The European Parliament has voted to conduct an “in-depth” inquiry into the scope and nature of the USA’s internet spying programs, reports The Hill. The group will assess the impact of surveillance activities like PRISM, collect information and evidence both in the EU and US, and present its findings in a resolution by the end of the year. The vote overwhelmingly supported the inquiry, with 483 in favor to 98 against and 65 abstentions.
Hackers who carry out cyber attacks against EU member states will face stiffer consequences in the coming years thanks to a decision reached by European Union lawmakers Thursday. As part of the new rules, perpetrators will face at least two years behind bars for unlawfully accessing information systems; that sentence jumps to five years if critical infrastructure like power plants, public transportation, or government servers are targeted. Illegally interfering with data. The rules also forbid the illegal interception of communications, interfering with data, and the production and sale of tools that could assist in with those endeavors.
The European Parliament is also looking to thwart the use of botnets with the new framework. Both...
After a few months of testing, Sony has announced its my Xperia service will be hitting all regions in the next few weeks. This system will provide remote management of 2012 and 2013 Xperia devices. Smartphones are expensive – it's nice of Sony to help you keep track of it.
Once it is deployed in your country, my Xperia will come in the form of a new app that can be enabled in settings.
Sony Rolling Out 'my Xperia' Remote Lock, Wipe, And Phone Tracking Service Globally In The Coming Weeks was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
    
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Feeling apprehensive about cloud storage with recent goings on? Well, MEGA might be the cloud for you with 50GB of free encrypted space. There's now an easier way to access your cloud storage with the official MEGA Android app. This isn't new per se – MEGA has acquired the top third-party client and made it official.
The app provides full access to all your encrypted online files, with full support for uploads, camera sync, and more.
MEGA Acquires Android App, Makes It The Official Client And Adds New Features was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
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The new Android Central Photography forums are now open for business! Our Android phones are for more than calling and texting, and taking photos to share with friends and family is now a great reason to have one. Cameras are advancing, and while their probably never going to be as good as professional equipment, we've seen some awesome pictures snapped with the camera that's always in your pocket -- the smart phone.
All of us here at AC are big picture takers as well. We know what it's like to have questions, or want to talk about the best way to use our phone cameras, and of course share pictures. Part of being a blogger for a big site like AC means learning how to take the best pictures you can, and we're often out and about depending on our phone to get the shot. you guys deserve nothing less than our best. We can't wait to talk and share with you guys and gals!
One really great tool we've been working on is being able to embed your photosphere pictures right into your forums post. A whole lot of reading, a little bit of sweat and a cold bottle of refreshment or two later, and we have it up and running. In fact, we've got a dedicated forum designed for sharing them and we really want to see them all! There are full instructions with a video about how to post them, and it's a pretty easy affair.
So get your lenses wiped clean, grab your best pictures, and head into the forums to share with the world. We'll see you there!
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Welcome to the roundup of the best new Android applications, games, and live wallpapers that went live in the Play Store or were spotted by us in the previous 2 weeks or so.
This is the app roundup. The game roundup from this week can be found here.
40 Best (And 1 WTF) New Android Apps And Live Wallpapers From The Last 2 Weeks (6/18/13 - 7/3/13) was written by the awesome team at Android Police.
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Payment providers are increasingly taking action against sites and services that are linked to copyright infringement.
There’s an unwritten rule that Mastercard and Visa don’t accept file-hosting sites that have an affiliate program and PayPal has thrown out nearly all cyberlockers in recent months.
It now appears that these policies have carried over to VPN providers and other anonymizing services. Before the weekend customers of the popular Swedish payment service provider Payson received an email stating that VPN services are no longer allowed to accept Visa and Mastercard payments due to a recent policy change.
“Payson has restrictions against anonymization (including VPN services). As a result Payson can unfortunately no longer give your customers the option to finance payments via their cards (VISA or MasterCard),” the email states, adding that they still accept bank transfers as deposits.
The new policy went into effect on Monday, leaving customers with a two-day window to find a solution.
While the email remains vague about why this drastic decision was taken, in a telephone call Payson confirmed that it was complying with an urgent requirement from Visa and Mastercard to stop accepting payments for VPN services.
One of these customers is the iPredator VPN, launched by Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde and friends. Sunde tells TorrentFreak that he is baffled by the decision, which he believes may be an effort to prevent the public from covering their tracks online and preventing government spying.
“It means that US companies are forcing non-American companies not to allow people to protest their privacy and be anonymous, and thus the NSA can spy even more. It’s just INSANE,” Sunde says.
Sunde explains that iPredator will always have plenty of other payment options, but sees it as an outrage that Mastercard and Visa have apparently decided to ban a perfectly legal technology.
