Watch the American Landscape Change as Seen From Space - To celebrate the launch of the first Landsat satellite on July 23, 1972, the USGS and NASA asked the public to nominate landscapes that have undergone a lot of environmental change for a closer look. The Landsat team chose these six submissions and created customized chronicles of the change in each area.
(Via Wired Top Stories.)
Using QR Codes to Preserve Identity - Quick Response (QR) codes, those little black-and-white boxes of pixels that encode links and information, are popping up everywhere these days. Taking advantage of the codes' ability to capture and obscure data, Los Angeles-based Chilean artist Guillermo Bert has found another creative use of QR technology -- he's using the bar codes to preserve the identity and traditions of the Mapuche, Chile's largest indigenous population.
(Via Wired Top Stories.)
New Satellites Could Make GPS Harder to Jam - Without GPS, drones can't fly, communications networks can't function, and you don't have a chance of figuring out how to get to your Aunt Sadie's place in New Jersey. And right now, GPS is highly vulnerable because its weak signals are coming from an aging constellation of satellites. Lockheed Martin thinks its next-gen satellite can change all that.
(Via Wired Top Stories.)
Twitter crashes day before Olympics kick off - 
The day before the opening of the 2012 London Olympics that are expected to light up major social networks, Twitter has crashed.>
(Via Macworld.)
Review: SkyDrive looks to compete with Dropbox, Google Drive - 
Microsoft has performed a thorough revamping of SkyDrive, which makes it an explicable and competitive online file storage service.
(Via Macworld.)
Great QWERTY smartphones you can have right now (roundup) - You want a phone with a keyboard? You got it! Here's a roundup of some of the best and most interesting phones with QWERTYs you can feel beneath your fingertips.
(Via CNET News.com.)
RIP Sally Ride ... My First Hero - I was nine years old when I first wanted to be an astronaut, and my first hero was Sally Ride. I looked up to her as a woman, a scientist, and an astronaut. Sally Ride's integrity never faltered, even as a woman in a male-dominated profession for much of her career.
(Via Wired Top Stories.)
Martin Scorsese: "I Like You, Siri, You're Going Places" -
Apple continues to roll out celebrity-powered television commercials for Siri, with the latest starring film director Martin Scorsese as he maneuvers the mean streets of New York in a taxi cab, with Siri helping guide the way.
Apple has posted a new TV commercial for Siri to YouTube this week entitled "Busy Day." The spot stars legendary Goodfellas and Hugo director Martin Scorsese organizing his day from the back of a New York City taxi cab -- of course, with Siri's help.
(Via Mac|Life all.)
Say Goodbye to the 30-Pin, New Dock Connecter is Imminent -
Image courtesy of Boy Genius Report
For the tens of millions of us patiently waiting for Apple to flip the switch on new iPhone preorders, Reuters has weighed in on a persistent rumor that the proprietary 30-pin connector that's been used since the third generation of the iPod is finally meeting its maker, presumably to make room for an underside headphone jack.
For those arguing that Apple wouldn't render a decade of third-party plugs and accessories incompatible, we beg to differ. Even if you want to ignore all of the leaked prototypes and case mock-ups that deliberately point to a narrow connector, remember that this is Apple. Millimeters mean everything, and the old-school connector takes up a bunch of them, so if we want a thinner phone, something has to give.
(Via Mac|Life all.)
Review: Kingston Wi-Drive wireless storage drive - 
One of the relatively few mistakes I think Apple's made with the iPad is omitting external storage. It's probably not a gaffe from their perspective, of course; they charge you far more for a 32 or 64GB upgrade than it actually costs to manufacture. The iPad is closer to a computer than an iPhone though, and thus has much higher demands for some people, especially when it comes to storage. Kingston's Wi-Drive is one of several available workarounds, and we'll put it to the test in our review ...
Make free calls to landlines, mobile phones with Vonage app - Normally the app limits your free calling to other Vonage app users, but now you can ring up just about anyone you like -- no strings attached.
(Via CNET News.com.)
Landsat at 40: Images from the longest-running eye in the sky - Landsat has been watching Earth from space for four decades. As the next-generation LDCM satellite prepares to launch, we look at what Landsat has shown us so far.
(Via CNET News.com.)
