(AP)

AP - The economy is sputtering, but Google Inc.'s profits are still accelerating at a rate that suggests the Internet search leader can remain a marketing magnet even when advertisers and consumers aren't in a spending mood.

Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 17 Oct 2008 | 5:11 am

IBM's 3Q profit strong on global sales, cost cuts (AP)

AP - A big question hanging over IBM Corp.'s third quarter was just how much new business it brought in during a period of economic strife.

Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 17 Oct 2008 | 5:10 am

Vista laptops not top sellers on Amazon (CNET)

CNET - Computer sales on Amazon.com are not exactly a proxy for the broader retail market. Still, I do think it is noteworthy that of the top 20 best-selling laptops on Thursday evening, just one was running Windows Vista.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 17 Oct 2008 | 5:07 am

E.T. Horn Names Jeff Martin As President, Adds Two Employees to Board of Directors

The E.T. Horn Company's Board of Directors has elected Jeff Martin as President and expanded the Board from five to seven members with the addition of Bob Ahn and Kevin Salerno. Board Chairman Gene Alley announced the changes will be effective November 1. Employee-owned, E.T.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 17 Oct 2008 | 5:00 am

A Guide to Understanding the Chemical Distribution Industry in China: Covering Logistics, Recent Trends & Development Issues

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/97698a/understanding_chem) has announced the addition of the "Understanding Chemical Distribution in China" report to their offering. This 171 page report examines the distribution of chemicals in China.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 17 Oct 2008 | 5:00 am

50 of the Most Promising European High-Tech Companies Coming to Silicon Valley, Nov 18-19, 2008

Avise Partners announces today that it has just finalized the selection of 50 of the most promising European high-tech companies to present at the Euro Tech Showcase, Nov 18-19, San Francisco Bay (www.EuroTechShowcase.com).
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 17 Oct 2008 | 5:00 am

Firefox 3.1 beta 1 released for public testing

Section: Web, Web Browsers

The delay is finally over! Mozilla has recently released Firefox 3.1 beta 1 (code-named “Shiretoko") for public testing.

What should a web developer expect?

Web developers will definitely be delighted to know that the @font-face CSS property is implemented in Shiretoko. This will allow web developers to design websites with consistent formatting and layout. New CSS properties such as text-shadow and word-wrap are also supported.

New HTML tags are also introduced: namely, the <video> and the <audio> tags; both tags simplify the embedding of video and audio files on a web page. It must be noted that the <video> and the <audio> tags only support the OGG Theora and OGG Vorbis formats.

HTML and CSS aside, Shiretoko also contains some changes to its Javascript parsing behavior. This beta adds support for the “defer” attribute for the <script> element. What it does is that it allows a block of Javascript to be parsed AFTER rendering a web page. The current behavior of most browsers is to parse scripts while it renders the web page, which means buggy and nonresponsive scripts will cause the browser to hang before displaying the rendered web page.

What should a web surfer expect?

Among the graphical user interface changes are a new and improved smart location bar, and the ability to preview tabs when using a tab-switching shortcut. Users should also experience major improvements in the performance and speed of rendering web pages due to the new Gecko 1.9.1 rendering engine. The speed may be comparable to that of Google Chrome’s Webkit engine, coupled with the notoriously fast JavaScript Virtual machine called V8.

Pressing Ctrl + Tab will bring up a small translucent window in the middle of the screen showing thumbnails of currently opened tabs. You can scroll through the thumbnails by continuing to tap on the tab button while holding on Ctrl.

Addons compatibility is a real pain in the arse! If you’re just a casual surfer and depend on a lot of addons, I would suggest NOT to download beta versions. Things would be different for a web developer, though.

Download [Mozilla] Via [T3] Read [Mozilla Developer Center]

Full Story » | Written by Cheng Hung for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

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Source: Gadgetell | 17 Oct 2008 | 4:47 am

Oct. 17, 1973: Angry Arabs Turn Off the Oil Spigot

1973: The Arab oil-producing states impose an embargo against nations supporting Israel in the Fourth Arab-Israeli War, also known as the October War or Yom Kippur War.

The effect upon petroleum-consuming countries was immediate, profound and long-lasting. The oil embargo, and the cut in production that accompanied it, doubled the price of crude and reduced overall supply. That forced gas prices to skyrocket at the pump and led to rationing and the imposition of price controls in the United States and Western Europe. Long gas station lines and frustrated motorists became iconic images of the early 1970s.

It also awakened the West to just how dependent it was on Middle Eastern oil, and how fragile that lifeline really was.

The decision to use oil as a weapon was made prior to the opening of hostilities. Egypt's Anwar Sadat and Saudi Arabia's King Faisal met a month and a half before Egypt and Syria attacked Israel. They agreed to play their trump card — in many ways, their only card — when the expected support for Israel materialized, which it quickly did.

The Yom Kippur War, which began with a surprise attack Oct. 6 (timed to coincide with the Jewish Day of Atonement), went badly for the Arabs. After initial gains, the Syrians were driven from the Golan Heights, and an entire Egyptian army was cut off in the Sinai Peninsula. The offensive fell apart, the United Nations and United States brokered separate ceasefires, and it was all over by Oct. 26.

But the embargo continued. Because of the embargo, Arab oil producers were able to wrest control of their vital commodity from the Western oil companies that had been exploiting them for years. When some members of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries, notably the Saudis, followed up the embargo by nationalizing their oil companies, the westward flow of petrodollars reversed itself and the drunk-on-money Middle East cartel that we know today began to emerge.

In the West, and especially in the United States, the embargo and the "oil shock" that accompanied it brought about profound changes. In November, President Nixon signed the Emergency Petroleum Allocation Act, which — among other things — instituted rationing and price controls. A few months later, the United States embarked on Project Independence, an early and failed attempt to make the country energy independent.

As a result, offshore oil drilling became a priority in a way it never had been before.

Later, when the embargo ended and the flow of oil resumed, these correctives were either cut back or abandoned. But the psychological damage was complete: Oil-gluttonous Americans have remained paranoid about their supply ever since.

Finally, on March 17, 1974, Arab oil ministers (with the exception of Libya) lifted their embargo against the United States. But the playing field was forever changed.

Source: Various

Source: Wired Top Stories | 17 Oct 2008 | 4:00 am

Gallery: NASA Spacecraft Will Explore Outer Solar System

: Image: Walt Feimer/Goddard Space Flight Center

NASA will launch its Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) Oct. 19, on a mission to explore the interaction of our sun and solar system with the galaxy. IBEX will orbit 200,000 miles above the Earth and capture the first-ever images of our solar system's boundaries.

The mission will help us visualize our place in the galaxy and learn how the interaction between our sun and the galaxy beyond may have evolved. Scientists will get a better look at the solar wind — the outer layer of the sun's atmosphere that is expanding out into the galaxy as a plasma moving at a million miles an hour. The plasma creates a bubble, known as the heliosphere, that protects the solar system against radiation from galactic cosmic rays.

Left: Once the IBEX spacecraft is in low-Earth orbit, a solid rocket motor will burn for 75 seconds to give it a final boost into position, pointing at the sun and ready to deliver data.

: Photo: Southwest Research Institute

Once the hardware and software was loaded aboard IBEX, technicians performed a series of stress tests. The spin test is shown here.

: Image: NASA GSFC

The primary mission of IBEX is to explore the edge of our solar system and how it interacts with the galaxy beyond.

: Image: NASA GSFC

The heliosphere, pictured here, separates our solar system from the interstellar medium and fends off galactic cosmic rays.

: Image: Walt Feimer/Goddard Space Flight Center

IBEX will study coronal mass ejections, depicted here, which are flows of plasma made up primarily of electrons and protons that propagate from the sun.

: Photo: Southwest Research Institute

One of IBEX's two sensors. Each time an energetic neutral atom comes into one of the sensors, it is recorded.

: Photo: Southwest Research Institute

One of two sensors aboard IBEX is shown here. As the spacecraft slowly rotates, its sensors will capture information from the entire 360 degrees in a process that takes six months.

: Photo: Southwest Research Institute

Engineers work in a clean room using jumper cables to test the connections between the side panels (shown at left and right) that hold the sensors and the rest of the spacecraft (center).

: Photo: Southwest Research Institute

The complete IBEX payload with both sensors is inserted into the thermal vacuum chamber for testing in space-like conditions.

: Photo: NASA/VAFB

The IBEX spacecraft is mounted on the front of the Pegasus rocket prior to being enclosed in the protective outer fairing.

: Photo: Southwest Research Institute

Technicians at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California help guide the Star-27 kick motor and nozzle that will propel IBEX during the final leg of its journey into orbit.

: Photo: Southwest Research Institute

Inside a protected clean room tent at Vandenberg Air Force Base, both halves of the fairing are installed around the IBEX spacecraft. The fairing is a molded structure that fits flush with the outside surface of the rocket and forms an aerodynamically smooth nose cone, protecting the spacecraft during launch and ascent.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 17 Oct 2008 | 4:00 am

Jargon Watch: Green Crude, Popcorning, Edupunk

Green crude n. A new kind of crude oil harvested from genetically engineered algae. The dark-green syrup thrives on CO2, which could be funneled from coal-burning power plants, and can be made into gasoline or diesel in conventional refineries. The results burn cleaner than petroleum fuels.

Popcorning v. A chain reaction in which the accidental explosion of one nuclear warhead causes others in the vicinity to detonate, releasing lethal radiation for miles in every direction. Newly declassified documents reveal that dropping a Trident missile while loading it onto a submarine could ignite a Jiffy Pop Nagasaki.

Edupunk n. Avoiding mainstream teaching tools like Powerpoint and Blackboard, edupunks bring the rebellious attitude and DIY ethos of '70s bands like the Clash to the classroom.

Hairy blobs n. pl. Prickly prehistoric microorganisms that once lived in acidic, saline lakes chemically similar to ancient Martian waters. The recent discovery of fossilized hairy blobs in North Dakota lake beds could help in the search for microbial chia pets and other exotically hirsute life-forms on Mars and beyond.

