|
|
|
|
Wal-Mart Black Friday ads leak outSection: Video, HDTV, Computers, Desktops, Gaming, Accessories, Console, Games
First, we have a nice 50 inch Samsung plasma HDTV, which is set to sell for $798. Continuing with TV’s, we have a Magnavox Blu-Ray player for $128. Next up is a Xbox 360 console that also comes with Guitar Hero III Legends of Rock and a wireless guitar - all for $199. Moving on, we have a HP Pavilion desktop computer for $398. Unfortunately, the above items don’t come with model numbers or other specifications, so I can’t really tell you how good the computer is, or what model number the TV is. Lastly, we have a GE microwave selling for $25. Melissa O’Brien was asked about the validity of these items, but she didn’t really say anything other than that Wal-Mart will “hare the facts directly with customers on Monday, Nov. 24th.“ Read [CNN Money] Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 16 Nov 2008 | 10:01 pm Best Buy’s Black Friday 2008 ad either awesome or hoaxFROM GAMERTELL - A possible Best Buy Black Friday 2008 ad has surfaced on the internet. However, the ad quality is poor and there is a chance it could be a hoax. Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 16 Nov 2008 | 9:30 pm Gibson and HDtracks team up to offer some free musicSection: Audio, Portable Audio, Web, Downloads, Websites, Online Music/Video
The album is called Gibson Presents: Hot Tones and is available on the Gibson website, but is available on the HDtracks website for free in high def; the album on Gibson is only available in normal format. Within this album, performers such as Johnny A, Michael Burks, Billy Burnette, Arlen Roth with Sonny Landreth, Chris Cain, Neal Schon, Nick Colionne, Eric Johnson, Tinsley Ellis, Big Bill Morganfield, Peter Karp, Kenny Neal and Johnny Winter have all put forth their music. In addition, this album features a never-before-heard instrumental track with performers Abraham Laboriel Sr. and his son with Slash. Unfortunately, this album will only be available for a limited time. It is available right now, but on December 6, 2008, it will be taken down from both sites and they will not be made available after that. As an added incentive to download the album, everyone who downloads it will be entered to win a Gibson Robot Les Paul guitar along with other cool prizes. Now, the album will be available for download in a non-DRM format and in AIFF, FLAC, and MP3 in 320kbps encoding. Let’s see what the CEO’s have to say about the new partnership, and first we begin with Henry Juszkiewicz, Chairman and CEO of Gibson, and his thoughts on the album and HDtracks:
On the flipside, David Chesky, co-founder of HDtracks, had this to say about Gibson and the partnership:
Lastly, a contributing artist to the album, Billy Burnette, adds in his two cents:
If Gibson is pleased with the way HDtracks markets their album, you can bet that Gibson will be offering more, exclusive albums for free in the future. A copy of the press release is below.
Site: [HDtracks] Site: [Gibson] Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 16 Nov 2008 | 8:00 pm BOOM! Top Apple news for the week of 11-09-2008Section:  There’s a small company in Cupertino, CA. You may have heard of them; they’re called “Apple.“ What a crazy name. We may not cover Apple 24x7… but we know someone who does! Here’s a few of this week’s hottest from Appletell to get you started…
Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gizmodo | 16 Nov 2008 | 5:30 pm How do Wireline Voice Services Measure up?If you are like me, then you are one of the many millions who have cut the cord with their landline and gone all wireless. However, that doesn't mean people don't want phones for their homes. Of course...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 16 Nov 2008 | 5:13 pm Facebook Destroys Lucrative Birthday Reminder Industry
That’s good news for all of us who want more birthday information. It’s bad news for Birthday Alert and its clones that already do that on Facebook. Birthday Alert has 180,820 active monthly users. Lest you think this is just some random feature: Birthdays are big business. Bebo founders Michael and Xochi Birch started their social network Bebo with a simple birthday reminder service. That service had 100 million users at one point and still brings in $4 million per year in revenue from ecards and gift purchases. Bebo was funded in the early days from birthday reminder revenue. The title of this post is meant to be a joke, but it definitely sucks to be one of the very many birthday reminder Facebook apps today. Such is life. With a flick of the keyboard Facebook can make your app redundant and pointless. Meanwhile, I happily turned on the new feature, and I can’t wait to be prompted to send people virtual birthday gifts for a small fee.
Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors Source: Gizmodo | 16 Nov 2008 | 4:42 pm How To Build a Web 2.0 Government?UltraAyla writes "With the announcement that President-Elect Obama will record his weekly address as a YouTube video to be posted at Change.gov, questions arise as to how an Internet-fueled candidacy based in part on a platform of government openness can begin to use technology to make government transparent. Aside from popular Slashdot policies, such as Net Neutrality, how do you think government (either in the United States or elsewhere) can best utilize technology to engage the public and make government more transparent and accessible?" Reader Rick Zeman points out a related New York Times story about how Obama will have to give up some of his communications gadgets because of the Presidential Records Act. Despite that, he apparently hopes to be the first US president to have a laptop on his desk in the Oval Office.Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 16 Nov 2008 | 4:35 pm Heh.*Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 16 Nov 2008 | 4:33 pm Google’s voice search app coming on Monday, all Apple’s fault
When Google ran their big push about their new voice search application for iPhone, the plan was that it would go live Friday and all would be well. TC has word that the app his hitting tomorrow and that Apple inexplicably refused to push the app on Friday. It was, it seems, “in review.” This is, as they say in the business, absolutel bullshit. While I agree that the iPhone ecosystem must be protected from varmints lest it end up like Windows Mobile - a slatternly tart that HTC and Sony-Ericsson are now forced to gussy up just to take out into the public - I can’t believe that Google couldn’t make a few calls to get this launched when they said it would launch. Is this a power play? A mix-up? A case of bad shellfish eaten by Steve which pulled him away from his desk from 4pm to 4:40 and so did not allow the lackey who carries the key to the golden “Launch to iPhone” button to reach the Pixar King in time? Perhaps we’ll never know. Source: Gizmodo | 16 Nov 2008 | 4:00 pm Movie-Inspired Timepieces - The Omega Seamaster Quantum of Solace Watch (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) Now that the anxiously-awaited James Bond film Quantum of Solace has had its theatrical release in the U.S., the 007-related merchandising like this James Bond watch is starting to...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 16 Nov 2008 | 3:59 pm The Manuscript: a technothriller written by someone who understands technologyMichael Stephan Fuchs's 2006 novel The Manuscript is just what a technothriller should be: taut, violent, smart, and very, very technical. There's plenty of "technothrillers" where the two key elements...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 16 Nov 2008 | 3:54 pm The Manuscript: a technothriller written by someone who understands technology
Michael Stephan Fuchs's 2006 novel The Manuscript is just what a technothriller should be: taut, violent, smart, and very, very technical. There's plenty of "technothrillers" where the two key elements -- weapons and computers -- are treated as magic stage-props, able to do anything (or be confounded by anything) that moves the plot along. They're written by writers who confuse "programmers" with "network administrators" and think that 200 years from now, "mainframes" will be important and sexy (rather than ancient and useless).
