Source: Gizmodo | 7 Nov 2008 | 10:32 am

Circuit City selling "liquidated" HTDVs for more than their website

Looking to take advantage of the liquidation sales at the 155 closing Circuit City stores to buy yourself an HDTV? According to HD Guru, you should rethink things.

Circuit City is claiming that they are offering 10% off the price off all HDTVS. That discount is an illusion: Circuit City is actually bumping up the pre-discount price to make up the difference. What's most astonishing is that Circuit City's own web site lists many of the televisions they are selling at a 10% discount in liquidated stores only for hundreds of dollars less.

And then there's the "No Return" policy: if you buy one of these televisions, bring it home and it doesn't work, you're at the whim of the manufacturer's warranty.

The good news: it you're fine with buying a display model, Circuit City will be selling them as "open box" and heaping a negotiable 10% discount on top of it. That could be tempting, and HD Guru has a few good pointers on making sure you don't get screwed on the transaction, including how to calculate how much of the display life you've lost and getting all the parts and materials that originally came with the television.

Circuit City Liquidation Sale Price Switch-Can You Beat It or Will It Beat You? [HD Guru]

Source: Gizmodo | 7 Nov 2008 | 10:15 am

Heidi Klum Guitar Hero Ad, Unplugged and Unclothed

Technically, an ad for Guitar Hero: World Tour featuring a toy plastic guitar is well within the remit of Gadget Lab. When it features Heidi Klum managing to strip and stroke the axe at the same time, it's an early morning eye-opener which actually let me skip my second coffee.

When BBG's John Brownlee wrote up the video, though, he betrayed the keening, reality-distorting loneliness that is the bloggers' life -- here's what he had to say:

I can't help but wonder: how is Heidi playing Guitar Hero without once looking at the screen?

Pathetic. What kind of man, even a super-geek of Brownlee's standing, could watch this and wonder about the technical details? I'll tell you what kind: The kind of man who lives alone with a budgerigar called Humbert Humbird. The kind of man who pretends that the budgerigar can talk. The kind of man who actually writes a fake Twitter account for that same bird.

Me? I have nothing to add but a schoolboy comment on the ad's tagline. I will be both playing with my guitar and "expanding to the band".

Heidi Klum channels Risky Business for Guitar Hero: World Tour [BBG]

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 7 Nov 2008 | 10:12 am

Honda shows wearable device that helps you walk (AP)

AP - Imagine a bicycle seat connected by mechanical frames to a pair of shoes for an idea of how the new wearable assisted-walking gadget from Honda works.

Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 7 Nov 2008 | 10:10 am

Microsoft CEO: No interest in buying Yahoo (AP)

AP - Microsoft's chief executive said Friday the software giant is not interested in renewing its bid for struggling search engine company Yahoo Inc.

Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 7 Nov 2008 | 10:08 am

Lenovo says profit down 78 percent on weaker sales (AP)

AP - Lenovo Group's quarterly profit dived 78 percent as the global economic slowdown battered sales, and the company, the world's fourth-largest PC maker, said it will launch a restructuring with possible job cuts.

Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 7 Nov 2008 | 10:00 am

UK Outlines Plan For Internet Black Boxes

RobotsDinner writes "In what sounds like a dystopian sci-fi plot, the Home Office has made public plans to outfit the country's Internet with upstream data recorders to log pretty much everything that passes through. 'Under Government plans to monitor internet traffic, raw data would be collected and stored by the black boxes before being transferred to a giant central database. The vision was outlined at a meeting between officials from the Home Office and Internet Service Providers earlier this week.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 7 Nov 2008 | 9:50 am

Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Burnt Toast

Amongst a certain subset of religious attention seekers (not to mention GoldenPalace.com), this Star Wars toaster should be all the pareidolic proof required to conclude, once and for all, that Darth Vader is not only the Dark Lord of the Sith, but out Dark Messiah as well.

Star Wars Toaster [Star Wars]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 7 Nov 2008 | 9:41 am

Anti-static keychains for the human Tesla coil

These tiny keychains only have one purpose: they discharge static electricity, preventing accidental door knob shocks in the like. I can't even remember the last time I got a static shot, so no use here, I'm afraid, but it would certainly be neat if you could store up the energy and discharge it upon the unwitting.

Anti-Static Keychain [Funshop via Crunchgear]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 7 Nov 2008 | 9:30 am

AT&T Tethering Coming Soon; Really - CNET News

E Canada Now

AT&T Tethering Coming Soon; Really CNET News - 4 hours ago We’ve extensively covered drama surround tethering on the iPhone (here, here and here). This time we are writing with a more positive tone - it looks like AT&T, along with Apple, will finally bring a Phone-as-Modem (PAM) tethering plan to your iPhone ... Official iPhone tethering coming ’soon’ says AT&T CEO SlashGear AT&T Brass Talks Big on Future of iPhone PC World CRN - Product Reviews - Computerworld - IGN all 53 news articles

Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 7 Nov 2008 | 9:25 am

Sound and Vision rounds up the best speakers in nearly every class

Sound and Vision Magazine have put together an overview of the best speakers in nearly every class. It's a bit infuriating to browse — whoever decided to do a buyer's guide to high-end speakers as an image slideshow with 10 second intervals should be soundly thrashed — but it seems like a good buying guide... albeit, one for millionaires: the cheapest systems they recommend are over $1100, and can go up to $40,000.

Top Speakers in Every Class [Sound and Vision Mag]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 7 Nov 2008 | 9:10 am

SanDisk Develops Faster SSD Technology - InformationWeek

Legit Reviews

SanDisk Develops Faster SSD Technology InformationWeek - 5 hours ago ExtremeFFS, which introduces an architecture where all of the NAND flash memory channels are able to behave independently, is scheduled to ship in products next year. The secret sauce in SanDisk's ExtremeFFS Register SanDisk Promises Big Performance Boost For Solid-State Drives CRN Ars Technica - Afterdawn.com - Computerworld - CNET News all 74 news articles

Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 7 Nov 2008 | 9:00 am

Traffic Loop Sensor Activators for Bicyclists

The Loop Sensor Activator is a device for bicyclists that allows a low-weight velocipede to trigger traffic loop sensors. I had no idea there was a need for such a thing, but apparently, the problem's bad enough that a bicyclist can find themselves stranded at an intersection at a perpetual red short of flinging their bike violently to the ground:

A common problem for bicyclists, and in particular for bicycle commuters, is the traffic loop sensor. These are the devices which detect the presence of vehicles to control the sequencing of traffic lights at many intersections. Often, they are installed in figure-eight slits cut into the pavement near a traffic light.

The way they work is to detect the slight change in inductance of the loop of wire buried in the slit caused by a large metallic object (such as a motor vehicle) above the loop. The problem for bicyclists is that traffic departments often feel compelled to set the sensitivity of the electronics behind the loop rather low, so that false detections are avoided. This can make it difficult for a bicycle (a relatively small metal object) to make its presence known to the sequencing circuit. The result is a lot of frustration for a bicyclist trying to get a green light or left-turn arrow. This can be especially frustrating at streets with low traffic (often where these sensors are used in the first place), as one waits for a motor vehicle to come by and trip the sensor. Sometimes one must resort to laying the bicycle down on the road surface above the loop with the hope that the extra metal presented to the loop will cause detection. Sometimes it doesn't work, and sometimes frames aren't made of metal.

Various devices have been patented in order to address this problem. Some are a little impractical, and some don't work with modern loop sensor circuitry. One patented solution (see USP 5,652,577) has the bicyclist laying down a big piece of metallic foil or screen right on the road surface!.

Christ, what you American bicyclists have to put up with. Here in Zembla, every street has bike paths, bicyclists are respected and feared in equal measure and there are even traffic lights for bikes only. Do I amaze you?

Loop Sensor Activator [Plan Bravo via Core77]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 7 Nov 2008 | 8:48 am

Ballmer rules out new bid for Yahoo (CNET)

CNET - Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said Friday that Microsoft is "not interested" in making a new offer for internet company Yahoo, despite Yahoo's share price currently sitting at less than half what Microsoft initially offered.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 7 Nov 2008 | 8:25 am

Ian Rogers’ Digital Music Manifesto [Voices]

By Todd Bishop, Managing Editor, TechFlash

Big companies that put themselves between artists and fans, without providing real value, risk becoming obsolete in the age of digital music. And if they can’t adapt, forget about ‘em.

That was the message today from Ian Rogers, 36, the former Yahoo! Music director who heads the Topspin media technology company. Rogers spoke at the Grammy MusicTech Summit in Seattle–describing an emerging “middle class” of artists, discussing the latest in music marketing, and explaining why Apple (AAPL) has, so far, run roughshod over Microsoft (MSFT) in digital music.

Read the rest of this post

Source: All Things Digital | 7 Nov 2008 | 8:04 am

Craigslist Puts a Dimmer on Its Red-Light District [Voices]

By Jacqui Cheng, Associate Editor, Ars Technica

Craigslist has entered into an agreement with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and the Attorneys General of 40 states to enact measures that it claims is targeted towards fighting child exploitation, but largely focuses on reducing spam and (adult) prostitution. The organizations issued a joint statement today about the agreement, designed to prevent the popular classifieds site from being used for human trafficking, child exploitation, and “other illegal activities.” The measures taken by Craigslist seem like more of an attempt to get law enforcement off its back, however, than a true effort to reduce illegal activity.

Read the rest of this post

Source: All Things Digital | 7 Nov 2008 | 8:03 am

Lights, Camera, YouTube: Feature Films Coming to the World’s Video Portal? [Voices]

By MG Siegler, Blogger, VentureBeat

Watch out, distributors of premium content online, a 900-pound gorilla named YouTube just crept into the room. For the past few years, the service has become far and away the world’s most popular online video platform on the backs of its user-generated content and often legally questionable copyrighted material. But now the service may be close to gaining the ultimate content, legally: Feature films.

At least one of the big Hollywood studios is said to be on board with putting its content on YouTube, sources tell CNET. This could happen as soon as within the next 90 days, and possibly even within the month, the source says.

Read the rest of this post

Source: All Things Digital | 7 Nov 2008 | 8:02 am

Oh, Dear, Here Come the ‘Facebook to Buy Twitter’ Rumors [Voices]

By Caroline McCarthy, Editor, The Social, CNET

John Battelle, CEO of Federated Media, decided to have a little bit of speculative fun onstage Thursday with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg at the Web 2.0 Summit. It’s the sort of “speculative fun” that could give tech bloggers a gossip-overload headache for weeks to come: Battelle decided to throw some fuel on the “Facebook might buy Twitter” fire. Which, as far as I can tell, is a relatively new addition to the rumor-roasting pit.

“Is Twitter just a feature of Facebook?” Battelle prodded. Facebook, after all, has its own “status” feature that arguably competes with micro-blogging services like Twitter and FriendFeed.

Zuckerberg answered cryptically. “Oh, that’s tough.”

Read the rest of this post

Source: All Things Digital | 7 Nov 2008 | 8:01 am

Obama and McCain Campaign Systems Were Hacked [Voices]

By Kim Zetter, Blogger, Wired.com, Threat Level

Newsweek is reporting that computer networks of both the Obama and McCain campaigns were the targets of a sophisticated cyberattack in the run-up to the general election and, in the Obama case, “a serious amount of files” were downloaded” from the system.

The Obama camp initially thought in midsummer that their system was infected by password-stealing malware uploaded to someone’s computer through a phishing attack. But after FBI and Secret Service agents investigated, they told staff they had a problem “way bigger than what you understand.”

The intrusion even led White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten to tell the Obama camp, “You have a real problem . . . and you have to deal with it.”

Read the rest of this post

Source: All Things Digital | 7 Nov 2008 | 8:00 am

Power On Self Test: 9 Volt Tragedy

Image: Lenny&Meriel

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 7 Nov 2008 | 8:00 am

Meet G-Dog, Japan’s newest robotic dog

Japanese robot maker HPI will start selling a four-legged robotic dog, the so-called G-Dog (what a name), later this month.

The robo dog, which is powered by a 7.2V nickel metal hydride battery, features a total of nine servomotors and is largely made of aluminium. It’s sized at 375×135×190mm and weighs 570g.
Users will be able to control the G-Dog wirelessly via a Playstation-like joypad. The robot is able to sit up and beg, crawl and roll over to its side.

HPI is present (through distributors) in large parts of Oceania and Asia so this robot might find its way outside Japan for a change.

Source: CrunchGear | 7 Nov 2008 | 7:36 am

Posted by: Stephen Wildstrom on November 05 - BusinessWeek

Posted by: Stephen Wildstrom on November 05 BusinessWeek - 6 hours ago The FCC’s decision to open up more spectrum for mobile wireless, reported yesterday by my colleague Olga Kharif, is a big step forward. Martin, Page Push White Spaces PC World Google leader sees green in 'white space' San Francisco Chronicle GigaOm - New York Times - ZDNet - PC Magazine all 896 news articles

Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 7 Nov 2008 | 7:30 am

SEP-50BT: Sony adds a black model to its Rolly line-up, announces firmware for the first model (video)

Sony announced they will not only sell a white and pink version of their new Rolly music robot (SEP-50BT), but also add a black model in the Japanese Sony Style store [JP]. The new Rolly will be sold in Japan for around $400 starting November 21.

Sony also said (Japanese) owners of the first version will be able to get the new model’s Bluetooth functionality through a firmware update that will become available next month.

Watch the new Rollys in action below.