— Jonathon Keats jargon@wired.com

Source: Wired Top Stories | 17 Oct 2008 | 4:00 am

Lawsuit Claims Mapmaking Firm Owns Your Neighborhood

A mathematician who pioneered a fractal-based urban-mapping technique is embroiled in a copyright battle that raises legal questions about whether a company can claim ownership of the definition of neighborhoods: their specific locations and boundaries. The dispute highlights a growing movement to quantify the amorphous tendrils connecting communities.

Bernt Wahl had the idea in 2004 to use a blend of mathematical modeling and old-fashioned shoe leather to map out unofficial neighborhoods — areas like Bernal Heights in San Francisco, or New Orleans' French Quarter — whose borders are drawn mostly in the minds of the inhabitants.

Since then, he's produced maps defining more than 18,000 neighborhoods in 350 U.S. and international cities, which are used in everything from search localization to epidemiology. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is currently using Wahl's maps to better understand which neighborhoods are being slammed hardest by the mortgage crisis.

Vermont-based mapping company Maponics is now suing Wahl to keep him from creating any more neighborhood maps "derived from or containing parts of" the original maps he produced four years ago, which defined 7,000 neighborhoods in 100 cities. Wahl did that work as a contractor for a real estate web portal, which then sold the copyright to Maponics. Because American's biggest metropolitan areas were included in the original batch of maps, the lawsuit could effectively bar Wahl from the mapmaking business for good.

The lawsuit highlights the growing importance of neighborhood data in web applications and science. Since Wahl pioneered the industry four years ago, other companies have entered the neighborhood-mapping field, which has swollen into a big part of a $17 billion localized-mapping industry, says Ian White, CEO of San Francisco-based Urban Mapping.

Neighborhood mapping is being used for marketing, siting new retail outlets, social networking, and analyzing crime patterns and earthquake damage. Yahoo announced in June that it had licensed neighborhood-mapping data from Urban Mapping for 2,000 U.S. cities. Earlier this year, Zillow opened its database of 7,000 neighborhoods to the world under a Creative Commons license.

"Everyone made out like a bandit except me," Wahl says.

Wahl began his work when he was contracted by real estate portal HomeGain to optimize the firm's search engine. At that time, real estate site maps were organized either by ZIP code or by census tract, which are both fairly arbitrary shapes drawn with disregard for the differences in the neighborhoods within. The Thomas Guides have long noted neighborhoods, but did not attempt to define where they begin and end.

Wahl saw that as a fatal flaw. "Neighborhoods are really important," he says. "For example, there's a census tract that combines downtown Berkeley and North Berkeley. In Berkeley hills, the average age is 57, and downtown it's 24. The incomes and values are completely different. It made me start thinking that we needed a different way to let people look for homes."

Working with 15 student interns, Wahl began phoning local-government planning departments, chambers of commerce and other community sources in hundreds of cities. "There's usually a librarian in each place who remembers the neighborhoods — the trick is finding them," Wahl says. "And you have to be careful about what people tell you, because they can tend to bleed their home into a better neighborhood."

Using the anecdotal data, Wahl drew polygons that contain the neighborhoods, then tacked them to base maps created by the U.S. Census. The new maps hit big. HomeGain went from limping into its last few million dollars of startup capital to being one of the leading real estate search sites. The company was eventually sold to a consortium of five giant newspaper companies, including the Washington Post.

When HomeGain's management changed, the new bosses sold Wahl's first neighborhood map data to Maponics for $40,000. Wahl had permission to keep selling and using the data for six months, according to court documents.

"They gave me $5,000," Wahl says.

Wahl has continued to develop his data, refining the boundaries on his U.S. maps, and expanding internationally to Asian and European cities in 30 countries. His customers include Craigslist and Ask.com, and he gives away data at no charge to researchers, including those at the FDIC, and to epidemiologists working with the Centers for Disease Control to track the spread of disease.

"We aren't getting rich off this, though clients do pay for the data," Wahl says. "We try to get the data out everywhere we can, so we can see how people are using it — that's very interesting. It's about public service and the public good as much as making money."

But the low price tag for Wahl's maps is precisely what irks Maponics, which accuses Wahl, and his company, Factle, of offering the data at "fire-sale prices."

Last year, Maponics contacted one of Wahl's customers, Toursheet.com, and demanded the social place-marking site stop using Wahl's data. "It allows ... Toursheet to use a common map to show the attitude of the neighborhood, so people can have a real sense of community," says founder Kyle Else. "Well, it did before I heard from Maponics.... They threatened my future development. I missed my window because of their threats, and I'm stuck in limbo until this is sorted out."

Maponics filed suit in federal court in Los Angeles in November 2008 accusing Wahl of copyright infringement and unfair competition.

"We're not out to put Bernt out of business," says George Frost, Maponics' attorney. "If they've got another product that isn't related to our product, they're free to sell it. But the software and information that went into it belong to us."

Maponics CEO Darrin Clement has said in e-mails to Wahl's customers that Wahl "stole" Maponics data. That's prompted Wahl to countersue for defamation.

Wahl believes neighborhood boundaries are in the public domain. "I don't know how anyone can say they own it," Wahl muses. He argues there's more at stake than just profits.

"This data literally saves lives," says Wahl. "We could make more money at other jobs or selling the data for market value, but want we want to do is save lives and save the world. That starts at the neighborhood."

Source: Wired Top Stories | 17 Oct 2008 | 4:00 am

Appropriate Tech, 300mpg Car Top 2008 Innovators

longacre writes "While some giggles were floating around about the irony of a Microsoft product (Photosynth) finding itself on the same top 10 products list as a toilet, the true stars of last night's annual Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Awards were innovations of far more consequence. MIT professor Amy B. Smith won the marquis Leadership Award for her work on building simple, low-cost technology to help developing countries. Joining Smith from the appropriate technology field were a group of CalTech students who created all-terrain wheelchairs for the disabled, and a Procter & Gamble exec who developed a water purifying powder for the third world. Aptera Vehicles founders Steve Ambro and Chris Anthony made the cut for their 300mpg Typ-1e, which is expected to hit showrooms by the end of this year. Other winners ranged from the Mars Phoenix Lander team, to the developers of a low-cost cancer test, to the creators of Spore."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 17 Oct 2008 | 3:56 am

Style trumps substance in noir wannabe "Payne" (Reuters)

Reuters - "Max Payne" is a banal revenge melodrama-cum-detective story, but fans of the video game on which it is based should not be alarmed. The crews on production design, cinematography, visual effects, costumes, makeup, prosthetics and pyrotechnics do everything in their power to disguise this fact.

Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 17 Oct 2008 | 3:55 am

The Moog Guitar gets a review from a guy we know

Hey, I know that guy. Didn’t he used to sell street dogs down the block from that three-story gay bar on Pine Street? No, wait. He was a blogger for CrunchSomething. What’s he doing reviewing guitars? That aren’t right!

Looks like a pretty sweet piece of gear, though &mdash until he reveals the price. I know you pay for the authenticity of a Moog, but 6500 clams? I could buy me a recording studio! If you’re looking for more info, his full review from back in the day is over there.

Source: CrunchGear | 17 Oct 2008 | 3:55 am

DHS perfects the abusive EULA

A reader writes: "Check out the EULA for the Department of Homeland Security's web page for applying for travel visa waivers!" This is possibly the most obnoxious pop-up I've ever seen. Imagine the federal government making you agree to waive your legal rights in order to read about one of its programs! Welcome to the Electronic System for Travel Authorization Web Site

Source: Boing Boing | 17 Oct 2008 | 3:11 am

HOWTO ride a London Bus, Colonial Film Board 1950

This incredibly patronizing 1950 Colonial Film Board short film explains the intricacies of bus-riding to ignorant foreigners newly arrived in London, unravelling the mysteries with helpful advice like, "Be sure to board a bus headed to your destination," and explaining that drivers aren't allowed to run over school-children. Journey by a London Bus (1950)

Source: Boing Boing | 17 Oct 2008 | 3:09 am

Zombie papercraft dollies

The Zombiefie Six is a set of six papercraft zombie dollies for you to print, fold and play with. Fun! the ZOMBIEFIE SIX (Thanks, Doctor What!)

Source: Boing Boing | 17 Oct 2008 | 3:07 am

RiP: Remix Manifesto -- documentary about copyright and the information age

Robbo sez,

In RiP: A remix manifesto, Web activist and filmmaker Brett Gaylor explores issues of copyright in the information age, mashing up the media landscape of the 20th century and shattering the wall between users and producers.

The film’s central protagonist is Girl Talk, a mash-up musician topping the charts with his sample-based songs. But is Girl Talk a paragon of people power or the Pied Piper of piracy? Creative Commons founder, Lawrence Lessig, Brazil's Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil and pop culture critic Cory Doctorow are also along for the ride.

RiP: A remix manifesto (Thanks, Robbo!)

Source: Boing Boing | 17 Oct 2008 | 3:05 am

Home of Ralph the Swimming Pig to be bulldozed

Jeff sez,

San Marcos, Texas' Aquarena Center, formerly a hilarious tourist trap called Aquarena Springs, will be bulldozed, with the land being restored to turn-of-the-previous-century condition.

Aquarena was the home of the infamous Ralph the Swimming Pig, and his keeper Glurpo, a one-time "nightmarish aquatic clown" (http://www.boingboing.net/2005/01/20/nightmarish-aquatic-.html) turned "underwater witch doctor." There were also "aquamaids" who picnicked & performed ballet underwater, diving ducks, and a sadistic swan named Rufus.

Glass-bottomed boats will continue to ply the lake, described as "home to eight federally listed endangered species. ... one of the oldest continually inhabited sites in North America, and the second largest artesian spring in the western United States."

(Full disclosure - I worked in the underwater show for a couple of seasons in the early 70s. I WAS Glurpo, (in his witch doctor persona) as well as Bubblio, Scrubblio and "Announcer" and I knew Ralph personally!)

Demolishing Aquarena (Thanks, Jeff!)

Source: Boing Boing | 17 Oct 2008 | 3:00 am

Sony Ericsson’s 8-megapixel C905 makes an FCC appearance

Section: Communications, Cellphones, Mobile

The recently announced Sony Ericsson C905 has made the required FCC appearance.  We have already seen the official announcement, so unfortunately we are not able to offer anything new in terms of specs, but the good news is that it seems to be on the way to an actual release.

