Hot News in Education Area

Shaker’s 3D Meetup Spot To Rock North America At June 8th Launch With Live Nation, BandPage

Shaker won TechCrunch Disrupt SF last year with its 3-D virtual nightclub built on top of Facebook, and June 8th it will finally launch in North America with the help of the music industry’s Live Nation and BandPage.

Until then you can sign up for Shaker, and when you do, you’ll get a classic album cover of Bob Marley, The Clash, or another legend remixed with your Facebook photos and data http. The partnerships, promotion, and landing page all point to a big focus on music as a social lubricant for hanging out with people on Shaker.

It’s been a wild eight months since Shaker won Disrupt. It raised a $15 million Series A led by Menlo Ventures, and joined by CrunchFund, Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavors, Lady Gaga’s manager Troy Carter, Justin Bieber’s manager Scooter Braun, and Israel’s Pitango Venture Capital. It also scored some more money from Motorola Mobility (now owned by Google), threw some online parties for New Year’s Eve and the NBA All-Star Game, and hosted a peace conference featuring Hillary Clinton.

Shaker’s racked up tens of thousands of requests from people wanting to set up their own place to gather online with friends, fellow activists, and sexy strangers. Many of them will get their first chance to party or mingle on June 8th at 7:53pm PST when Shaker launches its first public meeting place.

A concert may be in store for Shaker’s launch since it’s work working with Live Nation, which owns Ticketmaster and one of the world’s biggest musician management firms, and BandPage, who became the de facto musician profile app on Facebook. But Shaker isn’t trying to be Turntable.fm. Instead of everyone just staring at

MarketWatch First Take: You can sue Facebook, but why did you buy?

> NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — And on the third day, the market wailed, the shares rose and the lawyers sued.

So went the morning trading session on the Wednesday after Facebook-pocalypse. As the trading session reached the midway point, Facebook Inc.  shares showed a 3.7% gain. It was a minor relief to those who bought the initial public offering near its offering price of $38. After all, the bleeding had stopped for now.

Is Facebook's stock turning around?

Facebook got a buy rating Wednesday, and the shares moved into positive territory after two days of declines. Is Facebook going to turn around?

But for investors who snatched up shares on the first day, tiny gains after the shares had fallen by nearly a fifth in two days, was hardly fair in their eyes. And so, the class action attorneys began rounding up the aggrieved to press Morgan Stanley , Goldman Sachs Group Inc.  and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. , among others, for compensation.

Their argument will undoubtedly be that they were deprived of critical information that favored clients received as the IPO drew near. If it’s true, they probably should receive some action. The trades could be wiped out or investors made whole.

Facebook quote and charts    • Facebook shares gain as lawsuits surface • Facebook IPO fiasco may end up in court • Morgan Stanley to adjust some Facebook prices • Facebook to open Dubai office • Few knew about Facebook's revised forecasts • Mark Zuckerberg status update: 'Married' • Trader happy he hit wrong Facebook button • Chuck Jaffe: IPO says ‘it’s probably overpriced’ • Jon Friedman: Reveling in Facebook's fiasco • Howard Gold: Why Facebook's IPO fell short • Paul Farrell: Facebook could the U.S. economy • You can sue Facebook, but why did you buy? • Social-media investment bubble has popped • Zynga defends 'Draw Something' acquisition Still, there’s something unseemly about customers complaining at a gambling table that the game was rigged against them. There were plenty of less-nefarious reasons that Facebook shares plummeted. The massive increase in shares to be sold, the darkening outlook on revenue and advertising, the mind-boggling valuation ($100 billion, 100 times earnings).

Unfortunately, you can’t sue people for being suckers or greedy. You’ll note these people never sue when their investments go up.

Moreover, we live in a time when Wall Street’s mistakes are so pervasive and foul, the industry never gets the benefit of the doubt.

Today, the perception at least, is that Wall Street is only dependable when it comes to fouling things up, playing favorites, taking handouts and acting offended when people complain.

The monumental Facebook offering was so visible, so anticipated, so obviously set up to disappoint — you have to wonder why so many investors put themselves in that position.

— David Weidner

MarketWatch First Take: You can sue Facebook, but why did you buy?

Sony comes clean on worldwide Android 4.0 tablet update

One must wonder why Sony cannot get out of the habit of playing a fragmented and behind-the-curve Android release schedule for its devices.

Finally putting speculation to rest, a Sony representative confirmed with Crave today (and subsequently on Twitter) that Sony tablet owners in "all regions will have Android 4.0 by end of May." And on a related note, a Sony Japan statement announced a May 24 drop date for Android 4.0 landing on both Tablet S and Tablet P devices specifically in that country, perhaps a timeframe we should expect elsewhere.

