Apple users angered over 'staingate' screen damage

Thousands of Apple Macbook owners are campaigning for action over reported issues with the laptop's retina screen.

They are reporting "horrific stains" spreading across screens, in the forms of spots and patches.

Phi Chong, a software engineer, told the BBC he has had to replace his screen twice in the last two years. He said he had been told Apple would not carry out further screen repairs.

The firm told the BBC users should contact its Apple support centre.

One Macbook repair specialist indicated that this was not a common problem.

But users who have been affected are concerned they will face expensive service fees once their warranties and/or extended AppleCare protection plans expire.

"My last screen replacement had its anti-reflective coating start peeling off within a month," said Phi Chong.

Meet the Wave Glider, the Pentagon’s secret sea drone

In 2003, Joe Rizzi had a rich man’s dilemma. He’d often swim in the ocean outside his home on the coast of Hawaii’s Big Island and hear humpback whales singing in the ocean. He loved the sound, and wanted to hear it while he was at home looking out at the ocean. So, with the help of a neighbor, he crafted a flotation device from a kayak, a pickle jar, a long cable, and a hydrophone to live-stream the haunting songs into his living room speakers.

That device was an early prototype of the Wave Glider, a programmable surfboard that was later perfected in a bathtub by Liquid Robotics co-founder and CTO Roger Hine. Today’s version is outfitted with customizable sensors and floats along the water’s surface collecting information, guided by a patented rudder/thruster hybrid that harnesses wave power for propulsion. After Hine successfully tested a finished version of his invention off the Kona coast of Hawaii, a nearby Naval base caught wind of his project and thought it could be useful for missions.

“They said, ‘Do you have any idea how much money the Navy has spent in the last 40 years trying to build something that could operate independently out in the water?’” Rizzi told Yahoo News. “The next thing we know we had admirals flying out from the Pentagon to jump in the water and see how this thing operated.”


Ten years later, what started as a hobby is now the centerpiece of the world’s go-to water drone supplier — used by oil companies and scientists and, most notably, in classified missions for the Department of Defense.

The latest version of the Wave Glider, dubbed the SV3, during a beta test run in Hawaii. The company has a test facility there. (Photo: Liquid Robotics)

Liquid Robotics is one of the many Silicon Valley startups being tapped by the Pentagon in its scramble to stay on the cutting edge of innovation. Earlier this year, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Stephen Welby dropped by its Sunnyvale headquarters while on a tour of Silicon Valley startups. And just last week, both the Department of Homeland Security and the Pentagon announced that they would open satellite offices in the Bay Area.

Both agencies hope that being present in the nation’s unofficial tech capital will allow them to strengthen the government’s relationships with tech companies and, as DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson said at a San Francisco conference last week, “convince some of the talented workforce here in Silicon Valley to come to Washington.” Specifically, the Pentagon plans for its office — due to open next month in Moffett Field — to function somewhat like a venture capital firm, funding promising startups in the areas of security and surveillance.

Among the 3D printing, big data and machine learning companies these agencies plan to target, Liquid Robotics serves an overlooked need to monitor sometimes nefarious activities that take place in murky ocean waters. On land, surveillance cameras are everywhere — on the outside of buildings and the smartphones of most bystanders. But as last year’s disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 proved, the same does not apply in the oceans. When something happens in the middle of the sea — whether it’s a plane crash, an oil spill or a drug deal — chances are no one will be watching.

The Mike Huckabee campaign website: A review

Mike Huckabee announces he is seeking the Republican presidential nomination. (Photo: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

On Tuesday morning, after a salute from the Boy Scouts and a teen duet of the national anthem, Mike Huckabee took the stage in Hope, Ark., to announce he would seek the presidential nomination for the Republican party. The former Arkansas governor is the third candidate to enter the race this week, rounding out the list of conservative contenders to a neat six.

Money problems aside, Huckabee is an experienced political personality with outspoken conservative views on the Second Amendment, abortion, and — most bravely — Beyoncé. His unwavering honesty and small-town roots are directly reflected in his campaign website, which is a bit disorganized but charming in its own way. Below, in another installment ofRevURL, we dive into the former Fox commentator’s new digital headquarters.

The Lindsey Graham campaign website: A review

Graham announces his bid for the presidency in Central, S.C. (Photo: Rainier Ehrhardt/AP).
On Monday morning, the American public was introduced to yet another presidential hopeful: South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham. On a modest stage in his hometown of Central, S.C., he declared his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, emphasizing the need for heightened security efforts in a world that is “exploding in terror and violence.”

Graham is currently up against eight Republican competitors, with more expected to join the race soon. In fact, just last week, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum declared his intention to run with a catchy country song and a logo featuring a soaring bald eagle. Today, in the latest installment of RevURL, we examine Graham’s digital effortsto set himself apart from the pack.
Look and feel

The Rick Perry campaign website: A review

Rick Perry celebrates the launch of his campaign inside a budget sauna. (Photo: Brandon Wade/Fort Worth Star-Telegram/TNS via Getty Images)

Today, Rick Perry stood at a podium in an overheated Texas airplane hangar and announced his second bid for the Republican presidential nomination. Aside from the fact that Perry has traded his cowboy boots for black-framed glasses and begun directly addressing millennials in public, it was a familiar scene. Perry ran a famously disastrous campaign for president in 2012 (“oops”), and many of his fellow Republican competitors have also announced their intentions to run over the past few months.


But any politician who is running for national office less than a year after his indictment must have a few tricks up his sleeve. And judging from his meticulously designed website, a well-branded digital presence is one of them. Join us in our latest installment of RevURL as we explore .

     



 




Perry’s site is headed by a campaign video that is filmed and edited in a modern, quick-paced way. It fades in and out of scenes of daily life in America as Perry’s voice floats in the background, promising that he will be the leader to transcend the “petty partisanship” of Washington, D.C. It’s sort of like a boring version of Madonna’s “Ray of Light” music video, but much more eye-catching than your average campaign video. Perhaps he had those young’uns in mind.

Senate set to convene on future of U.S. telephone spying powers

The U.S. Senate is set to convene in a rare Sunday session in a last-ditch attempt to pass legislation to allow U.S. spy agencies to continue to sweep up information on Americans’ telephone calls and other business records.