As of now, we are expecting the C905 to be available sometime during Q4.  An exact date has not yet been announced.  To recap, the C905 is going to feature a massive 8-megapixel camera, which comes along with a 2.4-inch QVGA display, Wi-Fi, GPS, an accelerometer and much more.

In the meantime, we can do nothing more than sit back, maybe stare at the above FCC image just a little bit, and dream about the nice pictures that we will be able to take.

Read [FCC]

Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

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Source: Gadgetell | 17 Oct 2008 | 2:38 am

A Peek At Brightkite For the iPhone

Brightkite, a geo-aware social network from the TechStars class of 2007, has given us a peek at the site’s upcoming iPhone application, due to appear in the App Store in the next few weeks (pending Apple’s approval process).

Brightkite’s featureset will be familiar to users of similar applications like Loopt. The app allows users to syndicate their current location to their friends, meet nearby Brightkite users, and lifestream with the equivalent of geo-encoded Tweets. The application is tied to Yahoo’s Fire Eagle, which allows users to manage their location from a number of other services. The site also uses databases to automatically associate POI’s and cross streets with GPS locations, so user positions aren’t simply displayed as coordinates.

The application looks impressive, but it will have plenty of competition: there’s already at least six major geo-location networks vying to get some traction on the iPhone. Founder Martin May acknowledges that Brightkite shares many similarities with other geo-enabled social networks, but points out that Brightkite is available worldwide, while most of its competitors are not. He also says that Brightkite’s SMS integration and existing user base of 50,000 users through its website and other mobile platforms may also help give it a leg up, though some of its competitors have estbalished users bases and distributions on other platforms as well.

If you’d like to try Brightkite’s main website (you’ll have to wait a few more days for the iPhone app), you can sign up for the private beta through this special link.

Disclosure: Brightkite competitor Loopt should be considered a TechCrunch sponsor.

Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors

Source: TechCrunch | 17 Oct 2008 | 2:32 am

Abandoned Nets Continue to Trap Animals

Thousands of abandoned nets and crab pots remain in Puget Sound in Washington state after five years of efforts to remove them, officials said.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 17 Oct 2008 | 2:00 am

The Eee PC turns one today

Section: Computers, Mobile Computers, Laptops

It was just one year ago that Asus unveiled the Eee PC and created what has become the netbook craze.  It was October 16, 2007 when the Eee PC 701 first became available, of course at that time the availability was limited to Taiwan.  But how quickly and drastically things can change in just one year.

Since the release of the 701, we have seen netbooks take off.  Not only has Asus continued to expand in this market, but countless others including HP, Acer, MSI and Dell have rolled out their own models to compete.

The Eee has grown from the original 701 with its little 7-inch display that, although, still a nice and capable netbook seems a little outdated when compared to some of the newer Eee models.  As we have seen, Asus has almost gone overboard with the lineup.  However, that has also given us a good selection including the 8.9-inch 900 series, the 10-inch 1000 series and more recently the introduction of the almost luxury model Eee PC S101.

Personally, I jumped on this craze soon after the initial release of the 701 and have used several netbooks so far, but, that little 701 is still in my collection and among my favorites.

In keeping with the celebration, the team over at Laptop Magazine actually went and threw a party complete with some birthday hats, cake and guests (both real and digital). You can attend, virtually of course, and offer the Eee PC 701 some birthday wishes.

Read [Laptop Mag]

Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

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Source: Gadgetell | 17 Oct 2008 | 1:35 am

Dead Space Wants To Scare You

Kotaku recently ran a story questioning whether the survival-horror genre still exists, and how Dead Space may or may not fit into it. With reviews for the game starting to come in, Ars Technica reports that the game is, indeed, both scary and good. Gamespy wrote up a Dead Space survival guide, and Gamasutra has a lengthy interview with the game's senior producer. In the production of the game, the developers studied things like car wrecks and war scenes to increase the level of realism. They also want the game's sounds to terrify players, including appropriately timed silence. The launch trailer is also available, though it does contain spoilers.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 17 Oct 2008 | 1:08 am

Robotic Spider Chair Enables the Disabled to 'Walk'

A robotic spider chair unveiled at Robo Japan 2008 gets a few legs up on the wheelchair.

With four robotic legs, the spider chair can handle steps, steep inclines and different surfaces easily. It follows a trend of new gadgetry being used in health applications. Some other examples include a robotic dog that carries items, exoskeletons that help people walk, the Wii Mote being used to train surgeons and cell-phone microscopes that diagnose malaria.

Spider Robot Chair Like Star Wars [Technovelgy via DVICE]

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 17 Oct 2008 | 1:05 am

Apple Gives Anti-NVIDIA Union Worker the Boot

Before Steve Jobs took the stage at Apple's Tuesday event, all eyes were on a young Asian man being escorted off campus by two burly security guards dressed in all black.

That man was Feng Kung, a researcher with the labor union Unite Here, who was handing out leaflets urging Apple employees to blow the whistle on graphics processor company NVIDIA for allegedly covering up video-card defects.

"It was pretty dramatic when they escorted me out," Kung said in a phone interview. "They were driving around in their cars and talking in their radios, making sure I didn't get back in."

Oddly enough, Unite Here is a union prominently known for representing hotel and restaurant workers, and its real beef is actually with NVIDIA's cafeteria service contractor. And yet Kung's flier urges Apple employees to help bring down NVIDIA for fraud.

NVIDIA currently faces a lawsuit filed by a shareholder alleging the company committed securities fraud. The company acknowledged a common defect in some of its video cards on July 2, and consequently NVIDIA stock plummeted by 31 percent that day. The lawsuit alleges NVIDIA was aware of this defect for a long time before publicly acknowledging it, therefore committing securities fraud by manipulating investors.   

But Kung's efforts have nothing to do with the battle between NVIDIA and stockholders at all. NVIDIA employees aren't even part of the Unite Here union.

Unite Here is lobbying on behalf of employees of Aramark — the cafeteria service contractor for NVIDIA. Kung explained that employees of Aramark want their company to approve of a "fair process," which is a term recognizing that workers have the right to unionize if they so choose. Aramark has yet to formally honor a fair process for its cafeteria workers, according to Kung. Long story short, Unite Here's fight is with NVIDIA's cafeteria company Aramark.

Here's where NVIDIA comes in: Kung says his union requested NVIDIA to meet in July asking the corporation to support ARAMARK employees asking for fair process. Kung says NVIDIA didn't show up to the meeting.

"NVIDIA is the one who has the responsibility for the cafeteria they contract — what it is, how they run their work," Kung said. "So we wanted NVIDIA to join us."

Kung said the alleged securities fraud incident serves as a testament to why NVIDIA can't be trusted. And he said NVIDIA's refusal to meet with Unite Here only adds to the overall thesis that the corporation is irresponsible, unaccountable and not to be trusted. He's even started a blog titled "MY NVIDIA FAIL" for his cause.

An NVIDIA spokesman said the company is not planning to get involved with the union because the dispute is between Aramark, its employees and Unite Here.

"It's a stretch," he said. "At the heart of this matter it's between Aramark and its employees, and the tactics that are being used are unfortunate."

Trevor Allen, general manager of the Shareholders Foundation, a site dedicated to protecting shareholders from financial fraud, sided with NVIDIA on this matter.

"Of course I don't believe it's right to make the correlation," Allen said. "Unless it's presented in an eloquent and intelligent matter, then it's just rambling."

Photo: Feng Kung

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 17 Oct 2008 | 12:21 am

RIAA appeals mistrial in file-sharing case (CNET)

CNET - The Recording Industry Association of America is appealing a judge's decision last month to declare a mistrial in the case of Jammie Thomas, who was ordered to pay the recording industry $222,000 for allegedly sharing music online.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 17 Oct 2008 | 12:09 am

CERN Releases Analysis of LHC Incident

sash writes "From the fresh press release: 'Investigations at CERN following a large helium leak into sector 3-4 of the Large Hadron Collider tunnel have confirmed that cause of the incident was a faulty electrical connection between two of the accelerator's magnets. This resulted in mechanical damage and release of helium from the magnet cold mass into the tunnel. Proper safety procedures were in force, the safety systems performed as expected, and no one was put at risk. Sufficient spare components are in hand to ensure that the LHC is able to restart in 2009, and measures to prevent a similar incident in the future are being put in place.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 17 Oct 2008 | 12:07 am

FriendFeed: Live blogging gone wild

Section: Computers, Networking, Software / Applications, Gadgets / Other, Lifestyle, Miscellaneous, Web, Downloads, Web 2.0, Web Apps, Web Browsers, Websites, Online Music/Video

FriendFeed launched a new feature last night, real-time updating.  With this feature, you can see all the most recent FriendFeed posts without even having to refresh the page.  As nifty as this new feature is, it can also get a bit crazy.

The site has essentially turned the web into a giant chatroom according to Robert Scoble.  You’ve got it all going on here, not just the chatting, but videos, photos, tweets, and more.  Every item has its own URL, as well as its own RSS feed.  You’re able to comment on everything there, not just on the “commentary” like in a chat room.

Even though the live feature is listed as beta, it’s available for all of your FriendFeed pages when you click the “Real Time” link.  Plus, there’s an embeddable code that lets you stick a live updating widget just about anywhere.  Also very likable is the fact that you can pop the Real-time view into its own little window so you can still see it while you are doing other stuff on the ‘Net.

While it is great to have real time updates, the speed can get kind of crazy.  To that end, they do allow you to pause it, and everything that is queued up will load once you resume the updates.  I wish you could pick a “keep it going, but slow it down some” mode.

Another area that I wish they would do something about is the fact that you aren’t able to pick the updates coming in.  Now, you are able to select for rooms, but you can’t be that specific once inside a room.  For example, I’m sure the reason FriendFeed launched the beta-live last evening had much to do with the Presidential debate. 

Now, if people were able to select updates by the words “McCain” or “Obama,” they probably would have to muddle through a lot less crap they weren’t really interested in reading and be able to discuss and focus on what they were interested in talking about.

Regardless, with all FriendFeed has going on, I think a lot of people are going to be getting a lot less work done throughout the day.

