Steve Ballmer recently revealed that he has a secret Twitter account which he uses to "blast out the scores of his kid's high school basketball games." We did a few quick searches and we think we may have found it.

Based on a few old stories we know that Steve's son, Sam, attends Lakeside School in Seattle, so we searched for Twitter accounts announcing scores for that school's basketball games.

There were some accounts which tweeted scores here and there, but there was one which was simply dedicated to one thing and one thing only: LakesideBball.

This particular Twitter account doesn't appear to be affiliated with the school itself, so it would make sense that an athlete's proud parent was behind it.

Possibly Steve himself?

While LakesideBball doesn't follow anyone, it does have a fellow by the name of Sam Ballmer among its followers. I didn't discover any other Sam Ballmer's mentioned on any of Lakeside's sports teams, and this particular one is rather excited about his school winning a game:

He also mentions playing on a team several times:

So, it's pretty reasonable to think that this particular Twitter user is Steve Ballmer's son. (Heck, even Fake Steve Ballmer thinks so and follows him.)

Anyway, between that family connection and the fitting tweets, we're led to believe that LakesideBball is very likely the secret Twitter account Steve Ballmer says he has. Either way, I'm sorry if anyone feels that this spoils a little mystery, but c'mon! Steve teased us with a secret.

Photo by Dot Photo

Two days after a 8.8 magnitude earthquake displaced them from their homes and separated them from dear ones, people gathered at a fire-station in Concepcion, Chile to charge their cellphones—their comfort objects during this disaster.

Chile was becoming a trending topic on Twitter before even the fastest newscasters got a chance to talk about Saturday's earthquake, thanks to many hastily posted Tweets—most of which likely came from mobile devices. Tweets, text messages, emails, calls, voicemails—everything flew across the networks, draining phones and granting people some comfort and peace. Just hearing a familiar voice or reading words of assurance—knowing that your mobile device links you to the world, to family, and to much needed aid—makes one heck of a difference.

We need food. We need medication. We need a hand to pull us out of the rubble. But we also need a little gadget that lets us cry out to the world so that everyone else has a chance to tell us that it'll be ok. [Boston]

Picture by EVARISTO SA/AFP/Getty Images

This video infographic (vinfografic?) by Jesse Thomas runs through a boatload of stats on the internet and just how much happens on it every day. And man, Facebook is huge, guys. [Vimeo via The Daily What]

Apple's plans for cloud computing go beyond music.

The company's representatives have recently spoken with some of the major film studios about enabling iTunes users to store their content on the company's servers, two people familiar with the discussions told CNET. That's in addition to streaming them television shows and music.

Apple has told the studios that under the plan, iTunes users will access video from various Internet-connected devices. Apple would of course prefer that users access video from the iPad, the company's upcoming tablet computer, the sources said. Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr said Apple doesn't comment on rumors or speculation.

The news comes a month after Apple spoke to the major record companies about a similar plan involving music. Apple's vision is to build proverbial digital shelves where iTunes users store their media, said one of the sources. "Basically, they want to eliminate the hard drive," the source said.

By cramming digital songs, videos, and all manner of software applications on computers and handheld devices, there's some indication that consumers are maxing out hard drives, particularly on smaller mobile devices. That's led to speculation among Apple watchers that some consumers might slow their purchasing of new content if they have nowhere to easily put it.

It's a bit of leap to reach that conclusion, certainly when a stagnant economy might be hampering sales, but there are some worrisome signs. The NPD Group reported last week that the number of people who legally downloaded songs dropped by nearly a million, from 35.2 million in 2008 to 34.6 million last year. Screen Digest, a research firm that focuses on the entertainment industry said Monday that growth in movie downloads slowed dramatically in 2009 following sharp increases in the two prior years. Screen Digest had projected that total U.S. online movie sales for 2009 would come in at about $360 million, but the total only reached $291 million, the company said.