To recap, see if you can keep up with this:

Currently, Sony offers Android 4.0 software for the Tablet S in the U.S. (since April), while Europe, Japan and other countries only have official access to Android 3.2.1 for both the Tablet P and the Tablet S. You read that correctly -- Sony's home country and Europe still pick away at Honeycomb while Americans enjoy Ice Cream Sandwich.

Sony Tablet P looks great from all angles (photos) of

Related stories Ice Cream Sandwich update to flavor Sony S Tablet Sony colorfully reveals Android 4.0 schedule for tablets CNET's review of the Sony Tablet P CNET's review of the Sony Tablet S

Up until now, the timetable for the arrival time of the Android 4.0 update for Sony's tablets remained a mystery in some ways. Sony gave Android 4.0 to U.S. owners of the Tablet S for a considerable amount of time before any other region.

The level of frustration emanating from European Sony tablet owners seems at an all-time high. One discussion topic at the Sony Europe forums contains many lengthy replies from disappointed Sony tablet owners, including those who resorted to hackers for the update instead. "I have a 16Gb Tab S, rooted and ICS courtesy of Condi from XDA - who is much more helpful and responsive than $ony," said forum user praed0r.

Do you think Sony's continued failure to quickly deploy Android updates burns consumers from repurchasing into the brand? You may recall the now-defunct Sony Ericsson took an extraordinary amount of time to deliver its Android updates back in the Xperia X10 era, so repeating this course of action seems extremely foolish.

Sony Tablet S (photos) of

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Source: Sony comes clean on worldwide Android 4.0 tablet update

Education Innovators Receive Awards At The State House | Boston

Innovation is the driving force of progress. Nowhere is innovation more vital than in education. In our hypercompetitive global economy, America’s success depends on the skills of its workforce and that workforce is trained by our education system. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE GS_googleAddAdSenseService("ca-pub-83492339"+"76388614"); GS_googleEnableAllServices(); GA_googleAddSlot("ca-pub-8349233976388614", "NewsArticles_ATF_Center_250x250"); GA_googleAddSlot("ca-pub-8349233976388614", "NewsArticles_BTF_Footer_728x90"); GA_googleFetchAds(); GA_googleAddAdSensePageAttr("google_color_bg","ffffff"); GA_googleAddAdSensePageAttr("google_color_border","ffffff"); GA_googleAddAdSensePageAttr("google_color_link","2050d0"); GA_googleAddAdSensePageAttr("google_alternate_ad_url","http://www http://verdede.xanga.com/759821364/ecumenical-councils-and-the-debates-with-the-heretics/.prlog.org/jsinc/noidx/ads.html"); GA_googleAddAdSenseSlotAttr("NewsArticles_ATF_Center_250x250","google_ad_type","text"); GA_googleAddAdSenseSlotAttr("NewsArticles_ATF_Center_250x250", "google_ad_channel", "1297855608+0633753409+7072525493+0362719149+4645088998+6863560615");GA_googleFillSlot("NewsArticles_ATF_Center_250x250");PRLog (Press Release) - May 13, 2012 - At 10:00 AM on May 30, in the Gardner Auditorium at Massachusetts State House, JFYNetWorks will recognize a group of educational innovators who have helped keep Massachusetts in the forefront of American education during the past year.  These JFYNet partners represent the vanguard of innovation in education. Honorees North Shore Technical High School Malden High School  Revere High School Knox Trail Junior High School Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School Essex Agricultural Technical High School  Shawsheen Valley Technical High School MIT Office of Educational Innovation and Technology, Software Tools for Academics and Researchers  Solution GroveThe College B