Via [venturebeat]

Full Story » | Written by Jodie Andrefski for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

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Source: Gadgetell | 17 Oct 2008 | 12:01 am

Keep Web Pages From Search Engine Bots

Forget asking search engines to take down the site for you. There's an easier way. Robots.txt is a file you can store on the root level of your web server to protect your personal files from showing up on search results. It allows you control over where bots are allowed to crawl your site.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 17 Oct 2008 | 12:00 am

How to Make a Faraday Cage Wallet

The practice of placing RFID chips inside your physical ID credentials is becoming routine for everything from your gym to the federal government. Here's a way to protect yourself and your deets using only duct tape and some other cheap materials.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 17 Oct 2008 | 12:00 am

Adult Startup Zivity Cuts 1/3 Of Staff

Zivity, the adult social network and media site that describes itself as a “community-powered showcase of female beauty”, has laid off 1/3 of its staff, cutting back from 22 employees to 14. (Again, 1/3 seems to be the magic number - Jive and Seesmic have both laid off about a third of their staff in the last week).

Zivity is in a unique position as one of the only venture capital backed sites with “adult” content (i.e. nudity), and has raised a total of $8 million. Earlier this year the site scored Napster co-founder Jordan Ritter as its CTO.

Co-founder Cyan Banister says that cuts were made across the board, and that the layoffs are a preventative measure that will ensure the company’s sustainability over the next few years as it has become much more difficult to raise further rounds of financing in the current economic climate. The site is still in private beta, and Banister expects that it will go public in the first quarter of 2009.

Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors

Source: TechCrunch | 16 Oct 2008 | 11:51 pm

This Week on CrunchBoard

Is the highlight of your day the time you spend at the water cooler? Maybe you should start looking for new opportunities. Check out the latest job listings on CrunchBoard. Here are some of the postings from the past week:

• Senior Flash Designer
  Photobucket- San Francisco, CA
• VP or Director of Engineering & Senior Architect/Web Developer
  Birrbit - San Francisco, CA
• Manager of Campaign & Analytics
  Nielsen Business Media - New York, NY
• Product Manager of Desktop Applications and IM
  MySpace- Beverly Hills, CA
• GUI Software Engineer
  Shure Inc - Niles, IL
• Web Programmer and Developer
  August Ash Ince - Minneapolis, MN

Since you already read TechCrunch, why not work here? We are looking for a Ruby Developer to work on CrunchBase and a fulltime writer to work on TechCrunchIT at TechCrunch’s Atherton California Office.

To our international readers, please check out the British and French job boards.

Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors

Source: TechCrunch | 16 Oct 2008 | 11:47 pm

Australia may be allowing mobile phone use on planes soon

Pending the passage of this amendment, you may be able to use that celly at 30,000ft if you’re flying Down Under. The pico cell technology has been in testing for 18 months and there have been no complaints by the airborne or landside portions of the system, so there aren’t any technical barriers. The plan is to only allow SMS and GPRS, which is awesome and neatly wraps up the problem on everybody’s minds, which is that if you’re stuck between two huge businessmen gladhanding over the phone for three hours, you’re liable to throw yourself under the drink cart.

I never talk to anybody on the phone anyway, so this is all gains for me. Sucks for you long talkers and independent phone sex operators, though.

And you see that picture on the right? That’s actually how they do it there.
[Via BGR, IntoMobile and Cellular News]

Source: CrunchGear | 16 Oct 2008 | 11:45 pm

And Finally, We’d Like to Thank the Academy, Whose Total Lack of Foresight Made All This Possible [Digital Daily]

Not only is iTunes the world’s largest music retailer, it’s apparently also the world’s most popular online TV store. This according to proprietor Apple (AAPL), which said today that iTunes has sold some 200 million TV episodes.

To repeat: 200 million. Not bad, considering that Apple tossed NBC’s fall TV lineup off iTunes last year. And sales are certain to grow, now that all four of the major TV networks–ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC–are offering HD versions of its programs through iTunes. Which means Apple is well-positioned to take advantage of an online video market that In-Stat expects to hit $4.5 billion in sales by 2012.

Source: All Things Digital | 16 Oct 2008 | 11:40 pm

Apple Gives Anti-NVIDIA Union Worker the Boot

Apple booted a union worker from outside the launch of their new MacBooks on Tuesday. The worker's real issue is with Aramark, a cafeteria provider for graphics-processing company NVIDIA, but because NVIDIA didn't join the union's cause, the organizer went after the company.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 16 Oct 2008 | 11:21 pm

Evergreen Solar Q3 Revenues Light; Q4 Outlook Mixed [Voices]

By Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron’s, Tech Trader Daily

Evergreen Solar (ESLR) posted third-quarter revenue of $18.19 million, well short of the Street consensus of $24.98 million. The company lost four cents a share in the quarter, less than the Street estimate of a loss of 10 cents a share. Evergreen said a sequential decline in product sales in the quarter–to $17.8 million from $18.1 million–reflects slightly lower ASPs due to the stronger dollar.

Read the rest of this post

Source: All Things Digital | 16 Oct 2008 | 11:04 pm

Cytec Changes Date of Investor Day

Cytec Industries Inc. (NYSE:CYT) announced today that it will be changing the date of the Company's Investor Day meeting from the previously scheduled date of November 5, 2008 to a new date of March 3, 2009. Corporate Profile Cytec Industries Inc.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 16 Oct 2008 | 11:00 pm

Cytec Declares Quarterly Dividend

Cytec Industries Inc. (NYSE:CYT) announced today that the company's Board of Directors declared a regular quarterly cash dividend of $0.125 per share on the common stock of the company, payable on November 25, 2008 to shareholders of record as of November 10, 2008.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 16 Oct 2008 | 11:00 pm

Cytec Board Announces Chairman and CEO David Lilley's Intent to Retire on December 31st, 2008

The Board of Directors of Cytec Industries Inc. (NYSE:CYT) announced today that Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, David Lilley's decision to retire effective December 31st, 2008. The Board of Directors has elected Shane Fleming to succeed Mr.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 16 Oct 2008 | 11:00 pm

Giant Eagle Columbus Supermarket Becomes LEED Gold(R)-Certified

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Oct. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Supermarket retailer Giant Eagle(R), Inc. today celebrated the receipt of a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED(R)) Gold-certification in northeast Columbus, near New Albany.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 16 Oct 2008 | 11:00 pm

Clam Found to Thrive in 'Dead Zone' Water

A U.S. ecologist says he's found a commercially valuable species of clam thriving in oxygen-depleted waters of a so-called "dead zone" off the East Coast.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 16 Oct 2008 | 11:00 pm

Web Singletons?

tcmb writes "There are an uncounted number of web mail and picture sharing services, there are more than enough web sites for online bookmark management and friend-finding, but as far as I know there is only one Internet Archive. Which are the true web singletons, services that exist only once in this form?" And does anything approach the singular time-wasting abilities of IMDB or Wikipedia?

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 16 Oct 2008 | 11:00 pm

Microsoft Puts Weight Behind Open Source Projects With Web Platform Installer

Microsoft isn’t exactly known for championing open source projects. So it’s rather surprising (in a good way) to see the company release something called the Microsoft Web Platform Installer, which makes it possible to batch install a set of open source projects on Windows Vista or Server 2008.

These projects include DotNetNuke, Drupal, Gallery, Graffiti, osCommerce, PHPBB, and Wordpress. As InfoWorld points out, Microsoft itself isn’t technically the distributor of these projects since users are merely obtaining them from third party developers through Microsoft’s new installer.

The platform is capable of running both ASP and PHP-based applications, and it consists of a suite of tools including Visual Web Developer for creating websites, Microsoft SQL Server for administering databases, and IIS7 for serving webpages. As such, the bundling of these open source packages is a rather clever way for Microsoft to promote the use of its proprietary server software over popular open source alternatives such as Apache and MySQL. Ironic, yes, but selective promotion of open source is better than none at all.

[News via Dries Buytaert]

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Source: TechCrunch | 16 Oct 2008 | 10:55 pm

Forgotten Experiment May Explain Origins of Life

Scientists believe a 55-year-old research document sheds light on the origins of life.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 16 Oct 2008 | 10:49 pm

CrunchGear Reviews the Penguin Home Soda Machine

In an effort to help us all relax a little, CrunchGear's Doug Aamoth has reviewed the Penguin Home Soda Maker, an odd little contraption that allows the home chemist to create their own soda in the privacy and comfort of their own home. Warning: The video review does contain some burping.

Source: TechCrunch | 16 Oct 2008 | 10:47 pm

Review: Penguin Home Soda Maker

You probably don’t need an entire review to help you decide whether or not you want a soda-making machine, but if you’re at all interested in making your own carbonated beverages then the Penguin Home Soda Maker is a good bet.

Overview and Features

The Home Soda Maker starter kit runs $219.99 and includes the machine itself, two glass carafes, and two big bottles of CO2 which should provide you with about 120 bottles of carbonated water. There’s also the “Plus Package” which costs $269.99 and includes one extra bottle of CO2.

You can use the machine to simply make fizzy water, but the real fun starts when you mix in various flavors. These “SodaMix” bottles cost $5 each and make 12 liters. Aside from soda flavors, you can buy mixes to make flavored water and tonic as well.

I just noticed that there’s even an Energy Drink mix that costs $6.99, so I’ll need to budget its recurring purchase from now until the day I die.

Pros

If you drink a fair amount of soda, carbonated water, tonic, and the like, then the Home Soda Maker is a god-send. It’ll save you from running to the store constantly and you’ll be creating far less waste, if that’s important to you. Plus, the non-diet soda flavors are made without high fructose corn syrup and the diet flavors are made with Splenda instead of aspartame. So if you don’t want to quit drinking soda cold turkey, this machine provides a relatively reasonable alternative.

You’ll also end up saving money in the long run. After the $229 equipment price, carbonated water will cost you 20 cents per liter and soda will cost you under 60 cents per liter, according to the company.

Cons

The $229 price tag may be off-putting to some. After all, it’s basically a machine that taps into a bottle of CO2 and transfers some of that CO2 to a bottle filled with water. And even though the machine only takes 30 seconds to fizz up the water, the whole process of buying mixes and CO2, along with the cost of doing so and the fact that it’s not going to taste exactly like your favorite brand-name beverage may keep people from getting involved. However, it might be that you like the homemade stuff better.

