Friday, November 2, 2012

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Study: Want To Reduce Partisanship? Make Font Harder To Read Top
futurama_fry_looking_squintA new study shows that the media can significantly reduce partisan bias by simply making the text more difficult to read. Researchers found that participants in two different studies became more moderate on issues of Muslim rights and capitol punishment, when they were forced to read an eye-straining light-grey, vertically-stretched front. “Not only are people considering more the opposing point of view but they’re also being more skeptical of their own because they’re more critically engaging both sides of the argument,” said University of Illinois psychology professor Jesse Preston. It is hypothesized that eye strain disrupted our natural tendency to quickly scan for ideas that confirm our pre-existing prejudices. “We showed that if we can slow people down, if we can make them stop relying on their gut reaction – that feeling that they already know what something says – it can make them more moderate; it can have them start doubting their initial beliefs and start seeing the other side of the argument a little bit more,” explained graduate student, Ivan Hernandez The effect sizes of the intervention (more difficult text) are impressively large. In the study exploring capitol punishment attitudes, those who were primed to have a positive bias towards the defendant, by reading more favorable materials, were 10% more likely to agree to a guilty verdict and (48% vs. 58%) and those with a negative bias were 18% less likely to agree with a guilty verdict (78% vs. 60%). In the study on the right to built a Mosque near the World Trade Center, the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque,” attitudes of liberals and conservatives were judged on a 11-point scale and the partisanship between the two decreased by 60% in the difficult-to-read portion of the study. So, to all those designers making websites prettier: stop it. You’re ruining America.
 
Twitter Releases Numbers Related To Hurricane Sandy: More Than 20M Tweets Sent Between October 27th And November 1st Top
2971382851_cdff3c5d83_zAs you know, the devastation of Hurricane Sandy has hit millions. Many turned to Twitter to discuss what they were going through. Today, the company shared some interesting facts and numbers having to do with Hurricane-related activity on the site.
 
Samsung Tops U.S. Mobile Device Manufacturers, Apple Gains In Hardware And Platform Share Top
top-smart1Digital metrics firm comScore today released its most recent mobile market share report, detailing trends in the mobile industry for the three month period ending in September. The survey of over 30,000 mobile subscribers in the U.S. revealed that smartphone penetration topped 50 percent for the first time ever in the study's history, with Android and Samsung leading the charge.
 
LitPick, A Startup Founded By A Harvard Lad And His Dad, Aims To Rate Young Adult Literature Top
Screen Shot 2012-11-02 at 11.02.58 AMThe founders of LitPick have known each other since birth. Seth Cassel and his dad Gary founded their first company, FlamingNet in 2002 when Seth was in fourth grade. Designed as a book review site, Seth and his dad Gary built the site themselves and began taking a profit.
 
Emoji Apps Are Getting Kicked Out Of The Apple App Store Top
emoji-sadCan't say it's a huge loss, but it looks like Apple is finally going to starting removing apps whose sole purpose is to offer emoji, the emoticon characters popular with the younger text messaging crowd. Some developers are reporting that their emoticon-enabling apps are now being kicked out of the App Store, with Apple citing native support for emoji as the reason for the app's removal.
 
Even If It Doesn't Make Sense, Rumors Of A Facebook Phone Live On Top
facebookphoneA Facebook phone doesn't make sense. Mark Zuckerberg said it himself on our Disrupt stage just a few months ago. But that doesn't mean the rumors won't continue to fly. The latest comes by way of Pocket-Lint, which claims to have source confirmation that the HTC Opera UL phone popping up in benchmarking results is, in fact, a Facebook phone.
 
Oprah Declares The Microsoft Surface One Of Her Favorite Things Top
oprah-surface2Whelp, there you go. The MS Surface is one of Oprah's favorite things, thus winning the oh-so-important housewives demographic. But no iPad mini. She said "The Surface, Microsoft's first tablet, feels like a Mercedes-Benz to me, people!"
 
Microsoft To Introduce Multi-Touch And Pen Devices Based On Perceptive Pixel Technology Top
steve ballmer perceptiveMicrosoft plans to offer devices based on Perceptive Pixel technology that uses both pen and touch to create what is equivalent to the human as the user interface. Microsoft General Manager Jeff Han, who sold Perceptive Pixel to Microsoft earlier this year, hinted at the news with a slide in a presentation at this week's Build conference in Redmond. It said "Devices *are* coming" along with an email contact to get access to the hardware. He did not say when the devices would be available in the market.
 
Facebook Makes Big Push To Educate New Users On Privacy, Adds In-Line Controls To Sign-up Flow Top
Facebook Privacy Feature FaceIf new Facebook users understand their privacy on the site, they'll trust Facebook more and share more too. So Facebook has just made privacy education a central part of the sign-up flow. New users are taught about their default controls, how to limit the audience of their posts, and how ads and apps work. Facebook also added in-line privacy controls so users can customize their settings right from the start.
 