List Full Download History of Your Mac - Mac OS X's quarantine feature not only sets a special quarantine bit on files you download - so it can alert you the first time you open them, and so its built-it anti-malware feature can scan for certain threats - but it also keeps a list of the files you have downloaded. OS X Daily pointed out the command you can run in Terminal to see the full list of these downloads. Run this command:
sqlite3 ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.LaunchServices.QuarantineEventsV* 'select LSQuarantineDataURLString from LSQuarantineEvent'
(Via MacOSXHints.com.)
AT&T vs. Verizon: Who has the better shared data plan? - While the two wireless carriers offer similar options, there are subtle differences. CNET breaks them down.
(Via CNET News.com.)
Three cheers for Android browser competition - There are reasons iOS and Windows RT hobble third-party browsers, but CNET's Stephen Shankland prefers the open approach Google takes with Android.
(Via CNET News.com.)
Hands on with HyperJuice: to-go power with built-in plug, multiple ports -
HyperJuice offers a portable battery pack that you can haul around, plug into any wall socket, and use to charge two items at once (even two iPads at once!) with its dual USB ports. Shipping in a variety of eye-catching colors, as well as the basic black you see in the image at the top of this post, HyperJuice retails for US$129.95 (10.4Ah) and $159.95 (15.6Ah).
I was able to test out one of the lower capacity units and can report that it seems to work as advertised. Port access was just fine and the items charged as promised. I only had two complaints about the unit.
Who owns your tweets? - 
Both corporations and employees who tweet on their company's behalf must clarify the question.
(Via Macworld.)
When Telstar met JFK - Fifty years ago today, the little Telstar satellite relayed the first TV transmission across the Atlantic. It wasn't long before President Kennedy had his black-and-white electrons beamed from the U.S. to Europe.
(Via CNET News.com.)
Nexus 7 vs. Kindle Fire: What a Difference $19 Makes - Google's Nexus 7 is a superior tablet when compared to Amazon's Kindle Fire. But the Fire still wins on profit margins. The Kindle Fire's margin is $19 higher than Google and Asus' Nexus 7 tablet.
(Via Wired Top Stories.)
How to maximize battery-life when you travel - 
If you take an iPhone, iPad, or MacBook along when you travel, you know how much of a challenge it can be to keep your device powered up all the time. Here are a few tips for supplementing and extending your gadget's power supply.
(Via Macworld.)
How to prepare a used Mac for use - While formatting a used Mac is always best, you can set one up to be as new as possible without formatting.
(Via CNET News.com.)
Dropbox doubles plan sizes; intros 500GB option - Need 500GB of cloud storage space just for your own files? Dropbox can do that now.
(Via CNET News.com.)
I am a real fan of the ZAGG Sparq 2 portable power supply. 6,000 mAH - that's right: SIX AMPS of portable power to charge/run just about ANY of your USP-charged devices.
Use my links to purchase, and $5 of each sale will be donated to either the ARRL, AMSAT-NA, or The Rotary Foundation (your choice).
Go to my e-store at ...
... for details.
Clint
NOTE: This is a blatant commercial advertisement. I will make a couple bucks off of each sale ... but, then, I give most of it away to one of those worthwhile organizations. Oh, well. Can't say I am TOO business savvy ...
App Guide: Baseball history apps for iOS - 
To appreciate baseball's present, you need to study its past, whether it's reading up on the game's greats or looking up old games. These iOS apps can help.
(Via Macworld.)
Three mistakes I made with my last laptop - Shopping for a new portable PC? I bought one not long ago, and there are three things I wish I'd done differently. Don't make the same mistakes.
(Via CNET News.com.)
The Inside Story of the Extra Second That Crashed the Web - The "leap second" crash -- which hit several web operations on Saturday evening -- can be traced to a single glitch in the Linux operating system. Here's the inside story on what happened.
(Via Wired Top Stories.)
Nexus 7 vs. Kindle Fire vs. Nook Tablet: Battle of the $199 tablets - With the launch of Google's Nexus 7, the $199 tablet market got even more crowded. So, is it the best?
(Via CNET News.com.)
Apple Shuts Down MobileMe, Data Available for 'Limited Time' - 
As promised, Apple has shut down the MobileMe web service but is still allowing users to migrate their data for a "limited time". Apple had been sending out warnings to users of the impending shutdown.
‘Johnny Carson: King of Late Night’ -
Now available on iTunes: American Masters’s documentary on Johnny Carson. Loved it.
(Frustrating side note: It’s only available for purchase in standard definition; if you want high-def, you have to rent it. Why?)
Update: Via David Friedman, ends up you can watch it for free in the PBS iPad app, which itself is free of charge — or on the web.
(Via Daring Fireball.)
