Today is a huge day for zootpatrol. We are very excited to announce that we have been selected to become a featured website on Pulse News Reader, the #1 news application for the iPhone, iPad, and Android. Pulse is a spectacular designed application that allows you to chose and transform your favorite websites and news sources into a colorful and interactive mosaic. For instance if you add zootpatrol to your feed, each one of our posts is represented by large thumbnails, as we post throughout the day the feed updates itself and you are able to scroll through the thumbnails horizontally. When you click on a thumbnail the story will open up within the application, letting you stay within the app and making you not have to jump around websites. Pulse redefines news, giving you the opportunity to experience the news you desire from traditional sources, your favorite blogs and social networks – all in one beautiful interface. Trust us on this we aren’t telling you to download this app just because we are featured now, take our word you will fall in love with Pulse, we did. So if you have an iPad, iPhone, or Android device, you can go to the Pulse website here and download the app, or just go to the app store or market on your phone and search “Pulse News Reader”. We’d like to also personally thank everyone at the Pulse team especially Cristina who had to put up with our 8 billion emails back and forth for a month getting things together, THANK YOU! So go grab Pulse and get your read on zoot nation.

Check below for screen-shots of zootpatrol in action on Pulse, and to get a better idea how it looks and works.
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The Google corporation is a beast in marketing and being awesome so this video demonsteration of their Google Chrome speed is no exception. These speed tests were filmed at actual web page rendering times

Yahoo has been battling the Dept of Justice in federal court in Colorado over their right to have access to user email.  Yahoo has refused to give access to targeted user email saying that prosecutors are required to have warrants and email users are protected under the 4th Amendment.  Google, Electronic Frontier Foundation and Center For Democracy and Technology  have come to the aid of Yahoo in this fight under the notion that society relys on the privacy of email the same as it does personal docs or telephone conversations.  In 1986 a law was passed which the gave the gov’t the ability to access email without probable cause that was unopened for 180 days or more.  Now the gov’t is looking for email that is read and under 180 days old without probable cause.  This is a huge debate for the internet generation and I’m sure we will hear more in the months to come.

The Back Story:

On December 3, 2009, U.S. Magistrate Judge Craig Shaffer ordered Yahoo to hand to prosecutors certain records including the contents of e-mail messages. Yahoo divulged some of the data but refused to turn over e-mail that had been previously viewed, accessed, or downloaded and was less than 181 days old

Sooo for those people who don’t think Google is slowly taking over the entire world, you need to get some info dropped on your dome. Here’s an awesome easy to read infograph detailing everything you wanted to know about Google but were too lazy to Google it.
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Google already dominates the internet and has an ever increasing territory in mobile, so what’s next?  TV.  Google has tried this route before with a Google Ads platform for TV, but this time they are teaming with Intel and Sony to bring Web into your living room.  Simply put, the technology aims to make it as easy for TV users to navigate Web applications like FaceBook, Twitter and YouTube as it is to change the channel.  This has been tried in the past by other companies but the products have very limited application development.  The key to Google’s vision is that they will be using Android technology and open the TV platform to software developers which will hopefully spark the same creativity that we see now with smartphone applications.  Sony on the other hand has been lacking in the TV game and hopes this will bring them back to the top.  Limited details have been released but I’m sure we will see more to come. You also check out TV Gossip by MTV here for the latest show information.

The world’s #1 search engine is vowing to take a stand against China.  The communist nation has censored results for the Chinese version of the search engine google.cn since it launched in 2006. The people of China only get search results the gov’t wants them to get.   Now viewing the censorship as a free speech and human rights issue Google is trying to find a way to work within the laws of China and make google.cn uncensored or possibly abandon operations in China if necessary.  To complicate things further, Google has accused the Chinese gov’t of a cyber attack, with a primary objective of gaining access to gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists.  From the official Google Blog:

“First, this attack was not just on Google. As part of our investigation we have discovered that at least twenty other large companies from a wide range of businesses–including the Internet, finance, technology, media and chemical sectors–have been similarly targeted. We are currently in the process of notifying those companies, and we are also working with the relevant U.S. authorities.

Second, we have evidence to suggest that a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. Based on our investigation to date we believe their attack did not achieve that objective. Only two Gmail accounts appear to have been accessed, and that activity was limited to account information (such as the date the account was created) and subject line, rather than the content of emails themselves.”

Internet freedom will continue to be a growing debate and with Google owning 67% of the search market in the U.S. they will continue to be influential.   Google’s actions with this issue will have a much bigger impact than simply what search results the people of China get to see.  Maybe a defiant Google will buck the trend of American companies bowing down to China just to get a piece of the 1.3 billion person market 253 million of which are internet users.  Probably not though.

Hilary Clinton’s speech themed around internet freedom on Jan 21st couldn’t of had better timing.  She said this “We stand for a single internet where all of humanity has equal access to knowledge and ideas”.  It’s nice to know our gov’t believes in the freedom of internet.  Doesn’t mean they won’t try to put all kinds of crazy restrictions around it though.

Google’s Autocomplete service provides a list of possible suggestions from previous searches when you start typing words into the search box. It usually works out just fine, but other times you can get some pretty ridiculous suggestions. Here are 13 examples of what we are talking about.


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So by my count there has officially been 4,652 “iPhone Killer” cellphones that have been released since the iPhone came out. Also to my count, zero have even came close to comparing with the iPhone. I have used them all Blackberry, Samsung, Palm, you name it, and to be honest with myself, and everyone else, the iPhone is the best phone you can buy, bar none, until now…..maybe. Powerhouse companies Verizon, Google, and Motorola have all teamed up to put out the Motorola Droid. Our friends at Boy Genius Report released the first hands-on with the Droid and it was as excellent experience throughout.

So first off when is this thing dropping, in 7 years? No, it is actually going to be available for Verizon customers only, in a few weeks, so hold out on using your 1998 Nokia for a little bit longer, just keep playing Snake and chill out. Droid will be the most advanced Android device on the market as far as specifications go. Software too, as it’s the only one said to be running Android 2.0 until months from now. There’s a 550MHz Texas Instruments OMAP3430 processor, separate PowerVR GPU, 256MB of RAM, CDMA Rev A., Wi-Fi, GPS, a digital magnetometer, accelerometer, proximity sensors, a 5 megapixel autofocus camera with dual-LED flash, notification LED, four touch-sensitive navigation buttons, a slide-out full QWERTY keyboard, 3.5mm headset jack, microUSB port — jesus. The 3.7 inch display powers a 854×480 resolution image and shows off Android’s true colors.

The truth is we can go on for days about the powerful specs this bad boy has, but you can go to this detailed report by Boy Genius to get the full review. One thing I was excited about although it’s just an accessory is the charging dock/media station. I have pretty much this exact docking station for my Blackberry Storm, but I had to pay $40 for it.

In conclusion the Motorola Droid probably won’t be as good as the iPhone, as much as I hate to say it. Having a phone powered by Google though makes it a worthy competitor and the sky is the limit with software updates and applications available, which makes the playing field even when facing off against Apple.