A few months ago, we reported on a theoretical paper that discussed the potential advantages of a gravity wave detector based on a torsion bar, which the creators called TOBA. In the intervening time, the team has not been idle, as they have a small-scale test bar up and running. Deep in the night of August 15, 2009, they performed a test run to look for gravity waves—not gravity induced pressure fluctuations in Earth's atmospheric pressure, but stretching space-time.
The good thing about the TOBA experiment is that it fills an important spectral gap in the current generation of gravity wave detectors. Cosmological and astronomical observations can be used to look for extremely low frequency (10-6Hz) gravitational waves, while the laser interferometer detector (LIGO), and other Earth-bound instruments are used to look for gravity waves with frequencies in the 100Hz plus range. TOBA is designed to operate in the 0.1-1Hz range.
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Source: http://feeds.arstechnica.com/~r/arstechnica/index/~3/dT9FtPc8QDk/toba-is-a-swingin.ars
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Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-19514_3-20058692-239.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
As you might have noticed, a hiring boom is underway in tech, leading to ballooning salaries, aggressive recruiting tactics, and finally, billboards. [1, 2] Yes, billboards along Bay Area highways now pitch jobs to the small fraction of drivers who actually work in tech and read billboards.
Naturally, we think Techmeme is a better place for companies to reach out to a smart and well-informed tech-focused audience, and today are introducing a "Who's Hiring in Tech?" section to promote recruiting efforts at the most innovative tech companies. Each link here goes to the destination best suited to discover jobs at the respective company: the company's own jobs page.
We expect that Techmeme readers who are inclined to upgrade their jobs, or ready to embark on a career in tech, will take this jobs section as an extra nudge to explore options available at the featured companies, and a reminder that all of the great companies listed are aggressively hiring.
And for recruiters, we're happy to offer a marketing venue that's more targeted, and far cheaper, than a billboard along Route 101.
Companies interested in appearing should contact hiring@techmeme.com. Thank you!
Angela Belcher's research group at MIT has made a name for itself by using viruses—the biological kind—as a key part in a variety of nanoscale construction projects. So far, the work has focused on batteries, but this week a paper came out that indicated Belcher has turned her attention to photovoltaic devices. The work uses a virus to prepare carbon nanotubes for incorporation into a solar device, and sees a big boost in conversion efficiency.
One of the limiting factors in solar cell efficiency is the ability to shuffle electrons around. Once a photon knocks an electron off the active material of the solar cell, the electrons need to be moved away quickly and converted into current—otherwise, they'll simply recombine with the material they've been set loose from, and the photon's energy will be lost.
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/OmMalik/~3/3ZNnycplnYs/
Details of the iPad 2's design leaked out as early as December 2010, nearly three months before Apple officially unveiled the updated device in early March. Three employees of Taiwan-based Foxconn, Apple's manufacturing partner, have been arrested and formally charged for leaking details of the design to accessory companies.
One of the earliest leaks of case designs purported to fit the second-generation iPad popped up in early December. More rumors based on alleged iPad 2 case designs came later in the month, noting details of the device's size and design that turned out to be fairly accurate. Foxconn suspected a leak from the inside, and three workers at its Shenzhen, China plant where iPads are assembled were arrested on December 26, 2010—just days after the newest batch of rumors surfaced.
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Open...and Shut The once dominant Yahoo is apparently keen to compete with one of today's hottest startups, Cloudera, to own the affections of data plumbers everywhere.?
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Updated Microsoft has warned users of Xbox Live to be wary of targeted phishing scams that attempt to hoodwink users into handing over their gamer tags and passwords.?
Source: http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2011/04/28/xbox_targetted_phishing/
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Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42805221/ns/technology_and_science-science/
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Microsoft today posted its earnings results for the third quarter of financial year 2011. It was a strong quarter, with revenue of $16.43 billion, up 13 percent year-on-year; operating income of $5.71 billion, up 10 percent year on year; and net income of $5.2 billion, up 31 percent over the same period last year. Earnings per share were 61�, an increase of 36 percent.