Source: CrunchGear | 7 Nov 2008 | 7:27 am

Tethering officially coming to the iPhone through AT&T

FROM APPLETELL - Mobile Crunch has some information straight from AT&T regarding the iPhone’s current lack of tethering capabilities.
MORE »

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 7 Nov 2008 | 7:22 am

Raising Doubts About Australia's Broadband Upgrade Plan

RcK writes "In addition to the rising controversy of the possible Australian version of the Great Firewall Of China already mentioned several times of late here on Slashdot; the viability of the proposed AU$5Billion internet infrastructure upgrade promised by the Federal Government during their 2007 election campaign is under fire. The MD of arguably Australia's leading internet company, iinet, has branded the proposal a waste of taxpayers money. Steve Ballmer, during his current Australian visit, has also weighed in on the topic and diplomatically indicated that Australia should get on with the job. Much of the current criticism appears to surround the likelihood of people in remote areas being left out of the proposed plan. Ironically, where I lived previously (remote town in central Aus — nearest town over 400km away) everyone had, at the absolute least, subsidized satellite internet, and most had ADSL. In my case a flawless 512k connection for ~4years. However, I now live 5 minutes from the center of a capital city and due to archaic telephone infrastructure cannot get ADSL, and even line noise is too great for dialup!" Today's front page at Whirlpool Broadband News also features several articles relating to the saga.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 7 Nov 2008 | 7:01 am

Microsoft CEO pours cold water on Yahoo interest (Reuters)

Reuters - Software giant Microsoft Corp dismissed speculation it might still be interested in a takeover of Internet firm Yahoo Inc.

Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 7 Nov 2008 | 6:52 am

Ralph de La Vega says no Android on AT&T for now

Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Web, Google

Ever since Google Android was first officially released, one question asked by many was which cell phone carrier would use it in their phones.  With the release of T-Mobile’s G1, we knew T-Mobile liked Android and gave it a shot.  From that, another question was developed, which other carriers would follow suit to T-Mobile.  At the Web 2.0 Summit, Ralph de La Vega, CEO of AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets, was asked about Android being used in AT&T phones. 

Unfortunately for AT&T enthusiasts, AT&T will not be incorporating Google Android into their cell phones anytime soon.  He wants to see Google Android evolve more before they think about using it in their phones.  He also adds that they are looking at it as a possible new platform.  Lastly, he adds that he wants to see Google Android take on more non-Google Apps. 

From what I can infer, I think AT&T will be using Google Android at some point, but not in the immediate future.  Looks like AT&T is just waiting for Android to mature a bit before fully adopting the platform.

Read [SFGate]

Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

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Source: Gadgetell | 7 Nov 2008 | 6:12 am

RIM ousted from #1 by smartphone owners

Section: Communications, Cellphones, Smartphones, Mobile

There is a new sheriff in town and it’s name is iPhone.  This year, according the JD Powers the top dog spot goes to Apple’s phone, leaving RIM to finish in the #2 spot.  As you can see from the above graph, Apple’s entry was not included in last year (the survey’s inaugural year).  The graph shows some interesting items.

Looking at RIM, they stayed pretty flat, as did Samsung smartphone owners.  Not much news there, but look at Palm!  Whether it is just fashionable to rag on Palm or users have had enough, they took a hit.  The actual numbers are 698 to 644, a substantial slide over the past year.

While the big story is Apple owners are the most content smartphone owners, the smaller details that are not on the graph deserve mention.  Things like the average price of smartphone declined from $261 to $216, a substantial slide.  Prices ranged from a high of $337 (Apple) and $169 (Moto).  Interestingly, Treo was replaced as the top priced phone by Apple.

New to the graph are both Apple and HTC.  I find it interesting that HTC would make the graph, but it shows that smartphone owners know this stuff.  It would suggest smartphone owners do a bit more research on their devices than just fondling them at a Verizon store. 

Can Apple keep the top spot?  Can RIM’s virtual cornicopia of new phone configurations please the populous?  Can Palm regain anyone’s faith? 

Tune in next year for JD’s survey.

Read [JD Power]

Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

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Source: Gadgetell | 7 Nov 2008 | 5:02 am

AMD Engineer Accused of Theft - Wall Street Journal

ABC News

AMD Engineer Accused of Theft Wall Street Journal - 9 hours ago By a WALL STREET JOURNAL Staff Reporter A former Intel Corp. engineer has been charged with stealing trade secrets worth $1 billion from the chip maker while he worked for rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. Federal prosecutors in Massachusetts alleged ... Ex-Intel Engineer Indicted For Alleged Theft Of Company Secrets CRN Man Charged in $1B Intel Trade Secrets Case ABC News CNET News - Register - Tom's Hardware Guide - NetworkWorld.com all 278 news articles

Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 7 Nov 2008 | 5:00 am

Meebo chats its way to the Android platform

It was only a few days ago that we tore into the 20 dollar IM+ application for being overpriced, buggy, and lacking anything that justified that 20 dollar price tag. At the tail-end of that review, we expressed our hopes that an IM app done right would come along soon. Enter Meebo for Android, brought to you by the same people behind the awesome browser-based IM application of the same name. It’s got a clean interface, is dead simple to use, and best of all: it’s FREE. Game over, IM+.

Meebo is a true replacement for Android’s out-of-the-box IM client, supporting simultaneous logins for AIM, Google Talk, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo, ICQ, and Jabber. Through a day of fairly rigorous testing, Meebo ran smoothly in the background without any notable hiccups. I always fear that I’ll miss an important IM when a chat app decides to silently off itself - fortunately, Meebo plops an icon onto Android’s notification bar as an “Ongoing” alert, providing a bit of constant reassurance. Just like the taskbar on your computer, Meebo’s icon will reflect if you have messages and display them for a short time to see if they are worth replying to.

For a first release, it’s already well on its way in the right direction. The only gripe we have at the moment is the lack of configuration options for away messages, notifications.. or anything else, for that matter. With that said, it still obliterates IM+ and the default IM application on Android. Check it out on the Android Market and give it a whirl!

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 7 Nov 2008 | 5:00 am

Utah Remains Undefeated With Late Win Over TCU

Salt Lake City, UT (Sports Network) - Brian Johnson completed 24-of-39 passes for 230 yards, but no completion was bigger than his nine-yard touchdown pass to Freddie Brown with 47 seconds left, as No. 10 Utah held on for a 13-10 win over No.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 7 Nov 2008 | 5:00 am

HP Names Pete Bocian As Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer

HP (NYSE:HPQ) today announced that it has appointed Pete Bocian to serve as executive vice president and chief administrative officer.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 7 Nov 2008 | 5:00 am

Lenovo Reports Second Quarter 2008/09 Results

Lenovo Group today reported results for its second fiscal quarter ended September 30, 2008.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 7 Nov 2008 | 5:00 am

Hitachi Released New Ranking Feature to Search By Drawing at Its Similar Image Search Engine 'GazoPa'

Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE:HIT) (TOKYO:6501) announced today that a ranking feature to search by drawing was released for its similar image search engine GazoPa. Search by drawing is one of the most popular features at GazoPa.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 7 Nov 2008 | 5:00 am

AV Receiver Is NASCAR Loud, Ballet Beautiful

Sporting some of the newest features in high-end audio, and belting them out at 100 watts per channel, the Denon AVR-889 is both loud and elegant.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 7 Nov 2008 | 5:00 am

Nov. 7, 1932: Radio Enters the 25th Century

1932: Space adventurer Buck Rogers debuts on CBS radio. The science fiction show, eventually called Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, will delight loyal fans over a span of 15 years and inspire aficionados for decades more.

Writer Phil Nowlan unveiled space swashbuckler Buck Rogers in a story called "Armageddon — 2419," which was published in Amazing Stories magazine in August 1928. Nowlan collaborated with John F. Dille and Dick Calkins on a newspaper comic strip that started Jan. 7, 1929.

The radio show, originally named The World in 2432, featured Buck, co-pilot Wilma Deering — a woman aviator or rocketeer was an advanced concept for the 1930s — and genius scientist Dr. Huer, fighting evildoers 500 years in the future. The trio relied on futuristic weapons like death rays, incendiary missiles, gamma bombs and a mechanical mole, among others.

Sound effects made these all come across with dramatic impact. Buck's psychic destruction ray was really a Schick electric razor held at just the right distance from the microphone. The sound effects crew could also simulate anything from a regiment of marching robots to a scary rocket-ship crash.

The show debuted the night before Franklin D. Roosevelt trounced incumbent President Herbert Hoover in the presidential election. It was an instant hit, in no small measure due to the premiums listeners could get by sending in cereal boxtops or other proofs of purchase. Gifts included a map of the planets, a cardboard space helmet and Big Little Books (3-5/8 inches by 4-1/2 inches) of Buck Rogers comics.

The 15-minute serial ran Monday through Thursday evenings, from Nov. 7, 1932, to May 22, 1936, on CBS. It was revived as a thrice-weekly, 15-minute series on the Mutual Broadcasting System from April 5 to July 31, 1939, and then as a half-hour Saturday show on Mutual from May 18 to July 27, 1940. The show had its final radio incarnation Sept. 30, 1946, to March 28, 1947, as 15-minute episodes weekdays on Mutual.

Sponsors over the years included Kellogg's, Cocomalt, Cream of Wheat and Popsicles, Fudgsicles and Creamsicles. Calkins was a writer on the show, along with Joe Cross, Albert G. Miller and producer-director Jack Johnstone. Over the years, four different actors played Buck and two did Wilma.

Buck's popularity also inspired some other comic strips and radio and television shows, notably Flash Gordon and Tom Corbett Space Cadet.

Buck also appeared in a 12-episode 1939 movie serial starring Buster Crabbe, a 1950-51 TV series and the Buck Rogers in the 25th Century television series that ran for 24 episodes in the 1979-80 season and another 13 in 1981. The newspaper comic strip ended its run in 1967.

Source: Various

Source: Wired Top Stories | 7 Nov 2008 | 5:00 am

AV Receiver Is NASCAR Loud, Ballet Beautiful

Sporting some of the newest features in high-end audio, and belting them out at 100 watts per channel, the Denon AVR-889 is both loud and elegant.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 7 Nov 2008 | 5:00 am

Whats Wired, Tired and Expired? Bad Boys to Fanboys

Expired	Tired	Wired
Bad Boys	Wonder Boys	Fanboys
Dolphins	Monkeys	Crows
Kanye	Lupe	Wale
Evian	Nalgene	Sigg

 

Source: Wired Top Stories | 7 Nov 2008 | 5:00 am

A Scythe for Sore Eyes

The guys who have pimped so many rides dropped some bad acid before designing the 1,005-horsepower Scythe, a crazy custom car that redefines ugly.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 7 Nov 2008 | 4:59 am

YouTube to stream full major motion pictures? - Afterdawn.com

YouTube to stream full major motion pictures? Afterdawn.com - 9 hours ago Full-Length Movies Coming To YouTube Silicon Alley Insider Rumor: Full-Length Movies Coming to YouTube? ReadWriteWeb Computerworld - CNET News - Marketing Pilgrim - Contentinople all 15 news articles

Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 7 Nov 2008 | 4:25 am

90% of landline ditchers never go back; here is a gadget for them

Section: Communications, Cellphones

Fun stats, right?  According to XLINK, it is accurate and 20% of US households are doing just that by the end of this year, jumping off the landline bandwagon.  But is going all cell going to work for your family?  XLINK happens to make a product that it believes will make the transition super-easy.

Stop carrying around your cell phone

Leave it charging!  With XLINK BT, you can connect your cell phone via Bluetooth to your home phone (even without a landline).  A call comes in and is automatically transferred to your house phone via bluetooth.  Your house phone rings just like before you went all high-tech and ditched the landline.  Simple right?  It gets better.

Quick, get a kid

The XLINK BT can add up to 3 cell phones to the system, all linking up Bluetooth style.  So you, the Mrs. and you 1.5 kids can all be connected to the home phones.  The housephone will ring in 3 different sounds so you can tell if that call is worth getting up for or if you should just let it go to voicemail.  And speaking of voicemail, XLINK says their product behaves just like your cell phone, so you can check voicemail from it as well.

The XLINK BT sells for $69.99 (though, their website says $99.99) and the company offers one that bundles with your landline (if you’ve held off cutting it off) for $79.99 (though their website says $109.99). 

Product page [XLINK]

Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

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Source: Gadgetell | 7 Nov 2008 | 4:17 am

Ultra-cute: Meet Bandai’s new Baby Animal robots

They are little pandas, ice bears, tigers and lions and they all are Japan’s newest toy robots. CCP, the company behind the so-called Baby Animals [JP], is part of the Bandai Namco Group, meaning an export of the robots outside Nippon is possible in the future (Bandai America brought the Mugen Pop Pop to the US, after all).

Each of the robots is equipped with four sensors and two buttons. The animal will start moving its mouth and making “realistic” sounds every time you touch its head or neck. It will react the same way if you lull it. Ignore the robot for about 5 minutes and it will start sleeping (it then only wakes up by pulling the right ear).

Powered by 4 AA batteries, the baby animals’ sitting height is 35cm. Bandai plans to start selling the robots in Japan this week for $80 each.

Source: CrunchGear | 7 Nov 2008 | 4:03 am

Guitar Hero World Tour Equipment Problems, Subscription Possibilities?

Guitar Hero: World Tour's recent launch saw boxes of plastic instruments flying off store shelves, quickly selling out in many areas. Unfortunately, many players reported problems with the bundled drums sets, prompting Activision to release a drum "tuning" application and a free midi-USB cable to connect the instruments to a PC. Otherwise, reviews for the game have been largely positive, and MTV's Multiplayer Blog did an analysis of using Rock Band drums in GH:WT, and vice-versa. Kotaku looked at which set was louder, coming to the conclusion that while they sound different, decibel levels are very similar. The early success in sales for GH:WT caused Activision to say holiday demand may not be met, and that they're examining two methods in particular to develop the franchise: instrument upgrades (hopefully less ludicrous than Logitech's $250 axe) and the possibility of a subscription-based model for user-generated content. "[Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby] Kotick says that there are now 25,000 user generated tunes that have been created for the game, and projected 'up to 100,000 songs' by the end of this year."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 7 Nov 2008 | 3:53 am

Feelin’ Blu?

Section: Gadgets / Other, Lifestyle

It would appear that the in word at the moment is ‘Blu’ as yet another product with the prefix of Blu emerges, this time in the genre of health.  The goLITE BLU is essentially advanced light therapy to fight against S.A.D. (seasonal defective disorder) as well as the general winter depression.

