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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 2011
TECHNOLOGY
Bloggers join hands to create Japan ‘Quakebook’ OSAKA: Inspired by a desire to help victims of Japan’s deadly earthquake, a group of bloggers and writers have come together through the Internet to create a book of stories about the disaster. The result, “Quakebook”, is a moving collection of photos, memories and reflections about the massive tremor and monster tsunami that demonstrates the power of the web to unite people around the world in times of tragedy. The project is the brainchild of a British man living in Japan who blogs under the name “Our Man in Abiko” on websites such as Twitter, where the project uses the hashtag #quakebook. On March 18, a week after the tsunami hit Japan’s northeast coast, he sent a tweet saying: “I want to compile a book of quake experiences and publish it in a week and donate all profits to Red Cross. We have the technology. “If everyone wrote 250 wordsone page-or submitted their favorite (original) tweets, pics or artwork, I could edit, publish it in days,” added the resident of Chiba Prefecture just east of Tokyo, who prefers to keep his identity secret to preserve the collaborative spirit of the project. “I was having a shower thinking, here we are relatively unscathed and we’re doing nothing and it’s infuriating,” he said. “There’s a massive crisis on my doorstep and I couldn’t forgive myself if I didn’t do something to help.” Less than 45 minutes after his first tweet, he received the first contribution. “That gave me
a clue. I thought: I’m on to something here. I’ve hit a raw nerve,” he said. More than 200 people have been involved in the project, including volunteer editors and translators from as far afield as the United States and Ireland. “The reason it works is because we all want to do something. It’s very therapeutic for people to tell their stories. They feel like they’ve been ignored or forgotten,” its creator said. “It’s been great. You realize you’re not alone. And that’s maybe even more valuable than anything else.” The project has received dozens of contributions from Japanese nationals, expatriates as well as people watching the tragedy unfold from overseas. “I have been around Tokyo for 15 years and I feel I am needed here now more than ever. The decision whether to stay is the most complex one I have ever had to make in my life,” wrote Tokyo resident Dan Castellano. “Japan is my adopted home. I would not leave a burning house alone if my family were still inside,” he said, according to excerpts on the project ’s blog http://quakebook.blogspot.com. The 9.0-magnitude earthquake which crashed into Japan’s northeast coast at 2:46 pm on March 11 has now left more than 28,000 people dead or missing and triggered a nuclear emergency at the Fukushima power plant. Hundreds of thousands more have been left homeless and are now living in temporary shelters, while
many others have been affected by food shortages and rolling power blackouts. Some of the Quakebook contributors, like Yuki Watanabe, a Fukushima native now living in Tokyo, have family in the affected zone. “My parents’ house is within 40 kilometers of the Fukushima nuclear plant. They’ve been told they must stay indoors. Although the house wasn’t greatly damaged by the earthquake or tsunami, as the house is built on solid ground, they have to contend with the problem of radiation,” she wrote. “What have we done to deserve this? We are suffering like others in disaster affected areas. The difference is we have an unnatural and unseen danger to deal with. Please don’t abandon Fukushima,” she pleaded. It’s a project that would not have been possible in such a short space of time before the explosion in social networking sites like Twitter. “We’ve talked to people in Fukushima and Miyagi (another devastated area), all through tweeting, blogging and through technology,” the Quakebook creator said. “I think people are responding because we are amateurs. People are opening up. We finished it in one week so memories are fresh and the emotions are still raw.” “Quakebook (2:46: Aftershocks: Stories from the Japan Earthquake)” will be available soon to download online via the blog site and later in a print edition, possibly through Amazon, with proceeds going to the Red Cross. — AFP
TOKYO: This illustration created by James White and released yesterday in Tokyo shows the cover of “Quakebook”, a book of stories about the earthquake and tsunami by bloggers and writers who came together through the Internet. — AFP
‘LePad’ tablet launched LePad-powered by Google’s Android software
WASHINGTON: File photo shows the Internet site of Amazon.com. US online retail giant Amazon has launched a “cloud” service for storing videos and music online, enabling individuals to access their files from a range of digital devices, the Wall Street Journal said. — AFP
