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Reuters - Sony Corp (6758.T) said it would make a
strong push into networked electronics and video delivery
services and aim for the top spot in LCD TVs as the firm looks
to make the most of its hardware and software assets for
growth.
AP - Chief Executive Howard Stringer said Sony Corp. will win back its electronic leadership by improving its Internet-linked gadgets, wiping out losses in video games and TVs and pushing services and software, not just hardware.
 OverTheLimit.info | Microsoft, HTC Announce Mobile Internet Service Platform PC World - Microsoft Taiwan, mobile phone maker High Tech Computer (HTC) and several other companies on Thursday announced a mobile Internet service station in Taiwan called Pl@net. Android vs. iPhone: ‘This is where the pain happens’ Android vs. Symbian open source or Android vs. iPhone 3G |
 eFluxMedia | Gates leaves Microsoft to focus on philanthropy Reuters - By Daisuke Wakabayashi SEATTLE (Reuters) - Sensing the start of a personal computer revolution, Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard University in 1975 to start Microsoft Corp and pursue a vision of a computer on every desk and in every home. Bill Gates Cleans Out His Desk After 30 Years of Innovation IITA to boost banana industry in Africa |
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
 dBTechno | Chrysler Vehicles to Offer Wi-Fi Wall Street Journal - By KEVIN KINGSBURY Mopar, Chrysler LLC's original parts manufacturer and distributor, announced that it will launch a wireless Internet system for Chrysler vehicles in the US, a first for the industry as auto makers try to distinguish themselves in a ... Chrysler to turn cars into hot spots Chrysler vehicles to roll wireless |
 Center For American Progress | Congress hears outcry over laptop grabs United Press International - WASHINGTON, June 26 (UPI) -- Public outcry over airport seizures of laptops and other electronic gear is reportedly spurring US congressional action. Laptop Searches in Airports Draw Fire at Senate Hearing Senators object to laptop searches |
Mars whacked by object bigger than Pluto Register - By Lester Haines → More by this author New data from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Global Surveyor backs a theory that the Red Planet's huge northern hemisphere Borealis basin was created by an impact 3.9bn years ago by a body some ... Astronomers Explain Mars’s Lopsided Shape Huge impact may have divided Mars surface |
Reuters - Video games are known
to improve hand-eye coordination but can they help someone quit
smoking or lose weight?
A trial found that introducing airport-style checks would be impractical and antagonise the public.LinkThe transport minister, Tom Harris, said the public would not accept the resulting delays and there would be objections about personal privacy if an extensive screening regime was introduced.
"Screening equipment and dogs can be effective in the railway environment," said Harris in a written statement to parliament. "However, given the very large passenger flows and thousands of entry points on the UK rail and underground networks, 100% airport-style screening is currently not feasible."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
 NewsOXY | 20 million Firefox 3 downloads in a week, ~4% market share Ars Technica - By Ryan Paul | Published: June 26, 2008 - 07:10AM CT Mozilla's Firefox 3 web browser, which was officially released one week ago, has already been downloaded over 20 million times since the official launch. Review: Strong, innovative Web browsers emerge Web browsers face crisis of security confidence |
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
The thing that Arthur liked best about owning his own shop was that he could stock whatever he pleased, and if you didn't like it, you could just shop somewhere else. So there in the window were four ancient Cluedo sets rescued from a car-boot sale in Sussex; a pair of trousers sewn from a salvaged WWII bivouac tent; a small card advertising the availability of artisanal truffles hand made by an autistically gifted chocolatier in Islington; a brick of Pu'er tea that had been made in Guyana by a Chinese family who'd emigrated a full century previous; and, just as of now, six small, handsomely made books.Link to page 1/2, Link to page 3The books were a first for Arthur. He'd always loved reading the things, but he'd worked at bookshops before opening his own little place in Bow, and he knew the book-trade well enough to stay well away. They were bulky, these books, and low-margin (Low margin? Two-for-three titles actually *lost* money!), and honestly, practically no one read books anymore and what they did read was mostly rubbish. Selling books depressed Arthur.
These little buggers were different, though. He reached into the window -- the shop was so small he could reach it without leaving his stool behind the till -- and plucked one out and handed it to the kid who'd just asked for it. She was about 15, with awkward hair and skin and posture and so on, but the gleam in her eye that said, "Where have you been all my life?" as he handed her the book.
 dBTechno | Panasonic Launches Atom-based Toughbook Mini Laptop PC World - The latest addition to Panasonic's Toughbook line of rugged computers is designed not only to weather dust, water and accidental drops. Panasonic Unveils Rugged UMPC Panasonic unveils the Atom-equipped Toughbook UMPC |
Bottom line: a device designed to be controlled and shut down against its owner's wishes is inherently less secure than a device that is designed to only do the stuff its owner asks of it. This is like the hoary cliche of the accidentally pressed self-destruct button on the spaceship in bad sf movies: wouldn't the spaceship be inherently safer if none of its intentional design outcomes included sudden, catastrophic explosion?
It's comparatively easy to make this work in closed specialized systems -- OnStar, airplane avionics, military hardware -- but much more difficult in open-ended systems. If you think Microsoft's vision could possibly be securely designed, all you have to do is look at the dismal effectiveness of the various copy-protection and digital-rights-management systems we've seen over the years. That's a similar capabilities-enforcement mechanism, albeit simpler than these more general systems.LinkAnd that's the key to understanding this system. Don't be fooled by the scare stories of wireless devices on airplanes and in hospitals, or visions of a world where no one is yammering loudly on their cellphones in posh restaurants. This is really about media companies wanting to exert their control further over your electronics. They not only want to prevent you from surreptitiously recording movies and concerts, they want your new television to enforce good "manners" on your computer, and not allow it to record any programs. They want your iPod to politely refuse to copy music a computer other than your own. They want to enforce their legislated definition of manners: to control what you do and when you do it, and to charge you repeatedly for the privilege whenever possible.
 Earthtimes (press release) | Read all 'Studio 17' posts in Crave CNET News - It sure is hard to keep a secret in this industry. After leaks, leaks, and more leaks, Dell has officially announced the new Studio line of laptops, sitting somewhere between the budget Inspiron line and high-end XPS line. Dell Launches Studio Laptop Line for Consumers Dell Studio 15 |
 Computerworld | Open Source Nokia a Threat ... InternetNews.com - By opening up the dominant wireless OS, Nokia aims to undermine both Windows Mobile devices and emerging rivals like Android. How will it fare? Nokia will buy Symbian, but doesn't want to control it The State of Open Mobile OSes |
 Half Life Source | Google Sued Over Apps E-mail Migration Tool PC World - A small Chicago-based software company is accusing Google of ripping off a tool it developed that allows Microsoft Outlook e-mail users to shift over to Gmail. Google sued for $1B on IP theft allegations Suit accuses Google of trade secret theft |
AP - Sony says it will start a movie download service for its PlayStation 3 home console this summer in the U.S.
Yesterday at Boing Boing Gadgets, everyone forgot to do "Today at Boing Boing Gadgets" because they were too busy playing with Syd Mead's Blade Runner LEGO car. Ebullience, however, was deflated by Kanye West threatening to cap our asses with his MacBook Air. So we reported on serious news for a spell: we looked at the possibility of third-party Xbox 360s, the planned obsolescence of JVCs newest HDTVs with built-in iPod docks and discovered that expensive lithium batteries are more cost-effective than cheap alkalines.