Surprisingly, though this is not made by Sony, rather by Phillips who appear to have hijacked the poorly spelled color in their product name.  Beneath the fancy wording and scientific explanations is the fact the device is an alarm clock that uses new light technology (yes you guessed it, blue light) to sight against S.A.D.

It does this by emitting a soft comfortable blue light which your body responds to better than harsh white light, thus helping you to see and making you feel better.  Apparently it doesn’t even need to be bright, somehow it will effect your body by just being visible, exactly how I don’t think anyone outside of Phillips marketing department knows.

Now this is all well and good up to a point, where I realized two things.  The first, and most crucial is that it doesn’t really do anything.  I was expecting it to have a real purpose to justify the price tag, but no, if you negotiate your way through the unnecessary scientific jargon you find it is just an incredibly small ineffective light. 

And that is my second point: the price.  It comes in at a scary $279, which can’t be good for anyone’s state of mind when you realized you are buying a blue light.  There are loads of different ways to fight S.A.D and you don’t have to buy something scientifically proven or expensive, sometimes a hot cup of tea will do.

In conclusion, it’s a nice idea if a little pointless and very expensive.  If you really suffer from S.A.D. consider a holiday to Mexico as it may do you more good!  Perhaps it is just a symptom of our day and age where we feel the need to solve every problem and companies are happy to provide a solution at a suitable price, but I think there is a limit, and this is it.

Product [Phillips]

Full Story » | Written by Christian Milsom for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

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Source: Gadgetell | 7 Nov 2008 | 3:13 am

Seagate sees no money in flash memory

Seagate are the hard drive guys. They make some of the best HDDs out there but they’ve never gotten into the SSD game. Why is that? Everybody’s doing it, right? Yes, says CEO Bill Watkins, but nobody’s making any money and nobody’s making anything that different from one another. Why get into a business where there’s no money or reputation to be made? He said the same thing eight months ago, and although there are many solid-state notebooks around, they’re still a micro-minority, so I’d say he was more or less in the right.

They are planning, they say, on having a limited entry into the SSD market in mid-2009, but they’re banking on other technologies as well, which may end up taking a bite out of solid-state’s market share over the next couple years. Not this stuff though, probably.

Source: CrunchGear | 7 Nov 2008 | 2:55 am

T-shirt Zeitgeist

Among the fun folks who joined us for last night's BB/BBtv/Laughing Squid/NextNewNetworks/Metblogs Drinkup in San Francisco was Tcritic founder Karl Long.

He put together the amazing "prez dispenser" t-shirt previously blogged on Laughing Squid. Karl explains that this shirt was "based on a linocut print from local artist Eric Rewitzer who does some wonderful prints." Linocut, shown above at left.

I also dig the "Under New Management" shirt Karl pointed us to, from Print Liberation, shown above right.

Source: Boing Boing | 7 Nov 2008 | 2:55 am

The saddest arcade in the world

And it seems to me, you lived your life, like a Egghead in a mall. Never knowin’ who to cling to when same store sales began to fall.

Source: CrunchGear | 7 Nov 2008 | 2:35 am

T-Mobile announces some special holiday deals

Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Gadgets / Other, Household, Imaging, Accessories, Web, Google

If you are looking around for some great, new cell phones you may want to consider checking out what T-Mobile has to offer this holiday season.  A few notable deals T-Mobile has going on are the availability of the new MOTOZINE ZN5, the T-Mobile Cameo, the Samsung Behold, the Samsung Gravity, the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220, the T-Mobile G1 (as expected), and they are even offering free plane tickets to any destination within the United States. 

First, let’s begin with the new MOTOZINE ZN5 cell phone.  The ZN5 is just like any other cell phone, but what makes this phone different than others is the type of camera built-into the device.  It comes with a 5 megapixel camera with auto focus and Xenon flash.  In addition, it comes with Kodak technology as well as Imaging Technology.  Furthermore, the pictures that you take from your phone can be easily uploaded to the Kodak Gallery, meaning you can instantly share the pictures you take with your family and friends.  A nice piece of technology that is sure to come in handy around the holiday season. 

Another way to share the pictures you take is by purchasing the Cameo from T-Mobile.  The Cameo isn’t a phone, rather a digital picture frame in which you can send the pictures you take from your phone straight to the digital frame.  The Cameo comes with its own special number with which you can send pictures from your phone to the frame’s number via text message or e-mail.  For example, if you want to send pictures back home to your family, you can just send the picture to their frame number and they will receive it instantly. 

Moving back to cell phones, we have the Samsung Behold.  The Behold comes with a full QWERTY keypad on its touch screen, slim form factor, a built-in 5MP camera, voice recorder, and 3G Internet connectivity.  Next, we have the Samsung Gravity, which one of the main features is a slide-out QWERTY keyboard - great for people who text, IM, and send e-mails a lot. 

In addition, we have the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220.  The “Flip” in the name of the BlackBerry cell phone indicates, if you haven’t already guessed, that it is a flip phone - the first ever by RIM.  Like all other BlackBerry’s, this phone is great for those who text, send Emails, and IM a lot.  Lastly, we have the most hyped phone from T-Mobile, the G1.  The phone, as you probably already know, supports Google Android - an open source platform, a full QWERTY keyboard, 3G Internet connectivity, and many of Google’s popular services - Gmail, YouTube, and Google Maps, just to name a few. 

The MOTOZINE ZN5, BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220, and the G1 are already available for purchase.  The Samsung Behold will be available by November 10 and the Samsung Gravity coming a week later on November 17.  Unfortunately, no specific date on the launch of the T-Mobile Cameo is available, but expect it to be available in several weeks. 

The last part of T-Mobile’s holiday deals is a free trip to anywhere within the United States, which includes over 100 different cities.  Starting from November 19 through December 24, new and old customers who pick up a new 2 year contract are eligible to receive free tickets.  Also, those who sign up for a new family plan will receive a ticket for each member of their family that they sign up.  However, the limit is 5 tickets per family.

Wendy Piñero-DePencier, Vice President of brand marketing, had this to say about T-Mobile’s latest offers:

“T-Mobile realizes the holidays are about family and special friends, and are a time for making memories together.  Our mission is to deliver products and services that help enrich relationships, and while we understand that not all loved ones can spend the holidays together, our new holiday offerings will help bring people closer regardless of distance.”

All in all, T-Mobile is coming out with a bunch of nice, new phones to accompany the G1 as well as some special holiday deals; all of these deals are sure to attract some new customers. 

Here is a copy of the press release:

New Offerings From T-Mobile Make It Easy to Stay Close
With Family and Friends During the Holidays and Beyond

Exclusive Devices, Free Companion Flight Focus on Sharing Moments
With Those Most Important

BELLEVUE, Wash. — Nov. 6, 2008 — This holiday season, T-Mobile USA, Inc. is making sure its customers do not miss out on a single memorable moment. To ensure special times with loved ones are captured, shared and remembered, T-Mobile is announcing new products and promotions that enable customers to stay in touch and connected more richly than ever, whether near or far.

T-Mobile’s latest offerings place family and friends just a click away and provide the lasting benefit of traveling together. New, high-quality and affordable camera phones — such as the
MOTOZINE™ ZN5 — allow for the quick snap and send of photos, and an innovative digital photo frame — the T-Mobile cameo™ — displays pictures sent to it via multimedia messaging (MMS) or e-mail.* And T-Mobile’s Free Companion Flight program will offer the opportunity to create new memories together in the coming year.**

“T-Mobile realizes the holidays are about family and special friends, and are a time for making memories together,” said Wendy Piñero-DePencier, vice president, brand marketing, T-Mobile USA. “Our mission is to deliver products and services that help enrich relationships, and while we understand that not all loved ones can spend the holidays together, our new holiday offerings will help bring people closer regardless of distance.”

Capture Memories
The MOTOZINE ZN5, exclusively from T-Mobile, is a true camera replacement with the ability to capture and share photos before the moment passes. The ZN5 has a 5-megapixel camera with auto focus and Xenon flash plus built-in KODAK Imaging Technology and KODAK PERFECT TOUCH Technology. Images can be quickly uploaded to the KODAK Gallery with one click, enabling special moments to be shared with friends and family across the country.

Share Memories
The T-Mobile cameo manufactured by Parrot, Inc. is a groundbreaking digital picture frame, with its own dedicated T-Mobile phone number, that provides a fun and easy way to immediately share spontaneous moments with friends and family by sending photos to the photo frame via MMS or e-mail. Photos can be sent directly from family and friends in the midst of their holiday fun without the step of uploading photos to a computer or memory stick, since the cameo accepts photos directly from camera phones.

Create Memories
Beyond the holidays, T-Mobile wants to make it easy for customers to take a memorable trip in 2009 — whether to unwind, see long-lost friends or take the family on vacation. With the Free Companion Flight promotion, T-Mobile is offering complimentary companion plane tickets from Nov. 19 through Dec. 24, 2008 to new and existing customers who sign up for a two-year service agreement. Those on a family plan will receive a companion ticket for each line of their family plan, up to five tickets, so it’s easy for the whole family to enjoy a trip together.

Companion tickets have no blackout dates, provide travel to and from more than 100 origination and destination cities, and are good for a year (travel must be completed by Feb. 15, 2010). With a wide array of exciting possibilities, trips could include a visit to see the hustle and bustle of Times Square, going skiing in the Rockies, soaking up the sun in Miami, or winning big in Las Vegas.

More Perfect Gifts:  Touch Screens, Mobile Web and Easy Text Communication
T-Mobile also has an array of the latest products for that perfect gift, which include mobile Web and touch screen technology and phones with QWERTY keyboards that make staying in touch via text or e-mail quick and simple.

- The highly sought-after T-Mobile G1 with Google, featuring the Android Market and an intuitive design with a touch screen, QWERTY keyboard and trackball, as well as a mobile Web experience that integrates popular Google services such as Google Maps Street View™, Gmail™, YouTube™ and others.
- The Samsung Behold™, offering a compelling mobile Web experience, an ultra-thin design, a large touch-screen display, a full-QWERTY on-screen keypad with vibrating feedback, a 5-megapixel camera and a video recorder, making this phone an ideal all-in-one device.
- The BlackBerry® Pearl™ Flip 8220, which is the first flip BlackBerry that delivers a great balance of style, helping manage a budding professional career and personal life whether using text, e-mail, instant messaging or voice calling.
- The Samsung Gravity™, featuring a full slide-out QWERTY keyboard and support for IM, text, multimedia and video messaging.

Availability

* MOTOZINE ZN5, T-Mobile G1 with Google, and BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 are currently available at select T-Mobile retail stores and online at http://www.t-mobile.com
* The Samsung Behold will be available beginning Nov. 10.
* The Samsung Gravity will be available beginning Nov. 17.
* The T-Mobile cameo will be available beginning in the coming weeks.

For more information on all products, services and promotions as they become available, visit http://www.t-mobile.com.

Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

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Source: Gadgetell | 7 Nov 2008 | 2:24 am

Review: Gears of War 2

BODIES AS SHIELDS!!!

This won’t be a complete review because I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone. Like you, I’ve been waiting since I completed the first Gears of War, so instead, I’ll tell you what’s different. Cool?

But I can tell you that it’s everything I could have ever hoped and dreamed for. The reviews that came out earlier this week were spot-on with the scoring. It’s amazing, but there are a few things that are worth noting for the hardcore Gears fans.

I never, ever pay attention to the story the first time I play a game, so I won’t really get into it. However, I will say that Dom’s wife is a MILF and baby Gear Carmine has a gruesome death. He’s not as much of a pain in the ass as I thought he would be, though. He was a good soldier.

Tai (badass South Pacific warrior) and Dizzy (crazy cowboy) are some crazy mofos and a refreshing addition to the Gears cast. The “Cole Train” has one of the most badass intros I’ve seen from any game and/or movie. Baird also makes a return but not till much later in the game. BTW - you don’t ever want to get captured by the locust. They make you do some crazy shit. Tai knows, unfortunately.

I will say that the first 15 minutes of the game are the BOMB (f*cking awesome). I won’t giveaway the ending because that’d be a dick move and I want you guys to enjoy it as much as I did. I’m also fearful that Cliffy B will hunt me down and curb stomp me.

Anyway, remember the story I posted a few weeks back about how the gaming industry was sucking as much as Hollywood and how I thought that maybe there wasn’t any ingenuity left? Well, that’s kind of true, but let’s focus on what Ted Price from Insomniac said,

“The end result is usually a game that’s bigger, more polished and has more innovative features than the original game.”

And that’s just it; Gears 2 is a more polished and refined version of the original Gears. Some of the things I noticed are very subtle differences from the original and most of the changes are great while some annoy me just because.

The AI is much improved and the locusts don’t go down without a fight. They have the ability to revive each other, but so do you. However, the locusts have a new pal that can revive them when they’re near death (crawling) if he/she/it is somewhere within the battle sequence. So, to kill them you’re either going to have to shoot ‘em dead, curb stomp them or use them as meat shields. Going back to the curb stomping for a second. You either straddle said locusts and beat the crap out of them or you flip them over and stomp their brains out. Using them as meat shields when they’re semi-alive is AMAZING. But you’re stuck using a pistol, so it does have its drawbacks. They either die from absorbing all the gunfire or you snap their necks when you’re done using them.

My next point is super nitpicky but in the first Gears your Lancer Assault rifle aka chainsaw gun has a lot of kick to it, which makes it difficult to keep your aim on one target, but this time around it doesn’t have as much kick. The action is much smoother, but it’s easier to camp out and keep the locusts within your sights. Like I said, super nitpicky. Also, when you’re chainsawing an enemy you either saw from top to bottom or you go right into their gut and saw upwards. It’s pretty badass. Another thing worth noting is that when you chainsaw a box or thin membrane, you’re actually sawing through it this time whereas in the first one you just sort of stood there until things fell apart.