THOTCON 0x3 Conference Chicago

The "THOTCON 0x3" will take place in Chicago, IL, United States on 27 Apr 2012. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE GS_googleAddAdSenseService("ca-pub-83492339"+"76388614"); GS_googleEnableAllServices(); GA_googleAddSlot("ca-pub-8349233976388614", "NewsArticles_ATF_Center_250x250"); GA_googleAddSlot("ca-pub-8349233976388614", "NewsArticles_BTF_Footer_728x90"); GA_googleFetchAds(); GA_googleAddAdSensePageAttr("google_color_bg","ffffff"); GA_googleAddAdSensePageAttr("google_color_border","ffffff"); GA_googleAddAdSensePageAttr("google_color_link","2050d0"); GA_googleAddAdSensePageAttr("google_alternate_ad_url","http://www.prlog.org/jsinc/noidx/ads.html"); GA_googleAddAdSenseSlotAttr("NewsArticles_ATF_Center_250x250","google_ad_type","text"); GA_googleAddAdSenseSlotAttr("NewsArticles_ATF_Center_250x250", "google_ad_channel", "1297855608+0633753409+7072525493+8333016980+4486661223+6863560615");GA_googleFillSlot("NewsArticles_ATF_Center_250x250");PRLog (Press Release) - Apr 23, 2012 - THOTCON is a small venue hacking conference based in Chicago IL, USA. This is a non-profit, non-commercial event looking to provide the best conference possible on a very limited budget.Once your attend a THOTCON event, you will have experienced one of the best information security conference experiences combined with a uniquely casual and social experience. THOTCON 0x3 is the third incarnation of this event and will be held on Friday, April 27, 2012. It is anticipated that there will be 20 talks and around 500 attendees at 0x3.It will be held at a location only to be disclosed to attendees and speakers during the week before the event. For more information, explore this site or contact us at info@thotcon.org.Topics we are interested in: retro computing, forensics, robotics, physical security, 0-days, application hacking, wireless, malware development/research, hackerspaces, The Muppets, Penguins, zombies, attack detection, the number 7, online game hacking, consumer device hacking.Get more information and register for the THOTCON 0x3 Conference at http://itevent.net/thotcon-0x3-conference---ITEVENT.NET is the largest listing of IT training courses and conferences provided by global corporations (such as Microsoft, IBM and Oracle) and independent consultants from IT, telecom, web and other technology and computer related industries. More IT events can be found on http://itevent.net...

Source: THOTCON 0x3 Conference Chicago

Global Economy Still Viewed as Fragile

Business, government and civil society officials are expressing greater confidence in the world economy over the next 12 months. However, the Global Confidence Index also shows they believe the economy remains on very shaky ground.

De Capua report on global economy

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The managing director of the World Economic Forum says the index is a bit more encouraging than the previous quarterly survey. However, Lee Howell says it’s nothing to celebrate.

“I think the Global Confidence Index, in terms of what you saw with the latest results, it’s good news, but it’s relative. Relative to really the great uncertainty and concern that were seen in the last quarter, which, as you know, if we look back in December and January, at the close of last year and the beginning of this year, lots of uncertainty. Particularly around what was happening in the Euro zone,” he said.

World Economic ForumLee Howell, World Economic Forum managing director

This includes the economic turmoil over Greece’s debt and debt concerns in other European countries as well.

Economic, political shocks

The index shows fear of a major economic disruption dropped from 63 percent of the respondents last quarter to 46 percent in the first quarter of this year.

“The survey clearly shows that people are less concerned about a major economic disruption in the next 12 months. However, and this is the b

Portugal Ratifies Key EU Pact

Portuguese politicians voted in favor of a key European treaty on budget discipline Friday. The pact introduces increased controls on public finances in European Union (EU) countries, limiting their annual budget deficits. The pact was approved by an overwhelming majority of parliamentarians; 204 in favor, and just 24 opposed with two abstentions. Portugal is one of three countries that have been bailed out by their EU neighbors.  However its economy continues to shrink and a second bailout may be necessary.  Fredrik Erixon, Director of the European Center for International Political Economy in Brussels, says Portugal will most likely need a new bailout in about 18 months and that, he says, has made ratifying the pact crucial. “If Portugal will need a second bailout package it actually needs to sign this pact because if it doesn't it will not have access to the bailout mechanism,” he said.Erixon says Portugal also wants to convince the financial markets that it will pursue its austerity drive.  He says the pact is controversial and has many critics. Erixon also says many in Europe are warning that the pact moves EU economies in the wrong direction - towards greater austerity and away from growth. “In the short term it largely introduces greater austerity on countries like Portugal, Spain, Greece, Italy, etcetera and they claim that that sort of austerity is not what these countries need at this time; they need to have greater flexibilities to run larger deficits over a longer period of time in order to make the sort of adjustments they need to make to have a better economy in the future and an economy that is also growing,” he said. Across Europe, governments have been introducing austerity measures that in many cases have been met with widespread public discontent. In Italy Friday, the country’s three largest unions went on strike over pension reforms. But, says Erixon, Europe is only at the beginning of the austerity drive. He says in coming years, austerity will get worse at a time when economies are likely to continue to decline. “Pressures will be even stronger then on people," he added.  "And I think that we are going to see much stronger reactions from citizens in quite many countries against this type of austerity policy.”The Bank of Portugal predicts that its economy will contract by 3 percent this year.

Portugal Ratifies Key EU Pact

AirGenius 5: Air cleaner sounds like an Apple product but isnt

Apple sells Air laptops and has geniuses working in its stores, so at first glance you might think the new AirGenius 5 has some sort of Apple pedigree. But no, it's just Honeywell's new high-tech air cleaner, which hits Target stores today for $239 http://vegetarian-food-recipe.blogspot.com/2012/03/nutritionists-advises-third-blood-group.html.99.

