At the 2-day Microsoft sponsored Professional Developers Conference which started yesterday, Microsoft gave a sneak peak at its upcoming Windows 7 OS as well as a preview of its newest take on cloud computing via a web-based application of its Microsoft Office application - Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote.
Microsoft plans to deliver the full-version of Windows 7 as early next year, and it is already encouraging professional developers to get their gears going to come up with great applications that would enhance the productivity value of its follow-up to the much maligned Windows Vista.
With Windows 7, Microsoft promises to make computing tasks faster and easier with the following features; enhanced privacy and data protection, streamlined and simplified computer tasks that users do often via a new taskbar and simplified and yet sleek looking user interface, and more choices on how users interact their PCs, including multi-touch gestures.
Aside from the pre-beta release of Windows 7 which were handed out to developers, Microsoft has also previewed its upcoming web-based application which would bring its premiere office application suite to the web. That’s right, Microsoft is finally making lighter versions of Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint and OneNote available online.
These applications will be available through Microsoft’s Office Live service for individual users. Enterprise-wide users can opt to get a hosted subscription and expand existing volume licensing programs to use these office application online. Interestingly, all four applications will be compatible not only with Microsoft’s web browser, Internet Explorer but also with rival browsers including Firefox and Safari. And yes, this web service is definitely a direct rival of Google Docs.
Thankfully, with the success that Google Docs has gathered since it was made available for everyone, it would take a lot of effort from Microsoft to be at par with Google Docs. We expect to see more advanced features on Microsoft’s web-based office application.
(TrendHunter.com) Alphabet soup for Obama, Sarah Palin Cabbage Patch dolls, Will Ferrell as Bush and Palin and Obama Dancing with the Stars and political Halloween Costume Ideas for your baby. These... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 30 Oct 2008 | 1:14 pm
(TrendHunter.com) The recent announcement of the winners of the Opus Design Award brought about some pretty cool innovations in practical and designer eyewear. Solving some of the difficulties encountered... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 30 Oct 2008 | 12:59 pm
(TrendHunter.com) David Letterman is known for his occasional roasting of socialites and their culture. Who could forget his post-prison Paris Hilton interview? Now, Dave Letterman has ripped into... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 30 Oct 2008 | 12:18 pm
Google Knol, which we’ve likened to a monetizable Wikipedia upon launch, has quietly released three international versions today, enabling French, German and Italian speaking experts (or people who like to think they are experts) to contribute so-called ‘units of knowledge’ to the site.
The success of Google Knol has been less than stellar (traffic is stagnating) and the site is often criticized for featuring articles that are simply not accurate. To be fair, Knol has only been released for about four months, and It obviously takes more time than that to build a repository of the world’s collective knowledge.
Expanding into other countries could give Google some more momentum and increase the numbers of expert articles significantly over time.
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AP - Home entertainment trendsetters Netflix Inc. and TiVo Inc. are finally joining forces to deliver more movies and old TV episodes to their mutual subscribers, consummating a relationship that was supposed to come together four years ago.
Project Playlist sure is on our radar lately. The service, which lets users search for music on the web and build embeddable playlists, has 9.3 million unique monthly visitors and a whopping 822 million monthly page views according to Comscore.
But the company has been acting very strangely. First, the service has been down since at least Monday along with the message “We are doing some upgrades. We will be back online shortly.” Not a good sign for a company that’s generating roughly 30 million daily page views when its live.
We’ve heard rumors of a big financing, but they’re also in the middle of RIAA litigation which will likely suck any capital out of the company for royalty licensing fees.
We’ve heard rumors that ex-facebook Chief Revenue Officer Owen Van Natta is the company’s new CEO (and have confirmed that he was “highly interested” in the job as of a week ago). Company employees are boasting they have a new ex-Facebook CEO, so putting 2 and 2 together…
So why isn’t the company talking? They aren’t responding to press inquiries, and Van Natta is silent as well.
RIAA litigation. A dead site. Funding rumors. Big name CEO hire. What’s going on? Hello?
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Reuters - Motorola Inc posted a third-quarter net loss and revenue fell a steeper-than-expected 15 percent as the company struggled to regain its footing in the cell phone market.
AP - Pokemon, Mario and the Wii are as hot as ever, but the onset of a headstrong yen forced Nintendo Co. to prune its money-making ambitions Thursday.
(TrendHunter.com) Olympic sprint athlete Marion Jones gave her first post-prison interview to Oprah on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Marion Jones was released last month from a Texas federal prison after... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 30 Oct 2008 | 11:25 am
(TrendHunter.com) Olympic sprint athlete Marion Jones gave her first post-prison interview to Oprah on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Marion Jones was released last month from a Texas federal prison after... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 30 Oct 2008 | 11:25 am
(TrendHunter.com) Olympic sprint athlete Marion Jones gave her first post-prison interview to Oprah on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Marion Jones was released last month from a Texas federal prison after... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 30 Oct 2008 | 11:25 am
Reuters - A "Star Wars" inspired hover chair, a speedy electric motorbike and stereo speakers that cost as much as a small house are among the attractions at Britain's biggest gadget show in London this weekend. Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 30 Oct 2008 | 11:20 am
RADUS (pronounced “radius”) is a new media hub that serves as an aggregator for content that includes RSS feeds, videos, photos, and music. And while the site certainly isn’t the first to bring all of these together, it does so in a very slick way and makes for great eye candy.
The site’s interface consists of a large media viewer on the left situated next to a smaller panel for browsing file types. Written content (like blog posts from RSS feeds) is displayed in a multi-column format that resembles a magazine article. Similarly, the media panel displays videos and images where appropriate. Unfortunately the sidebar isn’t very effective when it comes to searching for content, as it doesn’t leave enough space to describe a given video.
At launch the site is drawing content from a number of sources including Flickr (for photos), Hulu and CBS (videos), and over a hundred hand selected RSS feeds (you can add your own if one you like isn’t on the site).
RADUS probably won’t appeal to power users already set in their ways with daily visits to Google Reader and Hulu - it simply isn’t very efficient when it comes to consuming content. But for users just looking for some media to pass the time, RADUS makes for a good (and nice looking) alternative.
The company says it is currently porting the RADUS platform to new media devices, with desktop and mobile support underway.
Note: RADUS says that users of Firefox 3 should use www.radus.com (no http) to access the site.
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Scate Technologies, Inc. (Scate) has released Scate Ignite 4 Home, a personal version of its popular Scate Ignite 4 social media creation software with publishing options for dozens of social media sites and devices. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 30 Oct 2008 | 11:00 am
Canadian police say a 15-year-old Ontario boy missing for 17 days in a parental dispute over his Xbox usage could be in the United States. Brandon Crisp left his home in Barrie, 70 miles north of Toronto, Oct. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 30 Oct 2008 | 11:00 am
MessageLabs, the leading provider of messaging and web security services to businesses worldwide, today announced the results of its MessageLabs Intelligence Report for October 2008. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 30 Oct 2008 | 11:00 am
By Edward C. Baig Would your kids rather watch a DVD in the car, or surf the Web, connect with friends inside social networks and download music? Chances are it's the latter. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 30 Oct 2008 | 11:00 am
MOSCOW, October 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Mobile TeleSystems OJSC ("MTS"), , the largest mobile phone operator in Russia and the CIS, and Vodafone today announce a strategic, non equity partnership to provide customers with high quality communications services and to collaborate jointly on future technological developments. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 30 Oct 2008 | 11:00 am
Fluke Networks, provider of innovative Network SuperVision Solutions(TM) for the testing, monitoring and analysis of enterprise and telecommunications networks, announces the availability of a new publication, the "Application Troubleshooting Guide." This new guide helps network engineers understand how applications flow across the network and how they fail, and provides a five-step process for troubleshooting application problems when they occur. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 30 Oct 2008 | 11:00 am
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- In response to the challenging economic climate and consumer online shopping preferences, PriceGrabber.com(R), a part of Experian, today announced the launch of its 100 percent free shipping site located at http://freeshipping.pricegrabber.com/. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 30 Oct 2008 | 11:00 am
Google has settled several copyright suits with the publishing consortium Association of American Publishers and the Authors Guild, clearing the way for the company to provide online access to copyrighted books. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 30 Oct 2008 | 11:00 am
Enterprise IT professionals have been grappling with how to tweak their IT infrastructure to assist and manage employees who use Apple iPhones. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 30 Oct 2008 | 11:00 am
The Boobie-Thon is a silly name for an awesome enterprise: a Web 2.0-powered movement to raise money for fighting breast cancer. For inspiration, the site encourages you to submit and/or view topless photos... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 30 Oct 2008 | 10:28 am
Last month AOL began releasing parts of its new tear-down-the-walls home page strategy, allowing users to view email from Yahoo and Gmail. Today they launch the rest of the new features (we had a leaked... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 30 Oct 2008 | 10:06 am
Last month AOL began releasing parts of its new tear-down-the-walls home page strategy, allowing users to view email from Yahoo and Gmail.
Today they launch the rest of the new features (we had a leaked screen shot here). Users can log into social networks (Bebo, MySpace, Facebook and AIM) to view news feeds and update status. Bookmarks can be added to the top left of the page, and a feed reader is included at the bottom of the screen. AOL is also inserting direct inks to third party news sources via Relegence, a company they acquired in 2006 and began integrating into AOL Finance in late 2007.
The new home page is being rolled out to users in stages, but you can access it here.
AOL Homepage Growing While Competitors Stagnate
AOL, the smallest of the big four portals (if you care to call Google a portal), has had significant homepage growth over the last year. Unique visitors have grown 14% to 33 million, total minutes on the site have grown 50% to 600 million, page views are up 43% to a billion, and total visits have increased 16% to 440 million (Comscore worldwide). Stats for the competitors are below. Everyone is up at least a little in unique visitors, but page views, total minutes and total visits have declined at MSN and Yahoo.
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AP - Intel Corp. announced Thursday it will join the Taiwanese government in setting up a Linux software center in Taiwan to help better market locally produced laptops and mobile Internet devices to the world.
The Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers VC got a lot of attention for his list, which he culled from a survey of 18 of the companies his firm has invested in.
Doerr was on an investors panel with Ram Shriram, one of Google’s first investors, Ron Conway, Kittu Kolluri of New Enterprise Associates and Matt Cohler of Benchmark Capital.
I moderated the second panel of entrepreneurs, including: Toni Schneider, chief executive of Automattic, the company that makes the WordPress blogging software; Max Levchin of Slide, Jason Calacanis of Mahalo; and Nirav Tolia of Web 1.0’s Epinions. Video of interviews with them and also Shriram to come later today!
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- In response to the challenging economic climate and consumer online shopping preferences, PriceGrabber.com(R), a part of Experian,... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 30 Oct 2008 | 9:07 am
This post is syndicated with permission from GamerFront.net When the New Xbox Experience launches next month, 360 owners will have the opportunity to stream Netflix movies to their console. This is something... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 30 Oct 2008 | 9:06 am
By Luke Anderson When I was a kid, I always enjoyed gifts that required me to assemble something. LEGOs and Erector Sets were always great, but one of my favorites was this DIY radio kit that I got. I... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 30 Oct 2008 | 9:03 am
Frost & Sullivan to Host Analyst Briefing on Wireless Technology in Factory Automation on Thursday, 6 November 2008 at 15.00 GMT LONDON, Oct. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Frost... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 30 Oct 2008 | 9:00 am
MOSCOW, October 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Mobile TeleSystems OJSC ("MTS"), (NYSE: MBT), the largest mobile phone operator in Russia and the CIS, and Vodafone Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 30 Oct 2008 | 9:00 am
ANN ARBOR, Mich., Oct. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Thomson Reuters and The Masonry Society (TMS) today announced a new agreement to provide downloadable PDF files of TMS standards on Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 30 Oct 2008 | 9:00 am
alaederach writes "I run a lab in a non-profit academic life sciences research institute. Our IT recently decided it would be a good idea to use PGP whole disk encryption on all of our computers, laptops and servers and picked PGP's suite of software. The main reason is that a small subset of our researchers work with patient information which we obviously are mandated to keep confidential. My lab does a lot of high-performance computational work (on genes from Tetrahymena, no humans here) and I am concerned that the overhead of complying with our ITs new security policy will be quite detrimental to my research program. For example, dynamically reallocating a partition on a PGP encrypted disk is apparently not possible. Furthermore, there is some evidence that certain forms of compression are also incompatible with PGP whole disk encryption. Interestingly, it is hard to find any negative articles on PGP, probably because most of them are written by IT pros who are only focused on the security, and not usability. I therefore ask the Slashdot community, what are the disadvantages of PGP in terms of performance, Linux, and high-performance computational research?"
Not many online videos have sequels, but the one below–featuring a passel of celebrities, including Tom Cruise, Will Smith, Borat, Leonardo DiCaprio, Julia Roberts, Justin Timberlake, Scarlett Johannson and Harrison Ford–is one and even has famed director Steven Spielberg at the helm.
It is a follow-up to a PSA I posted earlier this month, called “Hollywood Declares Themselves,” encouraging young people to vote.
Declare Yourself is partnering with Google, YouTube and MySpace to distribute the new video, which has been produced by DiCaprio’s Appian Way .
Declare Yourself claims that “since it first debuted on October 1st, the PSA has been viewed over 5,000,000 times. According to all major voting registration sites, including Google, Rock the Vote, and Declare Yourself, over 300,000 new voters registered due to the video alone.”