“For iPredator there are always other payment methods, like Bitcoin, but it’s insane to censor a totally legit system that is there to avoid censorship and surveillance,” Sunde says.
Despite these alternatives, Sunde is not going to stand idly by. He informs TorrentFreak that Ipredator considering taking legal action, citing the Wikileaks win against the credit card companies as a favorable precedent.
Ipredator is far from the only VPN provider that is affected by the policy change. Anonine, Mullvad, VPNTunnel, Privatvpn and several others are also using Payson’s services.
At this point it’s unclear why the two companies are taking a stand against anonymizing services. It seems likely that an industry or authority has been pushing for the policy change behind the scenes. However, with privacy high on the agenda with the PRISM scandal, the move comes at an odd time.
TorrentFreak has reached out to Mastercard and Visa but we have yet to hear back from the companies. We are not aware of any other payment service providers who have taken action against VPN providers, so the scope of the actions are unknown at this point.
Update July 4: Visa Europe told us that it “has not been involved in this matter in any way, and has not made any such stipulations to Payson or to any other organisation.” We specifically asked whether VPNs and other anonymizing services are in any way prohibited by Visa, but the company didn’t confirm nor deny. Visa believes that the issue was raised by Payson’s acquiring bank, which acts as an intermediary between payment processors and card associations such as Visa and MasterCard.
Update July 8: MasterCard also denies that they are responsible for Payson’s decision to stop accepting VPN services. “Contrary to earlier reports, MasterCard has not been involved in this matter in any way. We have not placed any restrictions on Payson.” MasterCard’s Senior VP of External Communications, Andrew Bowins, told TorrentFreak. The company agreed to offer more insight into their policies which we will address in an upcoming article.
We have asked Payson to clarify the discrepancy and will update the article when we hear back from them.
Source: Mastercard and Visa Start Banning VPN Providers?
In a desperate bid to evade the international reach of US authorities Snowden has applies for asylum to Wall Street. “Where else can I go?”, says Snowden. Pointing out that Wall Street ripped off 10 trillion dollars in 2008 and no one went to jail Snowden thinks this is the only place on Earth that is beyond the reach of the Justice Department. “If they can get away with that,” says Snowden, this must be the best place in the world to hide!”
So email management startup Xobni was acquired by Yahoo today, the company officially announced on its blog. Initial reports said the company was acquired for “upwards of $30 million” but TechCrunch has learned that total consideration for the deal will be about twice that amount, somewhere in the $60 million-plus range.
Founded in 2006, Xobni raised about $42 million over the years, as it tried to reinvent the way email was done. The company’s last round of funding came in February of last year, and investors over the years have included First Round Capital, Khosla Ventures, RRE Ventures, Baseline Ventures, RBC Venture Partners, Relay Ventures, Cisco, Atomico, as well as a number of angels.
A source with knowledge of the acquisition disputes the $30 million figure, saying total consideration is about double what had been reported. A price in the $60 million range (including earnouts and other considerations) isn’t a fantastic return for its investors, but at least the company wasn’t acquired for less than it had raised. While the company didn’t get to be as big as the team or investors might have hoped, they also didn’t get rocked in the transaction, as has been suggested.
We’re still hoping to talk to both Yahoo and Xobni about the deal and how the startup will fit into Yahoo’s products and culture. It’s likely that Yahoo will be able to incorporate some of its technology into its own mail products as a way to improve them.
We’ve also reached to Yahoo and Xobni about terms of the deal. Yahoo says that it’s not commenting on the financial terms, and a representative from Xobni hasn’t responded to our request yet.
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Alan sez, "Ann Makosinski, a Canadian girl scientist, describes her Google Science Fair submission: an LED flashlight that runs solely on the heat of the human hand. According to the GSF site she is one of 15 worldwide finalists at this point.
The Hollow (Thermoelectric) Flashlight - Google Science Fair (Thanks, Alan!) 
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Every so often Google Play will put up "collections" of apps that fall into a certain genre or fit with a current season or holiday. This time the Android Design Team is taking time to highlight 11 apps that have taken design to the next level with the "Beautiful Design Summer 2013 Collection". In a blog post detailing the criteria for the collection, the team explains what makes an app "beautiful":
"Transitions are fast and clear, layout and typography are crisp and meaningful, and design touches that delight you in surprising ways are sprinkled throughout."
They have made up a list of 11 apps that exemplify these ideals -- Pattrn, Pocket, Timer, Eye in Sky Weather, NY Times, Grand St., Pinterest, Press, Expedia, Flipboard and TED -- of what great Android design looks like. And that doesn't mean that every one of these apps follows Android's Design Guidelines pixel-for-pixel, either. They're called guidelines and not requirements for a reason, because Google thinks that it is possible to make an app feel coherent to the Android aesthetic while still keeping its own personality.
