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Podcast: Tech tips to make dating, relationships and breakups easier
Our hosts are joined this week by special guest Harris O’Malley aka Dr. NerdLove to talk all about the ways tech affects dating, relationships and breakups.
Facebook has a cure for your broken heart: more Facebook
Your best friend, Facebook — you know the one who toyed with your emotions for personal gain; repeatedly brought up moments you'd rather forget; and refused to call you by your chosen name for, like, ever — really wants to help you get over your ex. That's right, yesterday the good vibes social network that wears its thumbs-up on its sleeve, started testing a set of features for the recently estranged.
Facebook is making it easier to ignore your ex after a breakup
Social networking can be a little ...awkward after a break up -- forcing you to revisit potentially painful memories each time your ex posts a meme, status update or, worst of all, photo with their new fling. Facebook understands, and it's testing out new tools to help you see less of your former partner without the social faux pas of actually blocking them.
Breaking up is painful, so is this vertical music video
If it's been a while since you've had your heart broken, and you forgot the feelings it can provoke, watching the vertical video for Harrison's song "How Can It Be (feat. Maddee)" will bring up that distinct combination of disbelief, loss, regret and nausea all over again.
Breaking up in the time of Twitter
For nearly 10 years, we shared everything, but it never occurred to me that sharing a four-digit PIN could ruin it all.
Qualcomm set to axe up to 10 percent of its workforce
Qualcomm has been besieged by problems lately and quite a few of its employees may soon pay the price. It's planning to lay off around 10 percent of its workforce -- several thousand employees -- according to The Information. The WSJ is also reporting that the company will conduct a comprehensive review of its operations and may split into two separate businesses: chip production and patent licensing. Qualcomm profits dropped drastically last quarter due to delays in the launch of its flagship Snapdragon 810 chip and the loss of one of its largest customers, Samsung. The company was ordered to pay a $975 million antitrust fine in China and is facing the same problem in the EU.
Investigation of Virgin Galactic crash focuses on faulty tail deployment
US aviation investigators think they know how Virgin Galactic's SpaceshipTwo broke up in mid-flight, but don't yet know why. The crash tragically killed co-pilot Michael Alsbury, seriously injured pilot Pete Siebold and set back CEO Richard Branson's space tourism program severely. NTSB acting chairman Christopher Hart said that the tail section on SpaceshipTwo (normally only raised during descent below Mach 1.4) deployed shortly after the rockets fired -- even though neither pilot commanded it to. As a result, the ship broke up seconds later from the excessive drag and crashed into the Mojave desert.
Facebook and Zynga agree to new terms, create potential for official Facebook games
Facebook and Zynga have worked out a new set of terms in their partnership, enabling both parties to make and promote their own games. Before the alteration, Zynga was required to use Facebook's monetization platform, and Facebook couldn't create its own titles to compete with Zynga's. The latest agreement undoes both stipulations and opens up both sides for more independence.At this time, neither side has announced that it wants to change the way things work, so Zynga will likely still use Facebook's payments system, and Facebook hasn't announced plans to make any official games. A spokesperson for Facebook reiterated that "we will continue to work with Zynga, just as we do with developers of all sizes." It's not a break-up, in other words, but they are free to see other people.
Sprint to LightSquared: it's over
The writing's been on the wall for a few weeks and now Sprint's officially severing its partnership with LightSquared. Philip Falcone's project had a contractual deadline of March 15th to gain regulatory approval for its LTE service on the 1.6GHz spectrum, which was shot down by the FCC in February. A day later, Big Yellow exercised its right to pull the plug, paying back $65 million in prepayments and continuing to build out a LTE network on its own. Nextel's better half didn't slam the door shut entirely, however. If, by some miracle (and it would be a big one), the company can change Julius Genachowski's mind, it'd certainly consider teaming up again, so no hard feelings, eh? For its part, LightSquared has issued a formal response, saying that the contract termination is in "the best interests of both parties" and "not unexpected given the regulatory delays." On the upside, the company has had its coffers swelled by a not inconsiderable $65 million, which is the first good news it's had for a while.