Here is the new video and also the previous two under it:
ST. LOUIS, Oct. 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Sigma-Aldrich today introduced its Imprint(TM) Methylated DNA Quantification Kit (MDQ1) for epigenetic research http://www.sigma-aldrich.com/mdq1. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 30 Oct 2008 | 8:00 am
In my talks this year, I have been outlining some of the world’s great problems, highlighting some of the things that are being done by technology innovators to solve them, and urging my listeners to “work on stuff that matters.”
We are in unprecedented times. And folks, I’m sorry to say that the current financial meltdown is not the worst of it. Political instability around the world, wars over access to resources, and yes, terrorists, are all in our future. Scientists who’ve studied global warming agree that we’re heading towards decades of extreme environmental stress, leading to even more severe economic disruptions than we have seen to date. Meanwhile, we have an aging population with ballooning healthcare costs, an unfair economy in which some people receive outsized gains while others fall behind, an educational system that is not preparing children for the future, and deficits that require an increasing percentage of our tax dollars to service debt to other countries. Even if there is a short term recovery, huge problems loom in the years ahead, problems we can no longer pass off to our children and grandchildren.
Here’s a headache most companies would love to have. Apple is sitting on a huge cash reserve — $24.5 billion as of September and growing at the rate of $8 to $10 billion a year – that’s doing almost nothing for it. The money is earning about $1.55% interest after taxes, according to a report issued Wednesday by Bernstein Research’s Toni Sacconaghi, at a time when the company’s stock is trading at a unusually low (for Apple) multiple of 15 times earnings.
By Matthew Lasar, Contributing Writer, Ars Technica
As a vote on the question looms, the Federal Communications Commission’s docket continues to fill up with an amazing number of statements, position papers, petitions, and pronouncements, all focused on whether the agency should authorize unlicensed devices to pick up and receive wireless broadband via temporarily unused TV channels—aka white space. Mobilization on this question has doubtless been spurred by the FCC’s impending election day vote on this issue and the increasingly vitriolic tone of the debate. Now, a small battalion of renowned performers have weighed in on the matter.
The world’s biggest record companies would love to shutter Lime Wire. They say the popular file sharing service has built a lucrative business by enticing users to illegally swap the latest hit songs without paying a dime. But not everybody in the entertainment business sees Lime Wire as a pariah. On Wednesday, Lime Wire announced that it had struck a deal with Viacom’s Comedy Central to sell the cable network’s library of 60 digital comedy albums by guys like Lewis Black, Denis Leary and Dane Cook in its download store.
Having followed activity in the BlackBerry ecosystem over the past few weeks, I have come to the conclusion that BlackBerry Storm should be called BlackBerry Stealth. Why? With little media coverage, its forthcoming launch is the sleeper play in the smartphone market; it is poised to make major market penetration on its launch later this fall. Let’s look at the reasons …
BBC News reports that the UK is acknowledging video games as a "key component of modern culture" by opening the National Videogame Archive inside the National Media Museum. "'The National Videogame Archive is an important resource for preserving elements of our national cultural heritage,' said Dr Newman. 'It's not just about cartridges and consoles, it's also about video game culture, the ways in which people actually play them. Unlike film and music, it's very difficult to walk into a retail store and walk out with a bunch of games from the 1970's,' said Dr Newman. He feels that games should be archived in the same way that music, books and film are preserved, as we often use them as markers in our culture and history." There's a similar archive at the University of Texas at Austin. What games would you put on display?
When Google started its Google Book Search Service a few years ago, it annoyed a number of people. Those people included “the Authors Guild, the Association of American Publishers and a handful of authors and publishers.” On Tuesday the groups involved reached an agreement, and have submitted it to the court.
The agreement would see Google paying $125 million, but allow them to add millions of books both in- and out-of-print. Of course, most people won’t be able to read entire copyrighted texts before actually buying them, but they will be able to see a few pages of the book.
Important to note is that while most people won’t be able to view them for free from their own computers, public libraries and universities will be able to subscribe to the service. By subscribing, the libraries allow patrons to view whole texts on the computer, while being able to print out pages. Universities that subscribe will open the catalog to their students. There are other services like it for institutions, but none carry the name of Google, or the ease of use of Google Book Search, at least not in personal experience.
The settlement still has to be approved by the court, which it hopefully will. Authors and publishers will have to agree to have their work on the service. Seeing as they were able to reach the agreement, at least a few publishers will probably agree.
It might just be a dream of a college student, but it would be nice if textbook publishers and authors agreed to have most of their textbooks on the service, and give students access to them through the universities’ subscriptions. Authors and publishers get paid, and students assumingly wouldn’t pay much more than a slight tuition increase (depending on the price of the subscriptions).
This sounds like a fairly reasonable idea (assuming the tuition hike isn’t too much) for free access and possibly PDF versions of textbooks. Personally, I know I would have no more need for anything other than a laptop and maybe one notebook for all classes.
Best Buy seems to be continuing to add worthy smartphones to their lineup. We have recently seen the availability of the Touch Diamond and the iPhone 3G, and now they have added the BlackBerry Bold.
The BlackBerry Bold comes as an unlocked handset, which is nice because it means no two-year agreement. Of course, that means a much higher price tag. Instead of the $299 that you can pay with AT&T, the unlocked model from Best Buy will set you back $679.99.
Currently, the Bold is listed as being on backorder, and states that it “usually leaves our warehouse within 1-2 weeks.” Personally, I would opt for the two-year agreement and save some money, but it is always nice to have the unlocked version available as an option.
We all have them. Old gadgets and gizmos tucked away that we don’t use anymore, but for some reason...we just can’t find it in our heart to toss them. For some, it might be that we don’t want to “clutter the environment,” for others, “but I paid freakin’ HOW MUCH for that five years ago?!” And for others still, well, we don’t even know why it’s still shoved it the closet or drawer. Well, you might be heartened to know that Radio Shack is now providing a way for you to get some cash for those old tech goodies. Well, not cash exactly, but the next best thing. Gift cards for more tech goodies.
Launched just yesterday, Radio Shack is now offering a ”trade-in policy” for your old stuff. It’s pretty much what it sounds like. You give them your stuff, and you get a gift card for their store for a specified trade-in amount for your item. They obviously don’t take every single item from every manufacturer from the dawn of time, but there is a pretty broad range on their trade-in site.
There are specific companies that are participating in the program, some of which include the big names like Dell, Microsoft, Apple, Philips, and Sony. You can trade in all kinds of items like laptops (which I ran a test trade in check on one...details to come), cameras/camcorders, phones, game systems/games, GPS systems, and car audio systems.
It’s a pretty easy site to navigate. You just click on the item you want to trade first. In my case, I tried it out looking to trade in an Acer Aspire 4720Z laptop. So, on the main page, I just clicked on “laptops.” From there, it gave me a list to choose the brand. Next, the model. It then had me rate the condition. Then, it gave me what they would give me for me trade—in this case, $283. Not bad considering last year buying one new was only a little over $400.
If you accept the trade, you print out a pre-paid shipping label for your item and send it off. The site says that Radio Shack will e-mail you when they have received it, and send out your gift card in 10-14 days. The card can be used in any Radio Shack store.
So, it may not be a way to make oodles of money, but it just may be a way to clear out those closets and get a kick start on that holiday shopping!
An anonymous reader writes "From the Download.com article: "It slows down your browsing. It makes some Web sites inaccessible for no discernible reason. It doesn't even offer you any xiao long bao or pu'er tea for your troubles. But if you want to know what life behind the Great Firewall of China is like, then the Firefox plug-in China Channel is the cheapest and fastest way to experience using the Internet in China without actually being there."
I’ve aimed a lot of criticism at human powered search engine ChaCha over the last couple of years. The service lets users ask questions, just like a normal search engine. But instead of a computer spitting out answers (see Google, etc.), real human beings answer instead.
The ChaCha service was absurd in its original web version, which has since been discontinued. The mobile version is actually very useful, although we questioned its scalability when it launched. New information from the company suggests they’re keeping costs low enough to make a business model out of it. More on that soon.
Now about this image.
Some fairly funny answers occasionally come back from the human guides, who early on at least had to deal with a lot of prank queries. But none of the ones we’ve seen compare to the one to the right, which is a Digg favorite tonight. It describes the Eiffel Tower sexual position (yes, you learn something new every day) in response to a completely unrelated query about a Randy Newman show in Seattle.
I contacted the company about it and got the following message:
I appreciate your reaching out to me regarding this iPhone prank. We researched this as soon as it came to our attention and our logs indicate that the answer displayed was definitely to a question previously asked by this same user. So yes, this is a fake as this person is misrepresenting what actually occurred. They actually asked one question (to which the answer was sent) and then a second question shortly thereafter and then received the answer to the first question which, due to the way messages are threaded on an iPhone display, the answer is appearing below a different question than the one that was asked to spawn the answer that is displayed.
So in the end this was a bit of a trick apparently used to misrepresent what happened in order to get some laughs – which appears to be working as this is getting some serious play across the Web!
Ok that sounds more than reasonable. But when I go to the URL in the image, it shows the question and answer linked (see below). I understand how text messages back and forth can get out of order, but not how the wrong answer can be linked to the wrong question in ChaCha’s own database. I also note the guide was on the job for one whole day before this happened. I’ve emailed the company for further clarification.
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Where isn’t Netflix anymore? It looks great on the 360, it’s ending up in set-top boxes and media players from multiple makers. Now, if you had the foresight to buy a Series 3, HD, or HD XL you can now stream all of Netflix’s 12,000 streaming titles.
The service will use the same interface used by the 360 and the Roku box. You select films on Netflix.com and then add them to your instant queue. The films stream immediately upon selection. You can enable your TiVo for Netflix downloads by visiting www.tivo.com/netflix
TIVO AND NETFLIX ANNOUNCE PARTNERSHIP
TO INSTANTLY STREAM MOVIES AND TV EPISODES
FROM NETFLIX DIRECTLY TO THE TV THROUGH TIVO DVRs
Deal Provides Netflix with New Content Distribution Channel, Solidifies TiVo’s Leading Position as One-Box Solution for Simple Navigation and Delivery
Of the Best Entertainment Content to the TV
ALVISO, Calif. and LOS GATOS, Calif., October 30, 2008 — TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO), the creator of and a leader in television services for digital video recorders (DVRs) and Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX), the world’s largest online movie rental service, today announced that they are teaming up to provide Netflix and TiVo® Series3, TiVo HD, and TiVo HD XL subscribers with the ability to have thousands of movies and TV episodes instantly streamed from Netflix directly to their TVs.
The two companies said they are initiating a test of the new capability today in several thousand U.S. households and expect it to be broadly available in early December, in time for the holidays. The ability to instantly watch content from Netflix on the TV via TiVo DVRs will be offered at no additional charge to customers who subscribe to both services.
The agreement provides Netflix with an important new technology partner to instantly stream a growing library of more than 12,000 choices of movies and TV episodes directly from Netflix to the TV. It also solidifies TiVo’s leading position for simple navigation and delivery of the best entertainment content to the TV.
“For Netflix and TiVo subscribers, this collaboration offers a fabulously easy way to enhance the enjoyment of watching movies in the comfort of their living rooms,” said Reed Hastings, co-founder and CEO of Netflix. “Subscribers to Netflix and TiVo are avid movie watchers and this combination gives them immediate access to all of the great content available through TiVo and the thousands of additional choices available to be streamed instantly from Netflix.”
“Joining forces with Netflix creates the ultimate video on demand service and solidifies TiVo’s leading position as the one-box solution for aggregating, searching, and delivering the best content available anywhere right to the TV,” said Tom Rogers, president and CEO of TiVo Inc. “Adding Netflix to our already vast library of content differentiates TiVo even further from any other offering in the market today.”
Integrating the Netflix streaming functionality into the TiVo experience will result in quick and easy access to a growing list of movies and TV episodes that can be watched instantly at Netflix. Movies streamed from Netflix via specified TiVo DVRs is done through a wired or wireless broadband connection and a Netflix Queue-based user interface. Members visit the Netflix Web site to add movies and TV episodes to their individual instant Queues. Those choices will automatically be displayed on subscribers’ TVs and available to watch instantly through the TiVo service. With the TiVo remote control, users will be able to browse their instant Queue, make selections right on the TV screen, and also have the ability to read synopses and rate movies. In addition, they will have the option of pausing, fast-forwarding, rewinding and re-starting whenever they wish.
For more information on how to have movies instantly streamed from Netflix via your TiVo DVR visit www.tivo.com/netflix.
Where isn't Netflix anymore? It looks great on the 360, it's ending up in set-top boxes and media players from multiple makers. Now, if you had the foresight to buy a Series 3, HD, or HD XL you can now stream all of Netflix's 12,000 streaming titles.
The service will use the same interface used by the 360 and the Roku box. You select films on Netflix.com and then add them to your instant queue. The films stream immediately upon selection. You can enable your TiVo for Netflix downloads by visiting www.tivo.com/netflix
Yo, Mama Automatically sends your mother a loving text message — right before she calls to ask why you never call.
OhYeah? A microphone-based utility that instantly translates a flat one-liner into a witty bon mot. Face!
iNebriate A voice analyzer that determines if you're sauced and shuts down the phone before you drunk-dial your ex.
StarGazer A GPS-tracking app that pings you when celebrities are in the vicinity — so you can stalk them.
iNewton Turns your iPhone into a perfect re-creation of the coolest PDA of 1993.
