Fujitsu is releasing the “world’s first fingerprint-enabled waterproof cell phone.“ This must be for the millions of companies who have very top secret underwater adventures. Or maybe it’s for Batman.
The phone, called the Fujitsu F-01A, will have a 3.5-inch touchscreen, run the Symbian OS, has Google Maps powering its GPS, a 5.2 megapixel camera, and a TV tuner. So you’re underwater, authenticating yourself with your fingerprint to watch TV. Okay. Perhaps the waterproofing of phones is in response to the thousands of people who have dropped their phone in the toilet.
Home phones aren’t dead yet. As long as designers pump out handsets like the alessiphone, which Target and Pottery Barn designers will promptly copy, they are here to stay. There isn’t anything technical fresh about this cordless besides the design. It doesn’t feature an accerelometer or custom apps. It cannot playback MP3s or video files. Who cares though. It’s dead sexy without being throw-up-in-your-mouth-chic. Well done. Who knows if it will ever hit the market but the pics after the jump should satisfy your curiosity.
It’s time for an update on the progress we’ve made on the low cost touch screen tablet that I first wrote about in July 2008 when I asked for a dead simple touch screen web tablet that boots right to the browser. Here’s our first post on the tablet, which we’re now calling the CrunchPad internally.
Can you believe it?!?! Guitar Heor: Metallica is only two and a half months away. I know! I can’t wait either! GameStop has a killer deal if you are willing to plop down the pre-order cash now and it’s totally worth it. I mean, you’re going to to buy the game anyway right? Right!?
If you reserve your copy, GameStop is throwing in a Guitar Hear: Foot Pedal. Plus, the built-in splitter allows it to work simultaneously with another pedal for a serious rocking good time. The offer is good online and at your local store. Tell ‘em CrunchGear sent ya and they will even throw in something little extra. Well, maybe not, but if they do, let us know ’cause we want free swag too.
Tristan Eaton and AZK One created this gas mask Darth Vader helmet for the Vader Project art exhibition, which displays artist's colorful refashionings of sci-fi's most iconic fashion accessory.
What's strange to me is that, once seeing it, I realized that while I've seen a lot of steampunk Vaders, I don't think I've ever seen one take the gas mask approach. This is either a shameful oversight of the steampunk community or my memory... one or the other.
ALF-nl writes "A forensics expert claims that wiping your hard drives with just one pass already makes it next to impossible to recover the data with an electron microscope." But that's not accounting for the super secret machines that the government has man.
I don’t know about you guys, but winter is already shaping up to be a pain in the ass – a pain so cold and snowy that all I want to do is hunker down and play some Xbox all weekend, every weekend.
Those of you who have been reading this site for a while might recall my disdain for having to pay $50/year for Xbox Live service. I’ve tried to make the case that it should either be free or it should cost $20 per year for a non-existent “Silver” membership. Some of you have agreed, some of you have pointed out that it’s a service worth paying for, and a few of you told me to quit being a baby.
Whatever your stance in this issue, let’s all agree to disagree and look lovingly to Amazon.com, where a twelve-month (plus one bonus month) membership to Xbox Live Gold is $29.97. I’m not sure how long this deal will be around, but if you’ve been waiting to pull the trigger or you need to re-up soon, this is probably the best deal around.
New data released by Integrated Media Measurement Inc. (IMMI) gives us insight into how men and women engage in "simultaneous media use" - that is, surfing the net while also doing some other activity... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 19 Jan 2009 | 2:19 pm
ATLANTA, Jan. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- eFortresses, Inc., a global provider of security and compliance solutions, has launched its new GRC practice using exclusive methodology... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 19 Jan 2009 | 2:15 pm
Industry veteran to lead federal and state-and-local sales efforts IRVING, Texas, Jan. 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- EF Johnson Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: EFJI) today Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 19 Jan 2009 | 2:05 pm
Japanese fans will have to pay around $550 for the 160GB PS3 (with a cool FFXIII logo stamped on the front) and the demo when the package goes on sale April 16. As far as I am informed, this will be the first time for Japanese people to get to buy a PS3 with 160GB .
But Sony Japan made more announcements. Final Fantasy VII on the Sony PlayStation is surely one of the best RPGs ever created. 11 years later, Square Enix releases Final Fantay VII Advent Children Complete on Blu-ray, a CGI movie based on the original RPG (price: $55, pictured above).
Sony will offer yet another product on April 16, the Final Fantasy XIII demo plus said movie for $66.
By Andrew Liszewski What you see here is probably the most awesomest way to arrive at a senior prom that you could possibly imagine. The GP Limo was designed and built by Michael Pettipas to seat 7 people... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 19 Jan 2009 | 2:04 pm
holy_calamity writes "TechCrunch blogger Mike Arrington decided last year to invent a new class of low-cost internet tablet using open source hardware and software. The second prototype has been unveiled, sporting a 12-inch touchscreen powered by a Via Nano processor, 1 GB of ram and a 4 GB flash drive. It runs a browser and nothing else on top of a custom Linux build. 'Resolution is 1024×768, which means the vast majority of websites are viewed in full width without scrolling. The device also has wifi, an accelerometer (so when you turn the screen on its side you can view more of a web page), a camera and a four cell battery.'"
During the waning moments of the worst parties, someone always pulls out Scrabble (a game I hate) and tries to win me over from my face-curdled loathing by insisting I must be good at it, since I'm a writer. My response to this assertion is always just to stare, gobstruck, until silence sinks in the fact writing is not about randomly shaking up a tray of letters in one's heads and plucking words from the alphabetical mnemonic slurry... if it was, my posts would make more sense.
That all said, I like this Scrabble tile keyboard... there is something a bit nifty about knowing exactly how many triple word scores I'm racking up if I somehow glom onto 'Quetzalcoat' as my word of the day.
Dr danah boyd's newly-minted PhD from UC Berkeley was awarded based on her fantastic thesis project, "Taken Out of Context: American Teen Sociality in Networked Publics." danah's ground-breaking research on how kids (especially marginal kids) use the Internet has been featured here a lot -- she was one of the contributors to Mimi Ito's gigantic Digital Youth Project, and the attorneys general's report on the relative absence of pedophiles online. I read about half of the thesis on Christmas break and I've been champing for the chance to blog it here -- and now that it's public, I can!
As social network sites like MySpace and Facebook emerged,
American teenagers began adopting them as spaces to mark identity and
socialize with peers. Teens leveraged these sites for a wide array of
everyday social practices - gossiping, flirting, joking around, sharing
information, and simply hanging out. While social network sites were
predominantly used by teens as a peer-based social outlet, the
unchartered nature of these sites generated fear among adults. This
dissertation documents my 2.5-year ethnographic study of American teens'
engagement with social network sites and the ways in which their
participation supported and complicated three practices -
self-presentation, peer sociality, and negotiating adult society.
