center

Apple gets key endorsement for Nevada data center

Apple is one step closer to being offered $89 million in tax breaks to set up a data center in Biggest Little City in the World, aka Reno, Nev.

The Nevada Board of Economic Development approved a deal on the plan today that was initially negotiated by Reno's city council, according to the Associated Press. Despite, the state being closer to inviting Apple to set up shop, there are still a few more logistics the government must sort out.

Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval, who backs the deal, called the board's decision a "win" for the state, … Read more

Facebook App Center goes global

Facebook this morning rolled out its App Center to all of its 955 million monthly active users around the world. The news didn't come from the usual Facebook press release or blog post, but ironically via a Facebook PR representative sending out a message on Twitter:

The Facebook App Center is now available to 100% of users worldwide. Your personalized & localized App Center here: http://www.facebook.com/appcenter

I contacted Facebook to make sure the launch was complete and whether there was something more official to reference beyond a tweet, and a representative confirmed the news and … Read more

Microsoft Touch Mouse to get a feel for Windows 8 gestures

Microsoft is sprucing up its Touch Mouse to give upcoming Windows 8 users a helping hand.

Both the Touch Mouse and the Explorer Touch Mouse already support horizontal as well as vertical scrolling. So users who upgrade to Windows 8 can continue to use both devices just as they are.

But Microsoft is unveiling a new set of gestures designed specifically to help you navigate your way around Windows 8. Tapping into the new gestures will be a matter of downloading Microsoft's new Device Center, a program that can take full advantage of your mouse and keyboard in the … Read more

In Mojave, the world's most exciting planes take flight

MOJAVE DESERT, Calif.--It's hard to imagine a more complete -- and impressive -- collection of aviation facilities and aircraft anywhere on the planet than the one in this vast, arid, wide-open wasteland northeast of Los Angeles.

Thanks to its endless amounts of dry, flat terrain, useless to most people, and the fact that there are only a few ways in -- vital for security -- the Mojave is, and has long been, the beating heart of the aviation world. It's here that Chuck Yeager first broke the sound barrier. And where Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne ushered in … Read more

Twitter apologizes, blames data center failures for outage

Twitter blamed an "infrastructural double-whammy" of two data center failures on the outage that left millions without the micro-blogging service for hours today.

Twitter's site went down between 8:20 a.m. and 9 a.m. PT and was out for about two hours before the company had the service back up and running.

Typically, if one data center goes down, there's another one in place for emergencies and redundancy. But the company said in a blog posting that the parallel systems went down at nearly the same time.

"I wish I could say that … Read more

Game Center arrives on the Mac via Mountain Lion, but where are the games?

commentary Apple's Game Center should, theoretically, be a service and a hub that ties together gamers across Apple's devices. It should be a social connector, a method of discovering new games based on what others are playing...and a mobile service on the order of Xbox Live.

Right now, it's very little of any of that, largely because the average iOS device owner probably has no idea Game Center is on their device...or what it even is. Regardless, the new version of Mac OS X, Mountain Lion, includes Game Center as one of a handful of more cross-compatible iOS/OS X services. At the moment, its offerings -- connect to leaderboards, see achievements, play cross-platform, and connect to friends -- are limited because, well, there just aren't that many Game Center games for Mac yet.… Read more

How to integrate Growl with Notification Center

OS X Mountain Lion brings the familiar iOS Notification Center to the Mac. Getting notifications on a Mac from installed apps is nothing new to OS X. Users of the popular app, Growl, have been receiving notifications from their favorite apps for a long time. Now they're faced with a decision to manage notifications in two places, or choose one notification system over the other. Or are they?

Instead of managing alerts in both Notification Center and Growl, you can integrate Growl into Notification Center by installing a simple app called Hiss.

Hiss, currently in beta, is free to … Read more

Facebook App Center expands to Brazil, Europe, Taiwan

Facebook expanded its App Center access to more countries today, adding Brazil, France, Germany, Russia, Spain, Taiwan, and Turkey to its list.

The additions are part of Facebook's plans to increase the center's global reach, as 80 percent of the social network's users live outside of the U.S. and Canada.

In addition to getting access to apps, users will now see suggested apps tailored to them based on location. These include apps like the BBC Sport for those in the UK, Deezer for France, Terra for Brazil, and EyEm for Germany, according to Facebook.

The company … Read more

Getting started with Mountain Lion's Notification Center

Mountain Lion has pounced into the Mac App Store. If you haven't already upgraded to the latest version of OS X, you'll want to make sure your Mac is ready for the upgrade.

Once you have gone through the preparation and installation of Mountain Lion, you're not going to want to wait to dig right in and get all of the new features set up.

One of the (many) features OS X has incorporated from iOS in Mountain Lion is the Notification Center. If you use an iOS device, you're already familiar with how … Read more

The best-sounding club in NYC?

I recently dropped by Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola at Jazz at Lincoln Center to talk with the sound engineer, and by chance met Sam Berkow, the club's sound designer. Berkow had one key advantage going into the project that most designers don't: the club was planned before construction started on the Time Warner Center in New York. Berkow was quick to point out he had one major hurdle to jump over, in that there would be a huge glass window behind the stage to give patrons a spectacular view of Central Park. The window would be a massive … Read more