CoryCaddyTM A voice sample of blogger Cory Doctorow continually reminding you that your iPhone is a pathetic piece of DRM-riddled crippleware. (Also works as a ringtone.)
WherzDaBoss? A GPS-tracking system that gives real-time updates of your boss's location and warns you when the overlord is within earshot of your desk.
Meta-4 Crafts metaphors and similes faster than a $2.99 Indian buffet passing through your digestive tract.
Peril-Sensitive Screen Sentry Turns the display black if you get bad news via chat, SMS, or email.
GPAss Analyzes the background conversation of any room to tell you who the asshole is. Not finding one? Then it's you.
1961: The Soviet Union detonates the largest nuclear or thermonuclear weapon ever constructed.
The Tsar Bomba (as it was known in the West; the Soviets referred to it as Big Ivan or, more officially, RDS-220) was a three-stage hydrogen device with a 100-megaton capacity. Andrei Sakharov, who later suffered a crisis of conscience and became a celebrated Soviet anti-nuclear dissident, was the project leader and senior weapons designer.
Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev ordered the building of the bomb during a meeting with Sakharov in July 1961. To say it was completed quickly is to say the least: The elapsed time from conception to detonation was a mere 16 weeks.
The bomb weighed 27 tons and was so big that the largest Soviet bomber, a Tu-95 "Bear," had to be heavily modified to accommodate both its girth and its weight.
The Tsar Bomba was built for midair detonation. An elaborate, five-stage parachute system was designed, with a main canopy area of 5,400 square feet to slow the bomb's descent, so the plane had time to clear the area.
That was accomplished with relative ease, but other design problems arose as the bomb neared completion. This might have caused a delay in testing if Sakharov hadn't overruled the skeptics while ramming through a few late modifications.
The bomb was dropped at around 11:30 a.m. Moscow time from an altitude of 6 miles above the Mityushikha Bay test range on the Arctic Sea island of Novaya Zemlya. It detonated in three stages at an altitude of 2.5 miles.
The explosion resulted in a cloud that boiled 210,000 feet (40 miles) into the sky. Its force obliterated every building in the deserted village of Severny, 34 miles from ground zero, and damaged structures more than 600 miles away.
Had the Tsar Bomba been detonated with its full 100-megaton force, the resulting fallout would have totaled 25 percent of all fallout emitted since Hiroshima. Although the actual yield has been disputed over the years, the number usually assigned is 50 megatons of TNT (more than 3,300 Hiroshima-size bombs).
Even at half its capacity, the bomb resulted in by far the largest man-made explosion ever. Its flash was visible from 600 miles away. According to one witness who visited ground zero in the aftermath: "The ground surface of the island has been leveled, swept and licked so that it looks like a skating rink. The same goes for rocks. The snow has melted and their sides and edges are shiny. There is not a trace of unevenness in the ground.... Everything in this area has been swept clean, scoured, melted and blown away."
For his role in the test, bomber pilot and mission commander Maj. Andrei E. Durnovtsev was promoted to lieutenant colonel and made a Hero of the Soviet Union.
The bomb came along at a time of tense relations between the United States and the USSR. Nearly two years had passed since Khrushchev's speech declaring the Soviet Union's support for wars of national liberation, only six months since the U.S. fiasco at the Bay of Pigs, and barely two months since the construction of the Berlin Wall. The two countries were actually involved in nuclear-test-ban negotiations, and the timing of the test was seen largely as a measure of Khrushchev's dissatisfaction with the way things were going.
In reality, the Tsar Bomba was impractical, more effective as a propaganda weapon than anything else. The bomb was too large to be delivered by an ICBM, meaning it could only be delivered by strategic bomber. The only three American metropolitan areas sprawling enough to warrant being targeted by such a weapon (New York, Chicago and Los Angeles) required at least eight hours of flying time over enemy airspace and were therefore unreachable, owing to U.S. air defenses.
Still, the bomb was an excellent example of the Russian penchant for gigantism. Even the western nickname itself, Tsar Bomba, or "King of the Bombs," was inspired by other Russian behemoths: Tsar Kolokol, the world's largest bell, and Tsar Pushka, the world's largest cannon, both on display at the Kremlin.
Two Tsar Bombas were built. The one they didn't drop, a dummy, remains on display at the Russian Atomic Museum in Arzamas-16 (now Sarov), the formerly secret city where the bomb was built.
NEW YORK -- In a sport dominated by carbon fiber and spandex, Bike Kill is a big, fat stick in the spokes. Imagine the Tour de France taking place in Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, then add plenty of broken glass, beer, blood and vomit.
It begins as a celebration of punk rock, DIY and mutant bike creations, like the tall bikes championed by the Black Label Bicycle Club. But after a Beerelay Race, the Six-Pack Attack, a food fight and dodging foam skulls in the gauntlet, the event deteriorates into anarchy.
Black Label has hosted the Bike Kill event for the last six years on a dead-end street in the heart of Brooklyn. This year's event was possibly the most heinous ever. Click through the gallery to peep the mods and mayhem.
Left:
A festival-goer rides one of the mutant bikes. It’s not the fastest steed in the stable but it utilizes an intuitive technology. Whether it’s bikes, boots or both, it’s getting there that counts.
: Photo: Bryan Derballa/Wired.com
A mini tall-bike leans against the wall waiting for the next brave rider. Black Label builders use whatever scrapped parts they can find for their two-wheeled concoctions. Here, they've welded a vintage step-through road bike frame to a children’s bike.
: Photo: Bryan Derballa/Wired.com
While surf bikes are popular, helmets are not. This bike features a flat board for riders to surf while another pedals. It’s also great for picking up pizzas.
: Photo: Bryan Derballa/Wired.com
Bike Kill always occurs around Halloween and sometimes the bikes need costumes, too — like this Top Gun tandem complete with "Danger Zone" cassette tape.
: Photo: Bryan Derballa/Wired.com
Although Bike Kill is about creation, there is always a fair amount of destruction. This BK attendee decided an impromptu bike toss was in order. Last year, visitors flipped a car and bashed in the windows with skateboards and BMX bikes.
: Photo: Bryan Derballa/Wired.com
This is one of the more elaborate cycle creations. If both riders pedal forward, the contraption spins in circles. If one rider pedals backwards it's propelled forward. There’s always room for bystanders to hitch a ride if they don’t mind being upside down half the time.
: Photo: Bryan Derballa/Wired.com
You'll hear the barrel tandem bike before you see it. It’s the loudest bike in the Bike Kill arsenal with empty barrels rolling across the asphalt. Sure, it’s not fast, but it is intimidating.
: Photo: Bryan Derballa/Wired.com
With a couple garbage bags of day-old bread as ammo, a full-fledged food fight breaks out, with pitas being tossed like ninja stars. A bag of flour is used as a smoke shield.
After a few hours of light rain, the discarded food created a slick sludge that added to the dangers of actually riding a bike at Bike Kill.
: Photo: Bryan Derballa/Wired.com
Somehow Bike Kill always manages to secure a permit from the city. But they don’t do much beyond that and no bathrooms were available. The beer store around the corner actually ran out of beer.
: Photo: Bryan Derballa/Wired.com
A favorite Bike Kill event is Dirty Mattress, in which a rider pedals a passenger as fast as he can on a surf bike, which is tethered to a pole. When the bike reaches the end of its rope, the passenger is flung headfirst into a very dirty mattress to the delight of onlookers.
: Photo: Bryan Derballa/Wired.com
The front half of this pedal-powered chopper is made of tubing with tiny holes. A butane tank mounted to the frame provides fuel for the flame that passes through the tube. Visibility is a very important tenant of bicycle safety.
: Photo: Bryan Derballa/Wired.com
This beast of a bike is motor-powered and sports a butane-powered flamethrower on the front. It has one small tube for the pilot flame and a larger second tube with a regulator that controls the size of the torch. Just another reminder for cars to respect their two-wheeled compatriots.
What's this? A non-iPhone multimedia phone with drag-and-drop ease that integrates beautifully with a Mac? Introducing the sequel to Sony's slim W880i — the W890i.
As the presidential candidates race to get out the vote, Obama enjoys an advantage on the ground, thanks to social networking tools, voter databases and a theory of organizing developed by Harvard researchers for the Sierra Club.
Camphor
Originally derived from a type of laurel tree (Cinnamomum camphora), this waxy aromatic substance has been used as a drug since the Middle Ages. It's absorbed quickly through the skin, where it activates the TRPV3 and TRPV1 nerve receptors, creating a cooling sensation followed by an analgesic—local anesthetic—effect. Camphor is also the active ingredient in Vicks VapoRub and some pest repellents—insects detest the smell. Nowadays, it's synthesized from turpentine oil.
Menthol
An extract of peppermint oil, menthol is often called peppermint camphor because the effects of the two are so similar (menthol triggers the TRPM8 nerve receptors). It adds a bracing, albeit fake, freshness to thousands of products, from cigarettes to mouthwashes to sunburn ointments.
Methyl Salicylate
Another mild analgesic, this is synthesized oil of wintergreen. It also happens to be a cousin of aspirin, and it's the spark-in-the-dark stuff in Wint-O-Green Life Savers. The substance's dirty little secret? It's toxic: Excessive use of topical methyl salicylate creams can be fatal, especially for teenagers, whose livers can't break it down quickly.
Carbomer 940
This clear thickening agent is made from cross-linked polymers of acrylic acid (the stuff in Plexiglas and floor polish). In gel form, it's used in hair styling products, and versions of it are present in "blue ice" cold packs. Ingestion or inhalation is hazardous, so don't Bengay a sore tongue.
Polysorbate 80
A favorite food of Zippy the Pinhead, polysorbate 80 is used in Bengay as an emulsifier, keeping the ingredients mixed. In other contexts, it's believed (by very desperate people) to halt hair loss by stripping away dihydrotestosterone from your scalp's hair follicles. There's somewhat stronger evidence that it causes infertility in rats—when lab technicians inject it directly into their little bodies.
Edetate Disodium
In the event of a calcium or digitalis overdose, this microcrystalline powder can be injected as an emergency measure to restore the body's calcium balance or heart rate. Here it acts as a preservative and stabilizer, preventing outside impurities from spoiling the contents.
Lanolin
Purified wool grease (lana is Latin for "wool"). Lanolin is secreted by the sebaceous glands of sheep and goats, waterproofing their coats. It's mostly cholesterol (lab-grade cholesterol is derived from lanolin) and other fatty acids, and it's used in topical products like Bengay to prevent the skin from drying out. Ever shaken hands with a shepherd? Sssoffft.
Potassium Hydroxide
Also known as caustic potash or lye. Naturally derived from wood ash, KOH is used to make liquid soaps and provides the "alkaline" in alkaline batteries. Concentrated KOH reacts violently with water (giving off tremendous heat) and with metals like zinc and copper (emitting potentially explosive hydrogen gas). Here it's just a humble emulsion stabilizer—ensuring all the ingredients mingle properly.
Yo, Mama Automatically sends your mother a loving text message — right before she calls to ask why you never call.
OhYeah? A microphone-based utility that instantly translates a flat one-liner into a witty bon mot. Face!
iNebriate A voice analyzer that determines if you're sauced and shuts down the phone before you drunk-dial your ex.
StarGazer A GPS-tracking app that pings you when celebrities are in the vicinity — so you can stalk them.
iNewton Turns your iPhone into a perfect re-creation of the coolest PDA of 1993.
CoryCaddyTM A voice sample of blogger Cory Doctorow continually reminding you that your iPhone is a pathetic piece of DRM-riddled crippleware. (Also works as a ringtone.)
WherzDaBoss? A GPS-tracking system that gives real-time updates of your boss's location and warns you when the overlord is within earshot of your desk.
Meta-4 Crafts metaphors and similes faster than a $2.99 Indian buffet passing through your digestive tract.
Peril-Sensitive Screen Sentry Turns the display black if you get bad news via chat, SMS, or email.
GPAss Analyzes the background conversation of any room to tell you who the asshole is. Not finding one? Then it's you.
What's this? A non-iPhone multimedia phone with drag-and-drop ease that integrates beautifully with a Mac? Introducing the sequel to Sony's slim W880i — the W890i.
Virtual goods have massive monetization potential, but many sites simply don’t have the resources to build a virtual goods engine or to produce assets that its users would be willing to pay money for. Boston startup Viximo, launched earlier this month, is looking to offer sites a turnkey solution.
The company has built an embeddable gift store and showcase that can be integrated into any site, and also features its own microtransaction system (you can use your own system if you’ve already got one in place). Viximo CEO Rob Frasca says that while the site’s all-in-one package and ease of use will be a big selling point, its most valuable (and difficult to replicate) feature is its large library of digital assets. For now Viximo is offering virtual gifts similar to Facebook’s popular gift store, but Frasca says that the platform supports puzzles, ringtones, or any other kind of virtual good.
Since its launch earlier this month, Viximo has formed partnerships with a number of Facebook applications, as well as stand alone websites looking to integrate their own stores. Launch partners include Always Athletes, which produces a Facebook app called My Sports Career; We’re Related, a Faecbook app with a reported 6.5 million active users; Birthday Calendar (another Facebook app), and World Winner, a standalone site.
To help build up the library of goods it offers, Viximo has launched a community site for so-called “digital da-vincis” - the artists that craft each of these assets. Using tools on the site (along with their own art programs), artists craft and then upload digital assets which are placed in an online gallery. Third party publishers can browse through these galleries looking for virtual goods they’d like to include on their sites. If an artist’s item gets chosen, they will receive 20% of every purchase (their names will also be included alongside the image for attribution).