My analysis centers on how social network sites can be understood as
networked publics which are simultaneously (1) the space constructed
through networked technologies and (2) the imagined community that
emerges as a result of the intersection of people, technology, and
practice. Networked publics support many of the same practices as
unmediated publics, but their structural differences often inflect
practices in unique ways. Four properties - persistence, searchability,
replicability, and scalability - and three dynamics - invisible
audiences, collapsed contexts, and the blurring of public and private -
are examined and woven throughout the discussion.
While teenagers primarily leverage social network sites to engage in
common practices, the properties of these sites configured their
practices and teens were forced to contend with the resultant dynamics.
Often, in doing so, they reworked the technology for their purposes. As
teenagers learned to navigate social network sites, they developed
potent strategies for managing the complexities of and social
awkwardness incurred by these sites. Their strategies reveal how new
forms of social media are incorporated into everyday life, complicating
some practices and reinforcing others. New technologies reshape public
life, but teens' engagement also reconfigures the technology itself.
IRVING, Texas, Jan. 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- EF Johnson Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: EFJI) announced today that it updated its guidance for 2008. The Company... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 19 Jan 2009 | 2:00 pm
72% of Qunar Users Have Travel Plans for 2009 BEIJING, Jan. 19 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- Qunar.com, China's largest travel search engine, has been working with... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 19 Jan 2009 | 2:00 pm
The USB 598 modem by Sierra Wireless offers a new compact, ultra stylish design with expandable storage and GPS capabilities in a device that is simple to set up... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 19 Jan 2009 | 2:00 pm
A long-standing Lotus Premium Security Partner, Trend Micro is the first to demonstrate 64-bit security for Domino at Lotusphere 2009. ORLANDO, Jan. 19 /PRNewswire/ --... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 19 Jan 2009 | 2:00 pm
VUDU sent along a minor update that adds a little YouTube goodie to the Netflix-streaming machine. Now, if a high definition video is available, the VUDU box will display that rather than the crappy SD version. You, the user, do not have to do anything extra; well, just update your movie streaming box. That’s all. You listening, TiVo. Where is your HD YouTube update? Eh?
By Andrew Liszewski I don’t know if I’m quite ready to sacrifice my boxes of Commodore 64 floppies just yet (I wonder what their shelf life is anyways) but re-using them as CD sleeves seems... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 19 Jan 2009 | 1:44 pm
⌦ Colorful Keyboard – Crayola 3-piece computer kit with keyboard, mouse, and photo mouse pad (a photo can be slipped inside) for $10 at Wal-Mart. An additional $1 for shipping. [Slickdeals]
⌦ iPod Bluetooth – wiRevo A100 Bluetooth adapter for iPod for $20, shipped. It should work with most any iPod, but obviously it will sit more flush with some models than others. The only review on Amazon indicates that it's a pretty good bit of gear, especially for this price. [Dealhack]
⌦ iPhone Translation – NibiruTech's Mobile Translator software, a front-end for Google Translate, is available for free on iTunes App Store. [Dealnews]
⌦ Netbook – Lenovo IdeaPad S10 netbook for $350, shipped. Includes 512MB RAM, 80GB HDD, XP Home. [Dealnews]
⌦ The Finest China – Barack Obama Historic Victory Collectible Plate for $10, shipped. Remember, you will be a smelly grandmother someday and will need things for the walls of your cottage. [Dealnews]
⌦ HDTV – Today's Woot is a "recertified" Philips 47" 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV with Perfect Pixel HD Engine for $905, shipped. Congratulations to Team Woot for a very sharp-looking new redesign, too, no matter how all the crazy dorks in their forums may whinge. (Don't miss the 2009 CES Woot Awards, either.)
Samsung dropped the swanky BD-P4600 Blu-ray player at CES and now it has some company - and competition - from LG. While the DV4S and DV4M are not Blu-ray players like the Samsung counterpart, the two models still hold their own with different functions and features.
The DV4S is geared towards the AV crowd with DivX HD video support. The DV4M is marketed towards the CD collector with the ability to convert CDs to MP3s for local or USB storage. No word on price or availability but eventually, you should see these players on retailers shelves and comment how sexy they are but yet, still opt for the more traditional player instead. That is, unless, you’re loft is styled after Moby.
CurtMonash writes "The New York Times reports on President-Elect Obama's continued commitment to electronic health records (EHRs), which on the whole are a great idea. The article cites a number of legislative initiatives to deal with the privacy risks of EHRs. That's where things start to go astray. The proposals seem to focus on simply controlling the flow of information, but from a defense-in-depth standpoint, that's not enough. Medical care is full of information waivers, much like EULAs, only with your health at stake. What's more, any information control regime has to have exceptions for medical emergencies — but where legitimate emergencies are routine, socially-engineered fake emergencies can blast security to smithereens. So medical information privacy will never be adequate unless there are strong usage-control rules as well, in areas such as discrimination, marketing, or tabloid-press publication. I've provided some ideas as to how and why that could work well."
We're getting closer to Plugg, the conference that provides an overview of how the web is changing from a European perspective, organized by one of our writers from across the pond, Robin Wauters. The... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 19 Jan 2009 | 1:12 pm
We’re getting closer to Plugg, the conference that provides an overview of how the web is changing from a European perspective, organized by one of our writers from across the pond, Robin Wauters. The event will take place on the 12th of March in Brussels, Belgium, and will feature a host of top speakers from the continent, a possible 2-hour lunch, and a competition that aims to weed out the best Europe has to offer when it comes to early-stage web and mobile startups.
Registrations for the competition, which is dubbed the Plugg Start-ups Rally, are now open, and the deadline for registration has been set to Wednesday 4 February at midnight (CET). Any European early-stage company with a maximum of only one round of institutional funding can sign up for the competition by entering details about their team, concept and business model until Wednesday the 4th of February at midnight on this dedicated mini-site. All submissions that fit the criteria will be carefully evaluated by a professional jury of pundits and VCs, and twenty will ultimately be invited to pitch at the audience from the main stage at the conference.
Good news for startups: entering the competition is free of charge, so there’s nothing to stop you from registering right now.
We’re giving away two free tickets to the conference, which will go to the commentors that can best give us a humorous take on why they think European entrepreneurs can compete with Silicon Valley’s finest … or why not. Don’t forget to add your e-mail address and to make us smile.
Crunch Network: CrunchGeardrool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
I'm learning to play blues harp, so in addition to the previously-reviewed Amazing Slow Downer, I've tried a number of programs that let you manually control the speed of a tune without changing... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 19 Jan 2009 | 1:00 pm
(TrendHunter.com) Tomohiro Tachi folds origami, amazing and complex origami. Many of the pieces, including the Rubiks Cube and the Teapot featured in the gallery, are folded from a single uncut square... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 19 Jan 2009 | 12:59 pm
The iPhone is a killer mobile gaming platform - so says the hardware. Controlling some of the games with the touchscreen-only can be a test of your nerdism, but the iControlPad aims to bring gaming on the iPhone to the masses. It’s not available for purchase just yet but at least we have a video demo showing what the little pad can do with the Quake4iPhone app. Impressive to say the least.
Stef sez, "On Thursday, British MPs are voting to change the law to keep their expenses secret after all, exempting themselves from Freedom of Information legislation.
