Google expands Google Glass sales, lets early users invite 3 friends each

Mountain View: Google is relying on a little social networking to put its Internet-connected glasses on the heads of more people. The expanded sales of the device known as Google Glass will come as part of an invitation-only program announced Monday. The roughly 10,000 Glass owners who began testing the device earlier this year will each be allowed to invite up to three people to buy the device. The early Glass users are primarily computer programmers and winners of an online contest conducted earlier this year.

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Growing Up Poor Changes Young Brains

Exposure to poverty in early childhood was associated with smaller brain structures later in life, but nurturing seemed to offset poverty's negative effect, researchers found.

MRI scans showed that impoverished children had smaller white  and gray matter volumes compared with normative values in early adolescence, according to Joan Luby, MD, of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and colleagues.

Poverty was also a significant predictor of left hippocampus volume (P=0.02), and left amygdala volume (P=0.01), they reported online Oct. 28 in JAMA Pediatrics.

The association of poverty with volumes of the right hippocampus and right amygdala only approached statistical significance (P=0.09 for both).

However, supportive parental language during a laboratory task conducted while children were preschool age positively influenced left and right hippocampus volumes later in life.

In addition, stress in a child's life negatively influenced brain development, but only the volume of the right hippocampus.

Regarding the influence of parental education on brain development, researchers found no effect.

"This work adds to our growing awareness that early adversity can powerfully influence human development throughout a life span," wrote Charles A. Nelson, PhD, of Boston Children's Hospital, in an accompanying editorial.

"Exposure to early life adversity should be considered no less toxic than exposure to lead, alcohol, or cocaine, and, as such, it merits similar attention from public health authorities," Nelson concluded.

There is evidence that children exposed to poverty have poorer cognitive skills, but neurobiological data in humans is sparse, Luby and colleagues said.

They investigated the effect of poverty on brain development in a group of children, ages 6 to 12, who were followed since preschool. The 145 children were recruited from a larger group of children who participated in a preschool depression study.

Parents were evaluated annually regarding stress during preschool years. After age 9, both children and parents were interviewed.

The assessment of supportive or hostile parenting was made after evaluating parent/child interactions during a task.

"The finding that the effects of poverty on hippocampal development are mediated through care-giving and stressful life events further underscores the importance of high-quality early childhood care-giving, a task that can be achieved through parenting education and support, as well as through preschool programs that provide high-quality supplementary care-giving and safe haven to vulnerable young children," the authors concluded.

The authors noted limitations of the study including an oversampling of children with depression in the original cohort, the absence of earlier imaging that would have allowed bidirectional mediation modeling, and the absence of more detailed aspects of poverty such as nutrition, parental psychopathology, and genetic factors.

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Teenagers more interested in Twitter than Facebook, study says

Facebook is starting to see a lot less face time.

About 23 percent of 8,650 teenagers surveyed in Piper Jaffray’s 26th Semi-Annual “Taking Stock with Teens” Market Research Project cited Facebook as the most important social media platform, down from 42 percent the year before.

Twitter was cited as the most important.

But Bruce Floyd, UF’s social media specialist, said he’s skeptical about the research provided in the study and needed to examine it before agreeing with the trend.

“What (teenagers) say they like is different from what they use,” he said.

Anna Cesarotti, a 19-year-old UF sociology and sustainability studies sophomore, said she hasn’t had a Facebook account for more than a year.

“I was overwhelmed by Facebook,” she said.

Cesarotti said she felt keeping up with Facebook was too much like maintenance, so she choose to delete her account before starting college.

Although the study shows teen Facebook users are down, some UF students still think there is a need for it to stay connected on campus.

Lizbeth Ramos, an 18-year-old UF exploratory freshman, said she recently reactivated her Facebook after not having one for almost three years because she felt it was necessary for college.

“Everything is done through Facebook,” she said.

Ramos said most of the organizations at UF use Facebook to advertise events, meetings and other information. Without it, she wouldn’t be able to stay up to date.

“I don’t want it to socialize. I want it for school purposes,” she said.

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Firefox Add-On Helps You Find Out Who's Watching You on the Internet

(NEW YORK) -- Most Internet users are aware of the services or sites one can visit or the browsers that can be used to track some browsing habits in one way or another.

Depending on the privacy settings that are enabled, sites and services might monitor clicks to show the user advertisements they might be interested in or collect other data for research.

But Mozilla, the open-source software company that makes the Firefox browser, wants to make it a bit easier for users to visualize what sites and third-party site services might be tracking or watching their Internet activity. Released on Thursday, an add-on for the Firefox browser called Lightbeam shines a light on the eyeballs watching users.

When installed, the user gets an interactive visualization of the sites they visit and around those are a cluster of other services that are tied into those sites. When a person clicks on pieces on the map that looks like a solar system, you more information becomes available about who might be gathering information about the user and their Web habits.

Mozilla officials said they hope the tool brings awareness to Web users about the different third-party plug-ins that are used across sites, but the company is also looking to get a bigger picture view of the Internet and how tracking works.

Of course, that's leads to another question: Is Lightbeam tracking me too? Mozilla offers a very clear toggle that allows you to turn on and off what you contribute to the service.

"You may contribute your data to our crowdsourced directory by simply turning on the share switch within the add-on," the company states on its information page. "To disable crowdsourcing, you can turn it off at any time."

You can download the add-on from here and while you're at it, it might also be a good time to make sure the "do not track" setting is turned on in your browser. In Firefox that can be found under Preferences, Privacy and then selecting the "I do not want to be tracked" setting.

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LG Electronics unveils curved smartphone in race against Samsung

SEOUL: South Korea's LG Electronics Inc unveiled a curved smartphone on Monday in a move to catch up bigger rival Samsung Electronics Co. 

Curved displays and flexible screens are the new battleground for phone makers as the screens open up possibilities that could eventually transform the high-end smartphone market. 

Curved smartphones provide a more comfortable grip than flat-screen models, but the lack of must-have features means they are unlikely to be big consumer hits anytime soon, analysts have said. Manufacturing costs also remain relatively high. 

Both Samsung and LG's curved phones are only available in the South Korean market as they seek to gauge consumer appetite. 

Samsung launched a variant of the popular Galaxy Note earlier this month as the world's first smartphone with a display slightly curved side to side. 

The model launched on Monday by LG Electronics has a vertically curved six-inch display. The company said the phone will be available from next month through South Korea's three mobile carriers. 

Its vertically curved display offers more immersive video watching experience and the phone uses a curved battery to support its form factor, LG said. 

Changing form factors of the battery as well as phone's chip board and other components remain a challenge in achieving flexible devices. 

LG is among a slew of smaller companies struggling to compete against Samsung and Apple Inc, the smartphone leaders that account for almost all the industry's profits. 

LG reported last week an 80 billion won ($75 million) operating loss from its handset division for the third-quarter due to marketing costs surrounding a smartphone launch in August. 

The company plans to increase marketing investment in the current quarter to raise brand awareness in the high-end market, which it hopes will help expand sales later in the mid to lower-end segments. 

Technology analysts and media reports say Apple is also working on a smartwatch, potentially with a curved screen, but there has been no word from the Cupertino California-based company about its plans. 

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