Source: Gizmodo | 7 Nov 2008 | 10:40 pm

Is That Your Scapula Or Are You Just Happy To See Me?

A scapular art dress created by artist Rachel Wright, available on Etsy for $900.

This piece is called “Scapular” because of the wing-like velvet shoulder blades that grace the back. The slip is a rayon slip probably from the 50’s that I dyed a scarlet red. I then used a variety of different fabrics for the appliqué: velvet, silk for the many petaled breast & kidney, a recycled sari for the flower-heart, recycled leather for the tentacles on the bottom, and moiré silk for the vertebrae.

Related: "The Visible Woman Stalks the Catwalk." (Via Trend de la Creme.)

Source: Boing Boing | 7 Nov 2008 | 10:30 pm

Left 4 Dead splitscreen on your PC!

I know lots of you guys out there are either already playing the hell out of the demo for Left 4 Dead or, like me, waiting until the weekend to dive in. Of course, the weekend is the time when those pesky friends are always hanging around, saying how you should drink this or do that.

This weekend, you need to take control of your destiny. Tell your pal to come over and play some split-screen Left 4 Dead on your PC — it’ll look better and play better than the 360 version (I maintain this!). That way you can share a six-pack and throw down on some zombies at the same time — when was the last time you did that?
[via Reddit]

Source: CrunchGear | 7 Nov 2008 | 10:20 pm

Sprint Nextel losing subscribers and money (AP)

AP - Sprint Nextel Corp. watched another 1.3 million wireless subscribers head for its competitors during the third quarter, leading the company to post a loss that sent its stock skidding Friday.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 7 Nov 2008 | 10:20 pm

will.i.am Debuts Follow-Up To Viral Hit “Yes We Can”

Only three days after the close of one of the most historic elections in US history and the selection of Barack Obama as President, will.i.am has created a followup to his smash hit viral video Yes We Can. The new song, called It’s a New Day, made its debut on iTunes last night (you can download it here), and will be shown on this afternoon’s episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Yes We Can features a collection of celebrities and musicians embellishing and singling alongside one of Barack Obama’s most memorable speeches, and as been viewed as many as 50 million times across countless online video sites. The new song is more traditional, celebrating Obama’s victory with references to past heroes of the United States and the civil rights movement. We’ll post the video as soon as it is available.

Update: Here’s the clip of will.i.am’s performance of It’s A New Day on Oprah this afternoon:

Here is the video for Yes We Can:

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

Source: TechCrunch | 7 Nov 2008 | 10:20 pm

Stick entered into Toy Hall of Fame

A plain ol' stick was entered into the National Toy Hall of Fame yesterday. It joins the kite, Mr. Potato Head, Crayola crayons, the Atari 2600, LEGO, and several dozen other toy greats. Also added this year are the baby doll and the skateboard. From the Associated Press:

Curators said the stick was a special addition in the spirit of a 2005 inductee, the cardboard box. They praised its all-purpose, no-cost, recreational qualities, noting its ability to serve either as raw material or an appendage transformed in myriad ways by a child's creativity.

"It's very open-ended, all-natural, the perfect price -- there aren't any rules or instructions for its use," said Christopher Bensch, the museum's curator of collections. "It can be a Wild West horse, a medieval knight's sword, a boat on a stream or a slingshot with a rubber band. ... No snowman is complete without a couple of stick arms, and every campfire needs a stick for toasting marshmallows.

"This toy is so fantastic that it's not just for humans anymore. You can find otters, chimps and dogs -- especially dogs -- playing with it."

"Stick, skateboard, Baby Doll enter Toy Hall of Fame"

Source: Boing Boing | 7 Nov 2008 | 10:15 pm

Scientists Turn Tequila Into Diamonds

MaxwellEdison writes "Researchers, oddly enough from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, have found a way to make diamond films using tequila. They were originally testing methods of creating the films with organic solutions like acetone when it was noticed the ideal ratios of water and ethanol turned out to be about 80 proof, or 40% alcohol. '"To dissipate any doubts, one morning on the way to the lab I bought a pocket-size bottle of cheap white tequila and we did some tests," Apátiga said. "We were in doubt over whether the great amount of chemicals present in tequila, other than water and ethanol, would contaminate or obstruct the process, it turned out to be not so. The results were amazing, same as with the ethanol and water compound, we obtained almost spherical shaped diamonds of nanometric size. There is no doubt; tequila has the exact proportion of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen atoms necessary to form diamonds."'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 7 Nov 2008 | 10:13 pm

As I See, by Boris Artzybasheff back in print

I'm happy to discover that one of my favorite art books, As I See by the late Boris Artzybasheff, is back in print, once again. Boris Artzybasheff was a prolific magazine and advertising illustrator in the first half of the 20th Century. His specialty was anthropomorphic machines, such as sneering torpedoes and smug internal combustion engines.

(See the many previous posts about Artzybasheff on Boing Boing here)

As I See

Source: Boing Boing | 7 Nov 2008 | 10:09 pm

Review: Epson Artisan 800 All-in-One

When I took on the task of reviewing printers I worried that I’d be so bored that I’d fall asleep at the keyboard, leading to a review full of jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjllllllllllllllllllllmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm and a keyboard full of slobber. Luckily, the Epson Artisan 800 kept me awake and excited and, dare I say it, enthused about the state of printers.

First off, the Artisan 800 is a beautiful printer. It’s not often that I say anything is “beautiful” per se, but this thing is two tone black - shiny piano and matte with a sliver of silver through the center. It has a huge front touchscreen, a SD/xD/CF reader and USB port, and a hidden paper tray that pops open when a print is about to emerge from the 800s warm, plastic womb.

There are three ways to use this printer. First, you can hook it up to a Mac or PC for standard and photo printing. Then you can scan in images on the top scanner and copy them. Finally, you can pop in a flash card or USB drive or print directly from your camera via PictBridge.

The kit comes with Mac and PC drivers as well as a system for adding the printer to your network via Wi-Fi or Ethernet. For some reason I could never get it to connect via Wi-Fi but it did work via Ethernet but I chalk that up to the vagaries of my home network and not a problem with the printer. It prints at 38 pages a minute and can print a draft photo in about 10 seconds. The standard text print quality is fairly good but the photo feature are where this model shines.

The smaller picture is the original. Blow up is enhanced.

My sainted grandmother.

Printing photos from cards is a snap. You simply drop in the card, pick a few photos using the onscreen display, and print. We got about 60 prints out of the cartridges before we really had to start replacing them and we’ve replaced the black and the cyan so far. Because it has six different inks you could end up running out of one color before the rest of the cartridges are empty.

The photo quality is actually quite nice. The images are clean and waterproof and the printer can print on almost any paper - although glossy and matte photo paper are best. It reads images directly from a USB key and can also print on CDs and DVDs.

The best feature, however, is the automatic image improvement. This will make mom and dad very happy. You simply scan in a photo and set the auto enhancement. The system lets you blow up photos and improve the saturation and brightness with even old Instamatic photos from the 1970s. I know many all-in-ones have this feature but the 800s was so easy to use that I suspect it will be a selling point for the printer.

The cartridges last for about 60 good photos before needing to be replaced. You simply open a side panel to access the cartridges.

The printer itself costs $299.99 and, as I said before, looks less like a printer than a piece of home theatre equipment. It’s honestly one of the best printers I’ve used in years. I love it… no faint praise especially considering my five year love affair with a color laser printer that ended in heartbreak and divorce.

Bottom Line
Get this for Mom and Dad and sit them down with an old album and the image enhancement system. They’ll be occupied for months.

Source: CrunchGear | 7 Nov 2008 | 10:05 pm

Video: A tiny, smart alec parakeet lives inside the Nintendo DSi

The Nintendo DSi—meh? Hardly!

As this short video shows, there’s a built-in parakeet-thing that repeats what you say into the microphone. Here, the guy says “say something,” to which the parakeet responds, “say something.” Very heaven.

Now, does that take away from the fact that, save for the wireless store, the DSi can be described as a minor update at best? No, but for Pete’s sake it’s a talking electronic parakeet. Even though I’m a cynical killjoy I still find it “neat.”