I hated having to drive around in the truck (whatever it’s called) and use the spotlight to kill krill in the first Gears and I can say with a sigh of relief that there are no krill and no stupid vehicles to drive around in this one. The levels with vehicles in Gears 2, however, are way, way better and much more fun to drive/play. The sequence I just mentioned is the one part that I hated the most from the first one and I’m glad Cliffy B and the rest of the team at Epic left that part out.

Selecting which path you take is much more streamlined this go around. Instead of wasting precious seconds deciding which path to take you simply go that route without stopping gameplay. Thanks for that, Epic. Except the latter half of the game reverts back to the old way. Oh well.

So how’s the Unreal engine? The improvements seem pretty miniscule to me, but I wasn’t paying all that much attention to it. I recall Epic saying that they could bring on thousands of locusts at once, but you never ever come into contact with them when they do show up. It’s more for show. Epic kind of improved the cover system, but it’s more show than go as they say in the car world. Visually, cover begins to breakdown when you fire on your enemies, but it doesn’t actually go away. So, you can’t screw over the locusts by shooting up all their cover.

The graphics have been vastly improved and the new soundtrack by Steve Jablonsky is marginally better than the original. I have my makeshift gaming center (review on that later) rigged to my Razer speakers, so they’re almost at full capacity and it sounds fantastic.

Unfortunately I can’t comment on anything other than Solo Campaign so you may want to hit up the other gaming sites since they clearly had more than one copy and time to have a more extensive review. I can’t wait until my friends get GoW2 tomorrow. It’s going to be a fragtastic time. Nerdy, I know. I’ll have to warn the others about Tickers and Sires. I hate Tickers as much as I hate Wretches.

Epic has improved Gears 2 with subtle differences that make it standout from the original and a much better story (be it a sappy one that focuses on Dom…), but I have to say that everything about the game seems more refreshed and 10x better. Maybe it’s the fanboy in me, but any fan of the first game has to buy the sequel. In fact, go out to your local Gamestop or Best Buy or whoever that’s reopening at midnight tonight and take Friday off. I can’t wait for Gears 3 and whatever else Epic has in store for the Gears universe, but you can damn well be sure that it’s going to kick ass.

I don’t normally score games that I review other than a recommendation to buy or not, but I give Epic’s Gears of War 2 a 9/10. Why only a 9? Because Gears 3 will surely garner a perfect score with an improved Unreal engine and I want to piss off Cliffy B.

Source: CrunchGear | 7 Nov 2008 | 2:22 am

Duracell battery tells you how to jumpstart your car

According to a Xantrex Technology Inc. Survey, 71%of American travelers do not have an emergency preparedness kit in their vehicle, and only 11% have an independent jump-start solution that does not require another vehicle’s assistance.  Notably absent is the number of American drivers, like me, that have jumper cables but don’t have any idea how to use them properly.

The Duracell PowerPack 450 with Voice offers a unique twist on the standard portable power source: it tells you what to do.

[T]he step-by-step usage instructions walk you through what to do to jumpstart your car or use the air compressor to inflate a tire.

Seems like a pretty good idea, no?

The Duracell® Powerpack 450 is a stand-alone source of portable power for AC, DC and USB-powered electronics such as a laptop, cordless or cell phone, GPS, lamp, portable light, small tool and small appliance. Simply connect your devices to the Powerpack 450 and its voice technology automatically tells you the estimated runtime for each device.

That’s a pretty handy feature.  Also handy is the inclusion of USB ports on the face, so you don’t need to hunt for the special AC adapter cable for your various gadgets. Available now for about $150.

Source: CrunchGear | 7 Nov 2008 | 2:11 am

Green Agenda Alleviates Chemicals Industry Woes

LONDON, Nov. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Frost & Sullivan will host its annual Excellence in Chemicals, Materials and Food Awards Banquet at the London Hilton on Park Lane next Tuesday, 11th November 2008.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 7 Nov 2008 | 2:00 am

Gallery: Buck Rogers Stuff From the 20th Century

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Anthony "Buck" Rogers first burst from writer Philip Nowlan's imagination in 1928, when the intrepid spaceman appeared in "Armageddon — 2419," a story published in Amazing Stories magazine.

From his pulp roots, the character developed into an influential American hero on the airwaves and the silver screen. Subsequent space swashbucklers like Brick Bradford and Flash Gordon took a cue from Buck Rogers' sci-fi adventures.

Buck took to the radio Nov. 7, 1932, with the first broadcast of The World in 2432. The radio show launched Buck and his female co-pilot, Wilma Deering, into the nation's living rooms, introducing such sci-fi staples as spaceships and death rays.

Take a look at the 25th century in this gallery of images showing various incarnations of Buck Rogers over the years.

Left: Nowlan's hero makes his second appearance in Amazing Stories, this time landing on the cover of the March 1929 issue.

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The Buck Rogers in the 25th Century comic strip debuted Jan. 7, 1929, with a Sunday page appearing a year later. The strip, which was initially written by Nowlan and drawn by Dick Calkins, appeared in more than 400 newspapers around the world at the height of its popularity. It didn't stop running until 1967.

In the strips as well as the Amazing Stories novellas, Buck Rogers is a World War I veteran, a former U.S. Air Service pilot who is later trapped by a mine cave-in and put in suspended animation by radioactive gas.

After 500 years, he awakens to save America from "Mongol" invaders and other enemies.

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This cover graced a licensed, full-color reissue of a rare Buck Rogers in the 25th Century book. The original was printed in 1933 and distributed as a breakfast-cereal premium.

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This publicity photo plugged the original Buck Rogers radio show.

Voice actors Matt Crowley, Curtis Arnall, Carl Frank and John Larkin brought Buck to life during the show's 15-year run. Adele Ronson played Buck's co-pilot, Wilma Dearing, and Edgar Stehli portrayed scientist-inventor Dr. Huer.

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1939's 12-part Buck Rogers serial film thrust Buster Crabbe into the title role. Universal Pictures mined the comic strip for inspiration, but changed Buck's origin story.

In the movie version, Buck and George "Buddy" Wade crash a dirigible over the North Pole, but survive thanks to experimental "Nirvano Gas," which keeps them alive for 500 years after an avalanche.

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Buck Rogers and his fellow space adventurers inspired toy ray guns in seemingly endless variety.

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Jackie Moran, left, played George "Buddy" Wade in the 1939 serial film Buck Rogers. Former Flash Gordon star Buster Crabbe played the title role.

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In the Buck Rogers in the 25th Century television show, Buck was a NASA pilot frozen for five centuries after a malfunction by his space shuttle's life-support system. Again, he is miraculously revived in the 25th century.

The TV show borrowed from producer Glen A. Larson's previous show, Battlestar Galactica, and attempted to cash in on the success of Star Wars. The show ran from 1979 to 1981 on NBC.

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Actor Gilbert "Gil" Gerard played the space hero in the 1979-81 Buck Rogers in the 25th Century television series.

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Actress Erin Gray played Col. Wilma Deering in the 1979-81 Buck Rogers in the 25th Century TV show.

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In the 1979-81 television series, Buck Rogers got a robotic sidekick named Twiki.

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A radio-controlled Twiki toy surely frightened a child or two in the early '80s.

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Like other sci-fi shows of the era, the Buck Rogers TV series spawned action figures.

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Sega brought Buck into the arcades with 1982's space-shooter videogame Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom.

See also:

• Toy Ray Gun Collection
• Ray Gun Maestro Zaps Steampunk Convention

Source: Wired Top Stories | 7 Nov 2008 | 2:00 am

GoodGuide Takes Top Prize At Web 2.0 Summit Launchpad

One of the featured events at this week’s Web 2.0 Summit was the Launchpad, a showcase of six companies that were each given 5 minutes to pitch a room full of VC’s, entrepreneurs, and other notables in the tech industry. The companies were judged by a panel of venture capitalists, consisting of: Chris Albinson (Panorama Capital), Patrick Chung (New Enterprise Associates), Michael Goguen (Sequoia Capital), Erik Straser (Mohr Davidow Ventures), and Todor Tashev (Omidyar Networks).

As soon as the presentations were concluded, the audience was asked to vote on its favorite company using an instant-SMS voting system. After only a few minutes GoodGuide, a TechCrunch50 finalist, emerged as the crowd favorite and took the top prize.

Below are profiles of each presenting company, along with some of the input offered by the VC panel.

CarbonNetworks

CarbonNetworks is an emissions management software platform that allows companies to effectively keep track of their emissions and monetize them. The site offers price forecasting so companies can determine if their carbon credits will be financial asset or liabilities, and helps them deal with them accordingly. The site isn’t exclusively involved with carbon offsets, as it also looks at different sources or energy and offers consulting services.

Michael Goguen - I question the timing. One has to wonder if the priorities are shifting. Are companies really going to be spending on this at this point, instead of cutting costs? While SaaS model has lots of appeal, it seems to work best when you can justify paying for it constantly, instead of just upfront once. Once I get my act together would I still want to pay for it?

EveryScape

EveryScape is like a Google Street View for everything, offering 3D interiors of restaurants, salons, salons, retail stores, or any other interior users might be interested in. The site takes ground level photography using what founder Mok Oh called a “highly affordable and scalable technique” (though he didn’t specify how it was any more affordable than the technology that already exists).

Users are presented with an interface that looks much like it would on Google Maps Street View, which they can use to navigate throughout the building. Examples of possible applications include allowing users to point out a specific table in a restaurant where their friends should meet. Eventually the site hopes to bring its technology to mobile devices like the iPhone.

Patrick Chung - My question is, is it a street view add-on? You’re gong to have trucks drive around to assemble the database. The images are going to be 2D, they aren’t going to have physics… If I wanted to see what something looked like at night, summer, winter, you’d have to duplicate by sending a truck out again.

Michael Goguen - People do still go out in the real world. There hasn’t been a good connection between the web and the real world. This could apply to a large number of industries.

GoodGuide

TechCrunch50 runner-up GoodGuide presented its new iPhone application, which takes its database of the safety and “Goodness” of consumer products to the mobile platform. You can read our full review of the application here.

Erik Straser - Terrific job on providing motivational context. My concerns: This is a company where I’m not convinced this is a better startup or a better public service. So one of my questions would be, to what extent could you really build a high velocity transaction model off of this? Also, what’s the ongoing costs of content updating? Also, I wonder about localization, and if what water I buy might depend on where I live.

Todor Tashev- I think the service is very compelling. It seems like you have figured out a way to leverage credible data, helping consumers come to informed decisions. Two-fold values: I can make informed decisions. Also, the informed behavior of individuals could lead to a massive change that changes how a company designs products.

Predictify

Predictify is a prediction platform designed to help users get an extra dimension of interactivity from the news, helping to drive engagement. The site also aggregates demographic information along with votes into a data-set. To ensure accuracy, users can get reputation scores, and can be identified as “experts” in fields.
To generate revenue, the site charges customers a per-answer fee (around $1), which gets split between Predictify and its users, depending on how accurate they are. You can read our initial introduction to the site here.

Chris Albinson - There were some interesting things. I like the engagement, the digg-like rating system. Patrick won’t like me for saying this, I didn’t get there. Challenge for me is that there are so many of these companies. I just don’t know how you build a big business. Facebook has own system on an established platform, but that didn’t have much value.
Patrick Chung - I thought you did fantastic job. I think you have amazing data possibilities. If you can do it better than Reuters… I think you’re eon to something big, I would stick to game models so you aren’t regulated by the SEC.

Qik

Qik, which we’ve covered extensively, is a mobile video studio for your phone. Users can broadcast video live from their cell phones and stream directly to the Qik website as well as embedded widgets found throughout the web.. The service can also be used to share and also as a one-button camcorder. You can read more of our coverage of Qik here.

Todor Tashev- It’s interesting. My concerns: it’s a very crowded space ,you have startups and then bigger guys like Yahoo. How can you make a long term competitive advantage? I was glad to hear that you’re working on partnerships with carriers. But I’m not sure it’s enough at this stage
Chris Albinson- I was skeptical myself. I was worried about complexity. Monetization of video continues to be a challenge. But I have to say you won me over. I think you have a differentiated platform. I love the extensibility of it. I think the company is on a great path.

Sungevity

Sungevity sells solar panels to consumers using an online platform that can expedite the installation process significantly while also making it much easier. Sungevity uses services like Google Earth and Microsoft Virtual Earth to look at rooftops and give near-instant price quotes. The company also says that it is 10% cheaper than the average solar panel installer in California. The company has been on the market since April 2008, and has projected revenues of $2.5 million. In the future the site hopes to license the technology out to other solar panel installers around the world.

Michael Goguen- This solves a problem because the industry is archaic. My problem is that a lot of companies have the same idea to use google Earth etc to do online quoting. So if you take that away as differentiation, you wonder where this business goes. Right now it’s a rat race.
Chris Albinson- I take the oppostie view. I understand the thesis. If you look at the growth, the growth and execution has been phenomenal. The key thing is that the financial crisis has killed the commercial market for solar. But there’s a huge market for consumers. How do you make it simple enough for consumers?

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

Source: TechCrunch | 7 Nov 2008 | 1:59 am

Downturn-Busting Venture Round For iSkoot: $19 Million

One thing’s for sure - the cream rises to the top in a downturn. And San Francisco/Israel based iSkoot, which has built technology that lets mobile users access Skype via normal mobile handsets, look like it’s the cream. The company has raised a third round of financing - $19 million from new investor Vision Opportunity Master Fund. Existing investors Charles River Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Jesselson Capital Corporation and ZG Ventures also participated in the round. Total capital raised by iSkoot is now over $32 million.

iSkoot is best known to U.S. consumers as the company that brought Skype to the Android phone. But their core business to date has been to build technology that lets people use Skype on their mobile handsets in a way that doesn’t threaten carriers and doesn’t overwhelm the handset’s hardware.

iSkoot moves the heavy processing to servers that they or the carrier controls. When a user wants to make a Skype call or chat, they use a thin client on the phone that appears to work the same way as it would on a normal computer. But iSkoot then makes a normal voice call to their servers, and transmits the Skype data over the Internet from there. The result is a great user experience, and the carriers rack up those valuable minutes.