The team encourages all Android developers to take a look at these apps to get a feel for the design details necessary to "separate good apps from great ones." For users, you may want to grab a download of some of these as great examples of what is possible with Android apps today.
Source: Android Developers Blog
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New apps need lovin’ too, right? Every day there are thousands of new entries on the Google Play store, but many go unnoticed and never receive the attention they deserve. We’ve shown in the past that this community can discover great apps and launch them to new heights. So, we’re bringing back our weekly column Fresh Meat that highlights new apps with less than 100k installs. Browse our new Android app picks below and let us know which ones you enjoy.
Description: #Square is simple photo editor for Instagram, like Photo Squarer or SquareIt, that helps you to avoid photos crop by making your photos square sized, adding borders of any size and color, rotating your photo. After you’ve finishing with photo editing #Square will let you post your photo to Instagram without crop, or share it via Twitter, Facebook, Vk.com client, Email app, Bluetooth etc, also without cropping photo.
Description: Get the #1 app for sending and receiving text messages (SMS) from your computer or tablet for free! When your phone receives an SMS text message, you can respond using your PC’s browser that is sync’d with your Android phone. The SMS will appear on your phone in real time! It’s fast and easy to set-up. Best of all, it’s 100% free to SMS from your browser. SMS from PC. SMS for free!
Description: PowerLine – smart line-indicators in your status bar. Battery, CPU, memory, signal, storage, SMS, missed calls and more… Better than a widget! Always visible, even on the lock screen. FREE version with two indicators, more indicators with the Unlock.
Description: GoBank is an award-winning new bank account, made to be used on a mobile phone. Big banks often come with big fees and big headaches. That’s why it’s about time for GoBank—it’s fast (works like your other favorite apps), fair (no overdraft or penalty fees) and feature-rich.
Description: The YouView app provides a television guide with over 70 digital TV and radio listings for the next seven days with full program information details. It also allows YouView customers to record their favorite television programs onto their YouView set-top box, while on the move.
Description: How much have dialers evolved since the original phone? Very little. What if instead of the call history, you could see the list of people you’re actually going to call now? Why not make it more smart ? Yeah, what if the phone magically predicts whom you would call based on your context; your location, time, calendar, conversations etc. Adding context makes for an intelligent dialer.
Dialapp does, exactly, that. Fast, simple, contextual and magical. DialApp list shows a predictive list of your contacts whom you would call at that precise context based on your patterns.
Description: WATCH ABC is a new way to experience ABC – anytime, anywhere. Whether you’re at home or out and about, you can enjoy your favorite ABC TV shows, sports, and local news & weather on your smartphone, tablet, or computer – LIVE and ON DEMAND.
Description: One app to satisfy all your needs for the decoration of your android phones. Choosing Kitty Play means choosing high quality, richness, uniqueness and great fun. Enjoy it!!
Description: Discover the award-winning way to get free games and apps on Android! With Spotlight, you hear about the hottest new games and apps on Google Play before everyone else. Download Spotlight today!
Description: Project Runway. Dance Moms. Army Wives. And, of course, movies! Now you can watch Lifetime wherever and whenever you want…on your Android devices! The Lifetime app gives you full access to all the reality, drama and movies Lifetime has to offer. New full episodes and movies, plus behind-the-scenes and preview clips, are added every day!
Boxee has struggled to make a name for itself in the home entertainment market, but things just took an interesting turn. According to a report from TheMarker, Boxee has been acquired by consumer electronics giant Samsung for "tens of millions of dollars." The figure is said to be less than $30 million, which is the amount Israel-based Boxee was rumored to be looking for. Samsung's Boxee buy could be a good play that will give the company a solid cloud-based DVR and TV streaming service to bolster its entertainment portfolio. Boxee has raised $28.5 million in capital since it was founded in 2007, and its service has gone through several major changes. Boxee started as a media hub but the service now consists of a set-top box with several compatible video apps, and unlimited cloud DVR service that allows users to stream live or recorded TV to computers, smartphones and tablets.
While the traditional book industry struggles with the ebook DRM debate, comic publisher Image Comics has decided to sidestep the issue altogether. The company has launched a new online store that's selling its comics completely free of DRM copy protection, allowing readers to move their comics across devices and reading apps. While some smaller comic publishers have already gone DRM-free, Image is the biggest publisher yet to make the leap. Home to titles like The Walking Dead and Spawn, it is the third-largest publisher in the industry, ranking only behind heavyweights Marvel and DC.
Easier access, but not everywhere
Most digital comics are contained within a specific ecosystem, much like ebooks. Users generally aren't able to...