Sprint kicks LightSquared to the curb as it contests FCC ruling
Sometimes when you start heading downhill, it can be hard to stop. Take LightSquared for instance -- not only were its LTE plans repeatedly contested and eventually shot down, but now Sprint, its long time partner, will indeed be cutting ties with the wireless start-up. According to the Wall Street Journal, the move will officially be announced on Friday, leaving LightSquared alone with its dreams. A representative from the start-up says its filing a 150-page defense of its network on the same day, hoping to refute the Feds' claims that its network interferes with GPS signals. The outfit made no comment on Sprint's plans, but mentioned that it has enough funds to operate on its own for several quarters. We'll let you know when Sprint officially drops the ball.
Drama Mamas: When guild officers break up
Drama Mamas Lisa Poisso and Robin Torres are experienced gamers and real-life mamas -- and just as we don't want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of the checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your realm. If you have sent a letter recently to dramamamas@wowinsider.com, we didn't get it. Please resend to robin@wowinsider.com, and use that email until we get the official Drama Mamas email sorted out. We're sorry for the inconvenience. Meanwhile, love is still in the air -- in Azeroth, anyway, and today we have another love-themed letter. Last week we talked about getting together, and this week we talk about breaking up. Dear Dramamamas. I am writing you, as I am in deep disarray. I recently broke up with my girlfriend, after a 2year long relationship. I know that is not much for many people, but for me it is. The relationship were kind of doomed from the start, as I was an army officer with hunger for adventure, and her a beauty with hunger for a settled life. When we met, we quickly found a common ground; World of Warcraft. We started playing together, and after a few failed attempts trying to find the perfect guild, we finally found this pristine little gem.
Drama Mamas: Breakup drama
Drama Mamas Lisa Poisso and Robin Torres are experienced gamers and real-life mamas -- and just as we don't want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of the checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your realm. We received some great responses so far from our last call-out for results from letters written to Drama Mamas, but we want more. If you have had your letter answered by us, please send us an email at DramaMamas@wow.com with what happened afterward, if you would like it included in our special results post. Hi there, Drama Mamas, I'm writing today because I really don't know the best way to handle this situation. My ex has recently started playing WoW again, and returned to the server and faction we were playing together. Now, he had quit for a fairly good time, so I returned to the server where I had friends -- IRL and in game. I had assumed that because the break up was fairly nasty (with me finding out he had cheated on me and spread lies about me), that he would follow the deal we had made and not return to the server. The deal was: wherever we knew one of us would be, the other would not be. Obviously I would return to the server, and I fully expected him to start playing another server so we would stay out of each other's hair. When confronted, he told me that he would transfer if I payed for it and then ignored me.
ASUS officially walks away from Garmin-Asus partnership
Chalk another up to the rumor mill. Just as we'd heard, the Garmin-Asus partnership will soon be no more. After a few arguably valiant attempts to break into the smartphone market, it seems as if ASUS is walking away in hopes of finding greener grass elsewhere. According to Reuters, an unnamed ASUS official has confirmed that it would be "ending its mobile phone cooperation agreement with Garmin." We're expecting the rest of the breakup details to roll tomorrow, but honestly, you'd turn the other cheek and move on if you were classy. But we both know that's not happening, right?
FTC won't ask Intel to break up
The Federal Trade Commission may have a pretty big beef with Intel, but it looks like won't be going as far as to seek a breakup of the company. That word comes straight from the director of the FTC's Bureau of Competition, Richard Feinstein, who flatly told reporters yesterday that the FTC has "no goal of breaking up Intel." In case you missed it, this follows a lawsuit that the FTC filed against Intel earlier in the day yesterday, which alleges that the company has engaged in "anticompetitive tactics." As you can see above, NVIDIA has already responded to that development in its usual manner. [Image courtesy Intel's Insides / NVIDIA]
iQuarterback 1.1 from former Ensemble Studios devs
The folks at FuzzyCube Software dropped us a note that their first game, iQuarterback, is in the App Store now, and it looks all right -- rather than actually quarterback a game, you mostly just try to hit passing targets. And while the game is pretty barebones right now (it's only 99 cents, and they're planning to add new modes to it in the next version), the most interesting thing about the game isn't what it is, but who's making it: the guys behind FuzzyCube are a few refugees from Ensemble Studios, the legendary developer of Age of Empires that got shut down by Microsoft on the eve of their recent Halo Wars release.Now that's interesting -- a big time studio forced to close by their corporate overlords is finding new life in iPhone development (FuzzyCube isn't the only studio to come out of the Ensemble breakup -- Robot Entertainment, Bonfire Studios, and Windstorm Studios are all being started by ex-Ensemble employees right now, though FuzzyCube is the only group to have released a game so far). Lots of game developers are facing a crunch right now, and with the iPhone easy and cheap to develop for, we might see even more of these former larger game devs turn to the smaller screen.Update: My apologies to the folks at Newtoy -- they are apparently the first Ensemble refugees to have released an iPhone game, dropping Chess with Friends in the App Store last December. But the point stands: bigger studios who've been asked to dissolve can seemingly find a nice place developing for the iPhone.
