Muammar Gaddafi killed as Sirte falls

Things are changing a lot in the past ~30 years.

From the article:

Former Libyan leader killed in apparent attempt to flee last bastion, but circumstances of his death remain unclear.

Google Reader Getting Overhauled, Removing Your Friends

Today Google announced its long-ignored RSS app Google Reader is getting an update. Most notably, it’s getting a fresh new design along the same lines as Google’s other products, like Docs, Maps, Search and Gmail. While I’m not entirely thrilled about this change (I prefer the utilitarian look for the service), I understand Google’s need to maintain user interface consistency across its online products.

What really bothers me, however, is Google’s casual decision to remove all of Google Reader’s “social” features, including friending, following and shared link blogs.

Look, I get that there’s probably only ten of you out there reading this who care much about changes to Google Reader. For mainstream news consumers, that Google is now streamlining and beautifying this neglected product is probably welcome news. But for those of us who use Google Reader regularly as a utility – as a place to track, follow, archive and search dozens of sources of information from favorite blogs to company feeds and more – any change to Reader has the equivalent impact as an overhaul of Gmail. In other words, proceed carefully or prepare for an earful.

And in this particular case, here comes the earful: I’m going to miss the “social” features Google Reader delivers.

Wait, don’t laugh!

To be clear, I don’t really consider or use Google Reader as “social” product like Facebook, Twitter or Google+ (hence the quotes). I don’t comment much on feeds, or friend and follow dozens of users. But I do enjoy reading the shares from a select group of heavy-duty RSS consumers who are consistently sharing interesting items. When I’m behind on the day’s news, all I have to do is read TechCrunch, TechMeme and this carefully constructed “human curated” list of shares. It is, and will be up until the day it disappears, one of the most regular and enjoyable news consumption behaviors I engage in every day.

Although there are many other services out there that promise to bubble up relevant content based on my interests, the best product I’ve used to date was the human curation of my Google Reader friends. Not only did my group consistently share the top tech news I’d want to read, they also share those oddball but interesting stories from outside of tech, including humorous cartoons, popular videos, space and science news, parenting tips and other news completely unrelated to tech, but still compelling.

Of course, there were probably only a handful of us really using this feature, so of course, like all those other services Google is shutting down, it’s getting axed too. But Google, if you think I’m going to “Circle” this group in order to continue reading their shares, you’ve got another thing coming. You can’t force me into using Google+ by stealing pieces of Google Reader. That’s not how that’s going to work.

Google+ features are coming to more Google products, starting today with Reader

Today, Google is bringing Google+ social features into Google Reader.

The move gives us a glimpse into what the company has planned for its Plus-themed products and, in fact, the future of all Google web tools.

During a long visit to the Google campus this week, we learned that Google+ is more than a social network or a collection of communication tools; it’s Google’s plan to bring social information into everything you do on the web, from shopping to search to email and beyond.

And this expansion (or infiltration, depending on your attitude toward social media) begins today with Google Reader, the company’s RSS feed-parsing product, which itself was in dire need of a major facelift anyhow. We confirmed with a Google rep that, yes, the Reader overhaul today is a perfect example of Google’s intentions with regards to Google+ and the rest of Google’s consumer Internet products.

In addition to some user interface changes, which will be similar to the kinds of design changes made over the past few months to Google Calendar and Google Docs, Google Reader is going to have some new, Google+ powered social features that will make it easier to share specific posts and news articles from your RSS feeds with specific Google+ circles.

“We’re going to bring Reader and Google+ closer together, so you can share the best of your feeds with just the right circles,” Google engineer Alan Green wrote today on the official Google blog.

“We think the end result is better than what’s available today, and you can sign up for Google+ right now to start prepping Reader-specific circles.”

Green also noted that since some of Reader’s existing social features, such as friending and following, will be duplicated by the new Google+ features, some of the old mechanisms will be retired next week.

And if you don’t like it, Google says you can take your data and … well, do whatever you want with it. Departing users will be able to export their subscriptions, likes, friends and shared and starred items.

“Your data belongs to you, after all,” Green concluded.

Google announces NFC-based Android Beam for sharing between phones

Can QR codes do that, J?

From the article:

Google's already embraced NFC for mobile payments, and it's now ready to do some sharing as well. That comes in the form of Android Beam, which the company just announced at its joint event with Samsung in Hong Kong. Much like HP's ill-fated Touch-to-share, it will let you tap two NFC-enabled devices together to share a piece of information. That will work across a range of services, including YouTube videos, contact information, maps, web pages, and even links to apps in the Android Market. What's more, Google also announced that the SDK is available for download today -- get it at the source link below.

Google announces NFC-based Android Beam for sharing between phones originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 18 Oct 2011 23:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Adobe releases Adobe Reader for iOS

Mac OS X and iOS have built-in support for displaying PDFs. While it lacks some advanced and not often used features (e.g. PDF "forms"), the built-in PDF stuff has covered my needs since I got a Mac. I'm not sure the state of Windows / Linux, though. Do any of you guys still need Adobe Reader?

From the article:

iOS owners have another way to view PDFs files on their devices now that Adobe has released its popular Reader app for iOS. Adobe Reader for iOS lets you open a PDF from any app that supports "Open in," including mobile Safari and iOS email. It'll let you open password-protected files and view additonal PDF content like annotations and drawing markups. It also supports bookmarks and thumbnails, both of which can be used for navigation.

The app is desinged to be a reader only and has a minimalistic interface. When you are within the program, you can search the document, copy text to the clipboard and print. The Adobe Reader app is available for free from the iOS App Store.

Adobe releases Adobe Reader for iOS originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 18 Oct 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Throwable Panoramic Ball Camera

We present the Throwable Panoramic Ball Camera which captures a full spherical panorama when thrown into the air. At the peak of its flight, which is determined using an accelerometer, a full panoramic image is captured by 36 mobile phone camera modules.

[Via @Johl; Images courtesy of Jonas Pfeil, CC]