The information has already been compiled, at a cost of a million pounds to the taxpayer, and was due to be published shortly.
The Order was snuck in quietly last Thursday (under the Heathrow Runway announcement). We have 3 days for people to act."
TheyWorkForYou.com asks every British Boing Boing reader to take a few moments to
contact their MP, join the inevitable Facebook group, and tell everyone they know about it!"
Holy cow, did I ever enjoy reading Veeps: Profiles in Insignificance by Bill Kelter and Wayne Shellabarger, a snarky, thorough look at the foibles and missteps of the vice presidency from John Adams to Dick Cheney. I had no idea how completely comic the office has been through the years, but, as the authors note: "[The Vice Presidents'] relentless and overwhelming facelessness is testament to the bewildering fact that for more than 200 years, the American people have elected a buffoon's gallery of rogues, incompetents, empty suits, abysmal spellers, degenerate golfers and corrupt Marylanders to the Vice Presidency with barely a passing consideration that they might one day have to assume the highest office in the land."
Each profile is illustrated with wicked caricatures like these:
And chock full of useful quotes and details like these:
Thomas Jefferson: Jefferson offered his personal collection of 6,487books to restock the new library [of Congress, burned in the War of 1812], for which Congress paid him $23,950. Jefferson's gesture was not as beneficent as it appeared: For all his extraordinary talents, Thomas Jefferson was abysmal in his personal financial affairs. He would die virtually impoverished with enormous debts hanging over him, leaving his daughter penniless.
Aaron Burr: In his twilight [Aaron] Burr found solace in letters and women, sending breezy notes to his beloved daughter, Theodesia, regaling her with tales of his favorite European prostitutes, rating them by price and satisfaction -- the kind of bonding every daughter longs for from her father.
Charles Fairbanks: "No public speaker can more quickly drive an audience to despair." - The Nation, describing Charles Fairbanks's oratorical prowess.
Calvin Coolidge: "Mr Coolidge's genius for inactivity is developed to a very high point. It is not an indolent inactivity. It is a grim, determined, alert inactivity, which keeps Mr Coolidge occupied constantly" - Columnist Walter Lippmann, 1926
As presiding officer of the Senate, Coolidge would eat lunch alone at a corner table in the Senate dining room, facing the wall.
John Nance Garner: "[It's] not worth a bucket of warm piss." - John Nance Garner sharing his opinion of the Vice Presidency with fellow Texan Lyndon Johnson.
Harry S Truman: "Look at all the Vice Presidents in history. Where are they? They were about as useful as a cow's fifth teat." - Harry S Truman, to Time Magazine, January 18, 1954, explaining why he never wanted to be Vice President.
Washington Post music critic Paul Hume dared to write an honest, if somewhat brutal, review of First Daughter Margaret Truman's singing recital in 1950... Truman...dropped Hume a letter, saying..."You sound like a frustrated old man who has never made a success, an eight-ulcer man on a four-ulcer job, with all four ulcers working. I never met you, but if I do, you'll need a new nose and a supporter below."
Richard Nixon: "Richard Nixon is a no-good, lying bastard. If he ever caught himself telling the truth, he'd tell a lie just to keep his hand in." - Harry S Truman.
Dan Quayle: "I stand by all the misstatements that I've made." - Dan Quayle to ABC's Sam Donaldson, August 17, 1989.
Dick Cheney: When travelling, Vice President Cheney demands that his his hotel suites...have all televisions preset to Fox News Channel.
CNET - news analysis Months after being sworn in as president, George W. Bush sat down with reporters and his wife, Laura, for a technology-themed event: a relaunch of the Whitehouse.gov Web site, which previously had been rather dilapidated. Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 19 Jan 2009 | 12:00 pm
Live is a great piece of software. The latest version has a lot of new features, new instruments, better workflow and easy sharing of sets between users. Maybe this time the devs will make it sound good too.
I don’t want to spoil the hype but it seems that the next version of Live has no sonic improvements. That’s bad because the lack of proper sound quality keeps Live out of the circle of pro audio DAW’s. Of course it’s easy to use, handles loops and it’s great for live performances. Maybe it’s just me but when I’m mixing with Ableton I keep making dull and ugly mixes even using a few tracks. But hey, hope dies last.
LinkedIn has partnered with IBM to create a new plugin that integrates its professional social network into Lotus Notes, a popular business desktop client that includes Email, calendar, and IM functionality. The plugin is making its debut to the public at Lotusphere, with plans for its release in the first half of 2009.
For users who spend much of their day ‘living’ in their Email client, the new plugin could be a welcome addition. Its primary purpose is to display information relevant to the people in your Emails, as well as providing a handy way to browse through some of LinkedIn’s most oft-used features (like your news feed and search). However, the plugin does not yet automatically look up the contacts mentioned in your Emails - you’ll still have to click on their names or use the pre-populated search to look them up (automatic lookup is planned for a future release).
The two companies are also announcing LinkedIn integration into Lotus Connections (an internal social networking product for businesses), as well as an option to launch a Bluehouse web conference directly from someone’s LinkedIn profile. Both of these features are slated for some time in 2009, but the companies couldn’t give anything more specific.
For those of you who aren’t Lotus users, check out Xobni, which added LinkedIn support to its Outlook plugin last year.
Crunch Network: CrunchGeardrool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
AP - Former Chancellor Kenneth Clarke made a surprising return to the front lines of British politics Monday as shadow business and enterprise secretary for Britain's main opposition party.
Juniper Research has just released a new report that claims the value of the mobile dating and chatroom market will grow to nearly $1.4 billion by 2013, and also pegs the total UGC market to reach $7.3 billion by the same time. The estimate is up almost half from a report by the research agency that was presented in May 2008, which said revenues from mobile dating and chat services were expected to exceed $1 billion by 2010.
The predictions are a bit optimistic in my opinion, but the suggested growth should make startups like the UK-based Flirtomatic, MeetMoi, PlutoLife and IceBrkr hopeful, although the big dating sites like Match.com and WebDate are heavily experimenting with expanding their dating services to mobile platforms as well.
With 3G-enabled video chat and 24/7 access, mobile phones definitely offer a potentially strong medium for dating services, although I consider a great user interface that matches with its fixed counterpart and security two major hurdles to overcome. Also, the business model remains largely unproven; besides mobile advertising, some services charge a fixed fee for membership, others per message sent, and others provide free access but generate revenue from selling mobile virtual goods in addition. Juniper Research says the bulk of revenues will come from the subscription model, but the other models are definitely growing in number and weight.
It’ll be interesting if and how mobile social networks and applications that leverage devices’ location awareness (or a combination of both) will integrate mobile dating services into their offerings.
Unwrapp is a brand new application that enables you to keep on top of all the web applications you use, by notifiying you when there are new versions, features or upgrades of the services in question.
Of course, you need to proactively indicate which applications you use for the tool to be useful, but Unwrapp has made this remarkably easy by offering a comprehensive directory to pick services from, a powerful search engine that shows you results for web apps you’re looking for but also a list of similar or related ones, and a bookmarklet that lets you ‘unwrapp’ any web application you access with just one mouseclick.