As nearly anyone who cares for an animal can tell you, pet hair is a nuisance. It loves clinging to carpets and fabrics and mocks your silly attempts to vacuum it up. If you have cats (or some types of dogs), that hair also floats, settling down onto just about everything you own.
Fuzzy Furball writes:
Recently I adopted/rescued a 6 year old German Shepherd. She's adorable and has adapted to my place with relative ease. However, her breed should be renamed to German Shedder. I'm asking you and your readers for tips to remove pet hair from essentially everything. Hardwood Floors (I vacuum with an older model Oreck and minutes later there's hair again), clothes, car upholstery, to food and water bowls.
Have some advice for Fuzzy Furball? Post it below!
Do you have a problem that needs solving and want help from the Lifehacker community? Email us at tips+wyp@lifehacker.com and we might post it. The best questions are broad enough to apply to other people and have many possible answers (so that you can get lots of opinions from your fellow readers). If you have a question that's specific to you or only has a single solution, send an email to tips@lifehacker.com instead.
Images by FantasyStock (deviantART).
Mobile network EE, currently the only operator to offer 4G LTE services in the UK, has announced that its new "double speed" LTE services will officially launch starting tomorrow, July 4. Initially the new, faster service, which promises "headline" speeds of up to 80Mbps, will be available in some 12 towns and cities including Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester and Sheffield. (We've already seen speeds of between 50 and 80Mbps in London and Manchester as EE has been testing the new service.)
In addition, EE has today announced that its shared 4G price plans will become available from July 17, as will its new Pay-As-You-Go 4G mobile broadband plans. The shared plans can give users unlimited calls and texts, and a central pool of up to 20GB to share between devices, TheNextWeb reports. But the new shared plans won't come cheap — the 20GB option is set to cost £112 per month.
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Samsung is introducing new PC software to turn your home computer into a cloud backup location for all of your other Samsung devices. Similarly to its stand-alone hardware backup device -- the Samsung HomeSync -- this new HomeSync Lite software will install on your home PC and provide a central location for multimedia storage without any additional fees or services. The basic premise is that once you have the software installed and all of your Samsung devices linked up with a Samsung Account, you'll be able to backup and access the same content across all phones, tablets and cameras seamlessly. Content stored on the PC will be available on other devices, streaming directly between the two without an additional service.
Now naturally this will only work with Samsung's own mobile devices -- the promo video shows tablets, phones and smart cameras -- but for those who have their whole world rooted in the one manufacturer this can be a compelling setup. As the amount of media stored piles up, the software also interfaces with external drives to expand storage. HomeSync Lite supports up to 5 users accounts per PC and up to 6 devices per user account, making this a great option for a family or shared home PC setup.
Source: Samsung
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Another reason to switch to DuckDuckGo (the other being DuckDuckGo has a cute duck logo).
How Google is Killing Organic Search (Via Nat Torkington)
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The UK's biggest hotel chain is set to open a new line of budget city hotels that provide app-based check-ins and improved connectivity for people who pride location and design over space. Whitbread will open its first Premier Inn 'hub' in Covent Garden, London in the fall of 2014, compacting a bed, bathroom, and work space into a room measuring just 123 square-feet.
We've shown you how to get your Google Reader data now that the service is dead, but you don't get everything available. If you really want to sweep up all that data from Google Reader, Reader is Dead is a tool that helps you do just that.
With Reader is Dead you get not only an archive of your feeds, but also: all your read, starred, tagged, and shared items, as well as any comments, read messages, and even preferences. Essentially, you get everything. The archive process takes a while, and it can get up to a few GB of data, so grab a cup of coffee before you let it run. You have until July 15 to grab your data from Google.
One of Samsung's newest members of the Galaxy S4 family, the Galaxy S4 Mini, is now available to purchase from Three UK. The S4 Mini can be had for no initial payment on a new, two-year, £26 and above contract, or can be purchased on Three's new pay-as-you-go tariff for an outright payment of £349.99.
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Founded in January 2003, isoHunt has been around for more than a decade.
During this time the site has established itself as one of the leading BitTorrent search engines and currently serves millions of users a day.
Over the years isoHunt has made the headlines on several occasions due to its legal battles with Hollywood and the major record labels. Both cases are still ongoing, but right now isoHunt founder Gary Fung has more pressing matters on his mind.
For the past few hours the site has been unreachable to the public, and as a result many users have started to wonder whether something bad has happened to the site.
While the site is indeed in trouble, Fung informs TorrentFreak that the problems being faced are of a technical nature.
The downtime is being caused by significant problems with isoHunt’s database. In addition, the server encountered a bad kernel which complicates matters further. As a result it may take a while before the site comes back online.