The CO2 bottles, too, seem kind of cumbersome to get refilled. You can either buy two new bottles for $50 or send your two empty bottles back and get two new ones for $25. You don’t actually send the empties back, though. Here’s how it works:

“Ordering a full Exchange Carbonator requires that you currently have an empty Carbonator to return to Soda-Club. Please have your existing empty carbonator ready for pick-up at the time of delivery of your full exchange carbonator. Most deliveries will be made between the hours of 6AM – 6PM. Please leave your empty carbonator outside by your front door beginning on the morning of the weekday following your order. For example, if you place your order on a Tuesday, leave your empty carbonator outside your front door as of Wednesday morning. Do NOT place in a shipping box. If you place your order on a Friday, leave your empty Carbonator outside your front door as of the following Monday morning. However, please be aware that it may take 5 - 7 business days to receive your order.”

Luckily there are retail distributors in most states, so you could handle the exchanges in person while you’re running errands. I’m not sure how long two empty bottles would last on my sidewalk in the middle of Boston.

Conclusion

Like I said earlier, you probably already know whether or not you want something like this. If the idea of making your own soft drinks and carbonated water is appealing to you, then the Penguin Home Soda Maker is great. It looks cool, it’s really easy to use, and the end product tastes good. And if your household already consumes a lot of carbonated beverages, you’ll end up saving time, money, and you won’t be constantly throwing away empty bottles and cans.

Penguin Home Soda Maker [SodaClub]

Source: CrunchGear | 16 Oct 2008 | 10:40 pm

AMD heavily trims 3Q loss, revenue up 14 pct (AP)

AP - Advanced Micro Devices Inc. surprised investors with a sharply reduced loss for the third quarter, as the computer chip maker received a large lump sum for licensed technologies. Its shares soared in extended trading.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 16 Oct 2008 | 10:32 pm

HP drops the low-end Mini-Note pricing, now starting at $399

Section: Computers, Mobile Computers, Laptops

Perhaps HP is making an effort to clear some inventory in preparation for a refresh of the Mini-Note or maybe they are just looking to offer a little more competition in the netbook market.  Either way, it seems it will be the consumer who will be the winner because they have just announced a new, lower price on the low-end Mini-Note models.

The Mini-Note pricing will now begin at just $399, which will give you a very capable netbook running SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 and features a 1.0GHz Via C7 processor, 8.9-inch display, 512MB of RAM, a 4GB SSD, VGA camera, and a 3-cell battery.

Additionally, if you are looking for something with a little more power and storage, the next model up will give you a 1.2GHz processor along with 1GB of RAM and a 120GB hard drive for just $50 more. The offer is currently available and runs through October 31.

Product [HP]

Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

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Source: Gadgetell | 16 Oct 2008 | 10:30 pm

Firefox Mobile not in the works for Android or iPhone

In an interview with Irish tech site Silicon Republic, Christian Sejersen, mobile director of engineering for Mozilla, has stated something which may crush the hopes and dreams of many: Firefox Mobile is not headed to the iPhone or the Android platform anytime in the foreseeable future.

The first part isn’t too surprising; it has been said by other members of the Mozilla team that it was a no go, as Apple’s licensing just wouldn’t allow it. That latter part, however, is a huge upset.

Much of Firefox’s success can be contributed to its geek following. At its conception, they were the folks being the most vocal about the product, telling friends and family, putting Firefox badges on their blogs, and convincing their local schools to install it. These are the people who are always scrutinizing what’s currently available, wondering “What’s next?” - the exact same crowd who will be tinkering with, and potentially advocating, Android.

So if not the iPhone or Android, where is Mobile Firefox headed? The Linux-based Nokia N810 internet tablet, at first. From there, it’ll make its way to both Windows Mobile Pro (touchscreen) and Standard (non-touchscreen). A bit of Google searching turns up this page, which further solidifies things: Currently, only Linux (GTK), Windows Mobile 6, and QT 4.4 are listed as goal platforms.

On the upside, Sejersen does verify that Firefox Mobile will have plug-in support, leaving the door open for mobile versions of the hundreds of extensions available for Firefox — and of course, Adobe Flash.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Source: MobileCrunch | 16 Oct 2008 | 10:27 pm

Special Report: My iPhone 3G battery life is strikingly better

Is there nothing Steve Jobs can’t do? After warning that a full recall or update would be required to get the IP3G to fighting trim, I’m pleased to note that this bastard now holds a charge like a champ. Before the latest update, my phone would literally be dead ten hours after being taken off the charger. I would wake up at 8am, pull it off the charger, and at about 6pm it would be near death and at about 8pm it would be completely dead. Not wishing to cheat fate I turned 3G off for the past few weeks but today I used 3G the whole day long and I’m still not even through half the battery.

Now, however, when I sit on the phone I get a No SIM error. You’re damned if you do, and, it seems, if you don’t. Anyone else seeing better performance?

Source: CrunchGear | 16 Oct 2008 | 10:25 pm

Tool To Allow ISPs To Scan Every File You Transmit

timdogg writes "Brilliant Digital Entertainment, an Australian software company, has grabbed the attention of the NY attorney general's office with a tool they have designed that can scan every file that passes between an ISP and its customers. The tool can 'check every file passing through an Internet provider's network — every image, every movie, every document attached to an e-mail or found in a Web search — to see if it matches a list of illegal images.' As with the removal of the alt.binary newgroups, this is being promoted under the guise of preventing child porn. The privacy implications of this tool are staggering."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 16 Oct 2008 | 10:03 pm

5 reasons damaging your MacBook is a worse idea now than ever before

Let me preface this by saying that I have a first generation MacBook Pro that has endured like a champ, going around the entire world with me, twice. It’s survived heat, cold, humidity, and when I left my bag in a bush somewhere in the hills of Luxembourg during a rainstorm, it shook off the wetness like a Portuguese water dog. So this isn’t about the durability of Macs in general. But this new generation seems to carry a little more risk with it. So here are a couple reasons why you might want to be a little more careful with that new Mac.

1. The glass screen is irreparable if broken (obviously)
We have no reason to doubt the strength of Apple’s glass display covers (iPhone and iPod Touch breakages were far below what everyone expected), but think about this: say a rogue spoon at a coffee shop puts a crack in your glass, but the screen works fine. You can’t just replace the glass; it’s fused with the entire upper half — inseparable from the LCD screen. So instead of replacing a $30 pane of glass, you’re repairing a $500-$600 display. Oops!
Estimated cost: $500

2. The unibody design means you can’t just replace the dented bit
Remember the white MacBooks that turned yellow when you used them? Luckily, you could replace the plastic top panel for a pretty low cost. With my MBP, a ding on the right side meant a similarly low-intensity solution. Now, the new manufacturing process is fantastic, and guarantees a more rigid and durable frame, but if something should happen to it… well, either you’re hammering it out or you’re paying for a whole new “brick.” And somehow I doubt they switched to this new process because it was so cheap.
Estimated cost: $250 (arbitrary)

3. It tells on you if you spill
There are moisture sensors at the bottom of the keyboard and the top of the trackpad, right where you usually spill your coffee. If they’re tripped, it’s a dead giveaway when sending it in for repairs or reselling it that it’s had a wet past. I spilled on mine once, screamed at the coffee shop, and flipped my MBP over in time to get most of it out. I then pried off the keys and sopped up all the rest. I’ve had absolutely no problems with it since then, and it may as well have not happened. And speaking of spills…
Estimated cost: 1/4 of the resale value, or the cost of a replacement

4. The keyboard is nearly impossible to fix or replace
Check out this great teardown of the MacBook Pro. Certainly takes them a while to get to the keyboard, doesn’t it? Oh, it’s the last page. That’s because between you and the keys is every single other component in the laptop. Get some grime in there? Some tea? Hope you like screws, because there are about 80 of them to take out and put back if you want to wipe that sucker down.
Estimated cost: $150 or you can do it yourself and break it trying

5. You’ll go down in history
The first guy to crack his nice MacBook screen with a Wiimote or whatever (why not) is going to be laughed at forever. Similarly the first guy who botches a keyboard replacement or sits on the thing and bends the chassis into a butt shape. Every gadget and catch-all site on the internet will have you, your name, and your photo up within hours, with headlines like “This is why we can’t have nice things” and “What a nerd!!!” Is that what you want? No? Then for god’s sake, be careful!
Estimated cost: Whatever your dignity is worth to you

So. Scared yet? Personally, I’m not letting the threat of expensive damages hang too heavily over my head. After all, as I mentioned, my currently lappy has taken abuse of every kind and is still going strong — although the battery is shot. It’s always been an costly proposition buying a Mac, and the prospect of losing a little more cash isn’t going to scare anybody off.

But god damn am I going to laugh when you sit on that thing next week.

Source: CrunchGear | 16 Oct 2008 | 9:58 pm

Rogers rumored to launch the BlackBerry Storm in time for Christmas

Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile

Some new reports are claiming that the BlackBerry Storm has been “confirmed” with Rogers, but keep in mind that while it has been confirmed, this is still far from an official announcement.  The information is coming courtesy of a call center employee and may be nothing more than a big ruse. 

You see, according to that employee, every call center worker was given a script that they are expected to read when asked about the release or availability of the BlackBerry Storm.

While the Storm would make for a great addition to Rogers current lineup of handsets, this is one that I am going to have to see to believe.  With the current hype and popularity surrounding the Storm, it seems strange that Rogers would release this information through call center employees and a script.  Of course, stranger things have happened in the past.  Unfortunately, at this time, I would have to knock that “confirmed” down to “rumored” at this point.

Via [BlackBerry Cool]

Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

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Source: Gadgetell | 16 Oct 2008 | 9:42 pm

HP Whispers Plans for Touchscreen Notebooks

Hewlett-Packard wants you to touch its products. There's no shame in that.

The Wall Street Journal cites "people familiar with the matter" saying that HP will roll out a touchscreen notebook by the end of the year. Beyond that, the sources weren't familiar enough with the matter to disclose any details on price or specifications.

The rumor shortly follows an earlier report by WSJ, which said HP is also planning to manufacture a touchscreen smartphone. But details of that report were equally scarce.

