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Glassboard: is it a group messaging app? Sort of. Is it a collaboration app? Sure. Is it like a Facebook Group? Maybe. Version 2.0 of the app, released this week, can be as many or as few of those things as you'd like, depending on who you're sharing with and why. On the one hand, it's a way to share notes, photos, files, and other updates with a group of friends. On the other, it could be useful among a group of colleagues working together on a project.
Glassboard 2.0 is now available for iOS and Android, as well as a newly unveiled Web app. The apps are offered by Sepia Labs—the new home of former NetNewsWire developer Brent Simmons—and we thought we'd take a look at the recently updated offerings. "The easiest way to describe Glassboard: as Pair is to the bedroom, as Path is to the rec room, Glassboard is to the boardroom," Simmons told Ars in an e-mail. "It's an app for communicating inside teams (formal or not). I think it's how people will work together in the future—it cuts way down on e-mail."
Indeed, if you are new to small group sharing apps, the idea is like taking Facebook and stripping down all parts of the social network except for the parts where you share privately among clearly defined groups. Or if Google+ allowed everyone in your circle to post to that same circle. The idea is to keep things insular and private. There's no way to blast updates to the whole world like Twitter, and there's no friending or unfriending. You can create or join various groups—close friends, family, coworkers, Ars Technica staffers, cousins, etc.—and post a variety of content to those "boards" as a way to keep each other up-to-date. According to Sepia Labs, Glassboard is supposed to be a digital boardroom. Read more | Comments
This week's top posts to our Apple section included the latest rumors about an updated MacBook Pro, Apple's curious (if only temporary) censorship of the word "jailbreak" in iTunes, a discussion about Apple's "green" initiatives, and more. And don't forget our guide to hardening your iPhone against stalkers, as well as a look at five Mac antivirus apps! Read on if you need to catch up:
Have a wonderful weekend, folks!
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Enlarge / Apple's Maiden, North Carolina data center will be largely powered by Apple's own solar panel arrays and methane-powered fuel cells.
Apple, Inc.
Apple has gone into detail about how it sources energy for its data centers, explaining its plans to reach 100 percent renewable energy for all of its data centers by 2013. The company is adding an additional large solar panel farm in North Carolina, sourcing hydro power for its upcoming center in Oregon, and transitioning its existing data center in California to renewable sources. Apple is planning to power much of its other operations with renewable energy as well.
But Apple isn't alone in adopting "green" energy and design for its data centers and operations. Microsoft recently announced plans to make all its data centers and operations "carbon neutral" by July 2012. Google has invested heavily in outfitting its data centers and operations facilities with solar panel roofs and sourcing wind and other renewable energy. The overall trend toward greater data center efficiency began in earnest around 2008, when "performance-per-watt" began to trump raw gigahertz speed as the top concern for IT operations, just after Google helped found the Climate Savers Computing Initiative in 2007.
Cutting coal in North Carolina
Apple has already confirmed that a 20MW solar array and a 5MW fuel cell array are being built adjacent to its Maiden, North Carolina data center. The company is also planning an additional 20MW solar array just a few miles away. Each solar panel array is capable of generating 42 million kWh of clean energy annually. The fuel cells, which run on waste methane generated by a nearby landfill, will produce another 40 million kWh. Read more | Comments
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has been tapped to serve as an on-set "tutor" for the upcoming movie based on Walter Isaacson's biography Steve Jobs. Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin will consult with Woz on technical details related to computers, as well as personal details about Jobs himself.
Sorkin is known for recent films The Social Network and Moneyball, as well as the political TV series The West Wing. He insists the film won't be "a straight ahead biography."
"Drama is tension versus obstacle. Someone wants something, something is standing in their way of getting it. They want the money, they want the girl, they want to get to Philadelphia—doesn't matter... And I need to find that event and I will. I just don't know what it is," Sorkin said during a news conference. Read more | Comments
Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs allegedly "worked closely" on the design of the rumored larger-screened iPhone, according to sources speaking to Bloomberg. The publication corroborates previous reports that the iPhone is about to get a serious makeover this year, noting that Apple has indeed placed orders for a screen larger than the current 3.5-inch screen used in the iPhone 4S.
The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week that Apple is planning to begin production of an iPhone with a 4-inch screen in June. We have been highly skeptical of such rumors up until recently, but recent positive changes in the signal-to-noise ratio is changing our minds. Apple has stuck with a 3.5-inch screen since the iPhone first launched in 2007, and it has performed quite well in the market since then, selling 35.1 million iPhones last quarter alone.
Bloomberg points out that a 4-inch screen doesn't necessarily mean the dimensions of the iPhone itself will change—Apple could possibly fit it into the current dimensions if it pushes other elements of the front around (such as the speaker, camera, and Home button). But this is only speculation, and there is currently very little information available about what the next iPhone will actually look like. But we do agree that the iPhone will likely see some major cosmetic changes this year—Apple typically overhauls the look of the iPhone every other year, and the design of the iPhone 4S matches that of the iPhone 4 launched in 2010. What do you think we're in for when the next iPhone makes its debut? Read more | Comments
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