Before iTunes users can store their movies and TV shows in Apple's cloud, the company must get the studios to sign on. This may not be easy. The studios want to make sure that whatever Apple plans are friendly to other non-Apple devices and services.

Hollywood isn't interested in any walled gardens, said James McQuivey, a media analyst with Forrester Research.

"The studios are very concerned that they're going to get roped into somebody's proprietary platform," McQuivey said. "They want a world where consumers have a relationship with the content and not with the device or the service. They are in a position to force Apple to go along and make sure that if content bought from iTunes will play on a Nokia phone. That is very un-Apple like.

"Apple would prefer not to do this," McQuivey continued. "But it just doesn't have the leverage it once did. Apple can't dictate terms or position itself as a digital savior."

The reason that Apple doesn't wield the same power over the film and TV industries that it did with music is that there's more players that are willing to give the studios what they want.

The Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE) is a consortum of heaving-hitting media stakeholders lining up to create standards for file formats, digital rights management, and authentication technologies. The group includes Adobe, Best Buy, Cisco, Comcast, Intel, HP, Lionsgate, Fox, Microsoft, Netflix, Panasonic, the four largest recording companies, Samsung, Sony, and Warner Bros. Entertainment.

DECE's goal is to make sure that a movie or TV show bought from Comcast's video service will play on Samsung devices or on Netflix's service.

Not all the studios have joined. Disney has create a DECE-like service called KeyChest, which is supposed to be DECE compatible.

Applying more pressure on Apple is Google, one of its main rivals. Google, obviously, has YouTube. It's also eyeing some start-ups with cloud technology to beef up its streaming services.

Two weeks ago, sources told CNET that Google had informal acquisition talks with Catch Media, a Los Angeles company that wants to become a clearinghouse of sorts, where consumers move media around the Web and Catch handles the permissions and licensing.

So what's Apple's answer to the Google threat? Apple is building a new data center in North Carolina that, according to reports, will be the backbone of its streaming offerings. In December, Apple bought Lala, a struggling music service with an expertise in cloud computing. Google was also trying to acquire the company but Apple outbid them.

The one thing that could help Apple pull away from Google and give it some clout with the studios and TV networks is if iPad catches on with consumers.

The Web-enabled computer tablet, which is due to hit store shelves later this month, features a 9.7-inch display screen and can playback video in up to 720p, the sources said. If consumers start buying video to watch on the iPad, Hollywood could soften its stance on standards. But McQuivey says Apple can't create any proprietary formats at this point.

"Apple can't suddenly make the iPad a closed environment," he said. "Netflix, and Amazon have built apps (for the iPhone) and Apple is not any position to refuse to limit its customers' choices. By pioneering (the apps), Apple is stuck doing what's right for consumers."

In today's Remainders: disappearing acts. TigerText, a new iPhone app, makes your illicit text messages vanish; an official HTC video shows you how to disassemble an HD2; Intel's new Convertible Classroom netbook makes its keyboard go "Poof!" and more.

Grrrr
Incriminating text messages, as a thing, aren't going away any time soon. That is, unless they do go away, which is the whole point of TigerText, a new messaging app for the iPhone and iPod Touch that lets illicit texters set a expiration for date for their messages. After that time texts disappear—Poof!—and your affair continues without a trace. A fine idea for iPhone-wielding slimeballs, but there's one jungle cat-sized catch: both phones need to have TigerText installed for it to function. So while you don't want your spouse to come across naughty texts on your phone, you don't really want them coming across an app designed explicitly for hiding naughty texts either, do you? [Wired]

Colorful
Here's a video showing some nifty (but only nifty) hacks for the Nexus One, and they both involve colors. The first adds a "sexy colors" setting for the little zooming pixels on the phone's default live wallpaper. The other allows you to set the LED notification button to different colors. It definitely looks pretty glowing blue or purple, but it's sort of a one trick pony—let us know when you can set different colors for different notifications. There's no explanation for how to implement the hacks yourself, but if you really want to color in your drab life, you might be able to snag the Twitter names from the video and work backwards to the original Tweets. [Make]