In The Manuscript, an enormous cast of characters comprising many sysadmins, many gun-freaks, several combat veterans, spooks from a number of agencies, named and unnamed, ten zillion cops, a group of murderous avenging Taoists, and Sir Richard Francis Burton and a group of Andean holy men who have discovered the secret of the universe. Fuchs does a remarkable job of staying within the confines of what technology actually does (both the guns and the computers) while still putting together an immensely entertaining book filled with likable, bloodthirtsy people doing incredible things while the whole world is on the line. It's everything a technothriller should be. I don't care much about guns, but I do know an awful lot about computers. Fuchs manages to make the gun geeking every bit as interesting as the computer geeking, which is the definitive sign of really good geeking. Hell, he even makes the philosophy geeking as interesting as the computers (he's got a graduate degree in philosophy and Big Questions are the Maltese Falcon of this book). Though the technology is out of date (the story revolves around shenanigans on Usenet's alt.* hierarchy), The Manuscript packs several kinds of punch -- it's as if The Da Vinci Code had been written by someone who wasn't an idiot. Source: Boing Boing | 16 Nov 2008 | 3:54 pm How many iPhone apps is too many?How many iPhone apps is too many? Just ask Flickr user Sigalokos who has 8 screens. [via Core77]Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 16 Nov 2008 | 3:50 pm Pakistan to Increase Penalty for Handling Stolen Mobile PhonesPakistan's telecoms regulator has asked the government to pass a new law and permit imprisonment for up to 49 years for handling stolen mobile phones. [via Cellular News]Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 16 Nov 2008 | 3:41 pm Oxymoronic Fashion - Pristine Smut (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) The creativity and unique beauty arising from the fashion world never ceases to boggle the mind. The latest collection from Pristine Smut pushes the envelope in their designs that...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 16 Nov 2008 | 3:39 pm Apple Winning Over Businesses with iPhone - DailyTech
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 16 Nov 2008 | 3:29 pm NASA Draws On Open Source For Shuttle Bug-Trackingthefickler writes "NASA has built a new software package to track problems with the Space Shuttle using open source tools from Mozilla. '[Alonso Vera, the lead of the Ames Human-Computer Interaction Group] wouldn't say exactly how much the new systems cost to build, but he said they were an order of magnitude cheaper than what was being used before, closer to $100,000 than the $1 million it would have cost in the past.' The Space Shuttle Endeavor launched successfully on Friday, so the new system is being used to track any problems which may crop up in the current mission. As one commentator pointed out, 'A system like this could save more than money; it could save lives.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Gizmodo | 16 Nov 2008 | 3:00 pm All the President's EmailFrom the Times' story about Obama surrendering his BlackBerry: For all the perquisites and power afforded the president, the chief executive of the United States is essentially deprived by law and by culture of some of the very tools that other chief executives depend on to survive and to thrive. Mr. Obama, however, seems intent on pulling the office at least partly into the 21st century on that score; aides said he hopes to have a laptop computer on his desk in the Oval Office, making him the first American president to do so.The article explains that Obama has to give up his BlackBerry and laptop due to restrictions from the Presidential Records Act. To which I say...huh? The President won't use email because it could be subpoenaed? That seems really paranoid. Say Goodbye to BlackBerry? Yes He Can, Maybe [NYTimes] Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 16 Nov 2008 | 2:58 pm Amazingly Awesome - GamePro.com
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 16 Nov 2008 | 2:46 pm Online Ad Growth Grinds To A Halt
We all know online advertising decelerated in the third quarter, but how bad was the slowdown overall? To find out, we added up the online advertising revenues for Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and AOL, which together account for the majority of online advertising. In the third quarter, growth pretty much ground to a halt. The combined ad revenues of those four Web bellwethers eked out only 0.6 percent growth, quarter over quarter. That sequential growth rate was 12.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007, to 2.8 percent in the first quarter of 2008, and 1.1 percent in the second quarter (see chart above). On an absolute basis, the combined ad revenues for all four companies during the third quarter increased by only $50 million to $8.2 billion. The year-over-year growth rate was still a healthy 18 percent, but those comparisons will likely flatten out as well starting in the fourth quarter. For the purposes of this analysis, I took the total advertising revenues from both Google and Yahoo, including their network revenues paid to affiliates, the online revenues reported by Microsoft, and only the advertising portion of AOL’s revenues. There were other companies I could have added, but these four serve as good proxy for the overall online advertising market. Below are the absolute revenue numbers, broken down by company:
Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors Source: TechCrunch | 16 Nov 2008 | 2:34 pm Toyota Demands Removal of Fan WallpapersAn anonymous reader writes "TorrentFreak reports that Toyota's lawyers have recently contacted computer wallpaper site Desktop Nexus in a blatant example of DMCA abuse. Toyota issued a blanket request to demand the immediate removal of all member-uploaded wallpapers featuring a Toyota, Lexus, or Scion vehicle (citing copyright violation), regardless of whether Toyota legally holds the copyright to the photos or not. When site owner Harry Maugans requested clarification on exactly which wallpapers were copyrighted by Toyota, he was told that for them to cite specifics (in order to file proper DMCA Takedown Notices), they would invoice Desktop Nexus for their labor."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 16 Nov 2008 | 2:16 pm Handheld Game Units Dominate Fall Sales - PC World
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 16 Nov 2008 | 2:08 pm Chile Finds Innovative Uses For CopperThere is nothing like waking up on a chilly morning and pulling on a pair of copper socks? How about using a copper towel when getting out of the shower? Maybe you should use a copper railing when getting on the subway.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 16 Nov 2008 | 1:50 pm Shuttle Soars Toward Space StationSpace shuttle Endeavour hones in on the International Space Station.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 16 Nov 2008 | 1:30 pm Apple Quietly Releases Safari 3.299BottlesOfBeerInMyF writes "Yesterday Apple quietly slipped out an update to their Safari Web browser to version 3.2. The notable feature is that it finally adds anti-phishing technology, an area where Safari has lagged behind competitors. Aside from that, it provides some security fixes, improved JavaScript performance, and a slightly newer version of Webkit, pulling their Acid3 score up to 77." Apple forums across the Net are reporting frequent crashes in Safari 3.2, some possibly caused by 3rd-party add-ons, others perhaps related to the anti-phishing feature.Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 16 Nov 2008 | 1:15 pm NComputing Gives First 'World Changer' Award to New School Model that Targets DropoutsNComputing recognizes a Florida-based charter school initiative seeking to reclaim disengaged youth REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Nov. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- NComputing, the...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 16 Nov 2008 | 1:00 pm ThePirateBay is five
The Pirate Bay is turning five in a few days and look at the little shaver go. It’s now tracking 25 million peers and over 1.8 million torrent files. The company says that new software and hardware are helping them increase the traffic but I think it’s just that they’re cute as a button. I saw one of the TPB leaders in Stockholm last week and he essentially told the audience that the site was more of an art installation than a formal piracy factory. He hates him some copyright, let me tell you, and those dirty lawyers in America can lump it. TPB is one of the first popular public Bittorrent trackers, a service that “points” to torrents available on the web. It doesn’t actually host the files itself, obviously, so you’re barking up the wrong tree, MPAA. Awww. It’s eating cake. Look. Get the camera. But the TPB are actually a little scared:
You betcha, little guy! Just as soon as I download this 10 GB ISO of Adobe Creative Suite. Source: CrunchGear | 16 Nov 2008 | 11:20 am German Politician Blocks Local Wikipedia
This is the image that comes up when people try to access Wikipedia.de, which used to be forwarded to Wikipedia.org. It reads:
Update: looks like Heilmann came to his senses. In a statement (translation), he says he’s sorry for the legal action that was taken and that the autoforward of wikipedia.de will soon function again.