Fung assures TorrentFreak that the site will return, but that it will take at least 12 hours before the current issues are completely resolved.
isoHunt will post updates via Facebook and Twitter and has also posted a notice on the site’s homepage to keep visitors informed, although not everybody is able to see that at the moment.
In the meantime isoHunt users longing for their daily fix will have to wait, or visit any of the many other torrent sites around.
Source: isoHunt Suffers Prolonged Downtime, Facing Tech Problems
Flipboard users counting on the social magazine to retain their Google Reader subscriptions after the service’s shutdown last night are waking up today to a bit of disappointment. Though Flipboard had promised earlier that those who signed into Google Reader in their Flipboards would be able to continue to enjoy their subscriptions after Reader’s closing, apparently, that’s not the case.
[UPDATE: See below. Flipboard says feeds are back.]
On Twitter, many are tweeting their confusion and unhappiness with the situation, and, as one TechCrunch reader has pointed out, users can no longer take to Flipboard’s GetSatisfaction page to discuss the issue further, as Flipboard’s community page was also shutdown a couple of weeks back. There, the company had only posted a few responses to users’ technical questions and suggestions related to the Reader shutdown, and mainly directed people to company blog posts for more information.
When Google first announced its plans to close Google Reader back in March, Flipboard, like many other services in the news-reading business, quickly announced its plans to serve as a new home for abandoned Google Reader users.
“Your Google Reader subscriptions will be safe on Flipboard,” the company’s blog post began before outlining a few key steps for users to take to make sure their feeds remained intact. The set up described was simple — users only needed to establish a Flipboard account, connect their Google Reader account in the settings, and then remain signed in. Flipboard said there was no need for any other actions on the user’s part, and that “your feeds will be saved.”
In June, Flipboard again posted a reminder about the Google Reader shutdown, repeating those same steps.
But a good number of tweets as well as private tips to TechCrunch this morning, indicate that something has gone wrong. Instead of seeing a collection of news feeds in Flipboard, users are merely presented with a message that reads “no content.”
Given that Flipboard had already been serving as a Google Reader client of sorts ahead of the transition, it makes sense that the company would want to continue to serve that audience. It’s unclear at this time what has happened, and whether it’s a temporary bug or a more serious technical miscalculation on Flipboard’s part.
We’ve reached out to Flipboard to find out what the issue is, and the company is now looking into it. We’ll update when we hear back.
According to at least one tipster, his set of folders and feeds was restored as of just a few minutes ago, but it only included feeds that were already in Flipboard’s system. Many of those he had archived in Google Reader were not recognized.
More to come.
UPDATE: Flipboard says the feeds are there now. Per a company spokesperson: “We have all the feeds; nothing is lost. People can access their folders and feeds. At the moment, only the summary feed called ‘All Feeds’ is not working for everyone.”
In a follow-up conversation, the company informed us that the challenge was related to having to update the millions of Flipboard users’ Google Reader folders, and that it has been taking time for people’s feeds to repopulate.
The expectation is that all users should have their feeds restored by the end of the day. The Summary feed will also be fixed, and even obscure feeds — like those that one TechCrunch reader noted were still missing — will be added, as well. “Nothing is lost,” says Flipboard founder Mike McCue, adding that “it’s definitely taking longer than we thought.”
Part of the problem with today’s transition is that Google never announced an official shutdown time for Reader, which made it difficult from an operational point of view to be fully ready for the transition. Currently, Flipboard uses its own infrastructure to serve RSS feeds to users, but hasn’t discounted the idea of working with other API platform providers, like Feedly, at a later date.
“We launched Google Reader in 2005 in an effort to make it easy for people to discover and keep tabs on their favorite websites. While the product has a loyal following, over the years usage has declined. So, on July 1, 2013, we will retire Google Reader.” – Google, March 2013.
Today, Google Reader’s remaining users will “Mark All As Read” one last time. There are two schools of thought on Google’s decision to move on from its aging RSS aggregator, which was never adopted by the mainstream: one, that it’s pretty much the worst thing to ever happen to the Internet. Ever! And two: who cares?
Even though I count myself as someone who falls into that former group, it’s hard to argue against Google’s thinking in the matter. Following websites using RSS feeds is just not something the “normals” do. So an RSS reader like Google’s remained in the hands of the tech elite, the domain of the IT crowd, the programmers, the researchers, the journalists.
The rest of the world merely surfs the web, and now they just tweet.
But Google Reader was special because it was one of the last remaining places on the Internet you could really call your own. In every other way, the nature of news reading on the web these days and the social services that now dominate your attention are crafted by others who dictate what you will read and when. Whether browsing through an editorially run news site, parsing your Twitter stream or reading your Facebook news feed, the links before you are those that others have deemed important.