The product has a few highlights, the most important of which are that it's quiet; has five different cleaning settings (Sleep, Germs, General, Allergen, and Max); and has a washable honeycomb-style filter that you don't need to replace like some filters (Honeywell says it doesn't restrict airflow like paper filters do and still captures up to 99 percent of particles 0.3 microns and larger).

I actually saw and heard the AirGenuis 5 in action a couple of weeks ago and can attest to it being quiet. As for cleaning the air in the room around me, I'll have to take Honeywell's word on that. If nothing else, I'm now more cognizant about just how much breathing I do.

"On average, people take 21,600 breaths a day, but rarely think about what they're breathing," Honeywell says, quoting Evette Rios, a home expert (yes, there's an expert for everything). She goes on to say, "The EPA says that indoor air can be 5 to 100 times more polluted than outdoor air. Airborne particles, like pollen and dust, can enter the home from outside and become trapped indoors, or pollutants can result from cooking, cleaning, painting, and other normal indoor activities."

In other words, folks, it's not only ugly out there, it's ugly in here.

The top of the AirGenius 5 and its 'smart' controls.

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Source: AirGenius 5: Air cleaner sounds like an Apple product but isn't

There Are Now 200,000 People In Everyme Circles

On Tuesday, Everyme launched its iPhone app for people to share with limited circles of friends, family members, and coworkers. Today, CEO Oliver Cameron says the response has been “crazy.”

Specifically, he says that 24,000 people have created Everyme accounts. Because of the way Everyme is designed, that’s only a small part of its social footprint www. The app lets you organize anyone in your address book into circles, and they can still participate in the conversation through email or text messaging, even if they don’t have an Everyme account. There are already 200,000 people in Everyme circles, which Cameron says is a measure of the app’s “total audience.”

The question is: How many of those 200,000 people are actually engaging with Everyme, rather than just ignoring messages from the app? Cameron says it’s too soon to say, since not everyone is checking their email constantly. (Update: There was some debate on Twitter about whether or not this is a meaningful metric. Just to be clear: People added to circles don’t get notified by email or text if they aren’t Everyme members, but they are notified as soon as someone shares a story. Feel free to disagree, but I think Cameron’s statement that this represents the “true audience’ is defensible.)

Cameron also says that during the period of highest activity on launch day, users were creating a new circle every second. (A total of 17,000 circles have been created.) That blew past the company’s expectations, so some of the servers devoted to circle-creation went down for around an hour.

And if you’ve been following Everyme since its early days, you may be wondering why the version that launched this week wasn’t “the intelligent social address book” that was promised last year. Cameron says that as he developed the earlier product, he realized that most people don’t have the overwhelming, sprawling address books that you see in Silicon Valley, so it would have been “a professional tool rather than someth

Android On Your PC: Qualcomm Invests In BlueStacks After Beta Sees 1M Downloads In 10 Days

If you’re an Android and a PC, you should check out BlueStacks — before hackers catch on or Chrome sneaks in this functionality, take advantage. The startup’s software has been going like hotcakes over the last few months, as it’s offering a much-needed service for Android and PC users, having developed software that allows Android users to run their apps on all Windows PCs, tablets, and laptops — without any modifications http://melanyor.multiply.com/journal/item/9/Educational_Benefits_to_Employees_of_Educational_Institutions.

Thanks to this appealing concept, BlueStacks lured $7.6 million in venture funding pre-launch, before adding another $6.4 million a few months later — all from investors like AMD, Citrix Systems, Andreessen Horowitz, Ignition Ventures, and more.

The startup finally released its public beta on March 27th, and so far users have been eating it up. In the first 10 days after its release, BlueStacks’ App Player racked up more than 1 million downloads, with over 12 million apps collectively being run by its users. It’s on the heels of this early traction that the company is today announcing it has found yet another investor — this time from global telecom giant, Qualcomm.

Acting through its venture arm, Qualcomm Ventures, the chipmaker invested an undisclosed amount in BlueStacks, but from what we’ve been hearing from those familiar with the matter, the round was in the seven-figure range.

The startup now has over $15 million in outside investment, which is notable both in size (relative to the age of its product) and for the fact that BlueStacks has been able to bring together (at least symbolically) two of the biggest semiconductor/chipmakers on the market — Qualcomm and AMD. Not two names one typically finds side-by-side on a startup’s roster of investors.

“Consumers are increasingly looking for computing experiences that enable them to access their apps across different platforms,” said VP of Qualcomm Ventures Nagraj Kashyap. “We believe BlueStacks is well-positioned