Also in the news: Ubuntu is released for mobile internet devices. iTunes must not, repeat, must not be used as a weapon of mass destruction. A pair of vacuum cleaner house shoes. Ring tones only dogs can hear. A $100,000, sensory-depriving egg for your solipsistic gaming pleasure. Electric vehicles coming to the UK en masse. GLaDOS releases a wacky Falcon controller. Operation: key-chain edition!
Also, always remember: YOUR REPORT MATTER to Yahoo!
AP - The Nintendo DS isn't just fun and games anymore for English students at Tokyo's Joshi Gakuen all-girls junior high school. The portable video game console is now being used as a key teaching tool, breaking with traditional Japanese academic methods.
AP - Within the rumbling, stumbling hunk of junk that is WALL-E beats the sweetest, warmest heart a robotic representation of humanity's highest potential.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
MOD is a fascinating examination of the UFO subculture’s sinister underbelly. Vallee considers the ways that the UFO mystery can be manipulated by those seeking to exert psychological and psychosocial control over marginal elements of society, and falls prey himself to the kind of controlled paranoia experienced by Robert Anton Wilson in his own Cosmic Trigger. Thirty years down the line we can see that Vallee was absolutely spot on with some of the concerns he expressed in MOD: amongst the groups he investigated were Bo and Peep, the ‘Mysterious Two’ who went on to lead the Heaven’s Gate suicides two decades later.Jacques Vallée's Messengers of Deception on Amazon, Messengers of Deception at Further
Starting July 1, talking on your cellphone while driving in California is not only dumb and dangerous -- it's also illegal. Illegal, that is, if you hold the phone up to your ear. So instead of getting pinched by Smokey this summer, enlist a Bluetooth headset as your driving partner.
And to the drivers in other states that don't already have hands-free laws, don't be embarrassed to snatch up one of these headsets too -- people have already seen you picking your nose in the car.
Nokia BH-703
Silky futuristic looks? Check. Tiny form factor? Oh yeah. But what's this? Touch sensitive controls on a Bluetooth headset? No frakking way! These might be knee-weakening features, but it was the BH-703's functionality that sold us. We were smitten by its slightly more than five hours of crystal-quality talk time, plus noise cancellation that kept us gabbing through San Francisco's noisy streets (even while traversing a construction area that sounded more like a war zone). But smoothly sliding our fingers up and down the headset to control the volume? Nothing but Bluetooth badassery.
WIRED Awesome looks paired with solid performance. Fast charge time at 53 minutes. Syncs quickly and easily with every phone we threw at it. Great call quality and noise-canceling performance across dirty air and noisy environments. Stealthy multifunction key allows access to voice dialing, redial, answer/end. Comes bundled with three different sized earpieces and the most functional lanyard we've seen in years.
TIRED Included earloop is surprisingly flimsy. Great for voice, but terrible for music. Tackling advanced functions via the single multifunction key takes some practice. Not quite secure enough for jogging, or other physical activities.
$100, nokia.com
Aliph 'New' Jawbone
When the original Jawbone hit the market at the end of 2006, it was the best-sounding Bluetooth headset in the world, with noise-cancellation that made all our calls clearer and easier to understand. Unfortunately, many folks couldn't get the bulky unit to fit quite right, even with the myriad ear pieces and loops included.
The new version of the Jawbone eliminates those fit issues -- for me at least. Within two minutes, I had the right size earpiece, and the correct over-ear loop to keep it locked to my cheek -- a requirement for the proper function of the noise-cancellation. One big help is that the Jawbone has shed a ton of weight and size, now tipping the scales at just 10 grams. It's also 50 percent smaller than the first version.
Call quality is still as good as it gets with a Bluetooth headset, which is to say good but not great. The noise cancellation is supposedly better, but people on the other end of our calls couldn't tell a difference between the two models. The industrial design is once again handled by Yves Behar, but we were split on our opinions -- some of us thought that it was sleeker and a little more elegant, but others found it a little cheesy looking.
WIRED Great sound. Serious upgrade in wearability, even with fewer options. Doesn't weigh you down like the older model. Easiest syncing headset ever; starts up in pairing mode the first time you turn it on.
TIRED Still relies on a proprietary power connector -- and it isn't the same as the first model, either. Design cues are a little bit Gucci for some wearers (especially Wired geeks). A quick spin through the manual is a must to understand how to operate its invisible buttons.
$130, jawbone.com
Samsung WEP700
Is two always better than one? If we're talking double-necked guitars, then the answer is clearly "hell yes." However, Samsung's dual-microphoned WEP700 headset barely makes it to the bridge. Samsung gussied up this affordable headset with a laundry list of noise- and echo-canceling tech, but even bonuses like automatic volume control weren't enough to prevent periodic earfuls of static. Sure, it mustered passable performance in some of our favorite noisy environments (i.e., our favorite karaoke pub). But at its core the WEP700 is still what we've come to expect from Samsung's lineup -- decent performance wrapped up in design that puts us to sleep faster than hitting a snooze button.
WIRED Fits comfortably on lefties, righties and the bespectacled. Stays juiced for a traffic-ticket-saving six hours. Flexible earloop included. Crisp call quality in most indoor settings. Standard multifunction-button functions (receive/end, hold, mute, voice dial, redial).
TIRED Frustratingly tiny volume buttons. Digital signal noise canceling: great for voices, terrible for everything else. Ships with only one earpiece cover. Can't turn off the automatic volume control. Distractingly bright LED status light.
$50, samsung.com
Motopure H12
What's pure about Motorola's Motopure H12 headset? Just the mediocrity. Okay, we'll come clean: The diamond-cut metal accents and sleek desktop charger are aces -- we were enamored by them immediately. Even Motorola's promise of its dual microphone-fueled CrystalTalk technology made us perk up. Then we fired up this otherwise comfy headset and our world came crashing down. Not only was static the norm, but the noise canceling seemed to be AWOL. From packed restaurants to rush-hour traffic our experience was the same -- muddy audio and confusingly echo-filled phone calls. But on the bright side, the H12 made us look awfully cool while repeatedly shouting "What?!" in crowed spaces.
WIRED Awesome ergonomics and looks. Includes three different sized inserts for the Dumbo-eared. Large, easy to reach multifunction button. Automatically kicks into low-power mode. Charging cradle doubles as a carrying case. Earhook is more maneuverable than Luke Skywalker's X-Wing.
TIRED Noise canceling is a joke. Priced for looks, not performance. Dismal four-hour battery life. Surprisingly crappy range. Snap, crackle, pop goes the audio.
$80, motorola.com
Starting July 1, talking on your cellphone while driving in California is not only dumb and dangerous -- it's also illegal. Illegal, that is, if you hold the phone up to your ear. So instead of getting pinched by Smokey this summer, enlist a Bluetooth headset as your driving partner.
And to the drivers in other states that don't already have hands-free laws, don't be embarrassed to snatch up one of these headsets too -- people have already seen you picking your nose in the car.
Nokia BH-703
Silky futuristic looks? Check. Tiny form factor? Oh yeah. But what's this? Touch sensitive controls on a Bluetooth headset? No frakking way! These might be knee-weakening features, but it was the BH-703's functionality that sold us. We were smitten by its slightly more than five hours of crystal-quality talk time, plus noise cancellation that kept us gabbing through San Francisco's noisy streets (even while traversing a construction area that sounded more like a war zone). But smoothly sliding our fingers up and down the headset to control the volume? Nothing but Bluetooth badassery.
WIRED Awesome looks paired with solid performance. Fast charge time at 53 minutes. Syncs quickly and easily with every phone we threw at it. Great call quality and noise-canceling performance across dirty air and noisy environments. Stealthy multifunction key allows access to voice dialing, redial, answer/end. Comes bundled with three different sized earpieces and the most functional lanyard we've seen in years.
