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Mashable:

Kodak has finally formalized what had been expected for years — it’s gone bankrupt. In the past 15 years, digital technology changed photography dramatically, and Kodak, a former heavyweight in the analog film business, got left behind.In fact, Kodak missed the boat on digital not once, but at least three times. Besides never capitalizing on the digital-camera tech it helped create, Kodak also gravely misunderstood the new ways consumers wanted to interact with their photos, the technologies involved, and the market forces surrounding them.

It’s sad how a company that once represented photography to so many of us and helped just as many capture important moments may end up in the dustbin of history. And worse because it seems like it was their own fault.

KQED’s interview with John Sipe, senior vice president, national sales manager at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt:

Since last fall, 400 California middle school students have been using the iPad to learn Algebra with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s Fuse program. This first app, Holt McDougal Algebra 1, is an interactive version of the textbook, and with it, students get feedback on practice questions, they can write and save notes, receive guided instruction, and access video lessons.“We like to say that the course is ‘re-imagined,’” said John Sipe, senior vice president, national sales manager at HMH. “It’s a lot more than just adaptation. We know that it’s a more iterative process than a revolutionary process in moving things to mobile delivery to a place like iPad.”

Preliminary results show that 78% of the students using the iPad app scored Proficient or Advanced on the California Standards Test, while the traditional textbook using students scored 59% Proficient or Advanced.

Star Wars Uncut:

In 2009, Internet users were asked to remake “Star Wars: A New Hope” into a fan film, 15 seconds at a time. Contributors were allowed to recreate scenes from Star Wars however they wanted. SWU has been featured in documentaries, news features and conferences around the world for its unique appeal. In 2010, it won a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Creative Achievement In Interactive Media.

Your reaction/appreciation of this will depend entirely on your feelings about Star Wars in general. For me, the “Star Wars Uncut” video is so bad it’s good but I couldn’t sit through all two hours of it.

Smart Movie Making’s Tony Myers:

Going to San Francisco for the 2012 Macworld | iWorld expo? Here’s a list of useful apps to help you get the best out of the city, especially if you are new in town.

San Francisco is a great city made even better if you know where to go, what to see and how to get there. These apps, both free and paid, will help a lot.

Yanko Design:

All ye weary travelers with a strolley in tow; I understand your pain for finding available sockets, just to juice up ye gadgets. Ah, I suck at poetry but you get my drift right? So here we have a trolley suitcase that harnesses kinetic energy via its wheels and then with an easy dock, juices up your gadgets. Even if it’s just for few precious minutes, I think it’s a neat-o idea!

It’s just a concept/prototype design but it’s an interesting idea to think about for you road warriors. If you want something you can use right now, check out the line of luggage from Powerbag.

Reuters:

China Communist Party members can now carry tablet PC to verify identification cards, read the blogs of cadres and manage state-owned firms without fretting that using a bourgeois Apple Inc iPad will ruin their street cred.Enter RedPad Number One, an Android-based tablet computer filled with software applications catered to a party official’s every need for control. Delivered in a decadent leather case for 9,999 yuan ($1,600), it is twice the price of Apple’s most expensive iPad 2.RedPad’s price was high, RedPad Number One spokesman Liu Xianri said, because of the number of pre-installed apps that cater to bureaucrats and state-owned company managers.

Sounds like a “third party opportunity” for Apple.

International Space Station:

This video was taken by the crew of Expedition 30 on board the International Space Station…The complete pass is over southern Africa to the ocean, focusing on the lightning flashes from local storms and the Milky Way rising over the horizon. The Milky Way can be spotted as a hazy band of white light at the beginning of the video.

What was your view when you woke up this morning?

The “Matriarch of the Blues”, Etta James, died on Friday morning. She toured with Little Richard while still a minor and had her first hit at 15. She was a six time Grammy winner and one of the few artists to be inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Blues Hall of Fame.

She will be forever known for the classic song, “At Last” – originally written for the Glen Miller Orchestra in the 1940’s. She first recorded it in 1961 and it is still one of the most achingly beautiful renditions of a love song you’ll ever hear.

When you hear Adele, Christina Aguilera, Beyonce et al try and wring emotion out of a song, you’re hearing Etta James. And she did it better.

The Telegraph:

A year and a day after she set out to sail single-handed around the globe, Dutch teenager Laura Dekker finished her 27,000 mile voyage on Saturday night.Miss Dekker has had to cope with weeks of solitude, ocean storms and a fear of pirates while navigating and sailing a 38-foot yacht called Guppy, all the time trying to keep up with her schoolwork.

I couldn’t keep up with my schoolwork at sixteen on dry land! What a remarkable feat and a remarkable young woman.

Obama for America:

President Obama was inspired to sing a bit of Al Green during a recent campaign stop at the Apollo Theater. And now you can have his rendition of “Let’s Stay Together” as a ringtone.

Don’t you hate when politicians pander like this? But, to be fair, POTUS nailed the line.

The New York Times:

Apple had redesigned the iPhone’s screen at the last minute, forcing an assembly line overhaul. New screens began arriving at the plant near midnight.A foreman immediately roused 8,000 workers inside the company’s dormitories, according to the executive. Each employee was given a biscuit and a cup of tea, guided to a workstation and within half an hour started a 12-hour shift fitting glass screens into beveled frames. Within 96 hours, the plant was producing over 10,000 iPhones a day.“The speed and flexibility is breathtaking,” the executive said. “There’s no American plant that can match that.”

Fascinating article on why Apple, and many other companies, build where they build and what it means for the American and world economies.