They currently work with the carrier Hutch in eight countries. 300,000 mobile handsets have been purchased that include the iSkoot software and service in Europe and Asia.

The company is now expanding into other businesses that can benefit from their technology, pairing, effectively, a web service with a synchronous communication client. Look for new product rollouts based on their existing technology, plus what they picked up when they acquired Social.im earlier this year.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 7 Nov 2008 | 1:55 am

Meet the Internet’s Human Pinata: Jerry Yang [BoomTown]

Well, this was certainly predictable–the mindless piling on of Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang now taking place in the blogosphere, in the wake of yet another setback for the troubled Internet company.

This time, it comes after the collapse of the search advertising deal with Google yesterday.

BoomTown is not saying the co-founder of Yahoo does not deserve criticism for how he has run the company since last summer–in fact, this column has been quite active in following the story.

There are very real questions about whether Yang has the right talent and temperament for the job at hand, as much as he clearly loves the company he co-founded.

After all, the stock is in the basement, after Yahoo (YHOO) lost a lucrative bird in the hand in the form of a $31 per share offer from Microsoft (MSFT).

Next, a weak economic environment is forcing it to cut deeply into the muscle of its many businesses, with slashing out 20 percent or more of costs, a worrisome trend if Yahoo hopes to grow when we all eventually emerge from the downturn.

And, of course, more key executive departures, weak employee morale and an overall inability to clearly articulate the changes Yang has been trying to make at the company, such as its laudable open platform efforts.

Nonetheless, it is simply lazy to just call for Yang’s ouster as the panacea for what ails the company. It’s a feel-good suggestion mixed with a creepy mob mentality that offers no clear path to improvement.

Still, as it is said, intelligence has it limitations, while stupidity is infinite.

Thus, immediately after Yahoogle went down came the specious rumors of Yang getting kicked out with a new Microsoft takeover bid in the works. Way too many sites posted and reposted the “news,” with most not bothering to actually call Yahoo or sources who might know to ask if this might be happening.

As the old cliche goes–if wishes were horses, all beggars would ride–so too it is wishful thinking that Yang would be flushed out just like that.

But, as with Britney Spears in her crazy days, people seem to believe anything they hear about Yang’s demise. Thus, the Google (GOOG) deal had to be the straw that finally broke the camel’s back and the board of Yahoo was tossing him overboard forthwith.

Then, inevitably comes the posts that Yang is sad, friendless and alone, a tragic figure of ridicule. Or, better still, borrowing from “Macbeth”–a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more.

Except for one thing: While a lot of investors, media, analysts and other detractors (including some on Yahoo’s own board) might want to see him step down as CEO, there has to actively be an actual effort on the part of the board to fire him (or, at least, kick him upstairs, back to his former Chief Yahoo job).

While some sources within the company say Carl Icahn and the two board members he brought with him–John Chappelle and Frank Biondi–to the Yahoo board have been reaching out of late to lower-level Yahoo execs to garner info about Yang and his management and also signaling Microsoft that there is renewed interest in reigniting talks, that means little unless the rest of the directors play along.

So far, many sources tell me, they are not.

If I were guessing, it would be Yang who would be the one to initiate any serious talks with Microsoft.

Bizarrely, he kind of did that publicly yesterday at the Web 2.0 Summit, when he said onstage: “To this day, I believe the best thing for Microsoft to do is to buy Yahoo.”

As not being CEO, I think it would also be Yang who will determine when and how that could happen, if at all.

In other words, critics can smack him all they want, but does not mean it will yield the prize they seek.

Source: All Things Digital | 7 Nov 2008 | 1:42 am

Web Zen: Mind Games Zen

totem destroyer
spot the difference
memory checker
split words
coign of vantage
open doors
daymare town

previously on web zen:
mind games zen

Permalink for this edition. Web Zen is created and curated by Frank Davis, and re-posted here on Boing Boing with his kind permission. Web Zen Home and Archives, Store (Thanks Frank!)

Image above: One of 12 full-page engravings from The Anatomy of the Brain Explained in a Series of Engravings, by Charles Bell (1802). (via neurophilosophy.)

Source: Boing Boing | 7 Nov 2008 | 1:38 am

Ocarina of awesome

FROM APPLETELL - There have been many great apps released for the iPhone/iPod touch, but, Zelda geek that I am, this is the first I had to buy and download the very moment I learned about it.
MORE »

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Source: Gadgetell | 7 Nov 2008 | 1:14 am

LiveBlogging MySpace’s Chris DeWolfe And Warner Music’s Edgar Bronfman At Web2.0: Music, Music, Music (And Money)

MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe and Warner Music Group’s Edgar Bronfman take the stage with John Battelle at the Web 2.0 Summit this evening. The topic: The Future Of Music.

The time is ripe. MySpace has launched it’s new MySpace Music initiative; Facebook continues to explore its options.

Our live notes are below:

John Battelle starts things off by noting that MySpace Music continues to not have a CEO (they’ll announce it shortly). DeWolfe says they’ll make an announcement shortly - it isn’t coming this evening.

Bronfman on how Warner Music is different than the other labels: Says he came to Warner at the beginning of 2004, and it was clear that they had to innovate to grow, not litigate. Until MySpace Music came along, he says, there was no online ecosystem for music (MySpace Music sells songs, streams songs, sells ringtones and will eventually sell concert tickets and other merchandise).

He says there is no one channel that will replace CD revenues. It will take a whole series of business models, he says, adding that the music industry will look very different in five years. Even download revenue won’t be the most important revenue source.

DeWolfe on iTunes v. MySpace Music: says there has been a lot of friction between labels, artists and users. MySpace wanted to bring everyone together, he says. He talks about how great Napster was for the user, but the artist didn’t get paid. He wanted a service that paid the labels and artists, and gave users a great experience. Says now is the time - 20% of Warner’s revenues are from digital sales.

He says the biggest difference with MySpace Music is the community - that the MySpace community can help users choose what to consumer.

Bronfman on Apple: gives them credit, they pulled off a sexy device combined with a great service.

Bronfman on evolving from packaged goods model to multi-channel digital world: Says they’ve reorganized the company to move from a few large distributor customers and now have 500 or more customer agreements. They also have hundreds of SKUs every time they release a single, whereas they only had 3 per song before.

Distribution is a commodity, he says. The key is owning the master recordings and focusing on editorial and marketing.

DeWolfe on the month since launch: over 1 billion streams in first few days. Over 80 million playlists created. 5 million bands uploading music.

Battelle asks Bronfman how the industry got comfortable with DRM-free music. He says DRM is great in theory but doesn’t work in practice. They are facing reality and adapting to a “very different world than any content industry has ever faced.” Says they are guinea pigs but they are finding their way through it.

DeWolfe says MySpace likely won’t create a device, but will focus on backing original music, live events, etc.

DeWolfe says MySpace Music isn’t competitive with iTunes; rather that MySpace Music will help Apple sell more iPods.

Bronfman says MySpace Music is great way to filter and develop talent. It’s expensive to develop talent, he says, to bring them to their full potential. Says that it takes much more effort to break an artist than it ever did before because people’s attention is so split.

Bronfman on Radiohead’s experiments with their new album this year: he was disappointed that so many users chose to take it for free. Battelle suggests many of the downloads were sampling. Bronfman says it’s important to work with an artist over their career to sometimes give music away to sell tickets, sometimes sell music to promote events, etc.

Bronfman says that every new artist they sign they take rights in every revenue stream. Calls these 360 rights, and that over 1/3 of their artists are under these contracts. He says that they can’t make the investment they need to make unless they have these rights, and their incentives won’t be aligned.

Discussion of Facebook. Battelle says that Facebook overtook MySpace in U.S. traffic this year - DeWolfe corrects him and says MySpace is still much larger than Facebook. He also says 70% of Facebook users are on MySpace too. Says he isn’t worried about Facebook music, they have no artists and there are massive barriers to entry. MySpace has passionate music lovers and a deep sales team.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 7 Nov 2008 | 1:08 am

This Isn't Happiness

I like tumblelogs. Do you? I tumble myself. But my favorite tumblelog is Peter Nidzgorski's This Isn't Happiness. It's mostly images, sometimes quotes or words or videos or music, and the one thing I can say for sure about it in sum total is that it's always beautiful, whether the subject is politics or poverty, women or zombies, life or death. Also, you may want to check out Nevver, where Nidzgorski mashes movie stills and MP3's daily to delightful effect. (Photo credit: Raul Gutierrez, original photo, Flickr stream.)

Source: Boing Boing | 7 Nov 2008 | 1:04 am

Facebook chief focused on growth not cash (AFP)

AFP - Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said Thursday his fast-rising social networking website is focused on spreading around the world, not pumping cash into its coffers.

Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 7 Nov 2008 | 12:59 am

Change.gov

Still wrapping my head around this, but it sure is interesting at first glance -- in part because of the speed in which it was launched. Change.gov is a website launched by the Obama team's Presidential Transition Project which documents the transition into power and solicits ideas from the public. Change.gov (Thanks, Nate Westheimer)

Source: Boing Boing | 7 Nov 2008 | 12:56 am

Ballmer "Interested" In Open Source Browser Engine

Da Massive writes "'Why is IE still relevant and why is it worth spending money on rendering engines when there are open source ones available that can respond to changes in Web standards faster?,' asked a young developer to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in Sydney yesterday. 'That's cheeky, but a good question, but cheeky,' Ballmer said. Then came the startling revelation that Microsoft may also adopt an open source browser engine. 'Open source is interesting,' he said. 'Apple has embraced Webkit and we may look at that, but we will continue to build extensions for IE 8.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 7 Nov 2008 | 12:56 am

Engineers' Miniature Solar Cells Much Smaller Than This: o

Tiny solar cells, smaller than this "o," could power microsensors the Army hopes to develop in the future to keep track of the physical condition of soldiers in the field.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 7 Nov 2008 | 12:46 am

Sprint to broadcast NFL games live

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

So, you like football and you like your Sprint cellphone.  Unfortunately, you are not always home during the big game, or you don’t get the NFL channel where they broadcast a bunch of games per season and so you miss those big games.  Now, you can enjoy all the football games on NFL’s exclusive channel straight from your Sprint phone. 

The deal signed by NFL and Sprint started back in 2005 and they have now reached another agreement for Sprint to carry the 40% of games the NFL channel shows.  The first game available on a Sprint phone will be tonight (11/6/08) with the Cleveland Browns playing the Denver Broncos.  It’s unfortunate that the NFL season has already started, and so Sprint won’t be able to carry every game, but they will continue carrying the 8 games on the NFL network over the next 7 weeks. 

Brian Rolapp, NFL’s senior Vice President of Digital Media and Media Strategy, had this to say about Sprint carrying their games:

“We know a lot of fans find themselves displaced, and they are using devices like mobile phones for more tasks.  With 60% of our revenues coming from media, we’d be foolish not to do something like this.”

Now, the ability to watch these games are included in Sprint’s NFL Mobile Live package, a service that can be found on many Sprint phones.  It’s also a part of Sprint’s Everything plan, a plan that costs $69.99 a month.  In case you don’t have this plan but still want to watch these games, then you can opt in to get just the package, which will cost you $15 a month.

Overall, it sounds like a great idea for Sprint to broadcast these games.  However, I wish they had more of a selection available than just what the NFL network covers.  If you have a Sprint phone and the necessary plan, let us know how the football service works. 

Read [WSJ] Read [Sprint]

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Source: Gadgetell | 7 Nov 2008 | 12:21 am

Spitzer Won't Be Charged In Call Girl Scandal

The New York Times reports New York governor turned Luv Gov Eliot Spitzer won't be charged for his part in the call girl scandal that ended his political career.

On March 6, 2008, this office announced the filing of criminal charges related to an international prostitution ring known as the Emperors Club V.I.P. The investigation which led to those charges began when this Office learned of payments made in a questionable manner by former Governor Spitzer to a bank account in the name “QAT Consulting.” After the investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation Division, the office determined that the QAT Consulting account and a similar account at another financial institution had been used to launder more than $1 million worth of criminal proceeds derived from the Emperors Club V.I.P.’s prostitution business.

Eliot Spitzer has acknowledged to this Office that he was a client of, and made payments to, the Emperors Club V.I.P. Our investigation has shown that on multiple occasions, Mr. Spitzer arranged for women to travel from one state to another state to engage in prostitution. After a thorough investigation, this Office has uncovered no evidence of misuse of public or campaign funds. In addition, we have determined that there is insufficient evidence to bring charges against Mr. Spitzer for any offense relating to the withdrawal of funds for, and his payments to, the Emperors Club V.I.P.

In light of the policy of the Department of Justice with respect to prostitution offenses and the longstanding practice of this office, as well as Mr. Spitzer’s acceptance of responsibility for his conduct, we have concluded that the public interest would not be further advanced by filing criminal charges in this matter.

In a statement, Spitzer responds:

I understand the office of the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York has decided that it will not bring criminal charges against me. I appreciate the impartiality and thoroughness of the investigation by the U.S. attorney’s office, and I acknowledge and accept responsibility for the conduct it disclosed.

I resigned my position as governor because I recognized that conduct was unworthy of an elected official. I once again apologize for my actions, and for the pain and disappointment those actions caused my family and the many people who supported me during my career in public life.

I asked my friend Debauchette, a blogger and ex-courtesan, for her thoughts on the news. She writes:

It's definitely annoying.

I suppose my immediate response is that it seems like a pretty typical case of the john being released while the prostitute, or in this case, the agency, gets punished. It's sad to think that Emperors would have been left alone if it hadn't been for Spitzer. He's the one they were after, and now he gets off while the agency owners get god knows what kind of punishment. Put this within the larger context that Spitzer saw prostitutes while actively seeking their imprisonment, and that Emperors was only attending to his requests, and the whole mess strikes me as a distortion of justice and a sickening waste of resources. But that's nothing new.