TIRED Included earloop is surprisingly flimsy. Great for voice, but terrible for music. Tackling advanced functions via the single multifunction key takes some practice. Not quite secure enough for jogging, or other physical activities.
$100, nokia.com
Aliph 'New' Jawbone
When the original Jawbone hit the market at the end of 2006, it was the best-sounding Bluetooth headset in the world, with noise-cancellation that made all our calls clearer and easier to understand. Unfortunately, many folks couldn't get the bulky unit to fit quite right, even with the myriad ear pieces and loops included.
The new version of the Jawbone eliminates those fit issues -- for me at least. Within two minutes, I had the right size earpiece, and the correct over-ear loop to keep it locked to my cheek -- a requirement for the proper function of the noise-cancellation. One big help is that the Jawbone has shed a ton of weight and size, now tipping the scales at just 10 grams. It's also 50 percent smaller than the first version.
Call quality is still as good as it gets with a Bluetooth headset, which is to say good but not great. The noise cancellation is supposedly better, but people on the other end of our calls couldn't tell a difference between the two models. The industrial design is once again handled by Yves Behar, but we were split on our opinions -- some of us thought that it was sleeker and a little more elegant, but others found it a little cheesy looking.
WIRED Great sound. Serious upgrade in wearability, even with fewer options. Doesn't weigh you down like the older model. Easiest syncing headset ever; starts up in pairing mode the first time you turn it on.
TIRED Still relies on a proprietary power connector -- and it isn't the same as the first model, either. Design cues are a little bit Gucci for some wearers (especially Wired geeks). A quick spin through the manual is a must to understand how to operate its invisible buttons.
$130, jawbone.com
Samsung WEP700
Is two always better than one? If we're talking double-necked guitars, then the answer is clearly "hell yes." However, Samsung's dual-microphoned WEP700 headset barely makes it to the bridge. Samsung gussied up this affordable headset with a laundry list of noise- and echo-canceling tech, but even bonuses like automatic volume control weren't enough to prevent periodic earfuls of static. Sure, it mustered passable performance in some of our favorite noisy environments (i.e., our favorite karaoke pub). But at its core the WEP700 is still what we've come to expect from Samsung's lineup -- decent performance wrapped up in design that puts us to sleep faster than hitting a snooze button.
WIRED Fits comfortably on lefties, righties and the bespectacled. Stays juiced for a traffic-ticket-saving six hours. Flexible earloop included. Crisp call quality in most indoor settings. Standard multifunction-button functions (receive/end, hold, mute, voice dial, redial).
TIRED Frustratingly tiny volume buttons. Digital signal noise canceling: great for voices, terrible for everything else. Ships with only one earpiece cover. Can't turn off the automatic volume control. Distractingly bright LED status light.
$50, samsung.com
Motopure H12
What's pure about Motorola's Motopure H12 headset? Just the mediocrity. Okay, we'll come clean: The diamond-cut metal accents and sleek desktop charger are aces -- we were enamored by them immediately. Even Motorola's promise of its dual microphone-fueled CrystalTalk technology made us perk up. Then we fired up this otherwise comfy headset and our world came crashing down. Not only was static the norm, but the noise canceling seemed to be AWOL. From packed restaurants to rush-hour traffic our experience was the same -- muddy audio and confusingly echo-filled phone calls. But on the bright side, the H12 made us look awfully cool while repeatedly shouting "What?!" in crowed spaces.
WIRED Awesome ergonomics and looks. Includes three different sized inserts for the Dumbo-eared. Large, easy to reach multifunction button. Automatically kicks into low-power mode. Charging cradle doubles as a carrying case. Earhook is more maneuverable than Luke Skywalker's X-Wing.
TIRED Noise canceling is a joke. Priced for looks, not performance. Dismal four-hour battery life. Surprisingly crappy range. Snap, crackle, pop goes the audio.
$80, motorola.com
"Is this interesting to Google?" That's what Andy Rubin was asking Larry Page. It was a spring day in 2005, and the two were in a conference room just off the main lobby at Google's headquarters. A simple yes and Rubin would have walked away happy.
They had met three years before, when Rubin was about to launch a smartphone he'd invented called the Sidekick. At the time, Google was just an up-and-comer, trailing AOL and even Lycos in traffic. But Rubin, a well-known Silicon Valley player, chose Google as the Sidekick's default search engine. Page was flattered by the unexpected endorsement. So when Rubin called out of the blue and requested this meeting, well, Page couldn't say no.
The Google cofounder arrived late, as usual. Rubin walked to the whiteboard and began his pitch. There were nearly 700 million cell phones sold each year compared with fewer than 200 million PCs — and the gap was widening. Increasingly, he said, phones were the way people wanted to connect with each other and with everything else. Yet the mobile industry was stuck in the dark ages. Unlike the Web, where open standards had fostered a multitude of cool companies and applications, mobile was a tyrannical, closed system, repelling all innovators and disrupters who tried to gain entrance.
Rubin said his startup, called Android, had the solution: a free, open source mobile platform that any coder could write for and any handset maker could install. He would make his money by selling support for the system — security services, say, or email management. Android would have the spirit of Linux and the reach of Windows. It would be a global, open operating system for the wireless future.
Rubin didn't want money from Page. He already had funding. What he wanted was Google's imprimatur — even an email from Page would do. Rubin figured he could attract more VC funds with the search giant on board, possibly with a hint that Google might be interested in developing its own branded phone. He pulled out a prototype.
Page picked up the device. He had been personally frustrated yet fascinated by the mobile market for years. He already knew the numbers — he didn't need Rubin to tell him how many PCs and mobile phones were out there. He also knew that it added up to a massive problem for Google.
The desktop metaphor was fading. Phones were going to replace PCs as the main gateway to the Internet, and they were going to do it soon. Why would consumers tether themselves to a PC when phones were growing more and more powerful — and were cheaper, too?
But because cell phones ran on different software, had less memory, and operated under the constraints of pay-per-byte wireless networks, the mobile Web was a stripped-down, mimeographed version of the real thing. Reading and surfing and — more to the point — viewing Google ads was a slow, stultifying chore. Even worse, a second-class Web could derail Google's grand strategy. The company was trying to worm its way deeper into users' lives by hosting applications and personal files on Google servers, then dishing them out to the always-connected consumer whenever and wherever needed. That was easy on PCs, but phones didn't play nice with the cloud. Google dominated the Web today, but tomorrow might be a different story.
Working the problem had been a nightmare. Google engineers had a closet overflowing with mobile phones to test the company's wireless applications — mobile Google, Blogger, search over SMS. There were dozens of operating systems to navigate, a mobile Tower of Babel completely at odds with the easy access and universal language of the Web.
What worried Page most was that the only firm from the PC world that seemed to be successfully navigating the mobile labyrinth was Microsoft, one of Google's biggest rivals. The Windows Mobile platform had less than 10 percent of the US smartphone market, but it was growing fast. Microsoft's system, however, was the ugly stepsister of what Rubin was proposing: Redmond executives cared less about opening up the Net to mobile users than about tying the mobile operating system into its desktop dominance. A decade ago, Microsoft had underestimated the growth of the Web and then lost control of it to Google. Now it looked like it was Google's turn to be caught flat-footed.
