The upcoming mission of the space shuttle will focus heavily on robotics and NASA is using that opportunity to bring additional educational outreach to teachers and students. In an education briefing today, NASA detailed some of the resources and events related to STS-131. The robotics section of the NASA web site includes lesson plans, multimedia, information about robotics competitions, and career profiles of ways students can use math, science and engineering in various robotics jobs. STS-131 Mission Specialist, Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, is a teacher-turned-astronaut and will be recording an educational video about the space shuttle and space station robotics operations while on-orbit and crew members will participate in two live educational downlinked events during the mission. You can follow the STS-131 mission on the NASA web site and check the NASA TV schedule for all televised mission events.
Scientists at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), in Pasadena, California, announce that work has begun on repairing an iconic antenna of the American space agency. Used for the past 40 years for keeping in touch, and keeping track with deep-space missions, including those on Mars, the famous equipment now needs to have some of its parts ch... (read more)
When Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) zaps applications from the App Store, many times the end users and developers are confused. But according to the leaked iPhone Developer Program License Agreement, Apple has the right to kill any app, any time, and the company can even remove apps remotely from your handset.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation leaked the document and pointed out a few clauses it found troubling. As mentioned above, developers have to agree that Apple can “revoke the digital certificate of any of your applications at any time.” Content creators also can’t speak publicly about the agreement, can’t make the app available outside the App Store, reverse engineer the operating system, and can’t unlock an iPhone. What I find astonishing is that Apple also can’t be held liable for more than $50 to a developer, no matter the circumstances. If you’re building your business around the iPhone App Store, that has to be a scary development.
“If Apple wants to be a real leader, it should be fostering innovation and competition, rather than acting as a jealous and arbitrary feudal lord,” the EFF wrote in its post. “Developers should demand better terms and customers who love their iPhones should back them.”
The EFF was able to obtain this document by using the Freedom of Information Act because NASA has created apps for Apple’s mobile platform. The agreement has reportedly been revised, but I doubt much has changed.
The EFF paints this as extremely one-sided for Apple, but let’s not go too crazy. I’m no hippie – I understand that every single one of these developers agrees to these conditions and should understand the repercussions. It’s the price of doing business to reach the more than 70 million iPhone OS users. But this type of heavy-handedness is a step backwards for how we should be approaching development for mobile computing. It could also bite Apple in the behind in a few years if Android picks up more momentum or other platforms provide a viable alternative.
Download the agreement (PDF file) [Via Electronic Frontier Foundation]
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Filed under: Developer, iPhone
In a step towards transparency, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has made the entire iPhone Developer Program License Agreement available for the general public. This is the document that all iPhone developers must agree to when they become part of the iPhone developer program. TUAWEFF releases iPhone developer license agreement originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Filed under: Developer, iPhone
In a step towards transparency, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has made the entire iPhone Developer Program License Agreement available for the general public. This is the document that all iPhone developers must agree to when they become part of the iPhone developer program. TUAWEFF releases iPhone developer license agreement originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
The first rule of the iPhone developer program is: You do not talk about the iPhone developer program.
Before you create software for the iPhone, Apple demands that you sign away a laundry list of rights, including the ability to sell rejected apps through other channels, the ability to sue Apple for more than $50, and the ability to reverse-engineer or modify the iPhone or its SDK — and even the right to talk about your agreement with Apple.
The iPhone Developer Program License Agreement (.pdf) spells out all these requirements and more. Previously secret, the agreement has been acquired and published with the help of the Freedom of Information Act.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation on Monday evening reported that it gained access to a March, 2009 version of the agreement. The cyber-rights foundation noticed that NASA had developed an iPhone app and then used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain the agreement from NASA. NASA judged that the FOIA trumps the Apple agreement, so they turned over the Apple document to the EFF.
The contents of the agreement are hardly surprising, and the EFF’s Fred von Lohmann summed up some of the highlights:
“If Apple’s mobile devices are the future of computing, you can expect that future to be one with more limits on innovation and competition … than the PC era that came before,” von Lohmann wrote. “It’s frustrating to see Apple, the original pioneer in generative computing, putting shackles on the market it (for now) leads.”
Though the agreement may appear one-sided, Apple’s non-disclosure agreement for developers was more strict when the App Store first opened. In 2008 Apple imposed a non-disclosure agreement forbidding developers to discuss developing for iPhone OS 2.0. Developers were turned off by the NDA because it stifled them from discussing programming tips with one another. Apple later dropped this part of the non-disclosure agreement, saying its purpose was to protect its intellectual property.
iPhone Developer Program License Agreement (.pdf)
Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
The license agreement for the iPhone Developer Program contains some draconian terms, says the Electonic Frontier Foundation. The group recently used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain a copy of the license from NASA, a government body which like many has its own iPhone app. Although the document is outdated in that it comes from March of last year, the EFF notes that one of the terms of the agreement is that developers are normally banned from talking about it publicly....