Source: CrunchGear | 7 Nov 2008 | 10:00 pm

Skateboard, stick in Toy Hall of Fame - United Press International

Boston Globe

Skateboard, stick in Toy Hall of Fame United Press International - 14 hours ago ROCHESTER, NY, Nov. 7 (UPI) -- The National Toy Hall of Fame in Rochester, NY, announced it has inducted the skateboard, the baby doll and one surprise plaything -- a stick. Toy Hall of Fame points to new addition: the stick The Associated Press The Stick Makes It Into Toy Hall of Fame Wired News Popular Fidelity - Daily Green - Charlottesville Daily Progress - NPR all 310 news articles

Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 7 Nov 2008 | 9:59 pm

Tethering Part of AT&T's Vision for Apple's iPhone (NewsFactor)

NewsFactor - Before you wake up in the morning, your iPhone downloads your news and tells your coffeemaker to start brewing. Then when you're up and you wave the device at your TV, the news feeds get transferred to your TV.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 7 Nov 2008 | 9:55 pm

The Roots of Psychopathy

The New Yorker has an interesting article by John Seabrook about researchers who study the brains of psychopaths: "Suffering Souls."

The scanner was housed in a tractor-trailer parked behind the prison’s I.D. center. We followed a correctional officer through an internal courtyard to the rehab wing, which consisted of a large common area surrounded by two-man cells. The prisoners were standing at attention outside their cells, some holding mops and brooms. I entered a vacant cell and saw the occupant’s brain, a grainy black-and-white image on a piece of a paper, its edges curling, tacked up over the desk.

Then we walked through the common room and out a door at the other end, passing under a large poster with lines that read, “I am here because there is no refuge, finally, from myself.” The officer led us along a corridor of offices in which students from the University of New Mexico, where [cognitive neuroscientist Dr. Kent] Kiehl is on the faculty, conduct psychopathy interviews and also counsel participants in the drug-treatment program. Carla Harenski, one of Kiehl’s postdocs, was interviewing a beefy guy with a tattoo on his neck. Her office, like those of all the researchers in the lab, is equipped with a button she can press to call for help if an interview gets out of hand.

In order to distinguish psychopaths from non-psychopaths among the Western volunteers, Kiehl and his students use the revised version of the Psychopathy Checklist, or PCL-R, a twenty-item diagnostic instrument created by Robert Hare, a Canadian psychologist, based on his long experience in working with psychopaths in prisons. Kiehl was taught to use the checklist by Hare himself, under whom he earned his doctorate, at the University of British Columbia. Researchers interview an inmate for up to three hours, and compare the inmate’s statements against what is known of his record and his personal history. The interviewer “scores” the subject on each of the twenty items—parasitic life style, pathological lying, conning, proneness to boredom, shallow emotions, lack of empathy, poor impulse control, promiscuity, irresponsibility, record of juvenile delinquency, and criminal versatility, among other tendencies—with zero, one, or two, depending on how pronounced that trait is. Most researchers agree that anyone who scores thirty or higher on the PCL-R is considered to be a psychopath. Kiehl says, “Someone who scores a thirty-five, a thirty-six, they are just different. You say to yourself, ‘Aha, here you are. You are why I do this.’ ”

Harenski recently interviewed a Western inmate who scored a 38.9. “He had killed his girlfriend because he thought she was cheating on him,” she told me. “He was so charming about telling it that I found it hard not to fall into laughing along in surprise, even when he was describing awful things.” Harenski, who is thirty, did not experience the involuntary skin-crawling sensation that, according to a survey conducted by the psychologists Reid and M. J. Meloy, one in three mental-health and criminal-justice professionals report feeling on interviewing a psychopath; in their paper on the subject, Meloy and Meloy speculate that this reaction may be an ancient intraspecies predator-response system. “I was just excited,” Harenski continued. “I was saying to myself, ‘Wow. I found a real one.’ ”

"Suffering Souls." (Image credit: John Ritter.)

Source: Boing Boing | 7 Nov 2008 | 9:51 pm

Tricked-Out Inflatable House Provides Instant Survival

Inflatable World's instant house is designed to provide everything you need after a disaster, from shelter to first aid, all stored in a four-foot cube. The designers hope to fill the gap between immediate, emergency shelter and long-term temporary housing in the aftermath of a hurricane, earthquake or other disaster.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 7 Nov 2008 | 9:47 pm

Pop Quiz: What are those ports in the Penny Arcade logo?

Go look (or just raise your eyes a little ^ ). We’ve been discussing it for a while and we just can’t figure out what system those ports in the title bar are from. We’ve crossed a lot of systems off the list and so far Genesis and Atari are the closest. I’m guessing it’s actually just a stylized, fictional port. What do you think?

Source: CrunchGear | 7 Nov 2008 | 9:45 pm

Smule’s Ocarina: This Is How You Build A Great iPhone App

Smule has done it again. The company behind the ingenious lighter app that took the iPhone by storm a few months ago has launched Ocarina, a networked musical instrument that allows you to listen to songs being played around the world in real time. The app costs 99 cents, and you can grab it here.

As an instrument Ocarina has been perfectly executed, and is much more suitable for the iPhone’s screen size than the virtual keyboards and guitars that litter the App Store. To play, you blow into the iPhone’s microphone while fingering notes using the 4 ‘holes’ on the ocarina. Smule says that the microphone can detect subtle variations in air flow, explaining that “unlike other iPhone audio apps, the sound is not pre-compiled but is generated by the notes, gestures and nuance of the individual performer”.

And for the vast majority of the population that has no idea how to play an ocarina, the app has another awesome feature: you can listen in on the songs being played on any iPhone worldwide. After selecting the ‘globe’ view, the app presents you with a 3D world littered with a number of little dots presumably representing every active Ocarina. The app will automatically start playing one of these, highlighted by a series of green blobs rising from Earth, each of which corresponds to a note. If you don’t like what you’re listening to, you can hit the ‘next’ button to start playing a new song (you’ll probably be using this button often, as many of the people playing are awful).

This is how an iPhone app should be done. As we pointed out in September, too few developers are leveraging the platform’s network effect to differentiate themselves, instead choosing to develop standalone apps that can be easily cloned. By being first to market with this app, Smule has safeguarded itself against the competition: even if another ocarina app comes along that is network compatible, Smule’s application will likely have the largest user base and will be very difficult to catch up with. And if Smule is smart, it’ll keep making these virtual instruments, allowing it to share the same network to create a worldwide orchestra that would be nearly impossible to replicate (and it sounds like it will - the company has developed an audio platform called ChucK that will likely be applied to other instruments).

For another app that is trying to tap into the iPhone’s network effect, check out Chess With Friends, which we covered yesterday.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 7 Nov 2008 | 9:37 pm

Microsoft CEO: No interest in buying Yahoo (AP)

AP - Yahoo Inc. shares dived nearly 13 percent after the chief executive of Microsoft Corp. said Friday the software giant is not interested in renewing its bid for the struggling Internet company.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 7 Nov 2008 | 9:30 pm

Four Google Officials Facing Charges in Italy For Errant Video

mikesd81 writes to tell us that four Google employees may be facing charges of defamation and failure to control personal data simply because they didn't remove a video of a boy with Down's Syndrome being harassed and eventually hit over the head with a box of tissue, from Google Video. The video was posted in September of 2006 and was removed by Google within a day of receiving the initial complaints, but apparently that isn't fast enough. "Google maintains charges against the employees are unwarranted, Pancini said. Europe's E-commerce Directive exempts service providers from prescreening content before it is publicly posted, he said. Also, the video was technically uploaded to a Google server in the U.S., not in Italy, Pancini said. 'It was a terrible video,' Pancini said, adding that Google is concerned about the case's impact on censorship on the Internet. The defendants include David C. Drummond, a Google senior vice president, corporate development and chief legal officer. Pancini said Drummond did paperwork to create Google Italy, but has never lived in the country."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 7 Nov 2008 | 9:28 pm

Making Money On MySpace: Payments and Virtual Gifts Coming Soon

In the platform wars between Facebook on the one side and MySpace, Google, and the whole OpenSocial crew on the other, the side that makes it easier for application developers to make the most money will win. Advertising in social networks has always been problematic, and with an advertising recession upon us those already-low ad rates are going to get lower, not higher. The other way to make money on these platforms is to try to charge for apps themselves or sell things through the apps. But to do that developers first need a payment and billing system to tap into.

Less than an hour ago, MySpace COO Amit Kapur revealed at the Web 2.0 Summit that MySpace is working on its own payments and virtual gift products that MySpace developers will be able to add to their own apps.