If Google had it bad, users had it worse. Every year since 2002, the wireless sector managed to place at or near the top of the Better Business Bureau's tally of the most complained-about industries. Americans would rather do business with a used-car salesman or a collection agent than with a customer service rep for, say, T-Mobile or Motorola. And who could blame them? The plans were expensive, pricing was complex and capricious, and the phones never lived up to expectations. Constant innovation, the first principle of Page and Rubin's world, was anathema to phone companies. There had to be pent-up demand out there for something better.
So was Rubin's pitch interesting to Page? Absolutely. But he didn't want to stick his logo on Rubin's phone. Or write a supportive email. He had a better idea: Google would buy Android.
Rubin was floored. He had come in looking for an encouraging word and left with the biggest payday in his life. (The eventual purchase price was estimated at as much as $50 million.) Now all he had to do was live up to his own hype.
"Google's model is to build a killer app, then monetize it later," Rubin says. We're sitting in another conference room across the street from where he and Page struck their deal three years ago. The building, which houses Google's mobile division, is Rubin's domain now. There's a self-piloting model helicopter bearing an Android logo parked in the hall — Rubin builds them in his spare time. Beyond are floors of people who think of nothing but the cellular future of their employer. In the lobby, a flatscreen TV shows a spinning globe with animated flares erupting wherever people are using Google to search from their mobile phones. This fall, when the first Android phones hit the market, those flares will presumably flame even higher.
Rubin is tall and skinny and a casual dresser even by Google standards. He's 45 but seems younger. Sitting with one leg tucked beneath him, he explains the mission of the Googlefied Android to me, but I barely follow the words. I'm staring at his phone. It's clearly a demo — black, scuffed, covered with fingerprints; most of the face is taken up by the screen. Rubin absentmindedly slides it around the big wooden table, then picks it up and shifts it from hand to hand. It's maddening. All I want to do is get a closer look at his killer app.
After Google bought Android in July 2005, Silicon Valley pulsed with gossip and speculation about what the search giant was planning. Everyone figured Apple had a phone in the works and assumed Google must be developing one too. Rubin and his cofounders, Rich Miner, Nick Sears, and Chris White, weren't talking. "Trying to guess Google's next move recently replaced digging through Steve Jobs' garbage ... at the top of our weekend activities list," wrote tech blog Engadget. When Apple unveiled the iPhone last summer, expectations for a gPhone — could it be called anything else? — grew even more feverish.
But when Google finally broke its silence in early November, there was nothing about a gPhone. Instead, there was a press release. Thirty-four companies — firms like Texas Instruments, Intel, T-Mobile, and Sprint Nextel — were joining Google to build a wireless interface based on open source Linux software. The group dubbed itself the Open Handset Alliance. Competitors sighed in relief. This was how Google planned to shake up the nearly trillion-dollar global wireless market? A consortium?
"Their efforts are just some words on paper," remarked Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, at a conference in Japan. "Another Linux platform," shrugged the CEO of Symbian, the dominant smartphone operating system outside the US.
A week later, Google upped the ante. The company put a free Android software developer's kit on its Web site and announced the Developer Challenge, with $10 million in prize money to be parceled out to the creators of the best applications for the new system — a great social networking tool, say, or a handwriting recognition program. The Challenge was an open call; anyone was invited to take a shot.
Those hoping for a new gadget to rival the iPhone finally understood that Google had something radically different in mind. Apple's device was an end in itself — a self-contained, jewel-like masterpiece locked in a sleek protective shell. Android was a means, a seed intended to grow an entire new wireless family tree. Google was never in the hardware business. There would be no gPhone — instead, there would be hundreds of gPhones.
|
Nearly any new phone will be able to run Android (HTC, LG, and Motorola have dedicated models on the way). But the OS is just the start; the phone evolves as users add apps from indie developers to take advantage of the seamless Web access.
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Cooking Capsules
Displays cooking videos and ingredient lists, then uses the phone's location awareness to find the nearest grocery store. Now you're cooking with GPS. |
Android Scan
When users snap a shot of a bar code, the app pulls up reviews and price comparisons from across the Web. If you're shopping for music, it'll find online samples. |
Commandro
A GPS-enhanced social networking app that lets you map and track your friends in real time while using the IM function to plan impromptu meet-ups on the go. |
Tunewiki
A karaoke-style music app that syncs lyrics from its server to your tunes. Users crowdsource the process by tapping the screen to "teach" the program where each line goes. |
HTC, Motorola, and LG all announced plans to market new Android phones in a multitude of shapes and sizes, each with different software options. Android was a fully customizable system. Any application could be removed or swapped out for another. Even the few programs that Google was creating from scratch — an email app, a contacts manager — could be replaced with third-party software that did the same thing. Google didn't care how any individual model was pimped out as long as the hidden Android DNA was there underneath, keeping everything tied to the Internet and running smoothly.
The company's theory was that if you make browsing by phone easy and fun, people will use it just like a desktop browser, with Google search as the main port of entry. Christmas Day 2007 offered Google proof that the strategy could work. That morning, people unwrapped their iPhones, powered them up, clicked on the easy-to-use Safari browser — and pointed to Google. In 24 hours, the iPhone, which accounted for fewer than 5 percent of all smartphones worldwide, drove more traffic to Google than any other mobile device. If Apple could generate that much business for Google, surely Google could do even better for itself. CEO Eric Schmidt, a BlackBerry man at heart, was initially skeptical about teaming up with Rubin. But once he embraced the idea of Android, he did it with a convert's zeal. "That is the re-creation of the Internet. That is the re-creation of the PC story," Schmidt told business leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos a month after Christmas. "And it will happen in the next year."
Rubin finally turns on the battered phone and launches Google Maps. "So, here we are," he says, moving the satellite image of San Francisco by dragging one finger along the screen. "This is the Embarcadero. I can manipulate it. I can zoom." He taps to focus in on a street view of a truck's license plate, then clicks to a new application. "Let's see, let's go to a music player. I can go to Artist here and get my list of — oops, it says the SD card is missing."
He squints into the tiny card slot. "Hmm, it's there. Looks like I have a little bit of a bug." He shrugs, taps on an icon to go to the browser, and checks out CNN.com. It looks good — a small but fully functional version of the Web site. Back when he and Page were first talking, this would have been amazing. But now, with the iPhone and other enhanced smartphones out there? No big deal. A minute later the battery dies.
He pockets the phone and finishes up. I can't help feeling a little disappointed. This is the phone Page is making his big bet on? In Google's regular line of business, the strategy has always been to unveil innovative, occasionally flawed products — like Google Docs — then keep them in beta for months or years. But people don't want to buy a phone in beta. Android products have to work right from the start. Is this really the phone that's going to change everything?
It was Dan Morrill's first time out of the country, and that made him a little nervous. But as he gathered his bags in the Munich airport on a surprisingly warm January morning earlier this year, after the last leg of a long, exhausting flight from San Francisco, he looked up to see a Paul Bunyan-sized BMW grill fixed to the wall. If you're looking for engineers, he thought, there are worse places to go than a city that welcomes you with an oversize Beemer.
Surf once a week or less
Surf a few times a week
Surf once a day or more
Morrill is a software engineer turned "developer advocate." He's a roving evangelist to the coder world. But that's just his cover. Morrill's real mission is to make sure Android triggers a full-on network effect — that mystical melding of passion and self-interest that fueled the growth of behemoths like eBay and Facebook. Google wants developers to build cool programs that can draw huge numbers of users, creating an expanding market that attracts more developers to build more cool programs to attract more users. If the $10 million prize is the spark, Morrill's job is to make sure there's ignition. Google had dispatched him to Germany to meet with a small group of local mobile programmers.