The EFF today posts the "iPhone Developer Program License Agreement". Normally, they wouldn't be allowed to reproduce the document because of the terms of Apple's SDK but since NASA created an app, they used the freedom of information act to obtain a copy for publishing. They note that it is more restrictive than before and part of it may not be enforceable.
They note their concerns below:
Ban on Public Statements: As mentioned above, Section 10.4 prohibits developers, including government agencies such as NASA, from making any "public statements" about the terms of the Agreement. This is particularly strange, since the Agreement itself is not "Apple Confidential Information" as defined in Section 10.1. So the terms are not confidential, but developers are contractually forbidden from speaking "publicly" about them.
App Store Only: Section 7.2 makes it clear that any applications developed using Apple's SDK may only be publicly distributed through the App Store, and that Apple can reject an app for any reason, even if it meets all the formal requirements disclosed by Apple. So if you use the SDK and your app is rejected by Apple, you're prohibited from distributing it through competing app stores like Cydia or Rock Your Phone.
Ban on Reverse Engineering: Section 2.6 prohibits any reverse engineering (including the kinds of reverse engineering for interoperability that courts have recognized as a fair use under copyright law), as well as anything that would "enable others" to reverse engineer, the SDK or iPhone OS.
No Tinkering with Any Apple Products: Section 3.2(e) is the "ban on jailbreaking" provision that received some attention when it was introduced last year. Surprisingly, however, it appears to prohibit developers from tinkering with any Apple software or technology, not just the iPhone, or "enabling others to do so." For example, this could mean that iPhone app developers are forbidden from making iPods interoperate with open source software, for example.
http://www.eff.org/sites/all/themes/frontier/images/quotes.gif); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-attachment: initial; -webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-color: transparent; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 30px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 3px; padding-right: 40px; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-left: 47px; background-position: 0px 5px;">
http://www.eff.org/sites/all/themes/frontier/images/quotes-end.gif); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-attachment: initial; -webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-color: transparent; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 40px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; margin-right: -40px; margin-bottom: 5px; background-position: 100% 100%;">You will not, through use of the Apple Software, services or otherwise create any Application or other program that would disable, hack, or otherwise interfere with the Security Solution, or any security, digital signing, digital rights management, verification or authentication mechanisms implemented in or by the iPhone operating system software, iPod Touch operating system software, this Apple Software, any services or other Apple software or technology, or enable others to do so
Kill Your App Any Time: Section 8 makes it clear that Apple can "revoke the digital certificate of any of Your Applications at any time." Steve Jobs has confirmed that Apple can remotely disable apps, even after they have been installed by users. This contract provision would appear to allow that.
We Never Owe You More than Fifty Bucks: Section 14 states that, no matter what, Apple will never be liable to any developer for more than $50 in damages. That's pretty remarkable, considering that Apple holds a developer's reputational and commercial value in its hands—it's not as though the developer can reach its existing customers anywhere else. So if Apple botches an update, accidentally kills your app, or leaks your entire customer list to a competitor, the Agreement tries to cap you at the cost of a nice dinner for one in Cupertino.
Overall, the Agreement is a very one-sided contract, favoring Apple at every turn. That's not unusual where end-user license agreements are concerned (and not all the terms may ultimately be enforceable), but it's a bit of a surprise as applied to the more than 100,000 developers for the iPhone, including many large public companies. How can Apple get away with it? Because it is the sole gateway to the more than 40 million iPhones that have been sold. In other words, it's only because Apple still "owns" the customer, long after each iPhone (and soon, iPad) is sold, that it is able to push these contractual terms on the entire universe of software developers for the platform.
In short, no competition among app stores means no competition for the license terms that apply to iPhone developers.
If Apple's mobile devices are the future of computing, you can expect that future to be one with more limits on innovation and competition (or "generativity," in the words of Prof. Jonathan Zittrain) than the PC era that came before. It's frustrating to see Apple, the original pioneer in generative computing, putting shackles on the market it (for now) leads. If Apple wants to be a real leader, it should be fostering innovation and competition, rather than acting as a jealous and arbitrary feudal lord. Developers should demand better terms and customers who love their iPhones should back them.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
There are numerous reasons you might want to design a custom image featuring your name or that of your website, product or service. Maybe you’re doing a re-design of your website or just want a new image for Facebook.