An earlier report from Focus Online (article in German) says Heilmann objected to claims that he had interrupted his studies at university, and that he had participated in a business venture involving pornography. Heilmann also took legal action against three Wikipedia users who had worked on the article. Of course, ordering a court to take such extreme measures only draws more attention to the entry, which is still available both in English and German since the Wikipedia servers are hosted in Florida under United States law. The entry for Lutz Heilmann is currently ranked number 1 on wikirage’s list of Wikipedia entries that are receiving the most edits per unique editor over various periods of time. Information provided by CrunchBase
Information provided by CrunchBase
Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. Source: TechCrunch | 16 Nov 2008 | 11:15 am Carl Icahn-ic: Shareholder Activist Talks About His Quest to Improve Boardrooms (Are You Listening, Yahoo?) [BoomTown]
What does Carl Icahn, the billionaire activist shareholder who waged war on Yahoo and now sits on its board, really think? “…I really think current boards and managements are killing the country,” he said in an interview published Friday in The Wall Street Journal’s Opinion Journal. “I’ll tell you why, ’cause I’ve lived it. I’m on a lot of boards, I see how ineffectual they are.” While he was talking about the state of American management in general and not Yahoo in particular, it’s worth reading an interesting chat Icahn had for a feature called “The Weekend Interview.” The reason for the talk was because Icahn recently launched United Shareholders of America, which is a aimed at changing laws to make management more accountable to shareholders. Said Icahn about the impact of legislation on CEOs: “…that if they’re going to mess up and they’re playing golf all day, some shareholders will be able to call a meeting to say no more poison pills, no more staggered boards, we want you to get out of here.” But some of the lax standards are apparently amusing to him. According to the Journal: “Icahn says some boards are so bad that it’s (almost) funny. There’s no need to watch Saturday Night Live anymore, he says, ‘I just sit at a board meeting.’” Life probably is not quite so funny with regards to Yahoo (YHOO), given Icahn’s five percent stake in the company, which he bought in the mid-$20 range, is now trading at about $10 to $11 a share. Sources at Yahoo said they are worried Icahn could dump some of his holdings or sell the whole chunk at a loss to one buyer, because several other of his investments are also suffering of late. Such a move could further tank Yahoo shares. That seems unlikely given Icahn is on the Yahoo board, serving along with two other directors he picked, as part of his settlement with Yahoo to withdraw his proxy fight this past summer. But he has been unusually quiet since he joined, as has the rest of the board, which could mean he has either become frustrated into inaction or is quietly working on something to turn things around at Yahoo. That could range from the deal to merge with Time Warner (TWX) online unit AOL, to pushing to have Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang replaced to continuing his long-standing agitation to get a search deal done with Microsoft (MSFT). In the Journal interview, Icahn did address Yahoo and such a search deal, although he said little that was new. Here is that portion of the piece in its entirety:
In fact, everyone thinks that, including Yang, who also said as much in a recent interview at the Web 2.0 Summit. Everyone, that is, except for Microsoft. [Drawing, from the Journal, by Ismael Roldan.] Source: All Things Digital | 16 Nov 2008 | 10:39 am A Replica of the First 4004 Calculatormcpublic writes "For the 37th anniversary of Intel's 4004, the world's first off-the-shelf, customer-programmable microprocessor, vintage computer enthusiast Bill Kotaska has successfully built a replica of Busicom's historic 141-PF printing calculator using vintage Intel chips. Decades before the ubiquitous 'Intel inside' sticker, Japanese calculator maker Busicom introduced the first product ever built around an Intel microprocessor. Bill's homebrew replica includes a rare Shinshu Seiki Model-102 drum printer and runs firmware extracted from the original Busicom ROMs. Schematics and photos of his re-creation are available at the unofficial 4004 web site, along with Tim McNerney's new PIC-based emulator of the Model-102 printer. The site includes the Busicom 'source code,' 4004 details, interactive simulators, and other goodies for students, engineers, and computer historians." We discussed the 36th 4004 anniversary project here last year.Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 16 Nov 2008 | 10:05 am Obama YouTubes and Techies Swoon (BoomTown Will Only Do So When There Is a National Broadband Policy) [BoomTown]
Is it just me or does the fact that President-Elect Barack Obama is broadcasting his weekly address on YouTube not seem like it should be the very biggest deal in the world. Still, when an article in the Washington Post reported late last week that he would put his weekly Democratic address online in video–on YouTube and his own transition site, Change.gov–as well as the regular radio, the squeals from tech were louder than at a mall appearance by the Zac Efron of “High School Musical.” While it is a first for the Commander-in-Chief, I am more depressed that it is a first–after all, skateboarding cats made it to YouTube eons ago–than utterly thrilled that he is doing it. But, when it come to the glacial movement related politicians and tech issues, disappointment seems to be a better stance than hope. I could begin with the fact that the U.S. has poor broadband and wireless coverage compared to most comparable nations (Softbank’s Masa Son once told me in an interview that this country was the “third world of broadband”). Ironically, the price of high-speed access ranks at the top, by really gross margins. Or that the federal government remains unfocused on a number of important digital issues from immigration to privacy to net neutrality. Perhaps because of his more obvious use of Internet tools, from communicating to supporters to raising money to targeting voters, Obama has felt like the first true Internet candidate, well beyond the ultimately unsuccessful inroads made by Howard Dean in 2004. And now with even more YouTube videos, the Twitters, a much more interactive Web site at Change.gov and, best of all, the possible appointment of a CTO for America, it has been a general lovefest that the Obama presidency has engendered from the Internet community, simply for the focus the sector is now getting. And more interactive communications is promised, such as regular video interviews with senior members of the Obama administration. “This is just one of many ways that he will communicate directly with the American people and make the White House and the political process more transparent,” spokeswoman Jen Psaki said to the Washington Post. It’s not that BoomTown does not think this is a great thing, but to me, this kind of transparent communication should be as normal as it has become throughout the rest of society as a matter of course. Also, it would be nice if the Obama videos were also distributed on many other video services besides YouTube, which is the largest, but owned by Google (GOOG), whose CEO Eric Schmidt is a prominent supporter of the new administration. Still, the four-minute video that Obama released yesterday is a good first step, along with a previous transition Co-Chairman Valerie Jarrett, who recorded a two-minute video earlier in the week. Both are below: President-Elect Barack Obama Transition Co-Chairman Valerie Jarrett Source: All Things Digital | 16 Nov 2008 | 9:22 am Update On Google iPhone Voice Recognition App: Look For It On Monday
Google was under the impression that the application would be live on the App Store on Friday (obviously, since they pushed all significant press attention to it). Sometime Friday they found out Apple wouldn’t be pushing it, despite the fact that Google submitted it for review earlier in the week and got a thumbs up for Friday. One source says they’ve had little direct contact with Apple during the review, instead getting their updates via the standard iPhone developer tool, which has said “in review” for the last few days. Who knows why Apple delayed the application, or why they tend to treat every application developer equally poorly. But in this case Apple really screwed up in our opinion. If the application is half as good as the demo video shows, Google has done something pretty amazing with voice recognition and mobile platforms. This application will, quite simply, sell iPhones. Lots of them. Google faced a decision on which mobile platform to first launch the application - the iPhone or their own Android. The fact that they decided to launch first on the iPhone shows a willingness to embrace what’s right for the user, and it’s something that few other companies would have done. Google could have launched for the Android first and pushed sales of phones on their platform. They didn’t, and Apple should have embraced them for that. Next time I expect Google won’t be so trusting. And I don’t blame them. Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. Source: TechCrunch | 16 Nov 2008 | 9:03 am Google’s the latest hit by the arbitrary iPhone ban-hammer?