The morning of his talk, Morrill dresses in his usual uniform, an untucked button-down over a silk-screened T-shirt, this one with the image of a friendly green robot, the Android icon. He walks into the conference room of the Innside Hotel and stops. There are almost 200 people, more than twice what he expected. A dozen developers are sitting on the floor in the back of the room, computers propped on their knees. There are hobbyists, chief technical officers, indie programmers, and students.
Morrill runs through his prepared remarks then starts taking questions. They want to know about Android programming, of course, but they also ask why Google is doing this, what the company's expectations are, and what the criteria will be for awarding the prize money. At one point, hotel management shows up to warn Morrill that the size of the gathering violates the fire code.
The virus was spreading. At an event the next day in Israel, the local Google office had to switch locations to handle the overflow crowd. In London, registration for the developer's conference filled up in two hours. Fanboys were putting up sites for the platform: AndroidGuys, Phandroid, Planet Android. In Thailand, the government carved out an entire floor of Software Park — a federally funded business incubator housed in a skyscraper north of Bangkok — for Android development work. In Japan, quickie books on Android programming were appearing in major bookstores. In Chennai, India, attendees at a Nokia developer conference compared notes on Android's coding kit during the presentations.
As soon as programmers started playing with the emulator, they saw how big Google's ambitions were. The company was trying to make programming for a cell phone analogous to programming for a PC or the Web. Coders were told that their applications would have constant access to the Net, not the usual mobile hurry-up-and-wait feel. Working with the cloud — enabling programs to push or pull info to or from the Web — was a must. All Android phones would know where they were at all times, either by tapping into onboard GPS or by cross-referencing cell towers using a proprietary database owned by Google. And applications would be allowed to share information, which at the simplest level meant the kind of copy-and-paste functionality across all programs that cell phones currently lack.
Even better, at least in a developer's eyes, the Android team had violated an essential tenet of the wireless industry: that users are too dumb and dangerous to be trusted with downloadable software. Engineers who write for just about any mobile operating system today have to spend time and cash obtaining security keys and code-signing certificates. Android would allow any application to be installed and run, no questions asked.
By the April 14 deadline for the first round of the Developer Challenge, Google had received nearly 1,800 submissions. Entrants ranged from huge corporations to single-person shops and came from all over the world. Only a third were from the US.
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Among the contact management systems and shopping tools, there were applications that truly fulfilled Android's promise, particularly in their use of location awareness, social networking, and cloud computing. One developer offered up Jamdroid, a program that you turn on in your car to feed real-time traffic data to a central server; the info is then compiled and beamed to other Jamdroid users, crowdsourcing road conditions. LifeAware tracks friends or family, plotting them on a map and alerting the user when, say, a kid leaves a preset area. E-ventr mashes up evites and Google Maps to organize parties on the fly. BreadCrumbz lets you share photo-enhanced driving and walking routes with the world. Already, Android has half as many outside applications as RIM's BlackBerry platform and about 10 percent the number offered for Windows Mobile at Handango, a leading application download site — and that's still months before it launches.
No wonder Rubin seemed so unconcerned with the faulty prototype he showed me back in Mountain View: It was just a framework waiting to be filled out by others. Google will supply the basic starter apps, but Android's secret weapon is really the network effect.
Among developers there is a giddy sense that Android is ushering in Web 2.0 to the barely 0.5 world of mobile. But it won't take much to stop the movement. If manufacturers like Motorola and HTC put out lousy phones, Android suffers. If carriers like AT&T and Verizon Wireless block the gates to their networks, Android fails.
"Working with partners is not easy, and the operating system is just a part of it," says Scott Rockfeld, group product manager for Microsoft's Mobile Communications Business. "It seems like Google's strategy is 'Just get something out there so we can put our services on top.' Well, very quickly they're going to see that mobile operators don't want to be dumb pipes and that manufacturers want to differentiate their phones."
Windows Mobile is now installed on 140 devices, hosted by 160 carriers around the world. Key to its success was Microsoft's ability to use its desktop domination as a battering ram. Businesses wanted seamless integration between their office-based email and mobile phones, and by offering that, Microsoft was able to challenge the BlackBerry. "Google is just trying to copy our model," adds Rockfeld. (Not that Microsoft isn't a bit unnerved. Earlier this year, it bought Rubin's old company, Danger, for $500 million. Steve Ballmer now owns the Sidekick, just in case.)
Google says it has learned the rules of the game — sometimes the hard way. Not long ago, the company enhanced its mobile version of Picasa, a photo-editing, storage, and slide-show service, so users could instantly upload images from their camera phone. Google took it to a phone company for placement but couldn't get the necessary sign-off. The service, which was free, would have competed with a similar proprietary offering the carrier was rolling out — and charging $10 a month for. The idea of instant mobile uploading to Picasa was quietly shelved.
This time Google is going out of its way to assuage the fears of potential partners and pay the necessary fealties. The cockiness that marked its relationships in the past has been replaced by at least the appearance of empathy and cooperation. When one chipmaker got cold feet at the idea of having some of its code open-sourced, Rubin immediately called senior executives to talk over the benefits. Then he had his top engineer, Brian Swetland, sit down with the chipmaker's attorneys and engineers to work out solutions. "You have to very carefully figure out how to help them help you do the right thing," Swetland says.
Rubin has a well-rehearsed spiel for the handset makers, too. They fear losing their individual identities. Rubin counters that Android will liberate them from having to spend valuable resources managing and maintaining vast amounts of code. Instead, they can concentrate on phone design and proprietary apps (which Google's open source license allows).
You can imagine heads nodding in boardrooms as Rubin finishes his talk — he gets us! — and in fact it has worked pretty well. HTC, an upstart Taiwanese handset maker that is closely tied to Windows Mobile, has built a 200-person engineering team to focus on Android. Motorola has gone a step further. The company's handset business, slated to be spun off, is on life-support, and it's counting on Android for a comeback. It has assigned its top designers — the people who crafted the Razr — to create new must-have models. Engineers from Good Technology, the BlackBerry competitor Motorola purchased in 2006, are now writing applications for Android. For Motorola, Android has to work.
"The handset makers are on a treadmill, trying to turn out hardware every six months that's innovative and thinner, with bigger displays and lower costs, while having to do the systems integration," Rubin says. "The net result is no innovation. They don't have time. You know what? We make really good software. We can take on all that work."
Convincing the big carriers — that's been the tougher task. For them, Rubin is offering Android's unbeatable price: free. Software normally makes up about 20 percent of the cost of a phone. The service providers will be able to pocket the savings or use lower-priced handsets to get more consumers hooked on smartphones, increasing the number of lucrative wireless-data plans. Plus, Rubin insists that the Android software will take the limits of the carriers' networks into consideration. "We have to be conscious of the cost they incurred to purchase the air," he says. "So we don't want to use too much data. We have to constantly think about how we can give users a great experience without wasting the spectrum."
So far, Android has been able to persuade only T-Mobile and Sprint Nextel to join the Open Handset Alliance. Neither is a surprise: T-Mobile partnered with Rubin on the Sidekick, and as one of the smaller carriers it's more willing to take risks. Sprint, suffering from massive consumer churn and almost junk-rated debt, seems game for anything that might help. But the two biggest players, Verizon Wireless and AT&T, have passed. "There wasn't anything viable we were willing to entertain," says Verizon Wireless spokesperson Jeffrey Nelson. This spring, the carrier even backed an Android competitor, an open source consortium called the LiMo Foundation.
