überthings, inc.

Download it here: http://europe.nokia.com/mac/isync/.

Google’s new App Engine looks like an all-in-one version of Amazon’s cloud computing stack with a few differences. Here’s how things stack up:

I’ll need to dig in a little deeper to this before I can declare an outright winner, but I do like the first app I played with - the humble To-Done app pictured below:

Learn more about it from Google’s official blog, Techcrunch, SAI and many others.

I’m helping to organize a Barcamp-style iPhone Development hackathon at Brooklyn Polytechnic later this month. Our official blurb describes the event as follows:

iPhoneDevCampNYC will bring together iPhone developers, explorers, professionals, and owners, to share the current state and their visions for the future direction of development on the iPhone. Topics may include - but are not limited to - learning the SDK, hacking your own phone, the limitations of the SDK, iPhone entrepreneurship, and software demos. There will be some computers with the SDK installed available for use during the event.

What can you talk about at iPhoneDevCampNYC?

You can talk about anything related to iPhone development, from code to business practices, all is welcome. If you have a topic to discuss, a problem to pose, or a session to present, check out the sessions/schedule page on the wiki and then register to attend. (the password is c4mp)

Where is iPhoneDevCampNYC?

Polytechnic University Brooklyn Campus
Rogers Hall (building A on the map)
start in RH215 (there will be signs)
Six Metrotech Center, Brooklyn, NY 11201
http://www.poly.edu/directions/

(iPhoneDevCampNYC is not affiliated with Apple, Inc.)

Swing on by if you’re interested in hacking, chatting or just generally geeking out about iPhones.

Thanks for the image Niall Kennedy!

Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody on the Colbert Report. Clay has a fantastic way of taking complex concepts and transmogrifying them into simple ideas which make them much easier to grasp. He’s also one of the most animated professors I’ve ever had. Highly recommended.

Silicon Alley Insider has a story with a we’re-really-not-trying-that-hard-but-sensationalism-just-comes-naturally-to-us headline boldly proclaiming that they can teach you How To Hack Facebook In 51 Seconds. Take a look a the video below and see what you think.

Wrong! Yeah, that’s what I thought too. That’s not Facebook. That’s a Facebook app. A custom application, written by an external developer who really doesn’t care about security a whole lot. There’s a big difference between hacking Facebook (exposing contact or personal details, gaining access to passwords etc) and hacking a Facebook application (in this case, changing your friend’s mood). Yes, that may cause some strange questions from your friends (”Why are you feeling like murdering kittens?”), but one poorly written app does not mean that the security of Facebook as a whole has been compromised. Great headline, totally inaccurate subject matter.

The source for this story was probably this review of the app from a day earlier which links to the Youtube video and highlights this exact problem in the environment where it is actually meaningful and would be most effective (if people actually bothered to read reviews before installing apps). The original poster even accurately characterized this as a hackable app, not a core breach of the mothership.

Here’s a fix for SAI - update the title to be “How To Hack the Facebook Moods App In 51 Seconds”. Still fairly interesting, and about 100% more accurate. This time the discussion could even focus on more relevant questions, like whether Facebook should be certifying apps once they hit a certain size.

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