Geekly Update - 9 March 2012

The AskBobRankin Geekly Update

"I was just thinking about calling you..." IBM research scientists are predicting that smartphones will be able to read your mind in five years. They're also foreseeing the demise of passwords and the ability to harness "people power" to energize your home.

Google instituted its new privacy policy this week, while privacy pundits dodged large chunks of falling sky. Should you hide under a rock? Read Is Google's Privacy Policy Evil? for my analysis, and steps you can take to (maybe) protect your privacy.

"Now say it again... like you mean it!" Cincinnati judge Paul Meyers made Mark Byron post an apology on his Facebook page about his estranged wife in order to avoid a 60 day jail term and $500 fine.

Awards were given out this week at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona to the best mobile apps and products. Recipients included Angry Birds Rio, iPad 2, SwiftKeys and the Samsung Galaxy S II.

Android executive Andy Rubin, while attending the MWC, tweeted that there are 850,000 Android device activations daily. This is up from 700,000 only last December. For extra credit, how long will it take before Androids outnumber humans on Earth?

"Wake me up when the holograms are ready..." Samsung unveiled its Galaxy Beam with Android 2.3 and 4.0" WVGA TFT, noteworthy because of its integrated pico projector. The company claims that it can display an image of up to 50" at a resolution of 640 x 360.

WikiLeaks has begun to publish the Global Intelligence Files, 5 million emails from the company Stratfor that provides intelligence services for large corporations. Dated between 2004 and 2011, they include pay-off structure, payment laundering techniques and names of informers.

"Double vision?" Next month AT&T will be offering Sony's dual-screen Tablet P for $399 with a 2 year contract or a non-contract $50/month DataConnect plan. The tablet runs Android 2.3 but the service provider will be upgrading it to 4.0 "real soon now".

Twitter will now be including promoted tweets in its iPhone and Android apps. The ads will be from companies that the user is already following and will only appear on the Twitter app itself, not one of their clients.

"Couldn't you have waited until March 14?" After six years of development, the credit card sized Raspberry Pi computer went on sale for $35.00 and sold out within hours of launch. The small, uncased circuit board runs open-source Linux and was designed to make computers affordable for everyone while encouraging users (especially kids) to write their own software.

The Twitter account Netflixhelps says that the company has no plans to support Blackberry products, including the Playbook. Not great news for RIM, who could use all the help it can get these days.