Everyone is so excited - so excited! - about the Google iPhone app that is supposed to allow instant voice search. But where is it? The youtube video that preceded it is now down and all mention has been scoured from Google’s website, Soviet-style. Not a good sign. Writes TC:
Clearly the rumors that Apple is planning a search system are true and this tread too closely to Apple’s turf. But why not just say it? Why all the skulking? Could Apple be taking a page from Stalin’s playbook? The “hushing up inconvenient news” page, not the “purge of millions of intelligentsia page,” obviously. Source: CrunchGear | 16 Nov 2008 | 8:11 am Red Hat, Inc.'s Matthew Szulik Named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year(R) 2008 Overall National WinnerPALM SPRINGS, Calif., Nov. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Matthew Szulik, chairman of Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT), was today named the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year(R) 2008...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 16 Nov 2008 | 8:00 am More Apple iPhone Search Weirdness, And Embarrassment For Google
This is an extraordinary event. Other search app providers have told me they’ve been kept waiting months for approval of their app, with no explanation from Apple. But Google and Apple are close, even sharing Google CEO Eric Schmidt as a board member. Something definitely went sideways, most likely involving Apple throwing a fit of some sort (Apple is just plain weird about press). Note our report last week that Apple seems to be working on some sort of search product of their own for the iPhone. Meanwhile, lets all hope that the drama ends soon and that we wake up on Sunday to a fully available application. It’s reason alone to own an iPhone. Hell, I want it on my desktop. Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 Source: TechCrunch | 16 Nov 2008 | 7:08 am Guerillas threaten gorillas in Africa's oldest national parkThe new conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo has forced dozens of rangers to flee Africa's oldest national park, leaving hundreds of threatened mountain gorillas at the mercy of...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 16 Nov 2008 | 7:07 am French Record Labels Go After Limewire, SourceForgeAn anonymous reader notes that TorrentFreak is reporting: "French record labels have received the green light to sue four US-based companies that develop P2P applications, including the BitTorrent client Vuze, Limewire, and Morpheus. Shareaza is the fourth application, for which the labels are going after the open source development platform SourceForge. ... Putting aside the discussion on the responsibilities of application developers for their users activities, the decision to go after SourceForge for hosting a application that can potentially infringe, is stretching credibility beyond all bounds." SourceForge is Slashdot's corporate parent.Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 16 Nov 2008 | 6:56 am AOL Gets Out Of User Generated Video Business
Users must move their videos prior to December 18, when the service closes for good and the videos will no longer be available. AOL is recommending that users transfer videos to Motionbox, a New York based video sharing and editing startup that we first covered in 2006. The FAQ that AOL will distribute to users this week is below. This change doesn’t appear to affect AOL Video itself, which focuses on professional content from Hulu, CBS and other sources.
Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. Source: TechCrunch | 16 Nov 2008 | 6:35 am Fun Things To Do With a Math Or Science Degree?bxwatso writes "My niece just took the ACT and got a perfect score on the math section. 25 years ago, when I took the test, the kids who aced the math section were pretty special. Her score, combined with straight A's so far in high school, suggest to me that she might be able to go to a top university (MIT?) based on her math aptitude. The rub is that she doesn't like math or science, even though she finds them easy. She doesn't want to be an engineer or scientist. I thought the folks here would be a great group to ask: What are some creative, not too nerdy professions that nonetheless require a talent for math, engineering, or science?"Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 16 Nov 2008 | 4:57 am Inside the Line Sports, a Sports Information Service, Debuts New Website, Next-Generation Sports Information Within a Variety of Client Offerings, and Gorgeous ModelsSAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- At an invitation-only gathering at the San Francisco Hilton, Inside the Line Sports President and General Manager Charlie Davis...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 16 Nov 2008 | 4:17 am Where is Google voice-powered search? - CNET News
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 16 Nov 2008 | 4:02 am Left untouched, world's largest mangrove forest recovering fastThe world's largest mangrove forest is recovering fast from one of the worst disasters in its history, a year after it was badly damaged by a devastating cyclone, Bangladesh officials say.Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 16 Nov 2008 | 3:11 am Report: Allchin tried to stop Microsoft Vista-Certifying computers that couldn't run it properlyAccording to court documents, Microsoft not only knew that it was lying when it issued "Vista Capable" certification to computers with puny Intel 915 chipsets that had no such capability, but was thanked for it directly by Intel CEO Paul Ottelini. Imagine being someone who mattered at Microsoft having to listen to fellow executive Jim Allchin go on and on and on: "We are going to be misleading customers with the Capable program. OEMs (computer makers) will say a machine is Capable and customers will believe that it will run all the core Vista features. The fact that aero won't be there EVER for many of these machines is misleading to customers. ...We need to meet on this. Please set this up ASAP. We need something simpler in my view. I know we don't want to hurt the OEMS, but end-customers must be the top priority. We must avoid confusion. It is wrong for customers. And we probably will have to change your current plans.........." Allchin retired the day Vista was released. New court documents reveal internal Microsoft fighting over Vista, Intel [TechFlash] Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 16 Nov 2008 | 3:00 am Today’s Umbrage Inducer: CIO’s “Why the Storm is better than the iPhone”
Eric Zeman, my favorite Phonescoop editor after Rich, wrote a fairly cogent article debunking the flame bait put out by CIO magazine comparing the Storm to the iPhone. While the complaints are valid - stereo Bluetooth would be nice and a removable battery would be nicer - I think RIM is good at what it does - namely being better at mail than Windows Mobile and Symbian while the iPhone is good a what it does - doing everything else better than Windows Mobile and Symbian. Let’s let these two colossi live in relative peace so RIM and iPhone can be the mullet of the phone world: business up front, party in the back. Source: CrunchGear | 16 Nov 2008 | 2:58 am Canadian Fined For Videoing Movie In Theatrecanadian_right writes "A Calgary man was fined $1,495 and banned from theaters for a year in the first conviction under a new Canadian law making recording a movie in a theater a crime. Until the new law took effect in 2007, prosecutors had to show evidence of distribution to get a conviction; now, recording without permission is sufficient. The Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association was disappointed that jail time was not given." The man was also banned for a year from possessing any video recording equipment, even a video-capable cellphone, outside of his home.Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 16 Nov 2008 | 2:54 am Weekend Update 11/14/08 [Digital Daily]