Amazon launches online media storage service SAN FRANCISCO: Amazon.com wants to be more than a destination for shopping online - it also dreams of being a place where you can store your music, photos and videos and access them any time, from any computer. The online retailer launched two new offerings late Monday: Amazon Cloud Drive and Amazon Cloud Player. The first lets you upload and store files like music, videos and photos on Amazon’s servers, which you can get to from a Web browser on a Mac or PC. The second lets you play songs you’ve uploaded on your computer or on a smartphone that runs Google’s Android operating software. The “cloud” in the services’ names refers to the practice of storing content online and streaming it to a computer over the Internet. Amazon’s move is beating Google Inc and Apple Inc, which are believed to be working on similar services that would allow consumers to access their content when away from their home computer. While Amazon will charge for the Cloud Drive service, it’s offering anyone with an Amazon account 5 gigabytes of free storage. That’s less space than you’d get on the smallest iPod Touch, but it’s a move that’s likely to woo plenty of users who might later decide to pay for more storage space. The Seattle-based company, which already runs an online storage service for companies called Amazon S3, decided to roll out a consumer cloud service to make it easier for customers to access digital content no matter where they are,
Amazon music director Craig Pape said. The offerings could also benefit Amazon’s bottom line: The company realized customers were hesitant to purchase MP3s at work because they didn’t want them tied to their office computer, Pape said, so Cloud Drive and Cloud Player may drive more impulse music shopping. “At the end of the day we’re trying to delight customers, but we’re trying to sell more music, too,” he said. The company also wants to sell cloud storage. If your tunes and videos take up more space than the 5 GB Amazon is giving out, you can pay an annual storage fee to use Cloud Drive: The use of 20 GB of storage, for example, will cost $20 (and this includes the 5 free GB). For an undisclosed period of time, however, Amazon is offering 20 GB of free storage to those who buy a digital album from its Amazon MP3 store. Documents or videos you’ve uploaded to Cloud Drive will open with programs on the computer you’re using, Pape said, while songs in MP3 or AAC files will be playable through the Webbased Cloud Player. The player offers simple controls - you can play, pause or skip tracks, or build your own playlists. For users who want to listen while on the go, an updated version of the Amazon MP3 digital musicbuying app will include Cloud Player, letting users play music they’ve stored with Amazon’s service on their cell phone as well as tunes that are already on their handsets. — AP
SHANGHAI: Chinese computer giant Lenovo has warned that supplies of its just-released tablet computer could be restricted after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan disrupted production of memory chips. The LePad-powered by Google’s Android software -was launched in China on Monday at a Chinesemedia only event as Lenovo seeks to compete for a share of an increasingly crowded market dominated by Apple’s iPad. Lenovo will begin selling LePad directly to Chinese consumers this week through its own retail stores and will put it on sale outside China by June, spokesman Jay Chen told Dow Jones Newswires. But Lenovo vice president Chen Xudong said stocks of the devices could be hit after the twin disaster in Japan led to the supply squeeze, the firm said. The quake-tsunami on March 11 led to the closure of hundreds of factories in Japan and the breaking of supply chains crucial to making cars, electronic gadgets and machinery. Lenovo did not how long the possible disruption could last. The news comes after research firm IHS iSuppli said last week that Apple could face shortages of components for its new iPad 2 because of the earthquake and tsunami. Other companies are facing similar problems. ZTE Corp, a Chinese maker of telecoms equipment, said last week it expected supply problems from Japan to last for the next three to six months. Lenovo said in a statement that it was aggressively pursuing the mobile Internet device business and established a special division-the Mobile Internet and Digital Home Business Group-this year to better compete.” The LePad is the first major launch since the business group’s founding, we are confident in it and will continue to enrich its product line with better performing products and a richer selection of styles,” Lenovo said. In addition to the iPad, Lenovo’s new tablet will compete against gadgets from other major electronics companies such as Dell, Samsung Electronics and BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion.
It faces tough competition. Apple’s iPad accounted for 73 percent of the global tablet market in the fourth quarter, according to data from IDC intelligence firm while Samsung’s Galaxy Tab had more than 17 percent market share. LePad-which was first unveiled in January at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas-has a 10.1-inch (26 centimeter) color screen and connects to the Internet using WiFi or 3G telecom services. In China, models equipped with WiFi wireless technology will carry a recommended price tag of 3,499 yuan ($533) for the 16-gigabyte version, the company said.