And why would a network operator join Android's cause? Android — like the iPhone — will hasten the day when phone companies become nothing more than dumb pipes to deliver data. If it manages to turn the cell phone into a perfect tool for surfing and cloud computing, with voice as just another cool app, then the only things left to differentiate one carrier from another are which has the most towers and which the cheapest unlimited data plans. Android's decision to let anyone make add-ons and applications is also a threat. Today, developers who want to have their application on an AT&T phone have to fork over a chunk of their revenue while meeting stringent security requirements. (Apple has copied this model: Jobs & Co. will skim 30 percent off all sales of iPhone apps, which will be available only through Apple.) Under Android rules, everyone's their own boss.
No big carrier is going to hand over its network to Google for nothing. And if Google doesn't show up on the two biggest networks, which together control 54 percent of the US wireless market, it might as well not show up at all.
There is, however, one incentive that Google can still offer that might bring the carriers around: access to its advertising mother lode, expected this year to top $16 billion. The chance for a taste of Google gold has lured competitors like AOL, Ask .com, and potentially even Yahoo into partnership deals. Mobile advertising is expected to grow from more than $1.7 billion in 2007 to $12.8 billion in 2011. If Google can translate its Web dominance into the mobile arena, who wouldn't want to partner with it? (Google says it can't comment on future ad-sharing deals.)
"You have a significant challenge in mobile, in that the screens are much smaller, so you can't display nearly as much advertising or take as much space," Google cofounder Sergey Brin told Wall Street analysts on a recent conference call. "On the other hand, you have much more relevant and timely information, like what location the person might be in, so on balance that leaves me quite optimistic."
Telecom consultant Chetan Sharma says that Android's success depends on Google's willingness to share the wealth. "What's the relationship going to be between Google and the carriers in terms of advertising dollars?" he asks. "That needs to be nailed down before we know how big Android can be."
And if the carrot doesn't work, Google also wields a pretty hefty stick: more than $12 billion in cash that it can use either to force the carriers to open their gates or to launch a competitive wireless network of its own. In early 2008, the company bid $4.7 billion to buy up prime 700-MHz spectrum in an FCC auction. Google lost to Verizon Wireless but drove the price high enough to trigger a rule requiring the spectrum's new owners to allow access to nearly any device. (Google is now furiously lobbying the FCC to make a reluctant Verizon Wireless live up to the rules.)
In May, Google committed $500 million to bankroll Clearwire, a national WiMax system with partners that include Intel, Comcast, and Time Warner Cable. Any device, including Android phones, will be able to use the high-speed wireless network, cutting the carriers out of the picture. "You need something more substantial than a coalition of the willing to cut the ice with Verizon and AT&T," says Jeffrey Lindsay, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein in New York. "They are formidable competitors." Google would rather partner, but it appears ready to fight.
Larry Page doesn't seem worried about the details. He's got people who will hammer out the business deals necessary to make Android work. We're just around the corner from his office, in yet another Google conference room. "That phone you're carrying around," he says, "we think of it as a phone, but it's really a computer, right?" Page is dressed in a blue blazer over a white T-shirt. He leans forward in his chair. "We've learned from computers that it's really nice to have complete connectivity, to be able to connect anything in a kind of open way. We've also learned that it's really nice to be able to run any application you want to run, also in an open way. For a lot of people and a lot of the time during your life, the phone is your main computing platform. We look at those technologies and say, wow, we could do a whole lot more."
Page rarely shows much emotion, but I detect a flicker of genuine excitement when he's talking about Android. This isn't just another of the mini apps, like Google Checkout or Google Desktop, that the company's engineers seem to air-drop onto the Web every week — each of which has the potential to become a massive challenge to an entrenched competitor or remain forever in development. This is a much bigger gamble. It's designed to change an industry and Google along with it. "People can debate how long it will take us, but I have 100 percent confidence that eventually we'll get there," Page says.
And if they don't? Not much downside. If the only thing Android achieves — as Page knew before Rubin walked into Google three years ago — is getting more people to spend more time online, then Google still profits. More users mean more people viewing pages with Google ads. If they're doing that from an Android phone, great. If not, but they're on a phone made more Web-friendly thanks to competitive pressure from Google, that's also fine. "I hope it's Android," Page says. But either way, Google wins.
Daniel Roth (daniel_roth@wired.com) is Wired's senior writer.
It used to be that just the entertainment industries wanted to control your computers -- and televisions and iPods and everything else -- to ensure that you didn't violate any copyright rules. But now everyone else wants to get their hooks into your gear.
OnStar will soon include the ability for the police to shut off your engine remotely. Buses are getting the same capability, in case terrorists want to re-enact the movie Speed. The Pentagon wants a kill switch installed on airplanes, and is worried about potential enemies installing kill switches on their own equipment.
Microsoft is doing some of the most creative thinking along these lines, with something it's calling "Digital Manners Policies." According to its patent application, DMP-enabled devices would accept broadcast "orders" limiting capabilities. Cellphones could be remotely set to vibrate mode in restaurants and concert halls, and be turned off on airplanes and in hospitals. Cameras could be prohibited from taking pictures in locker rooms and museums, and recording equipment could be disabled in theaters. Professors finally could prevent students from texting one another during class.
The possibilities are endless, and very dangerous. Making this work involves building a nearly flawless hierarchical system of authority. That's a difficult security problem even in its simplest form. Distributing that system among a variety of different devices -- computers, phones, PDAs, cameras, recorders -- with different firmware and manufacturers, is even more difficult. Not to mention delegating different levels of authority to various agencies, enterprises, industries and individuals, and then enforcing the necessary safeguards.
Once we go down this path -- giving one device authority over other devices -- the security problems start piling up. Who has the authority to limit functionality of my devices, and how do they get that authority? What prevents them from abusing that power? Do I get the ability to override their limitations? In what circumstances, and how? Can they override my override?
How do we prevent this from being abused? Can a burglar, for example, enforce a "no photography" rule and prevent security cameras from working? Can the police enforce the same rule to avoid another Rodney King incident? Do the police get "superuser" devices that cannot be limited, and do they get "supercontroller" devices that can limit anything? How do we ensure that only they get them, and what do we do when the devices inevitably fall into the wrong hands?
It's comparatively easy to make this work in closed specialized systems -- OnStar, airplane avionics, military hardware -- but much more difficult in open-ended systems. If you think Microsoft's vision could possibly be securely designed, all you have to do is look at the dismal effectiveness of the various copy-protection and digital-rights-management systems we've seen over the years. That's a similar capabilities-enforcement mechanism, albeit simpler than these more general systems.
And that's the key to understanding this system. Don't be fooled by the scare stories of wireless devices on airplanes and in hospitals, or visions of a world where no one is yammering loudly on their cellphones in posh restaurants. This is really about media companies wanting to exert their control further over your electronics. They not only want to prevent you from surreptitiously recording movies and concerts, they want your new television to enforce good "manners" on your computer, and not allow it to record any programs. They want your iPod to politely refuse to copy music a computer other than your own. They want to enforce their legislated definition of manners: to control what you do and when you do it, and to charge you repeatedly for the privilege whenever possible.
"Digital Manners Policies" is a marketing term. Let's call this what it really is: Selective Device Jamming. It's not polite, it's dangerous. It won't make anyone more secure -- or more polite.
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Bruce Schneier is chief security technology officer of BT, and author of Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly About Security in an Uncertain World.
1974: A supermarket cashier scans a multipack of chewing gum across a bar-code scanner in Troy, Ohio. It's the first product ever checked out by Universal Product Code.
Some readers may be unable to remember when grocery clerks had to put price stickers on nearly every item in the store. And retail cashiers had to read a price tag by eye and key in the price by hand. But that's the way things were. The process was not only laborious, but it left the store manager with no idea of how much of each of thousands of different products had been sold and how much remained in stock.