There’s value in this signal, of course — a sense of what’s trending in the larger world allows for serendipitous discovery. But it’s also a relinquishing of control. Oh sure, you can choose who to follow, but it’s not the same as choosing which news sources’ feeds you will subscribe to, why, and how often you will read them.
In Google Reader, I’ve gleefully stuffed websites into collections like “B-List” and “C-List” and “Can’t Miss” and “Panic Button,” instead of more proper names like “top tech sites” or “Apple bloggers.” It’s my decision which headline collections get scanned with a glance, and which writers will see me devouring their every word.
Meanwhile on Twitter, every missive is as important as the one that preceded it. A photo of your cat. News from the war. A beautiful sunset on Instagram. A government overthrown. It’s a real-time firehose of information that you dip into as you can. There’s no unread count. You just refresh and refresh and refresh for more.
Having never caught on as a social network in its own right outside of a niche group of users, Google Reader couldn’t rival something like Twitter. The writing was on the wall for its demise when Google ripped out the social features in the product back in October 2011 in order to make room for deeper integration with Google’s newer social network Google+.
The move, essentially a big @#$% you to Reader’s small but highly engaged audience of users, may have come as a surprise to some, but with the internal thinking at Google, perhaps it was a miracle that Reader was being given any sort of development attention at all.
In the definitive recounting of Google Reader’s history here on BuzzFeed, Brian Shih, who became Reader Product Manager in fall 2008, spoke of how the team had to fight internally for what, in terms of Google’s scale, was a really, really, really small project. “Someone hung a sign in the Reader offices that said ‘DAYS SINCE LAST THREAT OF CANCELLATION.’ The number was almost always zero,” he said.
At Google, senior execs only cared about absolute user numbers, not on growth or market share.
But even though Google Reader could never compete in numbers with Gmail or other Google products, it wiped out the market of RSS competitors, while letting its 800-pound gorilla sit and rot.
Today, Google is too busy trying to change the world with self-driving cars and face computers, search engines that think for you and a balloon-powered Internet to care about Google Reader. It’s thinking of how to dominate mobile and connect the next 5 billion users to the web — lofty goals that leave no time for a silly little product from Web 2.0′s early days.
At least by shutting down Reader, Google is admitting that its stewardship in this area has failed.
Google can’t — and no longer wants to — do it all.
We’ve seen evidence of that already in the systematic shutdowns of other dated, stagnant services through Google’s “Spring Cleanings.” Google Reader was not the first, nor will it be the last, that fails to survive these cuts. Google Alerts and Feedburner are other prime candidates at this point.
We’re retiring Reader on July 1. We know many of you will be sad to see it go. Thanks for 8 great years! http://t.co/0jtSqBnORp
— Google Reader (@googlereader) March 13, 2013
Ever since Google’s announcement this spring, many new services have stepped up to help fill the void Google Reader leaves behind, but none will ever fill its shoes. None of those that now vie to become the new incumbent even have search built-in, for example. A few promise “yeah, it’s coming” but too many startups begging for a second look think that merely supporting RSS feeds makes them a Google Reader clone.
Google Reader wasn’t a list of things to read. It wasn’t a collection of RSS feeds.
It was your own, personal Google. A search engine built on top of the sites you cared about. A Google News with the stories you wanted to see. A taxonomy where you chose the labels, and drove the SEO. Google Reader was your web, your slice of the Internet.
Social media, now, is theirs.
Reader’s death isn’t the end of a product, it’s the end of an era. We have protested, bargained, begged, and cried. Now we have to accept and adapt.
Google Reader, thank you for eight great years.
Goodbye.
shift-a
OK kids, it’s time. Throw this on in one tab http://t.co/Mj3njMeWZn open “All Items” in @GoogleReader & “Mark all as read” One. Last. Time.
— Jason Shellen (@shellen) July 1, 2013
We’ve posted about the remarkable story of Vivian Maier in the past here on dPS. Vivian was a nanny who worked in a number of families – none of which knew she had a secret life of a street photographer.
Over the years she took over 100,000 images between the late 1940′s through to the 1990s – showing them to nobody but storing them in a storage locker which was only discovered after her death when the contents were auctioned without really knowing what treasure was in the negatives and slides in it.
Her images have now been catalogued and a documentary is being made by the owner of the photographs after a kickstarted project.
This week the BBC released part 1 of a documentary on Vivians story. Part 2 shouldn’t be too far off but in the mean time – grab a drink and settle down to watch Vivians story.
Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.
Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.
