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ProPublica lists which politicians support or oppose the bills, and can sort by state, age, years served, how much money politicians have accepted from media companies, and more.The Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, is a House of Representatives bill that would make it surprisingly easy to get court orders to shut down any website…

“To enact legislation that protects consumers, businesses and jobs from foreign thieves who steal America’s intellectual property, we will continue to bring together industry representatives and Members to find ways to combat online piracy,” he said.SOPA bill resumes in FebruaryThe Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, is a bill that would make it surprisingly easy…

As initially reported by the Associated Press late Tuesday, Mr. Yang’s departure comes just two weeks after Yahoo hired Scott Thompson, the former PayPal President, as CEO. Mr. Yang, who stepped down from his role as CEO in 2008 following a botched takeover bid by Microsoft that ended up damaging Yahoo’s stock price, endorsed Mr.…

The outage, planned only for English-language versions of site, will last for 24 hours beginning at 05:00 UTC (that’s midnight for East Coast and 9:00 PM for the West Coast). The planned outage has Wikipedia joining many other online sites and organizations in their public opposition to the pending congressional bills, which are designed to…

In a statement on the In Icons website, Mr. Cheung said:Unfortunately we have received immense pressure from the lawyers of Apple and Steve Jobs family. Regardless of the pressure, I am still Steve’s fan, I fully respect Steve, and his family, and it is definitely not my wish or intention that they be upset. Though we…

Steve Wozniak Many headlines on the Internet—including The Daily Beast’s own—have spun the interview as one in which Mr. Wozniak said Android is better, but the reality is that he praised both platforms and said that each has advantages over the other. According to him, the iPhone is elegant and beautiful, simple and easy to…

Be that as it may, CES was a great time and we saw some really cool stuff, and one of the coolest isn’t available for any of Apple’s products or platforms—at least not yet. Tobii, a Swedish company, was demonstrating Gaze, eye tracking technology the company is working on positioning as a new paradigm for…

In response to online petitions against the SOPA legislation, the President said even though he sees online piracy from foreign websites as a problem, he won’t support any bill that erodes freedom of speech or expression, or that potentially threatens online security.“Any effort to combat online piracy must guard against the risk of online censorship…

Editor’s note: The following interview took place during the last week of 2011. The complete, 80-minute audio interview is available in two audio files — Part 1 (43.1 MB) and Part 2 (37.3 MB) — but Mr. Greelish asked The Mac Observer if we would transcribe it for the record, with his full permission. What follows are…

First of all, the idea makes no sense because it would tie Verizon’s hands. But never mind that. TMO spoke to several Verizon wireless representatives at CES and asked them the question. The response was, first, they haven’t seen any corporate information to that effect. Or any imposed deadlines. Secondly, they said that while the…

One such iconic momentStore customers interviewed for the story had mixed opinions, with one saying: “I would rather read an autobiography [about Steve Jobs] than a comic book.”While TMO originally reported last June that the Steve Jobs comic would be coming out in August, it wasn’t released until now. The reason for the delay was…

Mr. Sculley goes on to say: “When I left Apple it had $2bn (£1.3bn) of cash. It was the most profitable computer company in the world – not just personal computers – and Apple was the number one selling computer. So the myth that I fired Steve wasn’t true and the myth that I destroyed…

iTwin Devices Being Paired iTwin derives its name from the fact that you need two iTwin devices for it to work. When paired with one another, the devices allow users to share files over the Internet using Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) 256 bit encryption. Plug in one to a Mac or PC, assign it files…

Mr. Newton explained: “When Steve Jobs talked about he’s ‘cracked it’, he’s talking about connectivity – so we’ve had that in the market already for 12 months, it’s nothing new, it was new for them because they didn’t play in the space. It’s old news as far as the traditional players are concerned and we…

On top of that, Stephen Rosenman observed, “the off-shore component of cash is growing exponentially, courtesy of milder overseas tax treatment as well as burgeoning foreign markets. In contrast, Apple’s U.S. cash/investments are increasing much more slowly.”Cash added by Apple, foreign vs. U.S.That trend could hamstring Apple in the long run, making future acquisitions more…

Nuevas’ inventory of Android-based NT-K tablets was seized after Apple obtained a temporary injunction last year. Apple’s loss in court last November lifted that ruling, but Nuevas became aggressive in court after arguing that the injunction was a severe detriment to sales.Nuevas’ NT-K tabletHowever, Mr. Mueller wrote in his blog post: “For now I don’t…

The iPad, which according to the company’s video survived the ordeal unscathed, was encased in the company’s Extreme Edge case, launched by a weather balloon to an altitude of 100,000 feet (19 miles) and then unceremoniously released.   While impressive to witness, the iPad did not truly reach “outer space,” as its maximum altitude of 100,000…

Tablets Last year, it seemed practically every company at CES had their own version of they hoped would be the “iPad killer” tablet, and most of those never took off or were killed before going to market. This year, we’ll probably see more of the same: A wide range of screen sizes, cheap construction, and…

“Apple and Android distanced themselves from the competition in 2011, turning the OS battle into a 2-horse race,” NPD reported. The results were disclosed in an NPD report obtained by The Mac Observer. The gains were made thanks to Apple’s iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, and, incredibly, the iPhone 3GS finishing in the top three of…

Satechi has introduced a very stylish Bluetooth portable speaker, the Satechi BT, that will fit in the palm of your hand, pair with your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Mac, and provide good quality sound up to 33 feet (10 m.) away from your device.  Satechi BT Bluetooth Portable Speaker in closed positionThe MSRP for the speaker…

Slice of Bread goes to the Beach is the second beautiful children’s book from Jelly Biscuits.com. At this point interactive books for children has matured into a market where there is so much product that it’s difficult to tell the wheat from the chaff, so I’m happy to say (getting in the pun at the same time) that Slice…

Mr. Shope boosted his 4Q11 iPhone sales estimate from 30.2 million units to 31 million and wrote: “We believe Apple is set to report healthy December quarter upside and all signs point to better than expected performance through 2012.” Those signs also include the expectation of a lower-priced iPad 2 once the third iPad is…

California is among those that recognize likeness rights after death, so Mr. Jobs’ home state will likely be off-limits. Mr. Roberts noted that Indiana offers the strongest post-mortem protection, with a century of restriction of commercial use of someone’s image without consent. Germany and Argentina are among the countries that have similar laws on the…

We saw that Netflix screwed up pretty badly in 2011. TV Predictions’ Phillip Swann thinks that Reed Hastings will be forced out soon. Meanwhile, here’s the first, so-called “scientific quantification of customers’ experience with Netflix. It’s from Forsee Research: “Amazon Soars; Netflix Plummets…” Apple is suing Samsung and HTC. Everyone is suing Apple. Apple’s iOS…