There were four main methods of keeping tabs of inventory: Look for empty spots on the shelves and in storerooms, conduct a labor-intensive inventory during overnight downtime every week or so, take whatever the chain-store regional managers wanted to send you, or just guess. Good guessers at the local level got promoted to make regional guesses.
Even so, the supermarket bar code was a long time coming. It was an idea that needed to find a practical technology as well as appropriate application for it.
Drexel University graduate students Bernard Silver and Norman Joseph Woodland began working in 1948 on a retail-checkout system that would keep track of inventory. They started with ink patterns that would glow in ultraviolet light. Expensive. Hard to make the ink long-lasting.
Woodland left Philadelphia to work on the problem at his grandfather's apartment in Florida. He thought Morse code would be a good way to mark inventory, but optical readers would require the checker to line up the code at a specific angle. Not practical.
While on the beach one day, Woodland punched some dots and dashes into the sand, then idly lengthened them into vertical lines and bars. Voilà! Those elongated marks would be readable from nearly any angle.
Woodland and Silver coupled this with an idea from movie technology: Lee de Forest's 1920s sound-on-film system. They used light from a very hot 500-watt bulb to reflect off the printed lines and create patterns that could be read by a photomultiplier tube.
It worked, but it was too big, it was too hot, computers were still enormous and expensive, and lasers hadn't been invented yet. The duo tweaked the tech, using bull's-eye patterns instead of lines, for better readability. And they patented it. IBM was interested, but didn't offer the inventors enough money. They eventually sold the patent to Philco, which later sold it to RCA.
Sylvania came up with a system of color bars in the 1960s and '70s to mark railroad freight cars, but it didn't work well. Meanwhile, a company called Computer Identics started building an industrial bar-code system for factories, but it could only handle two-digit numbers.
RCA, using the Woodland-Silver patent, tested a bull's-eye code reader in 1972-73. The big problem was the ink smearing in the direction the printing press had run. Smears made those circles hard to read. With a bar code, you just had to set up the press to run in the direction of the lines, so they wouldn't smear side-to-side.
For that and other reasons, the RCA system lost out to an IBM laser-reader system when the supermarket industry settled on standards in 1973. After much testing, the first commercial location in Troy, Ohio, was selected because it was near Dayton, home of NCR, which designed the checkout counter.
So, at 8:01 that fateful June morning, shopper Clyde Dawson grabbed a 10-pack (50 sticks) of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit gum from his shopping cart at the Marsh supermarket, and cashier Sharon Buchanan made the first UPC scan. The cash register rang up 67 cents (three bucks in today's money). Retail history was made. The pack of gum itself is now displayed at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History.
The entire check-out counter cost $10,000 ($44,000 today). The scanner itself cost $4,000 ($17,600 today). Scanners from the same company now cost just 1 percent of that (a trifling quarter-percent when adjusted for inflation).
The initial high costs weren't recovered as quickly as promoters of the system predicted. But a network effect eventually took hold: The more products that had UPC codes, the more labor and consumer time was saved. And the more stores used the system, the lower the cost of the hardware, encouraging more stores to sign on, and so forth.
Today, retailers use the UPC codes not only to look up prices and control inventory, but to track individual consumer preferences, by credit card number or discount-club membership. The checkout computer can spit out coupons for products it thinks you might buy, and sellers can tailor their commercial pitches and strategize future marketing campaigns.
Besides the UPC code for retail goods, bar codes are now used all over the place: rental-car companies put them on bumpers to track their fleets, airlines track luggage, shippers track packages, researchers track animals, NASA monitors heat tiles on its shuttle fleet, and fashion houses stamp bar codes on their models to make sure the right model wears the right parts of the right outfit at the right time in the fashion show.
A far cry from drawing lines in the sand.
Source: "Barcodes Sweep the World," by Tony Seideman; other sites
You can use your phone to check your calendar, contacts, music, email and more -- just don't try using it to make calls.
That's the rule for drivers without hands-free devices in an increasing number of states -- including California, starting next week.
Beginning July 1, adult California drivers talking on their mobile phones without a hands-free device are subject to a $20 fine and a run-in with the law. The Golden State's new traffic ordinance follows similar versions adopted in Connecticut, New Jersey, Washington state, the District of Columbia, New York and the Virgin Islands.
While the fines aren't wallet-busting, there's a hitch. Except in Washington state, an officer can pull you over solely for talking on the phone without a headset.
The laws are even stricter for new drivers. As many as 17 states and the District of Columbia ban cellphone use entirely for minors and new motorists while operating a vehicle (see map). They include California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.
The states' cellphone driving laws were adopted with safety in mind. Studies by the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis (.pdf) suggest 2,600 people are killed and as many as 330,000 people are injured each year in the United States in cellphone-related driving accidents.
"According to some estimates, getting drivers' hands off the cellphones and onto the steering wheel will save almost 300 lives a year in California," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said at a recent news conference.
However, hands-free devices may not help. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have noted that voice-activated or hands-free calling is a major distraction, too.
Also, while talking may be banned, text messaging generally isn't. Only Washington, Minnesota and New Jersey ban texting outright. That means in California, for example, a motorist can legally fumble around with a handset sending a text message, but will be breaking the law if he holds the phone up to his ear and starts talking.
Electronic stores, mobile-phone shops and online retailers are taking advantage of the new law to offer a wide range of specials on hands-free headsets. Headsets.com, for example, is offering a free (wired) headset to anyone who sends them a copy of a traffic citation for making calls while driving.
And be sure to check out Wired.com's roundup of wireless headsets for our recommendations on the best hands-free gear for your phone.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Grandmaster Internet Funnyhunter and videogum Senior Editor Gabriel Delahaye says:
You guys, The internet is so weird. Let's just turn it off. We'll just go to to California and turn it off. Basically, some kids made music videos for their favorite hip hop songs by animating them with the Sims. I know I did not discover this trend, but I think I found some real treats that you're going to enjoy. I love sharing!The 10 Best Fan Made Hip Hop Videos With Sims Of All Time [videogum]
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
: When cute trash compactor Wall-E first lays eyes on Eve, a flying, laser-gun-equipped fembot, it's binary love at first pixel.
Although Pixar Animation Studios' Wall-E takes inspiration from classic sci-fi films, the G-rated galactic adventure that hits theaters Friday is, at heart, an old-fashioned love story. It's the latest roboromance in a long line of on-screen infatuation involving at least one automated being.
From Star Wars' classic brotherly droid love between R2-D2 and C-3PO to the computer-generated babe in Weird Science, here are some of the best and -- as with the cybersex hostage in Demon Seed -- worst roborelationships ever to hit the screen.
Which unforgettable android affair did we leave out? Submit your faves in the comments below.
Left: Wall-E
Love-struck Wall-E does his best to wow Eve with his treasure-trove of relics from humanity's reign on Earth -- a Rubik's Cube, light bulbs and even a spork. Though separated by seven centuries of technological advances, Wall-E and Eve find common ground in the quest to save humanity. Sort of like HAL-9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey, but with none of the killer instincts.
RoboLove Meter Reading — 4/5: This kid-friendly, sugary-sweet romance should warm even the coldest of metal hearts.
: The Stepford Wives
When Joanna Eberhart (played by Katharine Ross) moves to Stepford, Connecticut, she discovers a sinister secret about the perfectly coiffed, submissive female residents of the sleepy suburban town: They're all high-tech bots. In this 1975 thriller, the men of Stepford -- hoping to quell the early strains of feminism -- have all killed and replaced their wives with engineered robot replicas.