Facebook has its own virtual gifts, but has not yet opened that to developers. (Although there is a gift economy inside Facebook powered by other companies). And Facebook has been rumored to be working on a payments system since forever.

iPhone’s App Store has proven that, at least on mobile phones, people are willing to pay for apps. Bringing that model to social networks could work if the quality of the apps goes up and the number goes down. One problem with Facebook and MySpace apps is that there are too many of them. there are no barriers to entry. Charging for apps, or trying to sell add-on services through them, would force the startups and developers creating them to build something that people are actually willing to pay for.

And it is not just the developers who are in a sudden rush to figure out how they are going to make money. Facebook and MySpace are also under more pressure to ramp up revenues these days.

The challenge to switching over to such a model from the current free-for-all is that the value of many of these apps is directly correlated with how many people use them. (More specifically, with how many of your friends use them). The minute someone charges for an app, the adoption rate goes way down. So some aspect of most of these apps will likely always be free. But the ability to charge for extras or for a more fully-featured experience might actually result in better apps being produced.

In any case, the race is on to provide alternative revenue streams besides ads to app developers. Will MySpace beat Facebook to the payments party?

(Photo by Paul Falardeau).

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

Source: TechCrunch | 7 Nov 2008 | 9:27 pm

OpenID Is Here. Too Bad Users Can't Figure Out How it Works

The tipping point for the OpenID login standard is fast approaching, but it's still too confusing for mass acceptance. The web's biggest players -- Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, MySpace and Facebook -- are racing to solve OpenID's usability problem.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 7 Nov 2008 | 9:00 pm

LG Lotus: clamshell QWERTY phone anyone?

Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Email / IM, Mobile

So RIM said they couldn’t put together a BlackBerry Flip with a full QWERTY keyboard.  LG said, “We can.”

Take a look at the LG Lotus that will be available on the Sprint network.  It’s a flip phone with a full QWERTY keyboard and an odd square form factor. 

What else does it do outside of being a texting machine?  The Lotus comes with GPS navigation, music player (which works with the Sprint Music Store), Bluetooth, and a 2.0MP camera that also does video.  LG claims over 5 hours of talk time and the phone weighs in at 3.7 ounces.

You can pick one up in black or purple at $149.99 if you grab it alongside a ball and chain two year contract. 

Flashy product page: [LG Lotus]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 7 Nov 2008 | 8:48 pm

Toshiba Launches Laptop With Three GPUs

arcticstoat writes to mention that Toshiba's latest line of high-powered laptops has three GPUs included. Both the Qosmio X305-Q706 and Q708 come with an integrated GeForce 9400M for day-to-day processing tasks but have a pair of GeForce 9800Ms in SLI that kick in when you need the extra horsepower. "The [Qosmio] X305-Q706 costs $1,999 US (£1,257) in the US, although we haven't seen any UK pricing on the laptops yet. The system comes with a 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo P8400 and 4GB of RAM, while the costlier X305-Q708 comes with a quad-core 2.53GHz Core 2 Extreme QX9300 CPU."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 7 Nov 2008 | 8:44 pm

Sprint Reports Third Quarter Losses, Customer Defections

Shares of Sprint Nextel slumped on Friday after reports showed the company had lost 1.3 million subscribers during the third quarter. Chief executive Dan Hesse acknowledged that Sprint faces the tough task of attracting new customers during the holiday season.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 7 Nov 2008 | 8:40 pm

The Platforms: Google, Microsoft, Facebook And MySpace

Slide founder Max Levchin just kicked off a panel called “The Platform Advantage” at the Web 2.0 Summit. Participants include Google’s Vic Gundotra, Microsoft’s David Treadwell, MySpace’s Amit Kapur and Facebook’s Elliot Schrage.

The panel began with a general debate on exactly what a platform is, and how each of the companies play in the space. Kapur says a platform has to create an ecosystem that includes a core base of users, tools to build applications, and an advertising network to monetize the platform. Kapur also let’s something slip - saying that MySpace will soon release a payments platform and a virtual goods platform.

Schrage says the Facebook platform is a place for users to interact, and for developers to take advantage of that social utility.

Treadwell, from Microsoft, is talking about open standards and advanced tools that let developers easily create applications. He highlights the iPhone platform as a great example.

Levchin says that everyone is talking about openness, but in reality every one of the platforms represented on stage are closed to some degree.

Gundotra says you have to disambiguate the term. Schrage focuses on the results - that developers can get far more traffic and engagement on Facebook than they can on their independent web applications.

Kapur says the most important thing is to build developer trust by having clear rules and guidelines - a clear slap at Facebook and their constantly evolving policies that tend to anger developers. Levchin (who runs one of the companies that has been in the middle of the Facebook politics) agrees, and notes that Microsoft’s Windows platform has done a good job over the years with consistency and backwards compatibility.

Schrage weighs in on Facebook’s behalf and distinguishes between technical and policy issues. He says on policy its important to be transparent and tell developers what’s coming. He says Facebook has sometimes failed to communicate changes to their platform and it’s something they’re still working on. He says over 400,000 developers have signed up to Facebook Platform, and they’ve had to scramble to scale. He also highlights the importance of community, and creating opportunities for developers to work with each other.

Gundotra (Google) says Facebook and MySpace aren’t true platforms but are extensible applications, similar to Office in the Windows world. He says the web is the important platform that we are all developing for. Open Social, Gundotra says, is an attempt to focus on the web as the platform.

Schrage says open standards are great, but they take too long to emerge. Experimentation with proprietary formats in the meantime is the right thing to do, he says.

Levchin brings up the next topic, asking how the platforms react to developers that start to make too much money by competing with them (again a slap at Facebook). Kapur says MySpace won’t break developer trust by competing with them.

Gundotra says it’s a recipe for disaster to have a single company control the platform. Innovation slows to a release every five years (referring to Windows). Using the open web allows fast innovation, and no one controls the platform.

Gundotra says “It’s Windows v. the web. And the web has won.”

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

Source: TechCrunch | 7 Nov 2008 | 8:36 pm

FriendFeed Over IM: Kill Me Now

For those of you who use FriendFeed and are looking for even more information bombardment in your lives, you can now receive every update via instant message. FriendFeed now supports notifications and posting for Google Talk and Jabber. So if it is not enough for you to visit the site 12 times a day, or keep updated via a desktop client, or get your feed in your e-mail, you can now turn on the information spigot even more.

FriendFeed ultimately is a communication platform, so adding IM was inevitable. But please kill me now. Just the thought of getting a ping every 30 seconds when anyone I follow on FriendFeed decides to Twitter, blog, add a photo to Flickr, share something on Google Reader, or any of the dozens of other actions across the Web FriendFeed monitors is overwhelming. I need less noise in my life, not more noise.

Luckily, the IM features has some settings that allow you to control what sorts of messages you want to receive through that channel. For instance, you can set it so that you only get IMed when someone comments on one of your posts. I’m sure this will become a very popular feature. (FriendFeed also recently started adding maps into the feed whenever geo-data is available, which is very cool but you need to go to the site to see it—another reason not to go the IM route).

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

Source: TechCrunch | 7 Nov 2008 | 8:36 pm

How Apple wins the smartphone game: By ignoring the marginal customer

According to the 2008 "Business Wireless Smartphone Customer Satisfaction Study" by J.D. Power & Associates, Apple's iPhone — a smartphone with no turn-by-turn directions, copy-and-paste, physical QWERTY keyboard, user-installable programs, expandable flash memory, or removable battery — rates a perfect five-out-of-five in the "Features" category, winning out over HTC, Motorola, Palm, RIM, and Samsung.

There's only way to interpret that data: for iPhone owners, Apple has provided every feature that matters, even if that means leaving some features out. Obvious at first, it becomes something more when you ask the follow up: why are phones with more features perceived by their users as still having the wrong features? (Or worse, not enough features?)

Restraint, I believe it's called. Or perhaps focus.

(Let the grousing in the comments commence!)

Smartphone Customer Satisfaction Survey [JDPower.com via Apple Insider]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 7 Nov 2008 | 8:32 pm

Webster iPhone App Exorbitantly Priced at $60

Merriam Webster pontificates that its dictionary should be appraised an exorbitant amount in the iPhone App Store.

The unabridged dictionary, of the international variant, contains 476,000 entries, 143,000 etymologies, 100,000 quotations and 1,100 synonymy paragraphs. All for the bargain-basement rate of $60.