Safe to say that the mood of last week–with its anticipation of change–is a distant memoryC. A different kind of anticipation permeated the tech and online media industries, one more reminiscent of April 2000. There was news all around of layoffs, pending layoffs, bankruptcies and stock dives. To wit: Digital Daily offered up a body count of companies with companies in the tech sector that have been beaten into whimpering submission. Nortel, once a telecom high-flyer, lost $3.4 billion in Q3. The company announced plans to lay off five percent of its workforce–including some high-ranking executives–eliminating 2,500 positions. Other high-ranking execs are taking part in the econaclypse too, notably Kevin Kettler, Dell’s chief technology officer. A week after the computer maker began offering workers voluntary separation plans, Kettler decided to take the company up on it. No word on how many followed suit. Other victims of the gloomy economy are Circuit City–which declared bankruptcy this week, and Intel–which faced “sharply lower revenue. Media Memo presented a handy index of actual online advertising sales results (courtesy of Jupiter Media) and noted that the ad slowdown has hit Google, too. Nick Denton, Gawker Media publisher, folded Valleywag into Gawker.com, the flagship blog of the media empire and, in an ironically appropriate move, put Consumerist up for sale. Denton, doom-mongerer of the econaclypse, would surely appreciate the following layoff roll-call: Conde Net and Time Inc., not once, but twice. No, wait. Three times. BoomTown was on a Yahoo roll this week, writing about the company’s upcoming layoffs and its stock plunge. Just to squash rumors, Jerry Yang will not be laid off. Social media, mainly Twitter, became a hot topic this week in terms of its effect on the PR industry, and BoomTown had something to say about it. Also noted was the good humor of Mobuzz video, which made a plea to its users for five euros apiece to keep them afloat. And in case you were wondering what makes BoomTown impatient, the main two things this week were Microsoft’s continuing failure to find a head for its digital business, and Yahoo/AOL’s failure to make anything happen in the ongoing yawn-fest of a non-acquisition. In Personal Technology, Walt Mossberg gave the lowdown on Wi-Fi for your car, and in Mossberg’s Mailbox he discusses disabling Wi-Fi on a laptop. In The Mossberg Solution, Katherine Boehret reviewed the Flip MinoHD, the latest addition to the Flip family, and its first foray into hi-def. Source: All Things Digital | 16 Nov 2008 | 2:23 am Atari 2600 controller makes my heart melt
At only $20, the LegacyEngineer controller is a pretty nice deal. Not only do you get a USB-powered Atari 2600 controller, you get a warm feeling that no, the 1980s did not pass you by and that no, spending most of your grade school years playing D&D and listening to the James Bond theme song album over and over on casette again (true story!) were not for naught. After all, now this crazy joystick is cool and the jock turned fake gamer who used to ask you how to beat Ganon in Legend of Zelda on the NES when you were in 8th grade is now selling used cars. Source: Gizmodo | 16 Nov 2008 | 1:00 am Man reaches level 80 in Lich King on day after launch
Man also doesn’t lose virginity until age 30 when it’s with a strange, small woman he paid $50 in a park. In his memoirs, written in vi, he calls her a love gnome. Source: CrunchGear | 16 Nov 2008 | 12:53 am OpenOffice Five Times As Popular As Google DocsCWmike writes "Confirming recent comments by Microsoft's Steve Ballmer, an independent report released Friday found that OpenOffice.org's free office suite is five times more popular than Google Docs. This was according to a survey of 2,400 adult Internet users conducted between May and November. Microsoft's share was 10 times that of OpenOffice.org. Microsoft hopes to cement that lead with its upcoming Office Web, as well as online versions of its Exchange and SharePoint products to be announced on Monday. OpenOffice.org may provide some resistance, however. The latest version, OpenOffice.org 3.0, had a strong first week in October, with more than 3 million downloads. After one month, OpenOffice.org 3.0 had been downloaded 10 million times." And reader Peter Toi informs us of the open source release of yet another office suite, Softmaker Office. Its claimed advantages are its compactness and speed (making it suitable for netbooks), its excellent MS Office filters, and the fact that it can be installed to USB flash drives.Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 16 Nov 2008 | 12:52 am Yes watch brings it all back home
Source: CrunchGear | 16 Nov 2008 | 12:43 am Wanna keep tabs on someone? The Zoombak Universal A-GPS Locator will do it for youSection: Communications, Accessories, Gadgets / Other, GPS/Navigation, Household, Lifestyle, Miscellaneous, Transportation, Web, Websites
What you do is drop it into whatever you want tracked. (No…I don’t recommend having someone swallow it). Your kid’s backpack or car is more what they are envisioning for the device. You know, to make sure they are actually going to school, or to the library to study like they claim. Or you’re wondering where your girlfriend is really going when she makes those late night runs to the gym? Voila. Yeah…you see where this could go, don’t you? Whenever the device enters a specified zone, you will get either a text message or an email letting you know it’s there. Some more practical (and less sneaky) uses for the device are putting it in your luggage when you travel, in your own car or motorcycle in case of theft, even on the family dog who likes to run away. Zoombak has a special interactive site where you can set up your own custom safety zone around just about any location, like your house, school, mall and so on. Or, you can also choose at any time to find out exactly where the module is from either your phone or zoombak.com. The locator received Honoree status at the CES Innovations 2009 Design and Engineering Awards. which “recognize groundbreaking consumer products that exhibit high overall product quality, unique features and user value.“ Out in time for your holiday shopping, the MSRP on this is $199.99. But I found it on Amazon for $145 if you shop now. There is also a monthly service fee for the device. Impractical and sneaky? Or helpful and innovative? Either way, happy tracking! via [DirectionsMag] Full Story » | Written by Jodie Andrefski for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gizmodo | 16 Nov 2008 | 12:15 am Where is Google voice-powered search?
Section: Computers, Desktops, Laptops, Gaming, Accessories, Games, Web, Downloads, Websites
One of the things Apple has on Microsoft (among many) is that they have a fully functional online store available in many countries around the world. Not until recently, Microsoft only had online stores set up in countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany, and Korea. However, they unveiled a website for the United States, which sells many Microsoft products such as Office 2007, games, Xbox 360 components, and Zune products. Microsoft essentially has two ways of getting the products you requested to you. The first way is the traditional shipment delivery method. Basically, after you order something, it will be shipped to your within however much time it specifies. The other way, which is more modern, to get what you purchased to you is via download. Microsoft calls this ESD or Electronic Software Distribution. The advantage to this is that as soon as you purchase something (for example purposes let’s say you purchase something from the Microsoft Office suite) you will be able to download it right away and then proceed to install. One of the drawbacks to this is that since it doesn’t come on a physical CD, it could potentially be stuck on the computer you downloaded from. Microsoft offers a simple solution to this, you can always re-download said product as long as there is mainstream support for it. Mainstream support for products varies, but it is safe to say they typically last for 5 years after it is available. It’s about time Microsoft made a site for the United States, let’s hope they are successful in selling their products. If you purchase something from their online store, let us know how it goes in the comments. Online Store [Microsoft] Read [Trevin Chow] Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 15 Nov 2008 | 11:00 pm Politician Forces German Wikipedia Off the NetStephan Schulz writes "A German Member of parliament for a left-wing party, Lutz Heilmann, has obtained a preliminary injunction against the local chapter of the Wikimedia foundation, Wikimedia Deutschland e.V., forbidding the forwarding of the popular http://wikipedia.de to the proper http://de.wikipedia.org. Apparently Heilmann is not happy with the fact that his Wikipedia article (English version) contains information on his work for the former GDR Stasi, the much-hated internal secret service. Wikimedia Germany displays a page explaining the situation, and has announced that it will file an objection to get the injunction lifted. The German Wikipedia has more than 800,000 pages, and is hosted, like all Wikimedia projects, by the Florida-based Wikimedia Foundation, and hence beyond the effective reach of at least German politicians and judges."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Gizmodo | 15 Nov 2008 | 10:45 pm YouTube Pulls Videos Romanticizing Columbine KillersYouTube has removed numerous videos praising the Columbine High School teenage killers.Videos discovered on the website honored Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold for performing the shocking shooting, which caused the deaths of 13 people.The Colorado killings, which happened nine years ago, were portrayed in some of the videos as a positive event.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 15 Nov 2008 | 10:05 pm So Hot Right Now: Top 10 Gadgetell posts for the week of November 09, 2008Section:
Haven’t caught all of the Gadgetell news this week? Here’s your chance to catch up on this week’s top 10 articles!
Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 15 Nov 2008 | 10:00 pm When a Fire Hits the Taxidermist
What happens when a legendary French taxidermy shop catches fire? "From Ashes, Reviving a Place of Wild Dreams" is the story of Deyrolle, a 177-year-old store once populated by stuffed zebras, bull heads, and preserved butterflies. When Deyrolle caught fire earlier this year, destroying much of its taxidermied contents, Parisians stepped in to help. "From Ashes, Reviving a Place of Wild Dreams" and a slide show. Source: Boing Boing | 15 Nov 2008 | 9:43 pm Astronauts inspect shuttle for any launch damageSpace shuttle Endeavour's astronauts unfurled a 100-foot, laser-tipped pole and surveyed their ship for any launch damage Saturday while drawing ever closer to their destination, the...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 15 Nov 2008 | 9:41 pm Sam’s Club ad was so very, very wrong: Bundle is $425
So Photoshop was our nemesis this holiday season: the bundle in the “leaked” Sam’s Club ad is not $224 for a Wii and a bunch of games it’s $425. Not great but not bad, either. Considering the Wii itself will cost $249, less than $200 more for two games, three Wiimotes, and three Nunchucks isn’t bad. Source: CrunchGear | 15 Nov 2008 | 9:30 pm WTF: Come on, Hulu/Netflix/ABC/NBC/Sling/whoever, let us watch American TV outside of the countryA quick rant. I’m in Geneva, the city where boredom goes to be bored, and wanted to watch a movie on Netflix Instant Play. I headed over and discovered, much to my chagrin, that the system was keyed to my current location and, as a result, I’m locked out. While I’m aware of IP masks and other tricks I could use to get to the content, I’m essentially browsing Usenet now simply because I don’t want to go through the trouble. Seeding content internationally is a the magic of globalization. Just because someone is sending said content over a satellite doesn’t mean everyone in the free world has satellite TV. Show Heroes to people in Switzerland. While they probably won’t understand it - they’re very literal-minded - I’m sure they’ll enjoy the colors. As a public service to others, go and download Hotspot Shield and restart your browser. That’s all you need to get video overseas. As for me, I’m stuck downloading and, interestingly enough I’ve found a wonderful German film called “Church of Fudge” which is starting out swimmingly with a priest and a nun discussing something in Deutsch. Oh. Oh my god. Oh no. Source: CrunchGear | 15 Nov 2008 | 9:19 pm The week in Microsoft: Windows Live everything - Ars Technica
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 15 Nov 2008 | 9:14 pm Madden, Wii Fit Lead Global Game Sales - PC World
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 15 Nov 2008 | 9:13 pm FRED is dead: XM stations go quietSection: Audio, Satellite / HD Radio
The replacement for Fred is First Wave, a Sirius station, which in my opinion and the opinion of these groupies, blows chow. Bad. Shallow. Bad. Can I make a fiscal justification to keep both stations going along? No. Can I say that satellite radio has finally lost the race with Internet radio? Yes. My cohorts and I are leaving as we can’t stand your far too repetitious music designed for those behind the wheel for 30 minutes. It isn’t all tears for satellite radio owners though, according to craveonline,
Those of us that got attached to these themed genre stations will miss them and the talent at XM studios in DC. Farewell Fred. Thanks for the tip, Jeff. Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 15 Nov 2008 | 9:02 pm Vienna's Christmas market focuses on energy savingVienna's traditional Christmas market opened Saturday with the spotlight on the environment and energy saving. The market in front of the City Hall is one of the most...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 15 Nov 2008 | 8:48 pm Dutch arrest dozens at Greenpeace chain protestDutch police on Saturday arrested more than 80 Greenpeace activists, many of whom had chained themselves to structures and machinery at the site of a new coal-fired power station in...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 15 Nov 2008 | 8:47 pm India rejoices over moon probe landingIndia rejoiced Saturday over the landing of a lunar probe on the moon's surface that vaulted the country into the league of space-faring nations like the United States, Russia and Japan.Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 15 Nov 2008 | 8:47 pm Twitter’s Hockey Stick Moment
October was a good month for Twitter. All those election Tweets brought a 25 percent increase in U.S. visitors from the month before, to 1.45 million unique visitors, according to comScore. (Worldwide, the number was 5.6 million in September). Since January, Twitter has experienced a 16-fold growth in the U.S. And that is just visitors to Twitter.com. These numbers don’t count all the people who send and read Tweets from other Websites, desktop apps, or their mobile phones. Twitter is having its hockey stick moment in terms of its growth just shooting up. Last week it may have delivered its billionth Tweet, at least nominally. And it looks like it is approaching escape velocity. If it doesn’t break up from all the pressure and is able to keep its service up and running more or less, it could soon—gasp!—break into the mainstream. That little red line at the bottom of the chart, just for reference, is FriendFeed. It is still scraping the ice in terms of growth. Comscore only measures 150,000 unique U.S. visitors in October (550,000 worldwide in September). But that’s just below where Twitter was last January. And FriendFeed is a lot younger than Twitter, having launched publicly only last February, compared to July, 2006 for Twitter. Maybe a year from now it will be hitting its hockey stick. Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. Source: TechCrunch | 15 Nov 2008 | 8:36 pm Hot gaming news for the week of 11-09-2008Section:  No need to scour the interwebs for hot gaming news, Gamertell‘s already done that for you! Here’s a look at this week’s top stories…
Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 15 Nov 2008 | 7:53 pm Industry Has High Hopes For Holiday Blu-ray SalesSales of high-definition Blu-ray players are the best hope for a holiday surge that could offset a declining market for home video products, movie studio executives said Friday.The remarks were made at an event hosted by the Digital Entertainment Group, a consortium of electronics manufacturers and movie studios. The executives predict that 10.5 million households would be able to play Blu-ray videos by the end of the year, including roughly 2.5 million standalone players and 8 million PlayStation 3 game consoles.The figures are much lower than the 14.4 million households that Adams Media Research estimated would be playing Blu-rays by the end of the year.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 15 Nov 2008 | 7:50 pm IBM to Mark Papermaster: What about the children?