American Express makes digital wallets SAN FRANCISCO: American Express has launched an online financial transactions service that it claims goes beyond what others provide in a market dominated by PayPal. “Serve” went live in the United States and was to expand to other countries in the coming year. “Serve is a new type of payment platform that isn’t tied to a single card or mobile operating system,” said American Express enterprise
growth group vice president Dan Schulman. “We intend to quickly evolve the Serve platform by adding new features and functionality as we learn from consumer and merchant experiences.” Serve essentially turns smartphones into digital wallets for people who rely on cash, checks, or bank debit cards. Serve applications were available for iPhones and smartphones pow-
Australian PM’s computer hacked SYDNEY: Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s parliamentary computer and the foreign and defense ministers’ machines are all suspected of being hacked, with China under suspicion, reports said yesterday. Sydney’s Daily Telegraph said American intelligence officials tipped off the government that several thousand emails may have been accessed from the computers of at least 10 ministers. As well as Gillard, they reportedly included Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd and Defense Minister Stephen Smith. The paper said the espionage occurred over more than a month, beginning in February. “Four separate government sources confirmed that they had been told Chinese intelligence agencies were among a list of foreign hackers that are under suspicion,” it said. One of the sources said the revelations were “deeply concerning”. “These
It did not say when it would go on sale, but pre-orders began on March 16. Lenovo, which bought IBM’s PC business in 2004 for $1.25 billion, had roughly 27 percent of its home market last year and was ranked fourth globally with a share of about eight percent, IDC said. Research firm Gartner estimates total tablet shipments will reach 54.8 million units in 2011, draining demand for laptops and notebook computers. Apple sold 15 million iPads last year, generating $10 billion in revenue and establishing the multi-tasking device as a “must-have” consumer item for many. — AFP
claims need to be examined seriously,” they said. Security experts cited by another News Limited newspaper, The Australian, said they believed the hackers may have been looking for clues on government attitudes to major resource projects. Intelligent Risk chief executive Neil Fergus said interest in Australian commercial secrets may have prompted the attacks. “There are massive resources projects on the drawing board in Australia, they loom very large in the thinking of a number of other countries,” he said. “Whether we green-light projects is of critical importance. I would not understate the possibility of that, given Australia’s resources boom and its importance to a number of our key trading partners.” Attorney-General Robert McClelland refused to confirm or deny the incident. “It’s
the long standing practice of successive Australian governments not to comment on the operations of security and intelligence agencies,” he said in a statement. “Australia’s security and intelligence agencies, as a matter of course, work closely and co-operatively with their international counterparts on cyber security. “The Australian government takes the issue of cyber security very seriously and is constantly strengthening cyber security measures,” he said. Gillard similarly refused to comment when asked by reporters in Perth. “We don’t comment on intelligence matters,” she said. China, meanwhile, denied the claims. “Any accusations against the Chinese government are believed to be groundless and made out of ulterior purposes,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters. — AFP
ered by Google-backed Android software. The service was also tailored for use at online venues such as social networking service Facebook. Serve accounts could be tied to bank accounts, payment cards, or funded by money sent through peer-to-peer transactions between users of the service. Serve could be used to settle bills at merchants that accept American Express
cards. American Express billed Serve as a “digital payment and commerce platform that gives consumers a new way to spend, send and receive money with services that go beyond the existing global payment network.” The Serve platform was based on technology American Express acquired when it bought online financial network Revolution Money in early 2010 in a deal valued at $300 million. — AFP
Nokia sues Apple again over patents HELSINKI: Nokia is suing Apple in the United States for allegedly infringing patents in “virtually all” of its mobile phones, portable music players, tablets and computers, the Finnish company said yesterday. The move is the latest in a string of lawsuits by Nokia and comes as the world’s largest handset maker struggles to keep up with smartphone rivals like Apple. Nokia said the seven patents in the new complaint relate to its “pioneering innovations” that Apple allegedly is using “to create key features in its products, including in multitasking operating systems, data synchronization, positioning, call quality and the use of Bluetooth accessories.” Last week, the United States International Trade Commission found no violation in an
earlier complaint. Nokia said it “is waiting to see the full details of the ruling before deciding on the next steps in that case.” Last year, Nokia Corp also sued Apple Inc in Britain, Germany and the Netherlands for allegedly infringing its patents with technology used in the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Those followed earlier lawsuits by Nokia claiming that a broad swath of Apple products violate its patents. Apple had earlier responded with its own infringement claims against Nokia. “Our latest ITC filing means we now have 46 Nokia patents in suit against Apple, many filed more than 10 years before Apple made its first iPhone,” said Paul Melin, vice president of intellectual property at Nokia. — AP