Possess the desire to engage in haughty discourse and condescend your peers with superfluously large words? Download the app at the App Store or via iTunes.   

Image: Brian X. Chen/Wired.com

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 7 Nov 2008 | 8:22 pm

Gadget Lab Podcast #53: The Top Five Useless Gadgets and Election Day Holograms

In this week's Wired Gadget Lab Podcast, Brian Chen, Priya Ganapati, and I go over the most useless gadgets that people still use regularly, like the trusty printer. We argue the reasons why these fogy gadgets can't hack it anymore and why they may only be useful in a limited, niche context.

In addition, we will discuss what the future has in store for phone interfaces (like precise voice recognition technology), and explain why the FCC has opened up the static spectrum.

Finally, we'll talk about the best TV tech from the Election Day broadcasts, including CNN's faux holograms and NBC's Virtual Reality 3D rooms.

Thank you for listening to the podcast. Please remember, if the embedded player above doesn't work, you can download the Gadget Lab podcast MP3 file.

Use iTunes? Subscribe to the Gadget Lab Audio Podcast in iTunes.

Like this podcast? Check out the Gadget Lab Video Podcast. It's got hands-on video reviews of the latest hot products and gadgets from the world of consumer electronics and beyond.

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 7 Nov 2008 | 8:19 pm

Sprint: Tourniquet, Please… [Digital Daily]

Discussing the latest in Sprint Nextel’s sad little parade of earnings announcements with analysts this morning, CEO Dan Hesse said the company has “yet to turn the corner” on the road to recovery.

Looking over the company’s financials today, I’d say the corner to which he refers isn’t even in sight yet. If anything, Sprint (S) appears to be heading down one of those bleak midwestern straightaways–in this case, jammed with the traffic of its fleeing subscribers. In its third quarter, Sprint Nextel failed to even meet Wall Street’s much diminished expectations. It reported an operating loss of $326 million, pushing its net losses to more than $1.1 billion for the year.

Worse, the company said it lost 1.3 million customers in the third quarter. And that is truly ugly news for Sprint, which has been hemorrhaging subscribers like Dan Ackroyd’s desanguinating Julia Child. In the past two years, the carrier has lost almost four million customers. And try as it might to reverse that trend, it seems destined only to shed more. Being ranked as the carrier with the lowest customer satisfaction in a survey by J.D. Power & Associates isn’t exactly going to send new subscribers flocking to Sprint.

“Sprint, at this point, is clearly a show-me story, and I’d like to see tangible evidence that the company is successfully executing,” Stanford Group analyst Michael Nelson told Bloomberg. “We’re not willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.”

Shares of Sprint are plumbing the lower depths at $3.30 as I write this, down 10.33 percent.

Source: All Things Digital | 7 Nov 2008 | 8:15 pm

California Milk Advisory Board Embarks on China Trade Mission

The California Milk Advisory Board (CMAB) announced today that on November 8, key board members, members of the executive team and several partners will travel to China to participate in an organized trade mission.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 7 Nov 2008 | 8:00 pm

Wetland Loss Hammers Lake Winnipeg and Manitoba's Environment

New research by Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) has identified that the continued loss of wetlands in Manitoba is increasing phosphorus loads into Lake Winnipeg equivalent to dumping 10 semi loads of commercial agricultural fertilizer or 544,000 bags of lawn fertilizer directly into the lake every year.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 7 Nov 2008 | 8:00 pm

SevOne Named to Network World's '10 IT Management Start-Ups to Watch'

SevOne, Inc., an innovator in network and application performance management tools and solutions, today announced that it has been named to Network World magazine's prestigious top 10 List of IT Management Start-Ups to Watch for 2008.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 7 Nov 2008 | 8:00 pm

Top Business Media Firm Launches New Online Presence

Hanley Wood, LLC, the leading media company in the residential- and commercial-construction industries, debuts a new online corporate presence that brings timely news and information from its more than 30 branded publication sites to a central industry resource.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 7 Nov 2008 | 8:00 pm

Juniper Networks, Inc. Announces the Dates and Webcast Information for Upcoming Investor Conferences

Juniper Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:JNPR), the leader in high-performance networking, today announced that the company will present at the following investor conferences: -- NASDAQ OMX Investor Conference, Dubai - Thursday, November 20, 2008 beginning at 12:55 a.m. EST.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 7 Nov 2008 | 8:00 pm

Lime Wire Introduces LimeWire 5.0

LimeWire 5.0 will soon be available in beta version, Kevin Bradshaw, Lime Wire's Chief Operating Officer, announced today. The program, which will redefine sharing as a social activity on the peer-to-peer network, will be available in beta version in late 2008.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 7 Nov 2008 | 8:00 pm

Yang and Ballmer Play Ross and Rachel–And It Is Just as Annoying as the TV Show [BoomTown]

Is it just me or does it feel like the whole odd public back- and-forth between Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is beginning to mimic the endless loop of the deeply annoying relationship between Ross Geller and Rachel Green on the long-running NBC television hit, “Friends”?

At least in their star-crossed hijinks, Ross and Rachel smooched from time to time in between the juvenile bickering (”We were on a break!”) and push-me-pull-you antics. And, mercifully for fans of the show, they got together in the very last episode.

But with Yang and Ballmer, it has been only juvenile bickering and push-me-pull-you antics 24/7, which is why BoomTown wishes they would just get a room.

A conference room to negotiate in, of course! (Get your minds out of the gutter!)

Instead, in the latest episode, it was Yang resorting to declaring in front of a ballroom full of Silicon Valley geeks at the Web 2.0 Summit on Wednesday: “To this day, I believe the best thing for Microsoft to do is to buy Yahoo.”

In a quick retort, from Australia of all places and on Yang’s 40th birthday, in fact, Ballmer bestowed this special gift back:

“Look, we made an offer, we made another offer. It was clear that Yahoo didn’t want to sell the business to us, and we moved on…We are not interested in going back and re-looking at an acquisition. I don’t know why they would be either, frankly.”

Shares of Yahoo (YHOO) have tanked almost 14 percent today after that, down $1.86 to $12.10.

Now, this kind of public display of nonaffection is not new for Ballmer, who previously raised and then tanked Yahoo’s stock price only two weeks ago, when he dangled the possibility that Microsoft might be interested in talking to Yahoo about a new search deal.

“There are probably still opportunities around search,” said Ballmer. “I think it would still make sense economically for their shareholders and ours.”

This cloddish phrasing by Ballmer was, no surprise, misconstrued by investors as full-scale interest in Yahoo, requiring a Microsoft (MSFT) spokesman to quickly enter the breach to clarify.

“Our position hasn’t changed. Microsoft has no interest in acquiring Yahoo; there are no discussions between the companies,” he said.

It’s astonishing that this is what passes for corporate behavior on both sides.

Aside from the silliness, because it still does make sense for the pair to be talking and forming some sort of strong relationship.

In my mind, the best idea was always the complex “Traffic Co.” deal that involved Microsoft buying a large piece of Yahoo, adding its lagging MSN assets in and taking over the entire search business of the entity.

As part of that configuration, the digital assets of a media giant like Time Warner (TWX) or News Corp. (NWS), which own AOL and MySpace respectively, could also be added in.

Thus, the “new” Yahoo would focus squarely on content and communications, which it would dominate across the Internet, keeping its display ad business. Meanwhile, Microsoft could then try to really turbocharge the search and search ad business and stop mucking around in arenas it had less talent in.

It’s a lot better than what’s going on right now, which helps neither company, both of which are clearly bumping along with a desperate need for clarity.

And, if they cannot come to some terms, Yahoo has to either move on and fix itself alone or complete its long-running merger talks with AOL or not (this pair is more like Sam and Diane on “Cheers”).

And Microsoft has to stop dithering and finally pick a digital head for its business (more on that next!), a search that is beginning to feel as if Amelia Earhart will be found sooner.

Or, like Ross and Rachel, Yang and Ballmer could just admit finally–despite all their differences over the last year–that they truly are meant for each other and get down to business.

Source: All Things Digital | 7 Nov 2008 | 7:56 pm

Ballmer confirms WinMo 6.5 is on the way for 2009

A few days ago, Motorola’s head of mobile slipped a mention of a previously unheard of Windows Mobile 6.5 into an interview with PC Mag. As could be expected, intertube dwellers began speculating immediately. Many chalked it up as a mistake, deciding it was either an accidental leak, or that he instead meant to say 6.1.