Unwrapp is in private beta for the moment, but we can give access to the first 500 TechCrunch readers to sign up for the service here: simply use the code “ireadTC” in the corresponding field.
Unwrapp is obviously a niche play for web app fanatics, but I’m definitely one of those so I enjoyed playing around with it and I actually discovered some nice apps through the tool’s recommendation system. Besides providing updates on new versions and features, Unwrapp also aggregates news items related to applications (currently from Techmeme only, but this should expand to other ‘handpicked’ blogs and social media platforms in the future), and enables users to voice their opinions through comments. Users can also submit new apps for moderation, and developers and companies can claim their applications so they can maintain their profile and keep control over which updates are being announced and how.
Unwrapp’s parent company, design & marketing company WeDoCreative aims to generate revenue directly with on-site advertising and a basic CRM tool that can be used by claimed app owners to communicate directly with their users, which is currently under development. Indirectly, the company hopes to derive some business out of branding the tool with their company name.
The application reminds me of Wakoopa, although that particular application tracks software usage for users regardless of whether they’re accessed on the desktop or via the browser, while Unwrapp focuses on applications rather than their users, and is limited to web-based services only. Zee Kane from WeDoCreative tells me the tool was actually inspired by iusethis.com, which provides a similar service but only for Mac apps at this point.
Currently the only elementary feature that Unwrapp is lacking is a notification system for tracking new software versions or upgrades, preferably both by e-mail and RSS feed. Kane says both should be integrated in the tracker by the end of this week.
Crunch Network: MobileCrunchMobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
Nom du Keyboard writes "Not for the first time, I've noticed a new film that hasn't yet even reached the theaters, yet has hundreds of positive votes and/or reviews recorded on Netflix. This time the movie is Inkheart. For a movie that doesn't even hit the theaters until January 23, it already has 428 votes and a rating of 4.3 (out of 5) on Netflix. Seems more than a bit fraudulent to me. Also, it has a review that doesn't even review the movie, but instead says the books are great, therefore the movie should be too. Does the word 'shills' come to mind? With millions spent to promote a movie, are a few hundred of that going to phony voters? Or have that many people actually seen the film and just can't wait to rush home and log onto Netflix to vote? Just what is Netflix's responsibility here to provide honest ratings?"
Last week the APC40, now the Maschine! It seems that the big pro audio companies are starting to realize what musicians need. The Maschine is the combination of a groove box and a controller. You can use it as a controller, a sequencer and a sampler. The APC40 is good stuff because it has Akai hardware and it works with Live. The Maschine is better stuff because you can actually build sequences in a live session. You can control any DAW with it and the price is $699. A little too much considering the unit comes without any bundled NI software.
Specs:
Width: 320 mm / 12.6″
Length: 295 mm / 11.6″
Height: 60 mm / 2.4″
1811 Grams / 4 lbs
2 displays with 64×256 pixels
16 high-quality, illuminated pads with velocity and aftertouch
It’s time for an update on the progress we’ve made on the low cost touch screen tablet that I first wrote about in July 2008 when I asked for a dead simple touch screen web tablet that boots right to the browser. Here’s our first post on the tablet, which we’re now calling the CrunchPad internally.
The idea is to get a new type of device into people’s hands for as cheap as possible (we were aiming for $200, it looks like $299 is more realistic). It fits perfectly on your lap while you are sitting in front of the TV, so you can look up stuff on Wikipedia or IMDB as you channel surf. It plays Flash video flawlessly so you can watch movies and TV shows on Hulu or Joost or wherever. Or listen to music on MySpace Music. Or use TokBox to have a video chat with your parents. Then check email and call it a day. Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Hulu, Wikipedia, Google Docs and Gmail are the killer apps for this device.
Because the device skips the resource-sucking parts of the operating system and focuses on one application - the browser - very low end hardware can be used and still give users a desktop-like Internet browsing experience.
We built a working but very humble Prototype A in August. It barely booted, but once it did it was a working touch screen web tablet built on very low end hardware. And when I surfed the web with it, I knew I wanted one that worked properly.
Since August a lot has happened. First, we now have a team lead - Louis Monier. Louis, formerly the founder/CTO of AltaVista (he is credited with building one of the first Internet search engines), has also spent time at eBay (head of the Advanced Technology Group), Google and Cuil. Louis left Cuil in the Fall and has been spending his spare time working with outside teams to build the new prototype. He’s in love with the project, and we’re lucky to get his time.
Second, we’ve completed Prototype B of the CrunchPad and are ready to show it to you. I include pictures and video to show it in action.
CrunchPad Prototype B
The device has a 12-inch touchscreen with a 4:3 aspect ratio (which is ideal for web browsing in my opinion). It is powered with a Via Nano processor, which has performed at par with the Intel Atom in our testing. 1 GB of ram (its more than we need) and a 4 GB flash drive to store the OS and browser and any cache. Resolution is 1024×768, which means the vast majority of websites are viewed in full width without scrolling. The device also has wifi, an accelerometer (so when you turn the screen on its side you can view more of a web page), a camera and a four cell battery. Total cost of the device, when we include estimates for the case, codecs and other miscellaneous items, is just over $200. Prototype B is actually much less expensive because the screen we used isn’t very good. The price estimate includes a much better, more expensive LCD.
The case, which was designed and built by David Yarnell and Greg Lalier from Dynacept, is 12.5″ x 9.7″ x 1.3″. It’s about twice as thick as is needs to be without further engineering - we just built in a safety thickness in case of heat or other issues. The device weighs three pounds, partially due to the extra batteries we’ve stuffed into it to see how long we can run it without power. Still, the device weighs in at 2 oz less than the 10″ eeePC.
The software: currently we’re running a full install of Ubuntu Linux on the prototype with a custom Webkit browser. A lot of the work done to date has been on the drivers and the virtual keyboard, which you can see in the videos. The software has been created by Singapore-based Fusion Garage, who continue to work with Louis on the feature set and user experience.
More pictures:
Here are the videos:
What’s next?
We’ve completed our original goal of building a “dead simple and dirt cheap touch screen web tablet to surf the web.” The hardware is nearing lockdown. Software development is rolling. And we’ve spent very little money to get to this point.
We’ve received thousandsofcomments and emails from people who want this device right now. We’ve had tremendous support from the community in helping us build the prototypes, and Via has been flat out amazing with their support of the project.
We’ve also gotten quite a bit of interest from the investment community. The real question for us is whether this project has legs and should go forward towards production units, which is a very big step from a working prototype. That would require spinning the company off from the blog and building a team around Louis. It’s a decision we haven’t made yet.
Crunch Network: MobileCrunchMobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
The day Microsoft, Palm and Sony upstage Apple is a strange day indeed. With MacWorld offering little more than an expensive laptop upgrade, however, it was left to CES—a show often buried by Cupertino cool—to bring new toys to 2009's table.