It's certainly believable that HP is sensitive to the ever-growing appeal to touchscreen devices, as made evident by the iPhone. And the touchscreen landscape is still a green pasture that a manufacturer has yet to claim. 

Think HP will be able to pull it off? I'm placing my bets on "No." My brain associates HP with dismal, gray printers. If HP hopes to grab this segment of the hardware ecosystem, the company's going to need to liven up its products with a lot more than just touchscreens.

Those are just my gut-reaction thoughts. I defer to you, Gadget Lab readers. What do you think about HP and touchscreens?

H-P Making Touch Screen Laptop [WSJ]

Photo: wlodi/Flickr

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 16 Oct 2008 | 9:36 pm

Contest: Beg and plead, ladies

CrunchGear, I’m afraid, wants to steal your honey like it stole your bike. To that end, we’re encouraging you to submit a snap of your sig. other/sister/mom/grandma/the woman in marketing/yourself if you are one of CrunchGear’s 2 female readers (Hi, Mom!) pleading for a new cellphone. Which cellphone you ask, and how can I get in on this action? Read on.

I have a new AT&T BlackJack II just burning a hole on my desk. Unfortunately, it’s the pink model so I figured someone out there might enjoy it. Your mission is to take a quick cameraphone pick of a female pleading - even wistfully - for the phone with something identifying CrunchGear in the frame - a sign, perhaps the website itself. Note: You cannot go to the Interweb, find a picture, and scratch the word CrunchGear on it. Email the photo to contest@crunchgear.com with the subject “BLACKJACK” and we’ll pick one entrant at random and create a slideshow of the entries. We’ll close up the contest next Tuesday, October 21, at noon Eastern. You don’t have to be Ansel Adams, here, people, so feel free to have fun. Multiple entries are allowed as long as they’re of different people.

Source: CrunchGear | 16 Oct 2008 | 9:30 pm

Qik ported to J2ME, no longer limited to smartphones and PDAs

In a rather monumental move in the mobile livecasting battle, Qik has announced that they are the first to have ported their streaming application to the J2ME platform. Why is this important? It opens the doors to feature phones - that is, handsets that wouldn’t fit under the smartphone/PDA umbrella

While the application will still have to be tweaked, polished, and tested on a handset-by-handset basis, this paves the way for mobile streaming on the billions of non-smartphone handsets around the world.

Right off the bat, they’ve announced Alpha support for a number of Nokia S40 and Sony Ericsson JP-8 handsets:

Nokia handsets now supported: 5300, 6300, 6500 classic, 6500 slide, Nokia 6555, Nokia 8800 Arte

Sony Ericsson handsets now supported: K850, K858, W890, W910, W908, K660, G502, Z750

They’re also looking for testers for a number of Nokia handsets - if you’ve got a Nokia or two laying around, check out this blog post to see if you can help verify compatibility.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Source: MobileCrunch | 16 Oct 2008 | 9:28 pm

E17, Slimmed Down For Cell Phones

twitter writes "Want to run Enlightenment on your cell phone? The Rasterman's recent efforts bring E17 to Open Moko FreeRunner and Treo 650: 'According to the Rasterman, when used with his updated illume stack and new Elementary widget set, E17 can now run in just 32MB of RAM, on an ARM9 processor clocked at 317MHz. To prove it, he is distributing a Linux kernel and E17/Illume/Elementary stack for Palm's Treo650. The stack can be launched from PalmOS without touching the device's flash storage, he says.' While Microsoft fumbles with limited 'instant on,' GNU/Linux rules the embedded world and that's the only thing going in the IT market right now."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 16 Oct 2008 | 9:19 pm

Obama, McCain Battle for Science Cred

Researchers say they are happy that science is finally taking center stage in U.S. politics.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 16 Oct 2008 | 9:05 pm

CEO Change At Twitter: Ev Williams Back At The Helm

We knew something was up. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey (pictured left) has stepped down, and co-founder Evan Williams moves from the Chairman role to CEO.

Williams talks about the change in a blog post: “While the board of directors and the company have nothing but praise for where Jack has taken us, we also agree that the best way forward is for Jack to step into the role Chairman, and for me to become CEO. Jack will remain on the board and be closely consulted for all strategic decisions”

Williams also praises Dorsey for growing the company to its current state, noting that the original idea for Twitter was his.

Twitter came at a time when the company’s first product, Odeo (a podcast service), was sort of going sideways, and was eventually sold off in mid 2007. Twitter quite literally saved the day for the company.

But Twitter has had more than its fair share of operational issues. And competitors like FriendFeed have evolved their services much more quickly that Twitter has been able to do.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Source: TechCrunch | 16 Oct 2008 | 9:00 pm

Botnets on cell phones in 2009? (CNET)

CNET - About 15 percent of all online computers are infected with bots, says a new report (PDF) on emerging threats for 2009 from Georgia Tech Information Security Center. And according to Patrick Traynor, assistant professor at Georgia Tech's School of Computer Science, "We'll start to see the botnet problem infiltrate the mobile world in 2009."
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 16 Oct 2008 | 8:51 pm

Hands-on with Sony JS series all-in-one. First impression: hot specs, great price, a bit plasticy

A tinkering at the local electronics emporium leads to the following conclusions about Sony's new JS-series all-in-one desktop PCs.

• The $1,100 model played around was very responsive, even with multiple apps open. Getting 4GB of RAM in the base config is a good move by Sony, that area being the one computer makers often skimp painfully on to drive prices down.

• It was very quiet: no fan noise could be heard, though the store was quite busy.

• Lotsa inputs, with 5 USB ports (2 on the side of the display), a hardware WiFi on-off switch, S/PDIF an iLink connector and a a Memory Stick/SD card reader.

• The 500 GB hard drive, offered in all configs, is nice and expansive.

• The 20-inch, 1680 x 1050 display is pretty, but nothing fancy. Sound from the dual 3W speakers isn't going to be enough for people who like their movies and music loud.

• The case, which looks aluminum in ads, is just silver plastic. It's O.K., and doesn't detract from the minimalist design, but does make it visibly less beautiful than, say, an iMac.

• Its mouse is nasty: small, plastic and wired. The keyboard is also curiously fat.

• You won't be doing hardcore gaming, given the pairing of a E5200 Core 2 Duo CPU and Intel Mobile X4500HD video chip.

• Blu-Ray in an all-in-one desktop, especially a reasonably-priced one, is a killer. Though the Blu model is more expensive ($1,400) you also get a much faster CPU too. With an E8400, it should beat any iMac in productivity performance apart from the 3 GHz 24-incher, which is $850 more.

First impression: Sony's JS offers very strong hardware fundamentals for the price, though the trim, including peripherals, aren't perfect. Consider as an alternative to the iMac or HP's own AIO if you want Blu or powerful specs without having to pay too much.

VAIO® JS Series Desktop PC [SonyStyle]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 16 Oct 2008 | 8:48 pm

Google Open About Kill Switch in Android Phones (NewsFactor)

NewsFactor - Although T-Mobile's G1 smartphone with Google's Android mobile operating system won't be formally launched until Oct. 22, observers are busy peering under the hood and reading the fine print. One feature is sure to cause some comment: A remote kill switch that will let Google wipe out any application that violates the developer distribution agreement for Android apps.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 16 Oct 2008 | 8:45 pm

Liveblogging Google Third Quarter Conference Call

Google just released third quarter earnings. It reported revenues of $5.4 billion (about $4 billion after traffic acquisition costs are taken out, which is what Wall Street looks at) and profits of $1.3 billion. The $4 billion in revenues is right around what investors were expecting, and non-GAAP net income of $4.92 a share was well above the $4.79 consensus. Better control over costs contributed significantly to the upside surprise with capital expenditures down 18% from a year ago to $452 million.

Here are my liveblog notes from the call:

CEO Eric Schmidt: Google had a good quarter. Traffic and revenue were both solid. Search query traffic is growing in almost every vertical. As marketing budgets are being squeezed, targetable ads are more valuable to advertisers. And as consumer budgets are being squeezed, people are using the Web for more comparison shopping to hunt for bargains online and in stores.

It is pretty clear the economic situation is worse than even a month ago. What started off as a financial crisis appears to be affecting the wider economy. We are all in uncharted territory. We have always managed for the long term. That is more important than ever.

Search, which is Google’s core, is where we are putting a lot of our investment. Better search, better ads, index side getting larger, better personalization. More highly relevant ads against as many queries as possible. Better tools.

So the opportunities in addition to search and ads are in apps, in display by improving targetting.
Doubleclick doing great
YouTube now running ads against 90% of partners using content ID tool.
Mobile, geo-targeted ads is a big opportunity.

Along the way we are going to keep a close eye on cost. Sergey likes to say, “scarcity builds clarity.”

I think it is a great focusing opportunity for Google as well.

We are confident about the enduring power of the Web. Fundamentally people are moving to the Internet, using information in a smarter way, Google is a beneficiary.

CFO:

We had another solid q, despite a challenging economic environment

gross revenue up 31 % yoy to $5.5B
Google.com was up 34% yoy to $2.7B
AdSense up 15% yoy to $1.7B

paid click growth up 18% yoy, up 4% q over q
US revenues up 22% yoy to $2.7B, up 5% q over q

International revenue:

UK showed some softness, essentially flat Q over Q,

rest of EMEA performed better, relatively good performance in Netherlands and Germany,.

Also good performance in Brazil and China.

Expenmses:

Traffic Acquisition Costs (TAC) were $1.5B or 27.9% of total advertising revenues, down from 28.4% in Q2.

AdSense was TAC $1.3B
Google TAC was $167M

We may see additional pressures on TAC rates going forward.

Majority of capex going to data centers.

Free cash flow from operations up 61%.

While we are focused on operational efficiency.

With great uncertainty also comes tremendous opportunity.

Sergey Brin: Let me update you on improvements in the quarter.

Increased the size of the index. Every 4 hours we index as much information as the entire U.S. Library of conference.

For second quarter in a row we have launched more than 100 improvements in search. More than one per day. A very important feature: Google Suggest running in ten countries. This really helps users and speeds them up more than you might think. As you type we suggest queries.

We continue to blend more and more of those {books, video results} into the main page of results. If you search for Michael Phelps, you will see videos and whatnot. This is very powerful.