While the former may be true, Steve Ballmer has just dispelled the latter possibility. At the Telstra Briefing 2008 in Australia, Ballmer said:

With releases we’ll make this year - releases we’ll make with 6.5 next year, Windows Mobile 7, I think we have a pretty interesting roadmap.

While it looks like it’ll still be a while before we start seeing 6.5 handsets, that’s just about the most solid confirmation you can get short of a press release. Now that we know it’s real, we look forward to the speculation as to what it does to justify the extra four tenths of a version number.

[Phonescoop via Unwired View]

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 7 Nov 2008 | 7:49 pm

Temperature Changes Alter Turtle Nesting Dates

Turtles nesting along the Mississippi River and other areas are altering their nesting dates in response to rising temperatures, says a researcher from Iowa State University.Fred Janzen, a professor in ecology, evolution and organismal biology, has studied turtle nesting habits and also accumulated research going back decades in order to track the habits of the turtles to find out when they make nests and lay eggs."The results have been astonishing," says Janzen.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 7 Nov 2008 | 7:46 pm

Cocktail Chemistry Set

This "Cocktail Chemistry Set" is cute enough and just shy of $40, making it nearly cheap enough to merit a second look. But if you were willing to give up the custom bent-metal serving tray, you could order the flasks and beakers from some place like American Science & Surplus for considerably less.

And who drinks out of a test tube anyway? God didn't create scientists from the dust so they could sip out of something other than Klein bottles.

Cocktail Chemistry Set catalog page [Perpetual Kid via Uncrate]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 7 Nov 2008 | 7:44 pm

Sea Snakes Prefer To Drink Freshwater

Image Caption: A sea snake rests on rocks near at the shore of Orchid Island, Taiwan. A University of Florida zoologist has shown that the snake, a black-banded sea krait, and other sea snake species drink freshwater, contradicting the conventional view that they satisfy their drinking needs by sipping sea water. Harvey Lillywhite believes sea snakes seek out freshwater in springs, rivers or in the freshwater “lens” that develops briefly atop seawater shortly after it rains. (Leslie Babonis/UF Department of Zoology)
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 7 Nov 2008 | 7:40 pm

AT&T;becomes largest WiFi hotspot provider with Wayport acquisition

FROM APPLETELL - AT&T is dropping a whopping $275 million to buy out Wayport, an 11 year old wireless network provider that started out in hotel rooms and managed to branch its way into 10,000 McDonald’s locations worldwide.
MORE »

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 7 Nov 2008 | 7:35 pm

Sunlight Key Factor In Ocean Circulation

A study reported in yesterday's issue of Nature disputes a longstanding picture of how ice sheets influence ocean circulation during glacial periods.The distribution of sunlight, rather than the size of North American ice sheets, is the key variable in changes in the North Atlantic deep-water formation during the last four glacial cycles, according to the article.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 7 Nov 2008 | 7:35 pm

Windows 7 coming mid 2009

So there you go: Microsoft's promising Windows 7 by mid-2009, with pre-configured PCs hitting by the Holiday Season. That means summer will have two big OS releases on both side of the camp: Snow Leopard for Macheads and Windows 7 for PC users. Let's hope the close juxtaposition of releases doesn't make any one of them look the poorer (prediction: it will.)

Microsoft aims Windows 7 for 2009 holiday season [CNET]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 7 Nov 2008 | 7:34 pm

Icicle XLR-to-USB in-line interface from Blue Microphones

Blue Microphones has announced the "Icicle", a simple XLR-to-USB interface that sits inline between your PC and your traditional microphone. It works with dynamic or condenser mics equally well, has 48V phantom power, analog gain, and CD-quality (16-bit/44.1kHz) fidelitiy.

Easy peasy — and while a bit pricey, I'd rather have this than a dedicated USB microphone, especially since older XLR mics of high quality are widely available used. It's going to be sixty bucks and launch before Christmas.

Icicle adds USB compatibility to any XLR microphone [MusicRadar.com via Engadget]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 7 Nov 2008 | 7:31 pm

Sea Voyage To Reveal Clues To Ancient Migration

Epic voyage to discover the origins and migration routes of the ancestors of ancient Polynesians and their animalsTwo Durham University scientists are to play a key part in a 6000km trip following the migration route of ancient Pacific cultures.Drs Keith Dobney and Greger Larson, both from the Department of Archaeology, will be joining the voyage, which will be the first ever expedition to sail in two traditional Polynesian boats - ethnic double canoes - which attempts to re-trace the genuine migration route of the ancient Austronesians.The main aim of the voyage is to find out where the ancestors of Polynesian culture originated but the Durham University researchers will also be examining the local wildlife.Dr Larson will be joining the expedition as it sets off from the Southern Philippines in late October, and Dr Dobney will join it in February with another researcher linked with the University, Prof Atholl Anderson, when it leaves the southern Solomon islands en-route into the Pacific.They will be furthering their own research work along their way, taking hundreds of samples from animals such as dogs, cats, chickens and pigs to use in their ongoing investigations into the origin of these important farmyard animals which the ancient Polynesians carried with them into the remote Pacific.Work by Drs Larson and Dobney - which probes the genetic make-up of domestic and commensal species linked with human migration - has gained international media attention.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 7 Nov 2008 | 7:30 pm

"Buttonless" Xbox 360 controller mod isn't really

The Xbox 360 controller's already pretty great for FPS gaming as long as you can get over your mouse and keyboard indoctrination, but one modder has removed all the face buttons from the front of his 360 controller, instead shifting them to the back, in a curiously specific operation somewhat similar to surgically shifting your girlfriend's breasts to her back for better dancing.

I'm not entirely convinced: where's the D-pad, which is usually used by shooters for things like hotkeys and weapon selection? And I can't get over the fact that the default 360 pad works just fine. If there was one thing I'd change about it? The upper shoulder buttons are practically impossible to click simultaneously with the lower triggers, which means I can't shoot properly in GTA IV while driving, which means I suck. Grr. Get on that, Microsoft.

Buttonless 360 Controller [Acidmods via Gizmodo]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 7 Nov 2008 | 7:25 pm

The Internet As A Force In Politics: “Obama Would Not Have Won Without The Internet”

New York Magazine’s John Heilemann is leading a panel at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco this morning on “The Web and Politics.” Joining him is San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, Arianna Huffington and Joe Trippi.

The session jumped right off with Heilemann saying the Internet played a disruptive role in the 2008 election in the same way television played a disruptive role in the 1960 election of John F. Kennedy to president. Neither medium was new in the respective elections, but both “came of age” and swung the election towards the winning candidate. Kennedy, in particular, used television ads extensively in his campaign to reach the American voters directly, and embraced simple things like makeup:

The televised debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon was probably the most decisive event for the election of 1960. The growth of TV as a new medium, and declined use of radio marked a significant change in how campaigns are ran today. For the TV appearence, Nixon refused to wear make-up and therefore appeared unshaven, tired and sweaty under the lights. Kennedy, however, did wear the make-up and so appeared cooler and more composed than Nixon. Kennedy, before the debate, returned tan and attractive from vacation. Not only did Kennedy appear to be better groomed, and handsome, his suit was navy popping off the grey back drop. Nixon’s suit was grey, blending in to the curtain behind him. With these factors combined, Among TV viewers agreed, Kennedy won the debate. Richard Nixon’s deep, strong, radio appealing voice won over all radio listeners, they agreed Nixon won the debate. Nixon entered the race ahead of Kennedy. Television as a new medium changed presidential elections from this point on, marking the election of 1960 significant. Radio voice failed to prevail over now “candidate centered” television campaigns.

Huffington says flat out that if it wasn’t for the Internet, Obama would not be president. Trippi notes that Obama’s YouTube spots gathered an aggregate of 14.5 million viewing hours. The Internet was used by candidate previously, he said, noting the Howard Dean campaign, but Obama really leveraged it fully with online video, blogging, social networking and fundraising.

The panelists also note how mainstream media tends to fail in politics, simply reporting on what each candidate says without saying who’s right or wrong. The blogosphere, they say (particularly Trippi and Huffington), tends to call out factual inaccuracies better than mainstream media.