The big success story of the quarter was Entertainment and Devices Division, the group that includes Xbox 360, Xbox Live, and Windows Phone. Continued voracious demand for the Kinect controller saw that division boost its revenue by 60 percent year on year. Though the division was keen to boast of selling 2.4 million Kinects during the period, it was silent on the matter of Windows Phone sales.
Microsoft Business Division was another strong performer, seeing revenue growth of 21 percent year-over-year driven by Office 2010, the fastest-selling version of Office of all time, and its SharePoint, Exchange, Lync, and Dynamics CRM products.
Server and Tools had a successful quarter too, with revenue up 11 percent, on the back of significant business adoption of Windows Server 2008 R2, SQL Server 2008 R2, and Systems Center. Online Services increased revenue by 14 percent, and increased losses by 2 percent.
In spite of Windows 7's continued strong sales, the Windows and Windows Live division's revenue dropped by 4 percent, with the company citing prevailing PC trends as the reason for this decrease.
The company's guidance for next quarter is that Windows and Windows Live and Online Services will increase revenue in-line with growth in the PC and advertising markets, respectively, with Business Division, Server and Tools, and Entertainment and Devices expected to increase revenue by mid-to-high single-digit, low double-digit, and 25 percent, respectively.
Overall, it was a strong quarter for the company, beating analyst estimates for both revenue (estimated at $16.2 billion), and earnings per share (estimated at 56�). Strong results, but not as strong as Apple, which posted a net income of $5.99 billion for the quarter.
These results mean that Apple has at last bested Microsoft not merely in terms of market capitalization, but also in terms of profitability—a result unimaginable a decade ago. This quarter's figures are testament both to Apple's substantial success in conquering new markets—media players, smartphones, and tablets—and, in parallel, Microsoft's consistent inability to match its rival in those same markets.
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In a long and detailed blog post, Marco Arment, creator of the popular "read later" application Instapaper explained why he decided to kill off the app's free version. According to Arment, his decision was due to the "significant costs in development and support," "the undesirable customers" the free version attracted, the low conversion rates from free to paid and several other factors.
The move has been applauded by many in the tech industry, including GigaOm's Om Malik, and has even persuaded others to go out and purchase the app for the first time. But do you think this strategy would work for you? Or is Instapaper an exception because it's already a well-known, established brand delivering a service known to provide value? Let's us know if you've been inspired to kill off your free app in this week's ReadWriteMobile poll.
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Arment's blog post is well worth the read for any and all mobile app developers who have struggled with pricing and the maintenance of a separate (but not equal) free version of their mobile application.
After experimenting with pulling the free version of Instapaper on different occasions to promising results (our coverage) - no one noticed and paid sales went up - Arment decided it was time to kill off the free version for good. He says that it was costly to support the app, since the ad-supported version made far less than the paid version, and the customers who chose the free app were, quote, "undesirable."
Explains Arment:
�
"Instapaper Free always had worse reviews in iTunes than the paid app. Part of this is that the paid app was better, of course, but a lot of the Free reviews were completely unreasonable...I don't need every customer. I'm primarily in the business of selling a product for money. How much effort do I really want to devote to satisfying people who are unable or extremely unlikely to pay for anything?"
He also found that those on the free version were not very likely to upgrade to the paid version for the extra features, so, to them, the free version was the only app these customers would ever see. Arment added that there was minimal demand for the free version, too, noting that it has been out of the App Store for nearly 2 months with few having noticed.
The more controversial part of Arment's blog post is at the end, where he evangelizes to other developers that they should try this too. This isn't a case of Instapaper being "special," he says. "Every app is a special case."
"Maybe you think I can only do this because Instapaper is already popular. But it built its popularity while charging "a lot" for an iPhone app from the start.�Maybe you think I can only do this because my blog is moderately popular among geeks like me. If so, I assure you that my blog's audience is smaller than you think,5 and is extremely insignificant relative to the size of the iOS app market.�Maybe you think there aren't enough people willing to pay $5 for an app with no free version. I used to think that, too. But I was wrong."
So what do you think, developers?
Did Arment inspire you to consider killing off the free version of your app as well? Let us know in the poll below. Non-developers, please share your thoughts in the comments.
Developers: Would You Kill Your Free App?Market Research
Discuss
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