Posts Tagged ‘insurance’

Amid growing concerns about the widespread use of automated license plate readers (LPRs) by law enforcement and others, new information reveals that US Customs and Border Protection is sharing detailed LPR data on border crossings with the insurance industry. Forbes reports that a Freedom of Information Act request submitted by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) reveals the agency has been handing the data over to the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) since as early as 2005. The NICB is a non-profit organization funded by the insurance industry and others in order to fight insurance fraud and crime, and the “memorandum of understanding” (below) between it and the UCB grants it access to the data both to identify theft… Continue reading…

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US government shares citizens’ border crossings with insurance companies

Tumblr has been undergoing a rapid growth spurt lately, rolling out new features and seeing a marked increase in international traffic. One thing the company hasn’t mastered, however, is how to turn a profit — but a new “highlighted posts” feature may provide a clue on how they’re planning to get there. The feature itself is pretty straightforward: for one dollar, you can mark a post as highlighted, and it then shows up in your readers’ dashboards with a customized sticker and alert to the side (“new,” “breaking news,” and “PARTY!!!” are amongst the more than 40 available options). Tumblr has famously rejected including ads as part of its service, with founder David Karp saying last year that the company was looking at expanding its… Continue reading…

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Tumblr’s ‘highlighted posts’ feature lets your work stand out, for a price

Not usually a topic of conversation in mobile broadband, Dish has started coming up quite a bit lately because it owns a significant amount of high-quality spectrum — spectrum that could be used to build out a new network. Indeed, that’s exactly what it has says it wants to do in the 2GHz band, erecting an LTE-Advanced network from scratch that would be offered at retail — to end customers, that is — versus LightSquared, which plans to wholesale its bandwidth to other carriers that need it ( assuming it’s ever able to get FCC approval ). There’s been quite a bit of speculation that Dish’s ambitions could ultimately end up getting it hitched with either T-Mobile or AT&T, both of which claim to need additional spectrum in the long… Continue reading…

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Dish says AT&T is trying to set it up for failure with proposed 4G network conditions

When Apple released iBooks Author as part of its education event in January , one element of the End User License Agreement raised some eyebrows: namely, it specified that works created with the tool could be offered for sale only through Apple services such as the iBookstore. Today Apple released a 1.0.1 update to the application — whose sole listed change is a revised EULA — that makes the company’s intentions a bit clearer. According to the new language, Apple is only requiring products be sold through their channels if the work is finished in the company’s .ibooks format — which, as you may expect, only works with iBooks in the first place. Text or PDF files generated with the application aren’t placed under any such…

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iBooks Author 1.0.1 EULA clarifies sales stance: works can be sold outside of the iBookstore

On The Verge is back, prepare to have your minds blown: The big show returns on Friday, February 10th, 2012 , with a very special guest: Jimmy Fallon . You probably know Jimmy from NBC’s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon , where our very own Joshua Topolsky serves as resident tech expert. The tables have turned and Jimmy will be joining us on our show for the sort of frank, meaningful, and downright entertaining conversation that On The Verge provides. We’ll also have news, demos, giveaways, hilarious interludes, and more.

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On The Verge returns Friday, February 10th with Jimmy Fallon!

The hive mind of servers behind Watson may have conquered Jeopardy , but now it’s turning its attentions to a more altruistic challenge — choosing the best treatment for cancer sufferers. Set to be piloted by doctors at Cedars-Sinai research hospital in Los Angeles, the system will offer evidence-based suggestions to doctors on what treatments could work for each person using case studies and the records of other patients. The server will be housed at insurance company WellPoint’s HQ and accessed via the internet for easy expansion for other oncology departments in the future. Language recognition technology from Nuance is integrated into the software, meaning that using alternative phrases or wording shouldn’t cause the system to..

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IBM’s Watson supercomputer turns to treating cancer

PreCentral reports that HP CEO Meg Whitman is calling an all-hands meeting tomorrow, likely to decide the fate of webOS. On November 8th, Whitman promised a decision on the fated mobile operating system  within three to four weeks , and it’s been over a month today. Perhaps HP will finally dump its  multi-billion-dollar money sink , or perhaps the company will finally give it the reprieve it needs to succeed. Or, perhaps we’ll hear Whitman say that a true decision will take  another couple of weeks .

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HP’s Whitman calls webOS all-hands meeting, has she decided its fate?

Anticipation for Apple’s iOS update may have been too great as server trouble prevents many from updating, malware is discovered for Android that pretends to be a Netflix app, and Sprint and Verizon provide a more international travel friendly iPhone 4S. More »

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Remains of the Day: iOS 5 Is Available If You’re Lucky [For What It's Worth]

The Daily App Deals post is a round-up of the best app discounts of the day, as well as some notable mentions for ones that are on sale. More » [Sponsored] Visualize the Future of the Anywhere Office    Has your company seen an increase in workplace mobility? Does the cloud really matter for your business? Make sure you’re in the know with Cisco and be prepared for what’s in store. Read, learn, share and discuss the future of the network

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Daily App Deals: Get a Voice Assistant for Your Android Device For Free [Deals]

Traditional calculators are fine, but you can easily lose your place, forget what you’re calculating, or just waste brainpower on keeping track of everything. These simple apps for Windows and OS X make complex calculations a lot easier by mixing a notepad and a calculator, letting you tabulate everything in plain English. More »

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Perform Long Calculations in Plain English with These Awesome Calculator Apps [Video]

If you watched last week’s iPhone 4S announcement with your Android phone and went a little green with envy when Siri, iOS’s new voice-recognizing personal assistant, was announced and demoed on stage, buck up. You’ve got a lot of great voice recognition apps to choose from on Android that can help you keep up with friends, look up the weather, find local businesses, and more. Here are a look at your options. More »

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How to Get a Siri-Like Personal Assistant on Your Android Phone for Free [Android]

This week we’re focusing on clean, single color screen print-style wallpapers that make their point with just a few simple shapes. They’ll keep your desktop un-muddied ( assuming you keep it organized ) so you can create a nice, distraction-free look. More »

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Cut Some Shapes Out of Your Desktop with These Single-Color Vector Graphic Wallpapers [Wallpaper Wednesday]

If you’ve got an iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPod touch 3G, iPod touch 4G or any iPad, you can download and install Apple’s iOS 5 update right now. All you need to do is open up iTunes (make sure you have iTunes 10.5 installed) and hit the Update button. More »

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Download and Upgrade to iOS 5 Right Now [Ios 5]

Dear Lifehacker, My husband stores maple syrup in the fridge, but says butter can actually be left out on the counter. Clearly he’s insane, right? I was always taught to put certain things in the fridge, but it looks like everyone grew up with different “rules”. Is there some sort of definitive list of fridge-friendly and room-temp-friendly foods? More »

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What Foods Don’t I Need to Refrigerate? [Ask Lifehacker]