Microsoft News Center:

As other states recognize marriage equality, Washington’s employers are at a disadvantage if we cannot offer a similar, equitable and inclusive environment to our talented employees, our top recruits and their families. This legislation would put Washington employers on equal footing with employers in the six other states that already recognize the committed relationships of same-sex couples. Passing the bill would be good for our business and for the state’s economy.

Interesting that this support is couched in economic terms and not ethical or moral ones.

Another slightly amusing ad from Samsung poking fun at iPhone buyers. Samsung will supposedly unveil the commercial during the upcoming Super Bowl. Interesting way to blow through $3.5 million dollars – the cost of a 30 second ad during the game.

Network World:

Google CEO Larry Page announced yesterday that Google+ now boasts more than 90 million users worldwide, more than double the number of users it had in the previous quarter. Page also said that engagement on the social networking site has been “growing tremendously” as “over 60% of [users] engage daily, and over 80% weekly.”Page did not provide data for how many user accounts were actually active, however.

Interesting statistics. How many of you are signed up for Google+ and, more importantly, how many of you use it on a regular (daily) basis?

David Smith:

All Apple is doing with this restriction is saying that if you directly profit from this free tool and platform that we have created, then we deserve our cut. Which seems entirely fair to me.

The range of opinion on Apple’s policies regarding distribution of iBooks Author-created content is fascinating and runs the gamut from fair to “APPLE IS EVIL!!!!”.

Yahoo! News:

The camera is normally a big selling point, but in Singapore Apple’s iPhone 4 and 4S are now available without the function — to cater to military personnel banned from taking image-capturing devices into army camps.Camera phones were banned in the city state’s military installations in 2007 after photos of sensitive training activities were posted online.Prices listed on M1’s website showed that adapted versions of the iPhone cost Sg$49 ($38) more.

It’s probably just a matter of time before this model is widely available for other military and business customers.

TechCrunch:

One of the highest profile digital textbook startups is Kno, which started out with its own oversized tablet but now focusses on delivering textbooks through its iPad app.On the surface, things don’t look so great for Kno, but CEO Osman Rashid is nonplussed: “We love the fact that so much light has been put on digital textbooks. Now we will fight on who has the better product, more interactive features, and a bigger catalog.”

It may be just the Kno CEO “whistling past the graveyard” but Kno has its work cut out for it for mindshare if not actual market share. As usual, time will tell.

Digital Tweaker:

Anyone can create a book for iBooks with Apple releasing the iBooks Author app in the Mac Store. It uses simple drag and drop features with Word files and images so that everything is done for you. Since iBooks Author requires you to have OS X Lion installed, it makes it difficult for those of us who have not upgraded from Snow Leopard yet.Here is how you can get around that and install iBooks Author on Snow Leopard.

I haven’t tried this yet but I’ve heard it works.

Joshua Topolsky at The Verge:

I pressed the companies on whether or not technology manufacturers were simply producing too many gadgets, outpacing real consumer demand with iterative, insubstantial changes. “Are we creating demand where there isn’t any?” I asked.

He makes an interesting point. One of the issues we hear all the time about CES is that there is just “too much”. Too much of everything. As Topolsky says, “For a journalist, it’s daunting — for shoppers, it’s starting to seem impossible.”

AllThingsD:

McGraw-Hill normally sells high school textbooks for $75 a pop. Now it says it will sell electronic versions of the same books, via Apple, for $15 apiece. How can the publisher make that work?“Volume,” says McGraw-Hill CEO Terry McGraw, which is the usual answer for this kind of digital question.

The Toronto Star reports:

Toronto lawyer Michael Deverett bought a MacBook Pro, an iPod Touch, cables and programs for $2,248.53 at the Apple store in the Yorkdale Mall.He didn’t notice anyone following him…to his car. He didn’t notice anyone following him on the drive home or pulling up near him when he stopped at a convenience store to buy a soft drink for his daughter.In the two minutes it took Deverett to buy a drink, thieves smashed a hole in the rear window of his car and made off with his Apple purchases.Deverett sued Apple, claiming that…Apple had a duty of care to warn store customers of the danger.

Deverett eventually settled with Apple for full replacement costs and legal fees. “Apple Canada does not owe a duty of care to customers once they have left its retail store,”’ according to the statement filed by Apple Canada in the Deverett lawsuit.

Thomas Lane for Talking Points Memo, quoting from a statement from Sen. Harry Reid:

“In light of recent events, I have decided to postpone Tuesday’s vote on the PROTECT I.P. Act.

Reid says he’s “optimistic that we can reach a compromise in the coming weeks,” but has taken PIPA off the table for now until that compromise can be reached.

(Hat tip: Techmeme)

David Pierson for the Los Angeles Times:

As websites including Wikipedia shut down and millions of Americans complained to lawmakers about the potential for government censorship, Chinese netizens spoke admiringly of the public rebellion. Such a display in China would be nearly impossible right now, given Beijing’s tight grip on citizens’ online activities.

An important contrast that conscientious American citizens should bear in mind, always. It’s one thing to say your government is censorious. It’s another thing entirely to actually live under such an oppressive regime, and it must make us that much more vigilant to protect our rights.

Nate Anderson for Ars Technica:

“… the government asserts that Megaupload merely wanted the veneer of legitimacy, while its employees knew full well that the site’s main use was to distribute infringing content. Indeed, the government points to numerous internal e-mails and chat logs from employees showing that they were aware of copyrighted material on the site and even shared it with each other.”

Megaupload’s takedown raised eyebrows, coming so soon after SOPA’s supporters beat a hasty retreat following the protests earlier this week. Anderson paints a picture that clearly defines Megaupload as a harbor for pirate activity, but also scratches his head at some of the stranger points of the indictment.