European Swapping Site Netcycler Confirms Acquisition Of U.S. Rival Swap.com; Launches New Service For Parents To Offload Kids' Kit Top
Screen Shot 2012-11-02 at 14.54.24The European online swapping service, Netcycler, which uses an algorithm to match up multiple people with mutually sought after goods to trade, has acquired U.S. rival Swap.com, which offers simpler, one-to-one trades. The acquisition took place back in late August but has only just been confirmed. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
 
Nexus 4 Review: Not Exactly Perfect, But Close Enough For Me Top
nexus4-1It seems like ages since Google and HTC first kicked off the Nexus experiment (it was 2010, but who's counting?). Now here we are, over two years later, and we're on our fourth Nexus smartphone. There's no question that the hardware has gotten progressively better, but these past few months have also seen some notable changes in the Nexus brand itself. With devices like the Nexus 7 picking up plenty of mainstream traction (something that the Nexus smartphones were never really able to do), Google now seems to be retooling the rest of its line up to appeal to masses too. Will the Nexus 4 be able to pick up the same steam its older brother can? Or is it still meant mostly for the Android-adoring niche dwellers? Read on for more.
 
Review: Google's Android OS Might Be Better Suited For Tablets, And The Nexus 10 Is A Shining Example Top
nexus10-1This week, Google announced a new lineup of devices that would be running its Android OS, Jelly Bean version 4.2. Those new devices are a phone and a new 10-inch tablet, called the Nexus 10. I've had a chance to play with both devices, specifically the Nexus 10, and I actually surprised myself with how the device has fit into my daily routine.
 
IDC: Android Market Share Reached 75% Worldwide In Q3 2012 Top
android-happyAccording to new figures released from analyst firm IDC, Android shipments reached 136 million units in Q3 2012, which accounts for 75% of the 181.1 million shipments during the quarter. Or, as IDC puts it, "the Android operating system was found on three out of every four smartphones shipped during the third quarter of 2012."
 
Watch The iPad Mini And Nexus 7 Face Off In A Drop Test Top
Screen Shot 2012-11-02 at 9.53.00 AMThe folks over at Android Authority have put together a cute little drop test for the iPad Mini and the Nexus 7, and you may be surprised at which tablet walks away victorious.
 
GetTaxi Launches New Websites With Account-Free Cab Booking In U.K., Russia, Israel; Adds Business Accounts For SMBs Top
Screen Shot 2012-11-02 at 13.10.14GetTaxi, the cab booking service that recently snagged $20 million funding, has launched new websites allowing people in the cities where it operates to book cabs without needing to have a GetTaxi account (or download its app). GetTaxi currently operates in London, Moscow and Israel -- but plans to use its recent funding round to launch in New York next year. To date, it's raised $30 million.
 
With Hints For An IPO, Mobile Analytics Startup Flurry Raises $25M From Crosslink Top
flurry-graphicIt's taken more than five years to get here, but San Francisco-based mobile analytics and advertising company Flurry is hinting that an IPO might be around the corner. The company just took $25 million in funding led by Crosslink Capital, the late-stage firm that backed Pandora ahead of its offering. Crosslink's Nick Mignano is joining the board.
 
Microsoft Is Reportedly Testing Its Own Smartphone Top
windows-phone-8-logoFirst it built the Surface, and now Microsoft is said to be working on another new hardware product, this time a smartphone. That's according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal, which says that Microsoft is currently working with Asian component suppliers on its own handset design, though it isn't yet clear whether or not the device will ever go into mass production.
 
Editor Ryan Singel Departs Wired To Launch Publishing Tools Startup Contextly Top
ryan-singel-contactWell, there goes another tech journalist with the startup bug. Ryan Singel, editor of Wired's security blog Threat Level, told me that today is his last day on the job, because he's leaving to run his startup Contextly. Over the past decade, Singel has held various reporting and editing roles at Wired — apparently he helped start Threat Level back in 2006, and I got to know him few years later, when he was writing for the site's Epicenter business blog.
 
E-Sports Video Streaming Platform, Twitch, Partners With Sony Online Entertainment To Add One-Click Casting To PlanetSide 2 MMO Top
Twitch_LogoThe e-sports juggernaut keeps on trucking: live-streaming video platform Twitch is partnering with Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) to incorporate in-game live streaming to PlanetSide 2, SOE's forthcoming MMO. The pair say it's the first in-game one-click live streaming integration of Twitch's service -- allowing players to live stream their gameplay to Twitch with minimum fuss.
 
Apple's iPad Mini Launch Draws Smaller Crowds Than Previous Product Debuts Top
A6rboPmCMAIkZ5pThe iPad mini officially went on sale today, and the response at physical retail stores has been mixed. Some areas are seeing decent-sized lines, according to Reuters this morning, including Tokyo and Seoul Apple Stores with crowds of 100 or more, but overall, the news organization notes that crowds are smaller than they have been in the past for other launches.
 

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