Saudi Women Ready To Defy Driving Ban, Fueled by Social Media

Saudi Arabian women plan to start driving their cars Friday, one month after Manal al-Sherif — a key figure in a social media campaign against a ban on female drivers — was arrested when she posted a YouTube video of herself driving around the city of Khobar.
The mass driving campaign is the result of an online movement that began around two months ago, when Saudi women’s rights activists called for the country’s women to start driving their own cars on June 17.

Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world that prevents women from driving. Though there is no written law on the matter, religious rulings are enforced by the police, which has the same effect as a ban. Women are forced to rely on live-in drivers or male relatives for transportation.
Activists pushed the movement via Facebook, Twitter and other online outlets before some of those accounts were shut down. And al-Sherif was arrested and jailed after her YouTube video (pictured above) hit the web. Al-Sherif was eventually released from a women’s prison after nine days, pledging she would no longer drive nor take part in the Women2Drive initiative.
But online support for the campaign has lived on through copies of earlier Facebook groups. And people in other parts of the world have also taken up the cause. The Honk for Saudi Women viral campaign is one example, featuring videos of women and men from around the world, honking their horns in support of Saudi women who will drive on June 17. The campaign also has a petition on online activism platform Change.org, asking Oprah to make a similar video in a show of support.

Via: Mashable

Vancouver Riots: 8,000+ People Join Cleanup Group on Facebook

Image from yfrog/Lisa Johnson
Soon after the Vancouver Canucks lost game seven of the Stanley Cup hockey series to the Boston Bruins, rioting broke out. As the violence became more intense, we found numerous pictures on photo-sharing sites such as Twitpic and yfrog.
As you can see in the picture above and in the gallery below, a car was set on fire, a truck was flipped over, and when police entered the area of downtown Vancouver with full riot gear, crazed fans were throwing beer bottles and shoes at their plastic shields, according to CTV News.
As the rioting intensified, so did the volume of user content on Twitter and Facebook. Even the Vancouver Police Department used Twitter to express its disappointment, tweeting, “So sad watching our #VPD cars on fire and how quickly people can turn from law abiding to law breaking. #canucksriot.”
SEE ALSO: Vancouver Police Ask the Public for Photo & Video Evidence of RiotersVia Twitter, the VPD also encouraged witnesses of the riot to hold onto their photos and videos so they can later identify suspects in them. On Thursday, the VPD plans to tweet instructions on how to submit photos and videos as evidence.
Some rioters posed for pictures that were subsequently posted on Facebook, which may allow police to catch rioters more easily in the aftermath.

Via: Mashable

“Angry Birds” Hits 1 Million Downloads Per Day

Peter Vesterbacka, the “Mighty Eagle” (read: CEO) of game developer Rovio has announced that the mobile sensation Angry Birds is now downloaded more than 1 million times a day. Vesterbacka spoke about the milestone at the Mobile 2.0 Europe openIDEAS conference.

This is likely welcome news for potential investors as Rovio solidifies plans to go public on the heels of a huge round of funding to the tune of $42 million. The Angry Birds empire is also rapidly expanding beyond the mobile space, hitting web browsers, consoles, board games and toys.
Are you a fan of the game? Has Angry Bird mania gone too far? Leave your reactions in the comments.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Hits US Retailers Tomorrow, TouchWiz UX Coming In Future Software Upgrade

Folks in NYC may have been able to get their hands on one a bit early (not to mention those that attended Google I/O), but everyone else will finally be able to pick up a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 starting tomorrow.

As expected, the WiFi-only Honeycomb tablet will run $499 for the 16GB model and $599 for 32GB at your choice of retailers, and Samsung says it will be available through Sprint in "mid-summer" as well (still just WiFi-only). What's more, Samsung's also promising to deliver a number of new features in a "future software upgrade," including the TouchWiz UX that was originally intended to be included on the tablet, and Samsung's Media Hub, which promises "easier downloads of rented or purchased content" and additional capabilities when the tablet's connected to a TV via a dock or adapter.

Via: Engadget

RIM Announces Q1 Earnings, Says It's Shipped 500,000 PlayBooks

RIM's just announced its Q1 earnings, including $4.9 billion in revenue and $695 million in profit. Perhaps even more anticipated than those numbers, however, are the ones involving actual devices, and the company's now revealed that it "shipped" around 500,000 BlackBerry PlayBooks during the quarter, while phone shipments totaled 13.2 million -- it didn't get specific about actual sales to consumers.

Those earnings are on the low end of forecasts, and RIM says that the slowdown it saw in the first quarter will continue into Q2, which will apparently result in an unspecified number of layoffs and a lowered forecast for the rest of the year. Head on past the break for the official press release, and hit the source link below for some more detailed numbers.

Update: On the earnings call, co-CEO Mike Lazaridis painted a bright future for his company's tablet, but then said, "We're soon to release native email and BBM and our Android player later in the summer, to be followed in the fall with 4G PlayBooks for WiMax, LTE, and HSPA+." Did you catch that? In the fall. We hope this doesn't put a damper on anybody's summer plans.

Via: Engadget