Howard Dean showed that the Internet could be used to raise lots of money online, say the panelists. But Newsom says social networking is significantly more powerful and allows for the creation of much more meaningful connections between the candidate and voters. “I’m addicted to Facebook,” he said.

Newsom also notes that “every single thing a candidate says, and how he says it,” is available online for people to review and judge. And he questions whether candidates today are more authentic or less authentic now that they have to be “on” all the time.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 7 Nov 2008 | 7:21 pm

Al Gore Urges Obama To Move Swiftly On Energy

Former Vice President Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection unveiled a new media campaign on Thursday that advocates immediate investment in three energy areas:  renewable resources, energy efficiency and the creation of a unified U.S.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 7 Nov 2008 | 7:20 pm

Project: Using a Bird-Watching Digital Camera To Observe Street Alley

Starting today, I've decided to become an ornithologist -- a bird watcher.

Oh, but not just any bird watcher, mind you, but a gadgety one. I will be using Wingscapes' motion activated Birdcam to look at the oddest type of bird there is: San Francisco residents.

"I think it's the perfect way to see street wildlife in its natural habitat," said Associate Editor Joe Brown, after suggesting we could probably end up seeing a few 'deals' being made in the alley across the street. I never see any businessmen shaking hands there but I take him at his word. There does seem to be activity there as I write this.

The Wingscape camera is a new weatherproof digicam that captures bird photos and videos. It uses an infrared sensor (that means dangerous lasers!) to detect bird motion and then it automatically picks up bird pictures or videos. It comes with 32 MB of built-in memory, and can take an 4 extra GB with an SD card. It records AVI video at a resolution of 640 x 480 (10 sec at 10 fps).

This set-up is best used for close-ups for the birds, but our initial tests have found that it can safely record across the street. 

I'm not the only one who has taken a gadget made for something else and then co-opted it for a more unusual or industrious application as this one. For example, the mighty telescope was made to explore the stars, but instead, it's been used for  . . . covert operations and such. Same thing for the long-range cameras. But they've always been used for good, right? So there's nothing to worry about.

I'm going to leave the Wingscape dangling in place for the next few days. I'll write a follow up describing the results (and will probably also get around to using it on actual feathery birds) and let people know about how to best use it.

Somehow, I don't think that the readers of this blog will manage to disrupt the experiment by placing themselves in the street frame of the camera and act ridiculously. Right? Because we wouldn't want that. 

After the jump, you can check out a picture of the street alley where the camera is currently pointing.

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 7 Nov 2008 | 6:55 pm

Apple iPhone Making Inroads Into Corporate Market

Despite claims that most companies are unwilling to abandon their trusted Blackberries, analysts say a small but growing grassroots movement is afoot as Apple Inc.’s iPhone appears to be making steady inroads into the U.S.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 7 Nov 2008 | 6:53 pm

Google sends out Android update RC30 - blocks ‘jailbreak’

While a significant chunk of G1 owners still await the RC29 update that started rolling out a few days ago, Google has already queued up another one. While people generally welcome updates with open arms, this ones got a few folks upset.

Last week, an eagle-eyed tinkerer realized that you could gain root access to the G1 by using telnetd, essentially “jailbreaking” it. Now, this isn’t jailbreaking in the “install just about whatever you want” sense most iPhone owners would think of — the G1 already does that. Instead, it gives you full admin abilities down to the very core of the handset’s filesystem. While this allows for modifications both beneficial and malicious, Google has decided that the risks outweigh the benefits. With RC30, root access via telnetd is blocked.

Google’s word on the matter:

We’ve been notified of this issue (Jailbreaking of Android) and have developed a fix. We’re currently working with our partners to push the fix out and updating the open source code base to reflect these changes.

Root access via telnet was, by all means, a security flaw. While Android is completely opensource, the G1 is not - and this exploit allowed access to areas that HTC, T-Mobile, and Google didn’t intend to be open. However, as we’ve learned from the iPhone’s cat-and-mouse jailbreak history, there are some incredibly talented developers out there who really don’t like to be told what they can do with their devices. We’ll keep an eye out and see where this goes next.

[XDA via Giz]

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 7 Nov 2008 | 6:40 pm

Intel wants to outdo Android

Section: Communications, Smartphones, Computers, Mobile Computers, Hardware, Gadgets / Other, GPS/Navigation, Web, Google

In the video, you’ll see Intel CEO Paul Otellini demoing an unnamed mobile internet device.  This time, Intel shows a device that is 100% touchscreen and has GPS, a camera and connectivity on board.  Watching the video, the first thing that came to my mind is Google phone OS Android.

That is because the demo was about the MID smart camera.  Using the camera, the device is able to translate Chinese very quickly and is able to add relevant YouTube videos, web pages and more all based on your GPS position and what the camera identifies.  The concept is you get all the information you desire, when you need it, where you need it.

In the next demo, the same device is used while shopping for toys.  The camera identifies the toy from the packaging and shows examples of what the pieces of the toy can be assembled into.  Relevant videos and websites are offered as are links to reviews and presumably a pricing comparison.  Cool stuff.

Unfortunately, at the end of the video, Otellini fesses up that there are computers behind the stage helping out with computing power but insists their engineers are working hard on solutions.  Certainly the concept is interesting and it is best always best to swing for the fences.

What is clear is that MIDs are going to become more sophisticated and connected, offering to help out at every turn.  Can the added value convince us to carry two devices (presumably a cell phone and MID)?  Or will we find a compromise with convergence and step out with just one.  Which brings us back to Android.  This concept isn’t too far off of a mashup of a couple of Android apps. 

The OS Android currently has two apps that do very similar things.  Wikitude uses the camera to identify your surroundings, then offers up information from Wikipedia based on what the camera sees.  ShopSavvy is the Android app that brings us scanning through the camera to access pricing, reviews etc.  Combine both and you are dangerously close to having the same power Intel dangles for us (albeit in a more limited fashion) on your phone. 

Watch the video and let us know if you think Intel is late to the game or bringing fresh ideas in the comments below.

Read [ZDNet]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 7 Nov 2008 | 6:39 pm

Warming Trend Is Steepest in 5,000 Years

The current warming trend is unmatched in the time since human civilization began.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 7 Nov 2008 | 6:19 pm

Electric bullet train coming to California

While Californians were protecting gay people from the horror of marriage on Tuesday, they were not afraid to send miles of high-speed bullet trains screaming through of the loins of the state. With the passing of Proposition 1A a bond will be issued to fund part of the development of the 220MPH electric train that will connect Sacramento to San Diego (with a little fork to reach San Francisco). Despite the $45 billion price tag, it is generally thought that the California High-Speed Rail Authority's program will be cheaper overall than a similar capacity expansion of the state's freeway system.

Plus, you know, bullet trains are nifty. And easier on the environment than cars or planes.

It's unclear when the first routes would start operating, but we're obviously several years away from seeing the system fully in place. The Authority is aiming to carry 100 million passengers a year by 2030.

California High Speed Rail Authority info page [cahighspeedrail.ca.gov]
Rail lines on Google Maps

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 7 Nov 2008 | 6:08 pm

Blockbuster: Shares Pressured by Financing Issues [Voices]

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

Blockbuster (BBI) shares this morning are selling off sharply on concerns about the company’s significant financing needs in the year ahead.

On the retailer’s post-earnings conference call last night, CFO Thomas Casey noted that Blockbuster has a $28 million term loan and a revolving credit facility coming due in August 2009. The company said it had been planning to put another bank credit facility in place early next year, but that “the current state of the banking and overall credit environment certainly muddies the outlook for that event.”

The company said it has an alternative plan to self-fund its business through 2009, which would “temporarily reduce our spending and maximize our cash flow.”

Read the rest of this post

Source: All Things Digital | 7 Nov 2008 | 6:07 pm

Video: The DSi comes with a built-in budgerigar, of course

I have been a noted critic of Nintendo's lackluster DS Lite update, the DSi, but that was before I discovered that the built-in music and sound app comes replete with a virtual parakeet who will intermittently chirp and tweet back your own voice as you idle upon the menu. Now I want one.

Although it must be mentioned that Humbert was not fooled, responding to the video only with a theatrical yawn and then the sudden evacuation of his bowels. On the other hand, this video? Drove him absolutely bazonkers.

(Thanks, Brandon!)