People think of video as entertainment, but video is a really good reference material. And often people don’t think to search for video.

On the business front, advertising remains the vast majority of our revenues, and we continue to improve our ad systems.

We have made changes in how we rate landing pages. We want to make sure that when people click on ads they are taken to useful sites so they are encouraged to click on more ads.

We have also worked hard on display ads,with DoubelClick integrated. Launched AdSense for games. Already our network reaches 10 percent of people who play [Flash games} two weeks after launch.

Click to buy feature on YouTube. Now people can click to buy a CD or a video or other content that is relevant t that video. This presents great monetization opportunities.

We also have been investing a lot on geographic and local information. Google Maps. We launched map maker.

Android launching with T-Mobile. It really integrates Google services nicely on the phone. The G1 is just the first of a number of phones that will hopefully be building phones.

Enterprise: N ow more than one million business using Google Apps. A lot of demand for video in businesses.

Now over 1 million students are sing Google Apps. Indiana, Univ. of Virginia, George Washington.

Something I am really excited about, launch off Google Chrome. As you know we create a lot of Web services. A Challenge to us to have a platform to run those services reliably. Now if you have a problem with one tab in your browser you can just kill that tab and the rest of the browser runs fine.

It raises the bar for all browsers. We want all browsers to be more capable.

Q&A

Q: What about economy, have you seen business weakening?

Schmidt: We see fluxuations, and they are more complex than they appear. Obviously they are going to change as the global financial crisis goes through.

Hal Varian: In the past few weeks, obsessions with financial markets, huge increase in queries on [financial topics].

Mark Mahaney: Do you cut back on operating costs or would you delay investment opportunities like mobile? Also what in display advertising could be fixed?

Schmidt: In the question of investments, Google has shown courage when we need to.

CFO: Fund

Sergey: On display, certainly a lot of opportunities. Let’s not forget that when we first got started with AdWords it took a number of years for that to catch up to what was then the big numbers. I think we might see the same with display. Even though it might be more brand focused, you still want them to be targeted. You still want to reach the right people. We might have better measurement tools. We now have a access to vast inventory, DoubleClick, and properties like YouTube and Orkut.

We are not just talking about banner ads for Webpages. It includes AdSense for games, feeds, video. So a lot of opportunity.

Q: What about U.S. government investigation?

Schmidt: Essentially says people don’t understand how the auction pricing works.

Q: About coverage?

Hal Varian: People focus on aggregate cost per click. aggregated across the world. We don’t think it reflects advertiser behavior. They are buying every click we can give them. Because they don’t want to turn away a customer.

Q: Query volumes from mobile?

Schmidt: We have seen publicly that we are seeing an explosion in mobile search volumes. this is being enabled by these devices with more powerful browsers. The compound growth rate is one of the fastest growing things at the company.

Q: Ebay saw weakness, how will that affect you?

Hal: We saw weakness in U.S retail. but we believe people will be counting their penny, could have an upside for Google. As people shop more carefully they may research more what they buy. this is speculative, but we think it might benefit Google.

Q: A little more clarification to improvement in margins. Was that through better AdSense deals, or through expense controls.

?: Across all categories of expenses people have been very diligent. On specifics of hiring, we continue to hire, we just do it responsibly.

Schmidt: I am not aware of a change on the ad partnership side that would result in a margin change.

Q: Capex is at low point since 2006. Is Capex starting to normalize. Sergey talked about geo and local as big monetization opportunities. we’ve talked about it along time, are we closer to cracking the code on that?

?: Capex is lumpy business, think about data centers going up. We have no plans of slowing down. You just see the nature of that lumpiness. Every extra unit of capacity is cheaper for us.

Q: Was any capex pushed out to Q4?

?: No, none.

Sergey; Mobile and local is a big opportunity but it will be a big bootstrap time because you have to get all the small business in line, and in mobile so many technologies. We will have But we also have substantial revenues from geolocation. this is a good chunk of our business. When there is some settling of the dust in user experience, in both mobile and on the desktop, I think you will see a ramp up.

? this is an area where we are winning Google Maps is the biggest mapping site. On local, taking info like reviews, photos, web results and embedding it on the map. You an now do things like click on street view and see the restaurant. One of the coolest Maps sites I have seen, go to Swisstrains.ch, to see precision of swiss trains in real time.

Q: Can you talk about the rollout of quality score initiative? The scoring index for the syndication network, rating each partner out there.

Schmidt: it is actually in the process of being launched, plan is to get it rolled it early next year.

Q: How often will the scoring system change?

Schmidt: We tend to be dynamic because these systems have feedback in them.

Sergey: It is worth adding have had this system in place for AdSense for content for a long time, extension to AdSense for search. Some of our bigger customers.

Schmidt: From my perspective a lot of stuff going on around the world, there are a lot of actions we hope our governments do well. We have the responsibility to run Google well. We want to build a great future.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Source: TechCrunch | 16 Oct 2008 | 8:40 pm

HTC Touch HD hitting European shores come November 6th

Oh, HTC Touch HD. Regardless of your Windows Mobile core and the fact that we’ll never see you state side, I still love you. I’m pretty sure our gadget geek cohorts in Europe will as well, so we’ve got a bit of good news for them: according to Unwired View, Europeans will be able to nab one of these lovely little beasts as soon as November 6th.

This 3.8 inch screen rockin’, 5 megapixel camera sportin’ handset won’t come cheap, mind you - expect it to set you back 649€. At right around $870 USD, best of luck to anybody hoping to import one of these without breaking the bank.

Crunch Network: TechCrunch obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies

Source: MobileCrunch | 16 Oct 2008 | 8:40 pm

iRobot Out of Scooba Robotic Mops

If you are considering buying a Scooba robotic floor cleaner from iRobot in the next few days, it may take a little longer than you expect for the product to be delivered.

All models of the Scooba are sold out on iRobot's website. One of the company's most popular models, the Scooba 350, has been out of stock for nearly two months.

"This is an inventory issue," says Charles Vaida, a spokesperson for iRobot in a statement."It doesn't have to do with any changes in the manufacturing process or a restructuring of our Scooba line."

Currently iRobot's website, a major sales channel for the company, is offering a three to four weeks timeline for the Scoobas to ship. However, major online retailers such as Amazon.com and Bed, Bath & Beyond have products available immediately.

The stock out on iRobot's website is the result of unexpectedly high sales in the last few months, claims iRobot.

Till recently iRobot had been offering special prices for the Scooba on the Home Shopping Network. For instance, it made the Scooba 340 and the robotic vacuum Roomba 535 model available for $400 compared to the regular price of $650.

The HSN special sold out, says Vaida, and iRobot is working to replenish its stock of units.

The good news for potential buyers is that iRobot says it will be fully stocked for the holiday season.

 Photo: Scooba/iRobot

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 16 Oct 2008 | 8:31 pm

Environmentalists Cheer on Apple for Getting Greener

An environmental group is applauding Apple for its new laptop manufacturing process, which reduces the use of harmful chemicals.

Greenpeace, an environmental blog, commends Apple for cutting down on the amount of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) used in its notebooks and new cinema display. The new products' internal power cables are now PVC-free, and Apple says it's continuing to work toward completely PVC-free products.

And although some parts of the notebooks still contain the chemical, Apple eliminated their use of two other toxic chemicals, chlorine and bromine, Steve Jobs said in his "Greener Apple" statement.

"By far the most significant announcement that will resonate within the industry is fact that Apple is on course to be completely PVC and BFR free across in product range by end 2008," Greenpeace writes. "This will be a first for a computer maker and lays down the challenge to competitors such as HP, Dell, Lenovo, Acer and Toshiba.... there's no excuse for any of these companies not to follow Apple's lead on toxic chemicals elimination now and not wait until the end of 2009."

Since 1987, Greenpeace has been advocating a global phase-out of PVC -- a widely used thermoplastic polymer -- claiming that the chemical produces dioxin, a dangerous carcinogen, during the manufacturing process.

Jobs also promises that Apple will constantly recycle the cuttings and waste resulting from the new manufacturing process, which involves using lasers and water jets to shape notebooks out of bricks of aluminum.

Steve Jobs greener Apple update [GreenPeace]

Photo: Darren Hester/Flickr

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 16 Oct 2008 | 8:28 pm

Build Your Own 3D Movie Clips In A Flash With Xtranormal

Try out Xtranormal, a 3D movie building startup that launched last week, and there’s a good chance you won’t get any work done for the rest of the afternoon. As Ouriel Ohayon reported on TechCrunch France last night, the site allows users to quickly build their own 3D video clips out of a variety of models and backdrops using an intuitive drag and drop interface.

To begin creating a scene, you choose from either a set of “realistic” actors that resemble the characters in the Sims, or a set of Lego-like cartoony models. The site then presents you with a “script”, which you can fill out with text that you’d like the actors to recite in a computer-generated voice. You can also drag and drop actions for each character into the script, like facial emotions and gestures. And if you’d really like total control over the scene, you can manually position the camera (the site will automatically place it if you’d rather not deal with this).

Xtranormal clips don’t look anything like the 3D movies you see from the likes of Pixar or Dreamworks - characters look goofy, backgrounds are minimally detailed, and there are a limited number of possible animations. But the movies have a certain charm to them that makes their quality irrelevant. And because you can make them say whatever you want, they have endless possibility. Friends could easily recreate some of the classic memories they’ve shared with hilarious effect, and it’s hard not to crack up when a familiar movie scene is acted out by some Lego-like characters (see above for a great example).

There are a number of other sites like Oddcast, Gizmoz, and Beema that let users create their own 3D characters, but most of them are confined to avatars, not entire scenes.

Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors

Source: TechCrunch | 16 Oct 2008 | 8:20 pm

Blackwater Says It Will Fight Somalia's Pirates

Security analysts and the Somali government publicly flirt with the idea of hiring mercenaries to stop the pirates that are terrorizing east Africa. Now, the notorious guns-for-fire at Blackwater respond to the call, with a resounding arrrr!!!!!

Source: Wired Top Stories | 16 Oct 2008 | 8:14 pm

Oobject Gallery: Monocoque design and the new MacBook

David Galbraith of Oobject trained as an architect, which always makes his commentary on the design of gadgetry come at interesting angles to that of regular ol' techdorks like me. I'm going to quote his latest write-up nearly in its entirety, but leave the actual Oobject gallery for you to go explore.