Viximo has built a powerful platform that should appeal to a number of social applications and websites alike, but it also has some potential flaws. Every site that implements Viximo has the option of allowing it to be a ‘universal giftbox’ - meaning that a gift given on one site will also appear on another site. But they can also choose to tie their gifts exclusively to their own sites. This could become frustrating on Facebook profiles, as each application could potentially have its own giftbox, which would be both confusing and ugly.
Crunch Network: CrunchGeardrool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
Android is taking the books and the teachers out of music lessons. The newest way to learn music – via your cell phone (as long as you have Android).
Among the first of many Android applications is SplashPlay Mobile Music Maker, an instrument learning and music sharing tool. Wherever your phone goes, SplashPlay goes with you to learn, listen or share music anywhere. Right now, guitar is the only instrument compatible with the software.
How does it work?
Download your favorite songs and song tutorials onto your phone from the SplashPlay website. The application allows you to upload video tutorials and songs. The notes of the songs light up on the phone’s screen for your to view and practice fingering.
Wait. It gets better: SplashPlay is the only available Android app that has optional accessories. However, it’s not just another money grab, the accessories add a lot of extra learning potential and contribute a lot more to the coolness factor of the application. While the accessories are not necessary to run the applicaton, the accessories greatly enhance the learning tool.
Accessories
SplashPod
A device that attaches to the head of your guitar that communicates with the light board and the phone via Bluetooth connection.
Light Panel
A thin, flexible device that attaches to the fret board of your guitar under the strings and is powered by the SplashPod. When learning a song, the light panel (and the phone screen) reveals what notes or chords to play.
What’s so cool?
You don’t even have to connect the light panel to your guitar to use it. Hold it in your hand and you can practice anywhere.
The pod can connect with your phone OR your computer
The Downside
The light panel covers only the first five frets
What makes this different from Guitar Hero or iPhone’s Pocket Guitar?
Learn on a real instrument
SplashPlay has the ability to record and share songs
Download songs and videos
Broad choice of songs to learn with online catalogs updated continually
Coming soon:
Additional instrument options - light panel releases for the drums, piano, violin and many other instruments
Wireless foot pedal
Use the phone and pod connection as a tuner
Use pod as a metronome
Connect pods together on different instruments to share and play music together
Well, we all knew Steve Jobs’ view of Blu-ray (remember when he described it as a “bag of hurt?"), but it seems he is not the only one who thinks Blu-ray just may be drawing its last dying breaths. Robin Harris proclaims “Blu-ray is dead” and makes some points that might just make some folks sit back and say hmmmmmm.
Granted, it took a while for DVD to make it into mainstream when it was first introduced, like 5 or 6 years, or so. You still had diehards hanging on the their VHS. Heck, I still also own a VHS player. It’s practically a relic. So, you have people arguing, give Blu-Ray a break—it’s only been out a year or so.
Thing is, DVD didn’t have all the competition the Blu-ray does. Blu-ray is also facing a heck of an economy where it is a “nice to have,” not really a “have to have.” This not even taking into account how expensive the suckers are to make and how that limits the studios that can even touch them.
Oh, one more thing, most people that get a player, are they even gonna notice that big of a difference? Because what it seems to come down to now, isn’t really picture as much as the sound. So, lots and lots of people say “no”—not unless they are total audiophiles that have kick-ass systems where they will really be able to hear the difference in sound quality.
Back when Blu-ray was first introduced, they had no idea that people would be able to actually watch their DVDs on their HDTVs and have them not look like crap. Then came upsampling DVD players. Oops. There goes that theory.
Only 4% of videos sold in the US are on Blu-ray. So, for all of the hype of “get it on DVD and Blu-Ray now!,” there is a difference between media hype, retail hype, and actual retail sales. And we now have the HD download capability right there. Many people feel that within a year, the Blu-Ray will be nothing but a niche market techie plaything. As always, thoughts are welcomed.
Barence writes "Microsoft has literally added another dimension to its touchscreen table technology Surface. The new table projects an image through the table itself, so that any translucent material (such as tracing paper or perspex) held above the Surface screen displays a different image to what you see on the table's display. This means you can have a satellite image of a town on the table, and have the street names projected on to a piece of paper that the user holds above the map. Or you could have a photo of a car, with the tracing paper displaying images of its innards."
This is part two of our coverage on today’s Downturn RoundTable hosted by VentureBeat. For Part One, which details the Venture Capitalist panel, click here.
The Entrepreneurs
In a panel moderated by Kara Swisher, Toni Schneider, CEO of Automattic (the company behind WordPress), led off by saying that he wished this kind of “panicky” advice had been around for the last bubble, explaining that his startup at the time didn’t react quickly enough to stay afloat. Nirav Tolia, co-founder of epinions, added that his company had fallen prey to similar mistakes in the last bubble by investing in growth (in terms of employees and office space) before it was necessary.
Mahalo’sJason Calacanis detailed his experience with laying off employees, saying that it should be done in one fell swoop rather than in incremental steps, which only serve to increase fear and uncertainty. He expressed how difficult it is lay people off, and urged executives to do all they can for their past employees (vesting stock whenever possible, writing letters of recommendation, etc.). He said that while CEOs may not be able to predict economic shifts, they are ultimately the ones at fault if a company has to lay off workers.
Tolia also related the cost cutting measures epinions had to undertake in the first bubble, emphasizing the importance of having someone who had “been through this sort of thing before” for advice and calling Bill Campbell (who had weathered past downturns) “a godsend”. He likened cutting costs to dieting, explaining that companies should be making “lifestyle changes” so that these problems don’t arise again instead of making cuts and then falling back into the same costly habits, only to have to downsize again in the future.
Slide CEO Max Levchin said that he has never been forced to lay off his workers, but emphasized the importance of being stingy. He attributed his frugality to his “immigrant ethic”, which he says is a great trait to have in a startup co-founder.
Paul Sieben of O’Melveny and Myers agreed with Ron Conway’s statements earlier that companies should more readily consider M&As. He also said that startups should be nimble, able to change underlying goals and start the M&A process early by forming business relationships.
When asked how helpful venture capitalists are when their portfolio companies face economic hardships, the panel had some varied (and not always positive) comments. Levchin related his experience with BlueRun Ventures (which has invested in both PayPal and Slide), saying that the VCs there have been very supportive, even when he has had to change business plans.
Toni Schnier said that Levchin has been dealing with ideal VCs, but that there are unhelpful investors who will constantly give advice (often about ideas you’ve already thought of), and that thsese are the ones who will get on your case as soon as things start looking shaky. Calacanis said that entrepreneurs tend to ask VCs for too much advice, which is a mistake, going on to say “VCs are VCs for a reason” and likening them to bankers. Calacanis also said that while the VC panel claimed it would stay open for business, they will instead form a “circle of wagons”, focusing on their winners and shutting down losers.
And while they spent a great deal of time talking about the hardships many entrepreneurs will be facing, the panel emphasized the importance of remembering why they had come to Silicon Valley in the first place: to build their dream.
Each panelist also offered some specific tips for success:
Max Levchin - Don’t listen to anyone, nobody really knows what’s going to happen next. It’s better to be contrarian in times like this than not. Just hunker down and build a company. Silicon Valley is about leveraging crazy hopes and occasionally winning.
Paul Sieben - Have backup plans.
Toni Schneider - Consider open source. It’s a great way in slow times to keep your project going - people who have time on their hands to keep your dream going.
Nirav Tolia - Over communicate.
Jason Calacanis - Focus on the product. If you’re in a plane and it’s going into a death spiral, look at your instruments (page views, members, etc.). Don’t look out the window.
Robert Scoble recorded this panel using Kyte. You can see the full recordings below:
Crunch Network: MobileCrunchMobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
One time I came back to my apartment in LA after a party and tried to go to sleep. Not happening. So I went outside, fired up the Dreamcast, and played Robotron 2084 for two solid hours. I’ve also done some of my best Soul Caliburating under the influence. But I have never racked up four full hours that I could not remember in a game like Oblivion, wantonly killing every NPC, guard, merchant, and horse that I could find.
AFP - Videogame titan Electronic Arts on Wednesday unveiled titles tailored for play on freshly-launched "Google phones" running on Android open-source software.
It doesn’t get much more easy to relate to than this, folks. This endearing team, Mr. Chow and Mr. Lau, will show you a super easy way to tether your iPhone after jailbreaking it. Of course, most people who know to jailbreak their phones are already clued in to the whole tethering thing, but if you’re still new at it — and I’m looking at you, new-iPhone-owning brother of mine in BC — these Canada-specific but easily localizable instructions should make things simple for you.
Even if you know this stuff already, it’s worth it to hear the kid at the end saying “Apple rules?!” [via Hack n Mod]
In what has to be the worst name ever for any app, not just Android, Wikitude by Mobilizy offers something extremely unique: augmented reality. In addition to being a POI (point of interest) search companion, the tool makes use of all the on-board hardware on the G1: GPS, accelerometer, data connection, camera among others. In my opinion, this is the coolest thing on the G1 phone.
The remarkable augmented reality is basically like looking through a pair of binoculars that identifies landmarks and provides snippets of information from Wikipedia about them (video below). Imagine you are traveling through Europe, as you are prone to do, and whip out your G1 and activate Wikitude which tells you the bar you are drinking in was visited by Napoleon. Instantly, you’ve got your own tour guide.
The software actually identifies buildings, mountains, farm animals (OK, not farm animals), and relays info about those things to you. It is impressive enough that more than a few G1s will be sold based on this application by itself.
The application currently supports over 350,000 points of interest world wide. Searching through them, Wikitude provides the answers to your queries as a list, on a map or in the augmented reality view from the camera with the info overlaid. Very cool stuff. Check out this video, put out by Mobilizy, the Wikitude developer.
It’s time for my annual fall PC buyer’s guide. As always, this guide covers what average consumers doing typical tasks should look for in a desktop or laptop PC. That excludes heavy-duty gamers, corporate buyers, techies, or enthusiasts.
But this autumn, we find ourselves in a serious global economic slowdown. So I will focus this edition of the guide on how folks whose PC budgets have shrunk can still get something adequate for light use.
The guide below applies to both desktops and laptops, since the latter, at least in the consumer market, have achieved rough parity in performance and versatility, and are now more popular than desktops.
Windows vs. Mac: I consider the Mac operating system, Leopard, to be faster, easier and more stable than Windows XP or Windows Vista. It isn’t susceptible to the vast majority of malicious software that circulates on the Internet. And Macs also include Apple’s superb built-in iLife multimedia suite. Macs can even run Windows, though that costs extra.
However, Apple (AAPL) has consciously chosen not to offer machines in the bargain category. The cheapest Mac desktop, the minimalist Mac Mini, which doesn’t even include a monitor, speakers, keyboard or mouse, costs $650 for a model with a hard disk I consider adequate. The cheapest Mac laptop, the base model of the prior-generation MacBook (which Apple has retained in its lineup) is $999.
Both are good values, mainly due to the software. And Macs can save you money over time. But if the lowest upfront cost is your objective, you can pay hundreds less for desktops and laptops from Windows PC makers.
Which Windows: Windows Vista is too often slow, and incompatible with older peripherals, such as the printers you might not want to replace in this economic climate. It also can cost more because it demands beefier, and thus costlier, hardware to run well than does the older Windows XP.
Budget shoppers should look around for a computer that still runs XP, either one of the dwindling number of models built with XP in mind, or one that has been “downgraded” by the manufacturer to XP. This downgrade “feature” can cost $50 or more upfront, but permits you to buy a cheaper machine.
Dell Inspiron 530
For instance, I recently advised two of my budget-minded friends to buy a low-end Dell desktop, the Inspiron 530, at Micro Center, a small but very good national chain of computer superstores. This Dell (DELL) runs XP, and has a low-end Intel (INTC) processor. The store is currently selling a version with a 250-gigabyte hard disk — more than enough for an average user — and 2 gigabytes of memory, generous for XP, for just $400 after instant rebate. You can get a similar good deal directly from Dell.
These particular friends, one on each coast, each bought a nice LCD monitor for $100-$150, and were out of the store for very little money. Since they only wanted to run Microsoft Office, browse the Web, do email and manage photos, this machine met their needs.
Another option is a low-cost machine with the Home Basic version of Vista, which also tends to cost less and to require less-expensive hardware than the more-common Vista Home Premium. If my friends had wanted laptops, I could have steered them to a 15-inch Acer Aspire laptop at the same store. This machine runs Vista Basic, with 1 gigabyte of memory and a 120-gigabyte hard disk, and costs $380.
You can often buy an even less-costly computer if you opt for the Linux operating system, but I still don’t advise this for average non-techie users.
Memory: For XP, or a Mac, I suggest 2 gigabytes of memory, but you can get away with 1 gigabyte for light use. For Vista, I recommend 3 gigabytes, but 2 megabytes will do on a tight budget. You can always add memory later.
Hard disk: On a laptop, 160 gigabytes is the minimum I usually suggest, but you can get by with 120 gigabytes and upgrade when economic times are better. On a desktop, 250 gigabytes is easily obtainable, but 160 gigabytes will do.
DVD drive: If you never record DVDs, you can save money by buying a cheaper combo drive, which plays both DVDs and CDs, but records only the latter.
Processor: Look for a dual-core processor, but to save money, don’t worry about the speed, model number, or brand.
Video: A separate, or “discrete,” video card is best, especially for Vista Home Premium, but budget shoppers should stick with lesser “integrated graphics.”
