Meet Darpa’s new boss; Facebook’s iOS apps get major updates.
Facebook for iOS goes native, waves goodbye to HTML5 [THE VERGE]
In building a native Facebook app for iOS, the company looked at improving three key places, “the app’s largest pain points” all relating to speed: launching the app, scrolling through the News Feed, and tapping photos inside the News Feed. “We’re twice as fast in all these areas,” Johnson
D arpa gets a new boss, and Solyndra is in her past [WIRED]
Arati Prabhakar, who starts in her new position at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency on July 30, will be Darpa’s first Indian-American chief. And she boasts an impressive resume. Prabhakar came to this country at the age of 3, growing up in Lubbock, Texas. She earned a Ph.D. in applied physics from Caltech and founded Darpa’s Microelectronics Technology Office. In 1993, at the age of 34, she was appointed as the head of the 3,000-person National Institute of Standards and Technology. From there, she left for Silicon Valley, where she became a top officer at a specialty materials company. She joined the venture capital firm U.S. Venture Partners in 2001, spending a decade investing in green tech and IT start-ups.
Amazon to hold press conference on September 6th in Santa Monica, Kindle Fire 2 or phone are our bets [THE NEXT WEB]
Could it be the new Kindle Fire? Maybe, but stay tuned. Rumors are also swirling thatAmazon is already building a smartphone with Foxconn, so it could be that or both.
How the pogo stick leapt from classic toy to extreme sport [SMITHSONIAN]
That world turned out to be a perilous place. In their quest for Pogo 2.0, the inventors endured bouts of unconsciousness, defective Chinese imports, trips to the bank for second mortgages and an exploding prototype that sent one test pilot to the hospital for reconstructive surgery.
The future of war [VIDEO] [YouTube via ReutersTV]