Related: "Letters from Johns."

(Image credit: Barbara Kruger's award-winning cover for New York Magazine.)

Source: Boing Boing | 7 Nov 2008 | 12:13 am

Nick Knight's Fantasia

UK photographer Nick Knight's latest surreal SHOWstudio online fashion film is "Fantasia," "a mesmerising, full-throttle trip around the most sensational sartorial propositions of the past ten years," including Alexander McQueen's football fetishisms and Hussein Chalayan's remote-controlled dress.

Related:

Hussein Chalayan: future couture

Hussein Chalayan's awesome animatronic fashion

Tech couture roundup: Chalayan, McQueen, android beauty

Hussein Chalayan's latest tech couture is lovely.

Hussein Chalayan and Kristin Baker

Source: Boing Boing | 7 Nov 2008 | 12:11 am

AT&T Rejects Google's Android

AT&T CEO Ralph De La Vega is no fan of Google's Android mobile operating system.

De La Vega says AT&T is evaluating Android and "is not prepared" to carry phones featuring the newly launched OS on its network. "The platform is still evolving and needs to open up even more to offer a wider array of non-Google applications," quotes the San Francisco Chronicle.

The comments come two weeks after Sprint CEO Dan Hesse expressed similar sentiments when he said Android isn't good enough yet to put the Sprint brand on it.

This is not good news for Google. The success of Android will eventually depend on how telecom carriers in North America embrace devices with the OS.

So far, only T-Mobile seems to have jumped on to the Android bandwagon. The company was the first to launch the HTC G1 phone based on Android.

Can Google convince others to sign on?

Photo: T-Mobile G1 (Dan Patterson/Flickr)

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 7 Nov 2008 | 12:08 am

If AOL Is Amherst and Yahoo Is Yale, Why Aren’t They Giving the Merger the Old College Try? [BoomTown]

If there is a corporate merger brewing, there inevitably is always a code name for each company involved.

In the case of Yahoo’s merger talks with AOL, which are ongoing, the pair seem to be aiming for a tony image, using the names of two upscale institutions of higher education: Yale University and Amherst College.

Why? Obviously, the first letter of each school corresponds with the name of each company, but BoomTown could not discern the mystery.

It’s certainly not because of the college pedigrees of the players involved.

Time Warner (TWX), which owns the AOL online unit, is run by Jeff Bewkes, who graduated from Yale and then received his MBA from Stanford University.

Yahoo (YHOO) CEO Jerry Yang is a Stanford man all the way, getting undergraduate and graduate degrees in electrical engineering from the famous school in the heart of Silicon Valley.

And, according to sources, the deal might take another semester to come together, not being signed until the end of the year, if it happens at all.

What’s taking so long? After all, two key obstacles are now out of the way–the controversial search advertising partnership with Google (GOOG) and AOL’s earnings (both were bad news, with the Yahoogle deal dumped and the results poor).

Nonetheless, there are still price issues, as Yahoo shares wobble, as well as worries about integration.

But, joked one honest player in the talks: “Neither of us moves as quickly as we need to, which got us into the trouble in the first place and is kind of how this is playing out too.”

Ain’t that the “lux et veritas”? That would be Yale’s motto: Light and truth.

Source: All Things Digital | 6 Nov 2008 | 11:58 pm

Extortion Plot Threatens to Divulge Millions of Patients' Prescriptions

A St. Louis company managing medical prescriptions of 50 million people says it has alerted the FBI of an extortion plot threatening to divulge the names and prescriptions of millions of its clients. Express Scripts says it received a letter announcing the plot, which seeks an undisclosed amount of money.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 6 Nov 2008 | 11:48 pm

Motor City Needs a Good Ol' Fashion Shotgun Wedding

General Motors and Chrysler are an ugly couple, but they're made for each other. Uncle Sam should pay their dowry, or we'll all pay. Losing one or both of them would be catastrophic.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 6 Nov 2008 | 11:42 pm

Michael Crichton's Rich, Mixed Legacy

Though Michael Crichton didn't always get the science right, he successfully turned people on to science with his books, movies and television show. Scientists give him mixed reviews, but nobody would deny his impact or his ability to entertain.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 6 Nov 2008 | 11:24 pm

Digital Music Deal Nearly Done, but Web Radio Darling Pandora Not Out of the Woods [MediaMemo]

Web music site operators and the music industry have worked out the major points in a deal that will reduce the fees Web site operators are supposed to pay for music streaming rights.

A final deal between the Digital Media Association, which is representing the Web sites, and SoundExchange, which collects royalties on behalf of the music labels and other copyright owners, isn’t expected until later this year. But “the hard stuff has been done,” says Pandora founder Tim Westergren, who has become the public face of Webcasters during negotiations.

In September, Congress agreed to let the two groups hash out new terms that would replace the ones that the government-appointed Copyright Royalty Board signed off on last year. Since then, Web radio sites, led by Pandora, have bitterly complained that rates would force them out of business.

The existing deal calls for Webcasters to pay an escalating fee to copyright owners every time they play a song for a listener. This year, for instance, Web radio stations are supposed to pay 14 hundredths of a penny ($.0014) per song streamed, per listener; site operators figure that will cost them about 2.1 cents per user, per hour.

That doesn’t seem like much, but in order to cover those fees alone (before bandwidth and other costs), operators would need pull down many more advertising dollars then they’re getting now.

Site advocates figure they’d need to be able to generate a so-called CPM rate of about $21 for every thousand visitors under the current fee structure. That’s a hard rate for big professional Web sites to achieve. And since users generally turn on a Web radio station, then look at other sites while it runs in the background, the format is a tough sell for ad buyers.

So what’s the new rate going to be? Westergren wouldn’t comment, except to argue that the compromise still calls for “tremendously unfair” payments when compared to the fees paid by satellite radio operator Sirius XM (SIRI). That company is supposed to pay between six percent and eight percent of revenue between now and 2012.

What about conventional radio? Those stations don’t pay a penny for so-called “performance” royalties, though the cash-starved music labels have asked Congress to change that. Good luck!

The big question: Will the new rates allow Pandora, and the many smaller Webcasters, to surive? Westergren says Pandora is on track to generate $20 million in revenue this year, but he wouldn’t say whether that would allow him to break even with the new proposed rates.

But Web advertising in general is under pressure, and ad buyers say that their clients are increasingly skeptical about trying out “experimental” mediums like Web video. So unless the rates get very, very low, or Westergren’s company has hired some very, very persuasive sales people, it’s going to remain a struggle.

Source: All Things Digital | 6 Nov 2008 | 11:23 pm

Craigslist Agrees With State AGs To Curb "Erotic Services" Ads

The New York Times reports that Craigslist has reached an agreement with 40 state attorneys general to tame its notoriously unruly "erotic services" listings. Clever diplomacy: according to the article, Craigslist "said that it will charge erotic services vendors a small fee for each ad — about $10, Mr. Buckmaster said — and require that they use a credit card for the payment. It will donate the money to charities that combat child exploitation and human trafficking. This, theoretically, will let the company confirm not just a phone number but also an identity." I hope they work on cleaning the weird spammers from the ordinary personal ads, too.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 6 Nov 2008 | 11:21 pm

Coming Soon to YouTube: “Dude, Where’s My Business Model?” [Digital Daily]

We’re waiting for the innovations. The innovation will come. We know it will come. We know it’s there.”

– Google CEO Eric Schmidt on the monetization of YouTube

Looks like the deal that brought “MacGyver” and other full-length CBS (CBS) TV programs to YouTube is one of many such agreements the site is pursuing with Hollywood. At least one of the big studios is nearing a deal that will bring its content to YouTube, perhaps by the end of this year. “It’s not imminent,” an executive with a major entertainment company told News.com. “But it’s going to happen. I would say you can expect to see it, if all goes well, sometime within the next 30 to 90 days.”

Under discussion, apparently, is an ad-supported streaming movie service similar to Hulu, the online video venture backed by NBC and Fox. Which is a perfectly good idea; Hulu’s proven it. But it’s certainly not an “innovation” in monetization or business model.

But it is, perhaps, an innovation in Google’s (GOOG) thinking. Because it suggests that the company has finally accepted the idea that major advertisers would much rather buy a pre-roll ad in, say, “The Office” than in “Cat Falls in Toilet” or “Leave Britney Alone.” And that’s something, right?

Source: All Things Digital | 6 Nov 2008 | 11:10 pm

Metal detectorist's mysterious find

Jim Wirth of OpenRoad.TV has been a passionate metal detectorist ever since he was a kid. Jim wrote to me:

I hang out on a website called Treasurenet.com, which has forums all related to metal detecting. One of the forums (which I've used myself a number of times) is the "What is it?" forum, where people can post a picture and description of something they've found metal detecting yet have no idea what it is or what it was used for. There is a thread on this forum that I thought would interest you and your readers. Who knows, maybe you or one of your readers might know what this item is...

Metal detectorist's mysterious find

Source: Boing Boing | 6 Nov 2008 | 11:07 pm

New Online Initiative Launched to Help Overturn Prop. 8 and Send a Message to Mormon Church Leaders Who Supported It

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 6 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- At a 2 p.m. news conference today in front of the Los Angeles Mormon Temple, L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center CEO Lorri L.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 6 Nov 2008 | 11:00 pm

Scientists ID Stem Cell Compounds

U.S. scientists say they have identified compounds for stem cell production from adult cells, moving medicine closer to the reprogramming of general cells.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 6 Nov 2008 | 11:00 pm

Mary Meeker’s View Of The World In 50 Slides

Every year at the Web 2.0 Summit, Morgan Stanley Internet analyst Mary Meeker gives her view of the world, the Web, and the technology industry by quickly going through about 50 slides that illustrate the major trends she is tracking. Last year, she zeroed in on the China Bubble. This year, she talks about the root causes of the current economic downturn, the outlook for Web businesses, and where she still sees major growth (mobile and emerging markets).

She singles out the mobile industry as the one where both the most opportunity will be found and disruption will occur over the next five years. Moreover, she suggests that the U.S. is poised to lead the transition in mobile to a Web-centric model. (I totally agree). Interestingly, she points to the introduction of the first Android phone by T-Mobile, not the launch of the iPhone, as the key inflection point for the coming era of the mobile web.

Meeker’s full presentation, which she gave yesterday, is in the video embedded above and her full slide deck is below (thank you, Henry Blodget, for uploading them). The slides are also available here.

A few slides in particular stuck out for me. First, the growth rates for both e-commerce sales and Internet advertising are normalizing much faster than anyone expected they would compared to offline growth rates for retail sales and advertising. No doubt, this steep slowdown in growth is being compounded by the overall economic situation. In the first slide below, the red line is U.S. retail sales growth and the yellow line is e-commerce sales growth. See where the yellow line is headed?

In the second slide, the top green line is Internet advertising growth. At least it is still above all the other kinds of advertising and not yet in negative territory, but the trend does not look good.

In fact, as ad budgets decline and Web pages keep growing, the bigger problem is that the supply of ad slots on the Web is becoming greater than the demand to fill them. The only way to fill those slots is to lower the price of each spot. As the slide below illustrates, ad impressions keep growing, but the cost per thousand (CPM) keeps dropping (on average, to about $1.50 for banner ads and to just above $20 for rich media ads):

On the bright side, compared to the overall spending on other forms of advertising such as TV, print, and direct mail, Internet advertising still has a lot of share to gain, and will likely continue to do so.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 6 Nov 2008 | 10:47 pm

Homemade butter

My maker pal Jon Sarriugarte and his daughter Zolie made homemade butter. Jon's short post and photos are inspiring! From Jon's Fire And Art blog:

My local homeless friend Hank found this great Daisy Churn #4 for me a few weeks back. With the leftover cream from the birthday pies we made last week and a copy of Joy of Cooking from 1964 we got to work. Right away we new we were in for the long haul when we read “how much slower the process was in threatening or stormy weather”. We looked outside and saw it was still raining.

Homemade butter (Thanks, Shawn Connally!)

Source: Boing Boing | 6 Nov 2008 | 10:42 pm

iTunes On OS X Finally Has Competition

mallumax writes "The truth is, iTunes is an average music player. Though the UI is simple and good like most Apple products, it has lagged in features compared to music players available on Linux and Windows. A feature as basic as monitoring a folder and adding the latest music files to the library is unavailable in iTunes. There are no plugins or themes. Despite the many faults, many of us continued to use iTunes because of the lack of options available. But today the wait is finally over. Not one, but two music players have become credible contenders. Songbird: An open source music player which has been in the works for more than 2 years has finally released its 1.0 Release Candidate builds. The team behind Songbird has members who previously developed for both Winamp and the Yahoo Music Engine. It has support for extensions and themes ('feathers' in Songbird parlance). Amarok: The undisputed champion among Linux music players is finally coming to OS X, thanks to KDE 4 being ported there. Amarok developer Leo Franchi has been able to run a Amarok on OS X natively. So we can expect a reasonably stable Amarok to hit OS X in a few months' time. Hopefully these players will gain traction among OS X users, which will finally force Apple to either step up in terms of features or open up iTunes for extensions."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 6 Nov 2008 | 10:34 pm

Audrey Kawasaki curates L.A. art show

The incredible painter Audrey Kawasaki has curated a group show of new art (including her own work) opening Friday night at Thinkspace in Los Angeles. The mindblowing exhibition includes pieces by Stella Im Hultberg, Amy Sol, Brandi Milne, Travis Louie, Kukula, and many more. Seen above, Kawasaki's "Hush" (17" x 11", oil, graphite, and colored pencil on wood). Titled "The Drawing Room," the show runs until November 29. All of the work is also viewable online. The Drawing Room (online gallery), The Drawing Room (press release)

UPDATE: Thinkspace's Andrew Hosner points out that two limited edition Audrey Kawsaki prints will also be available to those who can make the show in person. Only 200 of each are available and they're just $50 each, so I'd imagine they'll go rather quickly! Audrey Kawsaki's Drawing Room prints

Source: Boing Boing | 6 Nov 2008 | 10:22 pm

Chess With Friends Longs For Push As It Taps The iPhone’s Network Effect

We’ve just gotten a sneak peek at Chess With Friends, a new iPhone application that is due to appear on the App Store within the next few days (pending Apple’s approval process). There are already a number of chess games available on the App Store, but most of these require that games be played out in one long session, or are played through Email with strangers. Chess With Friends is taking a different approach, offering turn-based asynchronous sessions with people in your contact list that will likely appeal to a much broader user base by more effectively leveraging the iPhone’s untapped network effect.