Other features: If your home lacks the fastest “n” version of Wi-Fi, spend less for a laptop with the older “g” version. If you don’t need to do video chats or recording, don’t pay for a built-in camera and microphone.
Netbooks: If you don’t mind a tiny screen, cramped keyboard and limited file storage, these popular new mini-laptops can save you money. Some sell for under $400, even equipped with Windows.
Remember, pay only for the computing capabilities you need.
Find all of Walt Mossberg’s columns and videos online, free, at the All Things Digital Web site, walt.allthingsd.com. Email him at mossberg@wsj.com.
There’s no other major item most of us own that is as confusing, unpredictable and unreliable as our personal computers. Everybody has questions about them, and we aim to help.
Here are a few questions about computers I’ve received recently from people like you, and my answers. I have edited and restated the questions a bit, for readability.
Do you still recommend the Dell XPS One all-in-one computer that you favorably reviewed last December? I am not a techie at all but need to replace my 5-year-old Dell and was interested in an all-in-one.
Yes. In fact, I now own two of these Dell XPS Ones and use them as my Vista desktop computers, at home and in the office. I still believe, as I wrote in my review, that this Dell’s hardware is superior to that of the competing Apple iMac, though the Vista operating system is inferior to Apple’s. And the base XPS One now costs the same as the base iMac — $1,199 — instead of $300 more, as it did last year. So, if you want the Windows operating system, and like the look and convenience of an all-in-one desktop, I still favor the XPS One. You can find my review at tinyurl.com/2xw 6mv.
Will Apple’s new MacBooks and MacBook Pros run Windows directly without an intervening “virtual machine” program like Parallels or Fusion?
Yes. All Apple Macs running the current Leopard operating system, including the new laptops, come with the ability to directly run Windows XP or Vista. Using Apple’s built-in “Boot Camp” feature, you can start up the computer in Windows, instead of the Mac’s own operating system, which turns the Mac into a pure Windows machine, with no trace of the Mac operating system running. The upsides of this approach are maximum Windows speed, and compatibility with the most graphics-intensive Windows programs, including games. Note that, to run Windows on a Mac, you must obtain and install a fresh, boxed, full version of XP or Vista. Apple doesn’t supply Windows.
I have a Yahoo email account, and wonder if Yahoo allows receipt and storage of email directly via a computer email program, such as Outlook, or is it all Web storage? Can you do both?
Yes. Yahoo offers a “Plus” option, for $20 a year, that permits users to receive and store their Yahoo email using a locally installed, instead of Web-based, email program. This approach does work with Microsoft Office, as well as many other local email programs. And you can still use Yahoo’s Web-based email interface at the same time. The Plus option also includes other benefits, including the elimination of ads and a doubling of the size limit on individual messages, to 20 megabytes.
You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox, and my other columns, online free of charge at the new All Things Digital Web site, http://walt.allthingsd.com.
You don't need a GPS device to track your position any more. The latest testing build of Firefox has the ability to track a user's location by their WiFi access point. Haven't downloaded it? Browser plug-ins like Gears and Geode add this functionality, too. Want to take advantage of user positions? Adam DuVander shows us the way.
Samsung is showing off its latest OLED TV prototypes in Dubai this week, an appropriate avenue for a display technology that only an oil-rich Sheikh can really afford at this point.
The Dubai GITEX Technology Week conference has a long way to go as a gadget preview destination, but with Samsung offering drool-worthy bait to display aficionados, more people might be willing to travel to the middle of the desert in the future. OK, maybe not.
In development for the last couple of years by their SDI division, Samsung's 14-inch and 31-inch OLED panels come with similar features that made Sony's XEL-1 OLED our Best of Test TV for the Fall Test issue: a 1,000,000: 1 contrast ratio, a color gamut of 107%, and brightness of 550 cd/m2.
At the conference, Samsung representatives flaunted the prototypes as one of the main technologies they’re working on as a mass-market device, but they maintain they won’t be ready anytime soon because of their high production cost. The company line still lists the en masse OLED cycle to start in the year 2010.
As we've mentioned previously, the overall picture quality and power savings provided by OLED screens will influence the market eventually, but their obscenely high price is placing them out people's hands.
And by the time the're ready, the quality of the RGB LED backlight technology might improve in LCDs to where they might be almost as good as the OLEDs in terms of colors. And they probably will come in at a cheaper price for a larger screen. In the meantime, though, it's good to dream of monster-sized OLEDs gracing our walls, taking up tiny millimeters of space at a time.
I'm going to have to visit Japan one day to try to understand why the country produces so many cool, mildly useless gadgets such as the Rain Wipe. Made by ANNON, the device (video above) removes rainwater from umbrellas by absorbing the water with a cloth. Then, pressure moves the water to a tray toward the bottom. Each tray only needs to be replaced after the device wipes 3,000 umbrellas dry.
The company is marketing the Rain Wipe for stores to display at their entrances. No details on price or release date yet, but ANNON claims the device is environmentally friendly and will save consumers money, as it eliminates the need to use plastic umbrella bags, which cost 2 to 9 yen ($0.02 to $0.10) a piece.
Peter Kirn of Create Digital Music lauds Coldcut's remix of the Doctor Who theme tune. He correctly identifies it as the runner-up for best thing to ever come out of the BBC, second only to the BBC World News' theme tune, "The Rave at the Dawn of the Apocalypse," a common cut of which follows...
The Beeb actually has a long history of bad-ass theme tunes. Following is "Approaching Menace," the scary theme tune to Mastermind, a quiz show modeled on Nazi interrogation techniques.
Since we started our Gift Guide I’ve been leaning towards ever more esoteric yet thoughtful gifts for the nerd in your life. That said, I present to you the Black & Decker Smart Driver, one of the coolest little drills you’ll ever own.
How often has this happened to you? You’re trying to install a ceiling fan and you’re on a ladder and trying to drill the fan into a pancake adapter you installed over the old wiring harness. The screws aren’t going in and when they do they go too deep for your big power drill so you have to grab a standard screwdriver and push through plaster and eventually steel to finally seat the base of the fan. Then you’re standing up there and you touch the wrong wire and shock the hell out of yourself and throw the screwdriver across the room. You then sit down for a minute on the couch and refuse to get back up on the ladder and three beer later it’s time to watch Ghostbusters so you’re about done with all that fan noise and you slowly get drunk and wonder what ever happened to Winston.
If you’re saying “John: All the time,” then you’ve come to the right place. This odd little drill has a six position clutch and is able to perform small jobs with aplomb. It includes multiple tips, including tips that fit most IKEA furniture screws and lasts 18 months on one charge thanks to the built-in lithium battery. It’s extremely small and light - almost toy-like - and in our tests it held a charge for about four hours of continuous use.
Two features, however, make this a life-saver. First, there’s a blue LED work light that shines a bright light on the area you’re drilling. This is a lifesaver under sinks and behind appliances and furniture. Second, it has a magnetic screw holder. Oh. My. God. That’s right: you place a screw on the holder and it stays put until you screw it into the wall. This addition in itself is worth the price of admission.
This is not a heavy-duty drill. I wouldn’t send this down to the boys on the job site and expect them to erect a California-style Ranch with this. It is designed for small jobs and small repairs and would make a great PC screwdriver provided you keep the magnet away from the hard drives. It costs $39.99 at Amazon and is perfect for the hardware klutz: it comes with most everything you need and it keeps your screws straight. What more do you need?
See how the robot points to that cup? It’s actually looking for human blood to power its internal engine. When he’s at full power there will be no more buy-backs.
The ladies and gentleman at Westboro Baptist Church -- who enjoy disrupting memorial services for soldiers killed in battle with their hateful homophobic tantrums -- seem unhappy about this dada-style "God Hates Signs" counter protest campaign. (Photo by Burstein)
coondoggie writes "Maybe people are more desperate or maybe there's just too much opportunity to make a quick buck but whatever the excuse, attempts to illegally export technology from the US has gone through the roof. The Department of Justice this week said it has placed criminal charges or convictions against more than 255 defendants in the past two fiscal years — 145 in 2008 and 110 in 2007. That 255 number represents more than a six-fold increase from fiscal year 2005, when the DOJ said about 40 individuals or companies were convicted of over 100 criminal violations of export control laws."
Asus has added yet another model into the ever growing lineup, this time it is the Eee PC 1002HA. Basically, the 1002HA seems to marry some of the S101 styling with the features found in the Eee PC 1000 series.
The 1002HA will feature a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive. A big drawback of the 1002HA comes in part to the battery, which is a lowly 2-cell model, as opposed to the large 6-cell that is available in many of the 1000 series models.
Of course, the smaller battery option will save some overall weight, the 1002HA will weigh in at around 2.4 pounds. Additionally the 1002HA includes three USB ports, a VGA out, SD card reader, Ethernet, Kensington lock port and a built-in webcam.
As for availability, a specific release date has not been announced; however, it looks like this one will be hitting the European market shortly. As of now, a US release has not been mentioned. In regards to pricing, it looks like the 1002HA will be in the ballpark of €449 (about $565).
This is part one of our coverage on today’s Downturn RoundTable hosted by VentureBeat. For Part Two, which details the Entrepreneur panel, click here.
Today at VentureBeat’s Downturn RoundTable, two panels of Silicon Valley’s elite - one made up of Venture Capitalists, the other of experienced entrepreneurs - offered a roomful of startup CEOs their advice for weathering the economic crisis. And while the two panels differed in some respects (with the VCs saying that they’re open for business and the startup veterans calling this a falsehood) the general consensus was at least in part optimistic: Money will be tight and many companies will endure painful cost cutting, but it’s cheaper than ever to run a startup and innovation will continue to thrive.
The VCs
In a panel moderated by VentureBeat’s Matt Marshall, John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers led off by agreeing with the themes in Sequoia Capital’s 56 Slide Presentation of Doom, expressing his concern that we are just entering an economic crisis of confidence, and that startups must enact swift and effective cost cutting - a sentiment that was echoed throughout the panel. Kittu Kolluri of New Enterprise Associates emphasized the need to cut burn rates, and to figure out how to generate revenues as quickly as possible. Early Google investor Ram Shriram said that we would likely be seeing company valuations shrink and expressed that it would become very difficult to get money. Benchmark Capital’s Matt Cohler (formerly at LinkedIn and Facebook) agreed that it is essential to be conservative with spending, but emphasized that an important part of being conservative is to refrain from panicking.
Of all of the investors the most optimistic was prolific angel investor Ron Conway, who said that we are in much better shape than we were during the last bubble. He recalled that during the dot com bubble 70% of the startups his angel funds had invested in during 1998/1999 went out of business within a year. In contrast, only 13% of Conway’s current portfolio is facing shutdown. He attributed this in part to the burn rates for companies, which have gone from an average monthly rate of $750k in the first bubble to around $200k now. He went on to say that if a company does need to raise money, it should turn to its original investors, who are the most likely to support them.
Kolluri showed some optimism as well, saying that some of his firm’s best investments came during the last downturn, and that it continues to invest at a regular pace. It may be more selective, but he believes there will certainly be innovation to be found.
After broadly expressing their thoughts, the panel gave some more practical advice. Before the roundtable John Doerr polled executives from Kleiner Perkins’ portfolio companies for some tips, and compiled the following list:
1. Act now. Act with speed, and raise more money if possible.
2. Protect the vital core of the business. Use a scalpel instead of an axe.
3. Get 18 months or more of cash in the businesses, against conservative revenue forecasts.
4. Defer Facilities expansions. Instead of buying more PCs or more software, use webbased stuff.
5. Negotiate. Negotiate with all your supplies and vendors, get more favorable payment terms.
6. Everybody in your organization should be selling. You need everyone to be selling the ideas and the organization. This is about increasing revenues.
7. For people with bonuses, offer equity instead of cash. Doerr noted that he once had a voluntary salary deduction program for people who remained during the downturn - Investors will be on board with this idea.
8. Pay attention to where your cash is, and keep it secure, in a place fully backed by the government. Doerr said that he’s been putting money into treasuries.
9. Make sure that for the revenues you plan, you have leading indicators that tell you 90 days in advance whether you’ll be getting revenues or not.
10. Overcommunicate with your employees, investors, and customers. Let them know your resolve. Don’t sugarcoat it.
The other panelists chimed in with their own tips:
Ron Conway - Stay open minded to M&A and move fast on M&A. Also, your biggest non variable cost is your rent. But your lease isn’t set.. In 2000 I spent many hours in front of landlords, negotiating, saying we’d give them more equity and that we’d leave afterward. About half the time it worked.
Ram Shriram- At this point, money may be worth more than equity. Use your equity rather than cash to pay if you have to.
Matt Cohler - Avoid long term spending commitments. None of us know how long this will last. Given that, operate under the mentality of uncertainty, and be careful. For example, be careful about facilities commitments. Unlike lots of types of spending, these are really contracts. Another example is IT spending in general. One of the things different in this downturn is that there are lots of tools and services and marketplaces that are free/low cost and flexible. You can turn them off, dialing up and down spending.
To close, Cohler also affirmed that despite some belt tightening, Benchmark and other VCs are still open for business.
Crunch Network: CrunchBasethe free database of technology companies, people, and investors
AP - The Federal Communications Commission expressed concern as several cable companies discussed plans to raise their rates for next year, including Cablevision Systems Corp., which on Wednesday announced an average hike for cable TV service of 3.5 percent. Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 29 Oct 2008 | 11:10 pm
Ostracus writes "Companies should not dismiss staff who use social networking sites such as Facebook and Bebo at work as merely time-wasters, a Demos study suggests. Attempts to control employees' use of such software could damage firms in the long run by limiting the way staff communicate, the think tank said."