Apple's refresh of the Macbook line this fall is more evolutionary than revolutionary. In terms of design they have continued the trend, which started with the iPhone (see the drilled headphone jack hole on the original model) towards machining directly from block metal. This has lead to the latest Macbooks as being described as having monocoque structures, something which may not strictly be false but which is meaningless in the context.

A monocoque is a single piece shell structure, it is a nice sounding word and is often used in marketing literature because it sounds technical. Because of this, and because of the fact that things like commercial airliners are hybrids of frame and shell structures almost anything can be described as such. There is a perfect geodesic truss in the list below which is described as a monocoque shell structure (the opposite), while an ordinary soda can is a monocoque.

The use of machining for Apple parts has more to do with tolerances and finish and almost nothing to do with structure, so the term is not relevant.

Below we discuss the merits of things which are described as monocoque - but as for the Macbook, not really.

Mythbusting the Macbook monocoque from an architect's perspective [Oobject]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 16 Oct 2008 | 8:13 pm

The Bee Gee's 'Stayin' Alive' Could Save Your Life

The Bee Gee's 1977 hit song "Stayin' Alive" has just about the perfect tempo for performing chest compressions during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), according to the American Heart Association.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 16 Oct 2008 | 8:13 pm

Gadget Lab Videoblog: Google Phone's OS Has Serious Chops, Still No iPhone Killer ... Yet

Is the first 'Google' phone, HTC's G1, truly ready to free the wireless web, or is it a half-baked version that's only acceptable to those trapped in the T-Mobile ghetto? 

In this week's Wired Gadget Lab Videoblog, Daniel Dumas and Joe Brown take a first look at the highly anticipated multimedia phone and find that it is still not as good as the iPhone.

While the handset comes with interesting features, like the quality Android OS, the OK 3G network and some useful applications, the unexciting hardware design and not-quite-there feature set stands out. There's no headphone jack, no multitouch and a half-baked App Store!

If the video below is not working, please click here to view it: Gadget Lab Videoblog: Review of the First Google Phone.

You can also check out all of our previous videos at Wired's channel on YouTube.

This episode of the Gadget Lab Videoblog was created by Annaliza Savage (producer), Henry Young (camera), and Fernando Cardoso (editor).

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 16 Oct 2008 | 8:04 pm

Google Android also includes “kill switch” for unwanted apps

Section: Communications, Cellphones, Smartphones, Mobile, Web, Google

It seems that the Apple iPhone is not the only handset to feature include a remote kill switch.  A small but revealing piece of the Android Market terms of service has revealed that the remote removal of an application may be possible.

“Google may discover a product that violates the developer distribution agreement . . . in such an instance, Google retains the right to remotely remove those applications from your device at its sole discretion.”

Hopefully this will be used for apps that may do some damage, or cause issues with the handset and not for apps that T-Mobile does not want. 

But aside from just what may be killed, it will be a little more interesting to see just how quickly someone develops an app that will be able to kill or at least disable the kill switch.  Similarly, the iPhone has such an app, it is part of Boss Prefs which is available through Cydia for jailbroken phones.

A nice part of the kill switch in Android is that it may possibly help to get rid of a malicious application because unlike the App Store, the Android Marketplace does not have the same scrutiny before the apps are listed.  While I hate to agree with the kill switch, I think that at least in this case it may do more good than harm.

In regards to any paid apps that are killed, Google has stated that they will make “reasonable efforts to recover the purchase price of the product . . . from the original developer on your behalf.” Of course, as of now, all of the apps in the Android Marketplace will be listed for free, so that should be something to worry about down the line.

Read [Computer World]

Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

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Source: Gadgetell | 16 Oct 2008 | 8:03 pm

Major Shakeup At Twitter

We’re still trying to get exact details, but there is some kind of major shakeup happening at Twitter. May be a leadership change and/or layoffs. We’ll update here shortly.

Update: CEO Jack Dorsey steps down, Chairman Ev Williams takes over.

Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors

Source: TechCrunch | 16 Oct 2008 | 8:01 pm

Brain's Response to Tasty Food May Predict Obesity

When the brain doesn't get gratification from food, people may overeat, research finds.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 16 Oct 2008 | 7:10 pm

Video: Google Phone's OS Has Serious Chops

Joe Brown and Daniel Dumas of Wired's product reviews team sit and wax elegant about the oft-touted, relentlessly hyped, finally realized Google G1 with Android. Our main findings? Great OS — remarkable for version 1.0 — but still in need of some better hardware.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 16 Oct 2008 | 7:04 pm

Google G1 Slam-Dunks Software, Airballs Hardware

The Google G1 is here and it ain't half bad. The software is top notch — impressive for the first iteration of any cellphone OS. It's easy to use, completely intuitive and totally open source. The phone itself on the other hand leaves much to be desired. A tad clunky, bulky and repetitive, we're looking forward to the day when Android is loaded on top-shelf hardware.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 16 Oct 2008 | 7:01 pm

Arctic Temps Reach Record Highs

On top of a record ice melt, autumn temperatures in the Arctic are higher than ever.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 16 Oct 2008 | 6:55 pm

AdMob: By ad request count, the iPhone is now ranked 4th worldwide

Each month, AdMob, a mobile advertisement marketplace, analyzes their ad request/impression data to look for trends in the mobile world. This morning, they released their Mobile Metrics Report for September of 2008. As their first report was for September of 2007, this release grants us the first opportunity to compare statistics with those of a year ago.

To clarify, these statistics are generated by the number of ad impressions/requests they get from each handset across the 5,000+ sites they serve. While such numbers may correlate to sales, these do not directly represent sales numbers.

Top 10 mobile handsets in the US, September of 2007 vs September of 2008:

Perhaps to the chagrin of hardcore phone geeks around the country, the Motorola RAZR V3 and the Motorola KRZR K1c continue to dominate the top of the charts. In a bit of a surprising turn of events, Motorola has also dethroned RIM for the #3 and #4 spots, filling them with the W385 and Z6m. This gives Motorola 4 of the 5 top US handset spots - 3 of which are flip phones, with the other (the Z6m) being a slider.

Besides the RAZR V3, KRZR K1c, and BlackBerry 8100, the other 7 handsets broke into the US Top 10 over the last 12 months.

Top 10 mobile handsets in the UK, September of 2007 vs September of 2008:

Things look a bit different in the UK, without even a single Motorola appearance in the Top 10. The Sony Ericsson Cybershot K800i remains popular, though it has been bumped down to the number two spot by the dual-sliding Nokia N95. Sony Ericsson dominates the list with 5 of the 10 spots, with Apple’s iPhone sneaking in at #6.

Top 10 Handsets Worldwide, September of 2007 vs September of 2008:

Like in the US, the RAZR V3 leads the worldwide chart. The KRZR has been bumped down a notch, its spot now occupied by the Nokia N70. Growing in popularity with Apple now focusing on worldwide expansion, the iPhone now sits in the number four spot. (Note: AdMob also counts ad impressions within iPhone applications, not just within the browser.)

Being that the iPhone doesn’t break the top 5 in either the US or the UK (or even the top 20 in South Africa, India, or Indonesia, which collectively make up 32% of AdMob’s request traffic), it’s a bit surprising to see it shoot up to 4th world wide. I’ve sent a request to AdMob for some insight on the matter.

Update: Their response:

35% of iPhone impressions are actually outside of the US and UK. AdMob sees over 1 million iPhone requests from 14 different countries, which is why the worldwide number is so strong and the iPhone is higher in the WW ranking than in the US.

AdMob will also be providing a geographic breakout of iPhone traffic in the coming months.

Interesting facts gleaned from the report:

• The top 20 handsets worldwide account for 33.2% of impressions
• Worldwide, 64% of ad requests from smartphones come from Symbian handsets. In the US, that number drops down to 2%. In India, it shoots up to 97%.
• Even though it is long since obsolete in the Sidekick series, the Danger Sidekick II is the only Danger handset to break the Top 20 in the US.
• Kyocera phones account for almost 60% of requests made by MetroPCS customers
• Worldwide, 79.5% of handsets requesting ads support polyphonic ringtones. In the US, this drops to 54%. In India and the Philippines it rockets to 85.7% and 85.2% respectively, with the UK close behind at 83.5%.

There’s a whole lot of data to dig through in the full report. If you’re looking to crunch some numbers, check it out here.

Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors

Source: MobileCrunch | 16 Oct 2008 | 6:16 pm

Dead Star Flings Gamma Rays in Pulses

A new gamma ray telescope makes a surprising discovery in a young supernova.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 16 Oct 2008 | 6:05 pm

Titanic Survivor Sells Momentos to Pay for Care

Millvina Dean, 96, sells items related to the Titanic disaster to pay her nursing home.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 16 Oct 2008 | 6:05 pm

Alltel and LG feel the Rhythm

Sure, it’s not the most unique looking handset ever (most passersby would probably just assume its an LG Chocolate), but for $119.99, the new LG Rhythm for Alltel packs a bit of punch on the music phone front. In addition to the always-welcome 3.5mm headset jack, they’ve packed an FM transmitter into the handset for pushin’ your tunes to your car radio without a mess of adapters.

To make your jams sound their best, they’ve set up with music player with Digital Signal Processing and a graphic equalizer polished and prepped by audio idol Mark Levinson. Beyond the music feature set, it’s got a 2-inch LCD display, a 1.3 megapixel camera (takes stills and videos), Bluetooth 2.0, and supports for microSD cards up to 16GB.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Source: MobileCrunch | 16 Oct 2008 | 5:00 pm

Original 'Gladiator's' Tomb Unearthed in Rome

Archaeologists say they have uncovered the tomb of gladiator Marcus Nonius Macrinius.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 16 Oct 2008 | 2:48 pm

Crumbling Glacier Quakes as It Breaks

Crashing icebergs may be the source of Greenland's mysterious "glacier quakes."
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 16 Oct 2008 | 1:33 pm

Duck-Billed Dinosaurs Emitted Eerie Sounds

Duck-billed dinosaurs may have used their nasal passages to make low, eerie calls.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 16 Oct 2008 | 1:15 pm