Chess is a hugely popular game but most people don’t have time to play it for hours at a time - a fact that is especially apparent when you’re trying to find a friend who has long enough to play a match. To deal with this, Chess With Friends just asks you to make a move at a time at your leisure, which your friend can respond to hours or even days later. You can also keep multiple games going at the same time (visible in a scrollable list). The result is reminiscent of the massively popular Scrabulous Facebook app (now called Lexulous) that allowed users to play multiple turn-based Scrabble games at the same time, choosing new moves at their convenience.

Unfortunately the app has one serious flaw: there currently isn’t any easy way to figure out if it’s your move - you’ll need to periodically open the app yourself. This would be a non-issue if Apple had made good on its promise to release a background Push Notification system by September, but the company missed the target date and has been mum about the feature’s launch. After the MobileMe fiasco it’s clear that Apple wants any future cloud-based features to be perfect, but the lack of Push is proving to be a severe handicap to both networked games and social networks.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 6 Nov 2008 | 10:19 pm

AT&T: Tethering Plan for iPhone on the Horizon

AT&T has leaked plans to offer a tethering option for iPhone, which will turn the handset into a wireless modem for notebook users to surf the web.

At the Web 2.0 Summit, AT&T's mobility president Ralph De La Vega told interviewer Michael Arrington that the company is working with Apple to offer an official tethering plan, according to Technologizer. On average, such plans typically cost handset owners at least $50 a month. 

Though a tethering option from AT&T would be new, some iPhone owners have already been using their handsets as Wi-Fi modems for quite some time. A $10 application called NetShare enabled this feature, but Apple almost immediately removed the app from the App Store and later banned it.

The ban, of course, led displeased iPhone owners clamoring for an official tethering option. In August, a customer claimed he explained in an an e-mail to Steve Jobs why a tethering plan was necessary for iPhone, only to receive a response from the CEO saying, "We agree, and are discussing it with ATT."

While a tethering option might come as good news to some, others might still be unhappy to pay a monthly fee — especially since they could've had the same service for a one-time fee of $10 with NetShare.

However, people with rebellious spirits still have an option: iModem, a tethering application only available for Jailbroken (i.e., hacked) iPhones.

What do you think, Gadget Lab readers with iPhones? Would you be willing to pay a monthly fee to use your iPhones as wireless modems? 

AT&T: Tethering Coming to the iPhone Soon [Technologizer]

Photo: Florent Brunel/Flickr

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 6 Nov 2008 | 10:13 pm

LiveBlogging Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg At Web 2.0: Revenue, Fundraising, Growth and Products

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg takes the stage with John Battelle at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco this afternoon, at about 2 pm.

Like Jerry Yang yesterday, Zuckerberg has a lot to talk about regarding the state of Facebook, and its future.

Our real time notes from the interview are below.

Battelle is talking about how much Facebook has changed over the years, joking that Zuckerberg now wears tennis shoes, not just sandals.

First question, Battelle asks Zuckerberg about new financing rumors and trips to Dubai. Zuckerberg remains silent. In response to the question “Do you need money?” Zuckerberg says “no.”

Battelle digs deeper, asking if Facebook might run out of money sooner than they thought a year ago. Mark says that the site has grown much faster than they anticipated, but that international growth via user-translated sites is an efficient way to go. Mark also says the company has two very strong revenue lines - direct sales and online sales. Battelle asks him to break down the two streams, Zuckerberg won’t comment. He also brings up Microsoft revenue, but only says it represents a decreasing percentage of overall revenue.

Zuckerberg commenting on the Microsoft investment: “A lot of people focus on the price Microsoft paid.” Battelle asks how Facebook can ever grow into that valuation. Zuckerberg says they took the best valuation they could get and it made sense for them to do the deal. They aren’t going public for a few years, he says. “We don’t feel any pressure to live up to the $15 billion [valuation],” he says.

Mark confirms that “something more than 700″ people work at Facebook, and says they continue to hire, particularly engineers. He also says they are building international sales offices. Mark says 7% of the population of France is now on Facebook, and that he wouldn’t be surprised if it was 30% next year. They may open a sales office there, he says.

Regarding Facebook Connect, Mark says that anyone can now apply to join.

In response to a question about how closed Facebook is, he says that over time they may open up, but that users prefer using Facebook’s interface for now. He says that systems tend to move towards openness over time, uses the PC industry as an example.

Mark says their goal today is to get people onto Facebook and get them comfortable putting their personal information online to share with friends.

The next iteration of platform, he says, is Facebook Connect, which gives people Facebook tools on third party websites. “As time goes on, we’ll see this very natural fanning out and decentralization,” he said.

Mark says a flaw in the early implementation of Facebook platform is that application developers focused way too much just on getting users to add it, which moved them up the top list. Now Facebook promotes applications that actually have user engagement. Four examples: Causes, which is growing by “hundreds of thousands of people per day.”

Facebook Connect is a further evolution, he says. He says they slowed down the launch of Facebook Connect to minimize the need for painful changes later.

Regarding Twitter, Battelle asks “Is Twitter just a feature of Facebook?”

Battelle turns the conversation to online ads. Mark says they have a second iteration of social ads, which let users pass along gifts or pieces of content along with the ad unit.

Battelle ask about Facebook being banned by companies, noting that the army sees Facebook as a problem. Mark says they’re seeing the opposite trend. He says companies that used to block Facebook are now letting them use it.

Mark stresses that its still very early on the platform side, and doesn’t rule out working with Google on OpenSocial.

Mark mentions that 50% of Facebook users are active every day on the site.

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Source: TechCrunch | 6 Nov 2008 | 9:49 pm

Sketchyland: Surveillance Company To Release Gum Pack-Sized Video Recorder

A company that's known for its stealth and mostly tiny surveillance products is now trying to pass off its newest creation, the MovieStick, as a portable family entertainment device.

The main culprit of this ridiculous farce is, of course, the Flip camcorder, which made portable, low-def and mostly crappy video the de rigueur accessory of the last year. 

So what do we get with Swann's stick? A tiny spy camera that shoots still pictures and video, that records into removable 2 GB Micro SD cards, and that weighs less than an ounce. It also comes with a built-in lithium battery that is charged via USB, so you should be able to connect it to your phone or other media player and push it through to the web in no time. So that’s not bad.

But at $120, the video better be super clear, and in High-Definition, and the casing tough enough to withstand the countless times people will inevitable step on it. Swann is expected to release more info on the Movie Stick in the run-up to its release during CES the first week of 2009.

Surveillance gadgets as a family/social device up the slightly sketchy quotient, but admittedly, it is a weird barrier that is slowly breaking down by similar gadgets.

Recently, people have been mounting hidden web cams to catch thieves in the act, and the ubiquitous nature of social tweeting with Twit Pics make anyone fair game for a picture in the city wild. And some people are completely obvious about their intentions and buy large professional security rigs, like the recently released, high-def BU-50H camera mount from Canon.

So by early next year, if you see a sketchy dude taking out a small grayish pack of gum out of his pocket, you might want to cover your face paparazzo-style. He might be a Gadget Lab scribe taking a video of you for his next post.

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 6 Nov 2008 | 9:46 pm

Chinese Retailer Welcomes Obama With Burger USB Drive

A Chinese web site is selling a hamburger USB drive, among other gadgets, to welcome the new president of the United States.

ActFind, the same Chinese retailer we ordered a fake iPhone from, is offering about 60 items marketed as "New arrival for new USA president!" Unfortunately, I think the hamburger drive is the only gadget that can be stretched to have anything to do with the United States. (The rest of the product line is pretty random: netbooks, Nintendo DS, a Hello Kitty mouse, etc.)

The burger drive has a 2GB capacity and appears to contain cheese, pastrami and a leaf of rancid lettuce. Scattered on top of the bun are about 10 disproportionately large seeds. Déliceux.

Here's the other thing that screams U.S.A. about this gadget: You can only order it in bulk. Ten pieces, to be precise, for $90. And Americans just love buying stuff in bulk, right? Put me down for 70!

Product Page [ActFind]      

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 6 Nov 2008 | 9:45 pm

Achieving Mathematical Proofs Via Computers

eldavojohn writes "A special issue of Notices of the American Mathematical Society (AMS) provides four beautiful articles illustrating formal proof by computation. PhysOrg has a simpler article on these assistant mathematical computer programs and states 'One long-term dream is to have formal proofs of all of the central theorems in mathematics. Thomas Hales, one of the authors writing in the Notices, says that such a collection of proofs would be akin to the sequencing of the mathematical genome.' You may recall a similar quest we discussed."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 6 Nov 2008 | 9:43 pm

Sever Drought Changes Nature As Much As Global Warming

Image 1: The flowering period of an important early flowerer, the common Birds-foot Trefoil (Lotus corniculatus) was even shortened by more than a month due to heavy rain and started flowering early by almost one month. Photo: Dr. Jürgen Kreyling/University of BayreuthImage 2: Extreme weather events have a greater effect on flora than previously presumed. Using experimental plots in Bayreuth the researchers generated artificial heavy rain and drought in their experiment and the effects on ten different plant species were observed accordingly over a two-year period. Photo: Dr. Jürgen Kreyling/University of BayreuthImage 3: Among the ten species studied included the heather (Calluna vulgaris). Photo: Dr. Jürgen Kreyling/University of Bayreuth
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 6 Nov 2008 | 9:20 pm

Nighttime Twisters More Likely To Kill

A new study by Northern Illinois University scientists underscores the danger of nighttime tornadoes and suggests that warning systems that have led to overall declines in tornado death rates might not be adequate for overnight events, which occur most frequently in the nation's mid-South region.Over the past century, the tornado death rate has declined, in large part because of sophisticated forecasting technology and warning systems.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 6 Nov 2008 | 9:16 pm

I want my iTV

At the O’Reilly Web 2.0 Summit conference in San Francisco, a context switch from Web 2.0 to cloud computing is well under way. Wired’s Kevin Kelly suggested a variation of the Semantic Web where pages give way to the data on the pages, with each of those chunks representing real objects in physical space, or a Kelly said, anything that can hold an electric charge.

AT&T’s Ralph de la Vega told Mike Arrington that he foresaw a world where phones controlled TVs, coffee machines, cars, and every other device along the way to and from work. The notion of a universal remote or mouse as Microsoft Research defined it years ago is now becoming an economic reality, one that de la Vega suggests is recession-immune as of now. The presence of a keyboard, whether physical as per the Blackberry Bold or virtual on the iPhone, is the new dividing line, with AT&T deriving north of $95 a month revenue versus $58 per month for the average user.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Source: TechCrunch | 6 Nov 2008 | 9:15 pm

T-Mobile temporarily halts 5610 XpressMusic sales - but it’s not a recall

Just a few minutes ago, we started receiving tips that T-Mobile and Nokia had decided to recall the 5610 XpressMusic phone. T-Mobile dispelled the rumor almost immediately. According to our T-Mobile representative, they’ve temporarily halted all sales of the Nokia 5610 XpressMusic due to a defective component causing the LCD to go on the fritz.

Though they’re not going to sell it until they can work out the issue, the problem isn’t widespread enough (nor is it anything dangerous, like a melting power charger or batteries that light your pants aflame) to issue a mass recall. That said, if you’re having an issue with your 5610, hit up T-Mobile and they’ll work something out.

T-Mobile’s official statement after the jump.

T-Mobile’s official statement:

T-Mobile has temporarily discontinued sales of the Nokia 5610 XpressMusic to address a defective component in some units that may cause the LED display to go blank. Although we believe the issue to be limited to a very small percentage of devices, T-Mobile and Nokia are committed to providing the best customer experience, which is why we are temporarily suspending sales of the device until Nokia has resolved the issue. If a customer has purchased a Nokia 5610 XpressMusic and is experiencing issues with their device, they should contact T-Mobile Customer Care or visit a T-Mobile retail store, to discuss available options.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 6 Nov 2008 | 9:12 pm

Creative GPLs X-Fi Sound Card Driver Code

An anonymous reader writes "In a move that's a win for the free software community, Creative Labs has decided to release their binary Linux driver for the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi and X-Fi Titanium sound cards under the GPL license. This is coming after several failed attempts at delivering a working binary driver and years after these sound cards first hit the market."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 6 Nov 2008 | 9:00 pm

Injected Hormones From Cloned Cows Increase Milk Output

Researchers in Argentina have discovered a way to make cows produce more milk by injecting them with a synthetic bovine growth hormone, known as bovine somatotropin, produced by cloned and genetically modified dairy cows.Synthetic bovine somatotropin, known as rbST, is already injected into cows to boost milk production, but the Argentine scientists say their method is less costly and produces a natural bovine hormone.Andres Bercovich, chief of research and development for biotechnology firm Bio Sidus, said that if a cow would normally produce 5.3 gallons of milk per day, it could produce in excess of 6 gallons after being injected with the synthetic hormone."It's going to be a cheaper method because it requires far less equipment and the only costs are what the animal needs," he said during an interview with Reuters.Bio Sidus began cloning cows in 2002, and has developed animals capable of making human growth hormone and insulin in the milk.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 6 Nov 2008 | 8:55 pm

Scientists Must Be Thorough While Measuring Extinction

The United Nations said recently that man-made threats such as rising populations, felling of forests, hunting, pollution and climate change are all contributing to the world’s worst spate of extinctions since the dinosaurs vanished 65 million years ago.Yet scientists must undergo endless searching to prove that any individual species has gone the way of the dodo."If there's one thing in my career I'd like to be proved wrong about, it's the baiji," said Sam Turvey of the Zoological Society of London, using another name for the Yangtze River dolphin.Turvey interviewed Chinese fishermen for almost 3 months earlier this year, hoping to record sightings of the long-snouted dolphin, which has not been seen since 2002.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 6 Nov 2008 | 8:50 pm

Build a Local Search App With Google's APIs

Google's various tools for web developers make it simple to build a local search app that lets your visitors seek out nearby restaurants and businesses. We show you a few different ways to get the goods from Google, starting with pre-fab options for quick and dirty map hacking, then moving on to the Maps and Ajax APIs for more powerful searching.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 6 Nov 2008 | 8:30 pm

Canada Offers Continental Climate Pact

Canada's prime minister offers to work with president-elect Obama to curb global warming.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 6 Nov 2008 | 8:11 pm

AT&T: iPhone 3G tethering coming soon

This will make Joel happy. Not me though. My iPhone's EDGE.