NASA's Messenger spacecraft completed its second flyby earlier this month and scientists are already learning from the spectacular images it has returned.
With the release of the iPhone App Store and the Android Market, a lot of apps are trying to become the next social networking app. E-ventr for Android tries to accomplish this goal by managing your free time. With E-ventr you can create ope events, or join open events that your friends that are attempting to do something.
Sure, E-ventr requires everyone else to have the same app, which as of now means they also need to have a G1 phone. So, assuming that is the case, you’ll be able to coordinate events easily.
It uses the built-in GPS to show the location of the event so you always know where to actually go for each event. I would assume the app notifies you about an event before it happens, but without a G1 to test it, I can’t say.
E-ventr has a somewhat lofty goal of organizing your free time and the free time and events of your friends. There is a Pro version coming soon according to the website, but no information as to what that entails as opposed to the standard version.
No matter what it is, I doubt it will change anything significant about what E-ventr does. If E-ventr could also release an iPhone version, I would imagine it could be more popular. There are so many of these sorts of apps already on the iPhone, the first one to work on both Android and iPhone would be useful for the tech junkies that love Android and those who are iPhone users.
COADE announced today that ECE Solutions introduced its new PIDMO product as part of its exhibit participation during COADE's CADWorx User Conference in Houston on October 20-22. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 29 Oct 2008 | 11:00 pm
Melamine, the chemical behind the tainted milk scandal in China, has been found in a brand of eggs, officials in a northeastern Chinese city said Wednesday. Hangzhou officials have launched a recall of Ciyunxiang eggs, Xinhua, the official government news agency, reported. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 29 Oct 2008 | 11:00 pm
Certified Environmental Group Inc. (PINK SHEETS: CENV) today announces it has signed an agreement with First Nations to provide clean drinking water units to its communities. There are more than 135 First Nations communities in the east coast that require clean drinking water. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 29 Oct 2008 | 11:00 pm
Best Fire Defense LLC, manufacturer of the world's leading portable fire prevention pumps, today announced the release of its next generation pump designed to turn any body of water such as a pool, lake or storage tank, into a vital water source to fight wildfires, refill fire engines and supply homes with water during emergencies or natural disasters when water pressure is low or lost. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 29 Oct 2008 | 11:00 pm
Since March, Hollywood and the courts have shuttered four websites linking to copyrighted movies. The latest, just days ago, was pullmylink.com. Still, the U.S. legal system has not had a definitive ruling on whether torrent-tracking services, such as IsoHunt, are unlawful.
MySpace has offered MTV Networks’ EVP Digital Music and Media Courtney Holt the top job at the newly launched MySpace Music, CNET reports. We’ve confirmed this through our own sources, and we believe Holt has all but accepted the position and is in the final stages of contract negotiation.
The hunt for a CEO is nearly a year old. Earlier this year we reported on some of the early candidates. Last month we reported that ex-Facebooker Owen Van Natta was interviewing for the position, but those discussions were somewhat complicated by a simultaneous effort by Van Natta to sell Project Playlist to MySpace as well.
Currently Holt is Executive Vice President, Digital Media, MTV Networks Music and Logo Group where he oversees all digital initiatives.
Crunch Network: CrunchBasethe free database of technology companies, people, and investors
Marina Bychkova is an artist whose medium are dolls. Her work is absolutely stunning. Bychkova's lovely figures remind me of a Mark Ryden or Lori Earley painting brought into the 3D realm. Seen here is "Bride of Frankenstein" (2008, 13.5" tall). From the doll description:
I like to challenge conventional imagery of known literary characters, and provide an alternative view of how they might have looked. The reason my Bride is blonde, is to contrast the iconic image of the movie's version, and also to play on the idea of the body's low Melanin levels. I imagine that when she was alive she was bright and vibrant with dark eyes and raven hair, but the postmortem trauma to her body and the mechanical process of reanimating her corpse had changed its molecular composition. I think that being blasted with several thousand volts of electricity would contribute to that also. The metal helmet is her life support and what keeps her dead brain artificially alive by pumping oxygen into it and zapping it with small amounts of electricity to maintain its basic functions. It acts like a pump and a defibrillator.
Often we post a strange, high-specced foreign device only to lament that it will never be made available in the west. The reason, often assumed to be some hypothetical propensity for Asians to buy 20 cell phones a year and therefore support more competing products, is in truth far more direct: the products stink. Lisa Katayama's feature on Japan's fancy handsets explains why: their smart looks conceal severe usability problems and bad user interfaces.
Once you open the clamshell, the interface is a complete mess. While American-made phones are leaning more and more towards simple interfaces and clean design, Japanese gadgets continue to be plagued with feature overload and nightmarish interfaces that are totally impractical.
Katayama goes deep into the odd politics of the Japanese telecoms industry, its disdain for software engineering, and how that leads them to develop and market similarly odd devices. But some things are true the world over: there, as here, the handset manufacturers are virtual slaves of the cellular carrier.
Back in August, I posted about Gama-Go and Ningyoushi's development of a new Big Yeti designer toy. The Giant Yeti has finally been birthed and it is a big un'. The 9.5" high beast features posable arms and a light-up torch to guide him through the icy darkness of Nepal or your bedroom. For the next week, each Yeti figure ships with a free Yeti Ice Cave t-shirt.
Big Vinyl Yeti at Gama-Go (Cryptozoologist Loren Coleman loves the Big Yeti too!)
dtjohnson writes "A Harvard law school professor has submitted arguments on behalf of Joel Tenenbaum in RIAA v. Tenenbaum in which Professor Charles Neeson claims that the underlying law that the RIAA uses is actually a criminal, rather than civil, statute and is therefore unconstitutional. According to this article, 'Neeson charges that the federal law is essentially a criminal statute in that it seeks to punish violators with minimum statutory penalties far in excess of actual damages. The market value of a song is 99 cents on iTunes; of seven songs, $6.93. Yet the statutory damages are a minimum of $750 per song, escalating to as much as $150,000 per song for infringement "committed willfully."' If the law is a criminal statute, Neeson then claims that it violates the 5th and 8th amendments and is therefore unconstitutional. Litigation will take a while but this may be the end for RIAA litigation, at least until they can persuade Congress to pass a new law."
That is, get one if you must. I hadn’t seen this Reverie movie until about a minute ago, but I assumed it was okay because of all the coverage it got for being shot on a DSLR (partly). Unfortunately, it’s awful, and I don’t think it’s because he didn’t have a shoulder mount for his cameras. Anyway, if you’re trying to shoot in HD and you’re so budget that you’re shooting on a D90, are you really going to drop $1500 on accessories? With that and lighting you’re already above the price of something like a Scarlet or a good old HG20. Furthermore, given the motion problems of the DSLRs, I wonder why you’d even want to shoot handheld at all.
I think Redrock has had one of these things for a while, but I can’t find it. Zacuto’s a good company too, but the very idea is ridiculous.
[via Nikon Rumors]
The lack of a FireWire port on the new MacBooks left some disgruntled customers clamoring for an explanation to no avail. Making up for Apple's lack of
a response, electrical engineer Rainer Brockerhoff studied a dissection
of the MacBook's design and concluded removing the port was necessary
due to a space constraint.
In a forum thread, Brockerhoff said the MacBook's new unibody
construction is overall superior to the older notebooks' design despite
the lack of a FireWire port. The new design approach involves putting
the motherboard and ports all on one side of the notebook, meaning it
was necessary to eliminate FireWire to make room for the Ethernet, USB and power connections.
The benefit, Brockerhoff explained, is that having the motherboard on
one side of the notebook is more "rational" than having it span
throughout the entire device, as it did in the older models. Also, this
approach creates easier access to the battery and hard drive.
"I want to emphasize that this very
rational layout is a serious design win," he wrote. "It's made possible by the
unibody's rigidity and space-saving, but once you take those into
account, it's almost forced; you can't have a smaller laptop using
those particular components."
Reviews of Apple's new, aluminum MacBooks are mostly positive, but the major complaint some are expressing over the new notebook is its lack of FireWire. From a consumer's perspective, some customers are peeved because they can no longer use their FireWire hard drives, camcorders or musical instruments. Also, some Information Technology professionals complain that having no FireWire will make corrupt MacBooks more difficult to diagnose.
Apple did not comment on the omission of FireWire on the new MacBooks. It remains
unclear whether Apple will kill off the port entirely from its future
systems. However, discontinuing FireWire would be a peculiar move on Apple's part since the corporation invented the connection interface in 1995.
IFixit's Luke Soules, who performed the disassembly of the MacBook cited by Brockerhoff, agreed with the engineer's assessment that there isn't room for a FireWire port given the new unibody design and motherboard layout. Soules added that it's also important to keep in mind that the new
MacBooks are substantially thinner than their predecessors (.95" vs
1.08").
"Designing these machines is a constant tradeoff," Soules
wrote in an e-mail. "Brockerhoff is absolutely right when he calls it a
superior, more rational design."
But there is one way Apple
can revise the MacBook design to cram in FireWire, Soules said. The
company could move the security slot toward the front of the MacBook,
which would require reducing the battery size and in turn cutting down
on battery life -- from about 5.5 hours to 4.5 hours.
What are your thoughts, Gadget Lab readers? Vote in the poll below.
Scientists at University College London (UCL) may have finally found an answer to explain the fine line between love and hate.UCL researchers Semir Zeki and John Paul Romaya discovered that brain scans of volunteers who were shown images of people they hated revealed activity that occurs in the same areas set off by romantic love."This linkage may account for why love and hate are so closely linked to each other in life," wrote UCL researchers Semir Zeki and John Paul Romaya in a report about the study. "Our results show that there is a unique pattern of activity in the brain in the context of hate."The researchers showed 17 men and women photos of someone the volunteers said they hated --all either former lovers, work rivals or a famous politician. The participants were also shown pictures of three familiar, neutral individuals. The scientists obtained brain scans of the participants, and identified patterns within different areas of the brain the researchers dubbed a "hate circuit". These areas include structures in the cortex and sub-cortex, and exhibit a pattern distinct from emotions such as fear, threat and danger, Zeki told Reuters. This area would switch on when people saw the faces they hated, the researchers said."As far as we can determine it is unique to the sentiment of hate even though individual sites within it have been shown to be active in other conditions that are related to hate," they wrote.One part of the brain that became activated was an area believed critical in predicting other people's actions, something important for confronting a hated enemy, said the researchers.The brain activity also occurred in the insula and putamen, areas that also become activated when people view faces of loved ones. Zeki said scientists have linked the regions to stressful situations and aggressive action.However, the study found significant differences as well. A larger part of the cerebral cortex, an area associated with judgment and reasoning, de-activates with love compared to hate. And while both emotions are all-consuming passions, people in love may be less judgmental and critical, while needing to keep focus when dealing with a hated rival, the scientists said. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 29 Oct 2008 | 9:46 pm
This week in the Gadget Lab Videoblog, we continue our roundup of the Best of Test gadgets from our Fall Test issue, including the Usain Bolt of cameras, the Nikon D3.
Daniel Dumas and Jon Snyder go over the $5,000 D3 and explain why it leads the modern brigade of DSLRs. Mainly, its crazy nine frame per second burst mode makes life easier for photojournalists, it takes gorgeous pictures, and has a sexy ergonomic build that make you want to squeeze its buttons all night long.
In addition, Mathew Honan and Joe Brown go over the best Home Audio product from the Test, Logitech's Audio Squeezebox Duet streamer/audio manager.
Ring doorbell. Yell “trick or treat.” Ring doorbell. Yell “trick or treat.” What is this, the dark ages? It’s time to bring confection acquisition into the 21st century by stocking up on speed-boosting, performance-enhancing Halloween gear. Just grab these four can’t-miss gadgets and you’ll be enjoying a candy haul that lasts through Labor Day instead of going dry at Thanksgiving.
ATN Night Scout
It’s late, the porch lights are out, but you know every house on the block has half a bowl of candy left over. Find the doorbells others can’t with these head-mountable night-vision specs, which, incidentally, also make a killer addition to a Sam Fisher costume.
Walking from house to house? Feh, how pedestrian. Instead, strap up a set of Skorpion’s quad-wheel skates and whisk over grass, gravel, cobblestone and pavement sans stumbling and help fill that pillowcase to the brim. And hey, they’re also perfect if you’re dressing up like Roller Girl this year. (Note: it’s probably a good idea not to let your 9-year-old dress up like Roller Girl.)
The flashlight special-ops commandos would use to “trick or treat”
in war zones, the Defender easily illuminates your path from one porch
to the next. Alternately, use its 120 LED-powered lumens to temporarily
blind would-be bag-grabbin’ teenagers conspiring to snatch your kids’
candy. Either way, it’s win-win.
Does the thought of your little ghouls venturing out solo give
you the willies? Keep track of your troopers from the comfort of your
home base via real-time GPS on any one of Verizon’s Chaperone-compatible handsets.
