Apple Computer Inc. will soon adopt an environmentally friendly twist for buyers of new Macintosh computers by offering to recycle their old computers for free.
The Cupertino, Calif.-based company said its expanded take-back offer will begin in June. U.S. customers who buy a new Mac through the Apple store online or any Apple retail store will receive free shipping and recycling of their old machines.
Currently, Apple retail stores accept old iPod music players for free recycling. In addition, Cupertino residents may drop off old Macs at company headquarters, while others pay a $30 recycling fee to drop off or ship their computers.
Environmental advocacy organizations that have criticized Apple’s recycling initiatives in the past applauded the computer maker’s expanded program, saying it is now closer in line with those of other major PC makers, notably Hewlett-Packard Co. and Dell Inc.
New TiVo device allows for dual recording: TiVo Inc. on Monday will start selling its first digital video recorder to let users record two shows at once, incorporating a feature it sorely lacked.
While many of TiVo’s customers are loyal fans, some have complained in the past about how its standalone set-top boxes have only one tuner. The limitation meant users could neither record two shows in the same programming slot nor watch one program live while recording another.
Meanwhile, TiVo’s rival DVR providers, such as satellite TV operator Echostar Communications Corp. and cable operators Comcast Corp. and Time Warner Inc., have offered dual-tuner boxes. Even TiVo’s satellite TV partner, DirecTV Group Inc., offered dual tuners in its set-top box that used TiVo’s service.
Microsoft spins off Wallop: More than two years after Microsoft Corp. began promoting Wallop, its technology for social networking, the software company is spinning off the project to a new startup company.
Redmond-based Microsoft touted Wallop at a high-profile corporate event in late 2003. But the company has been secretive about the project since then, even as startups such as Friendster and MySpace have gained major traction among users.
On Wednesday, Microsoft said it is spinning off the technology to a separate startup, Wallop Inc., to be based in the Silicon Valley. A product, however, won’t launch until later this year.
Microsoft remains mum on details, only promising that it will give people more sophisticated ways to help them find one another and will let people interact more like they would in the real world. Current social networking services tend to link people online based on things such as a similar taste in music or common acquaintances.
One game feeds off another: This month saw the launch of what is apparently the first game to be developed within another game.
“Tringo,” a cross between “Tetris” and bingo, was created by New Zealander Nathan Keir in “Second Life,” an online game where players have freedom to create virtual objects with complex workings.
The game is now being distributed by Crave Entertainment as “GBA Tringo” for the Game Boy Advance portable game player, making the jump from the virtual world to the real one.
Frustrated by the random aspect of bingo, Keir created “Tringo” in late 2004 as a more skill-based alternative.
The game quickly became a craze in “Second Life.” Players bought copies of the game from Keir for around $50 each and set up Tringo halls and Tringo arenas, where players would go to compete for prizes in Linden dollars, the currency of “Second Life.”
Just a few months after its launch, “Tringo” games accounted for a quarter of Second Life’s economy, according to Sean Ryan, who obtained the real-world license to the game from Keir.
“I couldn’t have done it alone”: Hollywood droids and reliable industrial workhorses were celebrated together as Carnegie Mellon University named five inductees to its Robot Hall of Fame.
The latest class of inductees includes Maria, the captivating art-deco robot of Fritz Lang’s classic 1927 film “Metropolis”; Gort, the metallic behemoth from the 1951 sci-fi thriller “The Day the Earth Stood Still”; and David, the android played by Haley Joel Osment in Steven Spielberg’s 2001 movie “Artificial Intelligence: AI.”
Basking in the glow of their big-screen colleagues were AIBO, the robotic dog mass marketed in 1999 and now widely used in artificial intelligence research, and Scara, an industrial robot developed in the 1970s and commonly used in making circuit boards.
“We decided to give awards to both real and fictional robots because the fictional ones provide inspiration to the real ones,” said James Morris, the former dean of the university’s computer science school and the founder of the hall of fame.
The five robots will be formally inducted on June 21.
Microsoft’s hired gun aims at Google: For all his success as Ask.com’s chief executive, Steve Berkowitz never could figure out how to close the gap with Google Inc. He’s betting the answers will come to him in his new job helping Microsoft Corp. pursue the online search leader.
Beginning May 8, Berkowitz will oversee the marketing and business development of Microsoft’s MSN.com and other Web sites such as Windows Live – just two of the weapons aimed at toppling Google’s reign.
“The opportunity to work in the online space for a company like Microsoft, with its vision, capabilities and global reach, is truly exciting,” Berkowitz said in a statement.
Berkowitz, 47, leaves Oakland-based Ask.com just two months after the site underwent a makeover that included dropping its longtime mascot, a dainty butler named Jeeves. Jim Lanzone, one of Berkowitz’s top lieutenants, is taking over as CEO.
After making the latest changes at Ask, Berkowitz vowed to make a more serious run at Google.
Ask ended March in fifth place with a 5.9 percent share of the U.S. search market, according to comScore Media Metrix. Google led the pack at 43 percent, and Microsoft ranked third behind Yahoo Inc.’s search engine with a 13 percent share.
From Herald news services
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