Vivian Maier – The Secret Nanny Street Photographer: BBC Documentary Part 1
When job hunting, your résumé has a way of highlighting little career imperfections in black and white. Maybe you’ve job-hopped, had a long gap between gigs, or earned a degree that requires explaining (hello, art history majors!). Is there a way to smooth over these résumé imperfections—without being dishonest? You betcha.
You just have to get creative, be upfront, and do a little rebranding. We spoke with job coaches, recruiters, and candidates who have been in your shoes to find out how best to fix six of the most common résumé flaws.
What to Do: Play up your skills, not your positions. "What skills have you gathered in your previous positions that would be helpful in another job?" asks Lea McLeod, a career coach and the founder of Degrees of Transition, a job coaching firm.
That’s just what she did with her client, Todd Mauvais, 29. Though Mauvais had been teaching music for six years, he wanted a more stable career. He applied to government jobs for a full year before he intended to make his transition, but nothing panned out, and Mauvais wasn't sure why. Once he began working with McLeod, the problem was clear: He didn’t lack skills—he simply hadn’t identified the right field to apply them.
"Because Todd had a job where he commuted among multiple schools to teach arts classes, he was an exceptional self-manager," she says. "He also promoted summer arts programs to increase enrollment, was a great public speaker and presenter, and was comfortable in front of a room." She helped him recognize that this skill set translated perfectly to a career in sales.
Mauvais rewrote his résumé to focus on his relationship building, speaking and promotional skills, and reached out to a craft beer distributor he thought would be a good fit through LinkedIn. In just over a month, the former music teacher was hired as a sales associate, and is still happy in his role there today.
What to Do: If this describes you, don't worry, you're hardly alone. "Only specific fields—like engineering, graphic design, health care/medicine, pharmaceutical and automotive, to name a few—require related degrees for entry-level work," explains corporate recruiter Dennis Tupper. "Otherwise, companies are seeking someone who is coachable and moldable, will work hard and has a vested interest and passion in the company or industry."
Taylor Brady, 23, faced this very challenge with his sociology degree. Having grown frustrated after three months of sending out résumés for jobs in social work and nonprofits without getting any response, he, too, reached out to McLeod. "I had friends graduating from business school who were Excel wizards and such, but I had to be creative in regards to selling myself," says Brady.
"To focus Taylor's experience," explains McLeod, "we called out his work with a grant-writing mentor as a ‘special academic project’ and included the types and values of the grants he had written, so it really popped when he was applying for the grant-writing jobs he really wanted.”
He also led his résumé with a "Special Skills" section, which highlighted the key points of his past internships (including grant writing, donor database management and volunteer coordination), then provided more information about each role in the “Work Experience” section. With McLeod's help, Brady found his current role as a grant writer at a nonprofit by rebranding his résumé to focus exactly on what he could do for his potential employer.
What to Do: According to Jill Knittel, C.O.O. of recruiting and staffing firm Employee Relations Associates, significant gaps between jobs are fairly common imperfections that can be handled with two different approaches.
"One solution is to list just the number of years or months you worked at your earlier positions, rather than the usual start and end dates," Knittel advises. The other approach? "You can also use a functional résumé, which elaborates on your skills, instead of a chronological résumé. This will take the focus away from time, and on to your abilities and what you can do for a company," she says. If asked in an interview about the time frame of your résumé, you will still need to be honest about the gaps, but either of these approaches can de-emphasize them on paper.
What to Do: Jessica Bedford, a recruiter at Artisan Creative, a staffing agency that specializes in finding jobs for creative talent, recommends thatjob-hoppers include a "Reason for Leaving" next to each position, with a succinct explanation like "company closed," "layoff due to downsizing" or "relocated to new city."
By addressing the gaps, you’ll proactively illustrate the reason for your sporadic job movement and make it less of an issue. "If you have multiple gaps or have filled the time with several temporary projects, you might also create a section called ‘Consulting Work’ or ‘Freelance Work,’ and list all of them under the one section. With this approach, job seekers can account for a number of years at once," recommends Bedford.
If you stayed at a job for only a matter of months, consider eliminating it from your résumé. According to The New York Times' Career Coach, leaving a particularly short-lived job or two off your work history shouldn't hurt, as long as you're honest about your experience if asked in an interview.
What to Do: Tupper says that if you work in an industry unrelated to one you worked in ten years ago, you can omit the details of that past experience and include only the years and industries in which you worked (so you don't appear deceitful in the case of a background check).
For jobs you held several years ago that are in the same field, but don’t reflect your current "level," keep descriptions brief. And, as mentioned above, in the advice for job hoppers, jobs you held for only a few months can be eliminated, as long as you're upfront about the experience if the subject comes up.
What to Do: If little professional experience is the reason your résumé is lacking, executive recruiter Bruce A. Hurwitz of Hurwitz Strategic Staffing recommends adding a subhead called "Related Employment Activities," right under "Work Experience."