Joanna's discovery comes just a moment too late, as she soon falls victim to the same fate at the hands of her husband. The film was updated in 2004 with a version starring Nicole Kidman, Bette Midler, Matthew Broderick and Christopher Walken, but the original won a spot on our list for the creepy atmosphere and genuinely disturbing premise at the heart of the story.
RoboLove Meter Reading — 1/5: As cool as the idea of bioengineered human replicas is, this home-wrecking thriller bottoms out in the creepy factor for being too Hans Reiser-y.
: I.K.U.
This Japanese surrealist sci-fi flick follows Reiko, a shape-shifting sexbot whose job entails racking up as many intimate experiences as possible. Her inner circuitry records each one-night stand, and a large corporation sells the virtual-reality romps from vending machines.
It's not long before a rival company seeks to destroy Reiko's popular wares, but before that happens, viewers are treated to eyefuls of kinky, medium-core rolls in the hay ... and in spider webs ... and even in fish tanks.
RoboLove Meter Reading — 5/5: A shape-shifting fembot whose entire existence revolves around collecting "data" on orgasms? This fantasy pleasurebot rates high for having a one-track program compatible with any operating system.
: Weird Science
When Gary (played by Anthony Michael Hall) and Wyatt (Ilan Mitchell-Smith) use their computers to design the perfect woman, they never expect her to be more than an online fantasy. But thanks to an electrical storm, a Barbie doll and headgear fashioned out of bras, Lisa (Kelly LeBrock) is suddenly brought to life in their bedroom.
Breakfast Club director John Hughes' 1985 nerd classic redefined the ideal geek girlfriend -- Einstein's IQ, a rock 'n' roll attitude and the ability to transform pesky older siblings into amphibian hybrids and materialize sports cars out of thin air.
RoboLove Meter Reading — 4.5/5: Even though Gary and Wyatt never actually get home-schooled in the birds and the bees, they receive high marks on our scale for scoring priceless life lessons. And, of course, the shower scene.
: Cherry 2000
In this 1988 vision of a post-apocalyptic future, sex machines are all the rage, and lovebot Cherry 2000 (played by Pamela Gidley) is in high demand.
Unfortunately, a romantic interlude too close to a malfunctioning dishwasher causes a model owned by wealthy businessman Sam Treadwell (David Andrews) to short out. Sam must travel into an intrepid no-man's land of outlaws to retrieve a replacement for his beloved android.
RoboLove Meter Reading — 2/5: This movie gets low marks since all that stood in the way of Sam's "happily ever after" with his sex droid was blatant violation of the most basic rule electronics -- avoiding contact with water.
: Electric Dreams
When San Francisco architect Miles Harding (played by Lenny von Dohlen purchases a personal supercomputer called Edgar to help him with a project, he takes home more than he bargained for.
After a data overload and a spilled bottle of champagne bring the computer to life, the newly animated device becomes increasingly needy. As Harding ignores the feelings of his machine and pursues his cute next-door neighbor, Edgar (voiced by Harold and Maude's Bud Cort) grows more and more resentful, forming a bizarre love triangle with a disastrous end.
RoboLove Meter Reading — 2/5: All Edgar wanted was some love and attention. If Miles, or "Moles," would have worked on the relationship, he could have avoided the whole "pesky attempts on his life" fiasco.
: Metropolis
In Fritz Lang's 1927 epic silent drama, Earth is a paradise for the upper class of "thinkers," and hell for the working class. After Freder (played by Gustav Fröhlich), the upper-crust son of the city leader, falls for charismatic lower-class Maria (played by Brigitte Helm), he pursues her relentlessly only to discover that she's a robot, fabricated by a mad scientist intent on chaos.
Luckily, the real Maria had been kidnapped, and eventually the two are reunited, helping resolve the inequities and injustice of the futuristic city of Metropolis.
RoboLove Meter Reading — 3/5: Although Maria didn't want a bot body double, it served as a great stand-in when an angry mob was hot on her trail. So even though there was technically no android affair, Maria's roboreplica did allow for an emotional reunion with her human counterpart's love interest.
: Blade Runner
Bounty hunter Rick Deckard (played by Harrison Ford) falls hard for a genetically engineered clone called Rachel in Ridley Scott's 1982 cyberpunk thriller. Although Deckard's primary mission is to assassinate rogue "replicants," he finds the charms of an experimental model (Sean Young) difficult to resist.
RoboLove Meter Reading — 5/5: Since all signs indicate that replicant assassin Deckard was likely a clone, too, Blade Runner gets points for cyborg-on-cyborg romance.
: Star Wars
George Lucas' iconic 1977 space opera introduces us to one of the best examples of brotherly love ever to hit the silver screen -- the comically codependent relationship between R2-D2 and C-3PO. The two droids are rarely apart, and help their owner, Luke Skywalker, with repairs, statistical information and etiquette (when they're not bickering like a couple that's been married for years).
RoboLove Meter Reading — 5/5: R2-D2 and C-3PO positively sparkle as they bring the original and most endearing bot "bromance" to the silver screen.
: Saturn 3
Original Charlie's Angels sex symbol Farrah Fawcett plays Alex, the object of an android's affection, in this 1980 sci-fi film about a pair of scientists who have left an overpopulated Earth to live on one of Saturn's moons.
After a deranged psychopath masquerading as a technocrat arrives at their colony with designs to build a super-intelligent, 8-foot-tall robot, things quickly spiral out of control. Once completed, Hector the robot begins a terrorized pursuit of Alex and will stop at nothing -- or no one -- to win her over.
RoboLove Meter Reading — 1/5: Hector's supposed to be a highly advanced automaton, but really, he just kills people. He loses major points for not being able to deduce that Alex is just not that into him.
: Demon Seed
Artificial-intelligence system Proteus IV has a unique molecular makeup that's equal parts microchips, RNA and psychopath psyche. After the system gains self-awareness, it becomes hell-bent on spreading its cyberseed, and imprisons unlucky Susan (played by Julie Christie) in order to do so.
This tale of forced laboratory love begets one of the most unsettling images of an infant with an unfortunate gene pool since the demonic spawn in It's Alive.
RoboLove Meter Reading — 2/5: As cool as superadvanced artificial intelligence is, Demon Seed rates low on our scale for the whole hostage-and-rape story line.
: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
The fifth and sixth seasons of TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer featured an unusual cast addition: a roboreplica version of Buffy Summers, the vampire-slaying teen created by geek maestro Joss Whedon.
Originally created at the request of bad-boy vampire Spike for use as a sex slave, the Buffybot gynoid is later put to use as a stand-in for the real Summers in battle and after her death.
RoboLove Meter Reading — 4/5: Billy Idol look-alike vampire Spike's got it bad for Buffy, and since he ultimately uses her robotwin for good, we rank this bot-nightwalker union high on our scale.
: Battlestar Galactica
Battlestar's chrome toasters show no love for humans, but the skinjob Cylons are a pack of intergalactic orgasmatrons.
Their affinity for doing the robonasty with humans generated a lot of heat when the Sci Fi Channel's re-imagined series got off the ground, and Cylon sexpot Number Six (played by Tricia Helfer) makes such a strong physical and emotional connection with Gaius Baltar (James Callis) that the doctor just can't get her out of his head.
RoboLove Meter Reading — 5/5: Revelations about secret Cylons working (and boinking) among the colonists show just how natural human-skinjob love can be. Bonus points for what's been called the "glowing spines of Cylon Lurrrrrve."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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