The ‘professional’ option would be to get to grips with Photoshop and spend your time setting up the various variables to get your logo or name looking just right. Not to mention having to download new fonts and effects to create the image.
Well CoolText, a free online graphics generator, allows you to create thousands upon thousands of different text images, logos and even buttons to form your own cool name designs.
Their main service, and the one most relevant to this article, is the Text/Logo service which enables you to choose from hundreds of logo styles and subsequently thousands of different fonts.
The first step in creating cool name designs or logos is selecting what style you want. Note that the colours, fonts and sizes can be altered later. This is merely selecting roughly how the finished image will look and what animations, if any, it will have. Below you can see some of the choices you will have on the site.
For the purpose of this demonstration, I decided to go with ‘Glossy’. Once you select what style you want, you’re brought to the ‘Design Your Logo’ page. It asks you for basic things such as what exact text you want in your logo, text size and of course, the font.
CoolText has an excellent motley crew of fonts ranging from you basic word processor fonts to the artistic.
Some are even customised to resemble the fonts used in iconic logos such as NASA and Chicken Scratch. Once you select your font, you can continue to alter the text gradient. This is the colours used in certain areas of the logo. You can change the different gradients by clicking on different areas of the colour gradient bar, an example of which you can see below.
After this, you can select the shadow’s offset (if there is one in that particular logo style) and can select the background colour or image.
The final step is to select what file format to save it as. If you’re going to use it as a logo or image on a social networking site then I suggest PNG. However, if you want to integrate the image into Photoshop or indeed just edit it further in Photoshop, then save it as PSD with layers.
A final cool feature about this web app is that you can download all of CoolText’s fonts and logo styles to use in Photoshop by clicking ‘Fonts’ along the top menu bar. This is great if you’re an experienced Photoshop user but need some extra fonts for free. There are over 1,200 available so take your pick!
Also, take note that CoolText will only host your image for short period of time so you will have to either upload it to your own web server or a free image hosting service in order to keep it online.
So what cool name designs and logos did you create?
Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!
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In an effort to curb rising resistance in Congress to a new NASA strategy , President Barack Obama will hold a summit next month to explain his vision for America's future in space. The summit will be held on April 15 at an as-yet undisclosed location in Florida, where Obama and NASA officials are expected to discuss the administration's fiscal 2011 budget proposal and how it could change the space agency's efforts and goals.
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EFF analysis of Apple's iPhone Developer Program License Agreement, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. http://r2.ly/xx4u
The entire family of devices built on the iPhone OS (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad) have been designed to run only software that is approved by Apple—a major shift from the norms of the personal computer market. Software developers who want Apple's approval must first agree to the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement.
So today we're posting the "iPhone Developer Program License Agreement"—the contract that every developer who writes software for the iTunes App Store must "sign." Though more than 100,000 app developers have clicked "I agree," public copies of the agreement are scarce, perhaps thanks to the prohibition on making any "public statements regarding this Agreement, its terms and conditions, or the relationship of the parties without Apple's express prior written approval." But when we saw the NASA App for iPhone, we used the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to ask NASA for a copy, so that the general public could see what rules conrolled the technology they could use with their phones. NASA responded with the Rev. 3-17-09 version of the agreement (it has reportedly been revised somewhat since—please send us the current version if you are able).
This "license agreement" is particularly relevant right now, given the imminent launch of the iPad and anytime-now issuance of the U.S. Copyright Office's ruling regarding jailbreaking of the iPhone.
So what's in the Agreement? Here are a few troubling highlights:
Ban on Public Statements: As mentioned above, Section 10.4 prohibits developers, including government agencies such as NASA, from making any "public statements" about the terms of the Agreement. This is particularly strange, since the Agreement itself is not "Apple Confidential Information" as defined in Section 10.1. So the terms are not confidential, but developers are contractually forbidden from speaking "publicly" about them.
App Store Only: Section 7.2 makes it clear that any applications developed using Apple's SDK may only be publicly distributed through the App Store, and that Apple can reject an app for any reason, even if it meets all the formal requirements disclosed by Apple. So if you use the SDK and your app is rejected by Apple, you're prohibited from distributing it through competing app stores like Cydia or Rock Your Phone.
Ban on Reverse Engineering: Section 2.6 prohibits any reverse engineering (including the kinds of reverse engineering for interoperability that courts have recognized as a fair use under copyright law), as well as anything that would "enable others" to reverse engineer, the SDK or iPhone OS.
No Tinkering with Any Apple Products: Section 3.2(e) is the "ban on jailbreaking" provision that received some attention when it was introduced last year. Surprisingly, however, it appears to prohibit developers from tinkering with any Apple software or technology, not just the iPhone, or "enabling others to do so." For example, this could mean that iPhone app developers are forbidden from making iPods interoperate with open source software, for example.