BBG found a great line from IBM to Mark Papermaster, the IBM hardware guy who went to Apple to make and sell iPods. After trying many methods to keep Mark from joining a successful hardware company, they finally whipped out the favorite of anti-smut crusaders and anti-segregationists everywhere:
I’m sure the Papermaster children are enjoying plenty of free iPods right now. The same, sadly cannot be said for the IBM children who were, until recently, were forced to put red clitorii onto ThinkPads while wearing black suits. Source: CrunchGear | 15 Nov 2008 | 7:19 pm USB 3.0 to Deliver a Tenfold Speed Increase
Tighten your seat belts. Data transfer is going into overdrive as the ubiquitous Universal Serial Bus, better known as USB, prepares to make a tenfold jump in speed. That means the vast sea of USB devices -- from HD camcorders to hard drives and music players -- will be able to transfer music, video, photos and other data much, much more quickly. The new standard, the first update to the USB specification in eight years, will also deliver greater power efficiency and the ability to recharge a wider variety of gadgets -- and it will most likely mean the death of the competing standard known as FireWire. To get a sense of the speed increase, consider this: Transferring high-definition video of 27 GB, the amount on a standard Blu-Ray disc, takes about 10 minutes with the current USB 2.0 standard. With USB 3.0, it will take just about a minute. "What the user will see is really a much faster response time, less waiting, more productivity," says Patrick Moorhead, vice president of advanced marketing at AMD, one of the supporters of the USB 3.0 standard. The USB Implementers Forum, a non-profit group founded by companies to promote the standard, will announce Monday the final set of specs that will clear the way for the adoption of USB 3.0 by device and component manufacturers. It's the first major update to USB technology in nearly eight years. "USB 3.0 will take USB 2.0 to the next level and take away performance as an issue for data transfer in many devices," says Brian O'Rourke, an analyst with research firm In-Stat. "USB 3.0 will make it even more pervasive across devices than it is today." Since the USB specification was first introduced in 1996, it has changed the way we interact with our computers. USB has allowed everything from keyboards, mouse, PDAs, printers, digital cameras and personal media players -- pretty much the entire spectrum of consumer electronics -- to be connected to a host PC using a single standardized socket. It has also made the process truly plug-and-play. Devices can be connected and disconnected without having to reboot the host computer and offered perks such as allowing for many devices to be charged using the USB socket with no need for individual device drivers to be installed first. Not surprisingly, USB's ease of use and capabilities has meant it has become nearly ubiquitous. More than 2.6 billion USB-enabled devices were shipped in 2007, estimates research firm In-Stat. And USB's star will continue to rise, says the firm. Nearly four billion USB-enabled devices are expected to ship by 2012. Its ubiquity has meant that some manufacturers use USB ports and plug for recharging devices such as bluetooth headsets and phones without utilizing its data-transfer capabilities. But USB 2.0 is getting a bit long in the tooth, with its slow speed, inefficient power usage and relatively small wattage. The new standard takes aim at all of those shortcomings. Pour on the Speed Faster: Ten times faster than USB 2.0 and six times faster than FireWire 800 Greater power efficiency: New interrupt driven protocol optimizes power management. Better Power Output: Power output bump to 900 milliamps from 100 milliamps allows more devices to be charged faster via USB. Backward Compatible: New Connectors and cables will work with work with devices running the older USB 2.0 The new spec will support data transfers at 4.8 gigabits per second (Gbps), nearly ten times faster than the current standard's 480 megabits per second and six times faster than FireWire 800. It's also 400 times faster than the 12Mbps offered by the original spec, USB 1.0. USB 2.0 is also known as "Hi Speed USB," while USB 3.0 will have the confusingly similar moniker "SuperSpeed USB." The new USB 3.0 connectors and devices will be compatible with older USB ports (on devices using USB 2.0 and 1.0) but they will be limited to the older ports' slower speeds. The first USB 3.0 devices probably won't show up until the end of 2009 or early 2010, say analysts. But users can get a glimpse into future devices sporting SuperSpeed USB as early as the annual Consumer Electronics Show in January. "The first places that you will see this show up is where you get the biggest benefits---HD video cameras and hard drives," says Moorhead. Power and Efficiency USB 2.0 uses a polling based architecture, which means the host computer has to constantly check the bus to see if any devices are attached and if so, whether they are doing anything. As a result, that keeps the host computer busy, drawing power even when it's not needed. "It's a problem when you attach a USB device to a laptop running on battery," says Steve Kleynhans, vice-president, client computing for research firm Gartner. USB 3.0 offers better specifications for power management. "We will move to an interrupt-driven architecture where your PC can ignore the connected device till the latter actually does something," says Kleynhans. "That can really lower the power consumption." It also has better power output, 900 milliamps compared to 100 milliamps with USB 2.0. That means up to four devices can be charged from a single USB port and charged faster. Standardizing the specifications for USB 3.0 hasn't been easy. Two months ago, Intel released part of the draft specifications for USB 3.0 to developers resolving a dispute between it, Nvidia and AMD over it. Nvidia and AMD claimed that Intel was not sharing the specifications that potentially compete with it. Intel denied it. "There was some debate between us," says Moorhead, "but we have buried the hatchet and we are all in the same boat now." USB Implementers Forum chairman Jeff Ravencraft declined to be available for comment. While USB 3.0 devices are coming soon, consumers won't immediately see all the benefits. "You can get the USB 3.0 speeds only when one 3.0 device connects to another," says Gartner's Kleynhans. So the latest SuperSpeed USB-enabled devices connecting to older PCs running USB 2.0 or lower will experience data transfer rates that are much slower. Killing FireWire USB 3.0 is likely to signal the death of FireWire/IEEE 1394, a competing interface standard also known as i.Link and Lynx. Today, the industry is bifurcated between IEEE 1394 and USB 2.0. Many devices support both, though a single standard would be optimal. "If we are all aligned, we are saving money and development time for the industry," says Moorhead. With Apple seemingly taking step away from FireWire, it seems like USB could gain the upper hand. Apple's newly introduced MacBook computers lack a FireWire port and instead has USB. MacBook Pro still sports FireWire 800. That leaves Sony as one of the few remaining proponents of the standard. "FireWire stably declining in most markets and USB 3.0 will continue that trend," says O'Rourke. "We could see USB emerge as the standardization of a high-speed interconnect." Monday's first USB 3.0 developer conference will be a big step towards that, say experts. "It's for everyone in the USB value chain, from chip makers to software makers to learn the new USB standard and get on it," says O'Rourke. Photo: (Teo/Flickr) 
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 15 Nov 2008 | 7:03 pm Facebook removes Italian neo-Nazi pages (CNET)CNET - Facebook pulled several Italian neo-Nazi pages from its Web site following a public outcry and complaints from European regulators that the pages promoted violence against gypsies.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 15 Nov 2008 | 6:51 pm Users will Help Craft Games of the Future, Exec Says - PC World
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 15 Nov 2008 | 6:48 pm Target’s pre-Black Friday 2008 toys coupon bookFROM GAMERTELL - There’s one game coupon (Mario Kart for Wii) and an iDog Dance coupon, as well as several other geek and tech toy coupons. Clik through for a list and a link to printable coupions… Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 15 Nov 2008 | 6:05 pm MySpace and Facebook In 2009: Battle Of The BooksTwo “tell all” books about the world’s biggest social networks will be published in 2009. The first, set to be published on March 17, 2009, is Wall Street Journal editor Julia Angwin’s Stealing MySpace: The Battle to Control the Most Popular Website in America (you can pre-order it here). The second is Fortune Senior Editor David Kirkpatrick’s upcoming book on Facebook called The Facebook Effect. Kirkpatrick is still writing the book, which he announced in August. From what we’ve heard, the two books won’t be very similar in their approach or tone. Angwin has been working on her book since early 2007, and probably waited way too long to finish it. Most of the interesting tidbits about MySpace have long ago been published. About half the book, we’ve heard, is dedicated to the ongoing troubles the company has had with Brad Greenspan, who also serves as the book’s primary source.
Kirkpatrick has started a fan page on Facebook to chronicle the book writing effort. He’s also started blogging regularly on Facebook (the posts are about Facebook and are also hosted by Facebook). The early tone of these stories is…very, very positive. Facebook is giving Kirkpatrick deep access to executives for the book, we’ve heard from sources. Which explains the overly-positive tone. According to a source at MySpace, Angwin had exactly zero access to MySpace executives for her book. Books about current events are starting to make less and less sense. By the time they’re finished the stories in them are usually old news. That’s certainly the case with Angwin’s MySpace book. Perhaps Kirkpatrick will write a little more quickly. Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors Source: TechCrunch | 15 Nov 2008 | 5:41 pm Is Obama Ready To Be A Two-Way President?Where there’s victory, there’s also opportunity… This Presidential election was profound in its results. Obama won both the Electoral College vote 364 to 163 and the popular vote 53% to 46% with roughly 120,000,000 votes cast. This election was the first in 50 years, in which there was no incumbent President or Vice President from either party competing for the Presidential nomination. Close to 65% of the American population voted in this election, its highest turnout since the election of 1908. With Obama’s wins in key “swing states” including Ohio, Florida, Colorado, and Pennsylvania, this election was nothing short of a landslide victory that fundamentally redrew America’s political dynamics. A Democrat had not won Virginia and Indiana in a generation.
Credit: CNN But let’s examine the election another way, one that may bring to life a different picture of how Obama earned his place in history. His campaign both redrew political lines and also forever changed the way candidates reach out to constituents. Online tools such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter contributed to the netting of record-breaking campaign funding and the staggering galvanization of a younger generation of first-time voters who truly made an impact and a difference. The Obama campaign, for example, outspent McCain nearly three-to-one, which was a testament to the capabilities of technology and the corresponding impact of sociology let loose on the Web. The Obama campaign leveraged multiple technology platforms and social immersion strategies to engage constituents directly, raising an astounding $660 million in campaign contributions. They went directly to the people. The Obama team, for example befriended almost 130,000 friends on Twitter with an almost equal amount following him.