Apple will be back in force, with new ideas and shiny new things, but why wait? Aren't you sick of spec bumps that never come? It's time to change back—and for the first time in ages, you can do it in style.
It's smaller than the iPhone, has a fantastic new interface, and it runs linux. There'll be an AppStore anyone can get into, top-knotch integration with Facebook and Gmail, and a multitouch display. Even the menu bar caused CES attendees to gape like beached whales. With a hardware keyboard and cut and paste, the mobile novelist brigade will be happy, too.
After the public relations abattoir of Windows Vista, the sequel has a lot riding on it. First indications are that Microsoft might have nailed it: the beta edition is simpler, swifter and sleeker than its irritating predecessor. Available free to the public until August, the unfinished and unsupported software weds XP's snappiness with Vista's eye candy.
Just don't expect it to work perfectly, O.K.? Caveat downloador.
In the Vaio P "lifestyle" computer, Sony's created the high-end mini-notebook that Apple hasn't. Early reviews paint it as a masterpiece, beautifully designed and small enough to slip into a jacket pocket.
It also has a decent keyboard, a high-definition display, and a fast-booting linux mode. Performance isn't too hot, mind, and the $900 tag is only cheap by Sony standards. Nonetheless, it's easily the coolest laptop on the block.
HP Mini 2140 netbook
Want a real netbook that costs half the price of Sony's little wonder? HP's Mini 2140 has a 10-inch 16:9 screen with 768 lines (most netbooks have only 600), 2GB of RAM. It runs Windows Vista, which you will promptly remove, and was cut to a surprisingly Mac-esque design. Best of all? It's just $500.
Just try not to think about where the trackpad buttons are.
Dell Adamo
What do we know about Dell's new 13-inch laptop? Not much, except for the fact that it's not out yet and doesn't have a release date.
What we do know is that it's a monolith made of pure Kubrickstone, surface-textured by a million years of thrashing by an army of robot monkeys armed with diamond-tipped cats o' nine tails.
Is it any good? Haven't a clue: they wouldn't let us touch its mockup/prototype. But it's got looks to match the unibody MacBooks: no mean feat for the company that had 250 different words for beige.
Want something right now? Voodoo's Envy laptop is a similarly slab-like alternative to the MacBook Air. [Photo: Gizmodo]
With the iMac already looking underfeatured compared to rival machines from HP, Dell and Sony, Lenovo's IdeaCenter 600 comes along to kick the whole lot back into 2008, where they belong.
Now, it has its flaws. The Wii-like remote wasn't much fun. And the design? It looks great from the front, but weird from behind: Lenovo clearly imagines use as a television.
But look at the hardware behind that 21.5 display: 2GB of RAM, Blu-ray disk, a TV tuner, 6-in-one card reader, dolby digital audio and 6 USB ports.There's even an optional 512MB DirectX 10 video card: it can game like no iMac in this universe.
To quote m'colleague Joel: "The junk down on the trunk is appealing."
Sony Walkman X-1000
It's sleeker than the iPod Touch, and it's got a brighter OLED touchscreen display and in-built noise cancellation. It's beautiful and black, with a strange texture that looks like a fancy tombstone.
Thanks to Apple itself, defection is easy, too: pay the DRM kill fee in iTunes and your hitherto iPod-locked collection is free. The only question: it is worth paying extra, when the Walkman's price tag will surely make the iPod Touch look like a stocking stuffer?
So it's not as pretty as Apple TV. It looks like the routers that spawned it. It's not very powerful, either, requiring saved media to be stored on an external USB drive. But Netgear's Internet TV Player handles standard-def TV streaming in any format known to man and is absolutely tiny: little larger than a deck of cards. Dangle it off the back of your TV set for a solution to a problem you already have: watching internet junk like YouTube on a big TV. Too proletarian? Get Boxee then, media snob!
Eee Keyboard
Weird as all hell and strange too, Asus's Eee Keyboard contains a home theater PC and an LCD display. Unlike most demented modern attempts at that oldschool computer-in-the-keyboard combo, it even looks cool.
It's as if Commodore Amiga 500's spirit was reaching up from 1988, to clutch at the Mac's throat one final time. [Photo: Matt Buchanan/Gizmodo]
No surprises here: December’s search rankings were much like the search rankings of the 11 months prior.
Google’s share of the market: large. Everyone else’s: substantially less so.
According to the latest search metrics from comScore, Google’s share of the U.S. search market held steady at 63.5 percent in December, unchanged from November. The company handled 11.2 billion search queries during the month, up 4 percent versus November.
And what of Google’s so-called rivals? Yahoo’s (YHOO) share of the search market rose to 20.5 percent in December from 20.4 percent in November and Microsoft’s (MSFT) December share held steady at 8.3 percent. Ask.com was the lone decliner, falling to 3.9 percent from a November share of 4 percent.
CAMBRIDGE, England and SAN FRANCISCO, California, January 19
/PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Autonomy Corporation plc (LSE: AU. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 19 Jan 2009 | 8:00 am
CAMBRIDGE, England and SAN FRANCISCO, January 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/
-- Autonomy Corporation plc (LSE: AU. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 19 Jan 2009 | 8:00 am
NEW YORK, January 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Telnic Limited
(http://www.telnic.org), the registry operator for the new .tel top level
domain (TLD), today announced that audiences of some of the best-watched
reality television broadcast programs in the world will soon be able to vote
for their favorite participants more easily.
American Idol, the X Factor, Britain's Got Talent, Australian Idol, Pop
Idol and Star Academy and many others have registered their .tel domains.
This will enable them to provide a simple branded voting platform - like
americanidol.tel - for people to vote for their preferred candidates on any
device connected to the internet.
"Now reality television shows can direct people to all the ways they can
vote using just their brand instead of having to memorize numerous numbers
for all of the participants," said Khashayar Mahdavi, CEO of Telnic. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 19 Jan 2009 | 8:00 am
Germany's Largest Government Agency Selects SAP to Manage its Human Resources and Finance Processes More Efficiently
NUREMBERG, Germany and WALLDORF, Germany, Jan. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 19 Jan 2009 | 8:00 am
Mercury extends its high-performance, small form factor solutions with the MCH2020 MicroTCA Carrier Hub (MCH) and chassis offering
TOKYO, Jan. 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Mercury Computer Systems, Inc. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 19 Jan 2009 | 7:57 am
John Gillilan of the CC label Vosotros sez, "To celebrate the inauguration, we've asked some of our favorite Los Angeles bands to record cover versions of public domain patriotic songs. The entire album is licensed under Creative Commons (BY NC) and available for free download from the project’s website: yeswepuede.com"
Oh, these are great! I've direct-linked 'em below, along with Coral Cache mirrors in case the site gets clobbered.
Designer Sebastian Errazuriz has a real knack for whimsical and clever designs that make you giggle and covet at the same moment. Alas, his site is an un-linkable horror of Flash, so I've reproduced some of my favorites here.
Da Massive writes in with another possible answer to a recent Ask Slashdot about FOSS replacements for Microsoft AD server. "Enterprise networks now have an alternative choice to Microsoft Active Directory (AD) servers, with the open source Samba project aiming for feature parity with the forthcoming release of version 4, according to Canberra-based Samba developer Andrew Bartlett. Speaking at this year's linux.conf.au Linux and open source conference in Hobart, Bartlett said Samba 4 is aiming to be a replacement for AD by providing a free software implementation of Microsoft's custom protocols. Because AD is 'far more than LDAP and Kerberos,' Bartlett said, Samba 4 is not only about developing with Microsoft's customization of those protocols, it is also about moving the project beyond just providing an NT 4 compatible domain manager."
A couple weeks ago, I posted to let you know that nominations for the Hugo awards had just opened -- and promised to re-post once the online nomination form went live. I've just noticed that it's up -- handy if you want to save the hassle of printing out the form and putting it in the mail!
Here's the original post:
The 2008 Hugo award nominations have opened -- if you were a member of the 2008 WorldCon in Denver, or have bought a membership to the 2009 WorldCon in Montreal, you're eligible to nominate. I'll be sending in my nominations this week, and just in case you were wondering, here's the stuff I wrote that's eligible for this year's ballot:
As soon as news hit that Circuit City would be holding liquidation sales at its remaining US locations, buyers began to line up around the block in hopes of scoring the best deals. Liquidation companies came in and started dramatically slashing prices in order to make the most bank off of whatever stock is left.
The lines were long at most locations on Saturday, reports stating that many were 100 people or more deep. Televisions, video games and other electronics have started with a 10 percent discount while other merchandise, like furniture, cables, and accessories carried discounts of 20 and 30 percent off. Many branded items, like Apple iPods have yet to receive a discounted price. When the final numbers for Saturday came in, sales were up 25 percent for the retailer.
Buyers beware though because purchasing from a liquidation sale does carry risks. For instance, you drop some dough on a nice new HDTV only to discover that there’s a problem with the set. All sales are final, so you won’t have the ability to return it. Extended warranty coverage is murky as well since there is uncertainty of whether a bankrupt company is responsible for honoring the coverage.
Scott Jones, the CEO of human powered voice/sms search engine ChaCha (our recent coverage), has one of the awesomest computer setups I’ve seen.
It can be seen, along with everything else in his house, in this MTV Teen Cribs video (also embedded below) that focuses on his fifteen year old son. For the computer, jump to the 3:25 mark.
They don’t say anything about the processor, but the guy has an eight-screen (Dell) setup and stationary bike pedals to get exercise while working.
To get more details, I’ve sent a text message to ChaCha asking for the hardware specs (they love answering random questions). Their tagline is “answers to anything, on the go” so this should be no problem. Alas, it’s been ten minutes and there’s no response. I’ll update later if they do.
Over on the Making Light blog, our Teresa Nielsen Hayden's put together the comprehensive list of Onion stories from the Bush presidency -- and since the headline is often the funniest part of an Onion story, this is fine fast reading indeed:
September 26, 2001: Not Knowing What Else To Do, Woman Bakes American-Flag Cake.
September 26, 2001: Bush Sr. Apologizes To Son For Funding Bin Laden In ’80s.
September 26, 2001: Report: Gen X Irony, Cynicism May Be Permanently Obsolete.
September 26, 2001: Jerry Falwell: Is That Guy A Dick Or What?
September 26, 2001: What Now?
September 26, 2001: Talking To Your Child About The WTC Attack.
September 26, 2001: U.S. Vows To Defeat Whoever It Is We’re At War With.
September 26, 2001: President Urges Calm, Restraint Among Nation’s Ballad Singers.
September 26, 2001: Statshot: How Have We Spent the Last Two Weeks?
September 26, 2001: Dinty Moore Breaks Long Silence On Terrorism With Full-Page Ad.
Rob sez, "The kids' page of the Japan Agency for Marine-earth science and technology has some awesome [free!] papercraft models of deep sea creatures and submersibles."
The secret history of the walkman revealed: Paul Johnson of Jacksonville, Fla invented this one-tube radio (powered by two dry cells) in 1957, to keep him entertained while he did yard-work. In terms of design aesthetics, I'm willing to say that this is the coolest, mad-sceintist-looking-est headset ever to grace the head of a human.
SINGAPORE, Jan. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Asia-Pacific was home to some 121 million 3G subscribers in 2007 and an estimated 158.4 million in 2008. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 19 Jan 2009 | 5:30 am
Check out this interesting product tweak from YouTube: The ability to download clips from the video site to your hard drive.
Right now, the feature appears to be limited to clips on President-elect Barack Obama’s “ChangeDotGov” channel. If you click on any individual video, like the slick movie commerorating Obama’s “whistle stop tour” from this weekend, you’ll see a small “Click to download” tag.
Until now, YouTube has required users to watch its clips via what was effectively streaming video — meaning you could only watch them on the Internet, either at YouTube or a site that embedded YouTube video.
But now you can hoover up the Obama clips to your PC in unencrypted MPEG-4 format, which means you can view them on just about any piece of equipment you’d like — like, say your iPhone.
Internet copyright guru/Stanford Law professor Lawrence Lessig, who pointed out the change in a blog post this weekend, says that Google (GOOG) “is rolling this out slowly, initially with content that aspires to be consistent with principles of open government. I’m told it will be offered more generally.” I’ve asked YouTube for other details and will update if they provide any.
Even if YouTube does offer this on many more videos, I’m not sure this will be a game-changer for the site, or at least for its commercial prospects.
I don’t see YouTube trying to launch a rival to Apple’s iTunes (AAPL) — Google’s shown no interest to date in the very low-margin content retail business. And attaching ads to downloaded content is tricky, too: Ask the folks trying to scrape together a living in the podcast business, which has yet to gain much traction with mainstream advertisers.
But it could be very cool for people who aren’t intersted in making money, but just want to tap into Google’s awesome reach to distribute their videos as widely as possible. Say, leaders of the free world.
Don’t want to download the whistle stop video yourself? You can view it here, too:
Link to a few snapshots in my Flickr stream. At top, "ObaMarley" stickers. Best Rastafarian street vendor Photoshop job ever. I bought a few, they were a buck each. And below: in the great procession of American history, Obama will forever stand between George W. Bush and whomever ultimately succeeds his presidency. But on the boardwalk incense stands, he's right between "Butt Naked" and "Kush." The other Obamaphemera item I saw but forgot to snap: a t-shirt with our new prez, Malcolm X, and Dr. Martin Luther King. Above their likenesses, in tiny all caps fonts, a la Dr. Bronner soap -- the inspirational text began: "YES WE CAN HAS A DREAM."
TurboTax is the latest corporation to team up with MySpace to market itself to the younger generation. TurboTax has launched FreeLoader Nation will not only allow users to get free help filing their taxes, but will also give out free stuff, like concerts by bands through MySpace Secret Shows and free music downloads.
MySpace Secret Shows is nothing new, it launched back in 2006 and has featured shows by artists, like the Cure, the Killers, Neil Diamond, Franz Ferninand and others. This program allows fans to see their favorite bands in smaller and more intimate venues. Besides the concerts, TurboTax is also sponsoring free music downloads through MySpace Music. The songs will not expire once in the user’s playlist.
