time

Obama's win a big vindication for Nate Silver, king of the quants

In the end, big data won.

Not the presidential election -- although there's no doubt that President Obama's victory tonight was aided by a sophisticated understanding of the American electorate born of years of analysis of voting trends and demographic shifts.

No, big data -- and its patron saint, Nate Silver -- won the battle to predict the outcome of the contest between Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Where breathless pundits brandishing equivocating polls shouted from the rooftops over the last few weeks that the race for the White House was a "tossup," or &… Read more

Apple walloped with $368M in damages in VirnetX patent suit

A Texas court ordered Apple to pay $368.2 million in damages to the patent holding and security software company VirnetX today. According to Bloomberg, which broadcast the news on Twitter, Apple is being fined over infringement of VirnetX's network patents.

In the suit, VirnetX claimed that Apple integrated these network patents into its products like FaceTime, according to 9to5Mac. Originally VirnetX was asking for $900 million, but apparently the jury decided $368 million was enough.

VirnetX is well known for going after major tech companies for patent infringement. In its early days, the company aggressively patented technology that … Read more

The 404 1,159: Where we challenge you to a vote-off (podcast)

Tune into today's show to hear an update to The 404's Halloween Samsung Galaxy SIII Giveaway Contest! With all the chaos of last week, we're editing some of the rules (see full list at the bottom of this page), but here's how to enter:

Follow @the404. Tweet out using #404S3 a photo and quick description why you need a new phone. Your photo MUST include your Twitter handle handwritten in the image. The submission deadline is Sunday 11/11 at Midnight ET.… Read more

Alarm clock display with one alarm for your Mac

Wake Up Time is a clock app for displaying the time, setting an alarm, and setting custom sounds. Wake Up Time is a fairly simple app in what it does, but it's handy when you want a larger clock display on your device. Wake Up Time installs easily.

The Wake Up Time interface shows an image of a clock radio. Time is shown on a simulation of an LED display. You can set multiple alarms with customizable snooze duration. The sound can be customized to whatever you wish. The free version of Wake Up Time is fairly basic but … Read more

Time Warner offers free Wi-Fi and charging stations to NYC

More help has arrived for mobile device owners in New York without power or Internet access as a result of Hurricane Sandy.

Courtesy of Time Warner Cable, multiple vehicles outfitted with Wi-Fi access points and charging stations headed into areas of New York City as of yesterday. Anyone able to find their way to one of the vehicles could charge their smartphone, tablet, or laptop, and tap into a 4G Wi-Fi connection to get online.

The vehicles will make other stops in Time Warner's service area today. Affected New Yorkers able to access Twitter can see which areas are … Read more

Apple facing FaceTime patent suit

Apple is the latest company to feel the patent infringement pinch from a firm called Intercarrier Communications.

A lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, contends that Apple's FaceTime and Messages apps violate ICC's Patent No. 6,985,748.

The patent in question refers to an "inter-carrier messaging service providing phone number only experience" and describes a method to send messages between different carriers using just a phone number.

ICC has been keeping the patent courts busy lately, according to PatentlyApple. In just the past five days, the company has … Read more

Hurricane Sandy blows down paywalls at NY Times, WSJ

Two major publications have stripped away their paywalls to give consumers unfettered access to up-to-date information on the arrival of Hurricane Sandy.

The New York Times removed its usual paywall on Sunday evening for both its Web site and its apps. Spokesperson Eileen Murphy told Poynter:

The gateway has been removed from the entire site and all apps. The plan is to keep it that way until the weather emergency is over.

The paywall -- which typically prevents users from viewing more than 10 articles for free each month -- has occasionally been removed in the past, when the situation … Read more

Watch: Time-lapse video of Endeavour's final mission

Space shuttle Endeavour's final mission may not have been its most glamorous. Trucking through the streets of Los Angeles certainly counts among the shortest trips for a spacecraft that racked up more than 25 million miles since its first launch in 1986.

But "Mission 26" may be Endeavour's most watched journey. The throngs of people hoping to get one last glimpse of the spacecraft are one of the many elements that make this visually impressive time-lapse video so moving. … Read more

iPhone 5 users complain of date and time bug

iPhone 5 users who subscribe to Verizon now have another bug to add the list.

Posting 21 pages of messages on the Apple Support Communities, a host of owners of the new iPhone say the date and time are often off, sometimes by a day; other times by as many as two weeks. So far, the problem seems specific to Verizon Wireless as many of the people chiming in say they're Verizon subscribers.

"I've had the phone for about two weeks and have noticed the time drifting slowly off by 3-5 minutes, said one person. "Tonight [… Read more