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 7 Nov 2008 | 5:50 pm

Study: iPhones Twice As Reliable As BlackBerries

The iPhone is twice as reliable as the Blackberry after one year of ownership, a new study by SquareTrade finds. SquareTrade, which sells extra warranties for cell phones and other devices, looked at the failure rates of 15,000 phones covered under its plans. The malfunction rate for iPhones after one year is 5.6 percent, compared to 11.2 percent for the Blackberry and 16.2 percent for the Treo.

The study projects that the failure rate for the iPhone after two years will be between 9.2 and 11.3 percent, compared to actual two-year failure rates of 14.3 percent for BlackBerries and 21.0 percent for Treos.

Surprisingly, battery problems is less of an issue for the iPhone than for the other two brands. Less than 0.5 percent of iPhone malfunctions are due to the battery dying, compared to about one percent for the BlackBerry and iPhone. The iPhone also has fewer call quality problems than the other two. The biggest problem for all three phones are malfunctions involving the touch screen or keyboard. For the iPhone in particular, this is an area that needs work. According to the study, “one third of all reported iPhone problems were screen-related.” Many of these were dead spots in the older 2G phones, but the 3G phones have their own screen issues.

The most likely cause of an iPhone’s demise, however, is an accident. A full 12 percent of iPhone failures are because the owner dropped it, spilled coffee on it, or otherwise stopped treating it like the delicate computer that it is. That compares to a 9 percent failure rate due to accidents for all other phones, and is twice as high as the failure rate due to defects.

The study is embedded below:

Reliability Study: iPhone Vs. Blackberry Vs. Treo - Get more Information Technology

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 7 Nov 2008 | 5:46 pm

MySpace To Create Digital Music Player?

MySpace, the incredibly trendy online social network possessed by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, may expand its popularity by creating a digital music player in the near future, possibly competing against Apple Inc's successful iPod.However, there are no current plans to craft or market such a device, MySpace co-founder and Chief Executive Chris DeWolfe on Thursday."It's possible" that MySpace, which of late instigated a music joint venture with key music labels, may sooner or later manufacture a device for listening to music, DeWolfe said."Right now, we're just focusing on the service," DeWolfe said at the Web 2.0 summit, located in San Francisco.MySpace, the leading online social networking site, started MySpace Music in September, endeavoring to become the decisive site for music fans.The combined venture between MySpace and key music labels like Sony BMG Music, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group allows people to access a large range of music services, like streaming, music and ringtone downloads, videos, ticketing and merchandising.McDonald's, Sony Pictures, Toyota and State Farm are advertise on the site."We wanted to come up with a program that meets the needs of music companies and artists, by definition, and users," DeWolfe said.People streamed music about 1 billion times in the early days of the new venture and have fashioned 80 million playlists, DeWolfe said.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 7 Nov 2008 | 5:25 pm

Virtual Wrestling Games Bring New Features To Gamers

The newest installment of virtual wrestling video games is set to be released this week with THQ’s "WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009", and the game offers users more creative control than ever before.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 7 Nov 2008 | 5:19 pm

Raise Sink the Yangtanic [Digital Daily]

To this day, I believe the best thing for Microsoft to do is to buy Yahoo.”

– Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang, yesterday

Shares of Yahoo are slipping deep into the mud today after Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer very publicly dismissed suggestions that the company might “revisit a possible acquisition” of the much diminished Internet portal. Yahoo (YHOO) is trading at well below $12–$11.86–as I write this, having plummeted nearly 15 percent on Ballmer’s remarks.

What an ugly, ugly day for Yahoo and its leadership. At $11.86, the company is, once again, trading at well below replacement value. And to think, Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang once claimed Microsoft’s (MSFT) $31-per-share offer for his company “massively undervalued” it.

To this day, I believe the best thing for Microsoft to do is to buy Yahoo.

Sure, you say that now Jerry …

Source: All Things Digital | 7 Nov 2008 | 5:15 pm

Microsoft No Longer Interested In Yahoo Deal

Microsoft's chief executive announced Friday that the software giant is not planning to renew its bid for struggling search engine company Yahoo. "We made an offer, we made another offer ...
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 7 Nov 2008 | 5:15 pm

Small, Flexible Solar Cells May Bring New Energy Opportunities

Scientists have reported the development of tiny solar cells that are only a quarter of the size of a grain of white rice.The team of researchers, led by Xiaomei Jiang of the University of South Florida, foresee the solar cells may be used as a coating on a variety of surfaces, including clothing.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 7 Nov 2008 | 5:10 pm

Research and Markets: Global Wireless Broadband Bluetooth & UWB Report Highlights the Latest Developments in the Industry

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/904ba1/global_wireless) has announced the addition of the "Global - Wireless Broadband - Bluetooth & UWB" report to their offering.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 7 Nov 2008 | 5:00 pm

Arch Chemicals, Inc. Declares Quarterly Dividend

The Arch Chemicals, Inc. Board of Directors on November 7, 2008 declared a quarterly dividend of 20-cents on each share of Arch Chemicals (NYSE:ARJ) common stock. The dividend is payable on December 15, 2008 to shareholders of record at the close of business on November 19, 2008.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 7 Nov 2008 | 5:00 pm

Research on Water Supply and Water Treatment Market in China, 2008 Available Now

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/67b15d/research_on_water) has announced the addition of the "Research on Water Supply and Water Treatment Market in China, 2008" report to their offering.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 7 Nov 2008 | 5:00 pm

The Future of Mobile Phones according to Ericsson

The vision of mobile phones according to Ericsson: by 2012, we'll all be packing HD video capable camera phones with 1GHz CPUs, 20 megapixel still shots and Internet connections at over 100 Mbps. It's a strange mishmash between the mundanely plausible and a Yellow Submarine style Lucy trip. But prove me wrong on the 100 Mbps Internet, Ericsson!

Erisson sees the future of cell phones [via Crunchgear]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 7 Nov 2008 | 4:33 pm

Report: Crackberry Addiction More Prevalent Than iPhonia Nervosa Among Handset Users [Digital Daily]

Apple beat RIM. In their most recent quarter, Research in Motion, or RIM, reported selling 6.1 million BlackBerry devices. Compared to our most recent quarter sales of 6.9 million iPhones, Apple outsold RIM last quarter and this is a milestone for us. RIM is a good company that makes good products and so it is surprising that after only 15 months in the market, we could outsell them in any quarter. But even more remarkable is this–measured by revenues, Apple has become the world’s third largest mobile phone supplier. I know this sounds crazy, but it’s true–as measured in revenues, not units, Apple has become the third largest mobile phone supplier.”

– Apple CEO Steve Jobs, Oct. 21, 2008

You can stop gloating now, Steve.

Though Apple shipped more iPhones this summer than RIM shipped Blackberries, its share of the U.S. market still is still dwarfed by its Canadian rival. According to Strategy Analytics, Apple (AAPL) accounted for just 5.7 percent of the mobile phone market in the states in the third quarter, while Research in Motion claimed nearly twice as much–10.2 percent. That places it sixth in the research outfit’s ranking, two spots below RIM (RIM). Quite an achievement for a company with a single handset in a market ruled by the likes of Samsung, which has just overtaken Motorola as the leading mobile phone supplier in the states. Samsung claimed 22.4 percent of U.S. sales in Q3, up from 17.9 percent a year earlier. Meanwhile, Motorola’s (MOT) share dropped to 21.1 percent from 32.7 percent year-over-year.

Said analyst Bonny Joy, “Samsung’s growing retail presence and an attractive high-tier handset portfolio for all of the big four operators have proved crucial in grabbing the prestigious title of the No. 1 vendor in the world’s single largest handset market.”

Source: All Things Digital | 7 Nov 2008 | 4:33 pm

Computerized Leg Device to Help Elderly Walk

Honda develops a device that makes it easier for people to walk and climb.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 7 Nov 2008 | 4:23 pm

Killer Whales Are Discriminating Diners

Like picky sushi chefs, killer whales go to great lengths to find their favorite fish.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 7 Nov 2008 | 4:19 pm

Disney: Online Ads Have Been Softening for a While [MediaMemo]

Walt Disney CFO Tom Staggs tells PaidContent that the company’s digital revenues didn’t get to the $1 billion goal the Mouse House was hoping for. Revenue was $930 million, which is “slightly less than we might have hoped coming into the year,” he says.