You will not, through use of the Apple Software, services or otherwise create any Application or other program that would disable, hack, or otherwise interfere with the Security Solution, or any security, digital signing, digital rights management, verification or authentication mechanisms implemented in or by the iPhone operating system software, iPod Touch operating system software, this Apple Software, any services or other Apple software or technology, or enable others to do so
Kill Your App Any Time: Section 8 makes it clear that Apple can "revoke the digital certificate of any of Your Applications at any time." Steve Jobs has confirmed that Apple can remotely disable apps, even after they have been installed by users. This contract provision would appear to allow that.
We Never Owe You More than Fifty Bucks: Section 14 states that, no matter what, Apple will never be liable to any developer for more than $50 in damages. That's pretty remarkable, considering that Apple holds a developer's reputational and commercial value in its hands—it's not as though the developer can reach its existing customers anywhere else. So if Apple botches an update, accidentally kills your app, or leaks your entire customer list to a competitor, the Agreement tries to cap you at the cost of a nice dinner for one in Cupertino.
Overall, the Agreement is a very one-sided contract, favoring Apple at every turn. That's not unusual where end-user license agreements are concerned (and not all the terms may ultimately be enforceable), but it's a bit of a surprise as applied to the more than 100,000 developers for the iPhone, including many large public companies. How can Apple get away with it? Because it is the sole gateway to the more than 40 million iPhones that have been sold. In other words, it's only because Apple still "owns" the customer, long after each iPhone (and soon, iPad) is sold, that it is able to push these contractual terms on the entire universe of software developers for the platform.
In short, no competition among app stores means no competition for the license terms that apply to iPhone developers.
If Apple's mobile devices are the future of computing, you can expect that future to be one with more limits innovation and competition (or "generativity," in the words of Prof. Jonathan Zittrain) than the PC era that came before. It's frustrating to see Apple, the original pioneer in generative computing, putting shackles on the market it (for now) leads. If Apple wants to be a real leader, it should be fostering innovation and competition, rather than acting as a jealous and arbitrary feudal lord. Developers should demand better terms and customers who love their iPhones should back them.
RT @johnolilly: Fantastic post from EFF on Apple iPhone SDK agreement and it's egregiously one-sided terms. http://bit.ly/dgmJvN
- Robert Scoble"Apple. . .should [foster] innovation and competition, rather than acting as a jealous and arbitrary feudal lord." EFF http://bit.ly/bc65Ua
- ian kennedyAll Your Apps Are Belong to Apple: The iPhone Developer Program License Agreement | Electronic Frontier Foundation
- Miguel Caetano"So today we're posting the "iPhone Developer Program License Agreement"—the contract that every developer who writes software for the iTunes App Store must "sign." Though more than 100,000 app developers have clicked "I agree," public copies of the agreement are scarce, perhaps thanks to the prohibition on making any "public statements regarding this Agreement, its terms and conditions, or the relationship of the parties without Apple's express prior written approval." But when we saw the NASA App for iPhone, we used the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to ask NASA for a copy, so that the general public could see what rules conrolled the technology they could use with their phones. NASA responded with the Rev. 3-17-09 version of the agreement (it has reportedly been revised somewhat since—please send us the current version if you are able)."
- Miguel Caetano
During the filming of Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air, I saw a set photo where George Clooney was dressed in a full-on NASA space suit, walking in an airport. That scene didn’t make the final film, and I’ve always wondered what it was about, and where it fit. Up in the Air hits DVD and Blu-Ray on March 9th (On Amazon: $27 for Blu-ray, $17 on DVD), and we’ve been given a look at the deleted scene in question, in which Ryan Bingham goes about his disconnected routine in a spacesuit. You can watch it now, embedded after the jump. Of course, I would recommend watching the clip unless you’ve already seen the film, as the deleted scene in question was to be set late in the film.
[See post to watch Flash video]
I actually really dig the segment on its own, but I can see how it would have felt too on the nose at that point in the film.
Here is information on the home video release:
UP IN THE AIR DVD & Blu-ray
The UP IN THE AIR DVD is presented in widescreen enhanced for 16:9 TVs with Dolby Digital English 5.1 Surround, French 5.1 Surround and Spanish 5.1 Surround and English, French and Spanish subtitles. The Blu-ray disc is presented in 1080p high definition with English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, French 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital and Brazilian Portuguese 5.1 Dolby Digital and English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese subtitles. The DVD includes the following special features:
The Blu-ray includes all of the above in high definition, plus:
