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Ratchet, Bond to be bundled with PS3s at Best Buy for Black FridayFROM GAMERTELL - A new Black Friday bundle has just been released for the Playstation 3 that offers the 80GB system with a decent game and the latest bond film for $400… MORE » Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 25 Nov 2008 | 8:18 pm HTC to buy Palm?Section: Communications, Cellphones, Smartphones, Mobile
We have increased production on the G1 and Touch DiamondDuring a time when smartphones are taking over the market but economic woes have most players hedging their bets, HTC expects to move 1 million G1 Android phones and a whopping 3 million Touch Diamond phones. These are big numbers considering the G1 is a first generation product that has received fair to good reviews from the press while the Touch Diamond is a hot little Windows Mobile skinned phone that has yet to really make a dent in the USA. Upping production on these two products means HTC is hitting stride in the market. HTC is insulated from the economy and we are not decreasing staffChou denied rumors his company is seeing reduced orders and denied the company is reducing their staff numbers. Is it possible that demand for all HTC phones is defying what is happening around the company? HTC is looking at acquiring a US design companyWhile Chou declined to comment further on the issue, I am naming Palm as the most likely US company. A buyout of the legendary PDA company responsible for the mass adoption of smartphones (in my opinion) would do a few things for HTC but I am not sure it would do enough. Let me explain what I mean. Palm can be had on the cheap. Yesterday, the company announced staff reductions as the US economy enters into a cost-conscious holiday season. Palm’s performance over the past year has been buoyed by the Centro, an inexpensive somewhat-smart phone for the masses. Upscale offerings like the Treo Pro have been slow out of the gate thanks to an expensive unlocked option launch and the ultra-slow adoption of a US carrier means a price outclassing: $549 for a decent phone vs. $199 for the manna from heaven iPhone. Not a tough call for many consumers or business customers. And speaking of the Treo Pro, the phone represents something else. It represents Palm going back to HTC for production. Previously, they had moved away, favoring other manufactuers. Returning to HTC may be the smartest thing Palm ever did as it seems HTC is interested enough to swoop in and kick the tires. HTC has a good look at Palm technology and the new design is the best we’ve seen from Palm in years. Would an acquisition of Palm by HTC do anything for High Tech Computers? The HTC brand is certainly gaining cache in the US as consumers become more aware of their products with impressive units like the Touch, Touch Pro (Fuze), Touch Diamond and others. Does HTC need a business brand? Could HTC bring Palm back to sexy? Source: [Digitimes] Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 25 Nov 2008 | 7:10 pm JVC is bringing HD to Times Square
Its been a while since I’ve been to Times Square, I can’t even draw an image of it in my mind. It just tends to blend in with the rest of New York City for me. Almost commonplace in a way. Now at least there’s something brand new to catch my attention. JVC has announced that it will be bringing the first ever HDTV to the New York City landmark. The screen will display at 720p and be powered by LEDs (1,266,400 of them to be exact). There is no mention of a contrast ratio, but with a size of 19’ by 34’, I doubt many people will be looking for that sort of thing. The screen will hang just one story above Times Square at Broadway and 43rd. There will also be a new 71’ LED ticker below the screen, and the JVC globe beneath it will be refurbished for the HD screen’s activation on December 2nd. JVC plans to use the screen to show promotions that the company is running and “seasonal, promotional and product-related original content.“ There’s no word of the original material, though it will hopefully show just how much better HD is than all the other screens in Times Square. It should be something interesting to look at if you happen to be passing by, but I doubt it will really draw anyone to the landmark that wouldn’t go there already. Plus, it must be decent marketing, as the screen will have 9’ tall neon, JVC letters above it. Read [JVC] Full Story » | Written by Shawn Ingram for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 25 Nov 2008 | 6:06 pm Microsoft creating an iPhone competitor?FROM APPLETELL - A little late to the party, it appears as if Microsoft has finally decided that they, too, want to make their own phone to market and sell. MORE » Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 25 Nov 2008 | 5:35 pm I Was A Pre-Teen Christian Supercomputer!
Let me tell you a little bit about Colby. Ever since I was ten, Colby has been a part of me, like a small, sentient circuit board lodged in my brain. He wasn't always like this. When I first met him, he was autonomous: a Moloch Machine, a literal deus ex. Beneath the brim of his red baseball cap, unblinking eyes bulbously stared, plunged, hypnotized. In a contractionless castrati monotone, he sing-songed his teachings, and over many weeks and months, I memorized them until some remnant of his programming seeped into my own. And who was Colby? A giant Christian supercomputer, of course. When I was in fourth grade, I was sent to attend North Shore Christian School in Lynn, Massachusetts. The decision was not taken lightly by my parents. On his part, my father could never believe in something as comic as an ephemeral old man who lives on a cloud and whom — after a brief burst of creative creationism in his early twenties — has been spending the last six thousand years of his early retirement kookily obsessing about where and how people are mashing their genitals together. My mother, on the other hand, is culturally Catholic. She is fascinated by the ritual of faith, but otherwise seems to believe that the afterlife will sort itself out with a minimum requirement from her either of guilt or hysterical self-justification. They are both exquisitely good people, and as such, they measure other people's goodness by their kindness. Both, when asked, would agree that any faith that gloats about the eternal suffering of billions is inherently unkind. As such, they are inherently distrustful of many of the permutations of North American protestantism. Still, at the end of my third grade year, it was decided I would be sent to N.S.C.S. My hometown's public schools were commonly reviled, and North Shore Christian School was well known for its excellent reading and math programs at the time, which was very important to my family. The science curriculum was also excellent... with one notable, glaring exception. Classes were small and the teachers were said to be young and focused. Additionally, the music director, Larry Kamp, was a family friend who was well respected by my father for being driven out of the neighborhood church for not being fundamentalist enough: they both shared a love for John Zorn and horror movies. There would be a friendly teacher there to keep an eye on me. But there were some notable drawbacks. None too surprisingly, the science program completely ignored evolution, although it did not go as far as to claim the universe was only six thousand years old. There were also Bible classes and prayer sessions. There was nothing to be done about the prayer sessions, but my father spent a lot of time in the evenings unraveling the mysteries of evolution for me at home — King Kong was once used as a whimsical teaching aide — and my mother, who admired the philosophical problem-solving of Catholics, tried to get me to approach the Bible more critically. Ultimately, with some reservations, my parents enrolled me. And this is where Colby comes in. In the beginning of my fourth grade year, when I was just settling into my new school, my teacher Mrs. Betts announced that we would be doing a class play, called "God Uses Kids." The play sounded exciting, mostly because it had a robot in it named Colby. I repeat: some lucky kid was going to get to be a fucking robot in the school play. Every one else had to play a member of Colby's backyard Bible-study group, the Colby Gang, all of whom wandered around the stage wearing a t-shirt clearly identifying his or her character by name.... not the way Tennessee Williams might have accomplished things, but hey, it worked for the audience. But I digress. That's not the point. The point is: ROBOT. Let that word sink into your inner ten year old for a second. Take any kid on Earth and ask them what they'd rather pretend to be: the robot overlord of each and every one of his classmates or some doofus Christian kid so dumb he not only allows an 8086 to advise him on the affairs of his soul, but walks around with his name airbrushed on the front of his t-shirt. Everyone wanted to be Colby. The competition for the role would shed blood and sweat and — in the case of our class' tearful prima donna, Jonathan — tears and temper tantrums. But no one wanted the role more than I did. I took the script home and started memorizing. The plot seemed no more demented than many of the things I had been exposed to at North Shore Christian School, but as my parents helped me learn the lines, even I couldn't ignore the incredulous arching of their eyebrows. As I sit down to describe the plot now, I find mine following the same upwards trajectory. The play centered around Colby, a sentient Christian super-computer who — for some reason — had set up a secret neighborhood enclave for the Christian kids in the neighborhood. It was called Colby's Clubhouse, and inside, it was a Jim Jones phantasmagoria, in which a dancing, singing Christian robot led a gaggle of Bible-thumping kids in elaborate dance numbers, pausing only occasionally to recite scriptures. The main dramatic arc of the play concerned the arrival of new kid Eddie in the neighborhood: he cracked wise about Jesus, never read the Gospel, and was dismissive not only of the Colby Gang's impromptu hymnals but openly professed an admiration and affinity for that year's hot R&B supergroup, the New Kids on the Block. Eventually, Eddie is shown the error of his ways through the tireless proselytizing of the Colby Gang... as well as the direct intervention of Colby himself, who bluntly informs Eddie that he's going to hell if he doesn't mend his ways. Eventually, Eddie breaks down, falls to his knees, and welcomes Jesus into his heart as his Lord and Savior. At that point, Eddie is welcomed into the Colby Gang as an honorary member, presented with his very own pastel-colored, self-identifying t-shirt, and takes part in the exiting performance of the play's title song, "God Uses Kids." Curtain and applause. As an adult, Eddie's plight concerns me. He was openly referred to as a "jerk" and "bad kid" in the play character notes, and that never bothered me at the time. But let's more closely dissect the plot by placing ourselves in poor Eddie's shoes for a minute. At the beginning of the play, Eddie moves into a new neighborhood. He's alone, depressed and friendless. Worse, he quickly discovers that none of the kids in the neighborhood like to play video games or watch movies or listen to records or play with action figures or throw the football around — you know, normal kid stuff. All they ever want to do is sing about Jesus. Raised non-secularly, poor Eddie finds himself ostracized from his newfound peers from the very start, and understandably compensates by adapting the defense mechanism of a smart aleck personality. He acts out. He differentiates himself through cynical non-conformity, but is soundly hated for it. That's all bad enough, right? Poor Eddie. But consider what happens next. Eddie is invited to the neighborhood clubhouse. Hoping for the acceptance and friendship of the neighborhood's unseen but popular alpha dog — the mysterious but charismatic Colby — he goes, but instead of meeting another kid, the door is locked behind him and a giant metal monster lumbers out of the shadows. Its eyes spit sparks; its servos gnash like rusty teeth. It grabs Eddie by the arms and in a shrill falsetto scream that reverberates with metallic soullessness and the sounds of gears grinding, it inexorably begins to paint Eddie a picture of hell straight out of Bosch. Mewling, fleshless bird things with scissors for beaks. Oceans of boiling feces in which billions bob and drown. Bodies crawling with insects and scabs that never heal. Forced sodomy by impossible geometric shapes. The sound of infants screaming forever and ever and ever and ever. Eddie's mind breaks... as, in fact, had the mind of each and every member of the Colby Gang's under the same nightmarish duress. It is the initiation. He's been accepted. One of us. One of us. For those who have not been exposed to the children's media of fundamentalist Christianity, this will all seem absolutely perverse, even in abstract. Colby is one of many surreal horror shows adopted by North American churches as Christian mascots: another is Salty, a talking, magical Bible with a similar constabulary of prepubescent minions to do his bidding. For atheist adults, the adoption of these soulless anthropomorphisms as prophets of Christ doesn't seem Christian... it seems positively Satanic. But as a kid, I never noticed. In fact, I inexhaustibly pursued the part of Colby, and eventually won it... mostly by dint of being the new kid. About my actual portrayal of Colby, there's little to say: the dad of one of the kids in my class made a wonderful cardboard robot suit for me, and my performance was hailed in the school newspaper as positively Shakespearean. All in all, it was a happy time. Still, as the years have passed, I have become more and more disturbed by the way my childhood, all so briefly, was caught up in the cult of Colby. As an adult, it seems insane and monstrous. How could my teachers not recognize that their play could easily be interpreted as being about a demonically-possessed IBM clone? More importantly, how could my teachers so cavalierly adopt a soulless machine as a prophet for Christ? But it was no accident. In my own accidental embracement of method acting, I once asked my teacher, Mrs. Betts, about Colby's motivation. "Mrs. Betts," I asked. "Is Colby a cyborg?" "What do you mean, cyborg?" "Is he like a human brain inside a robot? Like Robocop?" "Oh, no, John..." Mrs. Betts laughed. "He's just a computer." I was puzzled. "But he believes in God." "Well, of course! We wouldn't be doing the play if he didn't." "If he doesn't have a soul, how can he believe in God?" "Ah, I see where you're going..." Mrs. Betts mused. Then she paused and thought for a second. I'll never forget what she said next. In a few words, Mrs. Betts perfectly expressed something: an ideological contempt for personal meaning that defines the Fundamentalist and militant atheist alike. "No, you're right, Colby doesn't have a soul," Mrs. Betts explained. "He's just been programmed to think he does." If you want to know more about Colby, Wikipedia has an entry about his television show, Colby's Clubhouse, which was on the air for fourteen years. You can also see clips of the show on YouTube. Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 25 Nov 2008 | 3:23 pm Nokia says Symbian deal on track (Reuters)Reuters - The world's largest cell phone maker, Nokia, said on Tuesday its 264 million euro ($339.9 million) acquisition of British software firm Symbian was on track to be closed this year.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 25 Nov 2008 | 3:22 pm GruvMe.com: Failure is Conceivably an Option
Scott, one of our writers, received a wireless microphone for review and was encouraged, as a side trip, to visit GruvMe.com (there's an umlaut over the U, but I don't feel like finding said umlaut and I am purposely leaving out the link so no one stumbles into this trap like I did). Offered up by a PR person in what appears to be a fit of misguided bundling, I find that I cannot recommend GruvMe.com to anyone except the willfully masochistic and the brain-dead.
Source: TechCrunch | 25 Nov 2008 | 3:21 pm Internet access lags in rural areas in Montana (AP)AP - A new study finds that Internet access lags in rural Montana, and is more costly than in other parts of the country.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 25 Nov 2008 | 3:21 pm GruvMe.com: Failure is conceivably an option
What is GruvMe? Once you dig past the empty start-up screen and highly intrusive and ungrammatical sign-up page, you are offered a media player. You can play songs in this media player and you are offered the opportunity to search for artists and buy music using some unnamed method. I searched for “dog,” feeling that perhaps “Hound Dog” or “Three Dog Night” would appear. They did not. Because the music player was playing techno I tried “drum bass.” Again, no results. I then clicked on the song list on the side. The song title was there, but there was no band name. I attempted to search for an artist that I knew was in the list - it was right there on the sidebar - and hunted for Bryan Adams. There was one song - “Summer of 69.” I play it. It plays “Here Without You” by 3 Doors Down. When it was over, it repeated the song. I closed the tab for GruvMe and shivered the way you shiver when you swallow one of those gross lumps of who knows what that you sometimes cough up during the course of a day. GruvMe must fail. In a world of good ideas, it is a me-too media service that can’t even get its core business model - selling the songs people want to listen to - right. These clowns can’t even explain themselves in their FAQ, let alone produce a service worth or time and/or effort.
User generated? Vast selection of titles? Perhaps the creators of GruvMe are mistaking their service for iTunes. Apparently there is also some sort of IE-only site I’m missing, but to dig further would be worthless. If this public-facing “free” service is any indication, the rest can’t be much better. Overall, I find GruvMe to be an affront to all those with a good idea and little capital but the site sets the bar so low that clearly anyone with “Learn CSS in 30 Days” and a dream can now produce any sort of trash. Source: CrunchGear | 25 Nov 2008 | 3:20 pm Salvation Army outfitting certain Dallas-area donation buckets with credit card machines
The last bastion of hope is the old "I don’t have any cash on me" line. Well, that’s fading fast for people in Dallas as the Star Telegram reports that the Salvation Army "will offer credit-card machines at about a dozen of its nearly 500 Metroplex locations for the first time this holiday season." It gets better, too, as the minimum credit card donation is $5 since the charity gets charged 25 cents, plus 2.9% of each transaction. Tossing your spare change in that bucket doesn’t seem so bad after all, huh? [via Gear Diary] Source: Gizmodo | 25 Nov 2008 | 3:15 pm McDonalds Sued by Couple for Nude Pictures - eFluxMedia
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 25 Nov 2008 | 3:14 pm Ocean Acidity Rising at Surprising PaceOceans off the Pacific Northwest are increasing in acidity ten times faster than predicted.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 25 Nov 2008 | 3:07 pm Intel, Micron to Mass Produce 34nm Memory Chips - eWeek
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 25 Nov 2008 | 3:06 pm Free and Easy to Use EASEUS Partition Manager for Home Users Reshapes Disk Without Data LossNEW YORK, Nov. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- EASEUS Software, the innovative and dedicated hard disk management solution provider, today announced a free partition resizer - EASEUS...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 25 Nov 2008 | 3:04 pm SAND Technology Announces Year End ResultsMONTREAL, Nov. 25 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- SAND Technology Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: SNDTF), an international provider of data management software and best practices,...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 25 Nov 2008 | 3:00 pm TriCipher Releases First Zero-Footprint Digital Signature SolutionMySignatureBook 1.1 Simplifies and Speeds Digital Signature Exchange LOS GATOS, Calif., Nov. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- href="http://tricipher.com/">TriCipher , the...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 25 Nov 2008 | 3:00 pm Vacuum Erection Pump improves patient satisfaction
This is the Osbon ErecAid Vacuum Therapy System. This machine makes your pee pee work better when you take oral medication like Cialis, Viagra, or tequila. It looks like a log. It is a penis pump. This is a serious problem facing millions of men. I am trying not to write anything funny, because in my advanced age even my old Mr. Thunderprobe is having a little trouble recently. Not becoming turgid, mind you, but when I exercise… I am very conflicted about writing this post. I am going to stop writing now. Source: Gizmodo | 25 Nov 2008 | 3:00 pm Himfr.com Discusses Development of Gas Sensor ResearchBEIJING, Nov. 25 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- Himfr.com ( href="http://www.himfr.com/products/">http://www.himfr.com/products/ ), one of China's leading B2B search ...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 25 Nov 2008 | 3:00 pm Safari 3.2.1 update released with improved stability - Ars Technica
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 25 Nov 2008 | 2:51 pm Israelis develop software to improve your looks (Reuters)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 25 Nov 2008 | 2:50 pm Blockbuster Offers Direct-To-TV Movies, Like Netflix (Sort of) - CRN
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 25 Nov 2008 | 2:49 pm Symantec Reports Spate of Attacks via Recent Windows FlawSurprised Giraffe writes "Symantec is warning of a sharp jump in online attacks that appear to be targeting a recently patched bug in Microsoft's Windows operating system, an analysis that some other security companies disputed. Symantec raised its Threat Con security alert level from one to two because of the attacks, with two denoting 'increased alertness.' The attacks spotted by Symantec target a flaw in the Windows Server Service that Microsoft says could be exploited to create a self-copying worm attack."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Gizmodo | 25 Nov 2008 | 2:45 pm Cyberbullying case goes to jury - United Press International
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 25 Nov 2008 | 2:42 pm Advanced ID-Card Controller from STMicroelectronics Enhances Secure e-Government ServicesST23YR80 dual-mode IC supporting Elliptic Curves Cryptography and enhanced biometry increases security against electronic attacks GENEVA, Nov. 25...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 25 Nov 2008 | 2:42 pm Acer to roll out 10-inch Aspire One netbook next year
Don’t be surprised to hear that Acer is planning a 10-inch version of its wildly popular Aspire One netbook. It’s the next logical evolution, after all. Plus, you hate surprises. Perhaps you could be surprised that it’s taken Acer this long to build a 10-inch version. DigiTimes is reporting that Acer will be rolling out the 10-inch Aspire One early next year — likely February or March. That appears to be in Taiwan, though, so we’ll see how long it takes those models to make it here. The company will also finally start producing 13.3-inch notebooks next year under the Gateway brand. No pricing or information yet, except that “prices are expected to continue to drop” for notebooks in Taiwan, which seem to generally be priced about 20% higher than here. Source: CrunchGear | 25 Nov 2008 | 2:40 pm AT&T Unwraps New Store Design in WarwickFirst of Its Kind in Rhode Island Open to the Public November 26th in Time for the Holidays PROVIDENCE, R.I., Nov. 25 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- AT&T Inc. (NYSE:Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 25 Nov 2008 | 2:37 pm Verizon goes official with the Samsung Omnia SCH-i910
VERIZON WIRELESS ADDS SAMSUNG OMNIA™ TO ITS TOUCH SCREEN LINEUP Advanced Touch Screen Smartphone Features Samsung’s Innovative TouchWiz™ Technology and the Power of Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional BASKING RIDGE, N.J., and DALLAS – Just in time for the holidays, Verizon Wireless and Samsung Telecommunications America (Samsung Mobile)1 announced the Samsung Omnia™ will be available for order online at www.verizonwireless.com and in business sales channels beginning Nov. 26. The Samsung Omnia’s advanced touch screen, customizable user interface and Windows Mobile 6.1 capabilities are powered by the nation’s most reliable wireless network ensuring that customers can browse the Web and access their e-mails quickly and reliably. It will be available through all sales channels including Verizon Wireless Communications Stores on Dec. 8. The Samsung Omnia is an all-in-one smartphone with state-of-the-art features, including Samsung’s innovative TouchWiz™ user interface which has specially designed widgets to customize and personalize the way customers use the phone. These bright and colorful icons provide a one-touch access point to customers’ favorite and most commonly used applications and features. The Samsung Omnia also features a full on-screen QWERTY keyboard for fast text messaging, mobile IM and e-mail messages. The haptic feedback on the touch screen provides subtle vibrations to confirm selections; and an optical mouse provides easy navigation with the swipe of a finger. The Samsung Omnia supports Opera 9.5 Mobile Browser for a smooth Web browsing experience. With Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, customers have access to a powerful personal computing experience in a slim, compact device. Microsoft Outlook Mobile keeps customers connected to e-mail, schedules and contacts; and Office Mobile enhances productivity with the ability to manage Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents – all while on-the-go. The Samsung Omnia is enhanced by a high-quality 5.0 megapixel camera with digital zoom and power LED flash, camcorder, stereo Bluetooth® wireless technology and Wi-Fi technology that helps customers capture special moments and stay connected to friends and family anytime, anywhere. Key features and capabilities of the Samsung Omnia from Verizon Wireless include: Full HTML Web browser with touch navigation For more information on Verizon Wireless products and services, customers can visit a Verizon Wireless Communications Store, call 1-800-2 JOIN IN or visit www.verizonwireless.com. Business customers should call 1-800-VZW-4BIZ or contact their Verizon Wireless Business Sales Representative. Source: CrunchGear | 25 Nov 2008 | 2:33 pm As Tech Job Cuts Mount, Layoff Rumors Pervade The Valley [Voices]By Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron’s, Tech Trader Daily When the Internet and telecom bubble burst, Silicon Valley jobs evaporated: by 2005, California’s Santa Clara County–which includes San Jose, Palo Alto, Cupertino, Mountain View and other tech-focused towns–had given up more than 20 percent of its total job base, a loss of over 200,000 jobs. So how bad will it get this time around? Well, here’s what we know so far. California’s overall employment rate hit 8.2 percent in October, up from 7.7 percent in September, to the highest level since September 1994. Now, that’s not just the tech industry hurting: the construction industry in the state has lost 69,500 jobs this year, for instance. In Santa Clara County, the jobless rate stands at 6.9 percent; San Francisco is lower, at 6 percent, while San Matero County, home to venture capital’s Sand Hill Road, is down at 5.4 percent. Slightly worse off are the East Bay counties of Alameda, at 7.1 percent, and Contra Costa, at 7 percent. The national jobless rate stood at 6.5 percent in October. Source: Gizmodo | 25 Nov 2008 | 2:30 pm ‘fix’ USB drive with passive port cover
The problem with USB flash drives is the damn cover. It’s impossible not to lose and the slider covers seem so janky but this design solves everything. Just look at it. Brilliant! The silicon cover naturally expands and covers the male plug when it’s not in the computer. To bad it’s just a concept so until it hits the market, I’ll stick with my wooden thumb drives. Source: CrunchGear | 25 Nov 2008 | 2:20 pm Panyu M&M Plans Import of Environmental Protection Technology Equipment to ChinaFOSHAN, China, Nov. 25 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- MyStarU.com, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: MYST; Frankfurt Stock Exchange: TQF) announced today its subsidiary, Panyu M&M...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 25 Nov 2008 | 2:16 pm Paragon Technologies' SI Systems Brand Receives an Order Totaling Approximately $3.4 MillionEASTON, Pa., Nov. 25 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Paragon Technologies, Inc. (Amex: PTG), a leading supplier of "smart" material handling systems and ...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 25 Nov 2008 | 2:15 pm Review: Spider-Man, Batman swing onto consoles (AP)AP - While superheroes may have taken over Hollywood, the video-game world has been harder for them to conquer. Sure, recent games featuring Iron Man and Spider-Man have sold well, but they haven't fired up gamers the way that a typical "Grand Theft Auto" or "Madden NFL" release does.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 25 Nov 2008 | 2:13 pm X-Ray Vision Camera Lens Doesnt Require You To Collect Bazooka Joe WrappersBy Andrew Liszewski It seems the dream of x-ray vision is no longer limited to the back pages of comic books, Popular Science, or Bazooka Joe premium catalogs. For just $199 from DavidSteele.com you can...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 25 Nov 2008 | 2:12 pm Male Lizards Do Push-Ups to Get AttentionWhen a male anole lizard wants to alert others he does four-legged push-ups.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 25 Nov 2008 | 2:07 pm iCharge eco: A green energy source for mobile gadgets (but it’s Japan-only)
Tokyo-based electronics company Links International today unveiled the iCharge Eco [JP], a solar charger for multiple mobile devices that goes on sale in Japan November 29. The iCharge measures just 107.5×51.5×15.3mm and weighs 80 grams. It delivers a current of DC5.0 to 5.5V at 600mA and comes with a lithium polymer battery (power: 1,350mAh). Users need 15 hours to charge the iCharge battery via solar energy, 5 hours via USB and 3.5 hours via a wall adapter. The iCharge supports a heap of portable devices (PSP, Nintendo DS/DS Lite, the iPhone 3G, various iPod models, Japanese cell phones, Blackberry models, etc.) via a number of various adapter plugs it comes with. Buyers will be able to choose between black, green, white, red, pink and blue versions. The iCharge eco is Japan-only and costs $100. Source: CrunchGear | 25 Nov 2008 | 2:04 pm Most of the time, video game addiction isn’t addiction at all
Well look at that, most gamers who are “addicted” to gaming aren’t addicted at all. That’s the conclusion of the first clinic set up to help gaming addicts get off the smack, Amsterdam’s Smith & Jones Center . One problem: 90 percent of the people who are labeled addicted are merely socially weird. Let me explain. Clinical addiction makes you go into withdrawal after prolonged separation from the drug/substance/whatever. (See Tropic Thunder for a humorous take on drug addiction.) Take away World of Warcraft from the average kid and, at worst, the kid will be bored to tears. (I fit into this category. I play the game a lot for lack of anything better to do.) So rather than treat this 90 percent as addicts, it would be better to give them social support: make sure the players aren’t isolated or being bullied or otherwise intimated; make sure they have useful hobbies—reading things other than message board flame wars—that improve their lives; give these people an outlet where they can feel “accepted” (one kid said he plays games all day because it was his only “accepted” place); and so on. So all these stories you see of kids being “addicted” to video games, they’re largely a load of bunk. Source: CrunchGear | 25 Nov 2008 | 2:01 pm MSI Wind U100, Overclocked With Liquid Nitrogenjames writes "What do you get when you combine a MSI Wind U100 notebook with liquid nitrogen? The new Intel Atom frequency World Record ... and some damn cool pictures! A large copper put is used, sitting on top of the gpu and chipset, and cold transfer through the original heatsink plate to the CPU. This was cooled down to about -20 to achieve the new world mark. (Intel Atom N270 @ 2315mhz) For more information you can check out the original forum thread.Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 25 Nov 2008 | 2:01 pm Review: Samsung Omnia for Verizon WirelessFirst off, someone at Verizon Wireless must have been drunk or asleep at the wheel when they gave the Omnia the green light because it has Wi-Fi. Isn’t Verizon notorious for stripping that feature from every single phone in its lineup? Something tells me the other manufacturers are going to throw a fit over this bit of news. Quick Version: The Omnia boasts just about every feature you’d want from a smartphone and Verizon, surprisingly, left it exactly the way it leaves the Samsung factory. Sure, they added their VZ Navigator app and the VZAppZone but we’re okay with that because they left the Omnia untouched. For a Windows Mobile device with a decent skin Samsung calls the TouchWiz, the Omnia is the clear choice for Verizon Wireless customers. Features
Hardware Samsung devices are inherently lightweight and rather stylish, but the thin plastic screens will always irritate me to no end. I simply cannot stand them and after seeing the damage inflicted on John’s Instinct some time ago I feel weary about sticking this in my pocket. Because of its weight I wonder whether or not the Omnia will hold up to the rigors of daily use. The 5-megapixel AF camera is on par with that of Nokia devices and comes with a bevy of editing apps, various scene modes and a wonky panorama mode that works fairly well. Like any other mobile phone camera, you won’t be capturing any action shots, but it works well for still subjects. Have I mentioned that the Omnia for Verizon Wireless has Wi-Fi? That’s out of left field and one of the best things about this device. The optical mouse on the Omnia is superb and doesn’t hinder your flow when navigating the device. You can choose between a traditional 4-way D-pad-like setup or use it as if it were a computer mouse. A stylus is included but you’ll have to attach it as a charm on the left hand side of the Omnia. I think Samsung’s market research hasn’t shown that we, Americans, aren’t very big on cell phone charms. The 3.2-inch touch-screen is relatively bright and crisp but the 240×400 resolution leaves much to be desired. Again, I can’t help but harp on Samsung about these retched plastic screens. Please, please switch to glass screens or a harder plastic and bump up the resolution. A main menu hard button is located on the side of the top right corner saving you from having to tap the lower right corner of the screen. I’ve never been a fan of the Windows Mobile touch-screen keyboards and the same goes for Samsung’s TouchWiz keyboards. You’re either going to sit and peck or use the stylus. Both are annoyances. Software Snazzy features aside, the Omnia is still just a Windows Mobile device so that in and of itself is major red flag for a number of folks, myself included. The TouchWiz UI immediately draws comparisons to HTC’s TouchFLO 3D UI, which has, in the past, made me forget that I’m fumbling with a WinMo device. So how doth the Samsung’s TouchWiz compare to HTC’s TouchFLO 3D? Well, it’s not as pretty and flashy, but it gets the job done. I’d say Samsung and HTC make the best Windows Mobile devices with the latter making the best ‘skin’. However, Samsung has a few tricks up its sleeve to make up for the not so flashy façade. The reorientation of the screen from portrait to landscape is silky smooth and the sidebar of widgets is super convenient. You can drag widgets from the sidebar to the main screen for a quicker launch. The widgets include a world clock, games, media player, etc. You can bring up the task manager by swiping up from the bottom, which lowers the aggravation of having to dig down into the Windows Mobile menu system. The Omnia’s web browser is Opera 9.5 and is much better than the browser the Instinct has, but it’s still a so-so browser compared to the iPhone’s Safari. If I had to choose between HTC’s TouchFLO 3D interface and Samsung’s TouchWiz, I’d have to go with HTC’s Windows Mobile variant. Application Store Verizon’s app store doesn’t contain anything worth noting, but I did come across the IM+ client and it’s ridiculously priced at $40. The overall interface of the app store is pretty archaic. Overall If you’re in the market for a Windows Mobile device on Verizon then I’d highly suggest the Omnia from Verizon because of the Wi-Fi feature. The HTC Touch Pro is also a superb device on the network, but it lacks Wi-Fi and given the option it’s sort of a no-brainer. The Omnia will be available online starting tomorrow for $250 after a $70 MIR (debit card rebate) and in stores on December 8th. Source: Gizmodo | 25 Nov 2008 | 2:00 pm Lenovo Laptops To Get Disable By Text Message FeatureBy Andrew Liszewski Come 2009, Lenovo will be adding a new feature to their ThinkPad notebooks called ‘Lenovo Constant Secure Remote Disable’ that was co-developed with Phoenix Technologies...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 25 Nov 2008 | 1:51 pm Finally, urine recycler passes astronauts' test - The Associated Press
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 25 Nov 2008 | 1:50 pm Nokia E75 and E72 live shots appear
Nokia let a promo video leak (it was quickly pulled) showing off the Nokia E75 and E72 a few moons ago, and today, some pics surface showing off the QWERTY slider. We have a bit more details thanks to these pics as the phone likely sports a 2.4-inch screen and a somewhat cramped alphanumeric keypad. Still no word on pricing or release date, but that’s par for the course. Those deets will likely leak out next. Source: CrunchGear | 25 Nov 2008 | 1:44 pm Keyboardr: More Fun Than Google Wiki?Are you a fan of keyboard shortcuts? Do you j and k your way through Google Reader? Or Ctrl + Enter (Cmd + Return) to add the "www" and the ".com" when you're browsing the web in Firefox? If ditching the...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 25 Nov 2008 | 1:41 pm Facebook targeted Twitter: report (Reuters)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 25 Nov 2008 | 1:34 pm Mobile Phone May Be Used For Signaling Speed To Other Motorists In ... - AHN
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 25 Nov 2008 | 1:29 pm Cell phone market gloom spreads to Samsung
Source: Gizmodo | 25 Nov 2008 | 1:20 pm Acidic Ocean Threatens Sea LifeImage 1: Rocks dominated with mussels represent a prominent habitat that may be in decline as ocean pH falls and acidity increases. Credit: J.T. Wootton, University of ChicagoImage 2: Dead mussels as well as live mussels with open, eroded shells are possible symptoms of stress from declining ocean pH and increasing acidity. Credit: C.A. Pfister, University of ChicagoImage 3: Aerial view of Tatoosh Island in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Washington, where the study of ocean pH change over eight years was conducted. Scientists took more than 24,519 measurements. Credit: C.A. Pfister, University of ChicagoSource: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 Nov 2008 | 1:15 pm Lenovo Service Disables Laptops With a Text Messagenarramissic writes "Lenovo plans to announce on Tuesday a service that allows users to remotely disable a PC by sending a text message. A user can send the command from a specified cell phone number — each ThinkPad can be paired with up to 10 cell phones — to kill a PC. The software will be available free from Lenovo's Web site. It will also be available on certain ThinkPad notebooks equipped with mobile broadband starting in the first half of 2009. 'You steal my PC and ... if I can deliver a signal to that PC that turns it off, hey, I'm good now,' said Stacy Cannady, product manager of security at Lenovo. 'The limitation here is that you have to have a WAN card in the PC and you must be paying a data plan for it,' Cannady added."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 25 Nov 2008 | 1:10 pm SnapAds: Survival Of The Fittest Meets Madison AvenueIt's rare to hear about genetics and advertising platforms in the same sentence, but new startup SnapAds has put together an impressive ad service that effectively combines the theory of natural selection...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 25 Nov 2008 | 1:00 pm SnapAds: Survival Of The Fittest Meets Madison Avenue
It’s rare to hear about genetics and advertising platforms in the same sentence, but new startup SnapAds has put together an impressive ad service that effectively combines the theory of natural selection with banner ads - with very impressive results. The startup, which shares a number of founders with Weebly (though the two companies are unrelated), has created a system that dynamically adjusts the appearance of banner ads over time to maximize engagement. And it seems to work - a three day trial campaign for a recent film saw an increased clickthrough rate of 1922% over three days (not a typo). To create a campaign, advertisers provide SnapAds with a special Photoshop file containing a number of specially-tagged layers with all of the art and text assets they’d like to potentially display in their banner. Advertisers can create rule sets specifying which layers are allowed to appear together, allowing them to ensure that SnapAds never generates an ad that is nonsensical or potentially offensive. Once all of the rules and assets are in place, the platform can get to work. The process initially begins by displaying ads with a smattering of random combinations of the assets. As time goes by, the system identifies the most successful ads and allows these to “live on”, further modifying them towards perfection as the failures die off. Co-Founder David Rusenko says that a fully refined ad takes around one million impressions, but that the system never stops optimizing. Because user interest in an ad will typically wane after it’s been seen multiple times, SnapAds will continue to modify the ad indefinitely. The platform can also recognize when certain ads are more successful at different times, and will keep multiple branches of an ad “alive”, showing each at the appropriate time. Rusenko says that to use the service advertisers will need campaigns consisting of at least 1 million impressions (SnapAds is not currently self-service), and that each ad is recommended to have 3-6 variables with 2-8 possible values each. Today’s announcement coincides with the launch of a SnapAds-powered campaign on Reddit and Wired for the AXE Detailer (man loofah). While the initial results are promising, it’s too early to tell just how successful SnapAds will be. The system isn’t magic - it can’t automatically generate a new, especially appealing button or image. These assets will all need to be provided by the advertiser, and if there is nothing innovative to work with, SnapAds will only be able to offer slightly different permutations of the same generic ad. That said, provided the ad agencies can come up with a little creativity, the SnapAds service could prove to be very successful.  Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors Source: TechCrunch | 25 Nov 2008 | 1:00 pm Lace Fashions for Men - Jaiden rVa James (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) Jaiden rVa James poses the question: is lace a for women only material? Not according to James. The designer is the model here, and he is showing gender boundaries fade under his...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 25 Nov 2008 | 12:59 pm PlaySpan Raises $16.8 Million For Virtual-Goods MarketplaceWho says raising money is hard these days? PlaySpan makes it look like child's play. The startup, which was literally founded by a 5th grader, just raised $16.8 million in a series B round from existing...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 25 Nov 2008 | 12:59 pm PlaySpan Raises $16.8 Million For Virtual-Goods Marketplace
Who says raising money is hard these days? PlaySpan makes it look like child’s play. The startup, which was literally founded by a 5th grader, just raised $16.8 million in a series B round from existing investors Easton Capital Group, Menlo Ventures, Novel TMT Ventures, and STIC. PlaySpan was founded two years ago by Arjun Mehta, then in the 5th grade, and his father Karl Mehta, who is the CEO. It is a marketplace and micro-transaction payment system for virtual goods in more than 200 different video games. So far this year, more than $50 million worth of transactions have gone through PlaySpan, and the company has reaped revenues in the millions of dollars. The company also sells the Ultimate Game Card through 20,000 retailers, including 7-Eleven, Wal-Mart, Blockbuster, and Rite-Aid. With the stored-value card, players can purchase virtual goods in hundreds more video games, including Everquest, Eve Online, and all EA Games. Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. Source: Gizmodo | 25 Nov 2008 | 12:51 pm Bailout costs more than Marshall Plan, Louisiana Purchase, moonshot, S&L bailout, Korean War, New Deal, Iraq war, Vietnam war, and NASA's lifetime budget -- *combined*!Barry Ritholtz sez,In doing the research for the "Bailout Nation" book, I needed a way to put the dollar amounts into proper historical perspective. Source: Boing Boing | 25 Nov 2008 | 12:49 pm Bailout costs more than Marshall Plan, Louisiana Purchase, moonshot, S&L bailout, Korean War, New Deal, Iraq war, Vietnam war, and NASA's lifetime budget -- *combined*!Barry Ritholtz sez, In doing the research for the "Bailout Nation" book, I needed a way to put the dollar amounts into proper historical perspective. If we add in the Citi bailout, the total cost now...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 25 Nov 2008 | 12:49 pm What Happened To The Digital Music Boom? Ask Apple. [MediaMemo]
That has yet to happen. And now digital revenue — to date, that has chiefly meant sales at Apple’s iTunes (AAPL) — seems to be slowing down. Today’s example: Warner Music Group (WMG), which reported its quarterly numbers today. Those numbers are fine, by the way. Or at least by econalypse standards: Warner posted sales of $858 million and profits of 4 cents per share, both of which were better than Wall Street’s expectations. But while digital revenue was up 28%, to $167 million, that’s a slower growth rate than the previous quarter. And the one before that. The breakdown:
Digital sales still accelerated overall during the last 12 months; they grew 39% and accounted for 18% of Warner’s overall sales. A year earlier, those numbers were 30% and 14%, respectively. But those quarterly numbers don’t augur well, and there’s a good chance they will get worse in the next quarter, because digital sales are now tethered very closely to sales of Apple’s hardware. Get a new iPod (or iPhone), and you’re likely to spend a few dollars at iTunes for some new songs. But if demand for Apple products slackens a bit — perhaps because the company doesn’t have a compelling new iPod, or perhaps because everyone who wants an iPod has one, or perhaps because the economy is terrible — than the same thing will happen to digital growth. Which explains why the industry’s new dream involves generating digital music sales independently of Apple. Through, say Amazon’s (AMZN) digital music store. Or with the mobile carriers and handset makers like Nokia (NOK). Good idea. But it’s not happening in the near future. Source: All Things Digital | 25 Nov 2008 | 12:48 pm Phone scrambler of 1966Someone's got to reproduce these 1966 "phone scramblers" in all their silky, chunky plasticky glory, leaving all but one tiny corner hollow, filling that tiny corner with a modern crypto device. This...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 25 Nov 2008 | 12:45 pm Phone scrambler of 1966Someone's got to reproduce these 1966 "phone scramblers" in all their silky, chunky plasticky glory, leaving all but one tiny corner hollow, filling that tiny corner with a modern crypto device.Wiretap-proof telephone (Jan, 1966) Source: Boing Boing | 25 Nov 2008 | 12:45 pm Selectable Output Control in MakeMAKE's put my latest column, "Selectable Output Control," online -- it describes a proposal to the FCC to allow broadcasters to shut down parts of your home theater while you're watching their channels,...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 25 Nov 2008 | 12:42 pm Selectable Output Control in MakeMAKE's put my latest column, "Selectable Output Control," online -- it describes a proposal to the FCC to allow broadcasters to shut down parts of your home theater while you're watching their channels, and the consequences for Makers.Chances are, you haven't heard of Selectable Output Control (SOC), a proposed digital TV technology that would allow broadcasters or copyright holders to tag their video with a list of receiver-outputs that were allowed to carry it. That's because it's an insane idea.Selectable Output Control Source: Boing Boing | 25 Nov 2008 | 12:42 pm Why does failure inspire some and demoralize others?Stanford Magazine reports on the applications from psychological research Carol Dweck's work, which uses careful experiments to determine why some people give up when confronted with failure, while others roll up their sleeves and dive in.Through a series of exercises, the experimenters trained half the students to chalk up their errors to insufficient effort, and encouraged them to keep going. Those children learned to persist in the face of failure—and to succeed. The control group showed no improvement at all, continuing to fall apart quickly and to recover slowly. These findings, says Dweck, “really supported the idea that the attributions were a key ingredient driving the helpless and mastery-oriented patterns.” Her 1975 article on the topic has become one of the most widely cited in contemporary psychology.The Effort Effect, Carol Dweck's book, "Mindset: The New Psychology of Success" (Thanks, Dad!) Source: Boing Boing | 25 Nov 2008 | 12:39 pm Blockbuster to rent through new on-demand device
YouTube: A ride-through of NIPPER's de_haunts (a "The Haunted Mansion" Counter-Strike: Source map),
Download the map
(Thanks, David, Nick, Jeremy, Dreambank, Waxy, and Justin!) Source: Boing Boing | 25 Nov 2008 | 12:32 pm Train-set in a pocket watch Boing Boing Gadgets celebrates the bottomless creativity of the Pearl River Delta with this pocket-watch that's also a miniature train set. Chugga chugga chugga chugga choo choo!
Miniature train set hardly a Lionel, but it fits in your pocket,
Discuss this on Boing Boing Gadgets Source: Boing Boing | 25 Nov 2008 | 12:18 pm Papercraft turkey Here's something for the less culinarily-inclined this Thanksgiving: a beautiful, glistening perfect papercraft turkey for you to print and fold.
Fun Stuff: Papercraft Turkey Dinner
(via Make) Source: Boing Boing | 25 Nov 2008 | 12:15 pm Blockbuster and 2Wire delivers the MediaPoint Movie Streaming Player It wasn't that long ago, that Blockbuster semi-announced plans to enter the crowded realm of movie streaming devices and sure enough, here is the device. The 2Wire manufactured device, dubbed MediaPoint, doesn't require a Blockbuster subscription and for a limited time is "available for free with the advance rental of 25 first-run movies, TV shows, foreign or classic films from Blockbuster On-Demand (previously Movielink) for $99" So, in other words, the box is $99 and comes with 25 movie rentals. After the initial investment, the movies will be only $1.99.
Can a box save Blockbuster?
Source: Gizmodo | 25 Nov 2008 | 12:14 pm Is the video game industry recession-proof? (CNET)CNET - It would be tempting for those in the video game business to take some recent news -- for instance, that October sales were through the roof, or that the latest World of Warcraft expansion broke the all-time record for single-day PC game sales -- as proof that their industry may be immune from the deep despair confronting the global economy.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 25 Nov 2008 | 12:00 pm To Sell or Not to Sell–That Was the Question for Twitter (But Was Its Answer Right?) [BoomTown]
There are two schools of thought Twitter’s decision not to sell itself to Facebook, as it did not in the fail-whale of a deal that BoomTown reported on yesterday. Here’s my favorite quote from an Internet exec who thought the microblogging service’s decision to turn down $500 million in stock (and some cash) in the hot social networking site was–how can I put this delicately?–stupid: “If Twitter turned down 500m in stock, they should go see a shrink.” But, others disagreed, with another big Web player noting: “Why should Twitter hitch itself to Facebook’s horse, when they don’t have too?” Debate raged, depending on your point of view, with change-averse Twitter users mostly seeming relieved. I am more toward the middle of the road, not knowing–who really does?–what was the best move. Thus, I would agree with a sentiment in an email sent to me yesterday from yet another digital guru: “I think strategic buyers are going to be considered as options for all venture backed companies going forward. Additional rounds of financing are not the given they have been in the past few years. Liquidity is at a premium I’ve never seen before.” Yes, indeed, as in all things, it always comes down to money and means and time. In other words, Twitter has made the big bet that it has plenty of all of it, to transform itself into a real business and killer app before others catch up to it. Right now, its business is deadly simple: A registered user logs in via the Internet or a mobile phone and answers the “What are you doing?” question the service asks in only 140 characters or fewer. But that single feature has allowed the San Francisco-based Twitter to grow to about six million registrations, as reported in October, up 600 percent over the last year. And that’s why Facebook–for all its powerful online social connections–has watched carefully as Twitter has raced past it in innovating in the “status update” arena. And that is also why Facebook wanted to acquire it, to be able to check that important feature off its list, so it could move onto other issues (like finding an advertising model that pays off big). According to many I spoke to about the now-ended discussions between Twitter and Facebook, both sides got along well, felt the fit was a manageable one and the union of the two made sense on many levels–and still does. But, for Twitter, the chance to make a run for the prize was paramount, with a feeling among its investors and execs that the start-up should still take a shot at building its revenues–there are none right now–as well as it had done at building its growth. As for Facebook, it apparently plans to keep the pedal to the metal too, in terms of growth and acquisitions–powering through these bad times economically, in order to emerge victorious when the tides turn. In a prescient piece last week, in fact, Business Week’s Spencer Ante, outlined the Facebook do-or-die strategy. Wrote Ante: “As gloom descends on Silicon Valley, most startups and giants are growing cautious and cutting back. But not Facebook. The social-networking Web site sees a bleak economy as all the more reason to press ahead with aggressive plans for growth. ‘This is not the time for tech companies to be cutting back; this is the time to be hitting the accelerator,’ says Peter Thiel, a Facebook board member and investor. Of course, this was the very same Peter Thiel, who told me in a video interview a year ago that “there was absolutely no bubble in technology.” Well, with tech valuations in the now in the basement (as well as Thiel’s own hedge fund returns) from peaks last year, he’s right–that bubble has surely been popped. As I said before, you just never know, a kind of equivocation that Hamlet spoke about so eloquently in his famous soliloquy in Act Three, Scene One of William Shakespeare’s classic play. It’s in text and video below–the Laurence Oliver version, of course!–because we all could use a little more insight than 140 characters or a post on a digital wall gives to any of us these days: To be, or not to be: that is the question: Source: All Things Digital | 25 Nov 2008 | 11:51 am Astronaut Invents Amazing Space-CupAstronaut Don Pettit has hacked together a MacGuyver-esque coffee cup which works in space. Normally, the lack of gravity means that zero-g sipping has to be done through a straw. Think about it -- when we tip up our cups here on Earth, the liquid inside stays put and the cup effectively moves out of the way allowing the drink to drop into our waiting mouths. That doesn't happen in weightlessness, hence the tubes. This is fine for soda, but a grown up cup of espresso should be supped, not sucked. Pettit's design is remarkably simple. He took a plastic sheet and fashioned it into a cup shape. The key difference is the fold running up one edge, a crease which allows the coffee to climb the side of the cup by capillary action. Check the video of the hack in action. And watch out -- there's math in there. How to Drink Coffee In Space -- Without a Straw [The RAW Feed] 
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 25 Nov 2008 | 11:50 am Acer Will Launch 10 Inch Netbook in February
Acer’s netbooks are set to get bigger and cheaper in the new year, according to Acer Taiwan boss Scott Lin. The company will be launching a 10” version of its Aspire One in February or March of 2009, clearly taking aim at the sweet spot for size and portability already covered by the Eee PC, the Wind and Dell’s Minispiron. Lin also says that he expects prices to keep dropping, although netbooks won’t see the big reductions of the mid range (US$900-1200) models. It’s actually pretty hard to see where things are going in the netbok world. They obviously can’t get any smaller without being useless, and they can’t get that much cheaper. In fact, until Intel starts shipping its dual-core Atom processor, these things are going to have to differentiate themselves on the one thing almost no netbook has yet got right — the keyboard and trackpad. Acer to launch 10-inch Aspire One as early as February next year [DigiTimes] See Also:
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 25 Nov 2008 | 11:19 am Adobe Updates RAW to Support Panasonic Lens Distortion 'Hack'
Adobe has updated its Camera Raw software to version 5.2. It adds a few features that Lightroom users already enjoy (output sharpening and targeted adjustment tools for adjusting images by clicking and dragging) but the most interesting part for us gadgeteers is the support for the Panasonic DMC-LX3. Up until now, users of this camera have been stuck with the bundled RAW converter software, Silkypix. Worse, Silkypix doesn’t then allow conversion to the more open dng, or digital negative, format. This was because of some internal jiggery-pokery by Panasonic. The wide angle (24mm) Leica lens apparently suffers from extreme barrel distortion (straight lines at the edge of an image bow outwards) which Panasonic has been correcting in software. This is fine with jpeg images, which are often heavily processed in camera anyway. But with RAW files, it has been a problem. RAW files are like the negatives of film, and should not be messed around with. RAW data is the data direct from the sensor, delivered to the memory card without any modification. But the Silkypix software has had its RAW decoder tweaked to apply correction to this lens distortion. Adobe has managed to work around this non-standard behaviour with the new Camera Raw update, but at some cost. If you keep the files as they come from the camera, all is well. But if you convert them to dng files, they’ll be tripled in size:
This should be fixed in the future, but for now it seems that Panasonic has messed up, at least from the point of view of the advanced amateurs at whom this camera is targeted. Lightroom will be updated to include support in December. The full list of newly supported cameras:
Camera Raw 5.2 and DNG Converter Available [Lightroom Journal] See Also:
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 25 Nov 2008 | 10:56 am Judge Excludes 3 "John Does" From RIAA SubpoenaNewYorkCountryLawyer writes "In one of the RIAA's 'John Doe' cases targeting Boston University students, after the University wrote to the Court saying that it could not identify three of the John Does 'to a reasonable degree of technical certainty,' Judge Nancy Gertner deemed the University's letter a 'motion to quash,' and granted it, quashing the subpoena as to those defendants. In the very brief docket entry (PDF) containing her decision, she noted that 'compliance with the subpoena as to the IP addresses represented by these Defendants would expose innocent parties to intrusive discovery.' There is an important lesson to be learned from this ruling: if the IT departments of the colleges and universities targeted by the RIAA would be honest, and explain to the Courts the problems with the identification and other technical issues, there is a good chance the subpoenas will be vacated. Certainly, there is now a judicial precedent for that principle. One commentator asks whether this holding 'represents the death knell to some, if not all, of the RIAA's efforts to use American university staff as copyright cops.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 25 Nov 2008 | 10:43 am Found! Someone Who’s Optimistic About the New York Times! [MediaMemo]
But here, for what it’s worth, is a vote of confidence from people who presumably don’t care that the Times has yet to hire an army of semi-pro bloggers: Professional investors. Harbinger Capital Partners, the largest public shareholder in the New York Times (NYT), has purchased yet another block of stock. Last week the fund bought 50,000 shares at $5.12 a piece, according to an SEC filing. The good news: Those shares were worth $6.64 each when the market closed on Monday. That’s a profit of $76,000 in a couple days. The bad news: Harbinger has been steadily acquiring stock since last winter. And over that stretch of time, it has gotten hammered. In March, it owned 28.3 million shares worth $18.43 each — a 20% stake in the company, worth about $521 million. As of yesterday, it owned 28.5 million shares, worth $189 million. Maybe the cognoscenti are onto something, after all. Source: All Things Digital | 25 Nov 2008 | 10:30 am Amazon Kindle 2 Slated For “Early Q1″
The images that surfaced of the new Kindle in October are real - it’s a longer device but not as thick as the original Kindle, and fixes some of the button issues that plague users (like accidental page turns). A larger-screen student version is still scheduled for the first half of 2009. Amazon is slow to turn new versions of the Kindle, which isn’t surprising given that this is their first foray into actual devices. I still think they’d be better off licensing the platform and letting the factories in China iterate more often on the Kindle - from what we hear a bunch of new ebook products are about to hit the market, and some of them may be real competition to Amazon. Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. Source: TechCrunch | 25 Nov 2008 | 10:27 am New NYC Bike Rack Looks Very Stealable
This is New York City’s rather poor new bike rack design. The circular rack was the winner of the CityRacks Design Competition, and was picked from 200 entrants, most of which were equally impractical. The nameless hoop was designed by Denmark-based Ian Mahaffy and Maarten De Greeve. So, what’s wrong with this rack? It looks like it would last about five minutes on the NYC streets — that tiny, single-point mounting would probably be easier to break than most locks. We have no idea what is wrong with the standard bike rack that works everywhere else — the inverted, squared-off, U-shaped loop. Placed the correct distance apart, these racks are easy to use and take up hardly any space. Better still, they can’t be snapped off at the root. It’s easy to see why New York went with a fancier design. After all, street furniture can define a city. But if the aim is to encourage bike use, then valuing aesthetics over practicality is probably a bad move. We’ll see how these do in practice — the new design will be the standard rack design in the city from now on. And the Winners Are… [NY City Racks via Bicycle Design]
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 25 Nov 2008 | 10:21 am TiVo launches TiVo MobileSection: Video, Content, DVD Players/DVRs, Portable Video, Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile, Web, Websites
Let’s say you’re busy catching the train to come home from work and your favorite show is on, but no one is home to record it for you. All you would have to do is take out your phone, navigate to m.tivo.com and then schedule a recording for that show. This website works on any phone, on any network, from any carrier and you don’t even have to own a TiVo to use the site. If you just want to check out the latest TV shows, you can easily do so on your phone. Like all mobile websites, they are specifically designed to be viewed on a small screen, so the TiVo mobile site will probably look very nice and not be a strain on your eyes to read. Jim Denney, Vice President of Product Marketing at TiVo, had this to say about their new website:
In addition, you are able to get premium content from Amazon Video on Demand, Jaman, and videos from YouTube. In a couple of weeks, you will even be able to stream movies and your favorite TV shows straight from Netflix. Right now, the m.tivo.com website is on Beta, and will be fully released within the coming weeks. A copy of the press release is below. Check it out [TiVo]
Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 25 Nov 2008 | 10:02 am QuickPWN Adds Street View to iPod Touch
The excellent iPhone jailbreaking tool, QuickPWN, has been updated to crack the v2.2 iPhone and iPod Touch software. Jailbreaking your iPhone lets you install third party applications other than those available from the iTunes App Store, and with QuickPWN it is easy -- you just click a few buttons on screen and wait. After it's done, you'll see two new application icons on the iPhone's home screen, Cydia and Installer. Both of these can be used to browse new applications and to download them direct to the iPhone. For iPod Touch users, there is the added bonus of Google Street View, the feature left out of the v2.2 update. A couple of things that QuickPWN doesn't do: It won't unlock your iPhone from your cell carrier, and it won't work on the second generation iPod Touch (the one with the curved back and volume buttons). For everything else, its a free download for Windows or OS X. Product page [QuickPWN]
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 25 Nov 2008 | 9:49 am Musical Chairs at MSN: Here’s a Partial Scorecard of What’s What [BoomTown]
Here’s part of an internal memo BoomTown obtained about some small, but interesting, changes at Microsoft’s MSN unit, sent out by the GM of its Global Media Group, Greg Nelson, which is under the leadership of–well, frankly–a confusing panoply of execs. Essentially, Nelson now reports to Satya Nadella, SVP of the Search, Platform and Advertising Group (think engineering and search) and Erik Jorgensen, Corporate VP of MSN (think business and other stuff). In addition and apropos of nothing, Yusuf Mehdi serves as SVP of the Online Audience Business and Brian McAndrews is SVP of the Advertiser & Publisher Group. Also, there is a Windows Live group that does mail, communications and groups too, and a lot of other digital bosses too numerous to mention. You can see why I have been haranguing Microsoft (MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer for a little digital clarity, especially around its consumer digital businesses and brands. But Microsoft–like a lot of tech-born businesses–loves to overdesign! Ballmer has been searching for an overall head of that business to sort it all out, since Kevin Johnson left in July, whose massive duties were divvied up. While he has looked at a lot of execs from inside and outside the company, I recently posted that Ballmer’s latest quarry is former Yahoo tech star Qi Lu. Only Ballmer knows for sure, many have told me, keeping his decision-making on the issue close to the vest. But, as many insiders and outsiders familiar with the business have noted to me, whoever takes that role as its digital guru has some very hard decisions to make in all its arenas from search to advertising to content. There has been no share growth in search for Microsoft, for example, where archrival Google (GOOG) dominates, even as there have been billions of dollars of investment in data centers and engineers. And it will fall to the person Ballmer ultimately selects as digital head to figure out what to do next. Microsoft’s failed attempt to buy Yahoo (YHOO) was one way of dealing with the many issues Microsoft is facing, as well as its current interest in buying Yahoo’s search business. In any case, here are some new changes at MSN, in Nelson’s words: · Network Programming, led by Rob Bennett–This group will prioritize investments against Network priorities, shape audience strategy, set Network standards, and sponsor cross-network initiatives. · Network Entry Points, led by Steve Cvengros–This group will focus on increasing exposure, distribution and discoverability of assets by optimizing and expanding entry points to the Network. · Vertical Programming, led by Sandy Henson–This group will create content experiences to deeply engage the audience and grow Network value in vertical areas. All channels will move into this group. · Monetization and Analytics, led by Dell Wilkinson–This group will focus on improving yield by making MSN easier for advertisers to buy and APS to sell through inventory insights and APS engagement. · Chief of Staff, Eva Corets–This role is responsible for driving team processes and business rhythm, and assisting with prioritization of network projects and interaction with cross-division and cross-Microsoft teams. Source: All Things Digital | 25 Nov 2008 | 9:13 am 1980s-style pin clock for unrepentant yuppies, cenobites
Remember Pin Art, the classic 1980s executive toy that invariably depicted a handprint or the side of someone's face? Now they make a clock that displays the time in similar fashion. It has 3,000 pins, requires D-cell batteries, and costs a brow-furrowing $70. You Can Hear a Pin Clock [Uncommon Goods] Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 25 Nov 2008 | 8:30 am Boast love of obsolete technology with T-shirt
To be proud of one's status as a has-been is a smug pleasure we should all look forward to. Signals' T-Shirt, "Traveling 33 RPM in an iPod world," could even be purchased now and then stored until about 2040. Finally worn, it will by that time be completely baffling to everyone, even oneself.
"Traveling celluloid cylinders in a punchcard world," anyone? Product Page [Signals] Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 25 Nov 2008 | 8:20 am Google Chrome Tops Browser Speed TestsThinSkin writes "So many Web browsers, so little time. The folks at ExtremeTech have assembled the ultimate browser test to determine which Web browser is king. From speed tests to rendering tests, different browsers traded off wins, but Google Chrome came out on top."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 25 Nov 2008 | 8:15 am Miniature train set hardly a Lionel, but it fits in your pocket
On close inspection, this otherwise unspectacular stocking stuffer turns out to have two miniature trains whirling around its rim. Apparently, the wind-up mechanism plays "I've been working on the railroad" when the timepiece is opened. Thrilling stuff! Mr. Christmas Musical Animated Train Pocket Watch [QVC] Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 25 Nov 2008 | 8:10 am Watching the Times Struggle (and What You Can Learn) [Voices]By Seth Godin, Blogger, Seth’s Blog Page by page, section by section, the influence of The New York Times is fading away. Great people on an important mission, but their footprint is shrinking and the company is losing stock value and cash and power and the ability to have the impact that they might. Today’s Sunday magazine has a cover story on Jennifer Aniston. Of course! “All the News That’s Fit to Print” is the heart of the problem. It was never that, of course. It was “All the News That Fits.” Source: All Things Digital | 25 Nov 2008 | 8:05 am A transparent automatic tape dispenser
As much as I love these pleasantly youthful transparent gadgets from The Wireless Catalog, I'm not entirely convinced that a stapler or tape dispenser requires quite so many moving parts. Or, indeed, that they need to cost nearly $40. Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 25 Nov 2008 | 8:05 am For Laid-Off Journalists, Free Blog Accounts [Voices]By Jenna Wortham, Technology Reporter, The New York Times It’s a long way from $700 billion, but the media start-up Six Apart is introducing its own economic bailout plan. The TypePad Journalist Bailout Program offers recently terminated bloggers and journalists a free pro account (worth $150 annually) on the company’s popular blogging platform. In addition to the free yearly membership, the 20 to 30 journalists who are accepted will receive professional tech support, placement on the company’s blog aggregation site, Blogs.com, and automatic enrollment in the company’s advertising revenue-sharing program. Source: All Things Digital | 25 Nov 2008 | 8:04 am UFC to Fighters: Appear in Videogames or You Don’t Fight [Voices]By Michael Thompson, Blogger, Ars Technica Sports-themed video games are huge moneymakers for publishers, but using the likeness of a professional athlete in these games is proving to be an increasingly contentious undertaking. The upcoming UFC Undisputed 2009 serves as the most recent example of this, as reports surfaced yesterday that popular fighters Jon Fitch and Josh Koscheck were on the outs with the Ultimate Fighting Championship organization. The reason? They were being asked to sign away their likeness rights for life. For Fitch, the disagreement has become so intense that he had already been cut by the company. Fitch was let go by the organization earlier this week because he had refused to sign a lifetime contract that would have given the game publisher THQ (THQI) the right to use his likeness for UFC games. The presentation of the contract rubbed him the wrong way, according to an interview he did with Hardcore Sports Radio: “They basically kicked the door open, guns blazing, pointed it in our face and said, ‘Sign this or you’re going to pay.’” Source: All Things Digital | 25 Nov 2008 | 8:03 am Hey, Magazines, Are You In or Are You Out? [Voices]By Simon Dumenco, Columnist, Ad Age, The Media Guy I’ve got a few questions for American magazine publishers: Are you in or are you out? Do you still believe in the very act, the very business, of publishing? And do you still believe in presenting carefully selected words and pictures–expertly produced information–for a targeted audience? Lately, some companies seem to be answering yes–for instance, Ziff-Davis, which announced last week that it is discontinuing its PC Magazine as a print product but has been investing in its Internet strategy and is therefore ready and able to continue publishing the title on the Web. Source: All Things Digital | 25 Nov 2008 | 8:01 am A clear starry night, for when you don't have one The sight of it is somehow both enticing and repulsive: an umbrella sewn throughout with an orderly twinkling of glowing stars.
Our picture here is from a print catalog, which casts it in earnest tones—"The world's most spectacular umbrella, thanks to sophisticated fiber-optic technology"—but it is the example below, from a less measured source ($29.98!), that brings out its true class.  Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 25 Nov 2008 | 8:01 am Coming at You! NFL Looks at 3-D [Voices]By Sarah McBride, Staff Writer, The Wall Street Journal With sports fans still getting used to their high-definition television sets, the National Football League is already thinking ahead to the next potential upgrade: 3-D. Next week, a game between the San Diego Chargers and the Oakland Raiders will be broadcast live in 3-D to theaters in Los Angeles, New York and Boston. It is a preliminary step on what is likely a long road to any regular 3-D broadcasts of football games. The idea is a “proof of concept,” says Howard Katz, NFL senior vice president of broadcasting and media operations. “We want to demonstrate this and let people get excited about it and see what the future holds.” Source: All Things Digital | 25 Nov 2008 | 8:00 am Was Ebay’s BillMeLater Acquisition A Huge Blunder?
The credit markets were already a wreck in October, with accelerating defaults on credit card accounts. And worse, the securitization markets were starting to shut down, meaning credit companies couldn’t get the debt off their books. Still, a BillMeLater investor said not to worry. Their model is different than the credit card companies, he said, because they only issue credit on a per-transaction basis. Fast forward a month and a half, though, and things are much worse. Credit default rates are expected to hit 10% next year as personal bankruptcies soar, and the securitization markets are flat out closed. And I don’t really buy the argument that BillMeLater has a better model than the credit card companies. Card companies can (and do) lower credit limits in bad times, so they don’t have much more exposure on credit limits compared to BillMeLater. Also, most of BillMeLater’s customers don’t qualify for credit cards in the first place, or are tapped out. That makes this debt super sketchy. And BillMeLater’s credit models were created in a world of 5% default rates (the average over the last ten years), which are nowhere near as bad as what’s coming. On top of all of this, BillMeLater is pushing incentives that give people zero payments until April 1. What a teaser to buy stuff people can’t afford for the holidays. This is adverse selection at work. People who don’t need to wait until April 1 to pay won’t use it. Those that do will, and those people are likely to be big credit risks. At the very least eBay seems to have overpaid for BillMeLater. At worst they may have huge losses on the product next year. In 2008 they’ll do $1 billion in payment volume. You can do the math on a 10%+ default rate. Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 Source: TechCrunch | 25 Nov 2008 | 7:48 am Social networking sparks more trouble
Inspired by a South Park episode the boy (who we will call “John” to make things easier) set up a Facebook group whose aim was to encourage people to kick a ginger. This group was set up purely as a joke, almost as a tribute to South Park. However, it would appear that you can’t say anything these days without someone taking you seriously. The group grew to around 5,000 people, and a date was set to initiate this ginger-kicking-fest: the 20th of November. November 20th came and it moved beyond a joke and over the line into the realms of the serious as gingers of school age in Canada suffered from a day of being the victims of serial “kickings.“ In fact, one school in Vancouver had to send 20 pupils home for the aforementioned offense sparking many parents, teachers, and victims to raise the issue to the public eye. The group has since (unsurprisingly) been deleted, and “John” has apologized stating that it was only a joke. That was not enough for some people who have started up groups not only against what happened but against the original group organizer. Nevertheless, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police have launched an investigation and there could still be charges against the people behind this. However it will be hard to put the blame on one person: is it “John” for initiating this “hate crime” or is it the vast number of idiots who took his joke seriously and acted upon it? This is a sign of how times have changed. People are willing to follow the lead of someone they have never seen or met and to do things which are unacceptable in a civilized society. It also shows how effective this type of communication is, not only for meeting people but for starting new ideas and getting people to do things: the outcome of which is often not nice. Source [PCPro] Full Story » | Written by Christian Milsom for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 25 Nov 2008 | 7:40 am Porsche Design P’9522 cruises by with an FCC appearanceSection: Communications, Cellphones, Mobile
Yet another handset that is showing its face via an FCC listing, this time it is the candybar styled P’9522 from Porsche Design. Sadly, the P’9522 is not offering as clean of a design as one would hope. Sure, it is a candybar handset, and one that (for the most part) seems to have a clean looking design. However in the case of the P’9522, it has a big fingerprint scanner front and center which takes away some of the good looks. Otherwise it does have a nice big display, which adds some nice value. Aside from the external design, the US release of the P’9522 will only have GSM 850/1900 support, which means that unlike the European version, it will not have any 3G support. As expected with FCC listings, pricing information has not yet been revealed. Read [FCC] Via [Engadget Mobile] Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 25 Nov 2008 | 6:34 am Get Google Street View on the iPod touchFROM APPLETELL - If you’re willing to jailbreak your iPod touch, you can get Google Street View on it without too much difficulty. MORE » Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 25 Nov 2008 | 6:00 am Facebook: No Chat For You
Some Facebook users are complaining that they are being banned from Facebook Chat for sending too many messages, when in fact they’ve sent few or no actual messages. The bug appears to be affecting Internet Explorer users. Dozens of other problems are being reported with chat as well, but this particular issue seems sort of ridiculous. Only your Facebook friends are on your chat list, so even the fact that the error exists is odd. Is there really such a thing as sending too many messages to friends? Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. Source: TechCrunch | 25 Nov 2008 | 6:00 am Kyte Turns Video Channels Into Mobile Websites
So far, Kyte has been focusing on getting mobile content (videos shot on a cell phone) onto the Web. For each publisher of mobile video, many of them rock stars and rappers, Kyte creates a branded video player they can put on their Websites. Now, with more media consumption happening right on many mobile handsets, Kyte is going the other way around and letting bands and brands turn their Kyte player into a mobile Website complete with banner advertising, chat, fan comments, ratings, and sharing features. You can see some examples here (best viewed on a mobile phone), including mobile sites for Lady Gaga and the All-American Rejects. Kyte’s mobile sites can be seen on most phones, including the iPhone, Blackberry, and Nokia S60 series. Although, it doesn’t yet work on Android phones. In other news, Kyte has added Google AdSense for Video as an advertising option for its customer’s to put into their video son the Web. This option is not yet available for Kyte’s mobile sites. Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. Source: TechCrunch | 25 Nov 2008 | 5:50 am Should We Clone a Neanderthal?SpaceAdmiral writes "Forget cloning a woolly mammoth — should scientists clone a Neanderthal? Such a feat should be possible soon, although it raises a number of bioethics concerns, including where to draw the line between humans and other animals."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 25 Nov 2008 | 5:46 am Survival Research Labs (SRL) turns 30 today Survival Research Laboratories, the legendary machine performance project that started it all, turns 30 today. Founder Mark Pauline has a blog post up about this milestone, with a copy of SRL's first-ever ad, above. Mark says, Id like to thank all those who have helped me make SRL what it is, both voluntarily and involuntarily. Im still having a blast. Even moving all 160 tons of my stuff to the new shop in Petaluma has been kind of fun. In a few more weeks, Ill be totally out of here and SRL will lurch into the next 30 year chapter. 2038 here we come!A huge congrats and deepest respect to Mark, the SRL team, and their respective family members -- the meat-based kind, but also the magical metal machines who are the real stars of SRL. On behalf of all Boingdom, we wish all of you another 30 years of happy mutancy. For BoingBoing readers not familiar with SRL, here's how they describe what they do: Survival Research Laboratories was conceived of and founded by Mark Pauline in November 1978. Since its inception SRL has operated as an organization of creative technicians dedicated to re-directing the techniques, tools, and tenets of industry, science, and the military away from their typical manifestations in practicality, product or warfare. Since 1979, SRL has staged over 45 mechanized presentations in the United States and Europe. Each performance consists of a unique set of ritualized interactions between machines, robots, and special effects devices, employed in developing themes of socio-political satire. Humans are present only as audience or operators. Below, an early photograph featuring Mark Pauline with one of his first creations. Performance artist Karen Finley and V. Vale of RE/Search Publications are among the bemused onlookers. (thanks, K0re!)
Source: Boing Boing | 25 Nov 2008 | 5:38 am Why there’s no Google Street View on the iPod touchFROM APPLETELL - GSV was included in the 2.2 update…for the iPhone. Why the omission from the iPod touch? Was it a conspiracy by Apple to make you upgrade to the iPhone? MORE » Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 25 Nov 2008 | 5:36 am Forecaster lops 10 pct off 2009 online ad estimate (AP)AP - A marketing research firm is dimming its Internet advertising outlook for the next four years, the latest sign of the more austere times looming for the high-tech sector.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 25 Nov 2008 | 5:10 am HP backs guidance but Wall Street wary (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 25 Nov 2008 | 5:08 am Program Your TiVo From Your Cell Phone
I can't watch TV without my TiVo, but the one thing I'm really lax about is actually programming the damn thing (Best Invention Ever: Season Pass). In an effort to strip away all my excuses for not finding new shows and movies to watch, TiVo is introducing a mobile site at m.tivo.com (warning: link may not be live yet) that will let subscribers with Internet-connected DVRs schedule their TiVo's remotely from their phones, just like they can today via their laptops.
Using a cell phone,TiVo junkies will be able to search for shows, record episodes, get season passes, and browse daily picks and the most popular shows. So now I have one more annoying, anti-social thing to do on my mobile phone when I'm out in public. But when I get home, I'll have plenty to watch.
Source: TechCrunch | 25 Nov 2008 | 5:04 am Win $6000+ of computer stuff with the HP Magic GiveawaySection: Features, Announcements, Contests
Are you ready to win over $6000 worth of computer stuff? Well, here comes the HP Magic Giveaway and we’re going to help you win! Gadgetell is participating in this giveaway along with 49 other blogs. How can you win? What are the prizes? Keep checking back with Gadgetell.com to find out! Check out the The HP Magic Giveaway Landing Page. Full Story » | Written by Iyaz Akhtar for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 25 Nov 2008 | 5:00 am Program your TiVo from your cell phone
I can’t watch TV without my TiVo, but the one thing I’m really lax about is actually programming the damn thing (Best Invention Ever: Season Pass). In an effort to strip away all my excuses for not finding new shows and movies to watch, TiVo is introducing a mobile site at m.tivo.com (warning: link may not be live yet) that will let subscribers with Internet-connected DVRs schedule their TiVo’s remotely from their phones, just like they can today via their laptops. (The mobile site was created by Mobui). Using a cell phone,TiVo junkies will be able to search for shows, record episodes, get season passes, and browse daily picks and the most popular shows. So now I have one more annoying, anti-social thing to do on my mobile phone when I’m out in public. But when I get home, I’ll have plenty to watch. Now, when are they going to start streaming the shows directly to my mobile phone? Oh wait, I must be thinking of something else. Information provided by CrunchBase
Source: MobileCrunch | 25 Nov 2008 | 5:00 am Hitachi DZ-BD10HA: Edit, Dub in HD In-CameraProduct review: Blu-ray HD camcorder with 30-GB disk drive and SDHC slot will let you capture crackling-crisp video on the hard disk or removable flash memory, do basic editing in-camera, and easily dub to Blu-ray disc.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 25 Nov 2008 | 5:00 am Hitachi DZ-BD10HA: Edit, Dub in HD In-CameraProduct review: Blu-ray HD camcorder with 30-GB disk drive and SDHC slot will let you capture crackling-crisp video on the hard disk or removable flash memory, do basic editing in-camera, and easily dub to Blu-ray disc.Source: Wired: Gadgets | 25 Nov 2008 | 5:00 am White T-Mobile G1s finally start hitting the shelves A note for all of you budding handset manufacturers out there: if you want to release your device as quickly as possible, don’t make the case white. As far as we can tell from the T-Mobile G1, making white cases takes a whole month longer than making them in black or brown. While all three colors were announced at the same time, the white one has been unavailable since the launch of the device. If you’ve been waiting for a G1 encased in a shell that stimulates all three color cone cells in your eye at nearly equal levels, your time has come. In other words, T-Mobile just sent us a note to let us know that the white G1 is available beginning today. Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 Source: MobileCrunch | 25 Nov 2008 | 4:33 am Review: The Alienware Area-51 X-58
Read the full review of the Alienware Area-51 X-58 right here.
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 25 Nov 2008 | 3:56 am YouTube Goes Wide
YouTube has apparently changed all videos on its site to play in widescreen format. Because most videos on the site were originally uploaded in a ratio closer to 4:3 (the standard size used on non-HD televisions), most videos are playing with horizontal black bars on the side. Some videos (like this one) are taking advantage of the full space, but are shrunk down to the normal size when they’re embedded elsewhere. It seems that YouTube is either doing A/B testing or that the changes haven’t propagated to all servers (if that’s even possible) - hard refreshing on videos seems to alternate between the standard video player and the widescreen one. But it’s a widespread change, as hundreds of tweets are pouring in in about the switch to widescreen. Widescreen YouTube videos have been spotted before now and could be enabled using a tag in the video’s URL, but this seems to be the first time that the feature is activated by default. The change may be related to YouTube’s recent announcement of full-length films from MGM, which pits it directly against Hulu. YouTube is by no means the first video site to go widescreen - Blip.tv (my favorite YouTube alternative) has long had the feature. And as the comments point out, sites like Vimeo and SmugMug already offer video in HD. Update: YouTube has written about the change on its blog. Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors Source: TechCrunch | 25 Nov 2008 | 3:46 am Magic Lantern Castle MuseumMany collectors are makers, restoring the items they collect to working condition. Jack Judson created his own private museum, the Magic Lantern Castle Museum in San Antonio, TX. The magic lantern is the first projection technology, directing a light source through a lens to project images, which were initially painted on glass slides. Building this extensive collection of magic lanterns became Jack's obsession after he retired.
I interviewed Jack for Make:16 and I took the photo of him, below, in his workshop where he repairs magic lanterns and keeps them working. My excerpt below contains some parts of the conversation that didn't make it into the article.
DD: There's a wonderful collection here, and it's a beautiful thing. You started in 1986 after you retired. What was the first thing that you bought?
JJ: I worked for a large, international organization. I was visiting our London office, and I asked the the manager of the office, "What's to do here in London?" I hadn't been there before. He said, "Well, go to a street market. We have them all the time here." I went to one. I bought what was purported to be a magic lantern, and I brought it back -- when airlines would let you bring things back in your luggage. After doing a lot of research, I found out what I bought was not a magic lantern but a lantern enlarger. That was my first comeuppance.
DD: The museum has a collection of magic lanterns made as toys (above). JJ: There was a huge industry. Everything that Daddy has, the kid gets too. While it’s never quite as much as Daddy's, still it's pretty cool. Most toys were made in Nuremburg, Germany. There were at least five makers that we know of there, and they made hundreds-of-thousands of various sizes and shapes. DD: Mostly running off small oil lamps?
JJ: Yes. They didn't really project very well, but the kid in his little room could set one up, and project three of four feet onto a wall, and see what was not a very good image from a decal that had been stuck onto a piece of glass. They were lithograph-printed images. They were a little fuzzy, probably.
DD: From being a toy or a plaything, the magic lantern comes up to be part of the early film industry starting in the late 1800s. Then we see Edison’s home kinetoscope. JJ: You had the home kinetoscope, and, of course, then the projecting kinetoscope, which was the one that was used by more professional people. You could project films but you could not buy them; you had to rent them. Netflix of the day, I guess you might say. There's nothing new. DD: Right. JJ: You could buy, for 50 cents apiece, the slides that had little, tiny images that you could project -- pictures in France, or England, or the holy land. DD: Those early films, though, were not very long were they?
JJ: No, they were very, very short. The earliest ones were 50 feet, which is basically the length of the table that George Eastman could lay out the film -- it was liquid -- and let it solidify, and then roll-cut strips that were 35 millimeter long, and so at 16-frames per second, it doesn't last very long. At some point, I recall in an autobiography where this old man talked to Edison about how to show these films, and he said, "Well, just run them through three times so that they get their money's worth." There was no story. They had no message -- no nothing. They were just images of people moving, and, in fact, they were not moving. They were really sequential stills. Source: Boing Boing | 25 Nov 2008 | 3:43 am Intel Takes SATA Performance Crown With X25-E SSDtheraindog writes "We've already seen Intel's first X25-M solid-state drive blow the doors off the competition, and now there's a new X25-E Extreme model that's even faster. This latest drive reads at 250MB/s, writes at 170MB/s, and offers ten times the lifespan of its predecessor, all while retaining Intel's wicked-fast storage controller and crafty Native Command Queuing support. The Extreme isn't cheap, of course, but The Tech Report's in-depth review of the drive suggests that if you consider its cost in terms of performance, the X25-E actually represents good value for demanding multi-user environments."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 25 Nov 2008 | 3:21 am Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart make mashed potatoesMartha Stewart made mashed potatoes with Fatherhood star Snoop Dogg on her television show recently. About the very funny video clip above, she blogs: [He] taught me some of his very own language called Snoop-guistics. He and his posse add ‘izzles’ onto the ends of words. It’s kind of a code, or a way of communicating so that others won’t know what they’re talking about. Example: fo shizzle is how they say, for sure. Snoop Dogg also shared –Snoop makes Mashed Potatoes (Thanks, Shawn Connally!) Source: Boing Boing | 25 Nov 2008 | 3:13 am Breaking Into Games Writing?An anonymous reader writes "One of the biggest complaints I hear from 'discerning' gamers is how few and far between well-written games are. Titles like Mass Effect and the Black Isle series just appear far too rarely. Writing and storyboarding are aspects of the industry that have always appealed to me — I'm an enthusiastic hobby gamer with a real passion for well-developed games. But there's very little guidance out there on getting exposure as a writer in this world. I'm interested in working in the field, freelance/part time initially as I break in, then with an eye to professional employ after a time. My questions to you are: How can I get involved in writing for the game industry? Are there any game startups out there with good design but weak story that could use writing help from a college graduate? How do the big guys get people to write for them — am I just going to the wrong booths at the job fairs? What kind of degrees or relevant experience in the field are they looking for? Should I just put on my Planescape t-shirt and stand outside in the rain?"Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 25 Nov 2008 | 2:03 am Skid Row Photography Club Uses Donated Cameras to Make Street Art
Photographer and occasional Wired.com contributor Dave Bullock has organized a photography club on Skid Row, a massive encampment of 7,000 to 8,000 homeless people in downtown Los Angeles. Using cheap digital cameras obtained through a city arts grant, the Skid Row Photography Club made more than 20,000 photos over the past six months, and they've now put on an art show during LA's Downtown Art Walk. Dave wants to keep the project going, and to do that he needs more cameras. He welcomes donations of old (but still working) digital cameras with any number of megapixels. Got a camera you want to donate to the club? Email Dave at eecue@eecue.com and tell him the Gadget Lab sent ya. Skid Row Photo Club's First Show [thanks, Dave!]
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 25 Nov 2008 | 1:07 am Get ready for a bad year, say Samsung and Nokia
I think we all understood this intuitively, but now it’s official — and big companies like Samsung are only going to really act once it’s official. So if “the downturn” somehow wasn’t official enough yet, at least now they’ve got their own rubber stamp on it. Crunch Network: TechCrunch obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies Source: MobileCrunch | 25 Nov 2008 | 12:56 am McDonalds Files To Patent Making a SandwichI Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "McDonalds has applied for patent WO2006068865, which carries the title 'METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MAKING A SANDWICH.' John Montagu, the fourth Earl of Sandwich, can eat his heart out (unless that's been patented, too). Undoubtedly, some people are contemplating whether there's anything novel in this patent that is somehow obscured by its generic title. Feel free to examine their flowchart for yourself and see exactly how novel their sandwich 'subroutines' are. The good news is that, given that it only mentions generic sandwich making 'tool(s),' rather than any specific machine, it might not survive after the In Re Bilski decision, which was meant to put a stop to absurdities such as this. But until McDonalds's application is rejected or invalidated, make sure you don't use their flowchart when making sandwiches. After all, if you 'apply appropriate condiments to appropriate compartment,' you might infringe upon their IP."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 25 Nov 2008 | 12:45 am Britain to reconsider anti-TNF drugsBritish drug regulators say they've agreed to review National Health Service restrictions on rheumatoid arthritis medications. Current restrictions dictate that patients taking anti-tumor necrosis factor (anti-TNF) drugs cannot switch to a different medicine if the first one did not work, the Daily Telegraph reported Monday.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 Nov 2008 | 12:41 am New "Juno" Mission To Jupiter AnnouncedRiding with Robots writes "Today NASA announced it is officially proceeding with the Juno robotic mission to Jupiter. Scheduled to launch in August 2011 and reach the largest planet in 2016, the spacecraft will orbit the planet 32 times, skimming about 4,800 kilometers over the planet's cloud tops for about a year. The mission will focus on Jupiter's structure and evolution, and not on Europa or the other icy moons that may hide oceans under their surfaces — a disappointment if you ask me. Then again, all planetary missions so far have turned up amazing images and surprising scientific discoveries, and I doubt this expedition will be any different." We discussed NASA's deliberation of its short list a few days back.Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 25 Nov 2008 | 12:03 am Galaxies Discovered in Their Awkward Teen PhaseRed spiral galaxies discovered by astronomers may be the missing link between young, blue spiral galaxies and older, red elliptical galaxies.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 25 Nov 2008 | 12:02 am Archeology Of HomelessnessArcheology as a tool for contemporary decisions not just for understanding the pastNo matter what you see in the movies, archaeology isn't really about finding ancient temples or golden idols.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 24 Nov 2008 | 11:00 pm Man-Made Virus Could Explain Why SARS Is DeadlyBy studying the genome of a SARS-infected bat, scientists have created an artificial virus they believe may mimic the SARS virus before it became infectious in humans. The synthetic virus may help them understand how SARS made the jump from animals to humans.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 24 Nov 2008 | 10:56 pm Global Warming Is Changing Organic Matter In SoilNew research shows that we should be looking to the ground, not the sky, to see where climate change could have its most perilous impact on life on Earth.Scientists at the University of Toronto Scarborough have published research findings in the prestigious journal, Nature Geoscience, that show global warming actually changes the molecular structure of organic matter in soil."Soil contains more than twice the amount of carbon than does the atmosphere, yet, until now, scientists haven't examined this significant carbon pool closely," says Myrna J.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 24 Nov 2008 | 10:45 pm Endeavour to return to Earth FridayThe crew of space shuttle Endeavour will spend Thanksgiving with the crew of the International Space Station, NASA said Tuesday. The shuttle mission to the ISS was extended by one day, and Endeavour will undock Friday, with landing Sunday at Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility, the U.S.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 24 Nov 2008 | 10:42 pm Study: Drastic healthcare reform unlikelyHistory, tradition and politics are likely to prevent the overhaul of healthcare systems in 21 countries, including the United States, research indicates. Our findings explain, to the dismay of many who would like to see more radical change in the U.S., why President-elect Obama's campaign proposal regarding healthcare reform was pretty much a center proposal, compared to (Republican candidate) Sen.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 24 Nov 2008 | 10:35 pm Growing Plants And Trees On DumpsGrowing plants and trees on dumps could help save the planetLandfill sites produce the greenhouse gases, methane and carbon dioxide, as putrescible waste decays.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 24 Nov 2008 | 10:25 pm New planet found orbiting old starA new planet closely orbiting a red giant star was found by a team of astronomers from Penn State University and Nicolaus Copernicus University. The research sheds light on ways in which aging stars can influence nearby planets, Penn State said in a news release. The discovered planet has a mass about six times that of Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system that includes Earth, said Alexander Wolszczan from Penn State and Andrzej Niedzielski of Nicolaus Copernicus University.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 24 Nov 2008 | 10:19 pm Open Source Wi-Fi Service Claims Ten Million Hotspots In Network
Connecting to free Wi-Fi can be extremely frustrating. But WeFi, a three-year old start up, says it has solved the problem. Ten million Wi-Fi access points have been recognized and classified so far onto a map says the Fairfax, Virginia-based company. About one million users are currently using the company's service, it claims. Most Wi-Fi enabled devices show users a set of available connections and allow them to choose. But the process can be a bit of a hit-or-miss as users have to try on different connections to see what works best. WeFi claims its software will automatically connect users to the best available free wireless connection. After the first user discovers and successfully connects to a previously unknown hotspot, the software maps the spot and uses the connectivity data to make it easier for future users to log on. The network is user-generated, which means as more users join in more access points are discovered and added to the community. To get started users have to download the free software from WeFi, which is available in PC, Symbian and Windows Mobile versions. The WeFi directory is the largest virtual global Wi-Fi network claims the company. Members can also map and rank open hotspots in any location. They can locate each other on the WeFi global map, send messages and share content. Anyone tried this? What did you think? Photo: (herzogbr/Flickr)
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 24 Nov 2008 | 10:18 pm EU Moves Closer To Agreement On Reducing CO2 EmissionsEuropean Union governments made progress Monday on an agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cars, but did not reach consensus on the details, diplomats said. Any agreement must strike the right compromise between the EU’s struggling car industry and the bloc’s priority in fighting global warming through a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.The lack of consensus likely means the governments and the European Parliament will not reach a final deal on the matter in subsequent negotiations Monday evening. However, a deal might be reached later in the week."The Council agreed on political principles, not all details.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 24 Nov 2008 | 10:09 pm HTC expecting to ship 1 million G1s by the end of 2008
Revising their previous target of 600,000 HTC G1s shipped by the end of 2008, HTC CEO Peter Chou has disclosed that the company now expects to ship at least 1 million of the world’s first Android handset by year’s end. Of course, these numbers may seem a bit low if you’re still going on the false idea that pre-orders alone reached 1.5 million, a count which blazed across the internet as a result of some faulty calculations in a Motley Fool story. While it’s not quite as mind-boggling as the 1 million iPhone 3Gs Apple sold in just 3 days after launch, pushing one million handsets in 2 1/2 months is no small feat. According to a comment made by Steve Jobs in July, the original iPhone broke the 1 million mark in 74 days, which also works out to just about 2 1/2 months. By units shipped, the first Android phone is looking to be as much of a success as the first Apple phone. So why might HTC be seeing an increase in orders? Traditional factors (like marketing) aside, I’d imagine that much of the success stems from worth-of-mouth triggered by Android Market applications. When a handset does something cool, owners show it off; the easier it is to add more cool stuff to the device, the more likely it is that people will be saying “Hey! Check this out.” As more intriguing applications make their way to the market, demand for Android handsets will go up as a result. [Via Digitimes] Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors Source: MobileCrunch | 24 Nov 2008 | 10:06 pm Samsung Shows Flexible Display For Cellphones
Flexible displays are inching closer to reality and they could soon be a part of your cellphone. At a recent conference in Japan, Samsung showed off a mobile phone prototype with a flexible display that folds like a book (see video above). No word on when this full color OLED (organic light-emitting diode) display will make it to commercial production. OLEDs are preferred to LCD displays because they draw less power and can be much thinner. Flexible displays are, meanwhile, already being discussed in other form factors. Arizona State University's Flexible Display Center is working with the U.S. Army to create flexible displays that are so thin and light that they can be rolled up and stuffed into pockets or backpacks. Those displays could be available in limited field trials in about two to three years. If that schedule holds firm, it is likely that flexible displays for cellphones will be a reality around the same time. (Hat tip: Thanks Erik Strasser!)
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 24 Nov 2008 | 9:34 pm Black Friday Brings GPS Deals For Under $100
GPS-based navigation devices are set to sizzle on Black Friday as device makers have cut prices to under $100 for the product that ranks high on many consumers' wish lists. TomTom is currently offering its ONE 125 GPS model for $100 till Nov. 30, after which it will go up to $130. The TomTom ONE 125 comes without maps of Canada but offers voice instructions. Rival Garmin will have its nuvi 200 product available for $97 at Wal-Mart on Black Friday only, says Dealnews, which has been tracking the prices. The nuvi 200 is listed currently at the suggested retail price of $200 on Garmin's website. GPS devices, a hot ticket item last year, seem to be still popular with buyers. Three of the top ten products on Amazon.com's electronics best seller list are navigation systems. TomTom's ONE 125 ranks sixth. Another sweet deal from a smaller brand is the Nextar P3 for $70 and free shipping, says Dealnews. GPS makers are hoping the attractive prices will draw in customers. More than 50% of the total GPS devices sold during the year are in the fourth quarter, says Ralf Hug, vice president of product management for Airbiquity, which makes wireless transport products. "Retailers are worried about not getting enough people into the stores," says Hug. "Maybe PND (personal navigation devices) product category could be that lead into the store." Last year, GPS devices saw one of the most aggressive price discounts in electronics as retailers used the category as a "loss leader", or a draw to get shoppers to loosen their purse strings. This year most personal navigation products lack differentiation, which could make it more difficult for the companies that are competing to get attention, says Hug. "There's been a lack of innovation over the last two years," he says. "Everyone's delivered a me-too type of product."
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 24 Nov 2008 | 9:32 pm Red Tides Stemmed by 'Alien'-Like ParasitesScientists track parasites that infect, swell and then burst the plankton of red tides.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 24 Nov 2008 | 8:51 pm Is this the Motorola Attila in the wild? It’s been a while since we last got wind of the Motorola Attila, rumored to be half of Motorola’s final all-out effort to make successful handsets post RAZR. If these leaked shots from PhoneHK turn out to be the real thing, it looks like Motorola is still crackin’ away. If things haven’t changed since the leaks back in August, the Attila will tote WCDMA 850/1900/2100, HSDPA 7.2Mbps, quad-band GSM, and Windows Mobile 6.1 over a 2.8″ screen. We’re definitely hoping the person holding the device in the above shot has itty bitty hands, because that thing looks big enough to surf on. As in actually surf. As in on water. Of course, the whole thing could be a sham, as made quite evident by that iPhone theme visible in the picture after the jump. [Via GSMArena]
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. Source: MobileCrunch | 24 Nov 2008 | 8:28 pm Microsoft Inks Exclusive Deal With Popular Web Hit 'Guild'Microsoft announced it now has an exclusive lock on the long awaited second season of the Internet cult hit “The Guild.”The Internet series will be the first to be distributed worldwide simultaneously across Microsoft's triple platform of Xbox 360's Live Marketplace, MSN and Zune.The 12-episode run has also secured Sprint as a major sponsor, making it the first marketer to test Microsoft's new strategy to draw ad dollars with the combined reach of a gaming console, Internet portal and portable media player.The popular Internet hit is a scripted comedy chronicling the misadventures of a group of online gamers.The first episode premieres Tuesday on Independent Video, Xbox's new channel devoted to original content.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 24 Nov 2008 | 8:06 pm BlackBerry Storm OS numbering oddities explained
With the BlackBerry Storm vanishing from the shelves at big city Verizon shops around the nation, folks have been looking for an explanation for the shortage. When it was discovered that the identification sticker on the Storm box could be peeled away to reveal another sticker with different software version numbers, rumors were abound that a last minute software flash was the cause of the limited availability. Not so, says RIM. While they acknowledge that a small chunk of the boxes had to have new stickers placed on them, they say it was because of a typo. In fact, the erroneous software version (4.7.0.82, rather than the 4.7.0.65 which actually shipped on the device) doesn’t even exist. It’s okay, RIM. We mistype “65″ as “82″ all the time. The keys are right next to each other. [Via Crackberry] Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 Source: MobileCrunch | 24 Nov 2008 | 8:05 pm NES controller turned bicycle reflector
There is no other controller as infinitely moddable as the platonic, perfect design of the original NES joypad: wonderfully angular, its pleasing, barely egonomic symmetry outlined along the edges in red and white. This bicycle-rear NES reflector doesn't do much but use the controller as a case for some scintillating LEDs, but it will — at least — alert velocipedic tail gaters of your Paperboy skills. The man who can best tornados, break dancer, even the Grim Reaper himself is not to be messed with. Bike Flasher made from NES Controller [Instructables via Hack-A-Day] Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 24 Nov 2008 | 7:15 pm NFL To Test 3-D Capabilities During Game Next WeekImage Caption: Tight end Brandon Manumaleuna #86 lunges after the reception against the Indianapolis Colts during their NFL Game at Qualcomm Stadium on November 23, 2008 in San Diego, California.(Donald Miralle/Getty Images North America/Chargers.com)Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 24 Nov 2008 | 7:04 pm Opera Mini 4.2 now available for the G1 on the Android market
Back in April, Opera released a technical preview of Opera Mini for the Android SDK. The version of the SDK it was developed for was far from the final version, so by the time the G1 was launched in October, the Opera Mini package wouldn’t even make an attempt at installing to the device. Love it or hate it, the G1’s built-in browser has been your only web-perusing option since launch - until today, that is. While there hadn’t been much indication that Opera had continued pushing forward with Opera Mini on Android since that preview release, they’ve gone and pushed an Android version of the just-released Opera Mini 4.2 to the market.
If you’ve ever used Opera Mini, it’s very much the same beast you’ve grown accustomed to: proxy based page parsing for speedier loading, skinning, bookmark syncing, etc. All seems to work well in our initial testing, though the zooming behavior seems a bit inconsistent: if you zoom in with a click of the scroll ball, move the cursor just a pixel or two, and then hit the “back” button, it returns you to the fullscreen view. If, however, you zoom in, do not move the cursor at all and then hit the “back” button, you’re sent to the last page you visited. As a result, if you accidentally zoom into the wrong spot and try to zoom back out without moving around at all, you’ll find yourself a page away from where you were trying to be. Is it worth using over the default browser? We’d say so, but as usual when it comes to browsers, it really comes down to personal preference. Either way, it’s worth a whirl - so go nab it from the Android market.
Crunch Network: TechCrunch obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies Source: MobileCrunch | 24 Nov 2008 | 6:43 pm Some Hackers Taking A Safer Approach To Stealing DataAntivirus software maker Symantec Corp. presented a new report showing that cyber criminals are developing new techniques when it comes to stealing and selling personal data.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 24 Nov 2008 | 6:40 pm Samsung Feeling Effects Of Cellphone Market CrunchIn the newest indicator that weaker consumer confidence is hitting the world's wireless sector, Samsung Electronics on Monday sent out a warning over cellphone market growth this year and next.James Chung, a spokesman for Samsung, said the actual global market growth on a unit basis could fall short of the company’s initial forecast for 9 percent growth (in 2008)."As for next year, it is possible that the market could post a single-digit or even negative growth," Chung added.On November 14, top handset maker Nokia Oyj warned that the world's mobile phone market would fall in the fourth quarter as well as the following year, as the economic slowdown has slowed consumer demand."At the moment it's all doom and gloom for several quarters," said CCS Insight analyst Geoff Blaber.Telecom operators in developed markets have also cut subsidies, increasing problems further."Handsets are essentially far more expensive than they were four months ago.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 24 Nov 2008 | 6:05 pm Study Shows It Pays To Shop Around OnlineThe holiday shopping season has arrived, and tough financial times mean that more people will probably be shopping around for the best price. But a new study co-authored by North Carolina State University's Dr. Jonathan D.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 24 Nov 2008 | 5:46 pm Lionel NYC MTA Subway train set with working lights, station announcements
Lionel is selling its first-ever subway train set, modeled after the New York MTA's R-27 subway cars that were in service up until the early 1990s. These are the same cars that were re-painted red in the '70s and '80s in an effort to discourage graffiti, earned them the nickname "Redbirds". (Other cars were painted the "Deep Gunn" red, too.) According to Wikipedia, the R27s were "'Protestant' married pairs, which means that they were coupled together as pairs." The Lionel replicas are Protestant pairs, as well. The "O" scale cars are finished in a kale green enamel, have real working opening doors and also speak out the subway stops recorded from the subway itself. The four-car (two pairs) set can be had for around $600. A Model Subway, but the Announcements Are Clear [NYTimes via Animal] Image: Chang W. Lee/NYTimes Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 24 Nov 2008 | 4:55 pm Tibetan Glaciers Melting at Stunning RateHimalayan glaciers are dwindling much faster than scientists realized.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 24 Nov 2008 | 4:44 pm Internet able coffee machine runs Windows XP
This coffee maker runs Windows XP. Overkill, of course: Windows 3.11 would have clearly sufficed. Windows XP Coffee Machine [Site via DVICE Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 24 Nov 2008 | 4:43 pm Spinning Into The Future Of Data StorageScientists from Queen Mary, University of London have improved their understanding of the inner workings of our computers and mp3 players, thanks to an exciting new field of research called 'organic spintronics'.Dr Alan Drew from Queen Mary's Department of Physics and the University of Freiburg, Switzerland, along with colleagues from the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI)*, Switzerland, has become the first to measure how the magnetic polarization is lost in a device similar to a hard drive 'read-head' found in every computer produced in the last ten years.Computers and mp3 players have become increasingly efficient at information storage thanks to an effect that physicists call 'giant magnetoresistance'; this allows scientists to produce electronic components which are very sensitive to external magnetic fields, known as magnetic read-heads.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 24 Nov 2008 | 4:30 pm LG working on multi-touch displays... but are they for iMacs?
There's reason enough to be skeptical that Apple views multi-touch laptops and desktop displays as a sure thing, including comments from Jobs himself saying "just because we could doesn't mean we should." Still, with HP of all companies soundly beating Apple to the punch, it's not too hard to imagine that a touchscreen iMac may well be among the refreshes introduced to the line at January's Macworld, along with quad-core Intel processors and lower power usage. Some butt to the scuttle, then: Stuff just took a tour of LG's Korea factory, and spotted some multi-touch capable displays. That doesn't mean that they are being made for Cupertino, of course, but it puts it, at least, in the realm of possibilioty. Does LG's multitouch display mean a touchscreen iMac is coming? [Stuff.tv via Slashgear] Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 24 Nov 2008 | 4:29 pm Dolphin Kick Three Times More Mighty Than OlympiansMichael Phelps may be fast, but dolphins can kick with 212 pounds of power.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 24 Nov 2008 | 3:44 pm Probe to Scout Earth-Made BlastsA new mission will study gamma ray bursts above Earth that may be tied to lightning.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 24 Nov 2008 | 2:48 pm New Mechanism For SuperconductivityImage 1: Quantum Blackhole (in condensed matter): When materials are tuned to a critical point at absolute zero temperature, quantum effects dictate universal behavior in material properties. The presence of a singular point, seen as the black hole at the bottom of the image, is revealed through its unusual electronic properties that make the superconducting material behave simultaneously as a nonmagnetic material and a magnetic material.Image 2: Quantum "Alchemy": Formation of superconductivity in the vicinity of a singular critical point defies the conventional belief that turbulent electronic fluctuations are not beneficial to form the macroscopic quantum state. The unheralded source of superconductivity holds promise for the design of a room temperature superconductor. Credit: Tuson Park, Condensed Matter and Thermal PhysicsSource: RedOrbit News - Technology | 24 Nov 2008 | 2:30 pm
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HTC front man, Peter Chou made three interesting comments on Friday. HTC is surprising just about everyone with the products they put out now under their own brand. How good are things for HTC? Check out these almost outlandish statements below:
I certainly don’t have anything against giving to charity, but the Salvation Army knows damn well what it’s doing. First, they position a red bucket about a foot outside the grocery store by my house — so close that you have to deliberately walk around it like an A-hole to get in or out of the store — and second, there’s a different person ringing the bell each day so the whole "I gave you something yesterday" excuse goes right out the window. So now it basically costs me whatever spare change is in my pocket to go to the grocery store now. 
Update on the Kindle 2: It was 
TiVo is really making a push to have a good holiday season—first by offering better deals at 
When eBay 
Although the market has more interesting phones and services than ever before, what with iPhone triumphant, Android ascendant, and data unlimited, the economic slump has curbed spending on what consumers perceive (probably correctly) as a luxury. For someone like moi, the newest smartphone is easily justifiable, but 
