Apple it's now the most valuable company

Apple, is now considered the world's most valuable company and history, a precedent had already shown in March this year, having been named the most admired company in Fortune magazine. 

It is now the most valuable company, after its shares reached one of the highest values ​​of the history of New York with  a value of  $648,11. He had also set a limit in March this year with a record $600 per share, but earlier this month, Apple rallied. That is, its shares have risen by 57% so far this 2012, due mainly to the expectations generated by new launches such as the iPhone or the iPad mini for this fall, as the rumors technological handles. Apple now sits a history as one of the companies have managed to break the barrier of $ 600, before Microsoft in 1999 succeeded the feat in the business world. An estimated capitalization reaches 607, 000 million dollars.

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Starfall for the weekend: Perseids

Image NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Meteor Showers
at Flirck

Perseids. Each year there is a meteor shower, or as they say rain of stars, this year it is for Perseids, one of the most popular meteor showers that come this weekend. Amateur astronomer Fred Bruenjes organized this composite image of the Perseids in 2007 of nearly 3,000 images taken during two nights. The picture illustrates that the Perseids come from the same area. You may not be deployed most spectacular of the year, most years, that honor goes to the Geminids in December. However, the shower is almost certainly the most watched meteor shower, coming as they do in the hot months of summer vacation.

Advised to look to the sky in a place as dark as possible and without obstacles to sight in the early hours of the nights of Saturday and Sunday. The Perseids Tears of St. Lawrence are produced when the Earth, in its way, through the tail of comet Swift-Tuttle. The Perseids are bits of periodic comet Swift-Tuttle.

 As the Earth passes near the comet's orbit, small pieces of debris, mostly the size of grains of sand, but some as large as peas or larger - enter the atmosphere at 60 km per second (134.000 mph .) From an altitude of about 100 km (60 miles), a meteoroid compresses the air in front of him like water before a speedboat, creating a shock wave hot. This is what most people see - not a little of the remains themselves. 

Meteors come from comets are more like clumps of dust that rocks. Even the larger ones are too fragile to reach the ground as meteorites - unlike the pieces of rock and iron, which come from asteroids. Earth passed closer to the comet Swift-Tuttle in 1992 and put on displays Perseid particularly spectacular in the years around then. The rain has returned to normal. The comet will not approach as close again until around 2125, but that does not mean that the Perseids this year will not be worth finding your own piece of dark sky. Try to get as far away from city lights as possible, bring a reclining chair to lie back and be patient.

 There is an application Meteor Counter if you want to capture some images, and then make a recording of critical data for each meteor: time, magnitude, latitude and longitude, along with the option of verbal annotations. Then these data are loaded automatically NASA researchers for analysis. Meteor Counter - (apple store) also offers a news and calendar of events, which are updated by professional scientists to keep you informed of the latest developments and meteor showers the next.

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Google have to pay 22,5 millions to FTC

Google has agreed to pay $ 22.5 million to settle a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) of cargo to be managed to avoid the privacy settings of Safari for ads aimed at consumers. Google puts the cookies on the computers of users of Safari, despite the fact that, as noted by the FTC, "Google had previously told these users that are automatically opted out of such monitoring, as a result of adjustments default Safari browser used on Macs, iPhones and Cases ". This, according to the FTC, was in direct violation of the privacy solution before between Google and the FTC. The burden of the FTC focused on the fact that Google took advantage of a loophole in Safari to place cookies on users' computers even though Safari, by default, blocks cookies from third-party sites. 

 Google agreed to pay $ 22.5 million civil penalty to settle charges the Federal Trade Commission to trick users of Apple's Safari browser would not tracking "cookies" or the publication of notices to users, violation of a privacy agreement earlier between the company and the FTC. The agreement is part of the efforts of the FTC sure companies live up to the privacy promises they make to consumers, and is the largest fine the agency has obtained for a violation of an order of the Commission. In addition to the civil penalty, the order also requires Google to disable all cookies tracking you said you would not put on the computers of consumers. "The penalty record in this case sends a clear message to all companies under an order of the FTC privacy," said Jon Leibowitz, chairman of the FTC. "No matter how big or small, all companies must comply with FTC orders against them and keep their privacy promises to consumers, or will end up paying many times what it would cost to play in the first place" . 

 In its complaint, the FTC alleged that for several months in 2011 and 2012, Google places a cookie given up advertising on the computers of users visiting Safari sites within the Google advertising network DoubleClick, despite Google had previously told the users that automatically opted out of such monitoring, as a result of the default settings of the Safari browser used on Macs, iPhones and iPads. Google violated an agreement reached with the agency in October 2011, which banned Google - among other things - misrepresenting the extent to which consumers can exercise control over the collection of information. The agreement settles FTC charges before Google used deceptive tactics and violated its privacy promises when it launched its social network, Google Buzz. Google has until February 15, 2014 to expire all cookies participating in today's agreement.

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Google just acquired Sparrow for Gmail

Google just acquired Sparrow for Gmail, the company behind the popular iOS and OS X email client. The team of the company, says CEO Don Sparrow Leca, will join Google's Gmail team "to achieve a larger view - which we think is the best you can achieve with Google." Sparrow raised a small seed round of funding from French VC firm Ventures, Kima in 2011, but took no other investments outside since. Google and Sparrow have released the financial details of the acquisition. Google buys Sparrow for Gmail, while Sparrow says that their applications will remain available at the moment, but according to an email to the company just send their users, the Sparrow, announces no updates on their applications in the short term. The company statement expresses explicitly ... 

 We’re excited to announce that Sparrow has been acquired by Google!

 While we’ll be working on new things at Google, we will continue to make Sparrow available and provide support for our users. We had an amazing ride and can’t thank you enough. 

Dom Leca 
CEO Sparrow 
 We also want to thank our advisors and investors — Loren Brichter, Dave Morin, John Maeda, Xavier Niel, Jérémie Berrebi — as well as our friends and family: Simon Istolainen, Jérémie Kanza, Sacha Cayre, Cedric Gepner, Laurent Merlinot, Didier Kuhn, Christophe Baillon, Laurent Cerveau, Christophe Giaume, Sebastien Maury, Manuel Colom, Bertrand Guiheneuf and all of you who have helped us along the way.

We care a lot about how people communicate, and we did our best to provide you with the most intuitive and pleasurable mailing experience. Now we’re joining the Gmail team to accomplish a bigger vision — one that we think we can better achieve with Google. We’d like to extend a special thanks to all of our users who have supported us, advised us, given us priceless feedback and allowed us to build a better mail application.

Full speed ahead! 

Remains to be seen how long Google plans to support the Mac client Sparrow. Until now, Google does not offer its own native email client for any operating system and considering Google's approach on the web, it seems unlikely that the company will continue to fund the development of an e-mail client desktop. It is also unclear if Google charged for applications Sparrow. The Mac application currently costs $ 9.99 and the IOS client costs $ 2.99. Although the team is locked into the Sparrow Gmail, expects his client and continue to provide services normally. IOS users and Mac OS will be able to enjoy their implementation is expected that soon the rest of Gmail users benefit from the knowledge and the work of this small business.

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