Tetris 100 Million Paid Mobile Downloads And Counting

Over 25 years after it's creation Tetris has once again become a video game hit, only this time the platform has changed and the popular puzzle game is selling like crazy. The original Nintendo Gameboy version sold about 35 million copies in 25 years but EA Mobile, who licenses the rights to Tetris from Blue Planet Softare, says the game is available on some 64,000 handsets in 60 countries, according to an Associated Press report.

Source: PCWorld

Google And GeoEye Bring High Resolution To The Devastation

The Google Geo team and their partner GeoEye have released high resolution layers to the Google Earth and Google Map views of Haiti in an effort to aid relief workers and provide the rest of the world a closer look at the devastation. "With the hope of furthering awareness and relief efforts, we arranged for a collection of the Port-au-Prince area at even higher resolution (approximately 15cm) to complement the existing imagery." The imagery demonstrates the scope of the damage and gives a sense of what the country is dealing with in the wake of the disaster.

Source: Official Google Blog

Google and China Continue To Air Laundry Publicly While Talks Begin

Google has said that it is stopping the release of two android powered smartphones in China as the result of the recent tensions between the company and the Chinese government. Insiders have told the Globe and Mail that the move comes as Google and China are beginning behind door talks in an attempt to smooth things over. The Globe and Mail is reporting that executives “will be having a series of conversations with Chinese authorities in the coming days and weeks. Without knowing the end result of those discussions, [Google] felt it best to postpone these launches,”

Analysts are predicting that Google's real business interest in China is in the Smartphone market and not in Search, the market place for smartphones is only opening up there now and is expected to be much more lucrative in the long haul.

Check out the article and video from the Globe and Mail here.

Google Gadget Created To Help Loved Ones Get Information Out Of Haiti

From the Official Google Blog:

"In response to the Haitian earthquake, a team of Googlers worked with the U.S. Department of State to create an online People Finder gadget so that people can submit information about missing persons and to search the database.



You'll find this gadget on our Haiti earthquake response website as well as on the State Department website."

Use Anything But Ineternet Explorer German Government Says

From an article posted on BBC News site "The German government has warned web users to find an alternative browser to Internet Explorer to protect security.

The warning from the Federal Office for Information Security comes after Microsoft admitted IE was the weak link in recent attacks on Google's systems."

Microsoft has downplayed the risk saying that the attacks were not directed at the general public and that the holes could be filled by using the browsers' increased security setting.

Graham Cluley of anti-virus firm Sophos, told the BBC that the warning applies to IE 6, 7 and 8.

"This is a vulnerability that was announced in the last couple of days. Microsoft have no patch yet and the implication is that this is the same one that exploited on the attacks on Google earlier this week," he said.

Computer expert Alan Stevens says "It's like having a window left open in your house"

"The way to exploit this flaw has now appeared on the internet, so it is quite possible that everyone is now going to have a go."

Microsoft Responds To Google's Threat To Pull Out of China

Keeping with the never ending theme of Google vs. China, Microsoft Chief executive Steve Ballmer says he doesn't understand Google's reaction.

“There are attacks every day. I don't think there was anything unusual, so I don't understand,” Ballmer told Reuters after a meeting at the White House.

“We're attacked every day from all parts of the world and I think everybody else is too. We didn't see anything out of the ordinary.”

Ballmer told CNBC that Microsoft had no plans to exit China: “We've been quite clear, we're going to operate in China, we're going to abide by the law.”

Of course China represents a small portion of revenues generated by Google and I'm betting the Microsoft has much more to lose, but that's only speculation.

Source: Globe and Mail

China Responds To Google's Pull Out Threat

In a response that is typical of the Chinese government, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said China welcomed foreign Internet companies to operate within their country but that those offering online services must do so “in accordance with the law.” At a news conference Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Jiang Yu, did not directly address Google’s complaints about censorship and cyberattacks, but simply stated, “China’s Internet is open.”

Wang Chen, the information director for the State Council of China was more direct saying in an interview posted on the agency’s Web site "China’s Internet is entering an important stage of development, confronting both rare opportunities and severe challenges,” he said. “Internet media must always make nurturing positive, progressive mainstream opinion an important duty.”

Source: nytimes.com

On The Official Google Blog the company states it's new approach in dealing with the country.

Google Threatens To Pull Out Of China

After cyber attacks on the gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists and other Chinese dissidents, Google has raised the stakes threatening to pull it's operations from China. The attacks were "very organized" and "clearly targeted" according to Google spokesman David Drummond, chief legal officer at Google.

Drummond Says that the means of the attack where not Google related but rather phishing schemes that obtained user information and originated in December from China. Being careful not to implicate the Chinese government Drummond says "we simply cannot continue to operate a filtered or censored search engine..."

Check out the CNBC interview.

The Gadgets That Wowed'em At CES

The Globe and Mail has compiled a list of the hot gadgets from CES in Las Vegas and as expected there is a lot of 3-D action but what I didn't expect was a reborn Polaroid Instant camera! Also on the list is the Mint floor cleaning robot, tv on the iPhone, wireless charging, and a game controlling glove from Iron Will Innovations. Seems to me there must have been a lot of wow and equally as much deja vu going on in Vegas. Everything old is new again...

Update: For more on the Polaroid visit http://www.the-impossible-project.com/

Sci-Fi Shows That Deserve Resurrection

Awhile ago Wired brought us a list of 10 science fiction shows ready for an upgrade in an article entitled “Reboot This! 10 Sci-Fi TV Shows Ready for Upgrade.” Not surprisingly many fans of Sci-Fi and obviously readers of Wired chimed in with shows that were left off of that list. Wired has now published a list of reader's choices in "Reboot These Sci-Fi Shows Next, Wired Readers Plead."

Taking a hard look at the list and I agree... how could you have missed Firefly, Space 1999, Max Headroom and Thunderbirds? The Greatest American Hero we can do without... Check out the list, any thing you think was missed?