To participate in the program, you need to go on the profile page for FreeLoader Nation and add them as a friend. The program is ad sponsored and users will view TurboTax ads while using the different features of FreeLoader Nation.
Robert R. Patton takes the helm on Patton's silver anniversary, steering the network-equipment manufacturing firm toward continued long-term growth and profitability.
GAITHERSBURG, Md., Jan. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 19 Jan 2009 | 4:01 am
KentuckyFC writes "While preparing for the job of US Secretary of Energy in the incoming Obama administration (and being director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a Nobel Prize winner to boot), Steven Chu has somehow found time to make a major breakthrough in the world of atom interferometry. One measure of an interferometer's sensitivity is the area that its arms enclose. Chu and colleagues have found a way to increase this area by a factor of 2,500 by canceling out the noise introduced by lasers, which work as beam splitters sending atoms down different arms (abstract). One thing this makes possible is the use of different types of atoms in the same interferometer, allowing a new generation of tests of the equivalence principle. (This is the assumption that the m in F=ma and the m's in F= Gm1.m2/r^2 are the same thing). Let's hope he's got equally impressive breakthroughs planned for his encore as US Secretary of Energy."
When people think of an antenna, they usually picture the old-fashioned “rabbit ears” that used to adorn the top of television sets. However, the new antennas that are being released by Audiovox have a completely different look and capabilities. These new antennas, released through the RCA and TERK divisions will have a flat appearance, measuring 10” square and less than 1” thick. Getting an antenna is a great way to pick up HD television free.
The new line of antennas will be a mix of both indoor and outdoor devices. Models expected to be released this year, include the RCA ANT800, TERK FDTVO, RCA ANT1600 and TERK FDTV1A. The new outdoor antennas, the RCA ANT800 and the TERK FDTVO will have a water-resistant and UV shell to ensure protection against the elements. The 360 degree design will also ensure that you receive digital TV signals from all directions.
The indoor antennas, including the RCA ANT1600 will also possess the omnidirectional feature in order to receive good reception on digital television channels. An amplified version of this same antenna, the RCA ANH1650B will permit reception of both high definition and UHF/VHF signals. Most of the models are expected to arrive in stores by the spring and will all retail for less than $100.
AP - Many parents would love to be able to give their teenagers a cell phone that couldn't be used while driving. Now some inventors say they have come up with ways to make that possible, but they appear to be relying on wishful thinking. Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 19 Jan 2009 | 2:04 am
mmmscience brings us news of a new study, published in Nature Genetics by an international team of scientists, that tells a scary story: globally, 1% of the population carry a gene mutation that is almost guaranteed to lead to some form of heart problems. On the Indian subcontinent, the prevalence is 4%. The mutation is a 25-letter deletion of DNA data on the heart protein gene MYBPC3, believed to have arisen in India 30,000 years ago. The researchers say that the mutation wasn't selected out of the population because its effects don't occur until after the childbearing years. The article mentions a prediction that "by 2010 India's population will suffer approximately 60% of the world's heart disease."
Back in March of 2008, we reported that Myka created a BitTorrent box that was capable of directly receiving your Torrent downloads and replaying them on a TV. It’s a competitor to Apple TV, and people who torrent a lot would definitely like the Myka box. When the product was announced back in March, it was set to start shipping in the summer, but nearly half a year later, it looks like that time has come.
Myka was having trouble meeting financial deadlines, so the had to put the Myka operation to a halt until recently. They got their factory based in China running again and users who ordered a Myka should expect their unit within 4-6 weeks. The Myka receives direct torrent downloads using LAN, or Wi-Fi, and it’s preloaded BitTorrent software, and it can connect to your TV using Composite, S-Video, or SPDIF. The product sells in various models including an 80GB, 160GB, or 500GB model. If you want to buy a Myka now, they cost $299, $349 or $459, respectively.
FROM APPLETELL - Zagg’s Z.buds for iPhone won the CES Innovations award for 2009, so my expectations were high when I first tried them out. Did they live up to the expectations? MORE »
Bubba writes "I just discovered this blog: Frozen Cache. It describes a concept for preventing cold boot attacks by saving the encryption key in the CPU cache. It is claimed that by disabling the CPU cache the key will remain in cache and won't be written to memory. The blog says they're working on a proof-of-concept implementation for Linux. Could this really turn out to be a working solution?"
FROM APPLETELL - This week saw a surprising amount of quality 3D games hit the App Store. Plus, Apple loosened up on the internet browsers, though you likely already have Google’s fake Chrome that they snuck in a while ago. Here’s the list. Instant Motivator Free - I’m sure you’ve seen some of… MORE »
Verizon Private IP Enhances Financial Solutions Development and Supports Future Growth
SINGAPORE and MUMBAI, India, Jan. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 18 Jan 2009 | 10:02 pm
Michael Pyne sends in an article published at Reason Online 13 years ago, dismantling the entrenched myth that the Dvorak keyboard layout is a superior technology to QWERTY. The odd thing is that this 13-year-old article recaps research (refereed and published in a respected economics journal) 19 years ago. While we have discussed Dvorak many times over the years, I don't believe we have dug into this convincing-sounding refutation of the Dvorak mythology. The article is in the context of arguing against the conventional wisdom of "first mover advantage" — that the first product to market gains a large entrenchment benefit, such as VHS vs. Beta, MS-DOS vs. anything, etc. It's very much a pro-markets piece.
Belkin responded to the Mechanical Turk Shilling Incident (as it's now called around the office.) Their response? "We're sorry, we didn't know it was going on, and we're doing something about it." Read the full note from Belkin's President Mark Reynoso below.
One of the drawbacks to YouTube is the inability to download a video as soon as you are finish watching one that you like. There are many websites out there, such as YouConvertIt, Vixy.net, that allow you to download videos by simply providing the video link. However, it takes a decent amount of time before you are able to get the link to download the video. It would be much easier just to download the video straight from YouTube and bypass all the websites that perform this service. Recently, YouTube has added this feature to select political videos, but they plan to add this feature to all other videos.
It’s about time YouTube has added this feature, and I’m sure many are already taking advantage and downloading political videos, such as President-Elect Barack Obama’s weekly address. Whenever all videos come with the “Click to download” link, I’m sure it will be widely received.
Technology Review has a writeup on the latest advance in the lab towards an invisibility cloak made of metamaterials, described this week in Science. We've been following this technology since the beginning. The breakthrough is software that lets researchers design materials that are both low-loss and wideband. "The cloak that the researchers built works with wavelengths of light ranging from about 1 to 18 gigahertz — a swath as broad as the visible spectrum. No one has yet made a cloaking device that works in the visible spectrum, and those metamaterials that have been fabricated tend to work only with narrow bands of light. But a cloak that made an object invisible to light of only one color would not be of much use. Similarly, a cloaking device can't afford to be lossy: if it lets just a little bit of light reflect off the object it's supposed to cloak, it's no longer effective. The cloak that Smith built is very low loss, successfully rerouting almost all the light that hits it."