"You can fill it with volunteer work, online courses, short-term employment and consulting assignments—list everything from a part-time job to a webinar to an online course," says Hurwitz. This section allows you to explain why you’re the right candidate for the role—before a recruiter concludes you’re not. Don’t forget to include the valuable "soft skills" job candidates tend to underestimate, like the ability to resolve customer service issues, work with ambiguity, coordinate among different groups and negotiate with vendors.
6 Big Resume Flaws and How to Hide Them | LearnVest
Stephanie Taylor Christensen is a freelance writer in Columbus, OH. Previously, she was a marketer for some of the biggest financial and retail brands around. Her writing has appeared at RealSimple, ForbesWoman, LearnVest, Citi's Women & Co, Yahoo!Finance, Intuit Small Business, Mint.com, Investopedia, Bankrate, SheKnows, and Minyanville.
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Image: The Guardian
The Interfax news agency today reported that a Russian consular official confirms Edward Snowden has asked for political asylum in Russia.
Interfax cited Kim Shevchenko, the duty officer at the Russian Foreign Ministry's consular office in Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, as saying that Snowden's representative, Sarah Harrison, handed over his request Sunday.
Reuters and the New York Times previously reported that Snowden had applied for asylum with 15 different nations, after Ecuador's president issued statements indicating he would not find a home there.
Late today, Wikileaks published a statement from the whistleblower, who is wanted by the United States on charges of espionage, theft and conversion of government property:
One week ago I left Hong Kong after it became clear that my freedom and safety were under threat for revealing the truth. My continued liberty has been owed to the efforts of friends new and old, family, and others who I have never met and probably never will. I trusted them with my life and they returned that trust with a faith in me for which I will always be thankful.Update: The letter as it appears on the Wikileaks website has since been edited.On Thursday, President Obama declared before the world that he would not permit any diplomatic "wheeling and dealing" over my case. Yet now it is being reported that after promising not to do so, the President ordered his Vice President to pressure the leaders of nations from which I have requested protection to deny my asylum petitions.
This kind of deception from a world leader is not justice, and neither is the extralegal penalty of exile. These are the old, bad tools of political aggression. Their purpose is to frighten, not me, but those who would come after me.
For decades the United States of America have been one of the strongest defenders of the human right to seek asylum. Sadly, this right, laid out and voted for by the U.S. in Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is now being rejected by the current government of my country. The Obama administration has now adopted the strategy of using citizenship as a weapon. Although I am convicted of nothing, it has unilaterally revoked my passport, leaving me a stateless person. Without any judicial order, the administration now seeks to stop me exercising a basic right. A right that belongs to everybody. The right to seek asylum.
In the end the Obama administration is not afraid of whistleblowers like me, Bradley Manning or Thomas Drake. We are stateless, imprisoned, or powerless. No, the Obama administration is afraid of you. It is afraid of an informed, angry public demanding the constitutional government it was promised — and it should be.
I am unbowed in my convictions and impressed at the efforts taken by so many.
Edward Joseph Snowden
Monday 1st July 2013
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Another turn in the twisted life of social network Bebo, which has unfortunately gone in the direction of a downward spiral for much of the last couple of years: the site appears to have been bought back by its founder Michael Birch for $1 million. Birch originally sold the company to Aol (owners of TechCrunch) for some $850 million back in 2008, and has since been a part of the group that has tried to rescue Bebo after Aol offloaded it. Birch now says he wants to “re-invent” it:
We just bought Bebo back for $1m. Can we actually re-invent it? Who knows, but it will be fun trying…
— Michael Birch (@mickbirch) July 1, 2013
For a pretty tiny pricetag, this won’t be a case of “reinvent or die trying,” but it will be interesting to see how and if Birch can inject something new into the company, years after Bebo fell well behind the likes of Facebook and Twitter in the race among social media platforms.
The move comes about seven weeks after Bebo filed for Chapter 11 voluntary bankruptcy protection, at which point it was put under the receivership of the Burke Capital Corporation, which has been handling an auction of its assets.
Confusingly, prior to that Chapter 11 filing, the company had been jointly owned by Criterion Capital Corporation, as well as a consortium of investors that include Birch and his co-founder wife, Xochi. It appears that part of the issue has been that the group was unhappy with how that co-ownership arrangement was working, and so was intentionally trying to move it into a sell-off state, starting in February of this year.
In other words, Birch’s strategy has been going to plan so far. But shareholder wrangling is one thing. Now comes the hard part: trying to figure out if there is any life left for Bebo in an overcrowded market.
We’re reaching out to Birch and other shareholders, as well as Burke Capital, and will update this post as we learn more.