I’ve been fawning over this little netbook since last week and I can’t wait to get one, but I’ll have to wait until January for the MIE version. :( Hopefully I’ll get it in time for CES because lugging this 15-inch MacBook Pro is getting old. Spec-wise it isn’t very powerful, but it isn’t meant to be a desktop replacement either. The UI on the MIE version is very intuitive and runs a gaggle of Open Office applications. There’s a repository of applications and programs that can be added to the MIE Mini 1000, but we didn’t have any Internet access, so I wasn’t able to see what I could or couldn’t install. There is some regulation on what programs can be installed and they have to be in the HP MIE repository, but I’m sure you can “hack” it to run whatever you want. I could be wrong, though. All I know is that I want it and so long as it has an RSS reader then I’m good to go.
Cramming a 14.7-megapixel sensor into something the size of a deck of cards is no small feat, but that’s exactly what Samsung’s done with the TL34HD digital camera. Add to that the ability to record 720p high-definition video at 30 frames per second, a three-inch touchscreen, and an MSRP of $329.95 and you’ve got a camera that appeals to people who want to get a little more out of their point and shoot.
Overview and Features
14.7-megapixel sensor
Roughly the same size as a deck of cards
Takes 720p video at 30 FPS
Big, three-inch touchscreen
28mm wide angle lens
3.6x optical zoom
MSRP of $329.95
Pros
If you like megapixels, you’ll love this camera. You can stuff it in your pocket, take photos of yourself and a bunch of your friends while you’re out at night, and then blow your favorite snapshots up to cover entire walls in your home – if that sort of thing is important to you. It’s a good social camera.
The ability to record video at 720p is a nice touch because, as a social camera, it’ll look good when played back on a TV. Samsung sells an optional HDMI cradle and remote control kit so you can dock the camera next to your TV for easy viewing. As it stands, though, the camera doesn’t come with HD video cables – just standard RCA cables.
The big 3-inch LCD screen is gorgeous. And the fact that it’s a touchscreen makes it easier to access most functions without having to go three or four menus deep like you would with most cameras. Everything’s pretty intuitive and the touch aspect is relatively responsive. I’m not a big fan of touchscreens but this one worked well.
Cons
If you’re more interested in the HD video function on this camera – specifically editing video — than you are about taking photos, you’d be best to steer clear. Video is recorded in MP4 format using a codec that only allowed my to open the files in QuickTime. I couldn’t open them using Sony Vegas. I have this same problem with a few other brands of digital camcorders, particularly the cheaper, sub-$150 kinds.
I tried just uploading a couple video files to Blip.tv and was greeted with the sound from the clip, but with an all-white picture. So straight uploading is out, too. I’d have to use a video conversion program to get each of these video files into a usable format first — too much time/work – and then open them up in my editor and/or upload them.
If you’re just going to watch the videos you’ll be fine. Use the included RCA cables (no included component cables = no HD) or buy the HDMI dock if you want to watch stuff in high definition. What I’m basically trying to say is that you’re probably not going to use the video function on this camera all that much. Your mileage may vary, though.
Finally, the placement of the flash is maddening:
Guess who’s big, fat, left index finger kept that flash from popping up while taking photos at night or in low light? I know the flash has to be put somewhere, but it’s honestly right underneath where most people hold the camera.
Samples
Sample Video File – See if you can open it in your video editor. If you can, great.
Sample Photos (all taken at maximum resolution, with flash):
The Samsung TL34HD is a good choice for social people who want a camera to take good photos from relatively close range and blow those photos up to various large sizes. The HD video feature is somewhat moot as the camera doesn’t include HD cables for your TV and videos can’t easily be edited or uploaded without converting the files first. It’s a great little camera for taking photos of up-close people, though, as it packs a lot of nice features into a small, pocketable package.
An anonymous reader writes "Right on the heels of Microsoft's adoption of the OpenID protocol by announcing their intention to enable OpenID authentication against all Live IDs, Google has announced their intention to join the growing list of OpenID authentication providers. Except it turns out they're using their own version of OpenID that is incompatible with everyone else. It seems that Google will be using their own 'improved' version of OpenID (based upon research and user feedback of the OpenID system) which isn't backwards compatible with OpenID 1.0/2.0, in hopes of improving end-user experience at the cost of protocol compatibility and complexity."
After two botched attempts to offer iPhone owners free access to Wi-Fi
hot spots, AT&T is finally comfortable enough to make the move
official.
The company on Wednesday updated its web site with a
familiar "We know what's hot" banner along with details of the offer for iPhone customers.
Some iPhone owners also reported receiving text messages informing them
of the deal.
The offer grants iPhone users free Wi-Fi access in several locations
where AT&T hosts hot spots, including Starbucks, airports, hotels,
bookstores and so on. Normally, AT&T charges $20 per month to
access its hot spots.
In July, AT&T posted the same "We know what's hot" banner and a
message saying the company was ready to offer iPhone owners free Wi-Fi
-- only to remove the announcement almost immediately. Similarly, in
May, iPhone owners in Starbucks and Barnes and Noble began receiving free Wi-Fi
access, but soon after AT&T discontinued the service.
In the past, AT&T officials did not comment on the reasoning for
the snafus, except that the free Wi-Fi message was "pushed live
erroneously."
AT&T confirmed in an e-mail to Wired.com that Wednesday's announcement is final.
Updated 4 p.m. PDT: Added a screenshot of the text message we received from AT&T.
There’s nothing wrong with playing World of Warcraft occasionally. It’s when you start to picture yourself—not your character, but you yourself—as The Defender of Azeroth or some nonsense that we have a problem.
Take the recent Zombie Infestation. In order to goad players into hating the Lich King (he’s the main antagonist in Wrath of the Lich King) and wanting to “invade” Northend (the continent that debuts in the expansion pack), Blizzard devised this in-game event wherein zombies are running all over the place, infecting you and yours with some disease that turns everyone into zombies.
I hated every minute of it. I couldn’t check my auctions because all the auctioneers were infected or dead; I couldn’t train because, again, all the trainers were dead; I can’t run through Elwynn Forest because the zombies had taken over. And no, that didn’t “get me pumped” to want to fight the Lich King, but sure as hell did encourage me to log off for several days out of frustration.
Massively disagrees. The guy there bought into the “invasion” angle hook, line and sinker. Let me tell you something: the WCW/ECW invasion of WWE back in 2001 was more believable. As a casual player, I have zero interest in defending Azeroth from the Scourge or anyone else for that matter. I’m there to kill a few minutes before I go to bed, that’s all. Spare me the superfluous nonsense.
My own gripes aside, the event does speak to the larger issue of MMOs. Developers would do well to “spice up” the atmosphere of their MMO. It’s one thing to tout your game as having a living, breathing world, but if the world, outside of the players themselves, is static—the same thing happens every single day—players may well become bored. Then they’d log off, perhaps for good.
Running around in the dark begging for candy? Troglodyte! Let the gadget geeks at Wired upgrade you with enough gear to give you and your tykes maximum confection-acquiring speed.
kakapo writes "A couple of years ago, we dumped our cable TV, and don't have much luck getting old-fashioned broadcast where we live. That's fine — we can download or netflix almost anything we want to see, and it is great not to pay the Comcast tax every month. Problem is, now I want to watch the election live, complete with talking heads, pundits, glitzy graphics and all the rest, rather than reading about it on a website. So, is there any way to download network TV / CNN / MSNBC in real time — I don't mind paying. And yes, we could visit friends, but ideally our kids would watch the first part and then go to bed — and a sitter would be expensive if we have to wait until late for the result."
The conservation group WWF said on Wednesday that the Earth's natural resources are being depleted so quickly that "two planets" would be required to sustain current lifestyles within a generation.The document warns that our demands on natural resources overreach what the Earth can sustain by nearly a third.“Reckless consumption of natural capital is endangering the world's future prosperity, with clear economic impacts including high costs for food, water and energy,” the report said."If our demands on the planet continue to increase at the same rate, by the mid-2030s we would need the equivalent of two planets to maintain our lifestyles," said WWF International Director-General James Leape.The dramatic ecological losses from pollution, deforestation, over-fishing and land conversion were having serious impacts, said Jonathan Loh of the Zoological Society of London. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 29 Oct 2008 | 8:20 pm
New research from the University of Calgary and the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Alberta, Canada, finds that the Tyrannosaurus rex tops the list of carnivorous dinosaurs when it comes to sense of smell. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 29 Oct 2008 | 8:15 pm
Though the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 has been shipping for a few weeks now, the long known about red variant has yet to launch - until now. Beginning this morning, folks looking to nab this rosy red release can stop by T-Mobile.com (Product Page) or their local T-Mo spot and pick one up for $149.99 on a 2-year contract. Not looking for a commitment? That’ll be $349.99.
We weren’t too fond of the Pearl Flip’s look when we spent some time with it back in September - but if we got to choose, we’d pick the black one.
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AT&T just sweetened the pot for all of its iPhone subscribers. If you own an AT&T iPhone, you now get free WiFi access at AT&Ts 17,000 hotspots across the country, including at most Starbucks. Although just last summer AT&T teased customers with the same freebie service, only to put up a pay wall afterwards, this time it looks like the free WiFi is here to stay.
So if you live in a part of the country where AT&T’s 3G data network is spotty, you can now supplement that coverage with AT&T’s WiFi network. It is a nice a bundle. You want to go with the WiFi connection whenever you can get it, regardless.
But why is AT&T doing this? It’s not to seal customer loyalty. The two-year contract does that. Perhaps it is to make up for lapses in its 3G coverage, or simply to take some of the load off the 3G network so that everybody’s mobile Web surfing doesn’t slow down. I really don’t care. What I want to know is why isn’t there an AT&T WiFi Locator app in iTunes?
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Roland Piquepaille writes "According to the Optical Society of America, U.S. researchers have been able to create a practical optical fiber with a silicon core. As they were able to use the same commercial methods that are used to develop all-glass fibers, this might pave the way for future silicon fibers as viable alternatives to glass fibers. The scientists note that this should help increase efficiency and decrease power consumption in computers and other systems that integrate photonic and electronic devices. Here is a good summary by the lead researcher: 'In the past, we've needed one structure to process light and another to carry it. With a silicon fiber, for the first time, we have the ability to greatly enhance the functionality in one fiber.'"
Apple hasn't yet been able to stop Florida-based company Psystar from selling Mac clones, and the rebellious manufacturer is trudging forward with more plans: a Mac notebook clone and a desktop Hackintosh equipped with a Blu-ray player.
Though scarce with details, Psystar told AppleInsider that the company is developing a Mac notebook clone that would be "very competitively priced." Psystar did not state a release date or product specifications.
"Blu-ray has already won the format war," Psystar president Rudy Pedraza said. "Not only is there fully
functional and mature support for Blu-ray in other operating systems
but you can now rent Blu-ray discs from almost any rental chain.
Blu-ray has become pervasive technology that is being widely adopted by
consumers everywhere."
Apple in mid-July filed a lawsuit against Psystar alleging copyright, trademark and shrink-wrap license infringement. The suit centered on Psystar's "OpenMac" -- essentially a PC hacked to run OS X Leopard -- which the company renamed OpenComputer. The sort-of Mac clone, which Psystar started selling in April, cost $399, or about $2,400 cheaper than a Mac Pro.
After about three months of squabbling, Apple and Psystar agreed to settle their legal dispute outside of court. The companies are expected to begin mediation sessions by end of January, but the amount of time they have to reach a settlement is indefinite.
A Mac clone notebook could create major headaches for Apple. Some analysts have already said the corporation would face challenges upholding strong sales of its popular Mac notebooks in the face of a broad economic collapse. Unlike other manufacturers already offering competitively priced notebooks, A MacBook clone more directly competes with Apple since it will run the same operating system.
John Swansburg, Associate Editor, Slate.com says: [I wrote about] the truly bizarre new HSBC ad running on TV (and on YouTube). Have you seen it? It's the one that features a violent confrontation between police and environmental protesters who protecting trees marked for clearing. But then it turns into a love story between one of the protesters and a logger -- complete with a soundtrack by Joanna Newsom, of all people. And this is all by way of selling the services of an international banking conglomerate. Very weird.
Anyway, thought the ad might be something BoingBoing readers would have seen and scratched their heads over. Here's my analysis:
And we’re off! Just 7 days after the G1’s release, some clever folks have managed to get the handset up and running on networks outside of T-Mobile’s grasp. Unfortunately, they’re also clever enough to go about it as entrepreneurs; if you want the unlock code, it’ll set you back $22.99.
Once you’ve given Unlock-TMobileG1.com some cash and your device’s IMEI number, they’ll give you an 8 digit unlock code. Once you’ve got that, it’s as easy as popping off the battery, slipping in the non-T-Mobile SIM card, and punching in the code they gave you.
The downside? Taking the device off of T-Mobile’s network seems to prevent you from connecting to Gmail or the Android Market. While the latter is a bit obvious (Once paid apps are available, how would they bill you?), the Gmail malfunction comes as a surprising disappointment.
While the haste on the part of the unlockers is impressive, I don’t really see the point of unlocking a G1 outside of a few special cases. With a good chunk of the handset makers dipping their feet into Android’s cool, cool waters, it’s a matter of months before all of the major carriers have an Android handset of their own. At the very least, wait until someone gets around to hacking up an unlock code generator and putting it up on BitTorrent.
As one of the first members of the Open Handset Alliance, Motorola has been an early backer of Google's Android operating system.
But now it looks like the company's support for Android will run deeper than previously expected.
Motorola is betting its future on Android with its plans to feature the OS on many of its upcoming handsets, according to an article in the Wall Street Journal.
Sanjay Jha, who took over as the CEO of Motorola's cellphone business two months ago, believes Android could help the company develop new models faster and restore profitability, says WSJ.