Google’s official Android Developers and Mobile blogs haven’t been updated yet, but according to an e-mail from Eric Chu to mobile application builders first republished by Phandroid, Android Market will become available to users in Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Netherlands, and Poland in the coming weeks.
Hello,
I’m writing to let you know that Android Market will become available to users in Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Netherlands, and Poland in the coming weeks. You can now target these countries for your application(s) via the publisher website at market.android.com/publish. As we add support for additional countries, we will send out subsequent notifications to you. Note that your apps will not become available in these new countries unless you specifically select them in the publisher website.
Thanks for your support, and we look forward to continue working with you on Android Market.
Eric Chu, Android Market
This means that developers can now start building applications for Android-powered phones before most of the countries cited above actually have access to devices that run Google’s open-source mobile OS. We’ll take that as a hint that the company is ready to move fast in launching compatible phones across Europe.
On a sidenote: for now, the Android Market only allows for free apps to be added, but Google is expected to announce support for paid applications this quarter.
It’ll be interesting to see how the fight between Android Market, first opened in August 2008, and Apple’s App Store plays out in the years to come.
Crunch Network: CrunchGeardrool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
Sometimes persistence pays off. Email by email, the PalmPreBlog managed to wear down the patience of Vodafone Customer Service team just enough to get a hint of an answer:
With regrets, I can not currently share any information regarding the Palm Pre handset; we are still in early negotiation with Palm, but nothing is solid. I can double check next week but as of this point in time that is all I know.
That phone does look awesome, we were taking a look at this in the office the other day a few of us have our eye on it, I would keep your eyes peeled on the coming soon section here at our online shop.
It’s great to see the Pre’s existence acknowledged by someone wearing a Vodafone badge, but it falls just short of confirmation. We love CS reps and all - they do a job no one else wants to - but most will readily admit that they’re not a questionable source of information. A huge chunk of the time, CS reps are kept out of the know, with their “inside info” coming from their favorite killing-time-at-work blog. When office gossip originates from the same blogs attempting to cover the office gossip, things get a bit shaky.
So, what can we gather from this? Vodafone and Palm are negotiating. Anything beyond that, we’ll have to wait for a source a bit more solid.
Crunch Network: TechCrunchobsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies
Desperate times call for desperate measures? If a product you manufactured is doing poorly, do you: A. Take it off the market and go back to the drawing board? B. Pay people to write positive reviews about the product even if they never used it for a measly 65 cents? Or C. Refuse to acknowledge that there is a problem with said product?
The correct answer would be A, and maybe even C, but definitely not B, right? Well, some people would turn to option B for any of the other options. A person named Mike Bayard, who’s believed to be the Business Development Representative at Belkin International, recently created a task on Mechnical Turk, asking for people to write a positive review and “give [it] a 100% rating (as high as possible).”
Now, every person who fulfills this job will receive 65 cents, so it seems like a quick way to make a little money. The Belkin router is listed on Amazon and has barely any positive reviews, so it makes sense that Bayard wants innocent people to give it fake, high reviews. At this point in time, we don’t really know who Mike Bayard is and if he has any connections with Belkin. Maybe it is just a fake name, maybe he doesn’t exist, but good old LinkedIn comes to the rescue. According to his profile, which is pictured here, he is the Business Development Representative at Belkin International, and his specifically involved in product sales to online retailers such as Amazon. In addition to Amazon, Bayard also created tasks for people to post reviews on Buy.com and Newegg.
The Daily Background also went so far as to contact Belkin for any word on this matter. It is an interesting story and it will definitely be interesting to see what Belkin and even Amazon have to say about this. It just goes to show that with a little patience and Google Search, normal people can uncover some pretty shady things. Unfortunately, the tasks from Mechanical Turk have disappeared, but at least there are still some pictures that speak for themselves.
U.S. scientists say more people are discovering family medical and ancestral secrets as genetic testing becomes widespread.
Some of the most painful cases involve people who find out their father is someone else, said Dr. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 18 Jan 2009 | 5:29 pm
Retweetist distills links, content and users that are being retweeted the most and ranks them according to freshness and frequency (at the moment, the link that has been retweeted the most in the last 24 hours is YelloW cAndy: How to put a Retweet link in your Tweets).
The app also serves as a good guide to see who is creating the most retweeted messages, making it easier to find out which Twitter users are actually worth following. Currently, Mayhemstudios is the user who got retweeted the most (67 times) in the last 24 hours, while TechCrunch got retweeted 26 times. (This feature is more sophisticated than Dan Zarella’s similar Twitter app.)
The most useful part of the service is Retweetist’s own twitter account, which feeds new links that are currently being retweeted the most in Twitter in your tweet stream. Users can follow it to keep up with the key info on Retweetist without accessing the site.
Retweetist is different from Twist, which uses queried terms in Twitter messages to analyze trends. Sheetal says his goal was to extract meaning from Twitter, interpreting the action of retweeting as an act of approval of a message. If you see Twitter as a news source, the application might also work as a real-time ranking system for news that is being tweeted, which would be especially interesting when Twitter users break important world news.
Retweetist is a good tool for hardcore Twitter fans to detect trends and find new users worth following but retweeting would be even more worthwhile if we only could finally get a simple “Retweet this”-function on Twitter itself. We are waiting.
A 2-year-old girl who tested positive for bird flu is China's second confirmed case of the virus this month, the World Health Organization said Sunday.
A 19-year-old woman in Beijing, in Hebei Province, died Jan. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 18 Jan 2009 | 3:43 pm
It’s time for an update on the progress we’ve made on the low cost touch screen tablet that I first wrote about in July 2008 when I asked for a dead simple touch screen web tablet that boots right to the browser. Here’s our first post on the tablet, which we’re now calling the CrunchPad internally.
⌦ Colorful Keyboard – Crayola 3-piece computer kit with keyboard, mouse, and photo mouse pad (a photo can be slipped inside) for $10 at Wal-Mart. An additional $1 for shipping. [Slickdeals]
We’re getting closer to 
Holy cow, did I ever enjoy reading 
Last week the 
A couple weeks ago, I posted to let you know that nominations for the Hugo awards had just opened -- and promised to re-post once the online nomination form went live. I've just noticed that it's up -- handy if you want to save the hassle of printing out the form and putting it in the mail!
Rob sez, "The kids' page of the Japan Agency for Marine-earth science and technology has some awesome [free!] papercraft models of deep sea creatures and submersibles."
TurboTax is the latest corporation to team up with MySpace to market itself to the younger generation. TurboTax has launched FreeLoader Nation will not only allow users to get free help filing their taxes, but will also give out free stuff, like concerts by bands through MySpace Secret Shows and free music downloads.
Belkin responded to the 
I'm always a sucker for a good camera story and this one was too good to pass up. 
Google’s official Android Developers and Mobile blogs haven’t been updated yet, but according to an e-mail from Eric Chu to mobile application builders first republished by 
