Google shares ad wealth with videographers | CNET News.com: "Google has begun sharing advertising revenue with the makers of a popular video clip in a groundbreaking deal that could drive up the costs of competing in the fledgling video-sharing sector."
Scientific American: Brain Relies on Stepwise Activation to Make Difficult Decisions
...at the Society for Neuroscience conference in Atlanta, David Badre, a post-doc at the University of California, Berkeley, described an experiment bolstering another emerging model, that of a "hierarchy" of control. In this view, Badre says, "we respond to increasing cognitive challenges not on a continuum, but in leaps as different areas of the prefrontal cortex activate." That is, we throw more light on a problem not by sliding a dimmer switch, but by flipping a series of toggles that successively activate chunks of the prefrontal cortex from back to front. Recognizing this is an important early step in understanding how cognition works, and it could help lead to better treatment for patients who have suffered strokes or other injury to the prefrontal cortex.
Symbian forecasts the death of the PC | CNET News.com: "'Desktops PCs are effectively a flatlining commodity,' Clifford said on Tuesday, while conceding that laptops were eliciting 'perhaps a bit more' excitement.
Clifford suggested that the popularity of smart phones in the developed world and the 'leapfrog economies' phenomenon in developing countries--in which expensive wired infrastructures are bypassed in favor of wireless--would create a situation where there was a 'smart phone in every pocket.'
Clifford cited the rates of technology adoption in India to back up his point. In India, the PC market is growing at 5 million units a year, while mobile phones were enjoying the same growth per month."
Helio introduces hybrid wireless service | CNET News.com: "On Wednesday the company announced the new service, called Helio Hybrid, which allows for seamless connectivity to both free and commercial Wi-Fi hotspots as well as a nationwide 3G mobile broadband network. The company has struck a deal with Wi-Fi hot spot provider Boingo to provide access to its 55,000 commercial hotspots. And it's using Sprint Nextel's newly built 3G wireless network to offer mobile broadband service."
