reported on the Raspberry Pi computer last month when manufacturing was set to begin. Completion of the first batch was delayed because the manufacturer had difficulty sourcing a component. The issue was resolved and production resumed.

In addition to announcing the expected ate of completion for the first batch, the Raspberry Pi Foundation has also announced the availability of technical documentation from Broadcom with details about the SoC used in the Raspberry Pi board. The document is available for download as a PDF file.

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