Like most other big media companies, digital is much more important strategically than it is financially for Disney (DIS), so the shortfall didn’t have an impact on its earnings report yesterday. And Disney has much bigger problems to worry about, like the fact that people are much less willing to book trips to Orlando than they were earlier in year.

Still, it’s worth noting that Staggs blames the shortfall on Web advertising softness, and he makes an interesting point in passing–Disney started seeing a problem with Web ads earlier than most big media companies have publicly acknowledged so far. From Staci Kramer’s interview:

Asked about online advertising in that context, Staggs said: ‘Online advertising actually started to soften a little bit earlier than some of the other media outlets; not quite as early as local but not long thereafter. … It hasn’t necessarily softened as deeply but there’s the same sort of trend you’re seeing in other advertising areas.’ He attributes it to some advertisers questioning the efficacy of online advertising.”

Depending on whom you listen to, the local advertising market started falling off in late winter/early spring. So let’s say, for argument’s sake, that Disney noticed the softness in, say May or June. Again, the online ad market isn’t material to Disney’s business, so it wouldn’t be required to flag investors about that. But it would have been nice for the rest of us who follow the market.

While we’re at it, we’d love to know more about these advertisers who are “questioning the efficacy of online advertising.” Tom? Anyone?

Source: All Things Digital | 7 Nov 2008 | 3:57 pm

NASA Patent Auction Aims at Ailing Economy

NASA auctions off licensing rights to patents and patent applications.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 7 Nov 2008 | 3:38 pm

Photoshop Interface rendered in real-world objects

This fantastic "real world" Photoshop window, made with actual objects, seems to have been made as an Adobe PhotoShop ad for the Indonesian market. There's also a good Flickr photoset that shows how they put it together.

Real-World Photoshop [John Nack via Charlie Sorrel]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 7 Nov 2008 | 3:02 pm

A Gallery of Motorcycle Watches

Although the page over at the National Association of Watch & Clock Collectors that houses these pictures of a miniature motorcycle made of watch parts contains no other information, I have it on good authority that it was, in fact, the velocipedic steed of one Mr. Ralph S. Mouse.

Watch Motorcycles [NAWCC via Hacked Gadgets]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 7 Nov 2008 | 2:48 pm

'Anti-Aging' Pill Makes Mice Mighty

The anti-aging chemical in red wine has met its pharmaceutical match.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 7 Nov 2008 | 2:44 pm

Avalanches Rumble on Mars at Spring

Spring time near the Martian poles is full of avalanches, as new images reveal.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 7 Nov 2008 | 2:44 pm

The future of cells phones by Ericsson

Ericsson has big plans for cell phones - big plans. Ultimately by the 2012, the company sees 100+ Mbps connection with 12-20MP cameras as you can see by the chart above. Plus, your lowly phone will be able to record HD video and sport a 1GHz CPU. So in less than four years all this is suppose to happen, Ericsson? M’kay. The megapixal camera is within reason, and even the HD video part doesn’t seem that wacky within four years, but while Euro snobs and Japanese tech geeks might see the fast data speeds, chances are we here in the States will not see those quick speeds before flying cars.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 7 Nov 2008 | 1:45 pm

Lovely Paul Smith Lomo is Wasted on Film

If only Lomo made a digital camera. I'm so over film (unlike some people) that I'd never bother with an analog picture-box, but damn, look at this limited edition, Paul Smith designed model. It's gorgeous.

The Paul Smith Fisheye No2 looks to be a whole new model rather than the usual stripe-adding custom job Smith usually goes in for. It has a metal body, a fisheye lens with a 180º view, a matching fisheye viewfinder and a rather cool-looking, bulbous detachable flash which supplements the built-in strobe. And of course, the stripes.

Surprisingly, the camera is pretty cheap, despite its designer label. At $150, it compares well to the flagship Lomo LC-A+, which is listed at the Lomo Store for $250. If only it took an SD card instead of a roll of 35mm film. Sigh.

Product page [Paul Smith via the Giz]

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 7 Nov 2008 | 1:30 pm

Hands On: iPhone Note Taking Apps Improve, But Still Not Ready

Barely two weeks ago, we bemoaned the state of note taking applications on the iPhone, not least of which was Apple's own Notes application. The reason? While some of them show promise, and some are downright awesome in either their iPhone or desktop guises, none of them managed one thing: true, two-way synchronization of notes between a computer and an iPhone.

Some got around this by having a web component for either the phone or the PC, but we didn't find anything which would keep a local, offline copy on both devices. In the last two weeks, though, two of those applications have been updated to offer just his.

Evernote is an amazing little app, with clients for Mac, PC, iPhone and other mobile devices. There is also web access. Evernote's standout feature is its text recognition in photographs -- you snap a picture of a business card or scribbled recipe (using your webcam, your iPhone's camera or just a photo from your hard drive) and it will perform an off-site OCR of the image. It also adds in location data, tags and all the other niceties you might like, but it is still easy to use.

Now, though, Evernote has offline storage on the iPhone. You take any note and mark it as a favorite, and from then on you don't need an internet connection to view it.

The downside is that you only get access to notes you have specifically marked. The advantage, though, is that you only get access to notes you have specifically marked, which works well, as you don't get your iPhone's flash memory stuffed full of non-essential items. So, is Evernote now the king of not taking iPhone apps? Still no, sadly. You can create a note on the iPhone, but you still can't edit it, rendering it useless as anything but a mobile reference.

The other update comes from the very slick NotePad, from Polar Bear Farm. We like this one because it has a very elegant, straightforward interface, with smart folders, full note search and even allows you to sort notes based on where you made them.

In fact, on the iPhone side, NotePad is almost perfect. The trouble came when you got to the computer. The execrable Sink application would clunkily gather notes from your iPhone, wirelessly, and allow you to read them. That was it. Yesterday, Polar Bear Farm pushed an update of both NotePad and Sink, and you can now create notes on your computer (Mac or PC) and sync in both directions.

But Sink still stinks. It's ugly, probably a symptom of its cross platform-ness, and offers none of the features of the iPhone application: no folders – smart or dumb – no search, no access to location data.

Worse, if you synchronize after making edits on the computer, those changes are lost if you don't save them first, and the only way to save is to switch to another note and wait for the prompt asking you if you'd like to save. If you skip straight to the sync screen, you get no such prompt. And if that sounds tortuous, it's because it is.

It's a real shame, as the developers can clearly do better -- the iPhone app is lovely, it looks great and is fast to use.

We also tried out a couple of new applications. SyncBook, suggested by Gadget Lab reader Mark P, has an interesting approach to local editing on the Mac. The notes are synced (easily) with the application, but actual editing is done in your default text editor. It sounds clunky, but you can sort and create notes in the SyncBook application and when you click on one, it opens it in, say, Text Edit. Hit save and you're done.

The notes are even stored in a folder on your hard drive in plain text format, which means you can drop text files created elsewhere into the folder and they will be synchronized. The iPhone part, though, isn't nearly as slick as that of NotePad.

Another couple of mentions. The excellent online to do list, Remember the Milk, now has a native iPhone application, and it works very well. It's more a list-maker than a note-taker, though, but if you're an RTM fan, you should check out the free trial.

Finally, Note*Spark is a a promising looking application, currently in beta, which I'm testing thanks to the kind folks at, well, Note*Spark. The iPhone-side keeps local copies of everything, but on the computer you are currently limited to the web interface, so it's not really what we're looking for.

The good news is that we're getting there, and the competition in this category is causing the developers to works fast. All the elements we want are already out there. They're just not yet in the same application.

Product page [Evernote]

Product page [NotePad]

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 7 Nov 2008 | 1:10 pm

Hands On: iPhone Note Taking Apps Still Not Ready

Barely two weeks ago, we bemoaned the state of note taking applications on the iPhone, not least of which was Apple's own Notes application. The reason? None of them managed one thing: true, two-way synchronization of notes between a computer and an iPhone. Two apps have just be updated to do just that, but there are drawbacks.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 7 Nov 2008 | 1:10 pm

Photoshop Interface Rendered in Real World Objects

This mystery picture is quite stunning real-world imagining of the Photoshop interface, but we have absolutely no idea where it is from. It has popped up on a few image sharing sites, as well as Digg and Reddit. In lieu of actual knowledge, here's one of the few Digg comments that have ever been worth reading, from Doublefelix:

They missed out on some great job opportunities for marching ants.

Real-world Photoshop [John Nack]

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 7 Nov 2008 | 11:35 am