But will support for Android pay off for Motorola? In a uber-competitive smartphone market, Motorola has been struggling to stay afloat.
Features phones that have long been Motorola's focus are slowing in growth as more consumers opt for smartphones. Using the free Android OS could be one way for the company to jump on to the smartphone bandwagon while keeping costs under control.
Motorola's plans are likely to be clear soon. The company reports its quarterly results Thursday where it could offer more detail its plans, says Mark McKechnie, an analyst with American Technology Research in a note.
"Motorola's handset division is still in disarray with glimmering signs of light from Sanjay’s recent arrival," says McKechnie. "We expect to hear of pending lay-offs, a focus on time-to-market, and the embrace of outside partners (Google and Qualcomm chips) for a second half of 2009 recovery target."
Thanks to a new rule imposed by the European Union, wineries can't
use the word "port" on their wine labels unless their stuff was made in Portugal. Peltier Station Winery wasn't the type to
accept defeat: The winemakers thought of a clever loophole, branding their dessert wine "USB" as a substitute for the word
"port." In its online store, Peltier Station even boldly lists the $25 wine as "USB Port."
Kind
of a stretch, but the roots on the label even resemble the USB symbol.
According to the label maker, 6 West Design, it took quite a while for
the label to be approved:
The back label took three months of TTB/Cola deliberation before they
finally approved it - not without telling our Client [Peltier Station Winery] they had never
encountered someone going so far out of their way to prove a point.
God, I love semantics, don't you? I'd love to see the company put out an entire series of dessert "port" wines named after computer connections -- FireWire, Ethernet, eSATA. The curiosity of what those wines would taste like would make me an instant buyer.
If you’re not going to put words in people’s mouths, if you’re really listening to what they have to say, you’re going to learn something. Admittedly, the evidence is anecdotal. I haven’t selected these people through some kind of statistical sampling. These people are self-selected. They wrote in and said that they were registered Republicans, Independents or switch-voters who were planning to vote for Obama. People in the middle. And I was interested in talking to them on film about why they were making the switch from voting for a Republican to voting for a Democrat. Was it linked with policy? With the personality of the candidate?
This time — as opposed to 2004 — the content of the interviews has been qualitatively different. The people I interviewed have embraced Obama. They are voting for a candidate, not against a candidate. Lissa Lucas, for example, tells the story of voting for someone for the first time in her life. There is a feeling of hopefulness. There is this optimism, even though the situation in the country is arguably much worse than four years ago. A failing economy. The continuing war in Iraq. A crumbling infrastructure. But there is the core belief that if we pull together, we can save the country.
Once word got out that the iPhone firmware 2.2 had been seeded to developers, the rumors mills started churning at maximum power. While speculation has been rampant, a source of ours stopped by to verify a few of the recently leaked features. Though we’re still waiting on one bit, we can positively confirm that Google Street View and application rating upon deletion are currently built into 2.2.
Google Street View being added to the Maps App seems to be the biggest update. Its adds public transit, walking directions, and the ability to e-mail your location to other people. This will make the iPhone a handy tool when urban hiking takes off in your city.
The other update that we’ve confirmed is one that I am not too happy about, but I understand why they added it. Starting with version 2.2, you will be asked to rate an app when you delete it. I think this so Apple can have another way to find and delete crappy apps. You are given the option to say “No Thanks” instead of rating, but I would like to see an option to disable the prompt altogether. Such an option hasn’t been spotted in the seeded firmware yet, so we’ll have to wait and see if that makes its way in.
While we haven’t personally confirmed it yet, various reports indicate that podcasts will be downloadable over WiFi via the iTunes application. While there’s no reason such a feature wouldn’t be implemented, we’re looking for a bit of confirmation from our own sources before we call it a sure thing. We’ll update you as it comes in.
More photos after the jump.
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While details are still sparse, Digitimes is reporting that Asus is getting set to release their own Android handsets. By word of “company sources”, the company plans to push the handsets into the Taiwan market under its own brand sometime in the first 6 months of next year, later moving on to developing handsets for other parties.
While ASUS isn’t a huge name in the handset market yet (with just 30,000 smartphone units pushed this year), dabbling with Android is a good move. Like Motorola, it seems they’ve realized that the idea of developing a proprietary OS in-house is on the way out. With a dash of Android added to Asus’ ability to make rock solid hardware, we’re looking forward to checking out these new handsets.
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Uh... what? The product description says it is a USB powered "luminous clock, loud speaker and HUB" all in one. But does it even really matter? Anything that looks this retro-futuristically Star Trek deserves a place on my computer desk, especially at only $18.
Craftsman's "skeleton of spanners" adheres closely to the fine tradition of Halloween things that aren't scary. Cool, though! It makes me want to see what a Halloween commercial from Tyson Foods would be like.
IN THE MEANTIME, here are some answers to your questions from the comments.
RE: MAJORD AND MADFIST'S DISCUSSION about the attainability of the 33rd Degree within Freemasonry, in this case you should consider the messenger before you blame the popper/locker. My conversation with Grand Master Priest regarding his Craft was brief, and I may have gotten some details wrong. I also think he may be somewhat older than he appears in the photograph, because breakdance and Masonry, in combination, make you immortal.
RE: ANONYMOUS, the answer is YES. The man I met is certainly the "Grand Master Priest" who is on staff at the Mystical Grand Masters School of Popping. But I must have gotten the name wrong somehow. The masked man in the video certainly has the moves. But according to his bio at the MGMSOP, that man was born in ancient Lemuria. So I cannot say for sure if that is also the man I met in Philadelphia.
(Popular Mechanics editor-in-chief, Jim Meigs (left) and inventor Dean Kamen.)
Andrew Moseman says: Dean Kamen is famous for inventing the AutoSyringe, the portable dialysis machine, the iBOT self-balancing wheelchair, and, of course, the Segway human transporter. But he is most passionate when talking about his nonprofit organization, FIRST, which tries to get kids excited about science and technology by having them build 120-pound robots to slug it out on a rough-and-tumble field of play. "We're not competing with science fairs, we're competing with Britney Spears and Shaquille O'Neal" for the attention of teenagers, Kamen said. The FIRST game changes every year—in 2008, teams raced 40-in. balls around a track. Kamen spoke with Popular Mechanics editor-in-chief Jim Meigs and an audience of journalists and FIRST competitors at the magazine's headquarters, in New York City's Hearst Tower. Kamen's core message: American culture needs a geek overhaul.
What do you think is the most important science and technology issue to be addressed by the next president? What's the biggest issue he should take on?
Is it energy? Genomics? Is it bird flu? Is it the polar caps—are they really melting? Is it terrorism? You pick the crisis du jour: The answer to all these issues is going to be an educated, competent global society. This country ought to lead the world, for lots of reasons. And we ought to help the rest of the world get educated, because if they are educated, their impact on the environment is actually way less. If they are educated, they'll have better ideas than killing each other or killing you and me.
The next president should recognize the power of technology. Technology is how we create wealth, how we cure diseases, how we'll build an environment that's sustainable and also gives people the capacity to pull more out of this world and still leave it better than when they found it. You know, people always talk about rights in this country—I wish we had a bill of responsibilities. So I think the president has to stop thinking of the crisis du jour and say, "In this race between education and catastrophe, we need education to win." The next president better make sure that all kids are part of the solution, not part of the problem. And with 50 percent of the kids in the 20 largest school districts in the country not graduating high school, they're part of the problem. This is unsustainable. It has to change.
...over on O'Reilly Radar blog is one of the more extensive and thoughtful analyses of what this presidential candidate's policies mean for those of us who make our living in technology. Snip from the introduction:
[W]e need a president who can harness the best and brightest our country has to offer, a president who is conversant with, and comfortable with, the power of technology to assist in solving these problems, a president who is good at listening, studying, and devising solutions based on the best insight available, rather than on narrow ideology. We need a president who can forge consensus, not just among the partisans in our own fractured democracy but around the world. We need a president who can inspire our citizens and our global partners to forgo narrow self interest and embrace the possibilities that we can achieve if we work together to build a better future.
I believe Barack Obama is that president. He is a man of intelligence, but also a man whose character and temperament seem suited to the problems of our age: unflappable, optimistic even in the face of adversity, willing to speak the truth about subjects that have long been taboo (I'm thinking of his speech on race, and his speech on fatherhood) and with unscripted reactions that show his fundamental decency (I'm thinking of his reaction to those who wanted to make a campaign issue of Sarah Palin's daughter's unplanned pregnancy.)
Because this is a tech blog, not a political blog, though, I primarily want to address the subject of why members of the technical community should join me in supporting Barack Obama. (The New York Times has made a compelling case based on the broader issues, as has Colin Powell.) I outline four principal reasons:
I will also discuss some important additional considerations, personal and political, that I hope Radar readers who don't want to see politics in these pages, will forgive.
Britain's Daily Mail reports that a European research team will have a fully-artificial heart ready for clinical trials by 2011.
Dr. Alain Carpentier said: 'We are moving from pure research to clinical applications. After 15 years of work, we are handing over to industry to produce an artificial heart usable by man.'
The prototype was developed with the help of aerospace engineers. Shaped like a real heart, with the same blood flow rhythms, it uses similar technology to artificial heart valves already used around the world. The recurring problems of most artificial hearts – immune system rejection and blood clotting – are avoided by constructing it from chemically treated animal tissues.
The revised MacBook Air, now including an Nvidia board with a discrete graphics chip, is now shipping.
Nvidia's GeForce 9400M will be better for games, specifically, but also for other 3D apps, from Google Earth to CAD, should anyone out there be masochistic enough to run Autodesk on a MacBook Air. Rumor has it that hardware acceleration of h.264 video, a la the new MacBooks, is also on the plate.
Just a few days ago, the above shot of a supposed XPERIA concept device started floating around. Though its authenticity can’t be confirmed, we certainly hope it’s fake - or, at most, a concept never intended to leave the labs.
Besides being a damned nice looking piece of hardware, much of the XPERIA X1’s appeal stems from its full, landscape QWERTY keyboard. In this concept, the keyboard slides out vertically, keeping the phone in portrait mode. No thanks. As a portrait slider requires just about the same amount of hardware and sliding mechanics as a landscape slider, it’s not as if it makes the phone any less bulky. What it does do, however, is take a nice, roomy keyboard and cramp it down, removing a big chunk of what made the X1 worthwhile.
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Rainier Brockerhoff's autopsy of the new MacBooks is a fascinating read, extrapolating and explaining how the new unibody construction informed the design at every point... including the controversial decision to abandon Firewire.
In older models, the motherboard either spanned the entire width of the machine to accomodate ports on both sides, or there was a secondary module on the opposite side, with fragile/expensive ribbon cables connecting that to the main board; not a good solution. Remember that making a unibody is an expensive process and that cost must be shaved off elsewhere; even so, the MacBook is $100 more expensive than its predecessor.
So we pretty much have to accomodate all ports on one side of the MacBook... No Firewire also means no target disk mode. Target mode for migration, while convenient, is not really necessary if you have gigabit Ethernet. With the hard drive so easily accessible, a technician no longer needs target mode for debugging; it's easy to yank the drive out and plug it into a SATA-USB converter.
The newest computer manufacturer to jump into the smartphone business? Dell.
According to a leak on their website, Dell has two smartphones called the Pharos Traveller lined up for release sometime later this year. The 127 will be a traditional QWERTY phone, where as the 117 will go the way of the iPhone with a touchscreen interface. Both will feature 7.2Mbps HSDPA 3G, GPS and — gah! — Windows Mobile 6.1, with a talktime of four hours and 200 hours of standby. Both also have a 2MP camera and a 0.3MP front camera for video calls. No carrier or price yet.
It's pretty hard to find this exciting. The phones are ugly, the OS is coughing up dust, the name is joyless and the manufacturer is Dell.
Displays on thin sheets of plastic or steel that can be rolled up and carried will soon be in the hands of U.S. soldiers, thanks to research work from the Flexible Display Center at Arizona State University.
Thanks to the tireless work of greater hackers than me or my Gadget Lab colleague Brian X. Chen, I now have the headphone jack working on the original, and still best, GLab Hackintosh. The workaround is a little clunky, but it means that I can now hook up my Medion Akoya Mini to a stereo, or use headphones. This is a pretty big deal. Take that, Chen!
When Google started its Google Book Search Service a few years ago, it annoyed a number of people. Those people included “the Authors Guild, the Association of American Publishers and a handful of authors and publishers.” On Tuesday the groups involved reached an agreement, and have submitted it to the court.
We all have them. Old gadgets and gizmos tucked away that we don’t use anymore, but for some reason...we just can’t find it in our heart to toss them. For some, it might be that we don’t want to “clutter the environment,” for others, “but I paid freakin’ HOW MUCH for that five years ago?!” And for others still, well, we don’t even know why it’s still shoved it the closet or drawer. Well, you might be heartened to know that Radio Shack is now providing a way for you to get some cash for those old tech goodies. Well, not cash exactly, but the next best thing. Gift cards for more tech goodies.
I’ve aimed a lot of 
: Photo: Bryan Derballa/Wired.com
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: Photo: Bryan Derballa/Wired.com
The ladies and gentleman at Westboro Baptist Church -- who enjoy disrupting memorial services for soldiers killed in battle with their hateful homophobic tantrums -- seem unhappy about this dada-style "God Hates Signs" counter protest campaign. (Photo by 
MySpace has offered MTV Networks’ EVP Digital Music and Media 
Back in August, I 