Disassembly
Here we have an "official" video showing you how to disassemble an HD2 step by step (earlier today Apple showed us how to disassemble an HTC step by step). But this official video comes to your computer unofficially, probably by way of some third party repair shop. So it's not the most exciting leak, and it's not the most exciting phone, but it's a nice curiosity nonetheless. [CrunchGear]

Classmates.com
Today Intel showed off its new Convertible Classmate netbook, which lets you swivel its screen to turn the underperforming netbook into a slightly less noticeably underperforming tablet. Folding over the 10.1" touch screen will make it easier to flick through e-books, which are an emphasis in this newest iteration of the machine (Intel released another transforming tablet/netbook combo back in 2008). Intel has their sights set on classrooms in developing countries, hoping the device can serve as both an e-reader and a more fully functioning computer for those students. Whereas the last One Laptop Per Child update showed off a fantasy slate, Intel's new device has a physical keyboard and, you know, the benefit of being real. [PC World]

286 booths, and nary an iPhone in sight. In fact, a lot of the gadgets on display here were first released in 2007. Welcome to CAN InfoTech: the CES of Nepal.

BoingBoing's photo tour of the January conference, held in a country with a near-50% unemployment rate and a per-capita GDP of $1,200, paints a picture of a sort of proto-CES, in which Apple is a new and novel brand, many of the attendees don't have mobile phones, and electric generators are a prime attraction.

I'm not sure why, but I assumed a trade show like this would be inflected with a different feeling. Instead of complaining about ebook reader overload or a crowded trade floor, attendees would glimpse a technological future that a lot of the world lives in, and that they too could one day enjoy. But no: A trade show is a trade show, all the way down the economic scale. It's a way for innovators and hucksters alike to get the word out, for better or for worse, about the thing they're trying to sell right then.

Head over to the source for the full photo set, because it's utterly fascinating, from the 2008-vintage Sony catalog on display to the cellophane-wrapped display laptops. I'll never complain about CES again. (This is a lie.) [BoingBoing]

AT&T's first Android phone, the Backflip, is a smartphone for people who probably wouldn't otherwise buy a smartphone. And for them—and only them—it might just work.

The Price

$100, on a two-year contract with AT&T. As usual, you can expect retailers to beat this price, and soon. (Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised to see the Backflip end up free, or nearly free, within a close timeframe.)

The Theory

It's cute. It's ever so slightly odd. It's, in short, the opposite of what nearly every other Android phone on the market has strived for. But where Motorola's Cliq and Devour had identity issues—the Cliq was unavoidably viewed as Motorola's grand entrance into Android, even though it was a second-tier product; and the Devour suffered from perceptions of downgraded Droid-ness—the Backflip knows what it is, and who it's for: a budget phone, for the masses.

The Hardware

The first thing you notice about the Backflip is the way it unfolds. It's weird! Quite weird! Instead of closing screen-to-keypad, clamshell-style, it closes with the screen and keypad facing outward. (Contortionist-style?) Behind the screen is a hidden trackpad, which does what a trackball or d-pad does on other Android phones.

The advantages, as far as I can tell, number three:

• since the keyboard doesn't have to slide inside of the screen, it's free to take up the entire rear surface
• when the phone is closed, you can still see the screen
• the phone can be propped halfway open, so you can set it down on a table for movie watching.

It's a concept that works if only because the Backflip is fairly compact, just a bit thicker than the iPhone, and smaller in every other way. The rounded outside edges mean the body slides in and out of your pocket with ease, and that it feels even smaller than it is. The keyboard is spacious, and despite its smooth surface and lack of gaps between keys, provides juuuuust enough surface differentiation and feedback to make typing effortlessly fast. The rear trackpad strikes me as a gimmick most of the time, especially since you can only use it when the phone is open, but I will give it some credit—it's no worse than a trackball for most tasks, and for scrolling through long email messages and webpages, I actually prefer it to a Droid-like d-pad.