During an interview at the Web 2.0 Summit, AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph De La Vega confirmed that AT&T would be offering an official tethering option for the iPhone "soon".

Which pretty much confirms that Netshare was pulled from the App Store for offering functionality that the carriers want to charge for. Which, you know, is honestly fine... I just wish they could have introduced this sooner.

Only question now is, what does "soon" mean? 2.2?

AT&T CEO Confirms iPhone Tethering Coming "Soon" [Mac Rumors]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 6 Nov 2008 | 8:04 pm

The SmoothBook DR Notebook.... loosely translated: "The Notebook of the Dead."

From the same guys who gave us yesterday's awesome Fallout 3 style monitor. Hey, isn't it nice to see someone finally update the Necronomicon ex Mortis to the technological trappings favored by today's Eldritch-worshipping Cthulhite, replete with the most evil method of data storage possible: Blu-Ray.

Smooth Creations Smoothbook DR Notebook [Tweaktown via Slashgear]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 6 Nov 2008 | 8:00 pm

West Basin's Solar Powered System Produces More Power, Performs Beyond Expectation in First Year

West Basin Municipal Water District's 60,000 square feet of fixed-tilt photovoltaic panels at the Edward C. Little Water Recycling Facility is performing beyond expectations. In the first year of operation, the system produced 11% more electricity than expected.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 6 Nov 2008 | 8:00 pm

Social Interactions Alter Gene Expression

U.S. scientists say they have discovered social interactions can alter the brain's genetic expression far more significantly than has been thought. University of Illinois researchers said our DNA determines a lot about who we are and how we play with others.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 6 Nov 2008 | 8:00 pm

Snapily Spices Up Business Cards And More With Awesome 3D Effects

For all the startups making customizable stationary and business cards available on the web, we really haven’t seen much in terms of innovation: most sites have almost the same options and features, and there isn’t much you can do beyond what you can find in traditional print stores. Today that changes with the public launch of Snapily, an online store for user-customized paper goods that can add moving effects to 2D images (and they’re really cool). TechCrunch readers can get a 20% discount on Snapily products by entering the code ‘TechCrunch_Snapily’.

Upon choosing a product type (which include business cards, greeting cards, notebooks, and invitations) users can choose to either let Snapily use pre-generated templates to enhance their 2D images, or they can manually modify their images for more advanced effects. At launch available options include a pseudo-3D effect that separates the backdrop from the foreground and a morph effect that can switch between two photos. In the near future the site will also be launching a ‘mini-movie’ effect, allowing you to put a 2 second clip on a card that plays as you rotate it (Harry Potter fans rejoice). For a better idea of what the cards look like, check out the video below.

The cards use a technique called lenticular printing, which displays a new image depending on what angle they’re viewed from (we recently covered a set of maps that use the same technology). And while you can find similar products elsewhere on the web, Snapily says that nearly all of these require bulk purchases - you couldn’t just buy a handful of greeting cards or a single notebook. Snapily says it will allow users to buy products in these small one-off quantities for a price that is still in the range of traditional paper products.

Snapily is a spinoff from HumanEyes, which has offered similar products to the business market for a number of years (the company says that the lenticular printing technology has now been in development for a total of seven years).

Earlier this week we saw another innovation in the customer-designed product space, when Zazzle launched custom embroidery.

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Source: TechCrunch | 6 Nov 2008 | 7:55 pm

Voice, Gestures Will Replace Keyboards In Future Phones

Mobile phones will get new interfaces and go beyond keypads to help people interact with them. The traditional keypads and scroll wheels will give way to haptics, advanced speech recognition and motion sensors.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 6 Nov 2008 | 7:43 pm

AT&T Fuze dropping at $299 on November 11th

AT&T Fuze. You know, the slick slider from HTC, appears to be hitting stores on November 11th and will carry a $499 price without a contract or $299 after a $50 mail-in rebate with a two year contract. The deets come via an internal AT&T equipment brief document which, other than the price and availability, doesn’t reveal anything we didn’t already know. Initial thoughts? $100 more than the iPhone and that’s all that matters in a world strapped for cash.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 6 Nov 2008 | 7:20 pm

Ancient Cave Sheds Light on China's Past

Thousands of years of Chinese history are illuminated by a single stalagmite.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 6 Nov 2008 | 7:11 pm

AT&T-sanctioned 3G tethering on the way for iPhone

In an interview with Michael Arrington at the Web 2.0 Summit, AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph De La Vega let it be known that an official, AT&T sanctioned method of using the iPhone as a 3G modem for a laptop is on the way “soon”.

What goes unmentioned is any sort of pricing information, which will undoubtedly be a determining factor in the tethering package’s adoption rate. Amongst those interested in tethering their iPhone, I’d imagine that a sizable percentage of them have already discovered alternative solutions, such as PDANet. As long as the iPhone remains vulnerable to jailbreaking, these free, surprisingly simple solutions will be available - and as of late, Apple has made no indication that they’re attempting to block jailbreaks.

Even if the tethering package turns out to be dirt cheap, would a significant chunk of those already tethering make the jump to AT&T’s offering, simply to follow the rules? Doubtful. Are there enough people out there too wary of jailbreaks (or who fear the wrath of their IT guy) to make this worthwhile for AT&T?

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Source: MobileCrunch | 6 Nov 2008 | 7:02 pm

Stalking Bigfoot

My friend Eric Spitznagel took on the Bigfoot beat for Vanity Fair and filed: "Everything's Bigfoot in Texas." From the Texas Bigfoot Conference in Jefferson, Texas, he reports:

Drawing on interviews with dozens of eye-witnesses, [Sasquatch expert Dr. Henner] Fahrenbach went on to say that Bigfoot’s diet is rich in mussels, clams, peacocks, and the “hindquarter” of deer. He insisted that Bigfoots enjoy wrestling, tickle fights, and, most surprisingly, gangbangs. He assured us that even a horny Sasquatch has an impeccable sense of orgy etiquette.

“When an especially large male came onto the scene,” Fahrenbach said, describing a sexual pileup involving one willing female and lots of dudes, “he didn’t try to buck the line but simply stood there and took his turn in good time.”

In the beginning of his lecture, there was some nervous giggling from those in the audience. After a while, they just stared at Fahrenbach, a few with jaws agape. Somewhere in the back row, a woman turned to her husband and whispered, “I can’t tell if he’s kidding.”

It’s been a rough few months for Bigfoot true believers.

"Everything's Bigfoot in Texas." (Illustration credit: John Hogan.)

Source: Boing Boing | 6 Nov 2008 | 6:39 pm

T-Mobile announces holiday line-up, gives away plane tickets

Word of T-Mobile’s Holiday line-up just came down the wire, and it doesn’t look like they’ve kept any Christmas surprises up their sleeve. Anything that hasn’t been announced officially has been leaked for a few weeks now, so this pretty much just serves as one big confirmation.

• Motorola ZN5: Pictured on right. Announced and released 2 days ago. It’s a quadband candy bar. While it doesn’t have 3g capabilities, it does have WiFi and a 5 megapixel camera with xenon flash. Not too shabby for $99 on a two year bloodpact.
• Cameo: Leaked a month ago. It’s a $100 7-inch digital picture frame with its own SIM card and number. Send pictures to it via picture message, and they show up on the frame. Cool idea, but the $10-dollars-a-month fee seems a bit steep. Available in “the coming weeks”
• Samsung Behold: Leaked last month. For those who follow Samsung’s overseas lineup, it’s essentially an F480. Touchscreen display, TouchWiz user interface, 3G, Bluetooth, and a-GPS. Last we heard, it’ll hit the shelves for $149 on November 10th



• Samsung Gravity: We haven’t said too much about this one, but it’s not a well kept secret. It’s a nice little QWERTY slider with specs that keep it accessible on a budge - when they list “Phone book” and “Vibrating alerts” as features, you know it won’t break the bank. You can grab one for $49.99 on a 2 year deal starting November 17th.

Of course, they’ll also be pushing the T-Mobile G1 and the BlackBerry Pearl Flip throughout the season.

To help up the sales numbers, they’re also giving away complimentary “companion tickets” to fly you around the country this holiday. Rather than confusing anybody and botching their legalese, I’ll just quote the deal straight from the release:

With the Free Companion Flight promotion, T-Mobile is offering complimentary companion plane tickets from Nov. 19 through Dec. 24, 2008 to new and existing customers who sign up for a two-year service agreement. Those on a family plan will receive a companion ticket for each line of their family plan, up to five tickets, so it’s easy for the whole family to enjoy a trip together.

Companion tickets have no blackout dates, provide travel to and from more than 100 origination and destination cities, and are good for a year (travel must be completed by Feb. 15, 2010).

While I doubt anyone most people would be crazy enough to sign a 2 year contract just for one free “companion” ticket, it certainly sweetens the deal a bit if you were looking to nab a new device from T-Mobile anyway.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 6 Nov 2008 | 6:19 pm

Lemming Numbers Dwindling Under Warming

Warming shortens the period when lemmings can burrow in wintry havens.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 6 Nov 2008 | 6:11 pm

How to Make a Stealth Camera Bag

Need a sturdy sack for your expensive DSLR? Something about those professional camera bags, with their logos and myriad accessory pockets, marks them as a little too conspicuous. Roll with the stealth crowd by building your own padded shoulder bag on the cheap. It holds everything you need for a day of shooting, and it's virtually weightless.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 6 Nov 2008 | 6:10 pm

Heidi Klum channels Risky Business for Guitar Hero: World Tour

If nothing else, Heidi Klum's advertisement for Guitar Hero: World Tour is both
erudite and intellectually challenging. Still, I can't help but wonder: how is Heidi playing Guitar Hero without once looking at the screen?

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 6 Nov 2008 | 6:08 pm

Giant Twist Freedom DX Electric Bicycle

Many people think that hybrid bikes are stupid. They haven't ridden the Giant Twist Freedom DX yet. This electric cycle combines a long-lasting battery, beautiful looks and seamless hybrid integration that's as much a pleasure to ride as it is to look at.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 6 Nov 2008 | 4:44 pm

AT&T Bulks Up Its WiFi Coverage By Buying Wayport For $275 Million

AT&T loves WiFi. And it knows that you love WiFi too. So it just bought up WiFi hotspot operator Wayport for $275 million in cash. The acquisition will add about 3,000 WiFi hotspots to AT&T’s network in the U.S., bringing the total to 20,000 hotspots (including those in Starbucks and McDonald’s).

The company cites estimates that 300 million WiFi laptops, cell phones and other devices were shipped in 2007, growing to one billion by 2012. The growth is going to come from WiFi cell phones. Already, the iPhone, Blackberry, and Android phones, among others come with WiFi. That will soon be standard on most Internet-capable phone.

A bigger WiFi network helps AT&T’s wireless business because it provides a way to offload data-intensive traffic from its 3G cellular network to the cheaper and faster WiFi networks, where available. That is why AT&T offers free WiFI connections to all of its iPhone and Blackberry customers. Expect that trend to continue.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 6 Nov 2008 | 3:54 pm

Human Brain Tissue Made From Stem Cells

Researchers make functioning human brain tissue using embryonic stem cells.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 6 Nov 2008 | 3:31 pm

World's Largest Truck Goes Robotic

A 700-ton mining truck gets a hi-tech upgrade thanks to a DARPA-sponsored challenge.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 6 Nov 2008 | 2:40 pm

Dusty, Polluted Air Spawns Tornadoes

Air pollution and dust can increase the chances of a tornado forming.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 6 Nov 2008 | 2:15 pm

Sony Ericsson gets official with the W705 Walkman phone and the MBS-900 Bluetooth speaker

We kind of knew these two Sony Ericsson products were dropping today, and so, here are the Sony W705 Walkman phone and MBS-900 Bluetooth speaker. The quad-band W705 seems like an upgraded G705 with WiFi, YouTube access, 3.2 MP camera, and a FM radio with TrackID built-in. Plus, it has a large 2.4-inch screen along with an accelerometer for Shake Control. The whole thing is made out of a metal finish that should help this slider stand out.

The MBS-900 Bluetooth speaker system is meant to play nicely with the W705 but it should work with any ‘ol Bluetooth phone. You can control the volume, along with playback selection, from the phone itself and if a call comes in, the speaker will mute. No word on pricing for either units, but they should launch in the first part of ‘09 in select markets.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 6 Nov 2008 | 2:01 pm

IPhone 2.2: Podcast Downloads over 3G?

New screenshots of the iPhone 2.2 software have been dug up by blogger Florian Schimank and they confirm over-the-air podcast downloads direct to the iPhone. Another blog, M4gic.net, claims that this will work not only with a Wi-Fi connection, but also over 3G, although with a cap of 10MB, just like the App Store.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 6 Nov 2008 | 12:14 pm