On Facebook, the Obama page boasted over three million fans compared to McCain’s 618,000.
YouTube also swayed towards Obama with a network of 358,000 to 191,000, with the Obama camp posting over 1,800 videos compared to McCain’s 330. These videos accounted for 110 million views. If you compare the other social networks and communities from FriendFeed to MySpace to Flickr, the stats are asymmetrical in Obama’s partiality. Many of these two-way tools however, were simply used as broadcast mechanisms to send updates, solicit contributions, provide updates, and to also rally and unite supporters, albeit successfully. Reaching the other 46% My question is: What if these same social media tools where deployed to not only communicate “to” constituents, but also to listen and interact with supporters as well as those who don’t currently endorse the President-elect? Over 46% of America voted against Barrack Obama, with 22 states going to John McCain, regardless of weight in the Electoral College. Either way you look at it, that’s still a significant portion of America who didn’t believe #change or #hope were attributes of the Obama campaign. These voters believed their future lay with another candidate. Whether you’re a Democrat, Republican, Independent or member of the Green Party, you cannot overlook the power of real world community relations combined with the reach and engagement of online social communities and networks to change politics as usual. If Obama dedicates a team aside from the outbound crew that “pushes” content through social channels in order to strategically reach, listen to, and embrace the 46% who voted against him, he might be able to run a truly democratic term. It could also curtail the necessity to campaign as much while in office in order to focus on the issues we elected him to fix All signs and words emanating from the Obama camp and Mr. Obama himself, point to a strategy of leveraging today’s powerful, two-way bridges of communication. In a text message sent to supporters on the eve of the election, he reaffirmed that they will be part of the Presidency moving forward, “We have a lot of work to do to get our country back on track, and I’ll be in touch soon about what comes next.” But perhaps the most revealing promise that showed Mr. Obama will run his office for all the people of the United States, not just those who voted for him, was shared through his words on November 4th:
His first step towards bringing the vision of running a cross-party campaign is the launch of Change.gov, a portal for transparency and interaction during, and hopefully past, the transition. In a sense, Change.gov is a simple and engaging site, but also highly intricate in its goals to give voters a voice. It is a resource center for sharing information, updates, jobs, and also provides a channel for people who share their vision, concern, and ideas with the President and his advisors through text, images or video. Mr. Obama offers this message to visitors:
Change.gov is the first step in a long road of reshaping the dynamics of politics and communication with voters. They’re on the right track however. Obama’s history-making campaign that fused community relations with social sciences, after all, carried him to the Democratic nomination and also the Oval Office. Mr. Obama and his team have cultivated and collaborated with a database of millions of people that spans a sophisticated contact relationship management infrastructure that spans across the real world to all popular social networks. With an elaborate and revolutionary channel that will only grow with his Presidency, Obama takes office with a powerful new medium that may eclipse the reach and drive of traditional broadcast media. But, what about those who voted against him? What’s the channel for Obama to ask, “Why didn’t I get your vote?” Is it Change.gov or is it through the combination of inbound and outbound engagement that will unearth the key concerns that offer genuine potential for not just listening, but also intelligent response and earned support? It’s a two way street. This isn’t just about broadcasting content through new channels or merely soliciting feedback, participating in popular networks or actively listening. It’s the ability to identify and internalize themes to precipitate change and earn support through action—not just words. For the first time, the U.S. President can cultivate grassroots communities directly where people create, discover, and share information online. He is already thinking in this direction, as evidenced by his intention to record the weekly Presidential address on Youtube, in addition to broadcasting it over the radio. The videos will be hosted on Change.gov, with the first one already recorded. Other opportunities to engage with citizens online include:
This is how a President, or any politician or business for that matter, can authentically connect with the people formerly known as the audience—in the real world. Treat us like customers Most, successful businesses around the world place customers at the center of everything. Before the Web, for instance, Nordstrom built its engendering foundation on world-class, and now world famous, customer care. There’s an extraordinary opportunity here for the White House to leverage these new and influential channels of conversation to embrace and cultivate voters as if they were customers, winning market share, one person at a time. This is an era in which information is democratized. The Web potentially offers a live and unfiltered looking glass into the office of the Presidency and also the thoughts, insights, support, satisfaction, and grievances of the American people. The Web cuts through political tape to spotlight the issues that matter most to the electorate. It creates the foundation for people to participate in a truly democratic, crowd-sourced Government that can directly channel their discontent or new ideas. It’s through this collaboration that any public official, particularly the President, could continually maintain a real-time pulse of the country to learn from the very human effects and responses to government actions to run a more in-tune and effective administration. People shouldn’t only have a voice during an election time; listening and responding should be an ongoing practice and process of any office. This is a political ecology rooted in sociology and conversations. It’s the art and science of stripping down the politics to reveal the truth. The President can’t satisfy everyone, that’s just the reality. It’s human nature to disagree. This President-elect is not purporting to be perfect, but it seems he’s honestly willing to learn. With a national chief technology officer in place, combined with an informed engagement team versed in social sciences and psychology, he can use technology and two-way channels to not only increase economic efficiencies and boost education and media literacy, but also to “listen” to those influential beacons in order to continue to redraw, or potentially erase, party lines. In my techtopian dreams, I hope that these incredible networks remain a constant source of conversation to extend beyond campaigning, but also collaborative governance that unites people. It’s not about being Republican or a Democrat, it’s about representing the majority of the people, their views, passions, ambitions and struggles, in order to be a representative of the people for the people. This is Obama’s opportunity to use the tools and channels of today’s emerging voter demographics to rewrite the future of politics, while serving the best interests of the American people in the process. Sometimes the best advisors and cabinet members are the very people who elected that person into office, and maybe, just maybe, also those who voted against him in the first place. If the Obama camp reads this, I’m more than happy to release @obamacares and @whitehouse cares on Twitter. I held them for you. Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. Source: TechCrunch | 15 Nov 2008 | 4:33 pm Wal-Mart Orders Internet Not To Tell People It Will Sell Wiis For $224 On Black Friday
Yes, Wal-Mart, you can put the genie back in the bottle! The problem, of course, is that the ad doing the rounds is a fake. A cease and decist letter went to CrunchGear, among others. Here's Arrington, pretending that he doesn't know what Photoshop is: Walmart claims both that the ad is copyrighted and otherwise proprietary information. But they also claim it is inaccurate, which suggests that it’s fake. I don’t see how it can be both. It's actually going to be $425, according to the Black Friday sites. Walmart Wants It Both Ways. We Say No. [TechCrunch] Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 15 Nov 2008 | 4:00 pm
|
Continuing with the 
Do you remember 
Facebook just added another extremely useful feature for users, and in doing so took out a slew of applications that do that same thing. You can now get a weekly email telling you, simply, which friends have 
According to 
Google’s 
AOL is on a product-cutting spree. In addition to the 
I am a Fred fan. Or I guess I was a Fred fan. Fred was an alternative rock station on XM that played some deep tracks that exposed where bands like U2, REM, Cure and others got their sounds influenced from. XM radio has euthanized Fred and other themed genre stations, in efforts to merge their networks. I am not the only one sad.
Don’t expect the same treatment from Kirkpatrick, who’s an awesome journalist but is rumored to be writing a “love affair of a book” about Facebook, according to one source. 