It's when you drill down past the surface that the Backflip reveals its weaknesses. The touchscreen is resistive, and a bit squishy to the touch. UPDATE: It's capacitive. I mistook the screen's give to mean that it was resistive. Wi-Fi and GPS are all included, but really, how couldn't they be? And that camera, with a 5MP sensor and LED flash, couldn't be classified as better than "good enough," though the fact that it's mounted on the keyboard makes MySpace-style self-portraiture dangerously easy.

The processor is an outdated 528MHz Qualcomm number, and the whole system is propped up, Motoblur and all, by 256MB of RAM. In terms of raw hardware specs, the Backflip is really no better than the Cliq, and more damningly, the G1. If you're the kind of person who snaps up phones from the bleeding edge, the Backflip isn't for you. Just buy a Droid.

The Software

Last I saw Motoblur, Motorola's social networking-centric Android skin, it was on the Motorola Devour, a similarly-placed Android phone on Verizon. I'm not a huge fan of the interface, but I get what it's going for, and who might like it—it makes sense for social networking hounds, even if it's a little clumsy sometimes.

But here's where it gets weird: The Backflip runs Motoblur atop Android 1.5, which means that at its core, its software is older than the G1's. And there's no way around it: This is a bad thing. New Google apps like Google Maps Navigation don't even show up in its App Market, 3rd party apps increasingly won't support it, and Android 1.6+ accoutrements like voice commands just aren't there. Add to that Motoblur's inherent slowness, and you've got a decidedly strained software experience.

This would be a dealbreaker—even for the smartphone noobies the Backflip is targeting—if not for one thing: Though they couldn't give me a timeframe, AT&T tells me that a software upgrade to 2.1 is coming—something which I couldn't confirm for the Devour, which shipped with a slightly more futureproof 1.6. On the one hand, this is reflective of a truly bizarre software and upgrade strategy on Motorola's part; on the other, it means that the Backflip could actually be a buyable phone, for the right user.

The Right User

If you've read through this review and you're feeling flat about the Backflip, that's fine. It's not for you! And honestly, it's not for me. There are objectively more capable phones on other carriers, and soon, probably, on AT&T as well. But if you're not even sure you need a smartphone, plan to spend most of your time texting or on Twitter or Facebook, don't really know about (or care to know about) the newest apps in the Android Market, and aren't bothered by quirks like Motorola's replacement of Google search with Yahoo search, don't count the Backflip out. Just keep in mind what we don't know for sure:

• When exactly to expect the software upgrade to Android 2.1
• That Motoblur on 2.1 will be significantly faster that Motoblur on 1.5 (The enhanced speed of 1.6 on the Devour could be attributed to its fast processor)
• That newer apps in generally will perform well on the Backflip's 528MHz processor
• That AT&T won't release another Android phone that'll instantly nullify the Backflip entirely.

These are some serious caveats for a new phone, to the point that even my tempered recommendation comes with a separate recommendation to wait and see—what Motoblur has in store for Android 2.1, what AT&T has in store for Android, and what retailers have in store for the Backflip's price. To us, the gadget nerds, the phone is basically unbuyable. But Android's future is as much about Backflips as about Nexus Ones—not because the Backflip is comparable to the Google Phone, but because it's not. As an agent from Android's budget future, the AT&T's firstborn gets a lot right.

It's more functional than the messaging/feature phones it's attacking

The backwards folding mechanism is surprisingly functional

Android 2.1 to come

Spacious keyboard

Launch price too high, though it will probably fall

The rear trackpad: great when the phone's unfolded, but useless when it's closed

Ships with Android 1.5

Resistive screen

Underwhelming hardware specs