DreamWorks and Paramount make breakup official, hands out tissues
And to think, most of you probably had no idea that these two were even having issues. After Paramount's parent company, Viacom Inc., acquired DreamWorks in 2006 for $1.6 billion, things were never exactly pleasant. Now, the two have finally hammered out a deal that will enable them to part ways and retain "joint custody," if you will, of around 40 movie projects. Where do things go from here? Spielberg and his team of executives are out to form an "independent studio backed by one of India's biggest conglomerates, Reliance ADA Group, which plans to invest $550 million for a 50% stake." Under the settlement, Spielberg's new firm (which will still go by DreamWorks) will take the lead on upwards of 20 film projects currently owned by Paramount. As with most divorces, this one too is filled with complexities -- if you're into that, tap the read link for all the minutiae.[Image courtesy of Kinoweb]
Intel patent attorneys kick some dirt at AMD
AMD's breakup into two separate companies is certain to have wide-ranging impact in the industry, and unsurprisingly, Intel's among the first to react -- it's warning that it has "serious questions about this transaction" as it relates to its patent cross-licensing agreement with AMD and that it'll "vigorously protect" its intellectual property rights. That's about as aggro a patent attorney can get without coming to your house and peeing on the lawn (or, uh, filing a lawsuit), so we'll see how this shakes out -- for its part, AMD says that it's taken the deal into account, and that it'll "continue respecting Intel's intellectual property rights, just as we expect them to respect ours." That's a respect throwdown, right there -- you gonna take that, Intel?
Moving on: Deleting your ex's Mii
Heartbroken, Chris Buffa did what any sentimental guy would do after a painful break-up: wrote about it in his blog. The GameDaily editor-in-chief made sure to update his readers on the event, how he has been coping, and his dilemma over what to do with the Mii his ex-girlfriend left behind.Ultimately, after several hundred words of introspection, Chris erased her large-headed avatar, wishing her the best. Would you have made the same choice? Or would you have loaded your ex's Mii into Wii Sports boxing, pummeling him or her until your own body gives out, exhausted and sobbing?As for us, being the maudlin fools we are, we would've left her Mii to live there, only a few button presses away whenever we'd need to see her again. Friends would try to take us out for a night on the town to cheer us up, but we'd look for any excuse to head home early so that we could sit by the TV, our fingertips on her digital face, singing to ourselves, "I've been looking so long at this Mii of you, that I almost believe that it's real. I've been living so long with my Mii of you, that I almost believe that the Mii ... is all I can feel."
BenQ Mobile to divide, be sold in pieces
'Tis a sad day for those at BenQ Mobile, as the Munich-based company will reportedly be split up and sold after failing to turn around the struggling unit it acquired from Siemens AG. Honestly though, this shouldn't come as any major surprise, as the endeavor has already had its plug pulled and suffered through an investigation into its bankruptcy filing, so it's simply following the unfortunately necessary series of events as its dwindles into oblivion. The outfit's insolvency administrator announced that there would be "no realistic chance" of it being sold off as a whole, but didn't elaborate on exactly which portions would be segmented for bidding. Furthermore, it's suggested that "nearly all of the 3,000 jobs" at the division would vanish, but at least 550 have purportedly already found employment in other areas. I guess we should now cue the sappy background music as we sneak a peek at BenQ mobiles that could have been, but sadly never were never will be.
Finland's Prime Minister ends relationship via SMS
Matti Vanhanen is the current Prime Minister of Finland and was dubbed the "Sexiest Man" in the their country; however, being the sexiest man alive has nothing to do with having no backbone and not being able to breakup with another face-to-face." He had been dating Susan Kuronen, who he had met on the Internet, for several months before he decided to break up with her by sending a text message saying "that's it." We've never understood the cowardliness of people who can't break up with people face to face. Oh and by the way Jane, you and I are over![Via FARK.com]
